Certain years better? Looking at tdi's

Knuckledragger

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Carfax showed regular maintenance and growing mileage on one of the cars going up to 286,000, then it was sold (probably traded in) and sold again at an auction. It now reports 140,000. So it could be a rollover of astounding proportions, or just fraud, which is what I suspect. He may have had a Jetta odo with low miles to swap into it, unless the mileage is kept in the cpu.

The car I am interested in has no such abnormalities, its history shows regular maintenance and mileage intervals reported. I figure it might last for a couple of years, which is all I need. It has a recent clutch replacement, TB, WP, tensioner, and tie rods. He says it remains a daily driver and he puts 110 mi per day on it. I will investigate the work needed to replace cam folllowers.
 

mu2bdriver

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Not bad. Another thing I would ask is if he cleaned the intake manifold. It gets gunked up and restricts airflow. You can check it out by removing the intake towards the rear of the engine. If never done, the car could be struggling for air and if cleaned out and you allow the turbo to breathe normal, there's a chance that you can rupture an oil seal, dump unmetered oil into the intake and have an engine runaway. A few instances like this have happened in the past but it's a worst case scenario. A new turbo will run about 2k parts and labor. They should be cleaned about every 100-150k and if you delete the egr or have a dynamic egr tune it will never be an issue in the future. Not a hard job, just messy.

I would check on the manufacturer of the tb, etc components. If they're quality OEM parts, it sounds like a pretty good deal. If it was a Hans Diesel Parts/rothenbacher engineering part, either have it replaced or walk away. His kits, and the belts specifically, are known for being of inferior quality.
 

FordGuy100

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I would just bite the bullet and replace the timing belt. Its better to have the peace of mind knowing its been done then to worry about if the previous owner was being a used car salesman or not.

Sounds like a good deal for the price and miles.
 

TDI

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I have a 2003 TDI wagon, 5 speed, ALH engine.

All I can say is that it is the greatest car that I have ever owned. I bought it "used" with only 6000 miles on it, It is the most comfortable, best handling - especially in snow, quick little car. I now have 160,000 miles on it and these have been HARD HARD miles. Car keeps taking everything I can throw at it.

I am about to do my second timing belt kit, there are plenty of guys with 300,000. + miles on their ALH. check out www.idparts.com - great parts, smart people.

go to www.tdiclub.com - an awesome forum about these cars, everything that you would possibly need to know would be available on that site.
 

j2005

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myturbodiesel.com is an awesome resource and the $10 donation for the articles is well worth it.

Now, i got my wife an 09 tdi with the DSG and it is great. the DSG is the same style trans they put in the porsches. the main thing that sucks is the Dual Mass Flywheel. they have a know issue and should be replaced as soon as they start making noise. ours is on its way out and ill be swapping it out for the redesigned version.

the particulate filter is only a problem if you constantly take short trips (less than the time it takes to warm up). we bought ours with 110k on it and i did the timing belt and the whole 120k maintenance and it is far simpler than the 1.9.
 

corrado9184

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If its Volkswagen Automatic and earlier then 2009, RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That being said i enjoy my volkswagens but they were terrible at building an automatic that lasts, go for the manual. I own 14 volkswagens and the only Automatic before 2009 is the Touareg and thats because they didn't build that transmission, its built by Aisin. I also own a 2014 GLI with the DSG transmission, i like it but i know if it has issues it will be pricey to repair, luckily its still under warranty.
 

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