MK4 TDI Jetta all of a sudden no power from 3000 RPM+

I was driving home the other night and as I went to merge onto the highway I did as I always do in the TDI, floor it and shift. First gear fine, second fine, then into 3rd and all of a sudden when it hit around 3000 RPM it was making VERY LITTLE power. I mean it took me forever to get up to 90km/h. I then did some small tests once I got home on side streets and it seems like half the power as normal.

I do not see any engine lights on. I havent replaced glow plugs in a while (at least 2 years but I did before that whenever the light would come on). I'm honestly not sure what it is.

Is there a way to check if the turbo is working? What RPM range does it normally kick in?

I was curious for some pointers to track it down.

Thank you

See my signature below.

Turbo starts operating at fairly low RPMs. For sure you'll get good boost from about 1,800 RPM.

UhOh said:

See my signature below.

Turbo starts operating at fairly low RPMs. For sure you'll get good boost from about 1,800 RPM.

Click to expand...

Thanks I started reading through the guide yesterday... funny thing is that when my wife came home yesterday evening the car was running fine. I'm not sure what caused it so we will have to start to see if it happens again. I need to change the fuel filter anyways so this will push me towards it.

Thanks

Limp mode resets when you shut the car off. So the condition is still there, and it will re-occur when you replicate the conditions that caused it. Moderate to hard acceleration in a higher gear is a common scenario to cause limp mode.

Likely stored a code, after it repeats a few times it should light up the CEL.
Code will give a clue, but it's usually a control (MAF, actuator, etc.), sometimes it can be mechanical like lack of air or fuel or?. See low power link in my signature.

I had a no CEL MAF failure that did the same thing. My MAF would give good response then fall flat.