I flew out from NC to OK last Saturday morning to retrieve my trusty old 81 Caddy, father had been using it the last couple years while he tinkered on putting the 1.9 in his 82.

I set out, things went ok, gearing in the new gasser trans is pretty decent, cruise control works alright, everythings groovy.
About 50 miles west of Lebanon TN, crawling along in 1st in traffic, I hear TANG, CLACK CLACK CLACK, pull off and shut it down. Visual shows nothing wrong, fire it up again, cursed, and limp up an offramp to a hotel parking lot. Run it some more, listen more, decide I'm screwed.
Called father and talked it over, decided to drive it around the hotel a little more, and the sound went away. I says to myself "well darn".

So. Something got into/broke off in the combustian chamber, and it's a damn miracle it didnt hole a piston or something. I drove the rest of the 800 or so miles home and didnt miss a beat. It does have a funny "hop" at idle, it's subtle, but it's there. Smoke and power are ok pretty much. Cold starts fine, cold as it is anyway. About all I can figure is a glowplug tip broke off maybe, but seems like it should have been hard starting or the light should have accted funny, but maybe not. Till I can get some heat shields here and start pulling stuff and smoke the business end over, I'm going to keep driving it.

Anyone ever had a similier experience/noise? It made a hell of a racket.
First time a VW diesel has ever let me down(almost). And I have a lot of miles on them, this little truck is at almost 600K now. 41mpg running 70 on the interstate BTW.

Another note, father said it started running bad in the last year, much smoke, no power, he stuck some new injector nozzles in, cleared it right up. He did not have them pop'd to check pressure though, but it ran alright. This funny idle it has now goes away with even a slight bit of throttle. I've felt a diesel do this exact thing somewhere, but I can't remember when/what/where.

Lord I've missed a VW diesel, the Mercedes and BMW were just not the same.

And I also rode in an 05 Jetta TDI and saw it pull to 125mph like nothing. I was impressed with it's top-end. Handled like crap though.

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One more Radar Lover gone...
1982 VW Caddy diesel 406K 1.9L AAZ
1994 E320 195K