Wondered if someone could shed some light on this one.

Last week, my mates 52 plate 130TDI Passat seemed to lose a hell of a lot of power/boost low down.... it acts as if there is no turbo at all, until about 3500rpm when it kicks in a bit and gets a bit stronger towards the redline. It fluctuates from being like this, to having even less pull. No smoke of any colour or anything to indicate obvious turbo failure.

I suspected the MAF, to which i unplugged the sensor, only to get absolutely no boost at all.... which from what i read rules out MAF failure?

Its a really strange one, engine seems to run absolutely fine, car isnt smoking....... anyone have any clues?

He's off to a VW specialist in a couple of days who can hopefully shed some light, but just wondered if anyone had had any similar experiences.

Cheers!

 boost sensor maybe?!? Unplugging the MAF just takes away the rough idle that can occur. but if it boosts ok after 3500rpm then it must be ok! I had one that surged up to 3k then drove fine, and it was a faulty MAF!!!