Hi, im a mechanically minded person and fix my own cars normally but this one is beyond me so any help would be greatly appreciated!

Right here goes (2000 golf 1.8t gti 150bhp standard)

I was driving the car on sunday evening when it just died on me after running perfectly without any problems or noises, warning lamps etc whatsoever.

I rolled it to the side of the road and tried to restart it, it turned over but didnt sound right on turnover, sort of faster and quiter than normal, i tried 3 or 4 times and eventually it turned over and just jammed to the point where it just clicks on the starter, i left the car and towed it home, didnt try to bump it incase it caused more damage

Anyway the obvious thing i thought would be cambelt failure, but its not broken, i tried rotating the engine on the camshaft pulley, it rotated slightly so i then tried turning it over on the key and again turned over but then jammed, and thats where we are now! i have removed the cambelt cover and rocker cover to check for anything obvious to no success, everything seems fine!

i am really confused as to what the problem could be, i did not let the car run out of oil so i cant have seized due to lack of oil, that would have made a loud noise and would not turn over at all.

Any help or advice on what to try and do to diagnose the issue would be great

Thanks very much for looking

Ben

 

Are there any engine codes??

 

hi, thanks for the reply! no codes, no warning on dash, Nothing! i turned the engine over manually and it gets to a point then hits something? i presume thats a valve or could it be something else?

Help much appreciated

Thanks Ben

 

have u tried doing a compression test??

 

Hey, i cant do a compression test as the engine will only turn a very small amount before it hits and obsticle, im 90% sure there is valve damage but what could have caused this without the cambelt snapping?

Thanks Ben

 

I heard those 1.8T engines had some problems. Thats why VW doesnt make them anymore. is the timing belt new or old? Sometimes those timing belts jump a tooth or even more if they r loose. Try aligning it with the timing marks, just to check if that's ok.