New (to me) Golf, complete with issues

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Location
South of Boston
TDI
'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
Here's the story:



This is a '99.5 Golf that our IDParts Crew Member Jeff has driven for the past 7 plus years. He bought it from Mr Chill at Kraftwerke after the previous (and original) owner suffered a broken timing belt and damaged head. Chris repaired it and sold it to Jeff. It's provided him with close to 100K of reliable service, and, more recently, not so reliable service.

When Jeff came to work at IDParts the Golf had several problems. No boost, exhaust leak, worn suspension, and a reluctance to run when the fuel tank got below half full. He replaced the turbo, exhaust, struts and shocks, control arms, bought new wheels and tires, and installed a lift pump. We suspected the fuel sender was plugged, and a lift pump seemed a good option as it provides other benefits.

Obviously the car ran better, but it still wasn't happy to run when the fuel level got low. And it leaked water, either through the plenum cover, cabin filter box, or passenger side mirror housing. Summer wasn't so bad, but this winter Jeff usually had frost on the inside of his car when leaving work.

Then things started to get worse, right in sync with snowmagadden here in MA, not the best time to suffer break downs. The car quit or failed to start several times, and Jeff brought it to a shop near his home for repairs. They replaced the fuel filter and blew out the lines, only to have it quit again during a snow storm. He brought it back to the same shop to see if they could figure out what's up.

They called the next day and said his turbo was blown, that there was oil all over the back of the engine. How did that happen when the car quit while idling in traffic? No runaway, not signs of issues, oil level OK.

At this point Jeff had had enough. A couple of my colleagues were interested, but leery of a car with an unknown reliability issue and now a blown turbo. So I grabbed it. Red Golf, first year, no sunroof, what's not to like? I'm figuring that out.

Jeff had the car towed to Kraftwerke. Chris tried to start it, no luck. Then he got it inside and started looking around. He called me and asked, "what happened to this car? Did it run away?" Answer is no, not when Jeff was driving. And we called the shop it was at and they said no.

But when he pulled the turbo it looked like this (still attached to the downpipe in this photo).


The compressor side was still attached to the airbox pipe, but not to the rest of the turbo. It looks like this.


And here's what's left of the compressor wheel.


Chris called me Thursday AM and said that the engine may be OK, but who knows? He estimates he got 2.5 liters of oil out of the intercooler and piping. Seems the other shop may have added some oil.

I had brought him a replacement turbo, but he was hesitating to just bolt it on and see what happened. We agreed it made sense to pull the head and see if it evidence of a runaway, or hydrolocking.

He took the head off, found two bent rods. He is guessing hydrolock. Next he has to pull the pistons and see if there's any scuffing on the bores.

So maybe this car won't be quite the bargain I expected. Certainly it's not the deal I got on my son's '02 last month, which is giving him reliable service in Western MA. We're probably going to refresh the head while it's off, and if we're lucky we'll get away with new rods, perhaps a honing, and rings. Then we can find the water leak and, of course, figure out why this car randomly quits and won't re-start.

I'm not sure I can explain why, but I'm very excited to have this car. It's an adventure.
 

kcunniff

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2013
Location
Southwest Florida
TDI
2005 Golf GLS BEW (5spd)
IBW, seems like you love to acquire problem children and rehabilitate them into well adjusted citizens. Good luck with this one. Anything can be fixed, right?
 

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Location
South of Boston
TDI
'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
Anything can be fixed, right?
You bet. As Mr. Chill says, all it takes is time and money. And I have so many ALH parts around (mine, not IDParts') that it's nice to have another car that can use them.
 

red16vdub

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2013
Location
(617) City of CHAMPIONS
TDI
03 JSW 5spd
You bet. As Mr. Chill says, all it takes is time and money. And I have so many ALH parts around (mine, not IDParts') that it's nice to have another car that can use them.
Let me fix this for you ( between you and Chris, y'all can startup a pre owned TDI dealership ) especially with all the cars lying around :D
 

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Location
South of Boston
TDI
'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
Chris is way ahead of me on car count. But, except for this one, all mine run. :).
 

terrydtdi

Veteran Member
Joined
May 16, 2006
Location
Charleston S.C.
TDI
2000 MK4 TDI Jetta 5spd
Peter, the engine shutting off unexpectedly and not cranking back up sounds very familiar to a 2.0 gasser having a problematic crank position sensor.
 

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Location
South of Boston
TDI
'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
Position sensor is an interesting idea. Intake is clean. This car has had an EGR duty cycle delete for nearly 10 years.
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
Nice find. I tried to buy a 2003 version of that same car a couple months ago from a guy who didn't want to fix it, it needed an HVAC case (blowin' foam), a turbo (locked up solid), and an injection pump (sounded like it was full of marbles and sand, barely ran). Car was very clean otherwise, but he wouldn't take my offer and said it was going on CL. I looked for a while, never did find it. I have a feeling he is going to try and fix it himself, which will result in an even bigger headache than it already was.

In the mean time, I was able to snag a cheap BRM Jetta and bring that back to life, so all is good there. Just waiting on the title to get straightened out. :rolleyes:
 

dogdots

Vendor
Joined
Sep 4, 2002
Location
Kansas City
TDI
None
Nice find. I tried to buy a 2003 version of that same car a couple months ago from a guy who didn't want to fix it, it needed an HVAC case (blowin' foam), a turbo (locked up solid), and an injection pump (sounded like it was full of marbles and sand, barely ran). Car was very clean otherwise, but he wouldn't take my offer and said it was going on CL. I looked for a while, never did find it. I have a feeling he is going to try and fix it himself, which will result in an even bigger headache than it already was.

In the mean time, I was able to snag a cheap BRM Jetta and bring that back to life, so all is good there. Just waiting on the title to get straightened out. :rolleyes:
Brian, you can permanently fix the blowin' foam problem for a lot less than the cost of a new hvac box ;) Some labor to get to the blend doors, some aluminum tape after all the old foam is removed, new denser foam and contact adhesive, new heater core (just because you are in that deep), problem solved.
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
And how much time does that take at $109/hr? New case (with a new evap core and expansion valve) is not that much, and we can at least guarantee a fix, with a warranty, and have it in and out in a day.

Maybe on my own car I could play around, but not on someone else's car. ;)
 

dogdots

Vendor
Joined
Sep 4, 2002
Location
Kansas City
TDI
None
I was primarily speaking about you doing this to your own car ;)

We do provide this service for our customers, with a warranty. I never priced a new HVAC box, but a replacement will eventually have the same blend door foam problem if the car stays on the road long enough. Assuming VW is no longer building new HVAC boxes for MKIV, the foam on the blend doors has been breaking down just sitting on the shelf waiting to go into the car. I could be wrong about them not building new ones, as the City Jetta remained in production much longer.

Next time one of your personal MKIV cars has a blend door foam issue, call me. I'd be happy to come help you fix it using our method for no charge. Maybe it won't be so hot outside next time we get to hang out :)

Peter - looks like you got your hands full with the Golf. Maybe I missed it earlier in the thread, but did anyone ever fess up as to who blew the turbo?
 

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Location
South of Boston
TDI
'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
I read this thread and can answer that question for you. ;)
Come on, I bought it thinking all it might need was a Relay 109, now I may end up putting an engine in it. Still a good deal, right?

And regarding blend doors, if I have to do that repair the car's getting a new heater box and core. No way I want to go in there twice.

I suspect the shop that it came to Kraftwerke from used the starting fluid. But the PO isn't the type to confront them, and I doubt they'd fess up to it regardless. Too bad.
 

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Location
South of Boston
TDI
'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
Chris is going to pull the pistons and see if the bores are scuffed, and if so, how badly. If not or if it's minor I think we'll hone the bores and replace rods and maybe pistions, along with new rings. I have the piston/rod assemblies out of IBW and we may use those. The head is in good shape, so that may go back on with new valve guide seals and perhaps a cam and lifters, if needed. And of course a new turbo.

Then we can work on why it doesn't run consistently.
 

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Location
South of Boston
TDI
'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
UPDATE: this car has sat for 11 months at Kraftwerke with its head off waiting for me to make up my mind about what direction to take it. Chris and I have discussed all manner of ideas from making it a 180 HP ALH, to swapping in a common rail engine, to using the BKD engine sitting in my garage, or selling it. Chris installed rods and pistons from my wagon's engine, had the head refreshed, and has had second, ported head ready to go, depending on what I decided. I waffled between letting the car go and buying a JSW, buying something new once VW apologized sufficiently to the EPA so they could start selling cars again, or (gasp) getting a GTI.

But the truth is I love driving MKIV VWs. They're modern enough not to be penalty boxes, but old enough to be pleasingly simple. I'm happy not to have ASR, ESP, a backup camera, seat belt reminders that don't quit (dog gets annoyed if you belt him in), or an MFD. And to have a German assembled, no sunroof, non immobilizer, rotary pump TDI is very appealing. At least it is to me. I still love driving my wagon, but as it ages sometimes it needs to be down for repairs. So the Golf can be my backup, or just an alternate when I feel like driving something red instead of blue. And lord knows, with 3 ALHs already in the family and several more that have come and gone, we have enough parts around to upgrade or fix just about anything. Want GTI Recaros? in the garage. Need an injection pump? Got two spares. Wheels? 3 sets of summer and one winter not allocated to any car ready to go. You get the idea. Shame for all that stuff to go to waste.

And I've decided to keep it mild. VNT-15, stock nozzles, RC3 or 3+ ASV (no plug-in for emissions in MA as it's over 15 years old), keep the Koni Yellows, maybe use the Motegi Traklites I have in my garage (12 lbs. each), rear bar. I am going to have the paint cleaned up, maybe have the whole car painted. It needs a headliner. I even have a couple of the black OE VW badges they use on German police cars. And I found an OE VW boxed LUK clutch and flywheel kit like the one the came on the car (and is still in it, AFAIK) in our warehouse the other day. That's going in.

And Chris believes he's discovered the cause of it quitting after running for a half-hour or so. He thinks it's the crank position sensor. When they're old and get warm they can stop sending a signal. And the cabin leak appears to be missing or rusted bolts on the cabin filter tray. We'll confirm all this soon.

This should be fun.
 
Last edited:

Matt-98AHU

Loose Nut Behind the Wheel Vendor
Joined
Apr 23, 2006
Location
Gresham, OR
TDI
2001 Golf TDI, 2005 Passat wagon, 2004 Touareg V10.
UPDATE: this car has sat for 11 months at Kraftwerke with its head off waiting for me to make up my mind about what direction to take it. Chris and I have discussed all manner of ideas from making it a 180 HP ALH, to swapping in a common rail engine, to using the BKD engine sitting in my garage, or selling it. Chris installed rods and pistons from my wagon's engine, had the head refreshed, and has had second, ported head ready to go, depending on what I decided. I waffled between letting the car go and buying a JSW, buying something new once VW apologized sufficiently to the EPA so they could start selling cars again, or (gasp) getting a GTI.

But the truth is I love driving MKIV VWs. They're modern enough not to be penalty boxes, but old enough to be pleasingly simple. I'm happy not to have ASR, ESP, a backup camera, seat belt reminders that don't quit (dog gets annoyed if you belt him in), or an MFD. And to have a German assembled, no sunroof, non immobilizer, rotary pump TDI is very appealing. At least it is to me. I still love driving my wagon, but as it ages sometimes it needs to be down for repairs. So the Golf can be my backup, or just an alternate when I feel like driving something red instead of blue. And lord knows, with 3 ALHs already in the family and several more that have come and gone, we have enough parts around to upgrade or fix just about anything. Want GTI Recaros? in the garage. Need an injection pump? Got two spares. Wheels? 3 sets of summer and one winter not allocated to any car ready to go. You get the idea. Shame for all that stuff to go to waste.

And I've decided to keep it mild. VNT-15, stock nozzles, RC3 or 3+ ASV (no plug-in for emissions in MA as it's over 15 years old), keep the Koni Yellows, maybe use the Motegi Traklites I have in my garage (12 lbs. each), rear bar. I am going to have the paint cleaned up, maybe have the whole car painted. It needs a headliner. I even have a couple of the black OE VW badges they use on German police cars. And I found an OE VW boxed LUK clutch and flywheel kit like the one the came on the car (and is still in it, AFAIK) in our warehouse the other day. That's going in.

And Chris believes he's discovered the cause of it quitting after running for a half-hour or so. He thinks it's the crank position sensor. When they're old and get warm they can stop sending a signal. And the cabin leak appears to be missing or rusted bolts on the cabin filter tray. We'll confirm all this soon.

This should be fun.
Hah, love it.

Sounds a bit like a beater now, but that's OK.

Totally agree on the mk4 (and B5 for me) sentiment. Modern and comfortable enough without being complicated. Just all around good cars and for the most part very easily serviced when you compare it to newer stuff.

Hell, even the 1Z/AHU cars I often times feel like there are some jobs that are more difficult to do. While some extra steps need to be taken on certain jobs on Mk4s, it just feels like they largely had a better thought out design, particularly under the hood.

The one exception is door switches... Mk3s/B4s got them beat there ;)
 
Last edited:

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Location
South of Boston
TDI
'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
With three ALHs in the family I love how easy they are to care for. Nothing is that complex when you compare it to the newer cars. And they really are remarkably durable. My son's '02 Golf has nearly 300K on it and very little has been replaced other than suspension, brakes, bushings, timing belts, filters, and fluids.

My '99.5 isn't totally a beater. The body has no damage and is almost rust-free with just the tiniest amount starting on the rockers, easily fixed now. The interior is excellent except for the headliner. The guy I bought it from owned it for nearly 10 years and was a careful, gentle driver. We still have customers investing in these cars, and even though it is pretty easy to spend more one than it would sell for, you end up with an attractive, fun to drive, very economical car. I figure I can get this thing pretty close to perfect for less than a new GTI would depreciate in its first year.
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
Yep, the A4 TDIs, especially the ALHs but to some extent also the BEWs, people will often invest money to get them back into tip top shape. And even though they may spend up to $5k on the car, it ends up in great shape and is easily just as good as anything new you could buy and for far less money.

I really do think the VE and PD TDIs represent some of the very last of a truly easily tunable car with a relative minimal amount of emissions compliance fuss and an excellent bang for the buck that remains totally driveable for an everyday car. And they can remain OBD-testing legal with ease, if that is necessary to be so in your area.

I just wish VAG would support the older cars better in terms of parts availability like MB has. Because some of their older vehicles are in my opinion worthy of an "indefinite" life span if cared for properly. But parts obsoleting is rampant (trust me, as the owner of a Vanagon and a Eurovan, I know better than most :( ).

I wish someone would come pick some parts off this '00 GTI I have on a trailer in my front yard. It has lots of good stuff left. Scrap is not even worth the cost of the fuel to take it in, so it is not in a hurry to go anywhere, but before too long I will need the trailer for something else and it'll HAVE to go away.
 

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Location
South of Boston
TDI
'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
I'm not seeing much A4 ALH stuff going obsolete yet. And we had a shop customer run some sales data which surprised me: there are something like 75K A4 TDIs in service today in the US and Canada. That sounds like a lot to me, but it explains why parts sales for these cars remains strong.

This car also has nearly new Koni Yellows, new control arms and rear axle bushings, new brakes, rotors, rear calipers, wheels and tires (not that I need the wheels and tires) and a complete new stainless exhaust. And it has Navigation and a roof rack complete with bicycle racks. Nav will probably come out as I don't think maps are available any longer. When it goes back together it'll have new pistons, rings, refreshed head, timing belt kit, turbo, injector nozzles, clutch and flywheel. Should be good for a while.

FWIW, I struggled to find some coolant hoses for my 300D this year. M-B is obsoleting some stuff, too.
 
Last edited:

mrrhtuner

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2011
Location
London Ont Canada
TDI
2003 Jetta Wagon TDI, 2015 Passat TDI, 2015 Touareg TDI
With three ALHs in the family I love how easy they are to care for. Nothing is that complex when you compare it to the newer cars. And they really are remarkably durable. My son's '02 Golf has nearly 300K on it and very little has been replaced other than suspension, brakes, bushings, timing belts, filters, and fluids.

My '99.5 isn't totally a beater. The body has no damage and is almost rust-free with just the tiniest amount starting on the rockers, easily fixed now. The interior is excellent except for the headliner. The guy I bought it from owned it for nearly 10 years and was a careful, gentle driver. We still have customers investing in these cars, and even though it is pretty easy to spend more one than it would sell for, you end up with an attractive, fun to drive, very economical car. I figure I can get this thing pretty close to perfect for less than a new GTI would depreciate in its first year.

I agree on your stance with these older, diesel cars.

My father has bugged me before about getting a newer diesel car, something newer then my old 2000 or current 2003 TDI.

From what I've read regrading issues with the DPF/clue emissions, HPFP and intercooler icing...I'd really rather just stay with something old and solid that runs well and require not a whole lot of work to maintain.
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
Door panels, console lids, trunk liners, radios, seat covers, and some instrument clusters, are the latest items I have run across that have been put on the NLA list. The A4 has been hit hard with this in the last couple years. A lot of stuff has been put on their parts blowout sight, which essentially means when they are gone, they are gone. I suspect within a couple years, they will be about at the point that the A3 has become now.

General service parts and normal wear items are not likely to suffer, and the aftermarket will be able to support these for years. It is the hard parts that are often more cosmetic that will go away.

I remember years ago when I went to buy yet another 14" steel wheel for my A2 (stupid potholes :mad: ) and the parts guy told me they were "warehouse only" which meant that was all that was left. I bought all six. Then a year later, when my original muffler finally rotted away, I bought the only remaining two A2 diesel Jetta muffler/tailpipe assemblies left. I have the very last A2 diesel fuel tank. An A2 diesel fuel separator, and a handful of other odds and ends. I bought 20 of the early pre-TDI diesel injection advance cable end bushings (these are NLA as well now).

I only wish I had the foresight (and the money) to hoard Transporter parts when I could have.

What is really dumb, is often VAG continues to build a "defunct" model in a different country for a local market, and therefor continues to have parts available for them, yet won't allow those parts to be sold anywhere else.... even by special order. So while Volkswagen continued to build the T3 in South Africa through 2005, with many of the same parts our '80 through '91 Hannover built T3s sold here used, we could not get a single part here for them.

The stupidity of this is that they can stand to make MORE money, MORE profit, with little to no regulatory hoops to jump through (or AROUND, as it were ;) ) by simply selling service parts to keep existing vehicles on the road. But I guess that would only provide work for low level blue collar factory workers and freight transport people, not the white collar engineers and designers. Oh well, at least the white collar people at Volkswagen are hard working honest folks.... :rolleyes:
 

Powder Hound

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 25, 1999
Location
Under a Bridge, Crestview, FL, USA
TDI
'00 Golf 4dr White 5sp, '02 Jettachero 5sp, Wife's '03 NB Platinum Gray auto(!)
These parts would probably be a great gray market opportunity, if one could figure how to do it and get the connections established to make it possible.
 

Lightflyer1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Sep 13, 2005
Location
Round Rock, Texas
TDI
2015 Beetle tdi dsg
That is part of the reason I refreshed my Beetle with new parts like I did. Fear of them being NLA later and the used parts were just as old and people wanted nearly as much for them as new. I am now seeing new seat covers are NLA and I should have bought them before when dong the rest of the stuff. 20/20 hindsight guess. There is always an upholstery shop I guess.
 
Top