new engine or scrap it?

bought a 06 Jetta TDI in Jan with 92K miles. Paid a reasonable price. Beautiful car. Now with 102K miles 2 valves aand cam shaft are shot. Dealer recommnds replacing top half - cyl head. Been thinking about it - gonna put a new engine in or scrap it. Hate to loose the $14K I paid for it and hate to put another 8-10K in it. The damage is due to 'supposedly' to mainatence - wrong oil or not chnaged on time. I change my oil reeligiolsuly. Any thoughts ?

JD
Had a 76 Scirocco, 78 Scirooco, 83 GTI, 88 GTI, 95 Jetta. Wish i had performed more due diligence on this 06 jetta TDI

You don't need a new engine. What you have now is very repairable. Use the search feature to look for trusted mechanics in your area, and contact member Franko6. He is THE man to do cylinder head work. You will get a better than new head, new timing belt installed properly and cost will probably be 1/4 of what you are expecting now. Anything you can do to keep your car out of the dealer's hands will prolong its life.

Paul

Head can be repaired and re-installed for way less money than the dealer price. The bottom half of the engine should be fine. For a few $k you should be back on the road.

beachbum said:

bought a 06 Jetta TDI in Jan with 92K miles. Paid a reasonable price. Beautiful car. Now with 102K miles 2 valves aand cam shaft are shot. Dealer recommnds replacing top half - cyl head. Been thinking about it - gonna put a new engine in or scrap it. Hate to loose the $14K I paid for it and hate to put another 8-10K in it. The damage is due to 'supposedly' to mainatence - wrong oil or not chnaged on time. I change my oil reeligiolsuly. Any thoughts ?

JD
Had a 76 Scirocco, 78 Scirooco, 83 GTI, 88 GTI, 95 Jetta. Wish i had performed more due diligence on this 06 jetta TDI

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Stop going to the dealer, order a $700 cam kit from one of our vendors, install, and motor on.

Seriously, those prices are beyond insane. I can't believe VWoA lets this kind of crap go on with their dealerships.

If you are up for the job yourself, here is what the parts cost to fix this. Its under $800.

http://idparts.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=29_125&products_id=1318

There is a slight chance that if the car was driven too long with the bad camshaft, that it could have damaged a couple of valve stems (by seriously holed lifters). In this case, some cylinder head work (valve and guide replacement) may be needed.

And if the timing belt has never been replaced (its past due if that's the case), you'll need this:

http://idparts.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=29_125&products_id=931

And the timing belt tools:

http://idparts.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1414

About $1250 and a weekend and you'd be good to go.

--Nate

Scrap it! I'll buy it for $7k. And then I'll even find you another exact replacement (same keys, same radio presets, same exact coffee stains on the carpet, too!) and will sell you that one for $10k!

And yeah, the correct oil (meets or exceeds VW's 50x.xx requirements for your engine) is crucial. Don't be fooled by "designed to meet" or "tested to" the standards as indicated by some oils. Intent and being tested to, but failing, the test will still leave you with less than adequate oil protection.
Even the correct oil wouldn't completely prevent wear, but it would have delayed the rate so the cam would last longer. Mine (in a PD, not a CR like yours) went 170k miles. It didn't take any valves, but the followers were beginning to wear through.

Lug_Nut said:

Even the correct oil wouldn't completely prevent wear, but it would have delayed the rate so the cam would last longer. Mine (in a PD, not a CR like yours) went 170k miles.

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His car is a PD, BRM engine. And the "correct" oil is a controversial subject. Its hard to argue with the results of the CJ-4 diesel oils. It does seem to be pretty consistent that 5W40 (either 505.01 or the API spec) is protecting the PD cams better than the 5W30 505.01 oil sold by, guess who, the dealer. Considering this, they have no shame blaming all the PD cam failures on "wrong oil" and then recommending engine replacement as the fix. Unbelievable.

So, when beachbum fixes his cam, I hope he learns to stay away from the dealer for good.

halocline said:

It does seem to be pretty consistent that 5W40 (either 505.01 or the API spec) is protecting the PD cams better than the 5W30 505.01 oil sold by, guess who, the dealer.

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I came across an UOA around here where Total 5w-30 was compared to Schaffers (I think that's the name) and results looked good on both, even without any noticable difference in Iron and other wear metals.

I am doing that repair myself and a whole lot more for under $2200.00.

I think you can solve this issue a lot cheaper.

Good luck