03 vw bug TDi 1.9 with 177k miles

[ruSSrt]

Good day everyone.


I'm in need of a daily driver, grocery getter and "I guess I'll go to the gym today" car. Currently I'm getting 17mpg on my 5.9 cummins and really want to keep it just for haul/heavy work and have something small to drive around. I used to have TDi Passat with 2.0 and enjoyed it a lot.
I came across 2003 VW bug 1.9 TDi manual with 177k miles. According to the listing mechanically sound and no issues. Rough paint and interior, but I don't care about looks. Guy wants $3500.

Is it worth it? Am I getting me a headache? What should I look for if I go check it out?

 

[KrisZ]

Personally I would go with a gasser as diesel pricing doesn’t make the savings worth the hassle. But if you’re good with wrenching, it’s no different than any other beater. It’s guaranteed to have some issues so be prepared to deal with them.

Off the top of my head you should check:
- glow plugs
- injector noise
- blow by

 

[ruSSrt]

Personally I would go with a gasser as diesel pricing doesn’t make the savings worth the hassle. But if you’re good with wrenching, it’s no different than any other beater. It’s guaranteed to have some issues so be prepared to deal with them.

Off the top of my head you should check:
- glow plugs
- injector noise
- blow by

Definitely blow by on my list. Not 100% sure about injector noise. Looking for distinctive tik noise?

 

[cptbarkey]

Dubious, suspension bushings are probably all rotten, and EGR is probably plugged all to heck. I owned one for about 6 months and it was fun if slow and loved the smooth ride.

 

[Thermo1223]

It really depends on the engine.

The ALH used an injection pump and outside of that & timing belt changes is pretty easy on maintenance.

The BEW uses cam actuated injectors and unless maintenance was kept up on a new cam shaft could be in order and has just more expensive components over all.

 

[KrisZ]

Definitely blow by on my list. Not 100% sure about injector noise. Looking for distinctive tik noise?

Bring a long screw driver and listen to them. It’s mainly to compare them all against each other and to see if there is an outlier.

 

[fantastic]

Diesel MPG can be worth it on a small engine like that. As you've experienced diesel get's quite costly when driving a HD truck. I'd look around online to see what else you could get for your money. If you don't care about looks you have more options & could probably find a gas engine w/lower mileage for $3500.

 

[tarbe]

Definitely find out when the TB was changed, and factor that in. You cannot skip TB changes on this engine!

 

[FowVay]

I drove a A4 Golf TDI for 250,000 miles before it was totaled in a accident. It was the best little car I'd ever owned. The ALH engine is nearly bullet proof. It's a diesel so it does have some maintenance that needs to be tended to on a regular basis but I actually enjoyed that little thing.

EGR valve and tubing was a routine maintenance item. Remove them every 50,000 miles and clean the gunk out of them. The intake manifold was the same way so you'd do the EGR and intake manifold at the same time. The intake manifold was a simple removal with a metal gasket so it didn't even cost anything to remove it and clean it.

The intercooler needed to be drained occasionally. I did mine with each 10,000 mile oil drain interval. Very easy to do. Fuel filter was a 20,000 mile replacement interval and they were a piece of cake. Timing belt was a 60,000 mile item and a breeze to accomplish. You do all the rollers and water pump at the same time just for peace of mind.

My Golf delivered 52 mpg with the 5 speed manual gearbox. I had replaced my 5th gear with a taller overdrive gearset to drop my highway RPM a bit but it didn't make any difference on the fuel economy. I had replaced the computer chip with a high performance chip from UPSolute and that made a world of difference. My car was a 1999 so the chips had to be desoldered and replaced. I took my ECU to the North American UPSolute guy in Charlotte and he replaced them while I waited. I brought some glass headlights back from Germany and replaced the plastic junk we had here so my lenses were pretty and shiny for the duration.

My car loved Mobil Delvac-1 5W-40. It just seemed to thrive on that stuff. I will say that the Beetle body was a bit shady and junky but the drivetrain was 100% A4 Volkswagen.

Thanks for bringing back some memories for me. I went digging in my photo album and found a few pics from the good old days when men were men and diesels belched smoke. This was my 100,000 mile oil change and you can see from the camshaft photo that Delvac kept that engine squeaky clean. It wasn't VW 505.00 but it was good enough for Kenworth so it was good enough for me.

 

[UNC063]

Good day everyone.


I'm in need of a daily driver, grocery getter and "I guess I'll go to the gym today" car. Currently I'm getting 17mpg on my 5.9 cummins and really want to keep it just for haul/heavy work and have something small to drive around. I used to have TDi Passat with 2.0 and enjoyed it a lot.
I came across 2003 VW bug 1.9 TDi manual with 177k miles. According to the listing mechanically sound and no issues. Rough paint and interior, but I don't care about looks. Guy wants $3500.

Is it worth it? Am I getting me a headache? What should I look for if I go check it out?

those miles are a child play, one of the most reliable eco diesel engines in the world. Just make sure to use VW 505 or some high zddp engine oil

 

[RooflessVW]

For $3500 I'd expect it to be pretty good cosmetically.

The Beetle interior is a POS

 

[ls1mike]

I had an 02 Jetta TDI. Worst car I ever owned. We had it 100,000 miles it required more to get there than any other car I ever owned. 2 sets of glow plugs, a set of injectors, glow plug wiring harness, injector wiring harness, both front wheel bearings, 4 neutral park safety switches(not a problem for you). The dreaded carbon build up. Plan on pulling the intake and EGR cooler every 50,000ish miles or sooner so you can clean everything out of it. With those miles some of that stuff has probably been done. You can get a lot of miles out it, but how much love do you want to put into? We didn't like it enough for me to keep loving it. I always used the proper oil and did oil changes every 6000 miles. Some people love them and don't mind putting that work into them. The only good thing about it for us was the MPG when the intake and EGR cooler was nice and clean. I hear one now and my blood pressure goes up.

 

[Dr_Dr3i]

+1 on what was said above, and I'd add a caution: the Beetle's underhood room is a PITA to work in, for pretty much anything besides routine oil changes. The headlights are a bugger to get to for replacing the bulbs, which like to burn out, and if you have larger than average hands, you will get many scratches and scrapes wrenching on it.

Other than that, look into VCDS or OBD11 for a VW-specific scan tool that can mostly eliminate EGR plugging issues (shouldn't be an issue anyway with ULSD) and you'll more than likely need a suspension refresh at 20+ years old.

An '03 will have the ALH 90hp engine which was the final year pre-Pumpe Duse (PD) BEW and BRM engines, then the later common rail variants in 2009 and onwards. They're almost indestructible except if you lose the timing belt, so make sure that's been done on time along with new water pump, rollers and tensioner. With VCDS or OBD11 you can also adjust the mechanical fuel pump timing.

You'll probably want to replace all the vacuum lines you can find, as a small vacuum leak can mean low boost issues and a check engine light. And at those miles, it may likely be on its 1st replacement clutch. The 5-speed box allows you to change the 5th gear out pretty easily for a lower ratio one, for lower revs out on the open highway. I remember that was one of the mods back in the day.

Good luck in your search!

 

[FowVay]

I should have mentioned it in my previous post but one very popular upgrade for those ALH cars was to install a "race pipe" on the intake manifold. This was just a straight open duct that replaced the EGR valve. It came with block-off plates to close off the hole in the exhaust manifold and it completely eliminated the need to clean the intake. It had one hugely fatal flaw though... diesel engines can be susceptible to runaway when they start to consume engine oil. This means that the engine will start reving and there is no way to stop it. The factory installs a vacuum controlled butterfly in the intake which cuts the air to the engine when the key is turned off but the race pipe eliminates that feature so you open yourself up to the possibility of engine self destruction if your turbo starts leaking oil and fuels the engine that way.

I never fooled with the race pipe and chose to default on the side of safety and just clean my intake every few years.

 

[Nick1994]

I had a 2004 Beetle TDI, sold it 9 years ago with 177k miles.

Loved the car, it was really comfortable, was a blast to drive etc. but it was a maintenance nightmare. I couldn't imagine it being 9 years older. And as rooflessvw said, the interiors were junk to begin with.

Plus diesel fuel typically costs more than gas, so the mpg savings alone doesn't really add up to all that much.

 

[ruSSrt]

I had a 2004 Beetle TDI, sold it 9 years ago with 177k miles.

Loved the car, it was really comfortable, was a blast to drive etc. but it was a maintenance nightmare. I couldn't imagine it being 9 years older. And as rooflessvw said, the interiors were junk to begin with.

Plus diesel fuel typically costs more than gas, so the mpg savings alone doesn't really add up to all that much.

View attachment 249815

What was the problems with it?

 

[ruSSrt]

+1 on what was said above, and I'd add a caution: the Beetle's underhood room is a PITA to work in, for pretty much anything besides routine oil changes. The headlights are a bugger to get to for replacing the bulbs, which like to burn out, and if you have larger than average hands, you will get many scratches and scrapes wrenching on it.

Other than that, look into VCDS or OBD11 for a VW-specific scan tool that can mostly eliminate EGR plugging issues (shouldn't be an issue anyway with ULSD) and you'll more than likely need a suspension refresh at 20+ years old.

An '03 will have the ALH 90hp engine which was the final year pre-Pumpe Duse (PD) BEW and BRM engines, then the later common rail variants in 2009 and onwards. They're almost indestructible except if you lose the timing belt, so make sure that's been done on time along with new water pump, rollers and tensioner. With VCDS or OBD11 you can also adjust the mechanical fuel pump timing.

You'll probably want to replace all the vacuum lines you can find, as a small vacuum leak can mean low boost issues and a check engine light. And at those miles, it may likely be on its 1st replacement clutch. The 5-speed box allows you to change the 5th gear out pretty easily for a lower ratio one, for lower revs out on the open highway. I remember that was one of the mods back in the day.

Good luck in your search!

I like wrenching on my cars. Do most of the stuff on my truck and jeep. That lack of room is one of my concerns.

 

[ls1mike]

I forgot about the interior, mine sucked and this coming from a guy with a 2000 Trans Am. I just never saw the appeal except for gas mileage. I don't think it drove that well either I would have much rather had my 98 Regal GS or 01 Grand Prix GTP. We hid have it 100,000 miles(from new) which was 7ish years for us. Like I said I feel like you have to love it enough to put up with it.

 

[Thermo1223]

I would personally rather have a Golf or Jetta, better interior and easier to work on all around.

 

[ruSSrt]

I would personally rather have a Golf or Jetta, better interior and easier to work on all around.

That's what I'm leaning towards. Usually those in my area are well above 300k. This one popped up with decent mileage.