2.0 HDI Turbo problems - Need help please

[pugface406lx]

Hi everyone,
Car is an estate 2.0HDI 110BHP, year 2000....Had this issue for a while now and cant find what is wrong..... some days on startup the car runs reasonably fine, other days its awful, driving down the road it feels like the car is really holding back and i notice that the turbo doesnt kick in until around 2700rpm and then gives me a short burst of life until around 3200rpm which is frustrating.....other days the turbo kicks in normally around 1800rpm and goes on until 3200rpm.
It definitely feels like a slow old van when its running poor and then if pushed a bit harder to try and clear it out the engine light comes on and it goes to 'limp home' mode!
It will reset after a few start ups and then performs sort of ok for a few trips then plays up again. I got a aftermarket code reader and it gives the following as a problem code... 'Turbo/Supercharger Wastegate Solenoid A'. I clear the code and it runs okish for a bit but never really good. A guy I know said to look at the small vacuum pipes on the two black sensors on the bulkhead in front of driver (engine compartment) but these seem fine. Ive changed the EGR valve a while back for a new one and also the Maff sensor on air intake and also the small sensor near intercooler at the front close to bonnet slam panel so now i dunno what to do. What is the 'solenoid A' and if it's what Im guessing it is (one of those black sensors on bulkhead which one is solenoid A?
Could it be the turbo unit itself acting up and thats why it doesnt seem to kick in until mid 2000's revs??
Any help greatly appreciated

Regards
Pugface

[Welly]

First it's unlikely the turbo itself is at fault they just don't go wrong really.

I'd say it could the black electro-solenoid valve on the bulkhead which controls the vacuum to the turbo actuator but see what others think on here too.

[gumby6371]

I'd agree with Welly on the turbo electrovalve, which I believe on the 110 is the same as the EGR elecrovalve (correct me if I'm wrong 110 owners).
I also believe the ECU is far more forgiving of a dodgy EGR than turbo so I'd swap them over and see if it helps as a temporary fix.

Of course these are all vacuum controlled so a split pipe anywhere in the vacuum circuit can affect things so I'd have a bloody good look at the entire system all the way back to the pump. When I had vacuum issues it also affected braking if I hit the pedal hard more than once in a short period of time as it struggled to build the pressure back up with a tiny split in the pipe coming directly off the pump.
Mine was also an intermitent fault as the split was on the inside of a bend in the vac pipe so sometimes it would seal itself other times not.

Vac pipe is very cheap and easy to change so probably good practise to change it anyway, if you're near Telford I've got plenty in my shed!!!

[Welly]

Good call on replacing the vac lines, if anything it eliminates them from your fault finding. Someone else on here was reporting similar issues recently I wonder whether the vac pumps are getting tired on some of these now? from memory they're only* £70.00 or so?

[GingerMagic]

Hi, welcome.

I too would agree with the others, the turbo rarely goes wrong unless its been abused - so I would swap the solenoids around to eliminate it. ( take a picture of the pipes first, peace of mind when it comes to putting them back..)

I had turbo issues which I eventually traced to a blocked restrictor in the vacuum system - I bought one of these - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00H ... ge_o00_s00 and it was a great investment.

New 3mm silicon vac pipe is about £5 from eBay, so not a big cost to replace the aging vac pipes, and solenoids are about £40 new, or available on eBay but not always proven to work, but they are pocket sized if you are near a scrap yard..