Leon cupra 20vt problem with turbo

[uncle_slam]

Hello all. i recently bought a 2003 20vt leon. i went yesterday to get it checked out by a friend of mine, and it had been remapped, and was running very efficiently, got a print out to say it was runnig at 189bhp + 226lbft torque, so there clearly wasn't a problem at this point. but when i left his garage i had no power from the turbo, its not going at all, and at about 5k revs it looses power and wont go any higher.

i am very friendly with the guy and he assures me he made no changes to the ecu map at all, and can only suggest that him connecting to the ecu may have made the car go into safe mode, which would account for the loss of power. if this is the case, how do i get it out of safe mode, or even check if it is in this mode. and if this isn't the problem then what could it be and how would i check it.

there is no rattling noise from the turbo and it has been running very well, it just seemed to stop going completely.
any advice would be very helpful.

thanks,

chris

 

[SalSheikh]

if he has vagcom sofware ask him to run a check on the car for you for any fault codes and see if this brings anything up.

 

[uncle_slam]

Hello, thanks, yeah my friend does have the software and asked me to come try it, but it's a 200 mile round trip, i wanted to see if i could diagnose the problem before having to drive there again.

 

[SalSheikh]

bugger, shame there isnt someone closer to you. can you not go to a closer Seat dealer to se if they can run the checks for you, might be cheaper and less time consuming.

 

[markgb]

Safe mode (limp home mode) stops the engine revving over 3k. If this is the case, you'll have the engine symbol on your dashboard.
Is there any smoke from the exhaust?
What are the actual symptoms?
Turbo starts boosting from around 2.5k.
Has the catalytic converter been checked? My Calibra's cat had broken down and blocked the pipe. The engine would rev up, but no power because of back pressure.

Hope it's something easy (and cheap to sort out).

 

[uncle_slam]

Well i took the engine cover off today and noticed the oil breather hose was nearly completely split, and theres some oil spatter. i don't know if this is the reason i'd lose my turbo, also because the hose looks degraded and not like a fresh tear. and yes there is smoke from the tailpipe.

what is happening is the car is running like a normal 1.8, no turbo kicking in "at all" and it starts to miss at about 5k revs, as if it's hitting the limiter.

the car had it's 50k big service done in jan and was mot'd in jan, so it's something recent. and as i stated, it was running fine yesterday up until the ecu map was checked, but again today even my friend assured me that nothing at all was changed in the ecu.

the only other thing i noticed before was on a few cold mornings when i started it the engine was chugging and trying to stall, but i turned off the ignition and started again and it was fine. maybe this is related?

 

[Andy3004]

189 bhp is pretty low for a mapped LC, would have expected 205-215 depending on the map to be honest..might be a sign something needs tweaking.

 

[uncle_slam]

I did mention that to the guy, as i have read people gettin 220 from a mapped lc. he said it depends on the map, and sometimes can be hard to get more bhp outta them. he compared my read out to that of an un-touched lc and mine had quite a bit more torque, just not much more bhp. although that is an issue i would like to get checked out, just in case there is an under-lying problem

i can see it now, that'll be £1000 sir

 

[LEE69]

Fix the hose, they affect boost.
Is it the Y shaped one?

 

[markgb]

Mines been remapped, been on two rolling roads, highest BHP figure 196.5bhp 236lb torque.
CC stage 1 remap.

 

[LEE69]

Well i took the engine cover off today and noticed the oil breather hose was nearly completely split, and theres some oil spatter. i don't know if this is the reason i'd lose my turbo, also because the hose looks degraded and not like a fresh tear. and yes there is smoke from the tailpipe.

what is happening is the car is running like a normal 1.8, no turbo kicking in "at all" and it starts to miss at about 5k revs, as if it's hitting the limiter.

the car had it's 50k big service done in jan and was mot'd in jan, so it's something recent. and as i stated, it was running fine yesterday up until the ecu map was checked, but again today even my friend assured me that nothing at all was changed in the ecu.

the only other thing i noticed before was on a few cold mornings when i started it the engine was chugging and trying to stall, but i turned off the ignition and started again and it was fine. maybe this is related?

This hose? http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=217459&highlight=silicone

 

[uncle_slam]

yes mate, thats the hose. nearly completely torn in half

 

[markgb]

yes mate, thats the hose. nearly completely torn in half

Had to replace that on mine, only about £20 from dealer from memory.
The worst part is taking off the OEM clips.

 

[uncle_slam]

but i doubt this could be the reason i would suddenly lose my turbo?

 

[ashley600]

i've replaced the top breather last month, mine was torn in two just about but i still had boost it just caused a flutter when came off throttle. replace with the silicone one only £30 the oem will just split again

 

[greesha]

I would say that you have a serious boost leak somewhere. Check N75 hoses. Check DV hoses. Check DV itself if it works properly (i assume you have forge 007,right?) Check intercooler clamps + hoses. Check hoses underneath the manifold (have a look in my RR thread to see which ones). I would bet my money on boost leak (and i can guess it will be those hoses under inlet manifold). Reset the fault codes and it should be fine . Post a topic in VAGcom area that you are looking for help near ypur place - im sure somebody will be there to clear the codes for you. In worst case just buy some code reader or laptop OBD II cable and do it yourself . And its a nice thing to have one of those

 

[Random1989]

i'd says its probably nothing to do with the boost and its just the ecu gone into limp mode i had limp mode last week and its like you said it's like driving a normal 1.8 and whe you try boot it, its like hitting a limiter. mine was the spark plugs but it could be loads of things from a fuse to a turbo lol you need to get it VAG.COM checked there might be someone in your area with a vagcom you just need to ask around or buy a lead off ebay and download some software.

 

[uncle_slam]

I would say that you have a serious boost leak somewhere. Check N75 hoses. Check DV hoses. Check DV itself if it works properly (i assume you have forge 007,right?) Check intercooler clamps + hoses. Check hoses underneath the manifold (have a look in my RR thread to see which ones). I would bet my money on boost leak (and i can guess it will be those hoses under inlet manifold). Reset the fault codes and it should be fine . Post a topic in VAGcom area that you are looking for help near ypur place - im sure somebody will be there to clear the codes for you. In worst case just buy some code reader or laptop OBD II cable and do it yourself . And its a nice thing to have one of those

you're assuming that i know a lot about cars, which isn't the case lol. the car is completely standard, apart from a re-map, nothing added at all. i have a guy looking at it today, worst case theres a seat garage 1min from my house. i have looked all round the engine and could only see the one cable which was split. i'm gonna see if i can find someone with this software. thanks for all the replies guys

 

[greesha]

Its not rocket science Uncle_sam . I have no mechanic experience. This Cupra is my first owned car really and I've done loads by myself. Its pretty much just Technics Lego blocks in bigger size. When you have general idea how everything works then most of things seem pretty straight forward.

 

[andycupra]

hehe i love the way you admit to knowing not alot about cars, then get told to replace the split pipe and this can cause boost issues.. then argue it cant be that.

Get it done.

Split pipes can cause all sorts of issues.