any VW TDI people here?

OK, long story short I just bought this 01 Jetta TDI and after messing with it and driving it, she tends to smoke light blue/white, not smokescreen bad but bad enough. I found that it tends to smoke when on throttle, more specificly in boost. So to confirm I pulled what I believe to be the charge pipe(upper most rubber pipe to some kinda squareish pipe) and sure enough it was oily and gunked up pretty good

So, I guess what I'm asking is does it sound like the turbo and if it is, where's the cheapest place to get a not crap new one... Don't really have a grand plus to spend on one, but don't want a cheap Chinese knockoff ether...

Whatchu guys think?

I've had a turbo professionally rebuilt before, and it's doing fine. Also, Pelican Parts sells a rebuild kit for VW/Audi, but only for the 1.8 gasoline engine, I believe.

My charge pipe (99 golf TDI) had quite a bit of oil in there. But no smoke. Had anyone messed with the fuel injection system? How's your air filter?

How many miles? And do you have any idea of maintenance history? $1k is a pretty normal amount for TDI repairs, they are pretty reliable and very efficient cars, but take a lot of money to catch up with all the neglected or improperly done maintenance if you don't get a really good one. I know a couple people who work on them a lot, but I sold the one I had have only about 3k miles because I was going to end up with $12k into it if I fixed everything (for a $5500 car).

go to tdiclub.com find a guru local to you and get in touch with them. Mine would smoke a bit but only under full throttle. Someone local will also have a VAG unit and can hook up to the car to check its diagnostics. I would not assume its the turbo yet.

I just asked one of the people I know who works on them a lot and he said that a bad turbo is likely. Boraparts is a good place to get a turbo, I just checked and they are $700-$850 depending on the exact one, and all the stuff they sell is oem quality.

Sorry to take so long with replays, So I don't have any idea of the history as it was bought at a salvage auction(honest to god it looked waaaay better on the website.) Had a rear hit and I had it repaired

Only things I really know is that its just under 195k miles and according to the oil change sticker on the window, was given 10w-30 oil, which honestly I'm not sure is right...

Gah, diesels are so foreign to me... Anyone wane trade me a 1.8t so I can get on with my life? Lol

Anyone know where I could get a good used one? 800bucks just isn't happening right now

Oh yeah that reminds me, I found a dead glowplug on cyl one, could that be causing me grief? Car starts first time no trouble

Glow plug would not do that. The glow plugs are for cold weather start only. Why not clean out the pipe in question and see if your problem returns?

I can check with the people I know and see if they have any used ones, it would probably be ~$300 if so. I am sure 10w-30 oil is wrong, and at that mileage its likely overdue for a timing belt. If you can't afford to put $800 into it I would say selling it would be a better idea, they get very expensive if they haven’t been maintained, and even with a used turbo and timing belt change you will easily spend over $1k. I gave up on mine for similar reasons, in addition to the fact that insurance was very expensive for some reason.

How much smoke are we taking about? I'd clean the intercooler out , they are known to trap oil especially if the previous owner never blew the carbon out with a good wot run now and then. TB kits from diesel geek run around 400 bucks I think. You can do it yourself and save some cash or get a someone off the tdi site to help out. That's low mileage for a tdi. Put the right oil in it and beat on it for another 100k.

Forgot to ask...is it a stick or auto? If auto..sell me the pump then part out the rest !

Tbh the entire reason I got it was to potentially try and flip it for a little profit, as I thought it was only rear damage but I doubt somebody would give me near what I've got in with it smoking and salvage title, and if I have to spend a lot of cash to get it right its still one of the nicest cars I own ATM so I may as well keep it... My only other concern would be what Travis was mentioning, they aren't cheap to fix...

I Dunno, I'll try cleaning the oil cooler and see if it helps, part of me is worried the turbo would let go and kill the motor... Maybe I could get it right and make my money back with good mpgs?

To answer Scott, its a stick ;p lol

If you get one that hasn't been abused badly and fix anything it needs they can be reliable and last a long time. But, its not hard to spend $7500 between buying one and catching up with deferred/badly done maintenance. If it had been maintained better the turbo would have probably made it another 100k, but who knows what someone did to it.

Run 5w40. Buy the gallon jug at WalMart of Rotella T6 for like $20.

It could very well have a flaky turbo, but I wouldn't throw that kind of money at it without an adequate diagnosis.

The injection pump timing is also critical on these. They need to be set and dialed in with vagcom software.