Should I buy a 2004 Jetta TDI?
 

I have been looking at picking up a TDI Jetta for a little while to use as a daily. While I love my truck, the last round of "mods" have dropped mileage to 11.5MPG. I dont drive a whole lot, but about 50 miles a day 5 days a week.

I found a 2004 Jetta TDI 5 speed with 200k miles that looks to be in good shape and taken care of. It has a new injection pump, timing belt, and high performance clutch. A buddy has told to try and take a look at the cam lobes for flat spots, is there anything else I should look for?

:Cheer:

Should I buy a 2004 Jetta TDI?
 

The BEW engine code got a run of camshafts that weren't heat treated sufficiently. If the edges of the lobes are knife edged, it's on its way out, but mine only made it to the 120k mark, and was missing then. It had also worn through one of the tappets. I doubt it will have trouble if it hasn't already.

The wiring on my 05.5 (A5 body)is ****. Make sure everything works electrically.

If the IP has been replaced, you are looking at an ALH engine.

I'm not sure about that model car, but many were built with dual mass flywheelsthe separate. If it sounds like marbles bouncing around, be ready to repair that.


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Just buy a small gasser car and be done. You will get similar mileage and have cheaper maintenance costs.

Hand calculated 50 is similar to 30? In what world?

Just had a rental car I drove the crap out of it and got 38 mpg. Factor in the fuel cost difference and back to very similar costs.

I am going to go take a look at this one in the morning. Its priced right, so I we will see. I appreciate everyones help!

I had an 04 BEW golf auto, only had 130k miles and broke down on me 3 times within 5k miles. It ran awesome with the kerma tune and vnt17 turbo, but I had already had enough.

Seemed like a good little car but I was worried about future issues. They are notorious for Vaccum issues which will put it in limp mode.



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I see buying a used car this way you are buying someone else's headache, The question how big of a headache is it. I have a 01 TDI golf which I love and just bought a 03 tdi jetta that has turned out to be a little of a nightmare but I'm working through it. With a little modification they are fun as hell to drive and get great mileage. If you are mostly highway there are different gear sets you can swap in for 5th gear to drop rpms and increase mileage.


Like stated above check the cam. New trick I learned is ask to pull the oil filter and look to see if there is any metal.

I'm in the same boat, I drive 12 miles to work and back each day and my low stall converter really doesn't like Temps below 20 until the truck gets warmed up.i had a jeep for a winter beater, but it finally gave up the ghost.

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My $.02,

I don't understand why everyone doesn't own a 1999-2003 Jetta???

We have had a few, best cars we ever owned. Currently have a 2000 and 2004 still running.

Our '04 has a common rail engine. More power than the 1999-2003 ALH engine, but, worse mileage and it is common rail.

My 16 year old daughter did a complete body swap after she totaled her 04 Jetta. She swapped all her diesel stuff into a 1999 gasser body. Small hands and patience will yield big results with these cars.

I also have a 'hard to believe' manual transmission story about these cars. LOL

When my wife landed a nice teaching gig 60mi or so one way I knew the Ramcharger would break us and we needed to get her a TDI for the commute. In all the research I did everyone said to specifically stay away from the pump-duse auto TDI's. I spent so much time looking unsuccessfully for an '01-'03 ALH that wasn't either priced sky-high or ratted out I was about to chuck my computer out de window. I just couldn't find a good one in our time frame so we settled on our '04 Pumpe-duse 4-speed auto. It had 125k on it when we bought it and has been nothing short of a great investment and a great car. It is at 240k now and until recently we have never done anything except put fuel, tires and maintain it. It typically never gets below 39.5mpg to a tank and a best of 45-47. My wife loves it and I can't seem to get my her to sell it or trade it in. So we just threw down the money for new shocks, struts, rear brake calipers, brake shoes all around, turned the rotors, inner & outer tie rods, CV shafts, front wheel bearings and timing belt kit. Naturally, having done all that the transmission started acting up finally..go figure. I don't think it is major issue (sticking shift solenoid?) but we will see. Either way, at this point it sure doesn't owe us anything.
By the way a few things I learned from the fuel pump and used oil analysis is that it "likes" Bridgestone Ecopia tires and Lubrication Engineers Monolec 5-40. Good luck!

Pre 04 and mid 04 are rotary pump engines.

04.5 BEW to 06 BRM engines are PD (pump duese) EMUI's Arch

TDI was not produced for us market between 06 and 09.
09 began common rail engines

The CR engines are the emissions scandal engines.

I'm not sure when the DSG started.

You can get the cars with manuals, torque converter autos, or automated manual transmission. The manual and DSG both had dual mass flywheels that explode.

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Love my ALH TDI's.... heard decent things about the PD (2004+) models just inspect for cam wear. If its worn just throw a Colt Stage 2 in as a excusable upgrade. LOL
Keep the timing belt system and water pump changed every 100K, and change oil and filters regularly and they are great economic cars.

Most people can't believe my 2003 Jetta Wagon has 300,000+ miles on it! Lots of my friends make fun of my "station wagon" daily driver, but its paid for and gets 40MPG religiously and saves me A TON of money every month as I usually only fill up twice maybe 3 times a month ($30-35ea). I wave when I pass them stopping for gas every few days, and my MEGA would break me at 15-16mpg.

Well... I️ bought it. Got it home and realized I didn’t check for blow by... pull the cap and it seems to have pretty excessive blow by... great. Someone tell me it’s normal. Lol

It is normal for worn out engines to have lots of blowby! :)

There are three possibilities, worn rings, worn valve guides, piston hit the clinder wall. First thing I would do is pull the injectors and scope the cylinders. This thing is cheap and works well enough.
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I would pull the engine change out the bearings and oil pump, run a brush hone down the cylinders and install new Goetze rings. Only other thing to check is the valve guides in the head.
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I don't know if it is "normal" or not, and I can only speak for myself; but ours is the same way man. Also, I've been around more than a few definitely not worn out Mercedes OM617's and BMW gas motors that were the same way. None of these motors had the typical, smokey blow-by, didn't use oil, smoke, and ran strong. However if you were to take the oil cap off all had strong clearly defined pulses of pressure you could feel with your hand & strong enough to blow oil out without the oil cap on. I've always thought it strange and it makes me wonder if it is just a European thing/engine building strategy to run positive crankcase pressure? I honestly don't know. Thing is our PD has always been this way, runs strong, doesn't use a drop of oil between changes, or show any other signs (that I can tell) of a badly worn motor. One other thing I've come to appreciate about this car is that even with factory CCV in tact and just a catalytic converter and straight pipe out the back it has the cleanest exhaust both in terms of sight and smell of any diesel I've owned by far. Hell, it smells similar to our Eco-diesel before it was deleted and a lot of the aftertreatment equipped trucks that come in the shop.

To me it has really low power, that may be me though. My daily 04 may be about 550hp so it’s hard to compare to this... but I️ feel like it has a boost problem or fueling problem. Here are some engine bay pics. I️ looks a previous owner may have done some upgrades, they did say it had a new Performance clutch in it.


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That's a BEW. Check the cam. They have done something to the nozzle control on the turbo. The clutch and flywheel are probably from a VR6.

It won't drive like anything you have had before.

My BEW has what seems like a bit of blowby also. Nothing I would worry about.


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How much boost should it make? I️ am going to throw some gauges on it, fuel pressure and boost.

It does have a bunch of new vacume lines and “n75” boost valve. But the check engine light is on, so I️ am thinking it may be in limp mode.

I️ pulled off a plastic charge air tube that had oil on it to pressure test it and it’s got a good amount of oil in the charge pipes. Is that normal, like a powerstroke usually has?