We went for a bit of blast in the car the other week, and after doing ever-so-slightly above the speed limit, there was a sudden loss of power. We managed to crawl back to our local garage who found that the breather pipe had, for some unknown reason, come off the top of the turbo. When it eventually cooled down 4 hours later, they managed to get the pipe back on and thought it would solve all the problems but it hasn't. The turbo is still spinning, so hasn't seized, and the EGR valve isn't stuck. The turbo seems to be producing power but it gets lost somewhere along the way, leaving me with a top speed of 35mph and a big cloud behind me reducing visibility for anyone unfortunate enough to be stuck behind me.

The garage seem to think the only option is to replace the turbo, for which I have had horrendously expensive quotes. It's an 02 Mondeo TDci 130 bhp, so only worth in the region of £1500 if I'm lucky, but I'd find it very difficult to justify spending half the car's worth to fix it. Likewise, without sorting out whatever the problem is, I'm not likely to get much for it without fixing it, so I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. :(

As the turbo is producing power (or at least seems to be) - is there anything else that should be checked out before resorting to bank robbery to replace the turbo? Any help or suggestions would be very welcome!

check the inter-cooler hose for splits, its the large hose from the bottom of the egr valve.

where in staffs are you. have you been to see a genuine/honest mechanic?

if youre not too far from stoke, can put you in touch with my mate who sorts my mondeo out, and is very very good