IndigoBlueWagon
TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
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.
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.