Turbo replacement for ALH - which one to chose? which ones are poor choices?

[Vlad123]

OMG, I get so lost looking through all the threads with my search terms. I know this must have been discussed before... sorry.

Got an 03 jetta ALH, 274K miles, got a bad turbo. Not original owner, bought it with 250K miles, not sure how much life she still has in her.

Not sure I want to spend for new OEM part. (Borg Warner is $1000 to $1200)
Should I go with aftermarket or remanufactured?

I'm looking on RockAuto's site

PURE ENERGY, ROTOMASTER, NISSENS all in the $415 to $500 range
MAHLE / CLEVITE new is $770

PURE ENERGY remanufacture $450
CARDONE remanufacture $540


Anything to stay away from? Should I pony up and get the MAHLE? I won't hold anyone to specific advice. Sometimes it is good just to make a choice after eliminating poor choices.

Thanks

Vlad

 

[Abacus]

Wrong forum so I’ll move it.

 

[Vlad123]

Wrong forum so I’ll move it.

Wrong forum so I’ll move it.

gheez, batting a thousand here. Thanks

 

[03TDICommuter]

IBW has a Mahle in his or his son's car and says it's doing well. IDParts still sells it so it must be good. RockAuto HAD SMP, which is a Garret. Not seeing it there anymore.

 

[GlowBugTDI]

A new turbo is only as good as the timing belt. If your wanting the car to last a good quality turbo is the way to go. That said make sure your timung belt is in order mileage/years wise.
270k isn't half bad for an alh. Keep it in good working order and its good for a few more hundred thou.

 

[csstevej]

Motors barely broken in at that milage…… Idparts has good turbos….I had gotten a Re manufactured Garrett from them which was cheaper than a mahle at the time….but you won’t go wrong with either if they have them.
Also what Glowplugtdi says about your timing belt should be listened too……

 

[Vlad123]

A new turbo is only as good as the timing belt. If your wanting the car to last a good quality turbo is the way to go. That said make sure your timung belt is in order mileage/years wise.
270k isn't half bad for an alh. Keep it in good working order and its good for a few more hundred thou.

Wow. I didn't think the timing belt had anything to do with the turbo. I assumed the timing belt was either working or if it broke you are screwed. Can you expound on how the timing belt affects the turbo?

 

[Vlad123]

A new turbo is only as good as the timing belt. If your wanting the car to last a good quality turbo is the way to go. That said make sure your timung belt is in order mileage/years wise.
270k isn't half bad for an alh. Keep it in good working order and its good for a few more hundred thou.

What other parts should i be sure to change with the turbo? Should I also change the turbo oil feed line and the oil return line? The hoses to the Intercooler?
I have oil accumulating in the intercooler... it's the turbo that pulls/pushes its own oil, right?
Can/should I be using anti-seize lube when bolting it down?

 

[Zak99b5]

Wow. I didn't think the timing belt had anything to do with the turbo. I assumed the timing belt was either working or if it broke you are screwed. Can you expound on how the timing belt affects the turbo?

He meant that your turbo (along with the rest of the car) is useless if your timing belt breaks. You need to know your timing belt was done correctly and was installed with quality parts less than 80-100K miles ago. If there's any doubt, it should be replaced.

 

[GlowBugTDI]

Wow. I didn't think the timing belt had anything to do with the turbo. I assumed the timing belt was either working or if it broke you are screwed. Can you expound on how the timing belt affects the turbo?

Sorry for the confusion. As zak99b5 said I meant that you could put a brand new $800 turbo on, but if your timing belt breaks 20k miles later its a sad loss.
I don't know what you do or don't know about the cars previous maintenance. If your going to throw a new turbo and a decent amount of money at it it'd be nice to know the timing belt isn't going to self destruct your engine before you get around to replacing it. Assuming you don't know when it was last replaced. If you do then your probably good.

 

[burpod]

you can get a virtually drop-in replacement for a vnt15 with a vnt17 from xman for 450GPB

 

[GlowBugTDI]

What other parts should i be sure to change with the turbo? Should I also change the turbo oil feed line and the oil return line? The hoses to the Intercooler?
I have oil accumulating in the intercooler... it's the turbo that pulls/pushes its own oil, right?
Can/should I be using anti-seize lube when bolting it down?

There are more people on here with better knowledge so hopefully they chime in.
I would put a new oil feed line on as they can sometimes twist or hairline crack if they bend.
Unless the return line breaks I'd just clean and reuse i guess.
Your intercooler piping should be fine, but I would definitely either takenthr intercooler off and drain. Or drill a very small hole in the bottom of it. The oil will drain out and you can put a screw or bolt in its place.
My cars have had a 1" sheet rock screw as the intercooler drain plug. No boost issues. Just be sure that the drill hole is much smaller then the thread size so it can bite into the material really good.

 

[GlowBugTDI]

What happened to your turbo btw?

 

[hskrdu]

If you use one of the vendors which support TDI Club, you'll be fine. Call and ask specifics, or just use their websites to gather all the suggested accessory items. For a turbo, I wouldn't even think about Rock Auto. There are some parts that are worth paying for quality, I'd suggest a turbo is one. I'd get the same or equivalent VNT-15 from a trusted vendor, and the car will (hopefully) be on the road for another 200k miles. I think IDP still has "reboxed" Garrett units for $750 and Mahle for $850/
Metalman is in PA:
Marquette Automotive

Marquette Automotive AKA www.metalmanparts.com

Marquette Automotive AKA www.metalmanparts.com Offering Parts and Service for VW Cars, Specializing in Diesel TDI models.

metalmanparts.com

The vendors that support Fred's are all very helpful (and can be found on the forums). Good parts and help can also be found from:
IDParts
https://www.idparts.com/idparts.com/
Cascade German
www.cascadegerman.com

 

[Vlad123]

What happened to your turbo btw?

I did not take the turbo off yet ... i just got it towed a few days ago. At first it was struggling to get up hills at speed as I was heading up to Syracuse from NJ (I was 3 hours into the journey). The oil light went on so I added oil. Then it was pushing out a lot of smoke from the tail pipe. I also got intermittent phantom acceleration - so I guess the oil is being burned as fuel? Had to keep it in geer and switch gears quickly when i felt it doing that. Kept having to add oil. Intercooler is filled with oil. Luckily I have AAA platinum and got a 185 mile tow back to NJ.

NO CHECK ENGINE LIGHT, which I thought was odd.

I assumed the turbo is not repairable but I am open to suggestions.

 

[Vlad123]

There are more people on here with better knowledge so hopefully they chime in.
I would put a new oil feed line on as they can sometimes twist or hairline crack if they bend.
Unless the return line breaks I'd just clean and reuse i guess.
Your intercooler piping should be fine, but I would definitely either takenthr intercooler off and drain. Or drill a very small hole in the bottom of it. The oil will drain out and you can put a screw or bolt in its place.
My cars have had a 1" sheet rock screw as the intercooler drain plug. No boost issues. Just be sure that the drill hole is much smaller then the thread size so it can bite into the material really good.

I never understood why oil builds up in the intercooler. My old 03 jetta wagon died - piston rods bent badly. My mechanic asked me what I did?
After a lot of reading it was either that
1. I drove through a puddle and water came in to the air intake. It was raining that day.
2. The intercooler wasn't "draining" properly and thin layer of oil accumulated in one or more of the cylinders, thus changing the volume of said cylinders and causing fuel to ignite early before the piston stoke was at its max compression.
3. Maybe a half year or a year prior my mechanic used whatever stuff you spray into a gas engine (Hot Shot?) to get me started on a very very cold day. He told me only to do it in emergencies. Only recently did I learn to use a certain silicon lubricant spray to start up a diesel engine that wont turn over. That spray pushed the rpms to the start of the redline. I'm not sure if this caused an initial stress in one or more of the rods that later compounded.

So you drain the intercooler oil every so often? Then put it back into the engine?

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

If your turbo stops making boost for whatever reason (bad actuator, broken shaft, blades stuck against the housing) it will cause differentail pressure on the two sides (cold and hot) of the turbo and force oil into the intercooling system and/or down the tail pipe. If you have no boost the car will smoke a lot.

When the tubo stopped boosting you should have stopped driving the car. Continuing to drive is what caused the intercooler to fill with oil. And yes, the oil can get into the combustion chamber and make the engine run, or, if you're not lucky, run away and self-destruct. Which is another reason why, when a turbo fails, it's important to stop driving.

When the turbo is working properly the small amount of oil that comes from the crankcase vent and into the intake is passed through the system as a mist and harmlessly burned up. There shouldn't be any accumulation in the intercooler. There should be no need to drain the intercooler, ever.

The air intake on an ALH is at the top of the grille, under the front lip of the hood. If you ingested water through there that must have been one hell of a puddle.

You should NEVER use starting fluid in a diesel. That can destroy things.

 

[Vince Waldon]

Rods can get bent while the engine is running by itself on the excess oil being pumped into the system:

Before ordering a new turbo it might make sense to pull the glow plugs, spin the engine to spit out any remaining oil, and then run a compression test to see how the bottom end held up to the runaway. You'll need a diesel engine compression tester (gas version maxes out at 300 psi) and the adapter (which threads into the glow plug hole) is M10 x 1.

 

[PakProtector]

The 'spin the engine w/o glow plugs' may be enough to get fuel out of the combustion chamber in the piston, but I'd not count on it removing enough of the oil. More heroic measures are called for, likely involving a wee bit of flexible hose.

A 1/8" drill should make a fine M4x.7 tap drill considering it is into plastic. The seal does not have to be perfect( matter of fact I'd rather a wee bit of seepage to keep it drained ).

Douglas

 

[hskrdu]

And maybe consider a new mechanic? There's a trusted TDI mech in your county.

 

[Vlad123]

And maybe consider a new mechanic? There's a trusted TDI mech in your county.

The car and my business is in Bergen County, NJ. Anyone around here? They are either expensive or scamming you. One good guy is in NY state, Catskills.

 

[hskrdu]

I was thinking of Mike Hevner, who is near Montague, NJ. Here's the somewhat outdated thread:

Trusted TDI Mechanics - By State

Click Below : Looking to be added to the Member Recommended Mechanics List or have someone you want added ? Click me :) Member Recommended TDI Mechanics - By State List Member Recommended TDI Mechanics By State Map Disclaimer and suggestions for finding a mechanic for your car: TDIClub is not...

forums.tdiclub.com

 

[csstevej]

Where in Bergen county are you?

 

[Vlad123]

Where in Bergen county are you?

Maywood

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

Mike Hevner is good. You should go see him.

 

[Vlad123]

Mike Hevner is good. You should go see him.

Where is he? Name of repair shop, town?

 

[csstevej]

He’s in Montague nj , 268 clove road….. I believe it’s called M&M motorcycle or something to that effect…..he’s 20 minutes from where I live and I’m in Wantage nj just below the High point monument.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

M&M Auto/Cycle is correct.

 

[Vlad123]

Rods can get bent while the engine is running by itself on the excess oil being pumped into the system:

Before ordering a new turbo it might make sense to pull the glow plugs, spin the engine to spit out any remaining oil, and then run a compression test to see how the bottom end held up to the runaway. You'll need a diesel engine compression tester (gas version maxes out at 300 psi) and the adapter (which threads into the glow plug hole) is M10 x 1.

I bought the diesel compression tester. I am looking up how to do the test.
Questions
1) Should I just by the VCDS Software & Connector, since I always have at least 2 VW TDI's.

2) I see someone on YouTube running a compression test on VCDS, but where is the sensor? In the cylinder itself?

 

[fatmobile]

With VCDS for the old ALH, I didn't have to buy the software.
Just bought a KEY-USB or KII-USB.