Jetta running poorly

Hey everyone, I'm new to the forum and i'd like some of your expertise on my girl's car. I'm learning alot about diesel motors just looking through this awesome forum, and i think i've found the right direction to go with her problem searching through the forum, but it won't hurt to ask. She has a 2003 jetta 1.9 tdi with 80k. Basically the car wont go past 3500 rpm's on idle and she has loss of power in the higher gears. She also said it wont do more than 60mph and its got some vibration/missing type feels at higher rpm's. She runs lucas fuel treatmant,I replaced the fuel filter, the air filter looks brand new, and i plan to take the maf out to see if it runs better or worse when she gets home from work. After an hour + of glancing through the forum, it looks like its going to need either an intake manifold and egr cleaning, a clogged up converter, or an intercooler cleaning. I read somewhere on here late lastnite that if i take it to a dealer they are going to try to replace a perfectly fine turbo that just needs cleaned.....any help or tips or suggestions are greatly appreciated...I'm a semi competent mechanic, but all of my experience is on motorcycles, atv's, and gm automobiles, and most of my tools are 6hrs away. Anyone know any good tdi mechanics in the eastern shore Md area. Dover vw in De is the closest vw garage, and its about 1.5-2hrs away, Any good or bad experiences with them? Thanks in advance for your time. Great forum!

don't take it a dealer unless you have real good references from people who have work done on their TDIs at that dealer.
That rev thing sure sounds like the MAF, verify and replace if necessary.
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=130044

To bad you didnt post this on the weekend...I was in OC for H20i and would have looked at it for you. Seems like a clogged intake to me as well...sure it could also be a faulty MAF...but look into the intake and see if it is clogged....check the turbo actuator for stickiness as well.

Don't bother to "take the MAF out", just disconnect the plug on it and take it for a test drive. Probably the major issue, but very possible the intake/head ports are due for cleaning, as are the VNT actuator too.

I unplugged the maf, and it at idle when warm it passed 3500 rpm's unlike before..then we went for a ride and she seamed to think it felt better in lower gears, and that it reached peak rpm's faster, then we hit the highway, and it ran like crap again...we turned around to come back and it had some crackling noise, that i would best describe as popcorn popping fast in a microwave...now the malfunction indicatior lamp is on. I guess my next step is to take the airfilter out and look down the intake tube to see if its clean (like i said before the airfilter itself when i checked a few days ago was like brand new). Are the turbo actuator and vnt actuator the same? Can you point me in the right direction as to how to check these please? Thanks for all your help guys........... Mrchill i really wish i would have posted earlier, then we coulda talked some pats and sox over some cold ones, but the reason i didn't is because i thought the fuel filter woulda fixed it that i put in on sunday, but she left her lights on sat night and i wasnt able to run it until i put a new battery in on monday.

Sounds like the MAF is bad. Intake still probably needs cleaning. Turbo/VNT actuator is the same and could probably use a good hand massage thru its range of movement. Also check the snow screen at the front end of the air tube going to the air box.

jettawreck said:

Sounds like the MAF is bad. Intake still probably needs cleaning. Turbo/VNT actuator is the same and could probably use a good hand massage thru its range of movement. Also check the snow screen at the front end of the air tube going to the air box.

Click to expand...

Thanks i'll check these out when she gets home. Where is the turbo/vnt actuator located? Do i have to remove anything to get to it?

Tonite i cleaned about a half inch of bugs and filth outta the snow screen, but it didn't help with her problem, by chance is the turbo actuator arm the thing under the airbox that looks like the end of a golf club? If so it has about a quarter inch of play in it and i cannot get it to move any further with some pressure.

Thats the counterweight for the shifter. Turbo is at the back of the engine under the intake manifold. when you pop the rubber elbow off the EGR to look inside is probably the easiest time to get a hand on the actuator.

Did you check to see if the intake manifold is clogged yet? Just pull off the upper intercooler hose that connects to the EGR valve, you would not believe how how nasty and clogged it can get on the inside of these.

Check out

http://pics2.tdiclub.com/gwillie/TDIpage.htm

There is a picture at the bottom of the homepage that labels all the components of an ALH engine.