Author Topic: need a little help (Read 2312 times)

duff · « **on:** January 28, 2009, 01:11:36 am »

hello all, i am new to the whole tdi thing and i am thinking about purchasing a 2002 vw jetta tdi. the kid i am buying it off of raced it and put a pretty hard 165K on it but he had the engine rebuilt and a new clutch put in about 500 or so miles ago. and so i have a few questions to see if this is a good deal or not.

First he is running the turbo at 18 psi and he has a switch that makes it go to 25 psi. Is this to much pressure on the engine?? or can it handle it just fine??

Second what should i look out for as tell tell signs that this car is a bad deal?

and finally what all should i inspect with this car??

i dont know too much about these cars so any help would be great. and sorry for filling up your forum with silly questions. Thanks for your time.

Smokey Eddy · « **Reply #1 on:** January 28, 2009, 07:15:35 am »

My TDI will get a collection of crud in the intake from hard driving. Dunno how you would figure that out though without taking apart his car :roll:

starting is always a good one.
colour of the exhaust is a good one.

they are exactly the same as the IDI's except for the electronics and i think they tend to have better compression for longer (but i really don't know what im talking about) I know nothing about the VNT's either.

duff · « **Reply #2 on:** January 30, 2009, 07:08:27 pm »

dose anyone else have any input

jtanguay · « **Reply #3 on:** January 30, 2009, 07:53:47 pm »

the VNT turbo on that motor can spike up to 35 psi at times (under abnormal circumstances), but it is nowhere near its efficiency range and should not be driven as such. i think 18 psi would be safe. i would like to know what was involved in the rebuild, and why it was rebuilt.

now there are some benefits to driving the car hard... it will keep deposits down and actually be beneficial to the turbo, but not if it was abused (pushed past its limits) but as smokey said, the intake will get nicely coated with deposits from driving too hard while the EGR system is open (which is when the motor is cold, which is very often if you're in a colder region, or if the EGR valve is stuck or sticky...)

one thing to check for is the cold starting. best to try in the morning after its sat overnight. if she starts up good without hesitation or stumbling, then you know the glowplugs are good and the motor is okay.

now the crank nose on this engine isn't bullet proof either. if its been driven hard, it may be prone to breaking... maybe thats why he had it rebuilt???

shegel · « **Reply #4 on:** January 31, 2009, 02:52:15 pm »

i was told that driving the car hard would keep the boost up and help keep crud from building up on the intake....(mix of ccv gasses and egr soot) i typicly try and load my 00 up ocasionally to prolong my inevetable intake cleaning.

jtanguay · « **Reply #5 on:** January 31, 2009, 03:11:46 pm »

Quote from: "shegel"

i was told that driving the car hard would keep the boost up and help keep crud from building up on the intake....(mix of ccv gasses and egr soot) i typicly try and load my 00 up ocasionally to prolong my inevetable intake cleaning.

while more boost air will help, performance mods and boost will not.

duff · « **Reply #6 on:** February 04, 2009, 04:54:35 pm »

thanks for the help guys im gong out this sunday to check the car out.