97 Jetta TD rebuild required? How much?

[relliott]

Hello,

I WAS driving a 97 jetta TD with 205 thousand kilometeres on it. It ran great the whole way until recently it started to sputter. At first pulling the manual choke would fix that and it would idle smothly. Progressively it got worst until I began to experience power loss and I began to here pinging in the motor as if it were low on oil (it was not).

The explanation  got from my mechanic is that the gear on the end of the crank moved thus changing the timing and damage occurred. He wants 4 thousand Canadian to rebuild the motor.

I would prefer to do this (if its really required) since the motor has low mileage and I changed the oil religeously.

Is that a fair price? Should I get a 2nd opinion?

[addautomotive]

i yi yi

Tough break. I would look for a good used engine if I were you. Sometimes the damage isn't too bad... repair the crank & rebuild the head. On the other hand, sometimes it's beyond saving.

Goes to show... once the timing starts to get wonky on AAZs, they need to be dealt with NOW. The previous owner of my car had similar symptoms to yours, and called the local VW dudes. He wanted to drive it in, and they told him to have it towed. He was lucky he did... the crank bolt had actually sheared, but the pulley hadn't gotten too loose.

[burn_your_money]

Well you definitely need a new crankshaft and valves. Pistons and the head may or may not need to be replaced. Once the head is pulled you will know if he gave you a good or bad quote.

[vwnut20]

Well, I would give 100% chance that there's definitively somes valves that where bent.  $4000 sounds about right (if your mechanic is charging $75-85/hr in labor).  Engine removal and install can be labor intensive and engine rebuild is very costly.  New seals, pistons which on a 1.9L TD are quite expensive, valves,  hopefully no extensive damage to the head, Crankshaft is reasuable assuming it's within spec.  Make sure you modify the crank to be able to fit a TDI crank pulley, I could go on.  I guess, you got to ask yourself that dangerous question. Is it worth spending all that money.  Well one way to look at it is, you got a fresh engine, that's pretty much gona out last the life of your car.  

I'm sorry for your misfortune and hope everything works out for you in the end.

P.S.  does the quote include removal & instal of the engine?