Need some advice on my A6 Avant 2004 1.9 TDI Sport 6 speed

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Hi Everyone,

First post and its under sad circumstances Christmas Day started car in garage, small bang and engine won't start since. Have got it looked at but its not good news as very low compression on cyclinder 2 and oil on glow plugs (timing belt OK though).

Its a one owner car driven by the Mrs from new, 89000 miles so probably worth about 1.5K and it just seems too nice to scrap but its going to cost considerably more than that to get it running again. What the general advice from the group, scrap it and get about 100quid? Sell it as a project? Part it out? Other?

Cheers

[zollaf]

welcome.
oil on glow plugs ? probably just fuel from not starting.
sounds like maybe a lifter has worn through. best to remove the cam cover and find out, then repair it. yes it will cost a few quid to repair but what else would you get for the money. a newer less reliable car ? a grand doesnt buy much these days.

[Rob69]

+1 above, lifting the plastic cover off costs nothing except a 10mm socket and will possibly give you a starting point.

[micheal balbrig]

+2 above
With your low mileage, it is well worth investigating,and pricing repairs.

[esky365]

Fixed with such low milieage it is worth much more than £1500, check them out on ebay. Those are real prices.

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Thanks everyone, towed it back to my house which was pretty hairy with no power steering or brakes

Bad news is with the rocker cover off its nothing obvious, getting some help in the New Year to remove the head. Fingers crossed its nothing too bad.

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I say got some help to look at this but I spent most of the time making tea, I know my limitations but learnt A LOT yesterday.

Spinning the engine by hand there is a tight spot but it does move past it with some effort so off came the head and I expected to see some damage on valves or pistons but there are zero marks. 2 and 3 pistons seemed wetter with oil that 1 and 4 but nothing obvious there either, I was expecting a hole or some damage. Bottom end spins freely as expected by hand but the head has a tight spot (spun by hand when off the car). Next stop is going to be getting the head looked at by a local engineering firm and will take it from there.

I know I may be a bit sentimental about this car but its almost part of the family as we've had it so long so I'm treading that fine line between being sentimental and common sense! But I just can't bring myself to scrap it without at least trying, its too good a car for that.

Any advice on front end removal and where to get head sets / bolts / gaskets sets / tools needed to do timing? If the head is fixable for a reasonable price then going to do timing belt, water pump, thermostat too.

Thanks!

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OK so its been a while but she's back up and running, turns out the issue was a timing belt slip potentially from where I was a bit heavy handed with the alternator belt removal (she started up right after I'd put the alternator belt back on) but second time we fired her up we saw the issue

What I learned

• Don't take it for granted when a garage tells you the engine is scrap, it wasn't. And don't accept their offer to write off the labour for the car, always get a second opinion and if the car's not worth much have a go yourself before its scrapped
• If you do tackle it yourself and you're not experienced at this it will take five times longer than you think but you can do most things on your drive
• You need a mate who knows what they are doing if you spend all day behind a desk and have very little mechanical knowledge for the tricky bits like prying off the head, torquing down the head, being gentle with removing nuts and bolts around headers, turbo etc using plenty of penetrating fluid
• Don't leave the head in the back of the car for five months, you will end up with a big dip in the spare wheel cover
• And the head is heavy so when you carry it somewhere to get it checked out, lift it properly so you don't hurt your back like I did. Probably the most painful thing about this whole experience!
• Anyone with a Halfords toolkit and access to youtube can remove the front end and its really essential to make things like the setting the timing easy. A breaker bar some WD40 and be really gentle with the bumper mounts, that was probably the trickiest bit. Its good to have a helper and the Mrs is all you really need
• Draining the coolant was so easy, getting the hoses off less so
• You can swing the Air Con rad out of the way but use a bungee to keep stress off the hoses
• Have a trickle charger if its going to sit for a while, keep the battery topped up
• The connectors can be tricky to remove without breaking them, a right angle pick tool is great but be gentle
• When you buy parts buy the really important stuff from VAG or make sure they are OEM parts - belt, tensioner, guide pulley, water pump, head bolts, head gasket
• Access to a workshop manual or some good instructions when setting the timing is essential, make sure you have a good timing locking kit (I bought one from Sealy on ebay which did the trick) and be 100% sure you can turn the engine over by hand before you start it (great advice on this forum around this). A good quality torque wrench with degrees on the top to set the 90 + 90 helps
• I bought a head set online to save some cash and there's a pretty big difference in quality but it worked and there's no leaks
• When it sits on your drive with no front end for five months be prepared for everyone to ask you how you pranged your car
• There's nothing better then that feeling when she turns over for the first time but it will take more cranking than you think if she's been sitting for a while

Now just need to fix that dim indicator light in the binnacle and I'm pretty sure she will sail through an MOT.