beherenow1
New member
Long time listener, first time caller!
Long story short I went on a road trip this summer in a buddy's 2010 Jetta Sportswagen TDI and I fell in love. It cost me more to drive round trip 800 miles to meet him than it did for us to put 4,000 miles on before he had to turn it in in the recall!!! 55+MPG most of the trip. Awesome. I've spent 6 months trolling this forum, craigslist, etc trying to get an idea of what I was going to get myself into.
I bought a 2004 Jetta TDI with 240,000 on the body and an engine with approx 80,000 miles on it (so I'm told, right?). I knew that the dreaded timing belt job was done and that for $2200 I'd at least be saving some money to fix inevitable problems. I was told the check engine light was the TPS needing reset. I didn't think it drove bad at all, just a little sluggish (not quick). I drove home 3 hours on the interstate cruising at 80mph with no problem. Maybe not a lot of pick up and when using the cruise I'd lose 5-10 mph on bigger inclines.
Brought home to mechanic, had to replace shocks/struts brakes rotors front wheel bearings and lower ball joints. Springs didn't even have a plate. Point being... who knows what was actually done or not done to this car. I've driven it almost 500 miles since and for the most part I'm happy. Great MPG and I'm a fairly chill driver. We ran the scan tool and outside of glow plugs the tiptronic and transmission temperature sensor came up. I've done my research and can deal with glow plugs... seems like the tranny issue is basically "I'm screwed" for any realistic price.
Now here is where my strange issue comes in:
I pulled the air filter and cleaned the MAF sensor. The air filter was super dirty so I replaced. The air box actually had a mud wasp nest in it. lol I heated her up and sprayed water into the intake to "decarbonize" or whatever... put her back together... and wow it sure did make a difference in pickup around town. I got her back out on the interstate several hours later... got up to speed (70mph) slowly but fairly well (I don't feel unsafe)... but just absolutely nothing past that point. When we'd hit any incline she'd lose speed. If I gunned it the RPMs would go as high as 3500 and just not even seem to maintain speed or give it any power... if I slowly pushed her up to 75-80 over flat ground or faster down a hill I could usually maintain that speed going up hill in that higher gear... but anytime I gave her a lot of RPM I got no more power. I know it did the tranny reading... but in general the tranny seems to operate smoothly. Could the intake manifold be all gunked up and that kills the acceleration? Is this a turbo issue? Am I in limp mode? No other codes came up... but from everything I've read it seems like fixing one problem is as likely to change another symptom? Could there be any truth to the TPS needing fixed or calibrated as told?
Should I just be happy with the mileage and not worry about the performance unless I feel it's dangerous? I've already dropped a fair amount of money in-is it worth messing with intake/turbo/etc for a car this old? I've read so much... is there any chance of an easy fix? I'm sure the fuel filter needs replaced... could flushing the AT fluid maybe fix the tranny heat sensor issue? So many possibilities!!!
I didn't see any TDI mechanics close to me on this forum... any near the East Central Indiana/Muncie area that are known?
Appreciate it, ya'll rock.
Long story short I went on a road trip this summer in a buddy's 2010 Jetta Sportswagen TDI and I fell in love. It cost me more to drive round trip 800 miles to meet him than it did for us to put 4,000 miles on before he had to turn it in in the recall!!! 55+MPG most of the trip. Awesome. I've spent 6 months trolling this forum, craigslist, etc trying to get an idea of what I was going to get myself into.
I bought a 2004 Jetta TDI with 240,000 on the body and an engine with approx 80,000 miles on it (so I'm told, right?). I knew that the dreaded timing belt job was done and that for $2200 I'd at least be saving some money to fix inevitable problems. I was told the check engine light was the TPS needing reset. I didn't think it drove bad at all, just a little sluggish (not quick). I drove home 3 hours on the interstate cruising at 80mph with no problem. Maybe not a lot of pick up and when using the cruise I'd lose 5-10 mph on bigger inclines.
Brought home to mechanic, had to replace shocks/struts brakes rotors front wheel bearings and lower ball joints. Springs didn't even have a plate. Point being... who knows what was actually done or not done to this car. I've driven it almost 500 miles since and for the most part I'm happy. Great MPG and I'm a fairly chill driver. We ran the scan tool and outside of glow plugs the tiptronic and transmission temperature sensor came up. I've done my research and can deal with glow plugs... seems like the tranny issue is basically "I'm screwed" for any realistic price.
Now here is where my strange issue comes in:
I pulled the air filter and cleaned the MAF sensor. The air filter was super dirty so I replaced. The air box actually had a mud wasp nest in it. lol I heated her up and sprayed water into the intake to "decarbonize" or whatever... put her back together... and wow it sure did make a difference in pickup around town. I got her back out on the interstate several hours later... got up to speed (70mph) slowly but fairly well (I don't feel unsafe)... but just absolutely nothing past that point. When we'd hit any incline she'd lose speed. If I gunned it the RPMs would go as high as 3500 and just not even seem to maintain speed or give it any power... if I slowly pushed her up to 75-80 over flat ground or faster down a hill I could usually maintain that speed going up hill in that higher gear... but anytime I gave her a lot of RPM I got no more power. I know it did the tranny reading... but in general the tranny seems to operate smoothly. Could the intake manifold be all gunked up and that kills the acceleration? Is this a turbo issue? Am I in limp mode? No other codes came up... but from everything I've read it seems like fixing one problem is as likely to change another symptom? Could there be any truth to the TPS needing fixed or calibrated as told?
Should I just be happy with the mileage and not worry about the performance unless I feel it's dangerous? I've already dropped a fair amount of money in-is it worth messing with intake/turbo/etc for a car this old? I've read so much... is there any chance of an easy fix? I'm sure the fuel filter needs replaced... could flushing the AT fluid maybe fix the tranny heat sensor issue? So many possibilities!!!
I didn't see any TDI mechanics close to me on this forum... any near the East Central Indiana/Muncie area that are known?
Appreciate it, ya'll rock.
