What a nightmare...
It's no secret that I despise German vehicles. Don't care it's a BMW, a Benz, or a VAG vehicle, I can't stand them. The engineering, the stupid fancy fasteners they use, the ridiculous way things are assembled. I have nothing against those who drive and enjoy their German cars, but personally I think the would would be better off without. This is NOT a matter of reliability: a Chevy Cruze is as much a piece of junk as a Jetta. That being said, I'd much rather spend my days working on the Cruze.
Rant aside: today I buttoned up a 2014 Jetta GLI that jumped time at 64k miles. Crank and exhaust cam were dead on, intake cam was 5ish teeth retarded. Apparently the car had a low power/hard start issue for a few weeks before it quit completely. Pulling the head and doing chains simply wasn't feasible, so it got a brand new long block straight from VW. Not reman, new. No core charge, even.
I dropped the entire powertrain out the bottom. That was the easy part. The subframe doesn't need to be removed, just the exhaust, axles, hoses, and a couple wiring harness connectors and she was sitting on the ground. While everything was apart, it got a NEW flywheel, clutch kit, plugs, and every single seal necessary to complete the job. I also replaced the turbo oil drain line as it was stuck in the block. Refilled with Amsoil 5w40 FS (oil filter was pre-installed).
The new engine came more or less bare, save the balancer, oil filter/cooler, and water pump. At first, I was glad the gigantic WP assembly was preinstalled, until I realized that the knock sensor is mounted to the block BEHIND said assembly, rendering it completely inaccessible. For those that are unfamiliar, the EA888 engine uses a (again, completely unnecessary) water pump/thermostat monstrosity which is driven off a tiny belt driven by the balance shaft (correct me if I'm wrong here, the point remains).
Given the ineptitude of VW parts catalogs, it took almost as much time to search and find all the necessary seals, gaskets, etc. as it did to replace the darn motor.
While I may sound like a curmudgeon, at the end of the day she fired right up after I pulled the FP fuse to give the engine a good prime. There was a misfire at first, but that was on me. I'd forgotten to plug the #1 injector in, so that was on me. Manages to shove my hands under the intake and between 2 coolant hoses and an AC hose and get it plugged in. One connector missed out of 2 dozen is pretty solid in my eyes.
All in all, the job billed out to ~$15k. We built in a good bit of buffer room in the estimate, so that could drop a few hundred. Still cheaper than replacing the car with a similar unit.
One more before I run out of breath: the warranty VW gives on the motor is a JOKE. GM give a 3 year 100k warranty on any crate engine that's installed by either the dealer OR an independent shop. Not only that: if I install a 5.3 on a Tahoe and it fails within that period I'm not on the hook to do the job again. It can go right to any GM dealer. That's with a REMAN crate engine.
The BRAND NEW engine straight from the factory in Mexico for this Jetta? 12 month 12k miles. What a joke.
It's no secret that I despise German vehicles. Don't care it's a BMW, a Benz, or a VAG vehicle, I can't stand them. The engineering, the stupid fancy fasteners they use, the ridiculous way things are assembled. I have nothing against those who drive and enjoy their German cars, but personally I think the would would be better off without. This is NOT a matter of reliability: a Chevy Cruze is as much a piece of junk as a Jetta. That being said, I'd much rather spend my days working on the Cruze.
Rant aside: today I buttoned up a 2014 Jetta GLI that jumped time at 64k miles. Crank and exhaust cam were dead on, intake cam was 5ish teeth retarded. Apparently the car had a low power/hard start issue for a few weeks before it quit completely. Pulling the head and doing chains simply wasn't feasible, so it got a brand new long block straight from VW. Not reman, new. No core charge, even.
I dropped the entire powertrain out the bottom. That was the easy part. The subframe doesn't need to be removed, just the exhaust, axles, hoses, and a couple wiring harness connectors and she was sitting on the ground. While everything was apart, it got a NEW flywheel, clutch kit, plugs, and every single seal necessary to complete the job. I also replaced the turbo oil drain line as it was stuck in the block. Refilled with Amsoil 5w40 FS (oil filter was pre-installed).
The new engine came more or less bare, save the balancer, oil filter/cooler, and water pump. At first, I was glad the gigantic WP assembly was preinstalled, until I realized that the knock sensor is mounted to the block BEHIND said assembly, rendering it completely inaccessible. For those that are unfamiliar, the EA888 engine uses a (again, completely unnecessary) water pump/thermostat monstrosity which is driven off a tiny belt driven by the balance shaft (correct me if I'm wrong here, the point remains).
Given the ineptitude of VW parts catalogs, it took almost as much time to search and find all the necessary seals, gaskets, etc. as it did to replace the darn motor.
While I may sound like a curmudgeon, at the end of the day she fired right up after I pulled the FP fuse to give the engine a good prime. There was a misfire at first, but that was on me. I'd forgotten to plug the #1 injector in, so that was on me. Manages to shove my hands under the intake and between 2 coolant hoses and an AC hose and get it plugged in. One connector missed out of 2 dozen is pretty solid in my eyes.
All in all, the job billed out to ~$15k. We built in a good bit of buffer room in the estimate, so that could drop a few hundred. Still cheaper than replacing the car with a similar unit.
One more before I run out of breath: the warranty VW gives on the motor is a JOKE. GM give a 3 year 100k warranty on any crate engine that's installed by either the dealer OR an independent shop. Not only that: if I install a 5.3 on a Tahoe and it fails within that period I'm not on the hook to do the job again. It can go right to any GM dealer. That's with a REMAN crate engine.
The BRAND NEW engine straight from the factory in Mexico for this Jetta? 12 month 12k miles. What a joke.
