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Hi,
I have a tale of woe to get off my chest, a virtual shoulder to cry on. I don't have the aptitude or time to work on the van myself unfortunately.
I have a '99 T4 synchro camper conversion that I have had since 2005. It has 288000 on the clock and had been running rough at idle and was due for a timing belt change so I put it in to Bill Buckle.
They changed the belt but had a lot of trouble getting the timing right. It took them 8 days but I then picked it up and drove it home to discover it was leaking oil - puddles on the drive. They took it back and replaced some seals that they must have disturbed and the leak was fixed for only parts cost, but again they had a lot of trouble getting the pump timing right - they said they had to set it very advanced or it wouldn't start. I was getting worried at this stage but got it back a week later and went for weekend away up the mountains. On the way it stopped 4- times, and pulling up a big hill the flashing light of death appeared.
I got back to Sydney and thought I would take it to mech 2 who had more experience with older VWs. He spent 14 hour trying to get the timing right and couldn't. He said he suspected the temperature sensor in the pump and would replace it. He did this and again said he had a lot of trouble getting the timing right, but had set it advanced. (He had also dented the bottom panel a bit when it slipped on the hoist). $1300 later I then picked it up but it was blowing white smoke and made it 1km before stopping. I got it towed back to them.
He said it must be a problem with the fuel pump as that controls and reports all the timing so he was going to pull it out and send it to get tested and reconditioned. I then thought I would send the whole car on to Sydney Diesel centre who would have been reconditioning it anyway as I lost confidence in Mechanic 2, so paid for it to be towed there.
So, Diesel centre said it the timing was way out and corrected it but it was still blowing white smoke. They then did a lot of testing and said the temp sensor was not showing the right resistance and would need to be bench tested and calibrated correctly, and they should probably test the injectors too.
So, I am at a point where I have to make a decision to scrap or repair it. Best case is that they pull the pump and injectors out and bench test them all to see if there is any issues. $3000 if there is nothing wrong and they just correct the temp sensor, another $2-3K if the pump need reconditioning an extra $1-2K if the injectors need replacing/reconditioning.
The car is maybe worth $15-18K if running well, pretty much impossible to sell if not.
Do I risk $3K to $7K with no real guarantee it will be fixed at the end, or stop throwing more money at it?
I know no-one can answer that, but I feel there must be some issue to make it so hard for so many experienced mechanics to have issues timing it. My heart says trust the diesel mechanic will get to the bottom of the issue and fix it but my head (well, my wife) says it might be time to stop throwing good money after bad.
I have a tale of woe to get off my chest, a virtual shoulder to cry on. I don't have the aptitude or time to work on the van myself unfortunately.
I have a '99 T4 synchro camper conversion that I have had since 2005. It has 288000 on the clock and had been running rough at idle and was due for a timing belt change so I put it in to Bill Buckle.
They changed the belt but had a lot of trouble getting the timing right. It took them 8 days but I then picked it up and drove it home to discover it was leaking oil - puddles on the drive. They took it back and replaced some seals that they must have disturbed and the leak was fixed for only parts cost, but again they had a lot of trouble getting the pump timing right - they said they had to set it very advanced or it wouldn't start. I was getting worried at this stage but got it back a week later and went for weekend away up the mountains. On the way it stopped 4- times, and pulling up a big hill the flashing light of death appeared.
I got back to Sydney and thought I would take it to mech 2 who had more experience with older VWs. He spent 14 hour trying to get the timing right and couldn't. He said he suspected the temperature sensor in the pump and would replace it. He did this and again said he had a lot of trouble getting the timing right, but had set it advanced. (He had also dented the bottom panel a bit when it slipped on the hoist). $1300 later I then picked it up but it was blowing white smoke and made it 1km before stopping. I got it towed back to them.
He said it must be a problem with the fuel pump as that controls and reports all the timing so he was going to pull it out and send it to get tested and reconditioned. I then thought I would send the whole car on to Sydney Diesel centre who would have been reconditioning it anyway as I lost confidence in Mechanic 2, so paid for it to be towed there.
So, Diesel centre said it the timing was way out and corrected it but it was still blowing white smoke. They then did a lot of testing and said the temp sensor was not showing the right resistance and would need to be bench tested and calibrated correctly, and they should probably test the injectors too.
So, I am at a point where I have to make a decision to scrap or repair it. Best case is that they pull the pump and injectors out and bench test them all to see if there is any issues. $3000 if there is nothing wrong and they just correct the temp sensor, another $2-3K if the pump need reconditioning an extra $1-2K if the injectors need replacing/reconditioning.
The car is maybe worth $15-18K if running well, pretty much impossible to sell if not.
Do I risk $3K to $7K with no real guarantee it will be fixed at the end, or stop throwing more money at it?
I know no-one can answer that, but I feel there must be some issue to make it so hard for so many experienced mechanics to have issues timing it. My heart says trust the diesel mechanic will get to the bottom of the issue and fix it but my head (well, my wife) says it might be time to stop throwing good money after bad.
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