Mr Muscle TDi Turbo Sticky Vanes Clean - VW / Audi / Seat / Skoda

How to fix sticky turbo vanes / limp mode / turbo underboost / turbo overboost P0234 code in situ using Mr Muscle Oven Cleaner. This method involves unbolting exhaust downpipe from turbo and spraying Mr Muscle from under the car, no need to remove EGR. Works for all VNT / VGT turbos. Car shown is Seat Leon 1.9tdi 150 pd ARL. Identical procedure for other VAG (VW golf, polo, Audi a3, Seat, Skoda) vehicles.

[TheOriginalSmithrs]

6 year old video and still, you’ve really helped me out with this today!! - thank you for putting together such a detailed, professional and well thought out video. And with kit that’s probably now 10 years old!- LEGEND!!!

[quiksilverjc]

Thank you much mate. Had a quote for £700 to replace the turbo, have just finished doing this and took the car for a blast, felt great! No limp mode, and the car felt so much better. Can't thank you enough ✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️

[martintorbett]

Had probems with MK1 Skoda 1.9 where turbo cut out at 2.5k revs and went into limp mode. Did procedure. Hardest part was locating actuator rod at back of wastegas. Once found, no movement went to a cm play after 2 hours treatment. Refitted all and took car out and redlined it after 15 miles driving in 2nd then 3rd gear, then 20 mins on mway. Goes like a rocket with no problems now. Can rev to 3.5k and no cut out. MPG improved also. great video. thanks, saved at least £1000!

[dopiaza]

You can actually get to the top of the rod from above. This saves a lot of hard work as you can stay in the engine bay while you push the rod down and let it spring beck up. Also it's more effective to spray the mr muscle down the egr opening in the exhaust manifold - this gets it right to where it needs to be.

[zappa]

great vid!
i would make a slight modification to the procedure and cut out a piece of thick perspex using that exhaust gasket as a template and use it as a blanking plate to cover the turbo while spraying that stuff in. Put a brake bleed valve in the middle of the perspex plate, fix on the turbo with the three nuts finger tight and attach mr muscle using a small hose. Spray until it starts using out the sides.
will keep most of the cleaner inside and safer.

[CorsaDT]

Its good to know that sometimes you can fix the sticky vanes problem by just playing with the actuator rod without using the Mr.Muscle. Its how I repaired one of my TDIs. Also, every TDI should get a good thrashing on a regular base, that prevents the soot buildup.

[richardcholawo]

Brilliant, thanks so much for taking the time to put this together. I drive my Boxer II van too gently and the wastegate is stuck. Once I've cleared it I'll be sure to push it harder on a regular basis.
Your video has impired me, thanks😊😊😊😊

[dennisking]

Wynns turbo cleaner is now brilliant, great video

[Themanthatcando]

just done my 1.9tdi Leon 09 plate.
been going into limp etc and funny noises from the turbo.
filled it with Mr muscle and wiggled the actuator and now it seems fixed!
great video cheers

[marcogarofalo]

I did this years ago but went in from the top through the egr port on the exhaust manifold, I used a long piece of tube, 6mm fish tank airline, glued the wd40 straw inside it and spray loads down into the turbo. Pumped the actuator. Worked a treat and less chance of snapping bolts!

[steveasquith]

Did this on my Audi A6 tdi Quattro sport then on my old Disco 300 tdi, amazing results, especially on the old landy, she was quivering like an over excited pup after the clean, big cloud of smoke and stupendous power! Recommended!

[ivanmehidi]

Thank you very much for uploading such a good and easy guideline video. My car has the same problem. I’ve tested and rinsed most of the sensors and still have same problem. I need to turn of and on the car when it happens and then everything is normal again. I’m excited to try this out today 😇

[ChkTB]

We have a bora/jetta 1.9tdi and it had the problem like yours going to limp mode and losing power. So what we do is mad it on 3rd gear all the way down to the red line for a good 5 minutes of driving only on the red line 3rd gear and after that no problem with limp mode and losing power :)

[Uktoolreviews]

Hi bud, i used your method to sort out my 2001 Golf 1.9 TDi as it was going into limp mode a lot and was generally sluggish in the top end, now it's like a new car! Well impressed.

One thing from my car, when i poked the actuator lever at the very start it was stuck fast either opened/closed it sort of snapped the other way, then it started moving freely, so this could have sorted the problem out for me, but I decided to go the whole hog since i got all the bits, so after giving it a good Mr Muscle treatment the shite that came out the back end was amazing, it definitely shifted some carbon that's for sure and loosened the vanes up.

[dominicspaicys]

Hi, man this is an excellent video.i did for my vw passat b5 tdi today.couldn't drive a mile without turbo overboost, actuator was seized completely and now works like swiss watch.Thank you very much.

[rnbyido]

thanks man...I tried this today and it worked. I have no more limp mode and power has been restored.. brilliant video. many thanks bro.

[scxfam]

Good tip. U can get to all the down pipe bolts and everything from the top. Less risk of getting anything on u. No laying in the dirt.

[garyhoffmann]

Oven cleaner is good for cleaning EGR when you get an insufficient flow error. Done it on my Golf TDI and Audi A6 3.0 TDI, worst build-up of carbon is right where the EGR enters the intake pipe to the manifold. I would suggest in the video putting the most difficult nut on after putting the other 2 on finger tight.

[badnova]

Great video. If this is a consistent problem I would remove the exhaust and  drill a small hole on the elbow of the down pipe. Then weld a nut and a bolt on it as an access hole. Sort of like what you see on an oxygen sensor but a lot smaller. Then in the future you just remove the bolt and spray the cleaner with the straw.

[hublock]

I have a 22 year old Golf Mk4 1.9 PD with only 43k miles on the clock. It's my mums, and she's owned it from new, we drove it out the showroom in Hamburg....back in the day of grey imports saving approx £5k on the full UK spec purchase. It was when you could bypass the UK dealership system. Full UK spec, English handbooks, lettering on tyres etc, and of course right hand drive. We did the same a year before, my dad got a new Passat TDi automatic in 1999 from Sittard in Holland.

The Golf EGR valve is grubby at worst, so that's cool. It does go into limp mode after a motorway run....so I thought sticky vanes. Yesterday I did this trick, I'm hoping it helps. It's had a 22 year old life of short journeys.
I went down the route from above after removing the small EGR metal pipe. The actuator did free up nicely, but I didn't really feel it any different once I drove it. It wasn't in limp mode, but still not a night and day difference.

Maybe now it won't go into limp mode again after I give it some good runs, and generally run it harder / more often....time will tell....if it is stuck vanes, why does simply switching the car off and then back on again make it run normally again for a while?


Some say this trick kills oil seals? I can confirm the Mr Muscle oven cleaner does attack aluminium...I tested it on an old Subaru STi piston. Leaves a cloudy / etched finish. But then any standard 2.5 Subaru piston is only good at being a paperweight anyway lol.