donbo2000
Member
I have a 1996 Passat that I bought a couple years ago and while it worked fine initially it started to become harder to start. It finally got the point where it wouldn't start at all and being new to the TDI engines, I wasn't able to troubleshoot it at the time. I ended up leasing a car and mothballing the Passat as I was tied up buying property and moving and just needed something reliable in the short term. So after a year of non-op I turned my attention back to it now and having researched it more I was thinking maybe the timing belt stretched and that threw the timing off. I was able to rotate the injection pump and finally got it to start, I hooked up the vag-com I had bought (but hadn't used before) and the mechanical timing is off the graph, overly retarded. The problem is the pump is rotated as far as it can go towards the engine but it needs more rotation. Since the history of the car is hazy (it was "worked on" at least once by the NiceCars place) I decided to replace the timing belt. I bought the Metalnerds toolset and got everything lined up (crankshaft at TDC with a lockplate installed, cam lockplate in place with both lobes of cylinder #1 up and the lock pin in the injection pump), replaced belts and tensioners and tried to start it but still the same issue, I had to max out the rotation and was able to get it to start but it is still way off. So I'm thinking my only option is to loosen the timing belt and rotate the injection pump a couple of teeth so the pump would have a range of rotation that would allow me to dial it in with the vag-com.
I was looking for any thoughts/advice/guidance on this, as there is a good chance there is something I'm overlooking or screwed up (although the problem rose up without me doing anything other than driving it) or maybe there is another explanation of what is going on and how to fix it?
Thanks in advance for any help!
I was looking for any thoughts/advice/guidance on this, as there is a good chance there is something I'm overlooking or screwed up (although the problem rose up without me doing anything other than driving it) or maybe there is another explanation of what is going on and how to fix it?
Thanks in advance for any help!