2006 Jetta blew the motor. So long Freds TDI

invader

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2008
Location
santa cruz area, ca
TDI
2006 Jetta TDI
As the title indicated, its over for my Jetta TDI.

I have been lurking here for 10 years now. Wow, cant believe how long its been already. This forum has been awesome. Just a wealth of info.

Looks like I dropped a valve in the motor. Here is the back ground:

Just a few weeks ago, my car stared making the bup, bup sound from the intake indicating the cam is going bad. I know the sound as I have replaced the cam once before. So I pulled the valve cove to see how things were looking. There was some cam wear but it didn't seem all that bad to me. From what I remember when I went through the cam issue before, It didn't seem nearly as worn as the last cam that I replaced. Never the less, I ordered a stage 2 colt cam kit from Kerma TDI right away along with the tools need to do the job,(tools were ordered from Ebay).

I guess I should have known better than to keep driving the car.
On my way to work, just a little over a week from the time the sound started, I was almost to work when the motor started knocking real bad.
Before I could pull off to the shoulder, the motor quit and I coasted off onto the shoulder. After I got stopped safely on the shoulder, I trying to see if it would turn over. Looks like the motor is frozen. So I towed it home.

Pulled the valve cover and the far right lifter is completely worn through. It was not worn through when I checked it about a week earlier. I believe that valve dropped and seized the motor.

The car has close to 300K miles so I made the decision not to repair it and move on.

And of course, the cam kit I ordered showed up the day the motor blew. Kerma TDI wants a 20% restocking fee, (that would be over $200), and will only give store credit, (which I think is BS for any company to do but I understand its their policy). I had hoped that Kerma would be willing to work with me and possibly waive the restocking fee and refund me since I have been a customer with them for almost 10 years, but I was told that my return would be under there normal policy. So, I am going to re-sell the cam kit with the tools. I will be placing it in the for sell section but if anyone is interested, PM me. I haven't even opened the shipping box. I will also be selling some other items like LED tails, after market headlights with halo's, 3" stainless turbo back exhaust, 19 " rims and tires, Darkside 200HP turbo, cold air intake and maybe a few other things.

So thanks to all for all the years and the wealth of knowledge.
Its been a great ride here.
 

absalom

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2013
Location
Denver, CO
TDI
none
20% restocking fee? Yikes. Intense policies like these are why large e-commerce guys are squishing the smaller companies.
 

relumalutan

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 6, 2012
Location
Michigan
TDI
06 Jetta TDI Special Edition
Sorry to hear about your loss. Can you please give me some details about the turbo and your asking price for it?
Thanks.
 

crazyrunner33

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 11, 2006
Location
NC
TDI
'10 Golf(bought back)
I had similar symptoms on mine and it ended up not dropping a valve. It might be worth pulling the head off just to see. Have you checked to see if you can turn the engine over by hand?
 

invader

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2008
Location
santa cruz area, ca
TDI
2006 Jetta TDI
I had similar symptoms on mine and it ended up not dropping a valve. It might be worth pulling the head off just to see. Have you checked to see if you can turn the engine over by hand?

Well its too late now. Already made the decision to dump the car.

Like I said, it has almost 300K miles. The trans has been clunking and making a whining noise when it shifts, the flywheel is getting rattily, the headliner is shot, the drivers seat is coming apart and a few other things are wearing out as well. And I already bought my next car.

I was taking a closer look under the valve cover. The far right lifter is blown apart. The top section of the lifter is completely separated and to the side. I pretty sure the valve dropped but I'm not taking the time to pull the head to find out.
 

V-DubLuv

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 18, 2012
Location
Davis, California
TDI
2002 Golf Tdi
Don't let Kerma bully you around. I made them take back a $2500 order for lying to me and all I had to do was call my cc company. No re-stocking fee.
 

Hyde7278

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2012
Location
Central Mich
TDI
2001 Golf GL
Don't let Kerma bully you around. I made them take back a $2500 order for lying to me and all I had to do was call my cc company. No re-stocking fee.

+1. Looking for new nozzles and was thinking of looking into Kerma but came across some horror story's about them so will be looking elsewhere.

Got my cam from Frank06 and could not be happier
 

invader

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2008
Location
santa cruz area, ca
TDI
2006 Jetta TDI
So what car did u replace it with?


I kind of switch gears entirely with my new, (to me), car.

I got a 2015 Infiniti Q50 S.






Its a nice car but there are 2 particular areas where it will never match up to my Jetta:

Handling and fuel mileage.

The handling is not bad, considering its all stock, for now ;)
Since its a sport model, it has 19" rims stiffer suspension and paddle shifters. The sport model also has a little bit more aggressive look on the front end. But my Jetta with it lowered, Koni coilovers, sway bar and 19in rims handled like it was on rails. I could out handle almost any other car on the road. Definitely going to miss that. But it rode like a lumber truck too.

The mileage is not actually too bad either. Thanks to the 7 speed trans., its rated for nearly 30 MPG on the highway. But, that's driving like a granny, and who does that.:D
So I will definitely miss the mileage since I could drive my Jetta all day long like a raped ape and get at least 35, city or highway.

However, the power is no comparison. The Q50's 3.7L 24 valve V6 has 330 HP stock. And once I get a tune and exhaust in there, along with a couple other mods, I will hopefully be pushing 400HP.

The Q50 also has a lot more high tech. bells and whistles. More stuff to break. :rolleyes:

Over all I am very happy with the new ride.
 
Last edited:

invader

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2008
Location
santa cruz area, ca
TDI
2006 Jetta TDI
Don't let Kerma bully you around. I made them take back a $2500 order for lying to me and all I had to do was call my cc company. No re-stocking fee.

Hey, Thanks V-DubLuv!!

Thanks to you, I decided to try giving Kerma TDI a call again and try to push them to take the cam kit back.

They agreed to take it back at a 10% restocking fee and refund me, (not store credit). I went for it since I was trying to sell for at least a 10% loss anyway, and still didn't have a buyer.

Thanks again!
 

Hyde7278

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2012
Location
Central Mich
TDI
2001 Golf GL
Hey, Thanks V-DubLuv!!

Thanks to you, I decided to try giving Kerma TDI a call again and try to push them to take the cam kit back.

They agreed to take it back at a 10% restocking fee and refund me, (not store credit). I went for it since I was trying to sell for at least a 10% loss anyway, and still didn't have a buyer.

Thanks again!

Good for you.

Make sure you keep the tracking info for the return package to make sure it's received. And also send it back with signature required so someone has to sight for it to prove they received it.
 
Top