Engine Performance Trouble With '99.5 1.8t Quattro

[bkrichter]

Hi all,

Today, I seemed to be having performance trouble with my 1999.5 1.8T Quattro 5spd (w/ 88K miles.)

Usually on the freeway, cruising at 80 mph is no problem, but today I had to floor the pedal to go that fast (er slow). Also according to the trip computer the gas milage was about 3-4 mpg worse than usual. I was also getting less power out of the engine at lower speeds and in lower gears as well, so I had to floor the pedal to get any speed. It almost felt like the engine was that of a Cheverlot Metro or some other tiny car I wouldn't buy today. I couldn't keep up with other A4 1.8T's from the '97-'00 range on the freeway or in city traffic. This is pretty troubling: acceleration is worse than usual and top speeds in given gears are lower.

Does anyone here have any thoughts on what might be happening? My own wild guess since I'm very mechanically un-inclined is the turbo is not engaging for some reason (I don't seem to get any turbo lag when I lift my foot from the pedal which I'd usually get.) Is this even possible. If it is how much am I looking at $-wise?

I don't want to get ripped off by a mechanic.

Many thanks,
Brian