First a little background.

We have a 2003/03 Bora Tdi PD 130 Sport. It is a rare spec car with a 5 speed "tiptronic" auto gearbox ( it's an awful box if i'm honest ), factory parking sensors and factory xenon headlights.

WE bought the car at 2 years old with 60k on the clock. It was an ex middle management car in immaculate condition. The servicing had been carried out every 10k and not on the silly long life plan. It had 6 vw services and good condition. I took out an extended warranty for a year as a matter of course.

after 10mths and having put a few k on the clock the turbo failed. The repair was £1000 as the new turbo came complete connected onto a new manifold.

Other than that the car has been very reliable. I have her serviced every 6 months with the correct pd oil and all vw parts. Other than a strange propensity for blowing front sidelight bulbs every few months it has been totally reliable apart from one time when the throttle butterfly in the throttle body was stuck...this was due to the throttle body being almost totally coked up..I cleaned all the rubbish off and ever since have had the throttle body cleaned at every yearly service.

The car only does 2.5k a year although i make sure it has a couple of longer runs a month aswell as atleast one hard revving run to blow out the cobwebs.

Last night at about 3am witht he temperature about -8 i was taking some friends home...car was fine...after being stopped at some lights the car wheel span but not smoothly it was as if the front end was shaking apart! straight after this i lost power and the engine began hunting and jerking forward rather than smoothly.

at first i thought it may be the stuoid gearbox until i realised i could no longer hear the turbo whistling ( yes i drive with the window open even below freezing ). instead there was a hissing sound...and this sound came and went with the lurching....the car idles well and other than this is fine.

why do i keep killing turbos? is this common? any ideas on the problem? no way i am paying a grand again...what sort of turbo is it and will i be able to rebuild??? i'm going to get it on a ramp tomorow but until then thought I would canvas some opinions..i love the car and the pd engine seems a solid lump ( though i am not totally up with how a pd engine differs from an ordinary diesel. )

many thanks

the buzzard