valleyforgett

HELP! My weekender has 156K miles on it. The car is presently at Black Forest Automitive in Phoenixville, PA. Not sure what the best course of action is. Do I rebuild/replace the head, valves, etc or do I buy a used engine and swap it? I'm new in the area and don't know how good my indie mech is. Any and all advise will be invaluable/

Vegas-roadster

You are looking at $5K+ to repair your engine. I have no idea what used engines are selling for but if you can find a low mileage engine, it might be worth the unknown risks. Except for the TB issues, these engines are excellent with long life.

I'd seriously consider junking yours and buying another. Cars.com shows about 20 TTs for sale within about 250 miles of your location with 70K to 110K miles for $4500 to $6500. So you get the used engine and a lot lower miles on the car for the same price as your repair. Take a day trip and get a better car.

Hate to say I told you so, but if you had visited this or any of the other TT forums when you were considering buying the car, you would have quickly found out that the TB etc must be changed every 5 years/60K. If you swap engines, make sure you do that service during the install. Most folks like the DeiselGeek TB kit.

iflywoe

its expensive , but shop around you might be able to rebuild it for less specially if you do all the work.

Mister Bally

VW/Audi dealers in the US can supply a rebuilt cylinder head for less than you would pay for all of the bent valves. You have to return you ruined head though as there is a helluva core charge.

Not too big a job to swap heads. Of course replace the water pump, rollers and gas pressure timing belt tensioner while you are in there. Don't forget to buy a new timing belt, head gasket and cylinder head bolts.

Best to buy/borrow/fabricate the motor hold up tool as you need to remove the motor mount at the timing belt end of the engine.

valleyforgett

[QUOTE=Vegas-roadster;24660689]You are looking at $5K+ to repair your engine. I have no idea what used engines are selling for but if you can find a low mileage engine, it might be worth the unknown risks. Except for the TB issues, these engines are excellent with long life.

I'd seriously consider junking yours and buying another. Cars.com shows about 20 TTs for sale within about 250 miles of your location with 70K to 110K miles for $4500 to $6500. So you get the used engine and a lot lower miles on the car for the same price as your repair. Take a day trip and get a better car.

Hate to say I told you so, but if you had visited this or any of the other TT forums when you were considering buying the car, you would have quickly found out that the TB etc must be changed every 5 years/60K. If you swap engines, make sure you do that service during the install. Most folks like the DeiselGeek TB kit.

Vegas - thanks for your feedback. I neglected to mention that this ride is 225 horse quattro/coupe. It also has some suspension, turbo and exhaust goodies. Customization aside I could not find anything under 2005 in this set-up. The two '05 on Cars.com that I saw were pushing $10,000.00. I did receive a quote for an engine swap that was going to run $5,000.00 Other than t/b issues does the car have another achilles heel, (ie haldex or clutch failures). Do I take the $5 grand and spend it on this beautiful car or do I cut my losses?

Mister Bally

Repair your car. I still say replace the damaged head with a genuine VW/Audi remanufactured part. They have at least a couple floating around the USA.

My son has an '03 with the 225 HP manual & quattro in the dark metallic blue. If his TB broke I know that's what we would be doing is replacing the head.

Vegas-roadster

However, any car with 155K on the ticker can be problematic, particularly if you are not the original owner. Lots of folks with 150K on the original drivetrain with no significant issues.

I assume the top has not been taken of your engine and you do not have a solid estimate for repair. $5K is usually a minimum and can be several $k more. You are talking a damaged head, some crushed valves, and usually some damaged pistons. Personally, I'd never spend almost the entire value of any car to repair it. If you and/or a friend can DIY, it might be worth fixing.

If you expand your cars.com search to 500 miles there are two 225 coupes with about 100K asking $6500 and the private seller linked below will probably take $5K. It looks like it might be the limited ALMS edition. Both cars are about 400 miles away a likely worth the drive.

2003 Audi TT quattro, $6,400 - Cars.com

Mister Bally

All I can say is that I've had two VW 4 cylinder engines with timing belt failure and neither one had any damage to the pistons. They were stronger than the valves.

One of these VW ate while the other previously was replaced by the dealer and eventually, they did not torque the camshaft sprocket and it clocked (Woodruff key cracked) causing the damage. Dealer would not accept responsibility so I replaced the head myself.

03_AR_CO

For about 2300 I would buy the Audi reman head and do the head swap/timing etc. Then you know what you have and while you are at it scour the engine bay for worn parts to replace.

Mister Bally

+1 ^^^^