1977busman said:
so there is a mix of 1985 jettas some with turbo and some without? I am looking at an 1985 and 2 1990's, is there much of a of a difference in the two years, unless the 85 is a turbo (which is unknown at this point)??
'85 and '86 Jetta diesels came in the turbo and non-turbo models. The turbos are rarer, I think about 1 turbodiesel to 3 or 4 non-turbos were sold in those years. I had an '85 Jetta turbodiesel, drove it for 19 years and it only saw the inside of a shop for tires and alignments.
The non-turbo will be very slow accelerating, but will easily do legal highway speeds. The turbo model will perform a little bettter.
Any VW diesel from this era will most likely need somthing fairly major to get running or keep running. Unless you can do the work yourself (and you will need some VW and diesel-specific tools), plan on spending more than the car is worth on repairs. By major, I mean any combination of the following items: injection pump resealing or replacement, timing belt, rebuilt motor (or a re-ringing), heater core, alternator, brakes (new rotors up front), drive axles (or boots replaced), ball joints, tie rods, struts & shocks, and the list goes on. Any VW of this vintage will have most likely in excess of 200,000 and perhaps 300,000 miles. I replaced all of the previously mentioned items, and the turbocharger, and several other things on mine and I eventually sold it with just shy of 300,000 miles on it. By that time, it needed a complete engine overhaul. The ring job I did serval thousand miles just did not hold up because the block was worn out.
That said, it was one of the best cars I ever owned. Did not rust and drove quite well. Only my '04 comes close in terms of fine engineering.
Here is the '85 I used to have:
The way you tell if it is a true turbodiesel is the turbo sits right behind the engine and the injection pump has a "spaceship" on it that is the turbo enrichment diaphragm housing.
--Nate