2003 TDI repair rescue in Louisville, KY

Hi All.

My 2003 TDI Wagon was disabled (3 weeks ago) near Louisville while I was driving home to Richmond VA. The obvious problem was a failing timing belt tensioner. I shut the car down while it was still running normally with a loose belt. I had it towed to a Louisville repair shop (that I will not name just yet). The Shop supposedly did a complete timing belt kit install and now can not get the car running. I guess I picked the wrong shop. You know my frustration since I've done successful timing belt jobs on three generations of TDIs.

I'm coming back to Louisville (by Greyhound) this Friday, March 2nd to deal with this sad situation.

Can any of you local TDI Club folks refer me to the TDI Guru(s) in Louisville OR offer garage space, driveway, whatever and a hand to get me up and running (for fare compensation)? I'll have all my timing tools and VAGCOM with me.

Please PM me you can offer a repair location or tow dolly.

Any help is appreciated.

Odds are you suffered head damage. Did the shop pull the valve cover and inspect the lifters? That would tell them if there was piston to valve contact. You probably need cylinder head repair or replacement.

There's a good guru in Versailles KY (about 60 miles from Louisville) but I don't know if he's accepting this kind of work.

I wouldn't rule out head damage, as IBW stated above, but for what it's worth, I helped out a local TDI Cluber a few months back change his timing belt. Once we got into it, we found the TB was very loose. Don't know if the tensioner let out completely, but the belt had a lot of slack and had been running normally for and unknown amount of time. The cam was still in time with the crank, and the lifters were perfect. Maybe this was a one in a million situation, but I'm just saying there's hope... but verify!

Well, Louisville is over 3.5 hours from my location. Maybe Paramedick (Bruce) in Lexington could give you a reference there in Louisville.

Any kind of shop would turn the engine by crank twice to make sure timing is correct, no valves hitting pistons etc. more than likely ( hopefully) they don’t know hoe to bleed injection system in order to get car started.

As I said, car was running normally at 70mph, happen to pull into rest area and heard noise at timing belt then shut car off and towed it to a shop in Louisville. So this engine should restart.

Anyone have a contacts for the Louisville local TDI clubers??

Will pay $100 for a tow to a place I can futs with my car for a day this Friday/Sat.

Thanks

ecorob said:

As I said, car was running normally at 70mph, happen to pull into rest area and heard noise at timing belt then shut car off and towed it to a shop in Louisville. So this engine should restart.

Anyone have a contacts for the Louisville local TDI clubers??

Will pay $100 for a tow to a place I can futs with my car for a day this Friday/Sat.

Thanks

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Do you have AAA? They will tow you. If you don't, it's worth having.

ecorob said:

As I said, car was running normally at 70mph, happen to pull into rest area and heard noise at timing belt then shut car off and towed it to a shop in Louisville. So this engine should restart.

Anyone have a contacts for the Louisville local TDI clubers??

Will pay $100 for a tow to a place I can futs with my car for a day this Friday/Sat.

Thanks

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That's kind of a tough ask.
Your diagnosis may be good, but maybe not. At this point it's hard to say if they botched the job or there is an additional issue or both.
2 biggest user groups are tdiclub.com and vwvortex.com, search those for local connections.
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We have this list-
Trusted TDI Mechanics - By State

IndigoBlueWagon said:

There's a good guru in Versailles KY (about 60 miles from Louisville) but I don't know if he's accepting this kind of work.

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According to his thread, the shop is currently open.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=5377309&postcount=80

I know that. But I saw Bruce in October and he said he was limiting the kind of work he was taking on. The OP should call him, but I didn't want him to count on Bruce accepting the job. It's not uncommon for gurus to have cars just get dropped off at their shops.

jokila said:

Do you have AAA? They will tow you. If you don't, it's worth having.

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Ditto to that.... worth checking into as I don't recall if there was a down time from when you join and when you can make a service call. It'll pretty much pay for itself in one call. I have the "RV" package that includes a 200 mile tow for each member (which I've used twice).

I've got it for me and my boys and between turbo failure, oil feed line failure, gas in tank, hitting a raccoon the size of a bear (all in the last year) - it has more than paid for itself. Wait times vary greatly, but still worth the $$$.

good luck with the car

If you can't make the needed connections, you may want to tow it back to Richmond yourself.
Seems drastic I know. Seems unusual that the shop that did the TB just left you hanging.
Basic AAA comes with like 10 mile free tow, longer if you pay more.

Got truck that can tow it (e.g. Suburban, etc - really any sort of mid-sized truck/suv or larger can handle it as the car's not that heavy)?

Pay for the fuel and a one-way dolly run, get it home. That's how I'd handle it (and cover a friend's expenses if I didn't have the truck, but a friend did.)

I believe it is a 7 day waiting period

Prairie Chicken;5385741[B said:

]Ditto to that.... worth checking into as I don't recall if there was a down time from when you join and when you can make a service call.[/B] It'll pretty much pay for itself in one call. I have the "RV" package that includes a 200 mile tow for each member (which I've used twice).
I've got it for me and my boys and between turbo failure, oil feed line failure, gas in tank, hitting a raccoon the size of a bear (all in the last year) - it has more than paid for itself. Wait times vary greatly, but still worth the $$$.
good luck with the car

Click to expand...

IndigoBlueWagon said:

I know that. But I saw Bruce in October and he said he was limiting the kind of work he was taking on. The OP should call him, but I didn't want him to count on Bruce accepting the job. It's not uncommon for gurus to have cars just get dropped off at their shops.

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Definitely agree with that. Definitely don't recommend just showing up with the car. A preliminary phone call or contact of some sort should always be made.

People drop dead cars off here all the time. And since we are the local AAA approved facility, we get all those dropped off too. Most are losers, ill maintained (or NON maintained) crap pile cars that the owners I guess NEED some sort of towing contract, because they have a 50-50 shot of not making it to where they need to go.

We've gotten cars towed in here from breakdowns during cross country trips that I would not have trusted to drive across the street. Then some that just die out of the blue from no fault of the owner, like the 2013 Escape I have here that decided its transmission was no longer necessary. Automatic transmissions: always a way to insure the towing industry is needed, LOL.

ouch...

I am curious as what happened here as I am in Louisville and could be of service. I spoke with Bruce last week. He is doing some work right now but it is limited. I just picked up a wagon from his place diagnosing a cam failure.

Just to add. Since it was running when you shut it off, my guess is the shop you went to had no clue on what they were doing and got the timing wrong. Some people don't quite understand that you don't try to start a TDI to see if you got the timing right.