My 2005 Golf TDI is throwing the PO299 error code. The mechanic that looked at it told me it was a bad vacuum pump, which he replaced. A day later, the code was back. Now he is telling me the turbo is going bad and I need to replace that as well. While I absolutely love this little car, I am questioning whether or not it makes sense to move forward with these repairs. I already have 210K miles on her, and I am concerned about what will fail next (i.e. would I be throwing good money after bad). I just recently had the heater core replaced which was not cheap. The timing belt was replaced at 180K. I am also kind of questioning the information I am getting from this shop that did the vacuum pump replacement… seems to me like it is possible that they mis-diagnosed the issue the first time around, what if they are wrong this time also? The pump cost me $600, the heater core was $1500, and the turbo will be almost $2500. Hindsight is always 20/20 of course, but if I had known two months ago what I know now, I would have started looking for a replacement vehicle.
I think I included all of the pertinent information to get some advice from the experts here, but if I left anything out please tell me and I will update this post. Thanks in advance for the feedback!
I think I included all of the pertinent information to get some advice from the experts here, but if I left anything out please tell me and I will update this post. Thanks in advance for the feedback!