Volkswagen’s ALH code 1.9L TDI, produced from 1998 through 2003 for Mk4 platform cars (PQ34?). Do your timing belts every 100k miles, fuel filters every 20k, they just kind of keep on going.
Variable geometry turbo might cause boost control problems with high miles (the most recent ALH-powered car I bought is just starting to give me overboost codes in certain situations with 300,000 miles on it—also, it still doesn’t consume any oil through a 10,000 mile oil change).
The injection pump in the longer time scale of things will likely eventually leak, but it’s sub $25 for the seal kit and they’re not that hard to re-seal yourself.
Compared to more modern diesels, these are stone simple and pretty easy to work on and return phenomenal fuel economy, have decent aftermarket support for easy upgrades to get more power out of them, too… which I do recommend, because you’re only starting with 90 hp and 155 ft-lbs. Simply installing bigger injector nozzles and a tune can bump that to around 130 hp and 220 ft lbs… Anything much more than that requires a turbo upgrade… and clutch upgrade.
ong after I did that timing belt at 621k miles, his odometer stopped counting. lolI had a customer a number of years ago that had 621,000 miles on his, never changed anything. Never touched the pump, the clutch or the turbo, just drove it on the highway for huge long stretches at a time from Bay Area to L.A. and to Colorado. It turns out the VDO instrument clusters in that generation of A platform VWs stop counting miles after 999,999 km, no matter if it’s displaying in miles or km. So, not long after I did that timing belt at 621k miles, his odometer stopped counting. lol
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