60+ days in the shop, still no diagnosis

[cowgirl007]

I want my damned car back. First guy said it needed a new lift pump, stealership said $6.5k for an injection pump rebuild, third guy said it needed new seals on the injection pump, a new t on the fuel filter and now, since none of that fixed it, maybe some new fuel hoses, but he's not sure and he's closed until next Monday. Oh and he killed the battery. Is there a reliable mechanic located in Southern California? The list seems out of date. Or a running car I could buy? Honestly at this point I'm not sure why I'm paying registration and insurance on a car I haven't been able to drive since October.

 

[CleverUserName]

That’s nothing. My car has been in the shop since May. Canceled the insurance in July. Nothing but excuses and endless delays.

 

[Diesel Fumes]

In my experience, if i can't find a tdi guru, I ask a diesel mechanic. The alh especially is old school enough that there's a good chance a diesel engine tech can diagnose a lot of things on it. They probably won't have vcds though but diagnosing a problematic tdi might be something they are willing to try doing.

 

[peterdaniel]

Can you explain what the situation is? I might be able to help...

 

[ninedee_golf_tdi]

Ship that car to the east coast and it will be diagnosed properly in short order. Lots of folks here who figure out the unfiguroutable.

 

[Mozambiquer]

Don't even have to send it all the way out east... I'm in Missouri and bet I could figure it out.
Maybe I should start a mobile mechanic service where I go out to California and fix TDIs one week a month...

 

[Tdijarhead]

Don't even have to send it all the way out east... I'm in Missouri and bet I could figure it out.
Maybe I should start a mobile mechanic service where I go out to California and fix TDIs one week a month...

I like that idea. Travel out during the winter fix a few tdi’s and then back home during the summer.

 

[03TDICommuter]

I want my damned car back. First guy said it needed a new lift pump, stealership said $6.5k for an injection pump rebuild, third guy said it needed new seals on the injection pump, a new t on the fuel filter and now, since none of that fixed it, maybe some new fuel hoses, but he's not sure and he's closed until next Monday. Oh and he killed the battery. Is there a reliable mechanic located in Southern California? The list seems out of date. Or a running car I could buy? Honestly at this point I'm not sure why I'm paying registration and insurance on a car I haven't been able to drive since October.

Insurance and registration doesn't care about if the car is running or not, registration is on you to file an NPO but it won't help until the tags are due again.
Sounds like you're not finding a good mechanic. DieselFumes has a good idea - find a diesel mechanic. That or find a replacement pump. I know you've been looking but someone did reply that they had a 10mm pump. (I can't remember, is yours an automatic?)

 

[Keystoner16]

I would be interested to know the full details of the situation. It sounds like the OP is just bouncing from one shop, or "guy" to another which is often the worst course for everyone involved. None of the shops will have the full story, and the owner of the vehicle goes from one bad experience to another. I have a hard time believing there are no competent import/TDI shops in Southern CA. In my experience, good shops/technicians like to get paid for their work. Trying to have work done on the cheap is almost always more expensive in the long run.
My advice would be to find a competent shop and stick with them. Once a recommendation has been made, there must be a clear understanding between shop and customer of what the expectation is. Will this remedy the problem, or is it just an informed guess, after which more testing may be required? The customer has a right to expect that any shop will stand behind their work. If work sold as a repair has not remedied the problem, the shop should then be continuing on their dime, to a reasonable extent.
A good shop is well worth what may seem like unreasonable prices.
Good luck with your car.

 

[Prairieview]

In all honesty, this is a car which you can no longer afford to own. I simply can not imagine owning old stuff like this and NOT being able to perform all the work it needs myself. It is simply not even remotely cost effective in any sense.

Advertise it and let it go to someone who has the necessary skillset. End of story.

 

[Rrusse11]

"Maybe I should start a mobile mechanic service where I go out to California and fix TDIs one week a month... "

Mozambiquer,
There's a couple of guys on the Jeep CRD forums that do just that. A much rarer animal than the ALH.
Expensive with travel time and accomadation, but at least they have the necessary experience/knowledge
to work on the VM 2.8l TDI. Idparts has a lot of the parts.

 

[ninedee_golf_tdi]

If the weather between here and there wasn't so "white", I'd love to run on over there and see how long it would take to diagnose the problem, and then fix it. Most of us have stories of repairing stealership cars before they got off the roll back. Then again, some of us have stories of about something like an easy job of an outer cv boot on an mk4, then seeing a cracked chineseum oil pan, remove the screws to replace that only to find one of the bolts that goes through the oil pan into the rear main was cross threaded and twisted the thread sert out of it. What's a new rear main cost.... oh yes, tranny has to come out and clutch comes off.... so why not put a new clutch in while I'm in there (good call, it was grinding the rivets down). A $50 job turned out to be 300 times the cv job. Pay a "mechanic" $10 an hour, you get $10 an hour results. Pay someone who knows what they're doing (usually), that could be priceless. Or at least worth not losing your car for months at a time while some fool "looks at it".

 

[mrfiat]

Your car doesn't have a lift pump unless one was added. The injection pump sucks the fuel all the from the back which is why you never want to run out of fuel.

You never told us what exactly is wrong with your car?

 

[csstevej]

She’s got two posts going.

Source for a used or rebuilt fuel injection pump

What's a good place to get mine rebuilt?

forums.tdiclub.com

 

[cowgirl007]

Yes, please.

Don't even have to send it all the way out east... I'm in Missouri and bet I could figure it out.
Maybe I should start a mobile mechanic service where I go out to California and fix TDIs one week a month...

 

[cowgirl007]

The pump got resealed. It is no longer shooting out fuel from the back but it is still sucking air from somewhere.

Insurance and registration doesn't care about if the car is running or not, registration is on you to file an NPO but it won't help until the tags are due again.
Sounds like you're not finding a good mechanic. DieselFumes has a good idea - find a diesel mechanic. That or find a replacement pump. I know you've been looking but someone did reply that they had a 10mm pump. (I can't remember, is yours an automatic?)

 

[cowgirl007]

It is currently sitting over at SMS European in Huntington Beach which is listed on the trusted mechanics list. They called me on the 20th and said it was fixed and then called me the next day and said it’s still sucking air from somewhere.

 

[ninedee_golf_tdi]

For giggles, how much have you paid parts and labor to have your car sit there for months?

 

[cowgirl007]

For giggles, how much have you paid parts and labor to have your car sit there for months?

1st mechanic: ~$120 plus parts I provided for oil change, replace 1 wiper blade and drain water from fuel filter (which cause the car to stop working)
2nd (mobile) mechanic $80 gets it running for 12 hours, long enough to get up to Big Bear
3rd (mobile)mechanic when I was stuck in Big Bear $70 1st trip over gets it running for 2 hrs by priming fuel lines, $100 for 2nd trip over to install new fuel filter from amazon, prime lines again. This guy sees that mechanic #1 didn't tighten the bottom of the original fuel filter.
back to 2nd mechanic who charged $380 for new lift pump + $70 for OEM fuel filter because he insists on using OEM parts, drove the car back to me and said it was fixed
Dealership $187 for diagnosis
17 mile tow $90
4th mechanic no bill yet... He's had it since December 13

 

[CleverUserName]

1st mechanic: ~$120 plus parts I provided for oil change, replace 1 wiper blade and drain water from fuel filter (which cause the car to stop working)
2nd (mobile) mechanic $80 gets it running for 12 hours, long enough to get up to Big Bear
3rd (mobile)mechanic when I was stuck in Big Bear $70 1st trip over gets it running for 2 hrs by priming fuel lines, $100 for 2nd trip over to install new fuel filter from amazon, prime lines again. This guy sees that mechanic #1 didn't tighten the bottom of the original fuel filter.
back to 2nd mechanic who charged $380 for new lift pump + $70 for OEM fuel filter because he insists on using OEM parts, drove the car back to me and said it was fixed
Dealership $187 for diagnosis
17 mile tow $90
4th mechanic no bill yet... He's had it since December 13

As was already said, this car does not have a lift pump. An ALH that had pressurized feed from an in tank lift pump would not be sucking air, it would be spraying fuel.

Did you previously add a lift pump? Otherwise you got scammed by the 2nd mechanic.

 

[turbodieseldyke]

$380 for new lift pump

on a car that doesn't have a lift pump?

 

[cowgirl007]

I agree the dude who "replaced the lift pump" was dodgy AF. I told him to save all the parts he took off and he said "Oh, I forgot you told me that. I already threw it out." He sent me this photo. He also refused to give me a written invoice.

fuel-lift-pump hosted at ImgBB

Image fuel-lift-pump hosted in ImgBB

ibb.co

 

[Mozambiquer]

I agree the dude who "replaced the lift pump" was dodgy AF. I told him to save all the parts he took off and he said "Oh, I forgot you told me that. I already threw it out." He sent me this photo. He also refused to give me a written invoice.

fuel-lift-pump hosted at ImgBB

Image fuel-lift-pump hosted in ImgBB

ibb.co

Umm... So that's your old one? That's a stock photo from a car parts selling website. A quick Google image search pulls that exact photo up on eBay. It's a gasser pump, not a diesel one. https://www.ebay.com/itm/254815273761?chn=ps&mkevt=1&mkcid=28

 

[CleverUserName]

I agree the dude who "replaced the lift pump" was dodgy AF. I told him to save all the parts he took off and he said "Oh, I forgot you told me that. I already threw it out." He sent me this photo. He also refused to give me a written invoice.

fuel-lift-pump hosted at ImgBB

Image fuel-lift-pump hosted in ImgBB

ibb.co

Ironically, If you installed a lift pump from a 2004-05 Jetta it would probably solve your problem or it would be much easier to find the leak.

 

[MarsBar]

File a report with the BAR against the second guy, if he's a legit mechanic. Failing to provide old parts and a written invoice are huge no-no's to them.

 

[cowgirl007]

This one isn't a stock photo. https://ibb.co/mzShtRr

 

[Mozambiquer]

This one isn't a stock photo. https://ibb.co/mzShtRr

But still not the correct sending unit for your car.

 

[turbodieseldyke]

Should be easy to check whether he even installed it, by unscrewing the cover plate to the fuel sender. It should look brand new, and there should be a bunch of new wires spliced in to provide power to the pump.

 

[Tdijarhead]

Should be easy to check whether he even installed it, by unscrewing the cover plate to the fuel sender. It should look brand new, and there should be a bunch of new wires spliced in to provide power to the pump.

Exactly, new wires and a lift pump that doesn’t really belong there.

This is what the unit should look like.

Fuel Level Sender (A4 ALH)

Fuel Tank Sender for A4 chassis TDIs, there is no check valve on this....

www.idparts.com

back to 2nd mechanic who charged $380 for new lift pump + $70 for OEM fuel filter because he insists on using OEM parts, drove the car back to me and said it was fixed

So he insists on oem parts and provides a “lift pump” the car does not have and likely an overpriced amazon chinese fuel filter. There’s got to be something funny here but it just makes me mad that this guy is such a shyster.

 

[cowgirl007]

It’s just been a long line of over the top, incompetent mechanics. Couple years ago I had a mechanic who cracked the valve covers when he was doing a timing belt change. It started leaking oil so I brought it back in. He put goop on the valve covers and told me he could not find the source of the leak and then told me that it needed a new turbo charger. Two years ago, I had a mechanic who failed to bolt the tires back onto the axle after a brake change. So having a mechanic replace nonexistent lift pump is pretty much what I’ve come to expect from the local mechanics.