OK, $1700 was me WAG’ing at taxes added in. You check it out: 2001 VW Jetta Wolfsburg, 1.8T. Turbo unit (either listed in the fuel area or in exhaust - some places list it in both). Best price I’ve found was $1674 at O’Reilly’s. A couple hundred more at Advance, made by the same company…and those are reman’s.
Just got off the phone with the dealer…$1150, plus gaskets and tax. That’s actually better, which surprises me.
I’ll have the wife follow me tonight when I get home and see what happens. I’ll have to improvise on the “hill” part, though. I live in South Texas (don’t hate me for it), and I think it was the site of the worlds largest “Mountain Removal Project”, because it’s very flat.
And…shame on me. I’ve been doing this long enough I should have, but no, I didn’t do compression tests. Crap. I’ll get on that, too.
And yes…I know. The way I drive will indeed come back to haunt me, but I’ll enjoy every minute until then. 
Seriously though…this is why I’m so…anal?..about the services. I do a complete bumper to bumper inspection, line check, all hoses, mounts, exhaust, fuel system, transaxle, everything. Every 5K miles. I dedicate that day to the vehicle once I pull it into the garage. If there are things that I need to check that I don’t…well, it’ll just add a bit more time to it. I can’t think of any, though. I’m VERY concerned that this particular vehicle runs right, all the time. It’s my wife’s daily driver, and if I have to deal with a problem, fine, but I do not want her stuck on the side of any road…ever.
She’s probably going to end up with a new one after this, anyway. She just likes this little car so much, I want to keep it going for her.
Have you looked at the vehicle on a lift yourself?
At 400K my BMW started consuming oil. Valve Guides worn.Its possible a valve seal or seals have deteriorated.You won’t see much coming out of the tailpipe.
I would re check the PCV system as previously posted.
I also agree your Turbo could be the problem
Well, guys, I only bring this back to life to let you know what I’ve found out.
Nothing.
That’s right, zip, nada, doo-doo…and the thing’s stopped using/burning/whatever it was doing to the oil.
I’ll tell you what happened (that I consider to be entirely unrelated, but…). Wife calls as I’m on my way to work, car won’t start. Crap, right? Yep…so I turn around, head back, jump the car, and it fires right up, runs like a champ, and I figure, what the heck, I’ll just take it. She takes my truck, I take her car, and we’re off.
20 minutes later, I’m no longer off, but sitting on the side of the road, waiting on a tow home. Alternator. Dead.
SO…since I had to work on it, I also topped off the oil…again…and with the new alternator installed, it hasn’t used a drop of oil in the last 750 miles (and yes, it’s still on the 5-30 version - service is ~800 miles away).
Ideas? I’m fresh out and stumped. Wife’s out of town, and I’ve been driving (yes, like I stole it) for most of those miles, and it’s just a-runnin’ like a raped ape.
Edit: I also followed the suggestions, and checked the turbo (when I did the alternator - why waste the whole day, right?). Removed it, with new gaskets all around. No faults there. Very clean. I was pleasantly surprised…and flummoxed.
Chase