[Vwdiesel] sudden TDI death

[Shalyn Shourds]

I was driving the 2000 TDI to a tournament this afternoon and almost 
there, it seemed to start to lose power at points and get louder.  I 
made it to the venue, but by that point it was getting louder and had 
very little power.  When I pulled off the cover, everything looked 
normal, which was something of a disappointment--much easier to diagnose 
when something's dangling.  I thought to do the old trick where you 
loosen injector lines one by one and see which cylinder is the problem.  
Turns out you can't do that on a TDI.  Higher fuel pressure makes for a 
regular fuel geyser.   A bit of a cautionary tale, particularly for our 
smoking friends.  I did notice the glow plug on that  hole making some 
bubbles in the fuel.   I pulled it out, checked  to make sure it was all 
there and torqued it proper.  Noise is still there, and the power still 
isn't.  I had to leave it and get a ride home.  Very little power, and a 
general noise like my Dad's old 2-Cylinder Diesel John Deere 70.  At 
idle, there's a rather nasty but intermittent click or thwang a little 
like if you were to pluck a bicycle spoke really hard or cut it with a 
pair of side cutters.  There's no engine related rythm (like once per 
RPM) and it seems to come from the top half of the engine.  I've never 
had an injector fail suddenly, but that might be what's going on.  While 
it did start pretty easy, it did sort of sound like it may have been 
running on three.  I'm a little worried about the turbo, but it 
shouldn't have more than 20K on a rebuild. 

Anyone had a similar experience? 

Dad and I are going to look at it tomorrow, but I'll probably end up 
running it to a VW shop to get diagnosed.  I haven't bought the VAG-COM 
yet or for that matter a copy of the Bentley.  I presume that if I were 
to pull the injectors to get them tested, they come in and out like A1&2 
series, same size, new heat shield's, etc.? 

Thanks very much,

Shalyn

2000 Jetta TDI
1985 Jetta Td