Time to get another ALH commuter. Tdi life
 

With my last ALH getting totaled, and the Common rail buy back that I said I would not partake in... well I lied. I sold it back to volkwagen. At the end of the day, you cannot turn down 20 large for a car with 110k mi and needing major service.
Anyways back to ALH's. I pulled the engine(mild build; mls head gasket, arp head studs, bigger turbo), and manual trans swap parts. Then sent the body to the scraper.

So hunting for a good body Seems to be harder then you would think. Only a few mk4 tdi's locally. However, I just looked at one, and pretty sure it had a blown turbo. Smoked like a stoner on acceleration / when in the boost. Not sure if that'll be my next masterpiece.

Updates to follow
Btw if anyone is looking for a set of koni shocks and lowering springs for a mk4. They have 10k mi and will sell them for .50 cents on the dollar for what they currently list at.

I just sold my '01 with 300,000 miles on it for $1,000. It was constant work at that point. Rack, clutch, exhaust, brakes, wheel bearing, one thing after another.

I replaced it with an '02 for $1,000. Paint is gone, but no rust. Only 150,000 miles, I expect to get another 150,000 out of it. It runs great, might need a power steering pump, it groans and froths.

I don't think you can find a more reliable or cheaper car to drive than the ALH. That has to be one of the best engines ever built.

PM me a price for your stuff. I'm at 48390.

what's an ALH?

VW diesel engine built from 1999 to 2003 or 2004. It's the best of the small diesels available in USA.

Ah, good to know. Thanks

Does VW have future plans to bring diesels back to US?
I'm in Europe once a month and fewer diesels at the car rentals. Have not seen one in a year or so.

When I turned in my mk6. The buy back contractor said she's going straight to the scraper.
The lower mileage/newer ones will be emissions fixed. I don't know if that plan will change. They currently do have a fix for all 2.0 cjaa engines without adding def/scr.
Go figure. Just a simple tune.

To answer your question... Prolly not

04 is an iffy year. BEW engine code. Still reliable engine, but Bad cams with higher mileage.

Is that the PD engine that the cam drives the injectors? I loved the ALH engine, but they are hard to come by around here also.
When VW bought back our 2011 jetta, I settled for a 335d:D. No where close to the mpg, but it is a blast to drive.

I wonder if your 150k car will require less or more maintenance than your sorted 300k car.

Yes, pumpe düse with unit injectors. The precursor to common rail. I was looking at the bmw's; nice torque. Little too Aesthetic for my taste though.

True statement. cars with impeccable service at 300,000 miles are Not even in the same league as someone that just did oil changes every 10,000 miles, low mileage, but over a decade and half did not do any other maintenance.


By service I mean the the whole 9 yards. Grease every zerk fitting, flush brake fluid, change that lifetime vw transmission fluid��.

At 300,000 miles it was constant work, the car wore me down. I also changed jobs and move, so access to my workshop was a problem. You can't drive a car this old a rely on a shop to the work.

In my mind I had done 'everything' the car could need, but in reality there are always more things to break. Window mechanisms failed, the AC finally quit, another rear wheel bearing went, the parking brake failed, and the engine lost boost once a day. Still very driveable, just not what I want from a daily driver. It also started to smoke on start up whenever it sat more than 8 hours. It was only about 10 seconds of smoke, but it was only going to get worse.

So far my new car has a lot of minor little annoying issues. The power steering pump might be failing, I can't program a new key because the door lock switches have failed (they lock, but they don't tell the ECU they are locked), ditto for the trunk lid. I swapped an ABS sensor and the N75 valve Saturday, that solved two minor issues.

But as a daily driver, this car is light years ahead. It starts really easily and has zero (so far)'check engine' issues. I would say this is a car I can improve if I want to, the old car I had to work on.