2003 Jetta TDI won't start

Sorry for the ambiguous title.

I got into the car this afternoon after work. Car started fine(-ish. It was cold so it takes a little to turn on). I drove out of the parking garage and as soon as I hit the gas to drive onto the street, the car shut off.
At first I thought it was something with my turbo. In the past, if I stepped on the gas too hard right after I turned the car on, it would go into limp mode. I changed all of the vacuum hoses and that seemed to fix the issue for the most part.
Usually when that happened, I would just turn the car off, and then on and it would be fine after I let it idle for 20-30 seconds.

This time though, it felt like the car would crank, but would not start!!

I found a YouTube video where a guy was having the same issue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxFPJQ6PtLw

He indicated that it was due to a stuck shutter valve, but I checked mine and it was open. I have fuel in the lines, the battery is fine fairly new (about a year old). Oil, coolant and other fluids are okay.


Any thoughts on what this is?

Thank you,

Gelled fuel? Clogged fuel filter or clogged fuel pick-up in tank.

run a scan for codes and maybe check timming.

"King of Prussia"?.....Danzig?

Update:
Timing belt snapped. It looks like when I had work done on the car in 2013 or so, the timing belt they put on was crap.
Needless to say, this time around I took the car to a trusted mechanic from here; a TDI guru in Hatboro and he's doing an engine swap since odds are I either bent the vavles or maybe messed up the rods and then some.
Speaking with him really did make me feel like the guy really REALLY knows his stuff. So I trust my car is in good hands.
The motor he's putting in the car has about 170k miles less on it than my car! I'm excited to see how it runs. He promised to have it done next week (which is much faster than I expected). I'll post an update with my thoughts.

The other engine most likely doesn't have bent rods, just damaged valves. New head and timing belt kit and it could be done in a day. But, your engine probably had over 300,000 miles on it, so it's understandable that you would think that it's worn out. In reality, if that engine was taken care of with regular, good oil changes, it probably could have gone at least as many miles as it already had.

I also understand that piece of mind has a value as well, and I certainly don't know anything about your life situation, so you probably made the right decision for yourself. Others, may lean a different way if they are in a different life situation.

Thanks for the update. It makes me wonder where the bad timing belt kit came from. Probably from a guy whose first name starts with Peter and last name starts with Rothenberger.

Whitedog,

The repair is nearly complete according to the mechanic/TDI guru.

I agree with you that with regular maintenance that engine could have gone another 300k+ miles if not more, but the problem was that I bought it at 208k and put on about 80K. I took good care of it, but I don't know who "owned" the car before me since I got it off a guy on craigslist who said he was a diesel mechanic and fixed the car up to sell it. Well....yeah..about that.

In 2012 my crankshaft broke, so I had the entire engine rebuilt by someone I was told was a TDI/Euro car expert.... that turned out to be a bunch of crap.

My current mechanic/guru whom I found on here, tells me that the parts that were put on my car were crap (he referred to some site that people often mention on here as selling cheap junky parts). He found missing parts, missing bold, brackets, pipes/hoses not connected.....so my "tdi/euro car expert" was not a very ethical person with little integrity.

I really was taken for a ride when I bought this car, but at least now the car should be riding nicely (i hope). I should get the car back sometime on Thursday or so I'll let you guys know what comes of it.

vavulaka, you're overdue for some good luck!

It's really sad. When I got my car (with 114k miles on it) I got the prior garage to give me all the service records. I was very impressed that they'd do that. I wasn't, however, impressed with their "knowledge" of these cars. PO had complained of clunking in the rear of the car; the garage "checked rear shocks and found to be OK"- I replaced the rear axle bushings, they were toast! (and I recently replaced the rear shocks, they were toast as well) The garage also saw the car for "poor performance"- they dumped in some sort of fuel treatment and sent the PO on her way. Ha ha! I resolved the problem by cleaning the intake (and EGR valve). I was LUCKY in that there weren't any real engine issues, otherwise I'm sure that I would have suffered the consequences of the "professionals." (last comment not aimed at the great folks on this site who actually work on these cars for a living, people that KNOW them well)

"I really was taken for a ride when I bought this car"

It's possible that it wasn't the intent of the folks selling the car. For some, ignorance can be bliss: they just never experience their shortcomings.

For anyone who is interested:

The car runs well.
Since I got the car back i noticed it wasn't getting up to temperature, so I changed the thermostat and that fixed the issue. I changed the fuel filter as well just for good measure.
I should probably look into shocks and rear bushings too sometime this spring when the weather gets better.

Thanks you all for weighing in.

So the engine was completely rebuilt from a different core than yours...or it was literally a brand new engine? What's the cost on doing that?

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