Hi folks,

I had an issue with the car today, and wondering if anyone could give me a clue as to what it might be.

I was driving up the motorway and when accelerating to overtake the 'Engine Malfunction' message came up on the display. I stopped and switched off and the message cleared. I continued and again under acceleration the message came back. I stopped again, and again it cleared.

When I set off this time I could hear a loud whooshing sound, like there is an air leak in a hose somewhere. When I got home I took off all the air intake hoses to and from the turbo expecting to find a split, but nothing.

The car is maybe a bit down on power when this happens, but only a bit, and no other symptoms.

Any idea what it could be? I was thinking maybe a split or leaking intercooler, but it looked ok earlier from a visual inspection.

My car is a 2008 1.8tdci .

Any ideas will be welcome.

Brian.

Upon further inspection, and a bit of help from the Mrs ( under duress ) turns out the fault is that the intercooler has split. Well the bottom plate as you look in through the grill has come off.

New one ordered and all should be fine. Just have to nurse it till then...

Have you got a code reader? worth having one to keep an eye on things

There is a possibility that exessive boost may have caused the leak in the intercooler, (possibly caused by sticking VNT vanes) it is good practice to rule this out

Thanks mate. I do have a code reader but it's quite a simple device and although it noted there was a fault, it didn't pick up code that's on the list.

I use a garage who are into this kind of thing so I'll get them to check the code before I delete it just in case there is something more in depth.

I'm reasonably sure its a case of a rotten intercooler. It looks pretty corroded and being it's right at the front od the radiator stack it probably gets all the dirt / grit and salt thrown at it.

Bit of a relief it's the intercooler to be honest...at least it's a home fix and nothing else was apparent.