Has any TDI owners had a problem like this one? Any advice or inputs
would be most appreciated. Is an injection pump replacement a common
occurence? The car has 125,000 miles and I changed the fuel filter
about 10,000 miles ago. If I have no other option but to replace the
injection pump, is there a good place to get a used pump? Where would
be the best place to buy a new pump?


The Story:

I recently took my 99.5 Jetta TDI on a road trip. Two days driving
down to FL and two days back to OH.

The trip down was uneventful but the trip back was another story!

The trip back day 1:
On the way back, after I crossed the GA border (cheaper fuel prices)
I topped off the tank with diesel. The engine light came on almost
immediatly after starting the engine and the glo-plug light also
started blinking. The car was running fine until I stopped for lunch
in SC. Upon starting the car and leaving the parking lot, it started
bucking and running like crap. At highway speeds it seemed to do ok
but I could still feel it "missing" and when I got off the interstate,
in NC it seemed to run rougher at lower speeds. Finally reached my
overnight destination.

Day 2:
I drove to a VW dealer where my brother-in-law works as a mechanic.
On the way there, the car continued to buck and carry on while at the
same time sending out a James Bond smoke screen from the tail pipe.
He hooked up the computer and it had a code for the quantity adjuster.
The code could not be erased either. He seemed to think it was the
injection pump going bad. He also said it should make it back to OH.
To make a long story not as long, the car finally gave out 3 hours
from home. Just before it died, the idle was very erratic and it
didn't like the slower stop and go traffic in the small town I was
passing through. Once it finally decided that it could no longer
maintain the engine rpm enough to continue, it quit. I couldn't get
it to start after that. Had a friend pick me up from my home town and
finally got back. What a long day.

Day 3:
Let it sit on the side of the road all day in disgust.

Day 4:
Loaded it on a flat bed trailer. The car actually started and ran
just enough to get halfway up the ramps onto the trailer and it looked
like a smoke grenade went off around us. Towed it home and put it in
the garage where it sits, unable to start.