TDI Wonder 4.0

[mr.mindless]

$700 2000 auto sedan in silver, lighter grey cloth interior in ok shape. 150k-ish
Some rocker rust, bad passenger fender (came with replacement)
Supposedly good automatic
Fresh tires on 15s
Recent reman injection pump
Quit and won’t start. Timing belt is whole, tight, and has teeth on it. Hoping it’s just a couple teeth out of time. Lifters are not shattered and are against the cam, so I may have underpaid, not overpaid. I’ll find out soon!

I was shopping for a boat donor. This might be a flip instead? TBD as yet.

[mr.mindless]

[mr.mindless]

It’s a stripper model. Manual windows and mirrors.

Lots of parts and a FULL set of timing belt service tools in the trunk.

3.5 cans of starting fluid, 2 gallons of new oil, and a zip tie on the glow plug harness

Paperwork found says injection pump may be bad replacement. Will start from scratch and see.



18may2022 it was at Basil VW of Lockport $345.60
6 miles ago on odometer

A
CUSTOMER STATES PARKING BRAKE LIGHT IS FLASHING. CHECK AND ADVISE.

B CUSTOMER STATES THEY JUST REPLACED INJECTION PUMP AND NOW VEHICLE
WILL NOT START


144341 vehicle will not start
scan.
no fault
charged battery and performed vehicle scan, no fault stored. I removed fuel feed line to high pressure pump and applied suction to line,
fuel was drawn from tank. I removed all
4 high pressure lines to fuel injectors and cranked engine, fuel was being pushed but at
low volume. I removed all 4 injectors and
re-connected all 4 fuel lines.
I cranked engine, no fuel is being
pushed through the fuel injectors.
High pressure fuel pump is at fault
(not building up enough pressure)

 customer declined work, re-assembled
fuel system

144341 customer declined further diag. customer declined further
diag.
****************************************************

6/13/22 Johnson’s automotive in Batavia $436.05
Fuel pump remove and replace
Bleed fluke system and adjust injection timing



Paperwork from Johnson’s doesn’t say if that was installing a used part or what.

[mr.mindless]

injection pump locked up, will rotate 1/3 turn or so before a hard stop in both directions, with fuel lines off. timing belt is mostly stripped of teeth. The crank still turned the cam though. Engine would do a full revolution, so valves might be OK.

Polish pump rebuild ebay'd, timing belt kit ordered.
timing belt had a loose and bent bolt on the big idler pulley too. That wouldn’t have lasted.

Will probably pull camshaft for ease of getting crank to TDC without interference. Might pull injectors or GPs and make sure all holes hold air pressure. I don't remember if I have the right fittings to do a compression test on these.

[mr.mindless]

Bottom of car looks pretty OK. Some rocker issues that look no worse from bottom than from top, and disconnected exhaust. Front end of that looks like it was never sealed up on the bottom at the cat, and the top of the weld is fine. back near that clamp it has a bunch of goobers and is fully separated.

[mr.mindless]

Polish injection pump arrived today. Haven’t been in the shop since I pulled this apart. Hopefully it just goes together and runs.

[mr.mindless]

This is really fighting me. All went together great. No setup mistakes on the belt, everything went together just dandy. Double checked my work a couple times now.

Pop tested the injectors and they looked decent after some cleaner went through them and tested even pressures too. All 4 glow plugs tested good on a battery too.

Have sucked clean fuel through the new injection pump and gotten all air out.  No computer indicated issues.

But the damn thing doesn’t want to fire. Injectors didn’t want to seal perfectly to the head. Third try on that and I broke a hold down bolt. Got that out of the head and found a replacement in my metric bolt bucket, still no dice.

I didn’t get to do a compression test. I do have a right size adaptor for the glow plug hole, but it only cleared everything in #1. Hits injector or head casting on other holes. Maybe I’ll have to figure out a right setup for that and confirm no piston-kissed/ bent valves that are killing compression.

[mr.mindless]

appears that this was an extremely stubborn bleed for some reason.

I got frustrated enough with it that I threw starting fluid at it and it fired. There were a few cans of starting fluid in the trunk, so I'm not going to think I did anything worse to it than what the previous owner already did...
I loosened injection lines at the injectors and got lots of foam.

I fired it a couple times on ether with the lines loose, tightened them up, and it fired and runs. restarted without issue after shutdown. Hopefully it'll cold start too.

Time for coolant and accessory belt and intake and to GTFO the lift.
Does have a fuel leak at #4 injector, not sure where but did dry off to check, and that is now wet.

[mr.mindless]

Trans seems good. 4.5 mile test drive down and back on Whalen
Need to do a little tuning to fix a rough idle and find a fuel leak that showed during test drive and chase the initial blinking brake light problem and make sure that’s not catastrophic before I put Sarah’s plates on it for until we find her something permanent.
I suspect the blinking brake light is just ebrake actuation switch but I’ll find out Monday or Tuesday…

Now i can finally get my wagon in for altErnst it and new injectors (hard start hopeful solution, it’s about all that’s left.

First time I’ve ever driven a TDI automatic. 0-30 or so is great. 40-60, put away the stopwatch and get out a calendar. Lol

[mr.mindless]

Gave an immobilizer error today. Haven’t chased. Hopefully battery disconnect fixes and it never ever repeats especially with Sarah possibly driving regularly.

[mr.mindless]

Started several times today. No further issues. Had a code set for weak key signal.

I’m very very very impressed with this headlight restore. Did it on my z4, great for months there so far. Brought these lights back from almost entirely opaque.



Committing to this as the stop gap car. Sarah replacing the equinox on her insurance tomorrow and I’m writing up the paperwork to title to her and put her plates on it.

Has a BRAKE and ABS light on, reports rear wheel speed sensor issues only. Bearings feel great. I don’t expect a BRAKE light blinking from that, just abs. Strange.

Exhaust repair and it’ll be good to go until whatever happens next. I’ll drive it for a few days first. While I wait for radiators

[mr.mindless]

Needed: ~18” of 55mm/ 2.25 exhaust tubing

Looks like my stock is all 3” and 5”

I am surprised I didn’t save exhaust tubing from the last VWs I scrapped but I seems I didn’t

[mr.mindless]

All done. Papers done. Hopefully rolling legal tmw.

May or may not ‘risky’ from home to dmv.

[mr.mindless]

I forgot to try putting clear over the Krylon silver to see if it matches the car better.

IWas gonna say it’s not a lot better than a black fender would be if I just bolted the new one on. But on second look in different equally poor lighting it’s not toooooo bad

[mr.mindless]

The clear made it look way worse. Splotchy. Either a mismatch or the clear is shot. It wasn't under-shaken...


Put almost 50 miles on so far today. check engine popped on, didn't pull code yet. ABS light stays all the time, the blinking BRAKE light was gone once but then back the next key cycle. Only brake codes previously were both rear wheel speed sensors. At a glance they looked good and the wires looked good but I didn't do a full trace.

Has a pretty good exhaust smell, I think the flex pipe must be cracked, and that's up by the engine so pretty annoying. As in "I hope the turbo studs don't all break off when I pull the exhaust" annoying.