110bhp Golf Diesel Estate 1998 intermittently sluggish

Hi All, 110bhp Golf Diesel Estate 1998 has started becoming intermittently sluggish, seems to tie in with colder weather, comes and goes for no good reason.

Things to check please, would be great.

J
Reply to
J A Sims
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Possibly the MAF but more likely the air temperature sensor. VAG-COM lets you read what it thinks the air temperature is & you can compare with the real world.

Reply to
Duncan Wood

Ok, this a flippant, tongue-in-cheek remark of no use to anybody...

..isn't a Golf Diesel Estate *always* sluggish?

Reply to
adder1969

Another possibility is a sticky VNT mechanism on the turbo, especially is it goes well, then suddenly goes flat.

Reply to
Chris Bartram

VGT's were only fitted to the PD engines. Try again.

Sounds like its temperature sensor related , but still a fair probability its the MAF.

Tim..

Reply to
Tim..

Thank you all. Please enlighten as to the MAF and the way forward.

ta

J Sims

ps its the turbo diesel, and when it isnt intermittently sluggish it goes rather nicely.

Reply to
J A Sims

Sorry, wrong. The 90 BHP is the only 4 cylinder TDI without a VGT. The

110 TDi was the first to have the VGT, and the only one to have one in conjunction with a conventional rotary injection pump rather than PD. I've just sold an Audi A3 with that very same engine- code AHF in my case- the A3 carried on with the VE-pump rather than PD engines for longer than VW, but you can find that engine on the few early Golf GT TDis that don't have PD engines.

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I'd agree that the MAF or temp sender is more likely though, given the fault description, but the only sure way is a fault code read and some diagnostic runs logging with VAG-COM. A sticky VNT usually gives the maddening symptoms of loads of boost and then none as the ECU detects overboost and shuts the turbo off- until you cycle the ignition. You can reach the VNT mechanism from underneath the car and work it back and forth, which can help, sometimes.

Reply to
Chris Bartram

Look at the air filter on the RH side of the engine bay. The MAF is at the end of the trunking that runs from the air filter to the engine and has a multi-pin plug connecting it. You can get a new genuine bosch exchnage one from the likes of Euro Car Parts for about 80 quid.

A quick and dirty test is to unplug it. If performance is unchanged, or not changed much, there's a good chance it's screwed. To test properly you need VAG-COM really- you can plot actual MAF readings against expected.

You might want to have a look at

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for a heap of tests and checks. The guys there *really* know VW TDi engines.

Reply to
Chris Bartram

Much appreciated.

J Sims

Reply to
J A Sims

Heh. Reminds me of something a mate of mine said a while back - he'd given me a known good carb off a 1.4 litre Mk2 Astra to put on mine (1.3, but essentially the same engine), and I basically said that I didn't want breathtaking performance, just no flat spots. He said something like "it's a 1.3 Astra - there's one big flat spot all the way up to 6000rpm".

Reply to
AstraVanMan

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