2006 Jetta Black Smoke and No Power

Driving around today and when I started to go from a traffic signal my Jetta acted like it was out of fuel, like it was missing, no power and lots of black smoke. Top speed was about 30 and took a couple of blocks to go that fast. This started all of a sudden. No lights came on (engine light). After got it back home I started it trying to see anything obvious. Idled fine but when reving up it started to cut out and blow smoke again.
I've been searching this forum for answers and seen several problems similar. Guess I just did not see any defined answers to this type of problem. I do not have a device to read error codes. Can anyone offer where to start looking first?

How many miles on the car? What oil has been used in it?

I'm not as familiar with the PD engine myself, but given that both the valves and injection are run by the camshaft, and given that the PD's have had a lot of cam failures, especially when using the wrong oil, my first thought would be to check the camshaft.

There are a couple of recommended shops in Phoenix:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=130044

(corrected for grammar)

frugality said:

How many miles on the car? What oil has been used in it?

I'm not as familiar with the PD engine myself, but given that both the valves and injection are run by the camshaft, and given that the PD's have had a lot of cam failures, especially when using the wrong oil, my first thought would be to check the camshaft.

There are a couple of recommended shops in Phoenix:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=130044

(corrected for grammar)

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Thanks for responce. Always used the oil spec'ed by VW since new. Have just over 55K miles.
Would a cam failure be so sudden? If it broke, would the engine still run? If it was worn out I would think that this problem would of appeared slowly.

Follow all the plumbing from the pressure side of the turbocharger, and pull on all the connections firmly. Make sure nothing is loose or disconnected, and check the collar on the hose that connects to the intake manifold for poor fit.

Also check all the metal EGR pipes for separation and breakage.

km1972 said:

Thanks for responce. Always used the oil spec'ed by VW since new. Have just over 55K miles.
Would a cam failure be so sudden? If it broke, would the engine still run? If it was worn out I would think that this problem would of appeared slowly.

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That's pretty young yet, so sorry if I got you worried.

The car can still be driven (though shouldn't be) if a lifter is 'holed'....like this post from Franko6:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?p=2881435&highlight=holed+lifter#post2881435

90% sure on this answer

I have a 2006 jetta as well and had the same problem. I had been running the car off of SVO (straight vegtable oil) and exactly as you described one day i noticed tons of smoke and a huge power decrease. Instead of staying calm an asking around to try and understand the problem so i cold fix it myself i quickly took it to the nearest diesel shop. Long story short, i shelled out a little over 100$ to have them clean my egr. I havnt had any trouble sense then. Its odd thought that a car that new would already need the egr cleaned. My car had only around 35,000 miles on it when i expierenced this problem but im fairly sure that it was because the vegtable oil burns so much dirtier.

greasemonster said:

I have a 2006 jetta as well and had the same problem. I had been running the car off of SVO (straight vegtable oil) and exactly as you described one day i noticed tons of smoke and a huge power decrease. Instead of staying calm an asking around to try and understand the problem so i cold fix it myself i quickly took it to the nearest diesel shop. Long story short, i shelled out a little over 100$ to have them clean my egr. I havet had any trouble sense then. Its odd thought that a car that new would already need the egr cleaned. My car had only around 35,000 miles on it when i expierenced this problem but im fairly sure that it was because the vegtable oil burns so much dirtier.

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Is cleaning the EGR something you could of done yourself? If so, would it have to be removed or cleaned in place? I've worked on a lot of cars but this TDI is my first diesel.

I am planning on dropping the car off at the shop on Friday, but they said they probably wouldn't get to even looking at it till Monday. If I could clean it at home then I wouldn't have to wait a week to get it back.

The EGR is likely sticking. THis is a common fault. It can be damaged cleaning it though so be careful. Its worse in alternative fuel cars due to the hardness of the soot post combustion. I typically replace them with new and the problem is gone. Verify this first, as it is expensive. ALso, make certain the intake isnt clogged badly(not likely given the miles).

mrchill said:

The EGR is likely sticking. THis is a common fault. It can be damaged cleaning it though so be careful. Its worse in alternative fuel cars due to the hardness of the soot post combustion. I typically replace them with new and the problem is gone. Verify this first, as it is expensive. ALso, make certain the intake isnt clogged badly(not likely given the miles).

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After reading all that I can find, I unplugged the MAF and it runs fine. But it sounds like that other owners have replaced the MAF only to not resolve the problem or have the problem come back in a few days. Or it 'masks' the fact that the EGR is bad.

Does that sound likely?

I am thinking just take it in and let the garage figure it out and be done with it. I will mention what I have done and hope that might help them.

I will report what happens, etc., when I get the car back.

I understand exactly what yoy mean it can be very frustrating trying to figure out the problem yourself, especially if its your daily driver. I have no knowledge of how to do this and i whish i did becuase as mrchill said i have heard of it being some what of a common problem too. I would be willing to bet that there is some post about how to clean your egr somewhere on tdiclub, but good luck finding it. Let me know what you find.

I took my car in yesterday AM and was told that it could be Monday before they had any answers. Was I suprised when I got a call around 4 PM saying my car was ready to go.
Turns out that the booster line had come loose. Lost a clamp and fell off in a place I could not see from top. I had looked and pulled on all the hoses I could find but apparently not that one. Hey, I'm not familiar with all workings of my TDI, but this past week I have gotten a real education!

I took the Jetta to Independent Automotice Services in Phoenix. They were very helpful, friendly, and honest. Very knowledgable about TDI and reasonable too, less than $100! A couple of hours and a $2 clamp and it runs like new again.

I want to thank all who posted in responce to my problem. Like I said I learned alot about the workings of my VW... thanks to you all.