TDI repairs

I am a newbie, so bear with me. I looked for 2 years for a TDI and finally bought an EBAY car, for what was a good price. After a month the water pump failed, so I looked here for a TDI mechanic. I contacted TurbineWhine in Asheville. He suggested going the whole route, timing belt, waterpump ect. I bought all the parts and had then shipped to him. What he discovered was that the belt had never beed changed, 137K miles !!! He found the intercooler gone !!!! The car had never been maintained. He went through the car top to bottom, front to back. He spent a month on it, but when I went to drive it, I had a new car, that actually would climb a hill !!!! If you need help, repairs or VAG stuff get ahold of turbinewhine, Landon is THE MAN !!!!!! Thanks !!!!

Thats a real bummer about the mechanical condition of your TDI when you got it. Can you give a little more background on the car? Model and year? You say you got the car at a good price, but would you say that you got a good deal even with what you had to have done to it after you got it? And did the seller specifically point out the mechanical condition of the car in the listing?

I also got my TDI via eBay Motors a few weeks ago. (The only time I've ever purchased a vehicle that way.) *So far*, I haven't run into any rude surprises about the mechanical condition and maintenance of it. But it still may be too early to make a judgment on that.

It's great that you have such a knowledgable and competent mechanic in your area. After spending considerable time here the past month, I'm realizing that having a TDI guru reasonably close by is essential for peace of mind, *especially* if you're a PD owner like me. There seems to be at least one, perhaps two, experienced VW service folks within about an hour's drive from my house. A couple of forum members in another thread I started had good things to say about them, which was a relief. Landon/turbinewhine seems to be the real deal; the problem for me is that Asheville is a 2-1/2 hour drive from my location.

Ashville has one.