Dead at 756,498 kms - General - VWDiesel.net The IDI, TDI, and mTDI source.

• Dead at 756,498 kms by bvolks73 on 04 Apr, 2008 07:15
• It doesn't look like I'll be letting the price of Diesel get me down for a while. The old Jetta finally gave up the ghost at 756,498 kms due to the head/ head gasket finally letting go. It had been worrying me for a while but I had to try to keep it alive until I got the GLI back together. She finally started overheating bad yesterday so I figured it was time to finally give up. Looks like a good time to do the body and paint while it's laid up and with any luck it'll have a TD in it when it goes back on the road. First time it'll be off the road for more than a week or so due to mechanical problems in the 12 years I've owned it.
• #1 by burn_your_money on 04 Apr, 2008 08:49
• That's a bummer. Is it the original headgasket?
  Owned it since new?
  What type of maintenance have you done?
  You drive a lot.
• #2 by 1slowvw on 04 Apr, 2008 08:52
• Hey, wow 750k, thats pretty crazy. if you were looking for an NA to throw in the mean time, pm me, I'm going to be pulling one in the next couple weeks(going to be replacing it with a TD) and I wouldn't be oposed to parting with the old NA.
  
  1SlowVW
• #3 by Op-Ivy on 04 Apr, 2008 10:29
• Sorry to hear. Too bad it couldn't keep going!
• #4 by bvolks73 on 04 Apr, 2008 10:32
• No hurry. Unless the gasser Jetta I just dug out to replace it is really hard on fuel I'd rather give it a bit of a rest and do the body/ paint too. The car isn't rusty but it's never been painted and has dings and dents everywhere. I have replacement fenders, hood, trunk lid, bumpers, doors etc already (I've been planning on painting it for a while), the paint and access to a paint booth so there's no better time to do it. This is the third motor so far with probably 250,000 kms since it was rebuilt (original lasted until 470,000) and the second transmission (original lasted until 595,000). Aside from the glass, body and wiper motor nearly everything else has been replaced over the 12 years I've owned it. I think I got a good deal on it when I bought it in 1996 for $400 from the second owner. It had 363,000 kms on it and I figured if I could get a year out of it I'd be happy. I have a spare NA motor but I really want more power. The motor I'm getting for it is out of my brother's 87 with around 50,000 kms since it was rebuilt so it should be the last one I put in it before I hit the 1,000,000 kms I'm aiming for. Doesn't look really bad for it's age/ mileage though. The ugly hood bra hides a lot of uglier deer damage.
  
  
• #5 by Baselyne on 05 Apr, 2008 05:45
• fix the head gasket
  I bet you'd get another 200 or so....
  
  what a high count of km's, Didnt someone on vortex post 600 thousand as being the highest recorded ever?
   
  This is looking good for those re-build owners
  
  thanks for the record, That's amazing
• #6 by bvolks73 on 05 Apr, 2008 07:15
• I could just fix the head gasket but I REALLY want a bit more power, especially now that I'm getting used to the power that my gasser has. I know a TD likely won't have that much power but every little bit helps.
• #7 by the caveman on 05 Apr, 2008 08:14
• About 17 -20 years ago there was someone in Alberta who claimed and his VW dealer verified that he went more than 750,000 kms with only one  HG
  replaced in his TD rabbit. He had changed a couple of waterpumps and alternators but amazingly little else.  Synthetic oil [when hardly anybody else used it], all highway at the speed limit. Don't ask me to prove any of this as i don't know who he was and it was a lloooonnnngggg time  ago for my brain .This all came through the VW dealer's grapevine when we still were using TIL machines.
• #8 by bvolks73 on 21 Jun, 2008 14:21
• I finally got around to doing an autopsy on the motor this afternoon and here's what I found.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Whatever happened happened to #4 cylinder because it's very clean and shiny compared to the others and has weird stuff "growing" around one of the valves but I can't really see any damage to the gasket on that cylinder. (Unless the lighter areas between #2 and #3 and #3 and #4 mean anything). Am I missing something? I also noticed the tip of #3 injector was clean and shiny while the rest were black. I'm surprised there is very little marking on the pistons from when the timing jumped and the valves and pistons hammered each other a while back. I'm trying to make up my mind whether to put my brother's TD in it or just replace the head and head gasket.
• #9 by burn_your_money on 21 Jun, 2008 15:43
• Pretty sure those clusters are just old coolant
• #10 by rabbitman on 22 Jun, 2008 13:30
• I think if you get a bad head gasket the coolant steam cleans the combustion chamber, might explain cyl #4.
• #11 by Deutschbag on 22 Jun, 2008 13:35
• This dude has over 900k kilometers, 562k miles:
  
  http://www.vwvortex.com/artman/publish/volkswagen_news/article_2047.shtml
  
  It was like a year or two ago, VW was doing a search for the highest mileage diesel in the USA and this old timer won. The prize? 6 months of driving a V10 diesel touraeg  :roll: They should've given him a car, who the hell wants a car for 6 months?
• #12 by bvolks73 on 18 Jul, 2008 09:27
• Slowly making progress. At this rate I'll be lucky to  have it back together by fall. :oops: I'm going to clean and repaint the engine bay and replace the whole front subframe before I put the new motor in. Sometimes I wonder if it's worth all the effort but sentimental value must be worth something.