[Vwdiesel] silly Diesel dances

[Shalyn Shourds]

Finally, this afternoon, I got to do the silly dance you do in the 
driveway when the car finally starts.  I got the TDI to fire up after 
months of lousy stuff happening. 

Unfortunately, all is not well.  I can't time it for some reason.  Last 
time, it was pretty easy.  I got VAG-COM up, heated up the engine, 
checked the timing, adjusted about a half-dozen times, and everything 
was fine.  This time, I spent two hours trying to get it to sync up and 
it just would not do.  It ran fine just before I started trying to 
adjust it, but now it completely fills my garage with unburned fuel from 
the tailpipe.  I also noticed that unlike the last time (at least that 
I've noticed), when I'm staring at group 000 and I hit the button on the 
lower left (memory and fatigue....) to get to the "TDI Timing" button, 
the engine almost dies and it starts spewing smoke.  When I finally get 
to the screen with the graph, it tells me that the timing is too 
retarted or too advanced to graph no matter what I do adjustment-wise.  
When I take it closer to the "right" range, it starts to wander from 
"Too Retarded to Graph" to "Too Advanced to Graph" and _REALLY_ starts 
to smoke.  Shame it's not like the old cars; I'd just tighten the 
injection pump mounting bolts and be happy.  Doesn't work like that on 
this one, unfortunately. 

Anyone know what hitting that button does to the engine?  I get a CEL, 
it starts running lousy, and it fills the garage with unburned fuel 
smoke.  Any other great ideas would be really appreciated.  I'd thought 
I'd be getting it inspected tomorrow.  Guess not. 

It is, however, running just well enough to have a tragic accident 
involving a lake, a train, and a suspicious engine fire. 

-Shalyn