PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post - Thoughts from people on here on the durability of the 1.6L diesel found in VWs?

woodrat · #14 02-16-2014, 12:32 PM

Concerning diesel VWs, I have had an 81 and an 83 Rabbit, and an 85 and an 89 Jetta. I did not find them difficult to work on, at least not any more so than the gas VWs I had, and I had a few of those, too. They all got amazing mileage, in the 40s on the low side, mid 50s on the high side. I never had any electrical issues, either. I loved them, actually. The 85 Jetta was totally worn out when I got it, but I still got six months or so out of that one before it expired.

The main issue with the diesel VW engines of that era, in my opinion, were the aluminum cylinder heads on a cast iron block, and the belt driven cam. And now, parts availability, too.

The 89 Jetta was the last one I had. I bought it cheap because the previous owner, a very large Russian guy, had replaced the injectors, and while torquing them down pulling AWAY from the head, a big no-no, he cracked out two of the injector wells, ruining the head. But the car was super clean, with pretty low miles, and I only paid $300 for it.

I searched and searched for a cylinder head for this car, since it had the hydraulic cam followers, it was not easy to find a good one. I finally found on ebay what was supposedly a new OEM head that had all new valve train parts installed, all ready to go. I spent about 900 on the head, and all the correct factory VW parts and gaskets, rebuilt my own injectors, etc etc. Car ran great, and was getting about 45 mpg. 2500 miles later, and about 400 miles from home, one of the valve heads broke off at freeway speed, and destroyed the engine. The belt had not jumped, nothing was indicating any trouble, just poof! dead. All I can figure is that whoever assembled the head had used cheap, Chinese valves or something, instead of OEM.

I looked for another engine, with no luck. I could have gone ahead and put an older, non-hydraulic engine in there, I was able to find those, but I ended up trading the car for two cords of dry oak firewood, one of the best car trades I ever made. My next diesel car was a Mercedes 123...