Bought another car this weekend

[slag]

2000 VW Jetta VR6 on CL for $1800.00 Ad said it needed timing chain work. I researched it a bit and went to talk to the guy. Car has 115,690 miles and just started making the dreaded noise a few days before. Ended up getting the car for $1500.00. Drove it home Saturday and finally got around to looking at it yesterday. Took the upper intake manifold, battery, air filter housing, coil pack, and other misc items off till I could remove the valve cover and upper timing chain cover.

What I found was this, pieces and parts of the upper chain guide broken up floating around in the upper chain housing area, rattling around. I fished out all the parts with a pick and long needle nose pliers and placed an order with my local VW dealership for a new updated upper timing chain guide and tensioner. I'm hoping the bottom chain tensioner and guide are fine because I would have to pull the tranny to inspect those and don't really want to do that unless I have to.

Also noticed my rear cam had slipped two teeth, but after reading up on vwvortex.com, this has happened to other people and even with this interference engine, it did not cause any damage with just two teeth. I put it back in time and after I get the parts tonight, hope to install them and start reassembly. Crossing my fingers thats all the car needs.

Anyone else worked on a VW with the VR6, or had one? What are your thoughts on the engine or vehicle in general? Trying to decide if I want to keep this car or my infiniti. This car is definitely sportier, a 5 speed, and everything aside from the engine appeared to work fine.

 

[DivideBYZero]

I had a V6-4Motion Golf Mk4 back in late 2000 from new with that 2.8ltr VR6 motor. Lovely engine, pulls well and my one output 204hp from the factory, but in MK4 form it doesn't sound as throaty as the original ones that went into the Mk3s did even though the old ones were down on power.

 

[T2urtle]

i did a new chain and tensioner on one of those.

I was really annoyed that i had to pull the trans out.

It had a fault something related to timing circuit A or something close. turns out the rear cam jumped about 3 teeth. Sounded horrible and was randomly missing.

VR6 have a nice noise to it, i like the clutch feel on any VR6. they aren't super fast but good enough. Supposely they are super reliable but when things go wrong they are harder to reach/get to then normal cars, for example what idiot puts the timing chain on the trans side...

Took me about 7 hours taking my time to finish the job. Everything was simple and straight forward. If you haven't worked on VW's before you might need to start buying random tools like triple square stocks and hex sockets. Not a hard job at all.

 

[slag]

I picked the part up yesterday on the way home from work and installed it last night. I spent 5 hours installing and putting the car back together. Finally got it to where I went to turn the key and....

the engine turned over and made a loud noise..


Then it went away a second later and all I heard was the sweet sound of an engine running as it should with no vibration or anything. Even though I had soaked the tensioner bolt in oil and had compressed it to get rid of the air, it seems like there was a little bit left. Once the belt came under full tension, the noise went away. Cant wait to drop the oil pan tonight, clean it all up, reinstall it, and wait until tomorrow when I can take the car out for a spin. Also need to pick up some G12 since a lot came out and the low coolant light is now blinking.

I now have $1650 in the car.

 

[Doppel]

I agree with the new spammar, garagedoor repair.

That is a pretty nice engine. I think you got a fairly fair cost given the work it needed done--would cost a professional some decent bit, but to turn around in just five hours now you could literally sell that for a decent profit.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

I agree with the new spammar, garagedoor repair.

That is a pretty nice engine. I think you got a fairly fair cost given the work it needed done--would cost a professional some decent bit, but to turn around in just five hours now you could literally sell that for a decent profit.

If you have a problem hit the report post button under the posters name. That will bring it to the mods attention. Posting in a thread is less likely to help.

PB

 

[angry hampster]

I had an '03 VR6-powered GTI. It also needed a timing chain replacement..at 63k miles..in the middle of January in Iowa. Was quite happy to get rear-ended in that POS.

 

[halik]

Guide failure is relatively common on the VR6 I hear. Awesome pick up though!

 

[alkemyst]

I had a new 1997 GTI VR6...I liked the car a lot. White on black leather and a full suspension revamp. Only thing I hated was front wheel drive tended to push out of corners when driven hard. Sounded awesome. Did the suitcase delete and gave it the perfect daily driver exhaust.

 

[angry hampster]

I had a new 1997 GTI VR6...I liked the car a lot. White on black leather and a full suspension revamp. Only thing I hated was front wheel drive tended to push out of corners when driven hard. Sounded awesome. Did the suitcase delete and gave it the perfect daily driver exhaust.

Suitcase delete on the 3rd gens gave great sound. Here's my old one with the stock resonator/cats and a magnaflow muffler:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6cIZ44PWOE

Yeah, I sucked at launching that thing. Most difficult clutch I've ever used in a car.