S3 - Temporary turbo loss??

MacrosTheBlack

MacrosTheBlack

Registered User
Joined
Mar 14, 2008
Messages
212
Reaction score
20
Points
18
Location
Kent
Started up my S3 this morning and right from pull away it felt slow and awkward, no jerking, still smooth but lacking in power and unresponsive when trying to accelerate. Once on a main road I tried to put my foot down and it just slowly crept up in speed rather than it's normal "zooming off" response. Couldn't hear the turbo at all (normally can), stopped at a set of lights, so restarted the car, which didn't help. Then after about 5mins of driving power was restored, could hear the turbo working as normal and all seems well again. No beep's or dashboard warnings have come up. Dropped it down to my local dealer who investigated and could find no fault or explanation after doing a diagnostic, manual check and test drive.

Anyone have any ideas or experienced the same?

Just be nice to know what caused it. :huh:
 
MacrosTheBlack said:
Started up my S3 this morning and right from pull away it felt slow and awkward, no jerking, still smooth but lacking in power and unresponsive when trying to accelerate. Once on a main road I tried to put my foot down and it just slowly crept up in speed rather than it's normal "zooming off" response. Couldn't hear the turbo at all (normally can), stopped at a set of lights, so restarted the car, which didn't help. Then after about 5mins of driving power was restored, could hear the turbo working as normal and all seems well again. No beep's or dashboard warnings have come up. Dropped it down to my local dealer who investigated and could find no fault or explanation after doing a diagnostic, manual check and test drive.

Anyone have any ideas or experienced the same?

Just be nice to know what caused it. :huh:
Click to expand...

Very odd. Maybe Pug cast a spell on you ?
 
Funnily enough, mine did this for about 2 weeks prior to it's first service.
However, I had a warning light come up and the car seemed to cough and splutter for a bit, and as you said, the turbo was offline.
In my case, re-startign it cured it every time!
Mentioned it at the service, and no faults we're reported and they tried to replicate the issue after the service and it never returned.
I've not had a problem with it since.

Question for you then - how many miles till your service??? If it's near, I'd get it booked in!

J
 
:lmfao: Iggu!! Maybe he did. I'll have to get Thomas, or one of his dragons to beat him up for me!
 
Thanks for that Jamiekip, no spluttering or coughing when mine happened. Be interesting to see if it reoccurs from a cold start over the next few days. As for servicing, it's only done 4k so far, wants an oil change at 10k and still showing 19k for a full service.
 
Was the engine completely cold? I never give it the beans until it's warm in the S3, but I ragged my old A3 2.0FSI to death from stone cold and it used to limit the power for a short period (I assumed it was to protect the poor engine from idiots like me!)
 
audi upgrades
With only 4k on the clock, if it persists I'd get it booked in with the dealer..... it shouldn't do that.
Even from cold mine never missed a beat... I drove it to the alps last March and it was under a pile of snow for 10 days, started first turn of the key and had no problems and didn't feel like it was 'holding back'.
Could also be your MAF.... common problem across all Audi's!!!
 
I'm starting to think the turbo's Audi fit to the 2.0TFSI engine (in it's various guises) aren't particularly great.
Upon start up (usually when i leave work in the afternoon oddly) it sounds very whiny and doesn't feel that quick but when it's warmed up it's fine.
It's going in for it's service next week and there's an ever growing list of things i want them to look at!!
 
It was completely cold. But wasn't trying to hammer it. This was a massive power loss right off the mark doing normal driving. I'd say it felt like 60% of it's normal power.
 
Handbrake !! :)

Seriously though sound strange never heard of that before, trip to the dealers me thinks

Mark
 
lol, yeah must of checked the handbrake 3 or 4 times just in case! I did take it to the dealers too, they investigated but couldn't find a problem.

Hopefully it'll just be a one off. We'll see. Very strange though.
 
Doesn't Audi use Garrat turbos? I'm pretty sure my MY'03 2.0TDI is a Garret
 
Can't fault mine and has 18500 miles now.... pulling as normal!! Maybe mine was a good batch!! lololol

Pedro
 
Hi mate, its funy reading ur post because I almost feel I could have written it myself word for word last winter !! I experienced the exact same thing. a distinct lack of power as if something was pulling the turbo back from its usual thing, engine restarts didnt rectify anything, no warning lights, nothing on diagnostic and i even left the car at audi overnight during november freezing nights to run some checks from cold, it showed nothing, I was just told by audi tech not to exceed 3000 revs in cold weather until the engine warmed up !! Havnt experienced the problem since, although i have noticed a very obvious difference in power when uing the cheap **** petrop and the Knightrider **** !! (not that current climate makes the latter easy or affordable)

goos luck mate !!
 
Arrrghhhh!! Help!!

Ok guys, update to this. The problem still seems to be there. First occurred last Monday morning - cold startup, loss of most of the power, no dash lights warnings, car started fine, pulls away but it had no acceleration, just slowly built up speed and you could put your foot flat down and there'd be no response, almost like running on tick over, the engine sounded ok, couldn't hear the turbo at all, no spluttering etc, just a complete loss of power and acceleration. Restarting the car, no difference, then after 5 mins of slowly driving along it returned to normal performance. Took it to the dealers, they couldn't find any faults with it after a diagnostic, test drive, and manual inspection. Said to let them know if it happens again.

Well last Friday after work, car’s second run of the day, I experienced the same problem, again only for a few minutes. Too late to phone dealers so left it. Then last night after work the car was fine to start with, then after a couple of minutes of normal driving it had a 5 second moment and the acceleration cut of, crawled along, pushing the accelerator and no response even with foot flat. Then it all came back to life and was fine again.

So going to contact Audi today, but wanted some advice on my approach? As I appreciate the problem is intermittent and hard to prove there’s a fault.

Any advice much appreciated!
 
Leave the car with them overnight get them to try it first thing in the morning.

Is the air filter jammed up??it might be blocked with something?

or the turbo is fecked!!

Have you re mapped it at all?
 
No it's no been modded at all. Standard S3, 4000 miles on it.

I thought about leaving it overnight. But as the fault is so random there's no guarantee it will reoccur.

It's a real pain in the backside, as obviously they ideally need to experience it playing up, but when it happens chances are it will be fine even if I drive straight there. I could maybe just pull up and phone them to get a technician to come to where ever I am when it next happens.

Working in IT I know how I feel when people call me out for a fault and when I get there it's all fine. You think, hmmm, they're either making it up, or it's not that bad a problem.

I wish whatever the problem is, would occur and stay like it until it can identified and fixed!!
 
How about trying to find someone in your area with a VAGCOM who may let you borrow it for a day or two. That way when it happens you may at keast be able to identify the fault code and pursue it that way.
Just a thought.
 
But a fault code would stay on the system if you dropped it off to the dealers to check 2 hours after it first occurred wouldn't it? The dealers couldn't find any recorded faults.
 
If you want it resolved, your best bet is to tell them it nearly caused an accident by leaving you with no power leaving s junction..... you can make up whatever story you want really, but by implying it has put you in danger, they will have to investigate more seriously.
This happened with my girlfriends old Lupo, the ABS had a moment, whereby when it acted it would not stop braking even when the foot was taken off the brake. The scene of cars dartying either side of her was pretty frieghtning and she told them she didn't want the car as it was un-safe... the ended up getting an engineer over from Germany and it turned out to be a faulty connection somewhere....

Anyway, the point is, it shouldn't be doing what it's doing....
 
My a3 1.8t does same one minute boosting 18psi the next its 4-5psi ! ! !
Have heard it can be the N75 valve (wastegate frequency valve) the ecu sends signals to that which opens and closes wastegate thru vacuum ! ! ! ! Try find sumone with same engine and swap them round or buy new 1 ! ! !
 
hey buddy,did you ever find out the problem?my s3 is doin what you mention!!!
 
Hey Roscos3,

Never found out what caused this. Happened 3 or 4 times within a 2 week period and then never came back again. Very odd. I suspect the turbo wasn't spinning up properly. Turbo's never been changed though and it's now 40k later without ever reoccuring.

Hope yours either fixes itself or you find the issue mate. If you do find a fault update the thread in case it ever happens to anyone on here or me again.

Cheers and good luck.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

andy c 75
Turbo boost loss and exhaust
Replies
0
Views
363
andy c 75
andy c 75
lleiro
Temporary disable the alarm??
Replies
2
Views
926
lleiro
lleiro
E
Is this a turbo leak? Loss of power
Replies
2
Views
591
wuta3
wuta3
T
2004 2.0 TDI BKD Turbo loss of power
Replies
8
Views
6K
T8DPR
T
S
S3 odd power loss
Replies
8
Views
952
SaintToad
S
Top
Back