Alright you Hitler-loving freaks. I have a co-worker here with an interesting problem with his 2004 VW Passat 1.8t. Lately he's been noticing a serious lack of power, and an odd "whirring" coming from the engine compartment. He took it to a shop for a quick daignosis, and they tell him the turbo is going out.

Now, I'm not saying that's impossible, but I've never heard of this being a problem on the 1.8t (not to mention with <60k miles), and the fact that the turbo is practically inaccessible makes us not want to have to dig in there and cop a feel on the turbine wheel for play. I think it COULD be a boost leak (he's also noticing that it spools considerably later in the RPM-band), but I wanted to check and see if you guys had some "known-problem" areas we could check first.

KTHXBYE.