TDI 1.9 ALH Engine Died!

B

bugowner

Active member
Joined
Jun 19, 2004
Location
Canada, British Columbia
TDI
1999 Beetle TDI
I own a TDI Beetle 1999 with 185,000 KM on it. I was cruising along yesterday and a slight roughness and ticking occurred. No idiot lights came on at all and after a kilometer or so I decided that this was not going to stop, so I did. I checked the oil and all was fine. I tried to restart and it shook so bad that I quit trying immediately.
I had it towed to a small VW shop and he was able to start it but shut it off an has informed me that their is water in the cylinders (I hope I got this correct). He feels that the water of course killed the compression.
I have not been to talk with him as yet but it appears that maybe a catastrophic failure of the water pump or something had occurred.
I am looking at a major problem here. Can anyone give me any help as to what may have happened.
I am licking my wounds but any insight as to what may have occurred would be much appreciated.

:confused::(:eek:
 
R

redmondjp

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2004
Location
Redmond, WA
TDI
'96 Passat Sedan
Hmmm,

Sorry to hear of your situation. Have you owned this car long? Has the maintenance on the timing belt been done (it should have been changed once at its current mileage (or kilometerage :) ))? It's very hard to say from the information you have provided.

First, I would really check out the shop you are at before you let them tear into your car any further--you want somebody familiar with TDI engines working on it--there are too many things which can be screwed up by mechanics who are not intimately familiar with your motor. You'll be money ahead in the long run by not allowing just anybody to work on your car (even if you have to pay to tow it somewhere else--I wouldn't start the motor again until it is determined what is going on).

There are several TDIclubbers up in your area--anybody up north want to help out a fellow TDIer on this one?
 
S

slipknot

Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2006
i found on my 94 golf umwelt tdi it all wet a bit pete tong when i didnt use geuine vw coolant additive this manifested itself as spurious coolant leaks and problems i dont think i would have had if i had used the g11 coolant with its corrosion inhibitors etc this may be hgf (head gasketfailure)but to get the coolant in all cylindersleads me to believe a crack may have formed in the waterways in the head itself
 
Rudolf Diesel

Rudolf Diesel

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2001
Location
Western Pennsylvania
TDI
2006 Jetta
slipknot said:
i found on my 94 golf umwelt tdi it all wet a bit pete tong when i didnt use geuine vw coolant additive this manifested itself as spurious coolant leaks and problems i dont think i would have had if i had used the g11 coolant with its corrosion inhibitors etc this may be hgf (head gasketfailure)but to get the coolant in all cylindersleads me to believe a crack may have formed in the waterways in the head itself
Click to expand...
HUH?..
 
F

Fourdiesel

Veteran Member
Joined
May 19, 2003
Location
SW Wash. USA
TDI
'04 Touareg V10 TDI
Might be a timing belt problem

bugowner said:
I own a TDI Beetle 1999 with 185,000 KM on it. I was cruising along yesterday and a slight roughness and ticking occurred. No idiot lights came on at all and after a kilometer or so I decided that this was not going to stop, so I did. I checked the oil and all was fine. I tried to restart and it shook so bad that I quit trying immediately.
I had it towed to a small VW shop and he was able to start it but shut it off an has informed me that their is water in the cylinders (I hope I got this correct). He feels that the water of course killed the compression.
I have not been to talk with him as yet but it appears that maybe a catastrophic failure of the water pump or something had occurred.
I am looking at a major problem here. Can anyone give me any help as to what may have happened.
I am licking my wounds but any insight as to what may have occurred would be much appreciated.

:confused::(:eek:
Click to expand...
Ticking and subsequent roughness is consistent with timing belt slipping (if it is worn and/or hasn't been changed) the "ticking" in this example is the exhaust valves hitting the top of the pistons. If furthur slipping occurs valves can break, holes get in pistons and other bad things! The roughness you report could be the result of loss of compression/power in one or more cylinders.
If there is water in the cylinder(s) it could only happen if the head is cracked (absent a head gasket leak which is unlikely to cause "ticking"). If an exhaust valve broke the head of the valve could have made a hole in the head allowing coolant to get into a cylinder.:(
None of these scenarios are pretty! If you can make contact with one of the Club regulars up there in BC he might be able to do a hands on diagnosis.
Good Luck
 
J

JoeHafner

Registered Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
Nov 9, 2004
Location
Isny
TDI
Jetta 2014
Coolant pump??

Will this car still start even if it runs rough?
Could be the coolant pump is worn causing the T-Belt to go loose and skip teeth. This has been known to happen (to me) and ONLY the injection pump timing went out of spec. Very lucky. If the cam timing goes out of sync all valves WILL hit and the car will not run period.. Usually when a t-belt jumps you will not hear any ticking or have any warning other than a quick bang and then dead engine. I find it hard to believe the diagnosis of "Water" entering the engine and causing loss of compression. Where is this car located and at what shop??
Joe
 
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