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Hello fellow VWr's, I'm a long time air and water cooled devote and find myself with a dilema. I have a 2005 T5 Transporter, dual cab ute. The best ute I've ever owned for passenger capacity and matching full sized tray. It had an AXD engine but was replaced with an AXE April 2021. The dual mass clutch was also replaced along with every rubber pipe and tube. It ran like a trooper, got better than 10L/100km and started every time!
Fast forward to October 2022, I started it and it felt like it was running on 4 cylinders (it is a 5cyl for those not in the know). I drove it for about a month until I found a temporary vehicle to drive while it got attended to.
Someone mentioned the camshafts and lifters can get badly worn, so I took the cam cover off (without removing the whole front end) and inspected. Everything was fine, but I didn't get the timing right when reinstalling the cam, so it wouldn't start.
I found a place in Sunshine North that professed to be VW specialist, so I took the T5 on a trailer. They took a month, replaced the lifters on the advice they were wrong, did a compression check (all good) replaced the O rings to the injectors and changed oil/filter. After getting the timing right, they took it for a test drive and it was as they described 'in limp mode'. They forced me to pay for the repairs to date even though the engine was still not right... never in my life have I paid for something that wasn't finished!
They now tell me they think it is the head gasket. I am at a loss. In all my years around cars I would never put the running state of this vehicle to a head gasket, it feels like an injector or the computer (which was never changed from AXD to AXE).
Anyone got any advice, or someone who could help resolve this issue. I've spent way too much on this vehicle and am almost at a point where I sell it for a loss, but would still love to get it sorted and drive it.
Sorry this is so long, but it is a bit of a saga ... and they are always a story in the telling.
Thanks in advance for any assistance.
Cheers,
Danny
Fast forward to October 2022, I started it and it felt like it was running on 4 cylinders (it is a 5cyl for those not in the know). I drove it for about a month until I found a temporary vehicle to drive while it got attended to.
Someone mentioned the camshafts and lifters can get badly worn, so I took the cam cover off (without removing the whole front end) and inspected. Everything was fine, but I didn't get the timing right when reinstalling the cam, so it wouldn't start.
I found a place in Sunshine North that professed to be VW specialist, so I took the T5 on a trailer. They took a month, replaced the lifters on the advice they were wrong, did a compression check (all good) replaced the O rings to the injectors and changed oil/filter. After getting the timing right, they took it for a test drive and it was as they described 'in limp mode'. They forced me to pay for the repairs to date even though the engine was still not right... never in my life have I paid for something that wasn't finished!
They now tell me they think it is the head gasket. I am at a loss. In all my years around cars I would never put the running state of this vehicle to a head gasket, it feels like an injector or the computer (which was never changed from AXD to AXE).
Anyone got any advice, or someone who could help resolve this issue. I've spent way too much on this vehicle and am almost at a point where I sell it for a loss, but would still love to get it sorted and drive it.
Sorry this is so long, but it is a bit of a saga ... and they are always a story in the telling.
Thanks in advance for any assistance.
Cheers,
Danny
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