2001 Jetta TDI with 275K miles...turbo out, still life left?

Hi all,

My beloved 2001 Jetta TDI's turbo has finally bitten the dust. It has 275K, I have been religious about routine oil changes and maintenance, but am wondering (because I know not of many things mechanical)...just how much life is left in this car? Replace the turbo? And what is a fair price for a replacement? And if we don't replace the turbo, will that kill the engine, and we'd be in the market for a new car anyways? I'd like to maintain this one, if it's financially viable, as I have a 50 mile round trip commute for work, and the fuel economy is amazing. Would appreciate any thoughts, help, advice and suggestions.

Thanks in advance for your time!

You'll surely get lots of opinions on this topic. Here's mine...
[1] Hopefully the car is a 5-speed manual trans, not an automatic. (The auto trans are known for being expensive to replace, and if you have an auto trans at 275K, you're on borrowed time already).

If the car is manual trans....

Direct reply to your question- yes, you can put a turbo in it and expect the odometer to reach well into the 300's. That's an unusual odometer reading, relatively speaking.

There will always remain an aspect that's difficult to quantify... you must acknowledge that it's an aging car, and will require some maintenance. It seems to turn into an endless debate whether you'd be better off spending the money to maintain your existing VW tip-top, or take that money and put it toward a new(er) car. Main point I want to convey is... if you decide to put a turbo on the car and keep it, I'd recommend get ahold of a qualified TDI mechanic (see list at the top of this forum), and make the commitment to do a thorough maintenance on the car, to get all of the various things up to snuff. Don't take it to a dealer, and don't take it to someone who isn't specifically versed with your vintage TDI; use the list of gurus and travel a bit if you need to. Finding a guru mechanic and using the correct quality parts is imperative. If you go that route, you'll probably have to spend a good chunk of money to get things all up to date, but you'll be able to count on the car for reliability.

One last piece of advice, if you can... If you decide to get another car, try to hang on to your existing car for a while. Don't get rid of it right away. If you're anything like me, you may find that you've grown attached to that model series, and maybe you can't describe it exactly, but other cars just don't fill its shoes. You want to figure that out before you get rid of the car, not after.

Good luck with your decision!

How did the original fail?
My decision would be affected by the condition of the rest of the car. If you don't want to spend almost a grand on the car, used VNT15s are readily available, or you could go naturally aspirated...http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=315588

Turbos are wear items. They do not last the life of the car. The more important question at this point in the car's life is how well you've cared for the rest of it. Timing belts, Brakes, suspension, gear oil changes, A/C, electrical issues...if you've kept up with any problems and performed regular preventive maintenance then you should put a new turbo in it and drive on. The engine has a lot more miles in it. But if you've neglected other issues be prepared to own what will seem to be a money pit until you catch up on maintenance.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

Turbos are wear items. They do not last the life of the car. The more important question at this point in the car's life is how well you've cared for the rest of it. Timing belts, Brakes, suspension, gear oil changes, A/C, electrical issues...if you've kept up with any problems and performed regular preventive maintenance then you should put a new turbo in it and drive on. The engine has a lot more miles in it. But if you've neglected other issues be prepared to own what will seem to be a money pit until you catch up on maintenance.

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Agree if the car is otherwise VERY well maintained maybe swap out the turbo. You can always throw $$$ into such a car and keep it on the road, but it's 14 years old with almost 300k on the odometer. The engine has a long life but not so the rest of the car.

Go through the vehicle perhaps with a mechanic and honestly add up the cost of the turbo and other expected repairs. Then add the $1000 current value of the car. Take the number you get and and price a newer vehicle. You will likely conclude it's time to move on.

Considerations

I definitely agree with Indigo.. all depends on if you have maintained the rest of the car along with this. Don't think the turbo is your fault, as I doubt it is. The turbos are most certainly wear items as Indigo said.
These are 3 main points I have formulated that would be a big consideration for me.
1. Is it manual or auto? That makes a big difference in value and long term drive-ability. The auto transmissions from that era (known as the 01M transmission) are not known to last very long and are expensive to replace as they cant often be rebuilt with much success.

2. Have you maintained the rest of the car? if you replace the turbo, which is a very viable option in itself, what else is failing on the car that needs to be attended to? What else is there to increase your total repair bill to get this car you love so dearly back into a reliable daily commuter?

3. This is a big one for me. Do you want to keep driving the car?? If so, then its almost always possible to make that happen for you. I used to be notorious for being too easily influenced by others telling me what they thought was best based on their opinion and acting on it. I wouldn't consider myself and what I truly wanted.

So that's my main piece of advice I would like to give you. If you truly love the car, fix it and keep driving it!! If not, I'm sure someone else, possibly even another forum member would buy it, fix the turbo and whatever else, and be happy with it. There are fewer and fewer mkiv tdi's and mkiv vw's in general every day. My opinion personally would be to fix it and keep it running. (If you did want a biased personal based opinion)

Good luck and keep us posted.

I too am most interested on what is meant by "bitten the dust?

My 2002 has 272,000 miles on it and it is fine. Oh I have had it from new and I have changed all the wheel bearings, on my second turbo, 3rd clutch, complete suspension refresh. Head gasket last year and I suspect that was running at 26 psi instead of the stock 13.5.

I would look around for a used turbo, or you could buy an aftermarket turbo for cheaper than a oem one. Since it has almost 300k miles on it I would put a cheap turbo on it (hope for a used oem turbo) and I would drive it untill the wheels fall off. There is a difference between driving a car untill it dies and driving it untill $hitz

You guys rock. It is an automatic, so that may be my answer right there. We bought it at 93K miles, and have maintained routinely with oil changes, timing belt replacements, tire rotation, etc...I love the car, and we bought diesel because of the longevity, but it may be that the money to maintain will be much more than to find a new car. My mechanic, who admittedly isn't a TDI specialist, but does european cars and has never led me wrong, told me "I just don't feel good about you guys spending your money on replacing the Turbo. I suggest you keep oil in it, and drive it until it dies." He'll do it, if we really want to, but he thinks that it has come to the point where things are going to start failing on this car.

As to how the original turbo failed, as I was driving, it kept getting more and more sluggish, with very slow response when trying to accelerate in quick conditions (like merging onto the freeway on a short on-ramp).

Thank you all for your suggestions and advice, I greatly appreciate them! I think I'll start the search for a new one...

devinam said:

As to how the original turbo failed, as I was driving, it kept getting more and more sluggish, with very slow response when trying to accelerate in quick conditions (like merging onto the freeway on a short on-ramp).

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Interesting. It might be worth a second opinion, even though you trust your mechanic. Usually they put on a little bit of a show.

I'm not sure if you mean you're searching for a new car or a new turbo, but if you do end up having a new turbo installed, make sure the mechanic first drains any oil that has accumulated in the intercooler as you've been driving it without boost

eb2143 said:

Interesting. It might be worth a second opinion, even though you trust your mechanic. Usually they put on a little bit of a show.

I'm not sure if you mean you're searching for a new car or a new turbo, but if you do end up having a new turbo installed, make sure the mechanic first drains any oil that has accumulated in the intercooler as you've been driving it without boost

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X2 it could be something simple. I had an issue that was maf related where it would cut fuel and boost in warm weather. If it was hot enough outside it cut fuel and boost so much it would throw it into limp mode for a low boost condition. The maf could be sending a bad signal and the Ecu is cutting boost and or fuel. I would check all of the simple things before slamming a turbo on.