Dave,

I have used Mr Muscle in my Seat Leon 1.9 TDI to great effect ie, it cured the sticking vanes totally. That Revive cleaner looks a good idea in theory, but I personally have doubts about it's effectiveness as reading into it, the cleaning solution is sprayed into the air intake which in turn gets burnt in the cylinders which then cleans off the carbon using the exhaust gasses to transfer it to the turbo yes ? Surely if this would dilute it's effect. I'm sure it would have some effect, but not as much as getting a solution directly into the problem area such as the Mr Muscle method for which I used this guide

www.audi-sport.net/vb/a4-s4-forum-b5-chassis/10712...l

sure, it takes a little longer but, if you heed the instructions, the results speak for themselves. I did mine 6 months ago and have not had an issue with either limp mode or any damage to the turbo.

Further reading on this forum

www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=350703

shows that the Revive product is more effective at dislodging light carbon deposits from the EGR valve/intake manifold than the actual turbo. One of it's developers contributed to the thread but I'm not convinced by some of his comments. Revive costs around £60ish, Mr Muscle around £4ish....... Personally, I'd go for the cheaper, proven option first.

Obviously you need to confirm that it's not the vacuum diaphragm or a pipe that's causing the fault first, then if necessary, un-stick the vanes as you see fit.

Edited by The-Mechanic on 10/11/2013 at 17:18

The firm I worked for made new turbos (heavy duty, not for cars) and also re-manufactured used ones. Most of these were very dirty when returned, I can well believe that spraying a cleaner into the intake will make the impeller and compressor air passages nice and clean.

However, I question the ability of a cleaning fluid to have much effect on stuck vanes in the turbine housing. It has been blown into the cylinders, compressed with air to 1000 degrees C and then heated further when the fuel is injected and burned, so what goes out of the exhaust manifold to the vanes is just hot gas, how is that going to clean things up?