Which diesel car to buy?

[Chris Tobin]

Chris,
The 04 jettas are not ALH. They are PD engines also. The 04 have same body style as ALH jettas but have PD engine then body style changed with the 05.5-06 jettas

My mistake, I thought early 04 could be ALH... I guess the most refined ALH car would be an 03 then...

04.5 to 5.5 are BEW with some variance and 5.5 to 6 were BRM.

Tobin, when you "fixed" your cam, what parts did you use?
I have been told mine is worn but not sure what/whose parts to use to repair.
For anyone interested, the 05.5 to 06 have door wiring problems, the laminate peels off all of the interior controls, the DmF for the manual and dsg trans fails, along with the cam.
All of that hit the door at about 110,000 for me.
On the flip side, I've run 70k since I bought it, and the only major repair has been the timing belt. I'm working through the other repairs.
From my Not-So-Smart phone

Many vendors like iDparts, Kerma and boraparts offer complete kits for cam changes... But basically it was the lifters and a Colt cam as well as the replacement torque to yield bolts and a complete timing belt kit. I highly suggest changing the timing belt at the same time since it can be done at the same time for only a little additional labor or time...

I have 135k or so on my 06 and had the cam issue, but not the other issues YET!!! We did also replace my clutch with a South Bend kit including SMF so I will never have a DMF failure though...

 

[biggy238]

I guess in too many words I was saying that the model year split was an engine change in 04 A4, meaning the ALH would have been available.

Chris, you've done all of the reliability proofing already. I think diesel fuel spurs the switches into peeling.
Colt is what I wanted to hear. I don't like replacing failure prone parts with more substandard parts.

From my Not-So-Smart phone