OllieBrown
Member
I’ve worked hard keep Maureen going over the years: 2004 PD TDI New Beetle, Cyber Green, just rolled over 230k miles. I keep her supplied in good oil and timing belts, she gets the family where we need to go. Not that we haven’t had disagreements, an alternator pulley that I mistook for a bad PS pump, PS pump bolts that were too long and broke the accessory belt clean off! We soldiered on and got over our misunderstandings and she’s been a great car for 14 years!! The first and only car I ever bought new.
Last several weeks I’ve been chasing down a much bigger problem. We have a coolant leak, a fairly substantial one. We can still drive around town for short trips as long as we top it off but long trips are out of the question. She’s also consuming oil, something I expect an engine of this age to do, but it complicates things. I used to roll my sleeves up and solve problems myself, but life gets busy and I’ve been inclined to take it to mechanic’s lately. For the coolant leak we ended up going to the dealer and their prognosis was bleak! The repairs they suggested what costly enough they did not recommend undertaking them, that they exceeded the value of a The repairs they suggested were costly enough they did not recommend undertaking them, but they exceeded the value of the vehicle. I have a different impression of the value than they do, but this was not easy news to receive.
Here was their diagnosis:
Part of me wants to try and rebuild or replace the tandem pump, then find the coolant leak and fix the one line that’s leaking. Then there’s the matter of the EGR. If I did an EGR delete, would that also take care of the intercooler or does that remain in place?
But then, I thin, I’ve also been kicking the problem of oil disappearing down the road, waiting to look into it. The one thing I do know is there is a LOT of oil in the turbo intercooler; so much so that it leaks out into the surrounding fender and has caused an electrical short in the turn signal. In addition, I’ve been reading around in the forums and I’m suspecting we also have the engine and AC cooling fan problem mentioned prominently in the forums (our A/C will shut down at a lengthy red light as that post mentioned).
Other than the oil leak, all of these things are tempting to try and fix! I’m just running out of time in my life to devote to it and I’m tired of taking it to places like the dealer that aren’t willing to do it the way I would want it done. We’re remote enough that there’s not much else around here that I trust to work on it.
I write this post both to solicit expertise and troubleshooting help with these problems, but also to get opinions on whether or not it’s worth it at this point. This car was my first car that I owned and it has set unrealistic expectations for how long a car should last! When I pause to think about the 14 years I’ve gotten out of it I feel like maybe it is time to hang it up and send it along to someplace better, or maybe if there’s an enthusiast that wants to take it on and give it another life, that has the time to care for it that I don’t, to pass it off.
But, it’s also wonderful to work on, and I’d love to hand it down to my kids someday! I suppose, at the end of the day, it’s personal opinion, but there’s a lot of things I’m probably not thinking about, a lot of factors that I should consider that maybe you guys with all your wisdom could help bring to light.
What do you think? Should I save Maureen? Are these problems simple enough to deal with that I should suck it up and make it happen? Should I anticipate these kinds of problems will continue and this car will become a money and time pit? Should I move on?
Seth B.
Last several weeks I’ve been chasing down a much bigger problem. We have a coolant leak, a fairly substantial one. We can still drive around town for short trips as long as we top it off but long trips are out of the question. She’s also consuming oil, something I expect an engine of this age to do, but it complicates things. I used to roll my sleeves up and solve problems myself, but life gets busy and I’ve been inclined to take it to mechanic’s lately. For the coolant leak we ended up going to the dealer and their prognosis was bleak! The repairs they suggested what costly enough they did not recommend undertaking them, that they exceeded the value of a The repairs they suggested were costly enough they did not recommend undertaking them, but they exceeded the value of the vehicle. I have a different impression of the value than they do, but this was not easy news to receive.
Here was their diagnosis:
- The tandem fuel/vacuum pump is leaking diesel. It is leaking onto the coolant lines and this caused a line to fail.
- This checks out as the coolant leak seems to be coming from right behind/below the tandem pump.
- They also found that the EGR intercooler coolant lines have separated and would need to be replaced. We’ve already replaced the inter cooler once for an exhaust leak.
- They wanted to replace all the coolant lines that are below the tandem pump as they believe they will all eventually fail due to diesel fuel contamination.
- Add to that the usual list of things the dealer recommends replacing when they believe an engine has overheated (it hasn’t): thermostat, water pump, etc.
Part of me wants to try and rebuild or replace the tandem pump, then find the coolant leak and fix the one line that’s leaking. Then there’s the matter of the EGR. If I did an EGR delete, would that also take care of the intercooler or does that remain in place?
But then, I thin, I’ve also been kicking the problem of oil disappearing down the road, waiting to look into it. The one thing I do know is there is a LOT of oil in the turbo intercooler; so much so that it leaks out into the surrounding fender and has caused an electrical short in the turn signal. In addition, I’ve been reading around in the forums and I’m suspecting we also have the engine and AC cooling fan problem mentioned prominently in the forums (our A/C will shut down at a lengthy red light as that post mentioned).
Other than the oil leak, all of these things are tempting to try and fix! I’m just running out of time in my life to devote to it and I’m tired of taking it to places like the dealer that aren’t willing to do it the way I would want it done. We’re remote enough that there’s not much else around here that I trust to work on it.
I write this post both to solicit expertise and troubleshooting help with these problems, but also to get opinions on whether or not it’s worth it at this point. This car was my first car that I owned and it has set unrealistic expectations for how long a car should last! When I pause to think about the 14 years I’ve gotten out of it I feel like maybe it is time to hang it up and send it along to someplace better, or maybe if there’s an enthusiast that wants to take it on and give it another life, that has the time to care for it that I don’t, to pass it off.
But, it’s also wonderful to work on, and I’d love to hand it down to my kids someday! I suppose, at the end of the day, it’s personal opinion, but there’s a lot of things I’m probably not thinking about, a lot of factors that I should consider that maybe you guys with all your wisdom could help bring to light.
What do you think? Should I save Maureen? Are these problems simple enough to deal with that I should suck it up and make it happen? Should I anticipate these kinds of problems will continue and this car will become a money and time pit? Should I move on?
Seth B.