Turbo problems

I have a skoda octavia 1.9 TDI 2001 and just last week i noticed a problem with the car, The car starts up fine but after a while it seems to go very sluggish and flat. I figure it is an issue with the "turbo" but i am not sure if it is broken and needs to be replaced.

How can it start up fine and work but then just stop working.
If i turn the engine off and start it back up it seems to work again ???

Anybody else had this problem with TDI cars ?

Its not the turbo.Its the air mass meter.Don't bother going through the diagnostic/main stealer rubbish.Buy an air mass meter from gsf car parts,put it in yourself and voila!! full service is now resumed.

Thanks for the reply caff, you have put my mind at ease as i have been told that fixing turbo issues can be quite expensive.

Is it an easy enough job to replace the part (ie does it involve removing a lot of other parts)

Again many thanks for help.

Air mass meter is 10 minute job, easy to do. Check with your dealer and see if it's available on 'service exchange' - should be about Eur100.

This is a very, very common problem on all VAG cars - problem is so bad, they introduced service exchange programme a while back...........you give them your old one, they give you a re-furbed one. Works out at half-price of new one.

I doubt its your air mass meter, as when they fail, they stop working all together, if you switch it off and you have power again its how your car is over boosting, this is normally caused by a boost solenoid or a wastegate porblem on the turbo