So I was driving 20 mph yesterday and downshifted to 2nd, hit the gas and shifted to 3rd when I heard a clunk in my front end that sounded like it came from the engine area. I was still gassing it but the car sort of stalled then jumped then stalled again and a light came on momentarily (twice) that may have been my check engine light but i wasnt able to see what it was and looked like maybe it was the (!) light. I shifted back to 2nd and to my surprise the car started driving again rather than breaking down like it seemed was about to happen.

Shortly after i noticed the exhaust or whatnot was making a throaty sound when the rpm's got up to about 3000rpm and that the turbo was not giving me that boost it had before.

It accelerates fine until i get to about 3 to 4000rpm and then it seems like its got some kind of airflow problem and gets throaty and weak.

No oil leak, no smells, starts and runs great still but has no nuts like before and sounds throaty. Any ideas?

 

So I took it to a mechanic today and i'm told it had 4 major vacuum leaks. I recently bought the car with 131k and the mechanic says the last owner used electric tape to repair 3 of the vacuum leaks and one hose was completely unattached which is odd because the car has been driving great until yesterdays event and the check engine light only came on momentarily when it was stalling out.
The diagnostic report lists two misfires and a turbo malfunction. The misfires might explain the stall and the mechanic says we wont know about the turbo until the vacuum leaks are repaired but i'm hoping its just an air-flow issue. That would make sense to me because i'm not sure what else could cause the throaty exhaust like sound. If anyone has ideas as to what else can cause that i'd appreciate the input.