User:Rfsmit
From TDIClub
1999 VW Jetta Mk III
Running on B100 from the pump since Nov 2006.
- no conversion necessary
- no war necessary
- no loss in power
- no loss in mpg
Contents |
[edit] Failures
I've had a few failures on my car. Some are the typical "8-10 year old car" things like track rod ends, and the like. Stuff you can find out about elsewhere...
Other things are not so typical, and related to the TDI:
[edit] Turbo oil hose failure
A pretty catastrophic failure, in that the oil used to cool the turbo is the same oil used to lubricate the engine. This hose lies at about the lowest point in the oil reservoir. When that thing dropped out, the engine dumped out all its oil. I had just enough splashing around in there to limp the 1/2 mile or so home.
Thought it might be the turbo body at first, but diagnosis and a replacement hose cost me a few $$$.
- What I learnt: don't ignore the faint metallic rattle at 1850 rpm.
[edit] Boost vacuum hose failure
A vacuum hose lies across the top of the engine and rubs up all familiar-like to all sorts of hot stuff. Eventually, it wears through letting out the magic, and poof! there went your boost!
The boost will work for about 10-15 seconds of boosted acceleration before the computer disables it, so use it wisely, young Skywalker. The rest of the time, you'll be driving like your grandma, and you won't make 70 mph.
Another symptom is a strange sound, like a cross between a fart and a cough when you come to a halt.
- No MIL/CEL.
- What I learnt: what it's like to be a grandparent.
[edit] Coolant flange failure
In hot climates, the coolant flange on the front of the engine will fail. It looks like a T-piece, about 1.5", sorry 40 mm, in diameter. and has a wired sensor coming out the side.
Apparently, VW designed these to crack and fail, because they couldn't work out how to make an over-temperature safety release.
With mine, the coolant level dropped about 1/2 cm in the bulb per trip to work or home. A friend's gasoline Beetle had the part fail catastrophically a week after I sold it to him. Phew! (Yes, I gave him a ride while he waited for the part to arrive.)
- What I learnt: Move away from Arizona.
[edit] Fuel injection pump (FIP) leak
Jeez, this was worrying. Fuel pissing out of the seals in the FIP, and I wasn't even using Biodiesel any more! (The price had shot up in response to fuel prices, but hadn't settled back down, and at the time, fossil diesel was about 1/2 the price of biodiesel.)
Quoted $1350 for a rebuild of my FIP, which would take a week of downtime; or I could pay $1800 for a new one.
- Fixed by switching back to B100!
- See, the rubber seals inside the FIP swell on contact with vegetable oil, which means they open the gap ever so slightly. They also swell by a smaller amount on contact with LSD. Contact with ULSD causes the seals to shrink. This means that switching from LSD or B100 to ULSD means those seals will shrink ever so slightly, allowing fuel to leak out.
- Switching to B100 fattens up the seals again, which takes about a week to completely seal the gaps again.
- What I learnt: Once you're on the enviro-nutter bandwagon, you stay on!
[edit] Gummed-up glow plugs (P0380)
B100 gels at low temperatures. With old, worn out glow plugs, the temperature at which the car will start even on commercial biodiesel is higher. This is much higher than the normal "gel point" of B100.
Check glow plugs and harness, and replace as necessary[1].
- What I learnt: Buy an OBD2 reader and check those plugs!
[edit] ECU host failure (P0605)
Apparently, code P0605 means Internal Control Module ROM Error. This is a lie. Or maybe it's a code in itself. Think about that: you buy an OBD2 reader to find the codes. You look up the codes, and you're still none the wiser.
A bit of Googling turned up this scallywag. Apparently, this code is flagged for a pressure (as opposed to vacuum) hose inside the ECU. A 3" bit of rubber tubing.
- What I'll probably learn: How hard it is to pull this thing apart and get all the bits to stay in when I put it back together again.
