Well, been driving hard on the freeway and shifted down to 4 at 120Km/h to take a corner that I always do oh so happily... when the gear jerked, then upshifted me back to 5th. Then I lost most of my power... the engine didn't stutter and the idle was fine... no warning lights. Stopped the engine and restarted and the power loss was still there... I got home safe but slow (reminds me of a C180 no kompressor). Couldn't work on the car because it was dark so I spent the night roaming this board to look for clues.

Morning is here and I have checked the coil packs for bulging/fried components or loose connectors... none. Removed the air filter to have a look at the bypass valve, it seems to close under load (100% brakes + gas).

I was fumbling along the charged air pipe (pre intercooler) when I felt lot of turbulent air about 3 inches in from the silicone sleeve to my intercooler (aftermarket IC)... OK gotcha I thought...

So before I spend a couple hours taking off the front bumper I want to know that the turbulent air (which I never remember feeling when I had touched my intercooler pipe pre intercooler side) is caused by a leak and not the engine fan... sticking my ear next to the pipe I can hear a hiss...

I had often driven hard then stop the car to touch the in and out pipes of my intercooler to feel the temperature difference for fun and never remember having felt any air down there...

So basically I've self diagnosed this to no boost due to a leak in the charged air pipe... can someone confirm these symptoms. The CEL did not come on last night (as i drove home slow...as light an engine load as I could manage), but did appear this morning when I stepped on the gas with the brakes applied.

I have no access to an ODB-2 scanner.

If the leak is related to my IC then no problems.. I'll just fire up the Argon welder and replace the silicone sleeves... but if it has to do with the plastic pipes then I guess I'll have to get that piece replaced... any ideas how this piping could leak with only 5-7 PSI of pressure?

3pointedSTAR