GT TDI 170 - Bang goes the family holiday next year!

[Andy]

Sorry to hear about your experiences with the car,the inlet manifold of the 140gttdi is a good upgrade and a lot less money

[xjay1337]

Well, the point of this thread originally was to get some advice on the work needing to be done. It was merely an after thought from 19TW80 about investigating some of the history.

I'm not after any sympathy, I'm fully aware of the need to have cars checked over before purchasing, and it's my own fault for not doing so.

Regardless of this, I've learnt a fair amount in the process. I'm not going to have the local garage fit the inlet manifold for £560 + VAT + Labour. I've found that the alloy manifold from the BKD engine will fit my BMN engine, and costs less than £100. Seems to be a pretty straight forward job, and will give my EGR and ASV a good clean while I'm at it.

The clutch and gearbox will need to be done by the garage, but have bought a second hand box for £400 on Ebay and a Sachs DMF and clutch kit for a similar price. Looking like I'm going to be spending less money, but it's still not ideal!

You're welcome :)

Lack of swirl flaps may cause check engine light.

[ChrisGT]

Hi there,

I currently own a 170 tdi and have changed my inlet manifold for the aluminium BKD one.

There are some pictures in my build thread on page 5 of what I did and some of the brackets which had to be adapted/ground down in places so that they would fit.

As long as the vacuum pipe that operates the swirl flaps is blocked off (I did this simply by folding it back on itself and cable tying it) then you shouldn't get any error lights.

I bought the BKD kit from darkside developments, wasn't the cheapest way of doing it but it comes cleaned and with the right gaskets etc so I felt it was worth it.

Hope that helps shed some light on that option, sorry to hear of your troubles with your car and hope you get it all sorted soon

Chris

[middlerhythm]

Hi there,

I currently own a 170 tdi and have changed my inlet manifold for the aluminium BKD one.

There are some pictures in my build thread on page 5 of what I did and some of the brackets which had to be adapted/ground down in places so that they would fit.

As long as the vacuum pipe that operates the swirl flaps is blocked off (I did this simply by folding it back on itself and cable tying it) then you shouldn't get any error lights.

I bought the BKD kit from darkside developments, wasn't the cheapest way of doing it but it comes cleaned and with the right gaskets etc so I felt it was worth it.

Hope that helps shed some light on that option, sorry to hear of your troubles with your car and hope you get it all sorted soon

Chris

Hi Chris,

I wish I'd seen your post about 7 hours ago... I've just spent half the day battling with that exact same manifold from Darkside. I'm no mechanic, so when I read the description on the Darkside website about the BKD conversion kit "These are a direct bolt on replacement the transverse PPD170 engines still allowing fitment of the stock engine cover" I assumed nothing would need any further modifications.

Because daylight was quickly diminishing this evening I had to come up with a quick bodge which didn't involve cutting the brackets. I'll need to re-visit this job to get those brackets properly cut because at the moment I can't fit my engine cover properly. Thanks for the tips though, they will come in handy!

Despite the new inlet manifold and an EGR clean, I'm still noticing a little hesitation when pulling away. I'm hoping this might be related to the DMF which I'm having replaced on Monday.

[ChrisGT]

Gutted I never saw your post sooner. Glad you got it together, certainly not just a bolt on replacement though. We used a hacksaw but an angle grinder would have made much quicker work of cutting the brackets to fit.

Hope you get the other issues sorted soon.

I've got to replace the clutch release bearing on mine but not got it booked in yet... having the clutch and dual mass replaced at the same time as well because if the box is coming off for the bearing might as well replace the rest while I can afford it.

chris

[middlerhythm]

Well, I'm pleased to say that we've finally got the last of the major problems sorted on the car. The 2nd hand gearbox from eBay turned up and was a good one, so had that fitted inc DMF and clutch kit.

No more strange noises, problems with power or clouds of black smoke when booting it... Feels like I'm back in the game 

Time to save for some tasteful upgrades.

[Andy]

Glad your getting it sorted

[ChrisGT]

Glad it's working out 

Chris

[pudding]

So, I bought a pretty tidy looking black GT 170 a couple of months ago (privately). I'd been meaning to drop it down to the local VW specialist to have the cambelt changed and to diagnose some seemingly minor issues. I'd noticed a slight mechanical whine coming from the engine whilst in gear, and some juddering when accelerating hard in a high gear. Unfortunately, I didn't pick this up on the test drive when I was buying the car.

Turns out the whining noise is the sound of a knackered gearbox, along with a shafted DMF. To add insult to injury the inlet manifold is also in need of replacement because it's causing boost leak (common problem apparently).

Probably looking at the best part of £2K to have this work done by the garage if I source the gearbox, flywheel and clutch kit myself.

Before I fork out - because realistically I have no other option - does anyone have any experience with this kind of work? Is it really worth it on a car I paid £3K for?

I phoned up my local stealers and asked if they could take the car to give a second opinion, but they could only offer an opinion once they'd removed the gearbox to have a look which would obviously cost £££.

Pretty p*ssed off that I wasn't on the ball enough to notice this at point of sale!

I wouldn't beat yourself up.  You said the whine was slight, so you can forgive yourself for not picking up on it during the test drive.

Have you owned VWs with that gearbox before?  If not, they really are quite agricultural things and a lot of them do make a slight whine in the lower gears, but it shouldn't be inordinately loud.  Did the garage say what was causing it?  A badly worn diff can make a pretty nasty and loud whine on the over-run.  Sounds like an old 70s Rover with a shagged rear diff.