Boost gauge only goes up to 0.25 bar

[Siegreen]

On full acceleration the guage only ever reads 0.25 bar, i realise they have a tendancy to not be too accurate but would have thought it would boost a bit more than that. Have been toying with the idea of getting the Everest or Kilimanjaro chip (one step at a time).
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

[ESM]

If the boost is that low I'd strongly suspect your catalyst is stuffed - a chip wouldn't fix that. Get the exhaust checked out.

[Siegreen]

Thanks i will, although it still goes alright and has got plenty of poke just expexted the guage to register a bit more than it does, the car had its B service not that long ago at Chris foulds in huddersfield and nothing was mentioned then. But will definately take ur advice. Cheers

[Rambo]

Mine did this when I first had the car. I thought it was reasonably fast but took it to my mechanic and he said the wastegate was stuck. He freed it off and the car had much more poke - and the fun gauge worked as it should

Mark

[Siegreen]

Cheers Rambo, will get that checked out also. Might go for the chip after i get to the bottom of all this aswell.

[Monty]

Could be the transducer is faulty which is what the boost reads from check the connections.

[nickb]

Mine did exactly the same when I bought it about a year ago, runs fine but the boost never went past 0.25, While the car was in at Sinclairs to have the radiator replaced I got them to check this out and it was the CAT, all that was left of the inners was lump of stuff which rolled around and when the car accelerated the lump would move to the back blocking the flow and reducing the boost.

Because the car ran fine with out the gauge I wouldn't have known, Simple solution was to get the Cat cut out and replaced with a straight piece of pipe.

hope this helps

Nick

[Siegreen]

Thanks to everyyone for the ideas i certainly have a few things to look at now and hopefully will sort it out soon, will post the solution when is resolved.

[thegolfather]

What should max reading be on standard engine?

[theelanman]

full boost on a std engine is 0.65 bar....so some where just above half

[ratman]

mine is 0.5 maximum... no overboost!

[Siegreen]

Dear all,

Thanks for the pointers, have finally solved my low boost guage problem was very simple in the end. Firstly checked the connections on the boost transducer, cleaned it up a bit, reconnected and No Change, Had wastegate looked at no worries there, took the actual guage out cos the connections seem a bit loose the light kept flickerig, reconnected No Change, had the CAT chopped out and it was in good condition and have kept it in case of MOT Dramas but still no change although did seem to be a bit more spritely under hard acceleration. Ordered the drop in K & N and put it in this morning What an improvement!!! lot quicker on the pickup and the fun guage registers on 0.5 now.
Having recently seen for the first time under the car had a look at the exhaust and i believe is time for a change so ordered the PECO exhaust that everyone raves about and is getting fitted next Wed all being well. Will be interesting to see how much of an improvement the Peco with the K&N is, opposed to the K&N with the bog standard exhaust with the CAT chopped out.
Will let you know.
Cheers to all.

P.S. Have got a taste for Blood now Everest next me thinks!.

[Doug]

good

could be that your BSV is not functioning properly and thus you get only wastegate pressures and not the increase from the electronic bleed! the increased boost could be due to removing the cat blockage but still could have a faulty BSV (boost solenoid valve) or connection to it . . .

Doug

[Siegreen]

Hmmmm,
Nice one Doug here i was thinking everything was gravy and you throw another spanner in the works...Only joking, So my question would be now is How would if I know if the BSV was faulty? Would I need to do an Elanscan to find if everything was working correctly, I havent got Elanscan yet but have been meaning to get the software and interface for a while now.
All thoughts as always greatly appreciated.

[Dave M]

The BSV attaches to the air filter box and has a clear top to it. It sits down lower, toward the firewall from the air filter and has two vacuum/pressure hoses going into it, along with an electrical connector. Check all leads to make sure connections are OK. If the boost doesn't change and still registers .5-.65 on the gauge, you should be in good shape. If you have issues someday when you install a chip, then it *could* be the BSV.

[Doug]

in theory with ElanScan you could see if the BSV is working to control the boost by studying the boost curves and the BSV duty cycle


and now that I have thought about it the simple way to check the BSV is to just unplug the electrical connector to it and then go driv the car and see how the boost is -- if it is identical then you have a non-functional BSV -- if you get lower boost then your BSV was functioning until it was disconnected . . .

[Siegreen]

Doug, thats simple and genius thanks very much, I wouldnt have thought of that ,Wil let give it a go and see what happens.