2005 Passat TDI: No torque, not in limp mode?

[NWSubyGuy]

Good Morning Everyone,

First of all please excuse my ignorance, I have very little/ no experience with VW's especially diesels.

My boss is having trouble with his 2005 TDI Passat wagon and I am not sure what the problem is. He called me last night to say that all of a sudden he has almost no torque, saying that it feels like the turbo went out (a likely scenario) however, he called me again later saying that the power came back for a while (5 miles or so) then went out again and the CEL came on.

I asked if his rpm's were limited, thinking that his car was probably in limp mode, but he said he can still get the rpm's up, it just takes a while to get there.

I havent had a chance to head to oreilys and borrow an OBD2 scanner.

Is his turbo blown? Is it something else?

Thanks for any help and/or advice. Please let me know if you need more information.

-John

[thegimpster]

Its hard to say without seeing some codes. A Vagcom readout would be more helpful. But I would start off looking at maybe a clogging fuel filter, vacuum line leak going to the n75 valve (the boost control valve) or even the n75 valve going bad or clogging up with junk. Maybe the MAF also going bad. Just a few things to check off the top of my head. Get some codes if you can.

[NWSubyGuy]

Its hard to say without seeing some codes. A Vagcom readout would be more helpful. But I would start off looking at maybe a clogging fuel filter, vacuum line leak going to the n75 valve (the boost control valve) or even the n75 valve going bad or clogging up with junk. Maybe the MAF also going bad. Just a few things to check off the top of my head. Get some codes if you can.

Thank you!

He just had it in for a service and inspection about a week ago. Suppose I should have said that. So im thinking it has to be something that the tec's didnt inspect. I'll check out the boost control valve and the hose and see if I can get some codes.