"BAD" Volkwagen Jetta 1.9L ALH/AHU TDI Diesel Engine Teardown. Why are these SO GOOD? #takemeback

My 2001 Golf ALH is at 362K miles... It still runs great... I drive 120 miles everyday... 50+ mpg... Best car and engine I've ever had...

More often than not I hear of the cars themselves falling apart before these engines fail. One of the best diesel engines ever made

As a European viewer i'd to say Thank you to bring a 1.9 TDI engine on the channel because now i know how these rock solid engines are made. It's built like to last more than the car that runs. They're still loved and used in all Europe just like the 1.9 JTD Engine, 2 of the best one ever made.

13:03 It literally kicked the bucket!

I used to have an ugly, decrepit old VW Rabbit diesel, It bought it as a fixer upper. It had suffered an overheat, and had the obligatory warped head. I found a repair shop in Redding California called Al's Kraut Car Repair. Not a slur. The owner's name was Al Kraut, and he was an old German guy who knew everything about older pre electronic VWs. He resurfaced the head, and gapped the valves for me. I had purchased a manual for the engine, and it called for all sorts of special VW tools to get the head re installed, and the timing set. Al told me that I did not need a single special tool. A long half inch socket fit the timing hole in the pump pulley perfectly, and a bastard file fit perfectly in the groove on the back of the cam shaft for holding the cam shaft in position. There were a few others. He gave me a few other tips along the way. He was one of those mechanics who actually loved the cars that he worked on. I was able to put the head on, and re fill the coolant, and the engine started immediately after bleeding the injectors. It ran perfectly until it blew another water hose, and overheated again.

I absolutely love how vw juste made one 4 cylinder engine in the 80s and they were like “you shall be Frankensteined into whatever we need for the next 20-30years”. Most of the bottom half of this engine looks exactly like my g60, and the parts are mostly interchangeable, I love it.

Thanks for posting :) That's actually a 1Z from a 96 or 97 passat B4. You can tell from the smooth pump and the non cooled egr system. To say i love these 1.9 tdi engines would be an understatement. I have a 96 tacoma with an ALH/BHW hybrid 2.0, a vanagon with an AHU, and a 2005 golf tdi that i converted to ALH. The truck has over 200k since the swap and is the most reliable vehicle I've ever owned. (13+ years). Love the channel.

My hobby is rebuilding Diesel cars. My first normal driver was an '84 VW Quantum around '08, then an '01 Jetta, and now a '13 Sportwagen. So I've driven a 1.6, 1.9 and 2.0 liter. Love my Diesels.

My ex's uncle has/had a Golf with one of these and once said it could be pried from his cold, dead hands. Last I knew it had 550k miles on it, and that was five years ago. He frequently drove from Kansas City to Steamboat Springs and sometimes managed it on one tank of diesel. They certainly don't make 'em like that anymore.

I am a retired german car repair shop owner and my tdi customers loved their diesels. WELL MADE

I used to blast on the German highways at 146 MPH. 1.9 with intercooler. Stock 110HP, chip tuned 150HP! 8 seconds to 60, good for 1999. Torque was stock 235Nm and tuned 325Nm. I would keep the speed up for 7 hours traveling to Italy or Poland. The car was an Seat Ibiza GT TDII from 1999 (made in Spain and similar to a Golf VR6 just with a diesel in it) and the weight was 1035kg, 2,277 LBS! . 5 Speed manual. They used to race these cars in rally and on the circuit. Good times when I was back in the Netherlands.

Good way to spend a Sunday lunch in NZ. Coffee, food, and an engine being disassembled.

My 02 Jetta hit 300k miles yesterday

Oh yeah, I remember these from my VW selling days - the good ol' times! Thanks for sparking the memories. Keep oil in them, change the timing belt no later than recommended and they will run and run and run. Here in the rust/salt belt the rest of the car would fall apart long before the 1.9L would ever even come close to stop running. With a manual transmission it was the ultimate apocalypse powertrain. Back in the day I'd go to the big city 200km away, so 400km roundtrip regularly to see the bands I listen to play and it would never be more than $20.- for diesel. 155lbs of torque doesn't sound like much at all in anybody's books but these things produced it ALL starting very down low so no matter if you were in lugging it rpm's just leave it in whatever gear it was in and put your foot down and it would just start pulling. So smooth and effortless. Not sure what that melted plastic cover was from, as you guessed heat from the broken timing belt? Those engines didn't get hot enough on their own to melt anything. With my customers the only time one of these engines 'died' was when they rolled the dice and didn't change the timing belt. Many memories of telling people to change the friggin' belt and they'd say they can't afford it right now and my follow up would always be if you can't afford to change the belt now you definitely won't be able to fix things after it breaks so change the friggin' belt, maintenance is always cheaper than a repair. Did they listen? Of course not.

My father over in Europe has this engine in his 1994 Audi 80. Still runs great and never let him down.

Years ago, I purchased a brand new 1977 VW Rabbit Diesel. August 1977, first year into the U.S. 48hp. no air conditioner allowed. It was quite the engine. 52 mgp. all of the time. Changed glow plugs every fall and serviced it to death. What a great car.

Legendary, the high watermark of VW durability. The later PD was virtually as good with more power but Its been downhill ever since then.

The '91 TDI Passat was a beast. I sold mine a few years ago with 290000 on the clock. The friend I sold it to drove it until the floorboards rusted out.

Yes!!! Thanks for the teardown! I drove a 2002 TDI with a 5 speed for years. My dad bought it with about 70K miles, and sold it at 325K miles. The car was getting to be worn out, but I loved driving that car. Still kind of miss it. It had a mild tune, and was fun to drive and economical. Fantastic engines!

I remember you could buy these as a crate engines in the UK, as a crate engines for power generation or fluid pumping, they used to use one on a farm in Halesowen (UK) as a 3 phase generator to run the milk pumps and pasteuriser there, people also use them in different cars especially the old defenders (they also use the M57) and kit cars, these engines outlive the shells of the cars, can be had working sometimes with the gearbox for less than £200, because there's so many of them, there's also a UK based tuner called darkside that tunes them to make 400BHP.