Hi folks- typically that my welcome to the club is catastrophic car failure after only a few weeks of ownership hoping anyone can shed light on issue after I was towed home tonight; Sudden loss of power, slight judder, initially thought I was in wrong gear; Battery warning light comes on; After going down a gear realising power was failing pulled in and shut off engine; Car then would not turn over, just the click sound of the starter; Checked oil, recently changed, clean No odour from engine, engine was cold when occurred was only a couple miles into journey; Electrics all working; Tried to shift car in gear to see if engine seized- wouldn't turn all the way suggesting not seized but something blocking it; 125k, full service history at VW. Timing belt tight, no sign of slippage. Sick with thinking this sounds like needs an engine replacement- any other troubleshooting I can do, cars in the drive, would need towed to garage but would like to know it's not something that can be done at the house. Cheers, K
sometimes timing belts can fail without breaking, may have lost some teeth around the crank pulley. this does sound like timing belt failure. the locking would be valve/piston contact. have you taken the cover off and had a proper look and checked its still timed up?
also forgot to ask, if this is a PD, they suffer with camshaft's and lifters failing. if this is the case it may not be as bad as initially thought.
Thanks for the quick reply, it's gt tdi 140 2.0 model. I'm assuming if it's the belt that's not too good news? I don't think camshaft as it went out with a whimper rather than a bang
if its the belt its not usually good news, you would be lucky to get awy with a few bent valves, but the majority of the time it ends up doing damage to the head, pistons and bores. take the cover off and make sure first though. don't want to say its game over just yet, belt may not be the problem.
I'm assuming its a 2.0 16v? I have one in my 06 plate A4 that did something similar, it was the oil pump/balance shaft assembly in the sump... Had it all fixed with a rebuilt pump etc then 20 miles later it did it again, except this time the cam belt tensioner had failed..
Will be the oil pump drive and if it has seized, will be trip to the breakers time for replacement engine. Your oil light on dash should have came on to warn of this
Had a similar issue on a car I bought. Turned out to be the dual mass flywheel had destroyed itself and effectively locked the clutch in place. We initially also thought it was the engine, so may be something to check.
Cheers for the replies folks, update, rocker cover off no sign of debris, everything looks like it's timed up still and the timing belt showing no signs of slipping/ broken teeth. RE the oil warning light I'm quite tall and the position on the dash may have been obscured by the steering wheel position but I'm almost positive that it didn't come on, and the engine was showing new clean oil inside so doesn't look like its seized through lack of oil - it was only changed a week or so back. I did notice some old oil in the timing belt bay which I can't work out how it got there however. I hadn't thought of the flywheel going, does the symptoms seem to match up, I thought I would have notice it getting weaker prior to it going like that?
Thought I'd post the postmortem on my GT TDI. Car had dropped a valve, engine replaced with a remanifactured engine, clutch and flywheel replaced at the same time. Cause, probably over revving from previous owner but looked like the head had been off it before, can't know for sure, engine replaced then which came with new cam belt water pump and uprated fuel pump. Back on the road- total cost 3k including all replacement parts, labour and a couple of tows between garages- could have replaced with second hand engine for 1.5k but thought I was as well fixing most of it whilst the engine was out- only thing to worry about now hopefully gear box, turbo and alternator but they all seem good for the moment. Cheers!!
