2 years of trying to figure it out need advice - consistent low boost

jjbinks

Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2012
Location
Kansas City MO
TDI
2002 Bettle ALH
Lets say I've tried everything so far and have not got much results on a 2002 tdi that we rebuilt and put in the car 2 years ago, it has never boosted like it should. When it's 10 degrees or colder does the same thing as well as about 85 and hotter - and that's here in the flat mid-west so there is not a lot of altitude change. Get the negative pressure deviation code and it goes into limp mode.

Replaced turbo and actuator today with new VW OEM turbo/manifold unit. Turbo response is the same as the old one. Have installed new vacuum lines from the brake booster to the vacuum pump and all the others in between. Have perfect vacuum on the pump checked it with vacuum gauge zap strapped to the wiper for 3 days of driving. changed N75's and MAPS nothing. checked all hoses tubing and intercooler for leaks nothing. Catalytic converter has been bypassed nothing... watched vacuum line to turbo modulates back and forth fine. egr valve has been cleaned and seems to be ok, I did not take that off to clean.

Was thinking the barometric pressure sensor in the ECM might be off? Think that could cause it? Tried to swap ECM and instrument cluster tonight with the one from our run stand ( we have a TDI run stand where we hot run them out of the car after they are rebuilt. That way we can set the timing on them and send them to the customers... we do industrial VW TDI's for forklifts and what not ) but i could not seem to get around the imobolizer to get it to run... never had to try that before... not sure i can even do it as it's the Type II.

I drive the car everyday and sometimes it's fine and does not error out, but it's still not boosting like it should... and I really would like to resolve it...

Any suggestions? Any help is appreciated as I've tried everything... the only thing that I have not done on the new turbo is adjust the rod length but it was my understanding that was more of a response time issue fix?

not sure how to insert a screen shot of my boost graph but more or less it's following the requested boost perfectly only it's about 2/3 what it should be.
 

paramedick

TDIClub Enthusiast, Vendor
Joined
Jul 29, 2001
Location
Versailles, Kentucky
TDI
2015 Audi Q5 TDI
Just one thought. If the IP is not right, nothing will work as it should..seen that before with poor pressure.

Lots of good TDI folks in your area. It only takes about an hour to swap in a borrowed IP to rule that out. Maybe a mini GTG?
 

jjbinks

Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2012
Location
Kansas City MO
TDI
2002 Bettle ALH
Humm.... did not think about that as it runs so smooth and so good when it's running and not in safe mode... most injector pumps I've been around are either good or not good and when they are the later it's pretty obvious. But those are on large diesels, these TDI toy engines are a lot more fun to play with...!!!
 

eddieleephd

Top Post Dawg
Joined
May 27, 2012
Location
Battle Ground, Wa
TDI
2002 jetta Wagon
I recommend doing a boost leak test to see if there are issues there.
Didn't see that listed.

Adjusting the actuator bar could be part of the issue with this, if the veins do not open wide enough boost would suffer, as well the soot would build up and further the issue.

Another thing I do not see mentioned is EGR valve, if the EGR is stuck partially open you have a boost leak there...

All this started with the thought, "Is the intercooler clogged or broken?"

edit...
Just saw this again "not sure how to insert a screen shot of my boost graph but more or less it's following the requested boost perfectly only it's about 2/3 what it should be."

More ECM related then maybe.

to post a pic of reading on windows hit ctrl+prt sc (print screen) paste into paint and crop.

or find the file and copy into a spread sheet.
 
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