Turbo sticking?

Today when I got in my car and took off I could tell it had no pick up or power so I looked over at the boost gauge and it was just sitting at zero. I thought to myself that had blown yet another turbo but then all the sudden the turbo started working.

Is this just a freak thing or do you think my turbo is going and I need to prepare to replace it?

Got any DTC's? I would think a failing turbo would turn on the CEL; mine did, but it was the worn out, leaking actuator.

What are DTC's? What is the CEL?

RedTDIowner said:

What are DTC's? What is the CEL?

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Sorry , but seriously?

CEL check engine light
DTC diagnostic trouble code

Maybe sticky vanes maybe N75 maybe vacuum problem.

This was totally bizarre. I bought my car off the show room floor 300,000 miles ago and I have already had a turbo fail once before so there is no doubt my turbo was not working. I have now drove it a couple thousand miles and I has not done it since so it was just a fluke. I would still like to figure out why didn't work for that short period of time though and possibly prevent it from happening again.

Unless you can sense some other issue I'd just wait for the next occurrence before getting concerned. It could be tomorrow. It could be another month. It could be another year. But, as with everything, eventually it WILL fail ("again" - it's not the same one, so it really isn't like we're talking about the same exact part experiencing multiple deaths).

I'd just make sure that things are well-exercised. I took me over a year of periodically exercising the wife's car before I managed to free up sticking vanes: got lucky in that it was correctable this way; it wasn't all that bad so I figured it was worth a shot.

Probably limp mode that reset and hasn't recurred.
This will sometimes happen during hard acceleration if somethings not right.
It happened to me and was vacuum related.
Check the usual suspects.

It has happened to me a couple more times. I start it up, take off and there is no boost. I got about a quarter mile or so and it kicks in and runs fine from then on. Next time I get it serviced I will have them check it out.

Could be any number of things, but odds are the actuator on the turbo is failing, causing over or underboost and putting the car in limp mode, as mentioned above. A failing N75 valve could cause the same issue. Be aware that the dealer will tell you you need a new turbo, but you can buy an actuator for $120 instead if that's the issue.

If you want an accurate diagnosis and the repair done right, go see Bruce Bowling (Paramedick here) in Versailles. He's about an hour away from you. His email is tdirepairservices@gmail.com I'm not sure if he's taking on new customers but tell him I sent you and that may help.

Yep, Bruce is my mechanic. He is supposed to look at my car in a few weeks and this is one of the things he is going to address.

RedTDIowner said:

Yep, Bruce is my mechanic. He is supposed to look at my car in a few weeks and this is one of the things he is going to address.

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Dropped by today and Bruce's son Eric checked the pressure and it was fine so he then replaced all my vacuum lines. Hopefully that fixes the problem.