Dodge Caliber turbo faults

[marcus1875]

Hi guys
My dads 2006 dodge caliber turbo (diesel) (vw engine), is playing up. Fine when cold and tootling around town. However as soon as you need some power, nothing. It slowly builds up speed, but nothing on an uphill gradient, in fact it looses speed no matter how firmly the right foot is planted.
The pipes are sound, no leaks and fitted fine. No warning lights and fault codes.
He's had it into his local garage and they cant find a fault either.
Any ideas guys?
Cheers
marcus

[SmithyAG]

The 2006 diesel is a BKD engine from VW apparently.

How long has this being going on? Lack of boost would log an underboost fault code after a certain amount of acceleration without the required level being reached. Have this happen 3 or 4 times and an engine management light will be triggered.

Can you hear the turbo doing anything?

Unfortunately the BKD has a bit of a reputation for unreliable turbos, but they usually go in a cloud of smoke and make the car undriveable rather than produce no boost.

Ideally you need to log requested boost vs actual to see what is going on with suitable diagnostic software.

[marcus1875]

Cheers Smithy.
My old man told me last week, but its been like thus at least a year he says.
Still drives. No smoke. No codes.
flummaxed

[AGK]

IIRC the BKD engines are well known for issues with the heads.

[SmithyAG]

The problems with the heads were porous/cracking and resulted in coolant consumption rather than power loss.

I'm really surprised there isn't something logged for underboost, if it is the turbo.

Is servicing up to date including the fuel/air filters?

[marcus1875]

SmithyAG said:

Is servicing up to date including the fuel/air filters?

Probably not. He doesnt look after his cars very well. If it starts and goes then all is well he thinks.
I'll replace all today and service it, double check the OBD and pipe work. Hopefully something will bevome apparent.
cheers
marcus

[Dr G]

So basically, no boost. Actuator?

[Cloggie]

If no codes are set my first thing to check would be the air mass sensor.