So, I came across an 88 Jetta TD. It's charcoal gray with gray cloth interior. Very clean, and has 348k KILOMETERS on it. As you may have noticed, I said kilometers so this car appears to be Canadian but is/was registered in Washington state. So, that's roughly 216k miles. My biggest issue with it is that it's at a wrecking yard so I'm assuming it doesn't run and it seems like a good mileage for the engine to take a crap. It has new belts on it so it wasn't the timing belt death. I didn't check the engine code, but it's still hydraulic lifter so I'm assuming it's the original engine. I can get this car for $500 + tax....even though I'm not sure what I'd do with it since I already have 7 cars. What do you guys think?
No history? See if they' ll put you in touch with the previous owner! Try to start the sucker and see what happens...........
Just ask a few questions!
sounds like a bad deal :wink:
I think you should pass on this one :wink:
could be very expensive to fix :wink:
if you buy this car your dog wont love you anymore :wink:
by the way, where is this car at?
you know, just so I can avoid it too :wink:
ken
I actually bought that car like the next day or something. It was horribly out of time due to someone pretending they knew something about cars. I fixed the timing and it fired right and ran perfect to my surprise. I compression checked it the other day and it came back at 475 psi all the way across so I think I got a pretty good deal :wink:
I still need another engine for my truck though.
I actually bought that car like the next day or something. It was horribly out of time due to someone pretending they knew something about cars. I fixed the timing and it fired right and ran perfect to my surprise. I compression checked it the other day and it came back at 475 psi all the way across so I think I got a pretty good deal :wink:
I still need another engine for my truck though. 
348,000Km and 475psi per cylinder? You've just bought yourself a rebuilt 1.6 TD. Congratulations. The engine alone is worth over $2000.
I actually bought that car like the next day or something. It was horribly out of time due to someone pretending they knew something about cars. I fixed the timing and it fired right and ran perfect to my surprise. I compression checked it the other day and it came back at 475 psi all the way across so I think I got a pretty good deal :wink:
I still need another engine for my truck though. 
348,000Km and 475psi per cylinder? You've just bought yourself a rebuilt 1.6 TD. Congratulations. The engine alone is worth over $2000.
What would it normally pump with that kind of mileage? It took me 4 cans of engine cleaner before I could see that the head was in fact made out of aluminum, so if it was rebuilt, I don't think it was anytime recently. It still has the MF code engine.