Blown lifters

[DIESEL DAZZLER]

In the last 2 weeks there have been 4 TDI's with blown lifters that I have seen at work and at home,3 were still running and 1 not.The 2 yesterday blew the same lifter on the same cyl.Both around 150k The dead one at 509k.
I am thinking that lifters should be changed at 2nd tbelt change,just to avoid failure down the road.

 

[Muggins]

Good point. Does the cam need to be removed? How complicated and time-consuming is it to re and re lifters?

 

[TDIMAXIMA]

All motors?

 

[Silver02TDI]

What kind of factors could contribute to this problem?

 

[P2B]

What kind of factors could contribute to this problem?

Using the wrong oil!

Simon

 

[LNXGUY]

416k on my car and my lifters look great!!! Checked them the last time I had the valve cover off to replace a leaky cam seal.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

So I guess YMMV. My '02 needed a cam and lifters at 160K. Perhaps you should inspect them at the 2nd TB change and replace at 200K, which is what I've heard from several mechanics.

 

[Toronto_Vento]

I just checked mine not long ago. They are all lifting right, so I'm not too worried at the moment. Will probably take another look whenever I do the next TB change.

 

[Silver02TDI]

How can you tell when they start to fail?

 

[LNXGUY]

Top of the lifters will be ground down by the cam lobes. They should be shiney and super smooth...

 

[Toronto_Vento]

Also, if you rotate the engine, the lifters (those things under the cam lobes) should move up and down. I've seen pictures where the lifters wouldn't come back up.

 

[Precisiontuning]

put a plastic screw driver on the lifter and try to push them down. Worn out lifters offer no resistance. I change my lifters on my car every year but I run a very aggressive cam.

 

[Brian B]

How much typically to get this checked and done? My car has 385k KM and never been done. Must need it though I'm sure now

 

[GoFaster]

I never did this on my '96 Passat, and I sold that with 462,000 km on it.

It's easy to do a visual and function check with the valve cover off. Mine looked fine on the Passat the last time I checked it.

Use the correct oil ...

 

[Toronto_Vento]

Brian, it seems to me (judging from all the stories) that the MKIVs are a little worse for this. Or, maybe it's just one of those things: there are more MKIVs on the road, so you hear more stories about them.

 

[Precisiontuning]

If your lifters are bad, they will make very loud knocking noise

 

[Brian B]

Thanks guys . With just the amount of km's on it I'm starting to put some real money into replacing stuff now.

Next project (Next week) will be Shock/Struts and bushings, springs, ball joints, tie rods, front bushings and rear axle bushings.

Then I guess I'll check the lifters. I still need to look at where my smoke is coming from at start up. I think one of my gaskets is going?? ??