[Vwdiesel] 2001 Jetta TDI: Timing belts and Turbo

[Donald Edgar]

Hi there,

This forum was recommended to me by a co-worker. I have a 2001 Jetta TDI
that I bought from some friends a year and change ago. Since then I've
driven it quite a bit, including a third of the way across the states.

Currently, it is due for a new timing belt, which the mechanic quoted at
around $800. Additionally, when driving it through the mountain passes of
the Rockies, the car would lose most of its acceleration and I could only
do about 35-45 uphill with the pedal to the floor (the cars behind me on
the single lane were not happy about that). The check engine light came on,
and googling it came up with an issue with the turbo. This only happened
around 8000' - 9000' elevation while trying to go at highway speeds. Once
the car made it down to about 5000' feet, the engine light went out and
hasn't come on since.

I love the car, and would love to keep it (passenger diesels and manual
transmissions are seemingly hard to come by). Sadly, I know next to nothing
about cars, but am willing to learn... in your opinion, is this something I
could learn to do myself or is it something I really should take it to a
mechanic to do? Additionally, is it even worth it to have a mechanic work
on it at this point? Compounding my problems, I don't have a garage (street
parking) and I don't own any real tools, so I imagine there would be a
significant upfront investment, in addition to the parts.

Thanks for any advice you can offer!