My Continued CEL Woes

Since driving down to Seattle last weekend, my Check Enging Light has continued to cause problems. While driving along the Interstate 5, I suddenly felt a significant decrease in the car's motor and became restricted to a top speed of 85 km/hrs.

Once pulled over, I immediately removed the Diesel Tuning Box and resetted the car's ECU. I did this to see if I could isolate the problem. Was it the tuning box or the motor? Once back on the highway, the CEL remained illuminated. I was forced to drive the remainder of the trip using tiptronic while never exceeding 3000 RPM. The car like it was running without it's turbocharger. I knew right there that my woes were motor related.

Upon returning home, I met with my godbrother Gary over lunch to explain the situation. Gary was recently employed for Kinetic Motorsports/Advanced Tuning Products, Inc. (ATP Turbo), a company dedicated solely to turbocharging. I informed him that my car had been mysteriously leaking coolant (up to 1-2 litres per day) with no evidence of leaking; massive horsepower losses at higher rpms; and continued intermittent CEL signals. He believed that the seals in the turbocharger may have failed, which consequently led to my overboosting problems.

As lunch progressed, what Gary said started to make a lot of sense. Turbochargers use coolant to cool itself. If the seals fail, that would be where the coolant was leaking and why the car felt under powered. I immediately made a service appointment for tomorrow at Westminster Volkswagen. I am hoping that the problem can be verified and repaired.

While on the phone with my Volkswagen Service Technician, he informed me that the failure of the turbocharger seal was common with the MK4 1.9L TDI motor. With less than 4000 kms before the expirations of my 80,000 km factory warranty, I'm glad my car problems are occurring now rather than later.

I am still planning to install the boost valve when it arrives and purchase a boost guage for preventative measures. Hopefully, this problem will never happen again.