Buying 04 Golf - Original Timing Belt?

Hello everyone! This is my first post so I thought I would introduce myself. I'm Pat and I'm a Midshipman at the US Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, NY. Hopefully in a few weeks I will be a newly commissioned ensign in the USN. I currently own a Jeep Grand Cherokee that I bought when I was in high school. To say the least the gas mileage isn't great but I'm proud to say I do all the work on it myself everything from spark plugs and oil changes to full axle rebuilds and suspension upgrades.

My dad has a 04 Jetta TDI that he bought on my recommendation. We both love it so I'm trying to pick up a Golf TDI in the next couple weeks. I have some diesel experience having worked on larger ones (13-50K HP) on ships and smaller Detroits, yanmars, and cummins on smaller power boats. But most of these have little in common with the 1.9T VW engine.

This Saturday i'm headed to go look at a couple of Golf MKIVs. One threw me for a loop though. It is a second owner and he bought the car with 78K and it now has 120K he said he never did the timing belt. Is it safe to buy, drive 700miles and then have the timing belt done by a local guru? Is there a way to tell if the timing belt had been done before?

Thanks,
Pat

a tow to the nearest truguru would be less expensive than shucking teeth on the drive back

Do ya feel lucky, well do ya.
Proper documentation is the only way to know if its been done before.

I've been feeling lucky as of late...

Welcome to the club! As stated above your on borrowed time. See if ther are any gurus in the area that you are looking at for cars, maybe they can take you in then and there. Just an option.

csstevej said:

Welcome to the club! As stated above your on borrowed time. See if ther are any gurus in the area that you are looking at for cars, maybe they can take you in then and there. Just an option.

Click to expand...

How long would it take them to do a timing belt? If i got in the door that day could I be out in a couple of hours? I don't mind handing tools or beer to them either...

You'd have to ask them, my guess would be 4-5 hrs. Someone here who's done this will probably chime in .

Where is the one with the overdue timing belt located?

Good evening ship mate here's a list for you to start calling folks on http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=130044

welcome to the club
V/R HM3(FMF) Mayo

Thank you Corpsman, I took a look through the list. The Golf is in Charlotte, NC. I see 2 Gurus near there. A Mr. Omar of Davidson, NC and German Imports on Kannapolis, NC.

I plan on taking Mega bus down ($40!) from DC overnight if i like it i will swoop it up. If not I'll catch the bus back for another $40. Here's a link, no one buy it out from under me! http://charlotte.craigslist.org/cto/3702983363.html (I've already talked him down from asking price)

Mr. Mayo you didn't happen to get any Officer and a Gentleman references when going through boot camp did you?

Sorry for all the questions but do most Gurus keep Timing belt parts in stock? Or do i need to provide my own?

I drove our 04 home with 138K and no TB history what so ever. Luckily it was only a 15min drive though. Was pretty nervous the whole way(was a really long 15min!)

After digging into the car I found that it had all original TB and components and bad alternator pulley causing the accessory belt tensioner to bounce around. This TDI got lucky...

Lmao Apollo yes i do still doesn't help being with the marines ( about the Officer and a Gentleman references). To address the "Corpsmen" properly would be Petty officer no pun intended. The 2004 still ALH or did they to the PD yet? Don't be surprised to hear the 1xxx mark for having a timing belt done there spendy but necessary. If you get a bentley and the proper tools you can do it yourself in a day just take your time and double check every thing.

Robert

That's the same car I have now if it has a pd motor, I got the 5 speed auto tho couldn't find a stick at the time. Nice ride after I swapped the suspension out to the vr6 springs and new struts and shocks they have some body roll to them with the stock springs that the jetta's don't have. Have you searched for a TDI buyers check list?

04 would be the PD engine (BEW?) so you would also have to look into cam wear. You may want to ask what oil he uses, then decide if you feel real lucky!

Looks nice, but only 40 mpg with the 5 speed?

3turboz said:

04 would be the PD engine (BEW?) so you would also have to look into cam wear. You may want to ask what oil he uses, then decide if you feel real lucky!

Looks nice, but only 40 mpg with the 5 speed?

Click to expand...

from talking to him he has receipts proving all work done at the dealership he bought it from so i would hope they were using the right oil.

Apollo21 said:

from talking to him he has receipts proving all work done at the dealership he bought it from so i would hope they were using the right oil.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately that really is no guarantee.

So guys I got an email from the seller this morning.

Patrick,

I brought the car to the dealership to have check out just for my own peace of mind. They said the belt had been replaced, but were unable to determine how much more life it has. That being said it was replace before I purchased it at around 80,000 miles. They also stated there is a boost leak probably coming from a leaking hose, battery need to be replaced in near future, and the door latch was not triggering the interior light. Just want to give you as much info as possible before you make decision on making the trip down here. The service guy said if there were any more questions that you could contact him at the dealership, his name is Joerg. I will attach the report so you will also have the dealership info. I have four others interested, so I will keep you posted if you would like.

Jesse

Apollo21 said:

from talking to him he has receipts proving all work done at the dealership he bought it from so i would hope they were using the right oil.

Click to expand...

Sorry to tell you this, but it probably means they were using the 'wrong' oil. Dealers do mostly use the right spec, 505.01, but it's usually a castrol 5W30 oil, which has been shown anecdotally to not protect the cam nearly as well as a good 5W40 CJ-4 spec.

Anyhow, the cam is a crapshoot; it's either worn or it's not, no way to know until you inspect it. The thing is, if it is worn, you definitely want to replace it at the same time as the timing belt. So that complicates your timing belt change plans.

The safest thing to do, if you're going to buy the car, is to plan for a TB and cam/lifters replacement as soon as possible. The cam parts are about $700 and there's usually not too much labor involved in addition to what's needed for the TB. Ideally you could find a guru in the Charlotte area who could inspect the cam, replace it if necessary, and do the belt all at the same time.

There are a few other nuggets of misery with the BEW, but overall it's a nice engine IMO. Check the lift pump, egr cooler, and glowplugs. The glowplug recall is important IMO, the original plugs had a nasty habit of breaking in the car and ruining the engine.

Edit: Just saw your follow-up post. See if you can find out from the dealer if the glowplugs have been done. The boost leak is probably not a big deal, maybe its an egr cooler recall gone bad like so many did. Given the news about the TB being done at 80K, I'd drive it back to your home, inspect the cam, and hope it will be good enough to last until the next timing belt change. Keep in mind that dealers often don't replace the water pump or the single-use bolts when they do the belt.

The paperwork from the dealer says that all recalls have been done and it needs no service at this time. From what he tells me it's got the broken solder so the lights don't come on when you open the door. The armrest hinge is broken and the rear view mirror needs to be re-glued. I was gonna drive it home then back to school in NY. I might put 4k miles on it but this summer i will spend the time and money to redo the cam if it needs it and i will have the timing belt done. The rear view mirror and arm rest is an easy fix.

Every one already hit what i was going to say lol check the cam and look at the oil used That is all. The lights not coming on when the door is opened is probably a bad switch do a search on here there's a 3 dollar fix on here from radio shack if you have some time you can knock it out in no time, mine has the same problem. If the belt was done around 80k ish they are due every 80k on the bew's


Robert

I'd risk it!

belome said:

I'd risk it!

Click to expand...

I plan on it.

Good luck! Let us know.

I flew down to NC on Saturday and bought the Golf, it's great it has a bunch of maintenance records. It looks like everything has been done. It drove great and i'm very happy. I'll be doing a lot of reading on the forums to make sure i'm up to speed on everything i need to know.

The most important question... who did the timing belt? Sadly, most people, including the dealers mess them up,

belome said:

The most important question... who did the timing belt? Sadly, most people, including the dealers mess them up,

Click to expand...

Dealer outside Chicago 77K. It doesn't look like he replaced any rollers. I'm gonna pull some stuff apart the next couple of weeks to check like the EGR and Cam. Then i'll put together a worklist for a guru. Coolant looks brand new so i'm assuming that has been changed a lot and the Water pump should be good.

Welcome to the club. The good part for you is that the previous owner was using VW South Charlotte. They seem to have improved a lot over the past 13 years and there is at least one person on here that works there. Joerg seems fairly competent for a service writer. Theri phone number is 704-552-6500 if you ahve any questions about what they've done to the car. I take all of my VW's there now.

kjclow said:

Welcome to the club. The good part for you is that the previous owner was using VW South Charlotte. They seem to have improved a lot over the past 13 years and there is at least one person on here that works there. Joerg seems fairly competent for a service writer. Theri phone number is 704-552-6500 if you ahve any questions about what they've done to the car. I take all of my VW's there now.

Click to expand...

I talked to Joerg before i bought, he gave me a lot of great information.