2000 Jetta will not start.And out of ideas

I have a 2000 TDI that has about 167,000 miles on it.I have done all I know to it so I hope someone here can help.It turns over great but will not fire at all.A couple of months ago I filled it up with fuel and drove it about 1/8 mile it started losing power and I limped it home barely.It aint ran since.
I changed the fuel filter and filled it with fuel before I installed it.I also pulled a vaccumn with a pump until all air bubbles were out of clear place in fuel line.I loosened all steel lines on all 4 injectors and when I turn the engine over it shoots fuel out a foot high from every one of them.I checked the solenoid on the injector pump and have 12 volts.The glow plug and check engine light is coming on so I think 109 relay is good.I did have to change it out a couple of months ago with a new one.
I trailered it to a VW/Audi mechanic and he hooked a vag-com to it and said every thing looked good and no codes were stored in Control Module.
Anti-shudder valve is open and not stuck.
I can give it just a little shot of starting fluid and it fires for a split until the starting fluid runs out.
I have had a few electrical problems with it over the years.Are they any way it could be electrical and not show up on vag-com and fire with starting fluid?I looked at the clear fuel line today and I see no fuel in it at all.If it were a fuel deliverly problem should'nt it at least try to run? Please help.I don't know what to do next.

Car won't start troubleshooting

Could have some bad fuel or even a timing belt incident. Probably the first thing to do, check the timing belt.
It's fuel, spark and compression, oh wait, scratch spark. Assuming it didn't suddenly lose compression, leaves only fuel. That's diesel + air. The anti-shudder can stick, restricting air, big pipes can come loose.. Might start by cracking open 1 injector line, put down some rags, and crank. It should spray.

You say you see no fuel in the clear line? Check the fuel pickup in the tank. Pull the passenger rear seat bottom, and you will see the access. Pull it out and check to see if there is any restrictions. Then you will need to see if you can pull fuel from the tank through the Ip. If you can do that it should run...

I pulled fuel through filter.How do you pull fuel through the Ip?Can you give me a link?

That was my next step to look at fuel pickup.But how come I pulled fuel through filter and then had good pressure from Ip when I loosened the injector lines.And it still did not fire?

You might be pulling in air someplace. When you replaced the fuel filter did you use new O-rings on the T fitting?

Yes new oring on the tee.

check anti shudder valve and vacuum to it

If you have fuel squirting out of the steel lines you’re getting fuel. Line up everything at TDC and make sure you haven’t t jumped a tooth or two. Check the belt itself make sure all the teeth are there.

Just as to not make assumptions, are you certain you filled it with diesel? I ask since you had just filled it.

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Air, heat and fuel AT THE RIGHT TIME.

We can figure you heat from compression.

You can take the hose off of intake at the ASV and make sure the valve is open. Now, make sure your fuel system is bled and try to start it. This would almost assure you that you have air.

You have fuel spurting good.

So what about timing? Have you checked the timing belt by rolling the engine over to inspect all of the teeth?

Lastly, if the VW/Audi mechanic couldn't figure it out, I hope you aren't having them work on this. This engine isn't very complicated, really and troubleshooting a crank, no start is pretty straightforward.

Have not checked timing belt.If timing has slipped alittle would it still fire on starting fluid like it is doing?All the mechanic done is hooked up a vag-com and then I took it back home.If I have fuel restriction problems how come I am getting good pressure when I losen the injector nuts.But I am still leaning towards fuel problems because of the way it quit running.
How do I check fuel delievery to injector pump?Does it have a strainer of any kind inside IP?

Is there cranking RPM on the scan tool data? The ALH is a brutally simple beast, the EDC15 system doesn't need much to run.

Scratching my head as to why you towed it to a professional.... that couldn't figure it out... and towed it back home and post for help here.

Anyway, takes very little time to just verify the timing belt has not been compromised for whatever reason. If it looks good, and has no missing teeth or anything, and is still tensioned, then that is probably OK.

Using a vacuum pump on a suspect fuel system is not wise, since if there is some leak somewhere, however tiny, all you'll do is just suck even more air into the system. Priming it with a pump is a better method. I use an old inline Bosch electric fuel pump for this, tapped into the system usually between the filter and the feed side of the injection pump.

If the car was running fine, then died, if it was a fuel starvation problem the filter would have been mostly empty when you took it off. Fuel filters rarely ever plug up to the point of the engine stopping unless they are SEVERELY neglected, or you got one heck of a bad batch of fuel... and even the latter will usually clog up the fuel pickup in the tank, too.

I still say you need to check cranking RPM. If the ECU does not see the crank spinning, it won't load fuel into the pump's chambers, and it won't run.

My brother let the OE filter on his 01 Jetta go for 171k miles with no issue. (true story)

As Oilhammer said, fuel starvation for whatever reason will result in a good amount of air being pulled into the system (all of it's components, i.e., hoses, filter, IP, and hard lines).

Example: Last summer, running extremely low on fuel after passing by several exits with road construction (pulling camper with my Vanagon), I exited for fuel. The exit procedure and on to the filling station involved several hard right turns and a final hard left to the pump. After filling the tank, the engine would not start. It sucked air on those hard turns. It took me about 20 minutes from start to finish (tools out, tools put away, trip to the washroom, etc.) to get it going!

I like the idea of a lift pump or in-line just for this sort of circumstances. So, I plumbed mine but have not installed the in-line pump yet.

TDIfarmer said:

That was my next step to look at fuel pickup.But how come I pulled fuel through filter and then had good pressure from Ip when I loosened the injector lines.And it still did not fire?

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Connect a long clear hose to the IP return line. Suck on the hose until you get solid fuel. Reconnect, crack an injector or 4, rags, crank briefly, should spray.

Fixed it yesterday

I am very proud it is running again.I pulled the fuel pickup/sending unit out and it had a bunch of slimmy alge and mud looking crap inside the pickup.I cleaned the pickup and pumped tank out.Cleaned the bottom of the tank.Got air out of fuel system and then it fired up and runs great.

Casey nailed in the second post.

Now it's time for some anti-algae additive.