A friend purchased this a few months back. I had dark suspicions over it at the time but I kept quiet, this means I now feel guilty for this little cowbag.

3.0 TDi quattro Tip. Was running rough, seller said she had been like it for ages, to say the misfire was alarming was an understatement. 4 hours from Exeter to Guilford and she cleared up a little but was still juddering and smoking like a train under load. Plugged her in, checked fuel trim. No 2 right on the limit, 4 blown way past it. So no 4 replaced.

Smoking gone, engine feels better, all is good..MOT...which she fails catastrophicly. Pretty much every CV is toast and they refuse to test emissions due to the misfire.

Long story short she has 4 new/rebuilt driveshafts, injector 2 has been changed and we still have issues with 4. It woukd appear 4 has no compression. Trim values are still wildly out, the misfire is still there and on a cranking test she may as well be a V5, its bad enough you can hear no load from no 4. She is breathing very heavy and there are combustion products in the crankcase, she smokes properly through the vent. However no water loss, no burning of oil and no smoke under load. Which in my mind rules out rings or a holed piston.

Im at a loss here for where to go now save pulling the head off. I will be checking for injector blowby at the weekend but any ideas welcome.