I'll admit, I'm not great at digging through all of the information on this website so please forgive me if something has already been covered. However, there are a lot of moving parts in this story so I figure it's best to just get them all out there and see if anyone has been through something similar.
I bought a 2004 Jetta TDI BEW in July of last year. Within a month, I start having issues. At first, I started getting codes for the glow plugs. I checked them all and they seemed fine. Also, the guy I bought the car from told me that he had just installed a new harness and 4 new plugs. I didn't worry about it, too much, at the time.
Fast forward a few weeks and all of a sudden I'm in limp mode every time I'm driving it. I reviewed some of the items on here on the limp mode diagnosis page and nothing seemed to work.
Fast forward a few more weeks and I'm driving to work one day and the car starts shaking violently and nearly stalled. At that point, I took it into a shop.
It's also worth pointing out that it was incredibly hard to start and wouldn't start throughout the winter without a Frost Heater.
I get it to the shop and they immediately tell me it's the glow plugs. I wasn't buying it; but, I went ahead and had them changed under the agreement that they wouldn't charge me a nickel for labor and I'd supply the plugs. I had them do a transmission service on it because the shaking felt like it was transmission related.
I call for an update on the car and want to go pick it up and they tell me it won't start. I told them they'd need to plug it in for it to start and they said they'd had it plugged in for almost 24 hours and it still wouldn't start. Great. At least it started before I took it in there. I'm not really sure what they could have done to get it to no longer start; but, that's where we were.
I asked for their opinion and they said the lift pump in the fuel tank was shot. They wanted $450 for a new one and again I insisted that I'd supply the parts. I had a lift pump assembly expedited from ID Parts and they got that installed at the end of last week. I just spoke to the mechanic on the phone and he said he couldn't wait to show me the old lift pump so I could see how terrible it looked.
Now, before I start asking questions, I do want to point out that I'm not pointing fingers at the shop. They're a reputable facility and I trust them. However, I'm not in a position to keep throwing money at this and don't mind turning wrenches on my own, when I have the time.
A few things:
The mechanic mentioned that the lift pump was solid black and has no idea what was in the fuel that would have caused that. I bought the vehicle with 118,000 miles on it and have since put about 30,000 miles on it. I've only used ULSD from local filling stations. Is there an additive I can add with each tank of fuel to really clean out the lines? I ran Stanadyne in my diesel pickup truck with good results so I'm wondering if this community can recommend something for this vehicle.
He told me that the vehicle is still starting very poorly and he thinks it has something to do with compression, at this point. He told me a motor rebuild would probably be the only thing that could fix it now. Should I have them test the compression before I pick up my car so I know what I'm working with? He also said that it will start up just fine if it's warmed up/plugged in. Does that make sense that it'd be a compression issue if all you have to do is warm it up?
To recap - bad lift pump (solid black), new glow plugs, still starting really poorly. Apparently it isn't going into limp mode anymore and the mechanic is saying it was going into limp mode because the engine was starved for fuel because the lift pump was in the process of giving up the ghost.
I'm sure I've forgotten something and will add it when I remember. I'm just wondering if this makes a light bulb go off in someone's head and they've come across similar symptoms with an easier solution than a motor rebuild.
Thanks in advance!
I bought a 2004 Jetta TDI BEW in July of last year. Within a month, I start having issues. At first, I started getting codes for the glow plugs. I checked them all and they seemed fine. Also, the guy I bought the car from told me that he had just installed a new harness and 4 new plugs. I didn't worry about it, too much, at the time.
Fast forward a few weeks and all of a sudden I'm in limp mode every time I'm driving it. I reviewed some of the items on here on the limp mode diagnosis page and nothing seemed to work.
Fast forward a few more weeks and I'm driving to work one day and the car starts shaking violently and nearly stalled. At that point, I took it into a shop.
It's also worth pointing out that it was incredibly hard to start and wouldn't start throughout the winter without a Frost Heater.
I get it to the shop and they immediately tell me it's the glow plugs. I wasn't buying it; but, I went ahead and had them changed under the agreement that they wouldn't charge me a nickel for labor and I'd supply the plugs. I had them do a transmission service on it because the shaking felt like it was transmission related.
I call for an update on the car and want to go pick it up and they tell me it won't start. I told them they'd need to plug it in for it to start and they said they'd had it plugged in for almost 24 hours and it still wouldn't start. Great. At least it started before I took it in there. I'm not really sure what they could have done to get it to no longer start; but, that's where we were.
I asked for their opinion and they said the lift pump in the fuel tank was shot. They wanted $450 for a new one and again I insisted that I'd supply the parts. I had a lift pump assembly expedited from ID Parts and they got that installed at the end of last week. I just spoke to the mechanic on the phone and he said he couldn't wait to show me the old lift pump so I could see how terrible it looked.
Now, before I start asking questions, I do want to point out that I'm not pointing fingers at the shop. They're a reputable facility and I trust them. However, I'm not in a position to keep throwing money at this and don't mind turning wrenches on my own, when I have the time.
A few things:
The mechanic mentioned that the lift pump was solid black and has no idea what was in the fuel that would have caused that. I bought the vehicle with 118,000 miles on it and have since put about 30,000 miles on it. I've only used ULSD from local filling stations. Is there an additive I can add with each tank of fuel to really clean out the lines? I ran Stanadyne in my diesel pickup truck with good results so I'm wondering if this community can recommend something for this vehicle.
He told me that the vehicle is still starting very poorly and he thinks it has something to do with compression, at this point. He told me a motor rebuild would probably be the only thing that could fix it now. Should I have them test the compression before I pick up my car so I know what I'm working with? He also said that it will start up just fine if it's warmed up/plugged in. Does that make sense that it'd be a compression issue if all you have to do is warm it up?
To recap - bad lift pump (solid black), new glow plugs, still starting really poorly. Apparently it isn't going into limp mode anymore and the mechanic is saying it was going into limp mode because the engine was starved for fuel because the lift pump was in the process of giving up the ghost.
I'm sure I've forgotten something and will add it when I remember. I'm just wondering if this makes a light bulb go off in someone's head and they've come across similar symptoms with an easier solution than a motor rebuild.
Thanks in advance!
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