TDI 130 juddering on acceleration

[Martini B]

Hi, I've been having problems with my golf Mk4 TDI 130 juddering under acceleration, this was happening when cold, warm, mostly in 3rd/4th/5th/6th, with flat spots in the rev range and general poor performance and had more recently started going into limp-home mode on the motorway.
This appears to be a common fault with TDI's, mine had 80k on it when I bought it, had recently had the cam belt done and had a new clutch and dual mass flywheel at 100k.
My local garage and a VW specialist in St Albans all said I need a new turbo at a cost of £800 for a recon, fully fitted, they were willing to look at putting through a cleaning product to see if it was sticking vanes that were the problem.
In the end I took it to a specialist where my folks live in Doncaster called Deutsch Mark and asked them to have a look at it. I then got a call 45 min later to say my car was fixed and that the damage was £35!!! With an air of scepticism I picked the car up and was told that the fuel filter had probably never been changed and that was what was causing the juddering under acceleration. They showed me the filter and it was full of black gunk/carbon. They had had the same problem with a Merc a couple of weeks before and it took them ages to find the fault, with mine it was the first thing they checked!
I can't recommend these guys highly enough, they saved me £765!
I have looked on this site allot over the months I have had this car/problem and have been bewildered by the number of possible causes for this problem, as well as the number of people who have had new/recon turbos fitted and the problem is still there.
My advice would be to take the car to someone who knows what they are doing and not just interested in £800 to fit a new turbo.

Good luck, my car now runs like new, I've done 6K since they fitted the new fuel filter, there is loads of mid-range pull, which is why I bought this car, only downside is my fuel economy has dropped, now that the diesel is getting through the filter.

[siven_77]

Are there any common faults with the front seat mechanism for the Audi A4 cabriolet?

I was getting some shopping out of the back of the car. I had folded the the backrest and pushed the seat forward when I heard a 'click'. It then stopped working correctly and now the seat does not slide forwards or backwards on its guide rails. The backrest still works as it should.

where can I start?

[kite]

Are there any common faults with the front seat mechanism for the Audi A4 cabriolet?

I was getting some shopping out of the back of the car. I had folded the the backrest and pushed the seat forward when I heard a 'click'. It then stopped working correctly and now the seat does not slide forwards or backwards on its guide rails. The backrest still works as it should.

where can I start?

You could start by posting in the correct section............

[herby0001]

...Good luck, my car now runs like new, I've done 6K since they fitted the new fuel filter, there is loads of mid-range pull, which is why I bought this car, only downside is my fuel economy has dropped, now that the diesel is getting through the filter.

The cheapest fixes are always the best Thanks for posting the positive outcome to your problem.

According to the Haynes manual, the fuel filter only needs to be changed in countries that have high sulphur diesel fuel (or something like that). Anyway, the point is, that it's said the UK doesn't have that type of fuel, so the filter doesn't need changing, nor the occasional draining of water. What it doesn't say is that if you're frequently sucking up the dregs of your tank, you'll be filtering out all sorts of particles that will clog up your filter.