Sudden loss of power

[CHRIS1977]

Hi, I need your expert advice.
I picked up yesterday a Seat Leon 06 2.0 16v (140) TDi Sport drove it to the nearest garage as it had literally zero fuel and must of been running on vapour, filled it up drove it home (25miles) and all seemed well (apart from a cup full of water under the middle of the car but apparantly thats to do with the aircon?). However I decided to go and visit my relatives in Kent (I live in Cheshire so quite a way!!) and all semed well until I hit Milton Keynes where I suddenly lost power, the cars speed went from 80 to 50 and took an age to get it back to 70mph where it would not go any faster. I pulled into the services and contacted the dealer who sent me to there nearest repair centre (luckly only 6 miles away). I restarted the car which seemed fine and drove it there without a problem power was back. The mechanic had a look took it for a 30min drive and couldnt find anything wrong. He did say that the suden loss of power could be down to the very low fuel at the time of pick up and I may just have sucked some gunk through the pipes. I proceeded on my journey about 90/100 miles without a hitch.

So after all that rambling do you think that could be the case (gunk in fuel) or should I get it back to the dealer for further inspection.

I do have to drive back yet so if it doesnt happen again should I not worry about it?

Thanks fella's

 

[Big_Mikey_G]

To be honest id be very concerned!

Basically what happened is that your car went into limp mode!

It does this in order to limit performance thus protecting itself from possible damage but still allowing you to drive to a Garage for diagnostics.

Turning off the ignition waiting for a minute and then restarting the engine will usually bring it back out of limp mode. However, the ECU will still have logged a fault code so get it over to a Stealer so they can read the code off the ECU and diagnose the problem!

I also own a Mrk2 140TDI Ref Sport 55 plate

I had the same problem with my car and the fault was due to an overboosting turbo! It would would go in to limp mode if i pushed it much over 80ish at 3000rpm because the bosst pressure on the turbo was climbing too high.

When i finally got it to a Garage they read the ECU which had flashed up fault code:

16618/P0234/000564 - Boost Pressure Regulation: Limit Exceeded (Overboost Condition)

Told me i needed a new turbo which would be £1250 to source and fit. But at least that included VAT ....

 

[MJ]

The engine will be dropping into limp mode due to it being clogged with soot and carbon from the exhaust, the solution is to try snd burn this soot off by doing a long run making sure you put strain on the engine and excercise the vanes of the turbo.

Failing that you'll need the turbo removing and cleaning out or at the very worst a new turbo, which is quite common on these vehicles but usually if its sticking and not blown completely a clean out will do the trick.