2004 Jetta TDI Turbo Problem

Pro Mustang

Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2010
Location
Colorado Springs, Colorado
TDI
2004 Jetta
My daughter has a 2004 Jetta TDI. The timing belt cover says it is a BEW engine. It look like I will be needing to make some repairs and I need your help since this car is new to me. You can see that I am a car guy from my user name and I have a Mustang now for my hobby car.

Anyway:
Her turbo has been making a ??? whoshing sound for a while. It sounds like an air leak by the passenger floorboard on acceleration. She also has a check engine light on. I had the codes read a few days ago and it gave an MAF Code.

Yesterday, she took it to a dealer and they found out last night that the dealer gave them an estimate of $3,598.00 to replace the turbo and the converter (oil in it).:(

I found a complete exhaust manifold and turbo at TDI-parts.com for $499.00 including a $150.00 core charge. My muffler shop can get a converter and install it for $350.00 (after they test this one-if needed).

The dealer listed the turbo at $1,456.88 and the converter at $906.50.

:confused: Am I on the right track by buying the complete turbo from TDI-Parts.com and fixing it myself? I am a pretty fair mechanic and I pay attention to details and I have a Chilton manual. Can I do this????????

I did not see an MAF at TDI Parts.com Where is the best place for this???

I will really appreciate your helpful comments and any tips you might be able to give me.

Thanks in advance!!!!
 

flatlanded

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2009
Location
Saskatchewan
TDI
2002 Jetta
Stay away from the dealer. Your turbo isn't necessarily shot. Get a Bentley manual, Chilton is missing a few hundred pages.

http://www.idparts.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=123_31&products_id=648 is your MAF. Also available at boraparts.com, worldimpex.com, etc.

Wouldn't listen to your dealer. Little bit of oil in the CAT isn't a big deal. Is it still boosting? I'd check the list of trusted mechanics in the 101 section for a second opinion.
 

streeker02

Veteran Member
Joined
May 12, 2008
Location
Halton Hills
TDI
2003 Golf TDI
I'd be looking for a boost leak. A leak in the charge pipe from turbo to intercooler (before MAP sensor) will throw a MAF code on a BEW engined car. Ask me how I know :rolleyes:
 

Pro Mustang

Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2010
Location
Colorado Springs, Colorado
TDI
2004 Jetta
I jacked the car up and checked the pipe coming from the intercooler. The hose is connected to a coupler on the turbo good but the coupler is loose in the turbo.

Is it normal for this connection to have a loose feeling?
 

Strykeviper

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2010
Location
Orlando, FL
TDI
2000 Jetta GLS 5 speed swap, 2002 Jetta Wagon, 2015 Passat SEL, 2013 Jetta Sportwagen
Stay away from tdi-parts.com, his parts are junk. I damaged my injection pump and ordered replacement parts from him, before I saw anything about them on here, and my car hasn't been the same since. Now I've got a rebuilt pump coming from boraparts.com so hopefully I'll have my car back again. He has several sites that look the same as that such as dieselvw.com and his eBay name is "Prothe". I'm just trying to save you the hassle I'm going through.
 

halocline

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2009
Location
San Antonio
TDI
04 Jetta Wagon
Strykeviper said:
Stay away from tdi-parts.com, his parts are junk. I damaged my injection pump and ordered replacement parts from him, before I saw anything about them on here, and my car hasn't been the same since. Now I've got a rebuilt pump coming from boraparts.com so hopefully I'll have my car back again. He has several sites that look the same as that such as dieselvw.com and his eBay name is "Prothe". I'm just trying to save you the hassle I'm going through.
You're not referring to the online store in the Boston area that was called TDIparts.com, I assume. That's a quality place. I wonder if this has anything to do with their name change to IDparts.com?
 

Strykeviper

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2010
Location
Orlando, FL
TDI
2000 Jetta GLS 5 speed swap, 2002 Jetta Wagon, 2015 Passat SEL, 2013 Jetta Sportwagen
No, "tdi-parts.com" is Rothenbacher Engineering, aka Prothe. It's at the bottom of the site.
 

DanG144

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 2, 2007
Location
Chapin, South Carolina, USA
TDI
2005 A4 Jetta 5spd
Pro Mustang said:
I jacked the car up and checked the pipe coming from the intercooler. The hose is connected to a coupler on the turbo good but the coupler is loose in the turbo.

Is it normal for this connection to have a loose feeling?
It is normal for the high pressure turbo connection to wobble some. This makes it very hard to judge if it is bad or not.

I too would look for a boost leak. While you have it jacked up, poke the throttle hard a couple of times, going to the floor, but keeping your rpm reasonable (certainly less than 4500.) Have someone looking and listening near the charge air lines and intercooler. Feeling for air flow works well, too.

I would bet you have an intercooler line coming off, or tilting out, under high boost. You may be able to find it using the method above, or you may have to go further and pressurize your system.

And I would drive up to see aNUT or Steve Carrol (SCarrol) near Denver before I took it to the dealer.

You almost certainly do not need a new turbo.

Stick to known and trusted vendors for buying stuff off of the internet.

IDParts.com, boraparts.com, 1stvwparts.com, WorldImpex.com, metalman.com, dieselgeek.com (in no particular order.) I buy from all of them.
 

Pro Mustang

Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2010
Location
Colorado Springs, Colorado
TDI
2004 Jetta
All of your help has been greatly appreciated!!! At this point the situation is looking much brighter. The dealer we took it to did shut off the check engine light. This meant that I could get the emissions done. I got the emissions done and it passed. This is great because my dauters plates expired yesterday and with the emissions passing, I was able to get her plates renewed. YES,YES,YES. With that done, I looked at the problem of the boost leak. I am confident this can be fixed. One of the recommended mechanic shops on the list here, is European Performance Specalities. I went there today and they are sure they can fix the boost leak and check the injector timing for about $250.00 tomorrow. I am going to look at it a bit more tonight and if I do not think I can find or fix the boost leak problem then, I will take it to them. The owner seemed like a decent guy. Thanks for all your help. PS. 1/2 an hour after I got the emissions test the check engine light came on again so we were lucky to get that done!!!!

I am so pissed that a dealer could even think of telling my son-in-law that they needed $3,600.00 worth of work.
 

Pro Mustang

Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2010
Location
Colorado Springs, Colorado
TDI
2004 Jetta
Final report:

I took the car to European Performance Specialities today. In the end, they did find and fix the leak on the boost side of the turbo. I think they said it was the bottom connection. Additionally, they found the pipe that goes from the EGR to the Exhaust Manifold was broken. They also fixed that. Problems solved for $211.00 That is a far cry from the $3,600.00 the dealer said it needed.
They did say the power does seem down a bit, so there is a possibility the Converter is starting to plug. But for now, our major problems are over. Glad we found a good place to have this car worked on. Now we can continue with other smaller items in regards to maintenance and repairs.

Thaks for all your help!
 

VOLKSWAGEN_JETTA_TDI

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 30, 2007
Location
Mississauga, Ontario
TDI
2000 Volkswagen Jetta TDI , 2006 Mercedes-Benz E320 CDI, 2002 VW GTI 1.8T
Pro Mustang said:
Final report:

I took the car to European Performance Specialities today. In the end, they did find and fix the leak on the boost side of the turbo. I think they said it was the bottom connection. Additionally, they found the pipe that goes from the EGR to the Exhaust Manifold was broken. They also fixed that. Problems solved for $211.00 That is a far cry from the $3,600.00 the dealer said it needed.
They did say the power does seem down a bit, so there is a possibility the Converter is starting to plug. But for now, our major problems are over. Glad we found a good place to have this car worked on. Now we can continue with other smaller items in regards to maintenance and repairs.

Thaks for all your help!
Volkswagen Dealers are stupid. These little shops specializing on European cars are the best !
 

PDJetta

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Nov 6, 2003
Location
Northern Virginia
TDI
'04 Jetta GLS TDI Pumpe Duce Platinum Grey w/ Leather
Be prepared for that lower EGR pipe to break yet again. The usual cause is because the VW dealer incorrectly installed the new EGR cooler when the car underwent the M-6 EGR cooler recall campaign. The recall instructions must be followed precisely when replacing the cooler to keep the stress off of the EGR pipes. If you had this recall done, the dealer should fix the broken pipe for free.

--Nate
 

VOLKSWAGEN_JETTA_TDI

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 30, 2007
Location
Mississauga, Ontario
TDI
2000 Volkswagen Jetta TDI , 2006 Mercedes-Benz E320 CDI, 2002 VW GTI 1.8T
I had the exact same problem coming back from Chicago, thankfully this only happened to be when i got to London, Ontario, and was only a mere 160km from home, and if the car had broken down, i had CAA.
 

Pro Mustang

Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2010
Location
Colorado Springs, Colorado
TDI
2004 Jetta
Well we went back to the dealer and the manager had no problem with giving the money they charged for the bad estimate they gave. They also said they will fire the tech. Not sure about that but at least we got the money back.
 
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