Hey guys new to the TDI game but not new to VW. I recently purchased a 14 Jetta TDI for exterior and interior parts for my 11 Jetta 2.5. After getting the car it’s too clean to part out and we are wanting another car.

The person I purchased it from had bought it off a friend with the plan to send straight to the scrapper after taking the dpf off. I ended up buying it before he sent it to the crusher. The OG owner had told this person that it had a runaway and blew the motor.

Now I have not crawled under this car or anything. I have opened the hood to hook jump box to lock it, only glaring thing I notice is the glow plugs are missing. It as far as I can tell has not been deleted. DPF is actually there, I don’t think he knew what was the dpf and what was the cat 🤦‍♂️

My questions I guess are:
1) where should I start looking for engine damage. I know gas cars but just bought my fist TDI a couple months back so still new.
2) why remove the glow plugs? Borescope?
3) since it doesn’t appear to be deleted and the anti shutter is still there, shouldn’t the computer recognize a runaway and axe the air flow using that?

I knew runaways would happen on older diesels (I grew up in a farm and family that had a tractor repair shop) but I hadn’t heard of them on new vehicles that have a valve in the intake tract. Sorry like I said new to TDIs. I know basic of how diesels work but it’s new territory for me.

I’ve recently bought a 09 Jetta JSW and it currently has codes for NOx emissions exceeded accompanied by regen while driving (RPMs rise to 1,000 at idle). It does have 151k miles, unknown previous history but carfax shows regular maintenance (i.e.: oil changes, battery changes, recalls including dieselgate recalls)

Anyways, point is that I’ve come to a crossroads to either replace the DPF or just delete it. I live in a states with no emissions inspections/testing. So I have to ask this group if anyone has successfully gutted a DPF and paired it with a delete tune?

EDIT: I am a welder and have no issues cutting open, removing inner media, and re-welding it. Just wanted others’ take on this.

Context: The engine is an 1.6 TDI, it had the timing chain recplacement about 10k km ago, and i hear this ticking noise, idk if its normal, it usually happens on cold starts, should I be worried about anything?

We have Golf TDI. About a month ago the Airbag light came on with a message that there was a fault and the passenger airbag was disabled. Had this diagnosed as needing a new control unit at a cost £1250. Anybody had this fault before and if so how reliable do you think the diagnosis is and is the cost in the right ball park? Thanks in adavance

2011 JSW DSG

First picture: while installing my 11mm injection pump, I was using a pick tool to seat the belt. It slipped and grazed the surface, enough to make the line seen on the belt. It’s still smooth, no fraying, and it is fully tightened. There’s about 40k miles on the belt, so it needs changing in a year or so. Should I change the belt, or will it be okay?

Second picture: while installing my 11mm injection pump, I didn’t want to take off the valve cover to set that cam tool in the vacuum pump. I did set it to be horizontal though. I made marks, as seen, and the 3rd from the left is/was aligned with the mark on the timing belt cover. Will she be okay or should I just do a timing belt job?

TLDR: should I do a timing belt job and start fresh?

Thanks in advance

Edit: I appreciate all the comments telling me I’m stupid. I know. I already have all the timing tools (like cam holder, injection pump bar thing, and camshaft rotator) but I was just being lazy and trying to save money (seeming as I need to replace the valve cover when I remove it due to the gasket). I’ll be performing a full timing job very shortly. if anyone has recommendations for kits to purchase, lmk

New to me ALH. 03. 212k miles. Cranks little longer than it should. Smokes at startup, and smokes at idle when hot too. Maybe a slight studder at idle too. Runs great has plenty of power.

I do see the return line to the pump, the felt is wet, assuming diesel. See steady flow of air bubbles in the clear line from the filter. Have new return lines, filter and T on the way. Puffing smoke from the oil fill and the disptick. Tube. Catch can has very little oil in it.

Injection timing bounces around a little bit.

Vnt17 turbo and some light mods. Guessing 40k miles or so on them

What also should I be checking. My first alh, have BEWs otherwise

Thanks

I performed an oil change at around 126,000 miles in May, after which the high oil light activated. I adjusted the oil to the standard level. A month later, I had the timing belt, water pump, oil belt, and related components replaced. At that time, I believed I had only driven about 2,000 to 3,000 miles since the oil change. Subsequently, I experienced a melted DPS following the timing belt replacement. I sent the vehicle to VW for repairs, which also included the phase 2 fix, and left VW with 129,000 miles in August. After driving approximately 1,000 miles, I received a notification indicating it was time for an oil change. At that point, I had only driven about 5,000 miles on this particular batch of oil. I am confused about why the timer for the 10,000-mile or one-year interval lost 5,000 miles. I should have 5000 more miles on my oil life