Mk4 TDI poor power - is turbo faulty?
 

hi

i've got a golf, 2001 1.9 TDI (Mk 4?) and i think it's underperforming substantially. i wonder if anyone can help guide me as to how i might get more idea of what's up? i'm reasonably clued up with petrol engines, but nigh-on clueless about the particulars of diesels, and turbos in particular.

evidence: i think the book 0-60 for this car is around 13 sec or so (though i haven't decided exactly which engine it is yet) and myself (though no rally driver :)) can't get it up to 60 in much less than 19 sec. in addition, acceleration flooring it when travelling at motorway speeds is very sluggish, regardless of which gear. seems then, that power is significantly reduced from expected, and as best as i can tell this is particularly in the upper half of the revs. one possibility is that i'm expecting too much, i really can't remember what this car was like when i bought it (a couple of years ago). but i feel sure it was a bit pokier than this...

based on the above, i speculated that maybe the turbo is faulty. so i do a bit of googling and discover that turbo problems with these engines seem fairly common. so my question is, really, is there a straightforward way to establish if the turbo is operating even vaguely correctly? if i step on the gas in neutral it seems to take some ol' time to get up to redline. if i step on the gas when rolling along at 30 or 40, with the revs in the 2500-3000 range, i get pretty crappy response, and i'm sure i used to notice the turbo lag, and i can't really notice much anymore. but i'm pretty unfamiliar with diesels and turbos, so i'm not convincing myself. is there a simple test i might use to see if the turbo is operating at all? if i can establish that the turbo is not operating at all, i'll spend a weekend checking the various things my google threw up for typical causes of turbo failure. but i'm loathe to do that if the turbo is not the problem, of course.

other info: there are no warning lights (other than the "service due" warning has just started coming on, on cue) and other than the lack of power behaviour is flawless.

cheers for any help

additional info
 

ps... it's done 71,000 miles.

It sounds very much like the problem that I have with my 2001 Golf TDI. It has only 33000 miles on it, and it seems a shame to have anything seriously wrong with it.

dieseleddy