Hi all,

I imagine you get sick of hearing about this dreaded model hanging around VW forums. Sadly my (probably stupid in hindsight) decision ended up biting me, but I was a young student so have to forgive my idiocy a little. Got a good 4.5 years out of it so can't complain too much, unfortunately i'm still a student until the end of this year (just not as young anymore!), so i'm trying to fenangle a repair as cheaply as possible. Hoping to fix it enough to get another year or so, until I can get decent work and buy something newer.

It's a 2009 CAVD 118 TSI at 116K km. Piston and bore damage.

VW quoting $8K minimum for engine + fitting, even more for rebuild. Pushed for them to submit a claim, but doubt VW will even pay attention at this point. Local Euro mechanic I contacted said $6K roughly without actually pricing engine.

I have $5K budgeted for this repair, and that's stretching it (also just lost my current job yesterday with a week's notice, store is closing, good times!). Been sitting in the garage since March, so it's taken that long to source that much, and upwards of that it's probably new car time. Already spent $1800 on water pump + super charger combo replacement last year (and have since learned I could've gotten it done at half the cost, spewing!)

Can get my hands on a CTHD engine at 70K km from a local wrecker for about $2.5K and can get it swapped in for $1.5K. I have a couple questions regarding this from least to most important:


  • Is that too much, mostly the engine itself? Should I try and get it lower? Labour seems fair.
  • Is it better/cheaper/easier to just swap out the block?
  • Has any who's done this got any longer term feedback on how it faired? I've searched around a bit but can't seem to find much long-term.


Thanks in advance. I'm down in Adelaide if anyone has any localised advice or reccomendations.