Problem after remap, possible engine dead

[bigmunquazi]

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Hey guys. Have a 56 plate mk5 Golf 1.9 TDI (my first car only had it 6 months or so, so much of the following may be very stupid, go easy  ).

56 plate mk5 golf 1.9 TDI, 128K miles (bought it on 123k). Got it for pretty cheap £2500, inside and out was perfect condition, never got a mechanic to check it or anything, ran fine, did lots of driving in it and it was running just fine. Never got it checked out or serviced since I bought it (probably first major mistake there). Just topped up the oil once and changed air filter few months in to owning.

Anyway, fast forward, I became convinced that I should remap to get a bit more out of the car, and went to a remapper who did it for £175, part of 'Quantum remaps' network but was very backstreet ish, but the guy was friendly and spent about 2 hours on it. He checked it all out and deemed it good to go, no fault codes etc.

Went for their most powerful remap (lol), claimed 37bhp increase for the 1.9 TDI, supposedly Quantum issue standard maps for all common engines and they are tried and tested.

Job done, driving for 5 minutes feeling quite happy, feel the difference...Put my foot down for just a bit once on some clear road and hear a loud noise, look in my rear window and there is smoke EVERYWHERE, the whole street filled up with this smoke, looked white could have been bluish, dont remember tbh. Pulled over in side road asap. It turned on fine but was immediately smoking the street to hell, some kid walking past said 'look daddy barbeque :D', it was bad.Checked and engine oil had magically finished, I am sure it was fine as the top up was not too long ago at all, no warning light whatsoever. Guy said turbo probably blew and he's seen it before. Battery was on its way out too so car conveniently stopped starting, got it towed home, got new battery etc, refilled the oil though I doubt it made any difference at that point.

So with the new battery, started the car up, ran fine for about 10-15 seconds, sounding same as usually, hear some loud knocking sounds, so turn it off. Tried turning it on again a few days later , fine for 10 secs or so then it just stopped, felt like stall, would not turn over anymore. RAC guy came and checked it out, also just said its not turning over so somethings stopping it. Getting it to garage today, obviously something has gone wrong...but from the symptoms anyone have any ideas? RAC man said perhaps the cambelt slipped, the guy I bought it from said it was changed but upon further inspection not seeing any mention in the service history. It's just had normal services, no change of clutch turbo cambelt in the 128k miles been driven.

Too long didn't read:
Mk5 Golf 1.9 TDI 56 plate (2006) BXE engine code, 128k miles driven. All stock clutch, turbo, cambelt (probably), no change of major parts ever.
Went and got remap from backstreet place (but supposedly with very well tested Quantum mapping)
Few mins after driving lot of white smoke, loss of power/acceleration. Oil was finished but never had warning light and top up was recent, all the white smoke was probably the oil somehow...towed home, refilled oil. Thought it might be turbo.
Car started and sounds fine for 10-15 seconds, then knocking. On a second start, fine for 10-15 seconds then felt like it stalled, engine wont turn over anymore! So not turbo probably...whole engine fried? But why?
RAC guy checked and just said engine wont start, maybe cambelt slipped, but not turbo problem.
Reading online BXE engine is known to have problems, but I doubt what I did helped it any 

The only problem I had with the car before this was sometimes after driving for a few hours (I had a delivery job), there would be a loss of power randomly, no turbo firing, but turning the car off and on again fixed it . Other than that no problems.

Could the Quantum map be dodgy? I'm also scared that if I do need a full engine replace and get that done, if its a really bad mapping or something could it also fry the engine instantly? I have not mentioned about the remap happening right before the problems as my dad would kill me...I paid for half of the car and I'm paying for all repairs, but he would call me a right knob, rightfully so maybe, but I don't want him pissed!

Anyone heard anything similar before? What are my options...I keep reading that BXE engine sucks so if I need a new engine, should I even bother with a used or rebuilt BXE or what else can I put in there...

[AJP]

I've blown a turbo on a 1.9 diesel before. Sounds like just what you describe. I might as well have been driving a steam engine up the road.

Anyway.. considering your circumstances I'd get the car in to a decent garage, a good indy that takes notes. You have a large bill on your hands. And get it towed there. If a turbo fails in a big way you need to flush the ic, pipework etc, it's quite a job and you don't want to be driving it.

As for the remap - there's no way anyone on here can tell you if it's good or bad. But the saving grace is that once you've stumped up for the new turbo etc you could just get by for a few days driving like a granny - low load, low revs - until you either go back to quantum and get the standard map flashed back on, or go to another (less 'backstreet') tuner for an alternative remap. I'd guess the first option may be more likely considering the hardware bill, and they shouldn't really charge you much, if anything, to go back to the factory map.

Then take a deep breath, put it down as a lesson learnt, read up like your life depends on it, save up the same, and hopefully you won't have this on your hands again.

Good luck.

[StuF]

Sounds like turbo to me too - 128k running standard power no issues, remap that ramps up the boost and pop!
Whereabouts are you? Think the bill from the garage will be pretty spectacular though

[Scottymon]

Blowing up Turbo's is never fun :(  did one on a Aero SAAB at about 130 leptons, that was quite a castrophic cloud of white smoke.

Wonder if the Oil pickup was clogged on yours or just a nasty map asking too much of a tired Turbo... feel for you mate, how easy are the TDI turbo swaps?

[Andy]

Yeah will be the turbo,but hope your lucky because you trying to start the engine might have made the bits of metal go back into the intake and knackered the engine

[Dan_FR]

1st issue.... Quantum.

2nd issue - Typical generic remap after a fault code scan if you're lucky. No checking for overboost or boost control, no logging, no fine tuning. map may work great on a newish car, but when you have a TDI PD with a VNT turbo filled with 120k+ miles of burnt on carbon deposits.... It rarely ends well

Engine has probably consumed a lot of the oil or it has been pumped in to the exhaust. Hope you've caught it before running the engine dry and doing damage. Good luck with it, and if you buy a re-con turbo, i hope you buy a decent one that is calibrated correctly or it'll be a further headache.

[skard]

Agree about the turbo comments, generally a poorly turbo on a PD will not survive long with a remap.
I'd be looking at a good used engine for a worst case scenario.

The BXE common issue of a conrod rupturing the block, well you'd know if that was the case.

[bigmunquazi]

I see, so most likely it was the turbo...that's what reading up sounded like to me too.

I turned it on like twice since the problem, first time heard knocking noise after a bit and off instantly, second time normal running sound then car/engine just turned off and wont turn over anymore...RAC man said its not the starter or anything, but also said broken turbo wouldn't do that, definitely something stopping engine turning over. He jacked the car up and was trying to wiggle the front tire back and forward and said that should turn over the engine but its getting stuck.

If turbo was broken, from what I just described, is there a chance that its still a simple replace turbo job or would the engine be instantly gone if any broken bits got inside (and hence it wont turn over now)? Worried, couldn't get ahold of recovery guys today so waiting another day. I'm just really hoping that there's a chance my entire engine isn't finished, more than double the bill of replacing turbo...

Cheers for the insights so far guys.

Sounds like turbo to me too - 128k running standard power no issues, remap that ramps up the boost and pop!
Whereabouts are you? Think the bill from the garage will be pretty spectacular though

London.

1st issue.... Quantum.

2nd issue - Typical generic remap after a fault code scan if you're lucky. No checking for overboost or boost control, no logging, no fine tuning. map may work great on a newish car, but when you have a TDI PD with a VNT turbo filled with 120k+ miles of burnt on carbon deposits.... It rarely ends well

Engine has probably consumed a lot of the oil or it has been pumped in to the exhaust. Hope you've caught it before running the engine dry and doing damage. Good luck with it, and if you buy a re-con turbo, i hope you buy a decent one that is calibrated correctly or it'll be a further headache.

Are Quantum maps not good? I read lots of good stuff on trust pilot and then just went to cheap nearby remapper part of quantum network as it was about half the price of an AMD tuning remap which was other one I was looking at...I guess the saving might have cost me a lot more in the end 

[ed30Lewis]

Sounds exactly like what happened to me on my old derv.

The turbo blew up in the petrol station! Filled the whole garage with thick smoke and left a massive oil patch on the floor. People were running away as they thought the car was going to blow up and take the BP garage with it. Tried turning the engine off and it continued to run at about 3.5k rpm with the keys in my hand. Had to stall it in third to get the engine to shut down (Was burning away all the oil). Fire engine then turns up

Fixed it with a turbo replacement, flushed the intercooler and cleaned all boost pipes. Was as good as new after.  But it was a very time consuming job.

Anyway, hopefully you get it fixed and it doesnt cost too much! 

[Scottymon]

Sounds exactly like what happened to me on my old derv.

The turbo blew up in the petrol station! Filled the whole garage with thick smoke and left a massive oil patch on the floor. People were running away as they thought the car was going to blow up and take the BP garage with it. Tried turning the engine off and it continued to run at about 3.5k rpm with the keys in my hand. Had to stall it in third to get the engine to shut down (Was burning away all the oil). Fire engine then turns up

Fixed it with a turbo replacement, flushed the intercooler and cleaned all boost pipes. Was as good as new after.  But it was a very time consuming job.

Anyway, hopefully you get it fixed and it doesnt cost too much! 

 

[GTIEagles]

Sounds the turbo veins stuck, causing an over boost which was probably heightened even more so by the remap and this caused the turbo to blow. New turbo and intercooler flush and you should hopefully be good to go.

Edit: just re-read your post again and as you had problems with the car loosing power before the remap and switching it off and on and would fix it, I would place my money on it being the turbo veins, it's the classic symptoms. My Audi a4 1.9tdi did the exact same thing and mr muscle oven cleaner and a long Italian tune up cured it. But once they start doing it, the turbo is usually past it's best so it should probably be reconditioned anyway. A good tip is if the car has spent all week doing sedate and short journeys, once a week give it a good thrash and this should minimise carbon deposits building up in the turbo and veins.

[SiofChester]

Does sound like turbo, but there's a moer concerning part that the engine won't turn over. I'd be getting someone who knows what they are on about to look at it before doing anything else. if the turbo's blown all the oil down the exhaust and left the sump dry, you're looking at a whole world of pain