Proud owner of an alh.. questions and what now

finally found a tdi and went through with it! 2002 jetta with just a tick over 200k. Timing belt replaced at 188 i have the receipt to prove it from a small vw shop. Now i have a few questions. I would like to inspect the intake and make sure it isnt clogged to hell, is there a way i could do this without pulling it off?

Also, i noticed there was some oil around the filler cap, im guessing this is just from not using a funnel or something when filling

Im also asking what i should do now to get the car in tip top shape. Im going to inspect the turbo and make sure the lines are good and all that, do the oil, check all fluids.. etc is there anything in particular i should look out for? Thanks!!
Here she is

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Howdy, Humpty!

Don't need to pull the intake manifold to inspect for clogging. Just need to pull off the EGR valve: it's like five allen bolts, not very hard (a bit fumbly). I've wondered whether one could use a borescope to investigate. Be careful, however, of knocking any chunks of carbon loose and into the intake as that could end up trashing a head (and maybe worse).

Unless you have a full set of maintenance records you'll need to treat the car like nothing has been done (except for what you do know, such as the TB). There's a thread on this forum with maintenance intervals.

The oil around your oil filer cap "might" be oil coming from the EGR valve (do a search). It's not threatening, just messy.

Here's a great tool (Forum's search function is horrible):

https://cse.google.com/cse/publicurl?cx=018097697432185261444:_idbzjdyxdm

That's a good lookin' Jetta. Looks clean enough from what I can see in the pic.

You'll probably want to do something with those foggy headlight lenses.

Probably wouldn't hurt to find some replacement lower grills for the bumper openings as well. They should be very inexpensive from a junked car.

Congrats on the new Jetta! And just out of curiosity, what town in Mass has earned the nickname G-Vegas? Springfield?

How easy is it to knock the junk in the egr/Intake down into the engine? I am notorious for being clumsy lol. And it's gardner ma, someone spray painted g Vegas on the "entering gardner" sign and it just stuck!

Oil around the filler cap is probably a spill, but the gasket under the cap also gets tired and can let oil push out under pressure. They only cost a buck or so.

5 speed or auto?

Humpty said:

How easy is it to knock the junk in the egr/Intake down into the engine? I am notorious for being clumsy lol. And it's gardner ma, someone spray painted g Vegas on the "entering gardner" sign and it just stuck!

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You could start by just taking the rubber intake hose off off the erg valve. With a small flashing you can look through the valve housing and get an idea of how bad it is. I bought my 1999.5 with the same mileage and the intake was perfect since one of the previous owners had taken the egr cooler completely off.

Good luck on your TDI. We're in the same boat, 200K on my Beetle 5 speed. Just replaced my EGR yesterday. Dweisel gave me another one when I bought Blue & said it needed changed. Yes, you can pull the black radiator looking hose & look into the EGR. If it's never been done, it's a good chance it will need it. Not a difficult job just takes time. There are some great how to's on YouTube on removal & cleaning. I watched a few for tips, like 5mm hex/ Allen for the EGR & 6mm for the elbow.

One thing, it will be easier on a Jetta, more room then a Beetle to get to everything!

All the best,
Dave

So after some further inspection i found out it is definitely the filler cap gasket... egr shows no signs of oil seepage or whatever, and i found that the part around the cap moves up and down and spins freely? is this normal? i didnt see any signs of a gasket so im guessing it doesnt even have one? thanks!


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Gasket is on the underside of the cap. The piece that spins is normal, that fills the gap between the filler and the engine cover when it's in place.

You can spend $10-$20 on a headlight restore product and get them looking ok, depending on your diligence. Then they start clouding again and will need to repeat yearly at best. Or you can pay $40 each (plus shipping from RockAuto) for OEM replacements and look new (hopefully for years).
RA also has all three bumper inserts for $10 (total) plus shipping.
Should be a nice ride for you.
At UhOh, thanks for the link!

I bought a 2002 Jetta last September. It had about 195k miles on it. When I checked the intake, it was clogged pretty badly. I'm surprised the engine was able to run with that much of the intake blocked off.

Thankfully, the coolant passages don't go through the intake manifold. You can remove it without having to drain the coolant. But you still have to remove the EGR valve, EGR cooler, intake hoses, etc.

Blacktree said:

you still have to remove the EGR valve, EGR cooler, intake hoses, etc.

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Just to help clarify, you do not have to remove the EGR cooler, just disconnect the ends (leave hoses connected) and tie it back and out of the way. You'll still have to kind of work around it a bit.

Yeah, I could have been more specific there. You don't have to completely remove the EGR cooler, just detach it from the intake manifold.