New-to-me 2001 TDI Beetle nightmare :-(

[glitched79]

I'm sorry to have to introduce myself to the forum with such a sad post...

I've been following this forum for a few days in preparation for my first used car purchase - a car I intended to buy as a Christmas gift for my younger brother who has a 45 mile one-way commute to work everyday.

I found a decently-priced 2001 New Beetle TDI automatic (he can't drive a stick). I inspected the engine and took the car on several test drives before buying it. The interior and exterior were in marvelous condition for having 124k miles on it.

I put nearly 400 miles on the car within the first 2 days after buying it. Everything seemed fine until the first sign of trouble - a blinking high temperature light.

After reading through this forum and others, I determined the likely cause was air trapped in the cooling system. Symptoms were no heat in the cabin, no visible leaks, and highly-pressurized coolant reservoir with no obvious signs of coolant leaking into the engine. I corrected the problem by running the car with the reservoir cap off until the level dropped, then adding more coolant until it was full. The high temp light never came on again.

Then... Disaster.

I was taking one final trip in the car to make sure everything was in good order before handing it over to my kid brother.

I was driving down the interstate on my way to get some Christmas lights. All the interstate driving was fine. Got off the interstate, sat through a few traffic lights, and began to accelerate from one last traffic light.

Suddenly, and without warning, the car bucked and the engine died. I had enough momentum to get into the middle turn lane after putting the car in neutral. I stopped in the turn lane and attempted to get the car started again.

Turned the key, waited for the glow plug light to go off, and turned the ignition. Nothing. Cycled the glow plugs again, turned the key, nothing. Put the car in park, then drive, then neutral, then park, and cycled the glow plugs. Turned the key and the engine started but was running really roughly and then died shortly thereafter. I gave it one more go and the engine started and continued to idle roughly but it didn't stall. I put it in drive and was able to get down the road in order to park it off on a side road and see if I could tell if anything was wrong. Looked under the hood with the engine running - it was shaking a lot more than usual and making a knocking sound.

I shut the car off and called the guy that sold it to me. I asked him if I could leave the car on his lot for the night (it was nearby) until I could find someone to look at it. He claims he will help out as much as he can once we find out what's wrong with it.

It started up again and continued to idle roughly, but this time the "check engine" light was on. I was able to drive it down the road to the used car place which was about 4 miles away. The car had absolutely no power - I could barely go 20-30mph.

I parked the car at the lot and had a friend pick me up and bring me back home.

I returned today to meet with the dealer and show him what was happening. We looked at the time belt, which appears to be fine, and started the car. It continued to idle roughly, and he asked if he could drive it. He hooked up a vag-com and we drove around the block, the car exhibited the same symptoms as the night before - no power at all. We saved the fault codes from the vag-com (see below).

On the way back, the car stalled on the road and we were forced to push it back to the lot. Afterward, it refused to start. The engine turns over, but refuses to start. My friend, who had been following behind us in case we needed help, stated that there was a lot of black smoke that came out the back of the car when it stalled. There was no loud sound or anything - it just stalled. Maybe a bit of knocking as we coasted to a stop.

I have contacted a local TDI guru who is highly recommended here on the forums, and I plan to have the car towed to his location next week.

But, I'm hoping someone might be able to take an educated guess on what's wrong based on my description and the vag-com output (below).

Am I looking at thousands of dollars of repairs? Have I been swindled by the used car guy? I really, really desperately hope it's something moderate... Maybe even something silly and simple like a clogged fuel filter... My fear is a "grenaded" turbo...

Here is the output from the vag-com device:

Friday,30,November,2012,11:50:20:44952
VCDS Version: Release 11.11.4
Data version: 20120807



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chassis Type: 1C - VW New Beetle
Scan: 01 02 03 08 15 17 19 22 25 26 29 35 37 39 46 54 56 65 75

Mileage: 199210km/123783miles
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Address 01: Engine Labels: 038-906-012-AGR.lbl
Part No: 038 906 012 N
Component: 1,9l R4 EDC G000AG 2509
Coding: 00001
Shop #: WSC 00066
VCID: 1B351169890A58C0D47

1 Fault Found:
16686 - Cylinder 2
P0302 - 35-00 - Misfire Detected
Readiness: 1 1 1 1 1

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Address 02: Auto Trans Labels: 01M-927-733.lbl
Part No: 01M 927 733 HK
Component: AG4 Getriebe 01M 4797
Coding: 00000
Shop #: WSC 00000
VCID: 800FC60580AC1B18A15

1 Fault Found:
00811 - System Not Ready for Interrogation (Ross-Tech; Check Fault Codes Later)
35-00 - -

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Address 03: ABS Brakes Labels: 1J0-907-37x-ABS.lbl
Part No: 1J0 907 379 P
Component: ABS 20 IE CAN 0001
Coding: 03504
Shop #: WSC 00066
VCID: 3E73F8FD3AD82DE8139

No fault code found.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Address 15: Airbags Labels: 6Q0-909-605-VW5.lbl
Part No: 6Q0 909 605 A
Component: 16 AIRBAG VW5 0D 0004
Coding: 12598
Shop #: WSC 00066
VCID: 3561E7D10FEEEEB0C23

No fault code found.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Address 17: Instruments Labels: 1C0-920-xx0.lbl
Part No: 1C0 920 901 BX
Component: KOMBI+WEGFAHRS. M73 V07
Coding: 03202
Shop #: WSC 00232
VCID: 73E519C9411AB0802C7

Subsystem 1 - Part No: Ident
Component: Nr. Wegfahrs.:VWZ5Z0Y9112167
Ident.-Nr. Wegfahrs.:VWZ5Z0Y9112167

No fault code found.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Address 19: CAN Gateway Labels: 6N0-909-901-19.lbl
Part No: 6N0 909 901
Component: Gateway K<->CAN V072
Coding: 00007
Shop #: WSC 00000
VCID: F0EF96C5B00C0B98515

No fault code found.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Address 46: Central Conv. Labels: 1J0-959-799.lbl
Part No: 1J0 959 799 AJ
Component: 5X Zentral-SG Komf. 0001
Coding: 00256
Shop #: WSC 00066
VCID: 8603D01DA28835289B9

Subsystem 1 - Part No: 1J2959802C
Component: 5X Tõrsteuerger. FS0002r

Subsystem 2 - Part No: 1J2959801D
Component: 5X Tõrsteuerger. BF0002r

No fault code found.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Address 56: Radio Labels: 1J0-035-18x-56.lbl
Part No: 1C0 035 180 E
Component: RADIO 3CP 0002
Coding: 00403
Shop #: WSC 05232
VCID: 1A3B146D863021C8CF1

No fault code found.

End ---------------------------------------------------------------------

I would appreciate any insight anyone might be able to offer... I really want this Beetle to come through!

[Smileybug]

A failed turbo isn't nearly as bad as it sounds. Any sort of timing belt problem is far worse. Since it still ran, I would doubt its timing belt related but you really never know. Fingers crossed for you. The Guru's know their stuff for sure.

[CoriBug]

Did you get a diagnosis?

[AndyBees]

Well, under the same user name, it looks as if he went over to the TDIclub and started a couple of Threads on his delemia.

Also, viewing his activity history here in NB.org, he lasted visited on 1/10/13 ........

Below are two links to his Threads.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread...ght=glitched79

Twisted conrod? - TDIClub Forums

[glitched79]

Originally Posted by AndyBees

Well, under the same user name, it looks as if he went over to the TDIclub and started a couple of Threads on his delemia.

Also, viewing his activity history here in NB.org, he lasted visited on 1/10/13 ........

Below is one link to his Thread. He mentions something about another Thread also.

Twisted conrod? - TDIClub Forums

Whoaaaaaa! Big Brother much?

The community over at TDI club was much more responsive, so that's where I concentrated my efforts.

[Front Runner]

Yeah, I saw that. What was the outcome?

[VDubYah]

He had a catastraphic failure of cylinder 2 cam followers from damage from a failed timing belt and is having it repaired

So the sage continues.

Sorry to hear of your troubles