Hi all,
I have a 2005 2.5 T AWD - about 200k Km (140k miles).

I've just replaced:
maf
PCV
turbo air intake pipe
the pipe the goes over the top of the engine
battery
intercooler air temp sensor (mat I believe)
ETM

on my dash board I have the engine system service message along with the yellow warning sign and engine light.

When I have the error lights turned off they normally stay off for an hour or two and then they're back - seemingly nothing changes (and I'm a little pissed having just changed the turbo air intake pipe as I thought the sensor was leaking).

I ran VIDA on the car and it reports air leak on the intake side possibly the maf (well the maf is new and everything else is well connected).

So - when I drive on the flat, full car or empty the thing drives well, it kicks down when it should and drives as you'd expect (not a race car but what the hell). I have however noticed that the engine noise has changed slightly and also when I look at the temp gauge it is a little higher than before (the kind of changes that you know when you've been driving a car for a while but nothing anyone else would hear/understand).

The problem however comes when I go up hill with a car full (4 people) - it goes well to start with but then gets to between 2 and 3000 revs and suddenly falters, starts missing, pinking and spluttering. If I then lay off the revs and then rev again it picks up and I can fight it up the hill.

Does anyone have any ideas as my dealership can't find anything and after they changed my ETM instead of cleaning it I'm having doubts about them.

Thanks in advance,
Paul.

 

With all that work you've done on the intake plumbing, my guess is that something isn't sealed quite right. If your 2005 is like my 2001, there are lots of opportunities for leaks between the air filter and the engine, like any of the clamps, or maybe that big O-ring that seals your MAF unit to the air filter box.

Another random thought - is it possible that the real problem is the transmission? I know that my 2.3 T5 is pretty gutless if I leave it in manual mode and try to climb a hill under load at low RPMs (so the turbo isn't really helping - I was in this mode a LOT during a cross-country drive pulling a 12' x 6' trailer). I can't say it was pinging, but if the motor is lugging, the transmission should automatically downshift to put the motor back in its power band.