Rookie bought a TDI project. Charlotte, NC area

Hey guys! My name is Andy. I recently picked up this 2006 Jetta TDI M5 218,000mi from a mom and pop finance company. It was a repo that their "mechanic friend" diagnosed as a blown turbo. There is a bunch of soot on the rear bumper and trunk, looks the car stopped running right so they stopped paying for it.







The first thing I did was clean all the random crap out of the car. There were 2.5 sets of floor mats in the car. Overall the interior is in decent shape, but does smell very strongly of smoke. I'm hoping a good cleaning and an ozone generator will do the trick, has any one used one before?

By far the best thing I found in the car was this gem:



It's a hatchet head, welded to a 1/2 drive ratchet body.

I threw the battery on the charger overnight, and to my surprise it fired right up. Hard to tell if it made any funny noises with the EGR port being open, but I should at least be able to drive it over to the garage when the time comes.

the intake pipe is off, and the EGR stuff has been removed, the bolts were left laying on the cowl. I don't know what I'm missing or how it goes together, any great links for this basic stuff? I got it cheap enough to be worth the gamble. Reaching down to the inlet side of the turbo, the end of the impeller has a bunch of shaft play. My ballpark plan is to get the car on jack stands, pull the CV shaft out of the way, and drop the whole turbo unit for cleaning and inspection. probably pull the intake manifold and clean it out as well. What other suggestion would you guys make?

A complete timing belt job with all the proper parts and equipment and methods. A complete fluids and filter servicing. Check for cam wear and replacement if needed. Then check all the other normal things like brakes, clutch and such. I would check for a local trusted mechanic if I were you to have it checked and the work done if you aren't familiar with these cars yet. Check the list here for someone. As well as the turbo you already mentioned.

If turbo does indeed prove to have failed then clean out all charge air hoses, charge air cooler, and make DAMN sure there is no blockage in the cat. Oh, and check any and all passages in EGR circuit as well.

Jason

Ozone generators work very well. I have one and have used it for cars as well as mold remediation - cat urine in a residential setting. As you mentioned, I would clean and wipe down all of the surfaces with a decent cleaner and use the ozone last. I would not recommend using ozone all the time as it degrades plastics etc, which in the long run could contribute to the weak headliner bonding (foam)

As others have said, timing belt ASAP - cam inspection, fluids. If you have shaft end play on the turbo, you will need a new turbo. If you are ponying up for a turbo, make sure you look at the upgrades, you are already in the ball park with the stock one (if you go with a new unit). Silver Ghost is spot on with the comments on cleaning the IC and Tubes, especially if there has been a failure. Inspecting the cam can be done when you throw a timing belt on it. There motors are an interference motor and if you lose the belt, you will eat valves. Cheap insurance to replace it now (parts $230 or so from forum vendors - use the good stuff)

If you do not have one, i would recommend a VCDS. You need to get a scaan done to see what other error codes are lurking in the car.

Enjoy the car! 5Spd white brm.. nice ride.

People can be such pigs sometimes. Car maintenance and upkeep probably interfered with his crack and alcohol habits. The ratch/hatchet tool is just to funny. Can you say tweaker?

This will come in handy.

http://www.myturbodiesel.com/wiki/mk5-jetta-and-audi-a3-tdi-diy-index/

Don't just replace the T/B. They rarely fail, what fails is usually something in the timing path, such as a water pump, guide roller or water pump.

Since it has probably never seen any maintenance, this kit what you will need. It includes the serpentine belt, as well.

http://www.idparts.com/high-mileage-timing-belt-kit-brm-p-5139.html

ClemsonStang said:

Hey guys! My name is Andy. I recently picked up this 2006 Jetta TDI M5 218,000mi from a mom and pop finance company. It was a repo that their "mechanic friend" diagnosed as a blown turbo. There is a bunch of soot on the rear bumper and trunk, looks the car stopped running right so they stopped paying for it.

What other suggestion would you guys make?

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Well done Andy! I too picked up a project 2006 Jetta TDI M5 back in the fall, also in white. Mine has only 120k miles on it, but it looked to be in a lot worse condition than yours. I have a new camshaft kit and TB kit laying on the bench for it. I currently have the car in storage at work and hope to get working on it in a month or so.

If you do some reading, you'll find some pretty good lists of the common A5/BRM problems as well as the common fixes.

I haven't done much with mine yet other than have the body done. I had to replace the front door hinges, which weren't necessarily high on my priority list, but I had to fix them before getting the car painted.

I fixed the Aux heater because it was free, and easy.

I'll be doing the cam and timing belt soon, and then a few other odds and ends...wheel bearing, brakes, alignment, etc.

I also have a sooty bumper. Hard to hide any sins with a white car.

Good luck with your project. I'll be following along.

Nice car, good find. Love the cache of tools, especially the ratchet hatchet. Maybe for scalping methheads?

As the other guys have said do the TB and other maintenance, in addition to a new turbo. Can't stress enough clean ALL the piping to the turbo. With a knackered turbo oil gets past the seals and pools in the low spots like the intercooler. If you don't clean the pipes and the intercooler the new turbo will suck all that old residual oil into the engine and could result in hydrolock.

Post up some pics after you clean it up. I'd like to see it clean.

Tdijarhead said:

Nice car, good find. Love the cache of tools, especially the ratchet hatchet. Maybe for scalping methheads?

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I see a baseball bat there too, this previous owner meant business.

Ol'Rattler is right, some people are such pigs. I know some people that have trunks that look like that.

I am always so amazed at the condition of these southern cars. With the bodies in such good condition, they look like very feasible projects to me, even if they need a fair amount of work. Up here in rust country, 06 TDI Jettas are getting parted out all the time.

I think Andy got a nice project car here.

Rembrant said:

I see a baseball bat there too, this previous owner meant business.
Ol'Rattler is right, some people are such pigs. I know some people that have trunks that look like that.

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My brother and my brother in law both drive cars like that. I just won't ride with my brother, on top of the mess his car stinks inside also. I'll fix things under the hood for him but he gets to test drive by himself.

If Andy keeps searching maybe he'll find something more serious that requires loading and firing. Now that would be a bonus.


I'll second you on the southern cars many of them look like they rolled off the new car lot yesterday.

Nice score!
I bet there's a Joe Dirt VCR under the seat.

Thanks for all the warm welcome, input, and advice everyone!

I will have to double check a few things on the title, I believe the most recent owner had the car for a little over a year, I didn't look to closely at the mileage they put on it under their ownership.

I'm hoping to avoid making any large investments in the car until I can get it running and put a few miles on it to make sure the major systems are functioning correctly. I'll be keeping an eye on the classifieds here for a used stock turbo someone pulled off when upgrading. I have a mustang as a play toy, but it's really hard to not start hot ordering hot rod parts for this thing.

This project will start in earnest in April.

Cool project. Congrats! That interior is gross! My wagon was owned by a pig as well. It was disgusting! I don't know how people can sit in that on their way to work everyday...... Good luck getting the car sorted out. Post more pics as you make progress.

You have not answered the most important question, how much loose change did you find in the car, that offset the purchase price?

I am in the Charlotte area, have VCDS, and the timing belt tools (and a chest of tools, I don't carry my tools loosely in the trunk ), if you need some advice or guidance.

I purchased a first gen RX7 some a woman years ago, that had overheated, she included a Haynes manual (every car has to have a Haynes manual, even if they are not much help, in the past I have actually tried to perform major repairs with just a Haynes manual, I have learned since then).
Within the pages of the Haynes manual, I found a love note from her boyfriend, that was good reading.

PM me if you have any specific questions.

tactdi said:

I am in the Charlotte area, have VCDS, and the timing belt tools (and a chest of tools, I don't carry my tools loosely in the trunk ), if you need some advice or guidance.

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I will be in touch about this! Thank you for the offer.

There was a little change, but not much. I skimmed through some of the paperwork, there was a notice of license suspension and a letter about a child's detention period for using a curse word.

Any local TDI/VW events?

What's the mileage? If you don't know the condition of the timing belt and associated components, I would't wait to long on that. If you have a timing failure, it will cause the engine to jump time and cause piston to valve contact requiring head removal to fix.

Generally, you can tell nothing about the T/B and associated parts condition with a visual inspection.

Heck yeah, one winter on a salt diet it wouldn't look that good

The liquid salt is a real killer, that stuff crawls right up underneath the paint

Ol'Rattler said:

What's the mileage? If you don't know the condition of the timing belt and associated components, I would't wait to long on that. If you have a timing failure, it will cause the engine to jump time and cause piston to valve contact requiring head removal to fix.

Generally, you can tell nothing about the T/B and associated parts condition with a visual inspection.

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Ball plan is to take remove, clean, and.inspect the turbo. Repair as needed. Pop the valve cover off and check the cam. Drain the intercooler pipes, and then reassemble and put a few hundred miles on the car to check for other major issues (clutch, suspension, rod knock, etc). If all looks well, then I will invest in timing belt components. Since I received the car not running and in am unknown state, I'd like to limit the capital investment prior to verify it the car is worth it. I'm currently at a point where I could part the car out and not lost any money. I don't I vesting the time and labor, but want to minimize the cash outlay for the time being.

But if all goes well I'll use the parts kid you recommended and the links look fantastic. And knock out the timing belt before making it my DD.

I bought a similar car to that one only silver and with more body damage. The idiot kid that owned it ignored it entirely apparently. The exhaust was literally dripping with oil and the engine stopped while driving it in for repair.

We found the engine locked up and figured that was caused by lack of oil which was in turn caused by turbo failure.

I bought the car for scrap value. I was able to get the engine to turn over again and after compression testing and removing the pan to inspect the crankshaft I decided to try to make it run.

Replaced the turbo and got it to run. The exhaust and DPF were so full of oil it smoked like a pig and coded like crazy. I drove it carefully short distances for a while fearing fires from the cookoff, but eventually it came around and recovered. I had to put a flywheel in it, and replace a few body parts but the car is now my daily driver. I have driven it 20K miles with no problems and an average fuel consumption of near 40MPG as logged on fuelly.

I suspect your case may be similar, bad turbo and much abuse, but it sounds to me like you can revive it and make it a keeper. Good find.

As a veteran member, I would like to say our work is done here, but I know it isn't. You will have questions. If you are not sure about something feel free to stop on by before you FUBAR something instead of after.

There are folks that have posted here that have just jumped in to things and have made some expensive mistakes.

You never did say how many mile it has on the clock. With proper maintenance, mine is at 180K miles and the only major things I have done, is replace the timing belt system, replaced the cam and replaced the atrocious Dual Mass Fly with a Single mass Flywheel. So far, the turbo is chugging along just fine
.
Also, VW must have done something right with the suspension on the A5's.The only thing I have had to replace is a lower control arm, ball joint, wheel and tire because I smacked a curb real hard.

Almost forgot there is a vendor in your area called Prothe along with his many other aliases. You need to avoid him like the plague. his cheap Chinese parts have destroyed many TDI's.

His motto should be, "TDI's destroyed at a fair price."

Ol'Rattler said:

You never did say how many mile it has on the clock.

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He posted the mileage in the first post. 218k.

sorry. must have missed that.

I realize I started this thread a little prematurely. I have spent the last few weeks thrashing to get my play toy ready for a big event this week/weekend. Every night and weekend I have been chipping away a laundry list of tasks on this Mustang. I've had the girl for 10 years, and my has she come a long way. Will be making the 4 hour trip out to the Pigeon Forge area tomorrow morning, running a big poker run with a bunch of other Mustang friends, and having a grand old time at the hotel in the evenings.



Once I get back Sunday, I'll spend next week organizing some things in the house/garage. Then probably start tearing into the Jetta the week of the 10th.

Thanks for all the help and support so far, looking forward to more once I get started!