Early 2000's TDI's

'Powerstroke7.3

'Powerstroke7.3

Hearing Impaired
Joined
Jul 23, 2007
Messages
2,462
Been doing alot of reading on these bad boys and seems to be a great traveling rig. I have heard claims from grandpa's doing 57 mpg with a light foot. I WANT ONE. I know about the timing chain issues and changing them out every 60 k to 100 k. But besides the car its self being built with, well lets say shortcuts from what I have seen, is there any other pressing issues that would prevent me from spending 13 thousand bucks on one? I have heard it all from the owners I have talked to about crap just falling off the car and the vehicle its self being a giant pile of chit. (excluding the drivetrain). So what else do you guys/gals know about them?

Thanks

Daniel
 
I bought a 2000 Jetta 2 years ago off of Ebay for$3400. It had 264k on it when we bought it and needed a throwout bearing. While it was apart, I put a new clutch and single mass flywheel in (the DMF in these cars is junk). The car now has over 300k on it with no problems at all. On the highway, the car routinely gets above 50 mpg, regardless of speed, or AC use.... 54.3 is the best I have ever seen with the car. The worst was 38 mpg, which was all in town, with hours of idling, and running it hard when it was being driven. Usually it gets 44-45 in town.

The interior is very comfortable, although some parts are cheaply built. The center console hinge, and glovebox hinges are bound to break at some point.

www.tdiclub.com is an excellent source for VW TDI information. Timing belt maintenance is a must, as well as using the right oils. 2000-2003 were the "kings of mileage". 04 went to a newer style motor, and mileages dropped a bit, although not much. It is a great little car, and they make awesome parts runners. You would be surprised what you can fit inside one.....
 
I bought a 2002 Golf TDI 5 speed with 65K miles on it back in March of 08..

So Far I love it...Mileage is obviously great...I haven't had any issue with it except having to replace the drivers door weather striping...I had a slight water leak when it rained hard..

Other than that It's Awesome!!!
 
I love my 01 Jetta TDI. The interior is a piece of junk. Like so many others my center consol randomly drops while driving and I keep my glovebox locked to keep people from breaking the other hinge.
But I love the heated seats and it does have alot of creature comforts too.

I got mine with 130,000 miles for $9000. Leather interior, heated seats, nice wheels, new tires,new clutch, fresh starter, and a freshly replaced timing belt. Point being if you look around you can get them for a decent price.

Best miliage for me is 51 mpg. I once had a 56 mpg tally but I have never been able to repeat it so I look at it as a fluke. Lots of town driving will net me with 36 mpg in winter. This jumps to 41-45 mpg during warm months. Make sure you get a standard tranny!!

Great commuter car, I drive it more then my trucks now. Sure I get made fun of because its a girls car, but I laugh when I keep passing by all the fuel stations.:thankyou2:
 
BGarofalo said:
Sure I get made fun of because its a girls car, but I laugh when I keep passing by all the fuel stations.
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x2. and there is a fairly strong aftermarket for them.... nothing like rolling a little smoke and passin all the ricers with a TDI! It is amazing what a stock one drives like for only being 90hp and 155 tq.
 
I hear ya. Right when I bought mine I put a boost and pyro gauge set in, with dreams of turning it up, but I dont need to waste money, and the car is quick enough as it is, and still gets 50+ mpg. Its good enough for me.
 
i bought a 2001 golf tdi in may of 2006. got it for $12k with 110,000 miles. interior sucks but it is the most fun car i have ever owned. makes alittle smoke.

dealership charges about $1k to do the timing belt. oil changes, if using the proper required oil, is every 10k miles. i drive the piss out that car all the time and get 39-45mpg. if you drive slow and like grandpa you can see much more.

you also most know that these speedometers on VWs are KNOWN for being off. my speedo is 5 mph off at 70. so alot of people think they are seeing 50mpg and its actually 5-10% in reality if you hand calculate using a gps.


you won't be disappointed if you get a good one man.

i recommend gauges too. i have a stock deal.... WOT from stop to 100 and you can see 1400* if you are hauling ass. its higher if you are going up hill. boost tops out at 28psi or so, then settles down at about 10-15psi.

intakes are known for getting clogged with oil residue because of the recycling system it uses. must clean it out now and again.
 
I like my 90 Turbo Diesel Jetta.
http://www.competitiondiesel.com/forums/showthread.php?p=576081#post576081

Picture012.jpg
 
i have a 2000 that i picked up 6 months ago with around 165,000 miles on it.....if i had to do it over i'd get a newer one like an 04-06.......i have put a pile of $$$ into this one.....starter, alt. bat. struts, shocks, timing belt, water pump, head light adj. are stripped ( cant aim the headlights any more) new windshield, glow plugs, EGR clean out, and some other small crap.

but on a good note, it runs great and the millage is sitting at around 45mpg and is a joy to drive.


Scott
 
I have a 2002 5 speed tdi, a 94 c3500 6.5 dually, and a 87 k10 with 6" of lift and a built 383. The tdi is by far the most fun of the 3 for any drive more than across town.

My last dyno was 186 whp with low fueling. But I threw a rod 2 days after the dyno so I didn't have a chance to redyno with upped fueling which would've been over 200. My new turbo decided to unbolt it self the day I put it on and had a runaway result after 50 miles. The breif runaway caused a stress fracture in the #4 rod. It took 3000 miles to propagate into a full fracture and let go thrusday before christmas. But now I'm doing a full performance rebuild going for at least 250hp and 350fl/lbs. I'll be spinning somewhere between 5500 and 6k.

They're really quite amazing little motors if you know how to play with them. I embarrassed more than fair share of ricers and unsuspecting people. People get really confused when a "girl's" car blows a cloud of black smoke and whistles like a semi. A stock car with a lift pump, rocketchip state 3+ asv tuning, and set of either bosch .216, bosio pp520 or bosio pp764 injector nozzles is an absolute blast to drive and will return over 50 on the highway easily. First and parts of second gear become useless though haha. Even with my car as modded as it is, driving the way i do, returns high 40's easily. My worst ever is 28 mpg towing my friend's 2 seater vw based sand rail.

Poke around over on tdiclub.com and you'll be surprised what you find in the performance section. But as others have said, the major stuff is doing the timing belt every 100k and the normal basics. The glovebox and center console hinges have been known to be problematic but luckily mine haven't.
They're awesome cars, get one and you won't be disappointed.
 
Everything up until '03 has a first-gen-Cummins-esque VE rotary pump, right?


Most of the theories and modifications for the 89-93 Cummins apply to the VE Volkswagens, and several of the same parts as well.
 
Correct, everything 04 and up is unit injected. The pump is basically a 4bt pump with an electronic quantity adjuster sitting on top. Manual cars came with a 10mm piston pump and automatics came with an 11mm. A very nice setup is getting a hold of a complete 11mm pump, putting a 12mm 4bt head and plunger on it, using the 11mm camplate (higher lift than the 10mm camplate), 10mm pump springs (stiffer than the 11mm ones to better control plunger float), and 10mm pump delivery valves (have larger internal passages). That pump with a set of .260 injectors will deliver enough fuel for about 275 hp and 400+tq. Getting the rest of the engine to take that is another challenge though. 14mm heads also exist but the reliability is very questionable. I had one, but it only lasted 350 miles. So now I've got a 12mm cummins head waiting to go one once I finish rebuilding my motor.
 
Camotanker said:
i bought a 2001 golf tdi in may of 2006. got it for $12k with 110,000 miles. interior sucks but it is the most fun car i have ever owned. makes alittle smoke.

dealership charges about $1k to do the timing belt. oil changes, if using the proper required oil, is every 10k miles. i drive the piss out that car all the time and get 39-45mpg. if you drive slow and like grandpa you can see much more.

you also most know that these speedometers on VWs are KNOWN for being off. my speedo is 5 mph off at 70. so alot of people think they are seeing 50mpg and its actually 5-10% in reality if you hand calculate using a gps.


you won't be disappointed if you get a good one man.

i recommend gauges too. i have a stock deal.... WOT from stop to 100 and you can see 1400* if you are hauling ass. its higher if you are going up hill. boost tops out at 28psi or so, then settles down at about 10-15psi.

intakes are known for getting clogged with oil residue because of the recycling system it uses. must clean it out now and again.
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Yeah, my speedo seems off by almost 4 mph.....But, checking the miles against my GPS, it's not too far off....It takes Several miles before they start to get off timing a bit....either way....It goes a FREAKIN long way on 14 gallons of fuel!!! =)


Intakes getting clogged????? Heard this before.....So changing the filter does cut it???? Details please on exactly what I need to do???

Thanks


Never really thought about EGT's on my Golf.....Hmm........With stock fueling, can it be a problem with just the car's weight and driving hard??? Never heard of one melting or breaking from this...... Hmmm.
 
Big Swole said:
Intakes getting clogged????? Heard this before.....So changing the filter does cut it???? Details please on exactly what I need to do???

Thanks
Click to expand...

The EGR really screws up the intake on these cars.

I removed the one off my dad's 02 and it was at least 30% plugged.

The car was completely different after that.

You can remove the intake hose and take a look on the inside of the manifold, if you see nasty black stuff in there then it's best to remove the manifold and have it hot tanked.

There are EGR eliminators out there and I would recommend looking into one for sure.
 
zukgod1 said:
The EGR really screws up the intake on these cars.

I removed the one off my dad's 02 and it was at least 30% plugged.

The car was completely different after that.

You can remove the intake hose and take a look on the inside of the manifold, if you see nasty black stuff in there then it's best to remove the manifold and have it hot tanked.

There are EGR eliminators out there and I would recommend looking into one for sure.
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EGR screwing up these cars is an understatement. When i first got my car it was completely nutless; come to find out there was only a 5/8" passage through the black gunk in my intake haha.

Rip the cooler off, gut the egr body, clean the intake out, get the car chipped, and never look back.
 
Whitbread said:
Correct, everything 04 and up is unit injected. The pump is basically a 4bt pump with an electronic quantity adjuster sitting on top. Manual cars came with a 10mm piston pump and automatics came with an 11mm. A very nice setup is getting a hold of a complete 11mm pump, putting a 12mm 4bt head and plunger on it, using the 11mm camplate (higher lift than the 10mm camplate), 10mm pump springs (stiffer than the 11mm ones to better control plunger float), and 10mm pump delivery valves (have larger internal passages). That pump with a set of .260 injectors will deliver enough fuel for about 275 hp and 400+tq. Getting the rest of the engine to take that is another challenge though. 14mm heads also exist but the reliability is very questionable. I had one, but it only lasted 350 miles. So now I've got a 12mm cummins head waiting to go one once I finish rebuilding my motor.
Click to expand...

What's the best place to get all of these pump pieces?
 
Begle1 said:
What's the best place to get all of these pump pieces?
Click to expand...
Haha, now thats a good question. The more creative you can get, the less it will cost. Ebay, craigslist, or a junkyard are probably the cheapest place to get ahold of a full 11mm pump. Put up a post in the classifieds on tdiclub and you could get the 10mm parts easily and cheaply. Ebay or junkyards would probably be a good place to look for the 12mm 4bt pump parts. Of if you're feeling really daring, you can get a chinese 12mm head for less than 100 bucks.
 
you wont be disappointed if you buy one i have had my 2000 golf for 8 yrs now and love it and just ordered my wife the new jetta sportwagon tdi. and if you do decide to buy one and want alittle more hp go to tdiclub alot of useful info on there. had mine chipped, nozzles, and new clutch now its up around 140 hp and still getting 50mpg.
 
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