Emergency ALH triage needed!!!!!!

[dubCanuck1]

Hi all,

My wife had a problem with the 01 ALH today. She heard a popping sound and then the car went into a sort of limp mode. No CELs were thrown. No indication that there was any problem, but the car wouldn't go above 30 km/h on the way home.

Upon investigating, it doesn't look like she blew off any boost tubing, although I didn't take the lower baffle off and could only see a little. When I got her to start it while I was looking at the engine and it had some smoke coming out of the engine bay.

What I did notice after she stopped the car was that the EGR diaphragm popped to the "up" position about 2 seconds after the engine was shut off. Could this be the cause of the problem?

I'm a little freaked because when revving the engine a little, it sounds like a big old mess in there. It's knocking everywhere and you can hear the turbo whine quite pronouncedly. I just hope it's not that the timing belt skipped a couple teeth. I'd lose my mind if that happened.

Please help!!!!

[dubCanuck1]

I may have found the problem. the antishudder valve isn't supposed to stick like that. The EGR valve was sticking shut. When you pushed on the EGR flap from inside or by the lever on the outside, it would stick closed.

I pulled the EGR valve and boost tubing off and the EGR Valve and the intake manifold were nearly completely clogged shut. I could put my index finger in, but that was it (1" total). The backside of the EGR valve was pretty much completely clogged.

I pulled out a couple hands full of 1/2 - 1 inch sized chunks of material and then got pissed off and put everything back together for the car's trip to the dealership. I got pictures. I'm not sure if the stuck EGR valve was the root cause of today's problem, but after opening it up, I'm not starting the car again until it's cleaned out.

The dealership told me in December when I put the car in for a $180 impromptu "crappy mileage" checkup that the EGR and EGR valve were fine, but had some residue. I'll be ensuring that the dealership pays for all work to have the EGR, intake manifold, EGR valve, and the intake ports cleaned. 5000 kms does not contribute to that much buildup.

If they don't agree to that, I'll be quite concise in explaining that my 2001 TDI, 2001 TDI swap, 92 diesel, 86 Jetta, and future Touareg (along with any parts along the way) will be purchased and serviced (where necessary) from their competitors across town.