Hi all

I'm a relative newbie on here, and am trying to diagnose what i believe to be a fault with my Passat.

It's definitely low on power, and I don't think the turbo's working properly - let me describe. She starts and drives about town ok - in the 0-50mph range she's fine, but certainly not quick. However, it's on the motorways, and at 65 - 85 MPH that this the problem is most notable.

She'll cruise comfortably enough on the flat at 65-80mph, however, as soon as she sees anything remotely approaching a steep hill - she's flumoxed! To give some regional examples;

From Maidstone towards Canterbury, heading east on the A249, there is a reasonably steep hill up towards the Kent County Showground. As soon as you get past the speed camera, and start up the windy part of the hill, she's struggling - she'll drop from 65, straight down to 55 and 50 - and then down to 45 by the time you get to the top. It doesn't matter if you keep her in 5th of 4th, and with the throttle on the floor - she just won't go any faster.

Example 2, is on the A2, from Brenley Corner (where you either go to Margate or Dover), and then head up the long(ish) drag up towards Canterbury, again, she'll drop slowly from 70+, down to 50. I can only just keep up with articulated lorries going up the same drag.

I'd like to diagnose and fix it myself, but am not sure what to do. She's regularly serviced (done 101k miles), and in good (although clearly not perfect) mechanical order.

From my own reading around, it seems like it could be either:

1 - a split/broken vaccum pipe somewhere in the system
2 - the air flow mass thingyme (tho I don't acutally know what this is or does!)
3 - the turbo's shot and doesn't work properly.

I used to have a Passat Sport (02 - 130bhp model) as a company car, and I know what the turbo sounds like when you're giving it a bit of shove, and I certainly know how quick it went... Mine's a world apart from that 130 bhp model, and I'm sure I can't hear the turbo whistling when I would expect it to be kicking in at approx 1800+ revs through to just short of 3,000 revs.

If it helps, I am getting ok fuel consumption - she's driven extremely economically, and averages 65mph on most motorway journeys. I'll usually get a av consumption of between 48 - 52 mpg on the computer, and somewhere between 600 - 640 miles out of a full tank of fuel

Can anyone suggest what else I should be checking, and how to diagnose what the fault actually is - I'd prefer (purely for the satisfaction) of being able to do this myself, but am concerned that I won't be able to without a damn diagnostic computer!

Your help would be very much appreciated!