Yeah I am going to change the fuel filter, it was done a couple of years ago and it was coming up on it to be changed anyway. When you said it ran like poo could you hear the turbo spool at all? Cause mine you can not hear unless you let go of the throttle quick and it spools down. The only time I heard it was when it ran great as explained earlier for 2 mins. I am heading to the dealership tomorrow for the ECTS.

 

First, no dealship for ECTS, that's jsu tplain wasting money. It's so easy to do and the part plus clip cost <$10.

When I say the car ran like poo I mean it had no *****, regardless of gear. First gear was just depressing. Starting from a stop was difficult b/c the power came on later than normal. My normal shifting habits were useless and the car would almost stall before the power came in. Anyway, I would say that yes the turbo was hardly there. I did hear it spool up but not like it does now.

I had a 2hr trip a couple of times with that ECTS CEL being the lone code and it was not the normal performance or turbo. I am not chipped fyi and I wasn't looking at a boost gauge, this is all feel. I definitely know when my car isn't running right at this point. That was one of them. All I can say is I'm surprised how much such a cheap part can have on the performance of a car. Night and day difference for me.

 

Stop worrying about the sound of the turbo until the things that are obviously wrong get fixed. You have a ects fault code, so replace it get the codes cleared and go from there. 1 thing at a time. If you are in limp mode from a bad ects, your boost/timing/fuel is being restricted and therefore you wouldnt hear the turbo as well as you did before and would have an obvious lack in performance. An ects/02 sensor/maf etc arent parts that work fine and then just die (normaly). They tend to start to act up (which is where you might notice inconsistant performance andmay get an intermitent fault code or cel) and then after a while they will completely die and lose the signal they transmit to the ecu (which is where you will deffinately get fault codes or CEL's and bad performance consistantly). Does that make sense?

Once the ecu detects that the signal is lost or it gets an out of range signal on a more than intermitent basis (constantly/very frequent) it will put you in limp mode to protect your engine. If you clear the codes/reset the ecu and a cel comes back right away, you should know that something is dead and there will be a fault code refering to it and limp mode to protect the engine. So its bad when people keep reseting the ecu/clearing codes just to get out of limp mode without fixing what is wrong. They are probably doing damage to their engines inbetween CEL's.

 

Oh yea... $6 for the sensor and like a $1 for the o ring and $1 for th clip.. So about $9 w/tax isnt too bad even from the dealer- thats what i paid at the dealer....
I agree that it is somewhat of a night and day difference when your ects is bad and you replace it. Much better performance, and hopefully mpg too. It seems as though the A/F ratio is so much better since i did mine, which it is!

 

Yeah thanks again guys, i am only using the sound as a reference to the overall feel of the car... And when i meant "go to the dealership tomorrow" I didn't mean to have them work on it, just to go to the parts dept. so I can fix it myself. The only time the dealerships will ever touch my cars is if it was under warranty or needed a recall done.

 

Glad to hear that's what you meant about the dealership trip. I've been drinking since I got home and just read it one way without much thought. Be sure to let us know how it works out for you... I am really curious to see what fixes your issue. GL.

 

Good Boy!!!

 

Ok well this morning i purchased a new ECTS "the dark green one" and nothing has changed. The car still feels like it is in limp mode. Granted I only drove it about 20 miles this morning with no CEL, but I have a 150 mile round trip I have to do anyway today. SO I guess I'll see if the CEL comes on between now and later on this evening.
Question though, since I cleared the CEL yesterday before installing the new ECTS does the ECU need time to adapt the new readings before going out of limp mode or should of it done it immediatly once when I cleared the codes?

 

You should check for and clear the codes AFTER you replace the ects, not before. You may still be in limp mode if a code came back between clearing the codes yesterday and replacing the ects today. Maybe give it some time. But keep in mind... You have 150hp, it is hot out so your turbo is getting heat soaked whcih reduces its efficiency, and if you have your AC on, forget about it! You need to get vag com and a boost gauge. Do you have a laptop? At least buy a code reader that will allow you to clear codes. These trips to autozone or wherever to get the codes will get annoying and start to get costly. Let us know how it goes tonight. Oh and using sound as an overall refrerence to how the car actually feels isnt the best tactic for troubleshooting. This is why you need a boost gauge. Then you need vag com/code reader, then a chip if you really want to hear the turbo or get a BIG TURBO!

Priotiry #1 for you is to get a boost gauge

 

Ok update, I replaced the o2 sensors today. I figured I might as well get both sensors since it was time for them to get replaced anyway. The results were that the car still ran like crap as before. It really does feel like I am pulling a semi trailer behind me as a friend put it. I also disconnected the negative battery terminal while I replaced the sensors and then cleared the code with a scan tool. I am wondering if it might be the n75 valve that is causing this problem. But wouldn't the ECU throw a CEL for that too if it was bad? It is so freaking fustrating that things haven't changed even with the replacement parts I have been installing. As a recap the parts I have replaced have been: DV,ECTS & O2 sensors. No other codes have pulled up (yet)