As title indicates, I have a problem with low boost... any suggestions more than welcome.

Story is as follows.

I've had the car for about 6 months, MY98 UK Wagon, and never had any problems whatsoever.

Fitted a boost gauge last weekend along with some other monitoring gear and was surprised to see max boost in high gears at 0.6 bar . First thing I checked was the gauge since it seemed possible that it was reading very wrong but it seems to be spot on. Also no unusual acitivity on knocklink.

I have also done the ecu reset to see if there are any problems being masked by altered running settings. No error codes whatsoever and no change at all to the running of the car. If it was in limp home mode should the ecu reset clear it temporarily?

Also, I would emphasise that the car runs fine in every other way, no hesitation or poor running anywhere in the full rev range.

I am leaning towards a fault with the boost solenoid or blocked pipework. The boost level is about the wastegate opening pressure if the solenoid is screwed. Is there anyway of checking the solenoids function without fitting a replacement?

I am intending to fit a MBC this weekend along with an AFR but would like to pin this fault down before proceeding.

Any help very much appreciated......

 

there should be a 1mm orifice in the small black pipe that connects the turbo to the tee piece these pipes tend to crack and if it was replaced without the orifice it will only boost to .5/.6 bar,pull off this pipe and try to push a pen refill or something through,the pipe is only about 2" long and the brass orifice should be roughly in the middle.the solenoid is normally closed so with the engine idling try to blow through it then slowly bring the revs up and it should operate allowing you to blow through it,my moneys on no orifice

 

Thanks for the reply mate.

I'll have a good look over it this weekend.

Glad somebody out there took the time to post a reply.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Cheers again

Russ

 

have you got an after market boost controller ? mine ran at 0.7 till i went back to the standard boost set up