Crankwalk inevitable with a high mileage turbo 2G?

[zaebst]

Well I'm looking at a 96 TSi AWD 5-Speed right now. It's black with grey leather and in incredibly good condition. The only catch is it has 144,xxx miles on it. I can get it for like $4,000 though. My real question is does crankwalk happen to every 2G Turbo engine if given enough time? How long do you think I have? And things should I look for or keep an eye out for as signs of crankwalk? I was thinking maybe doing a quick compression test would give me a little better idea of how good the engine is still. It's all stock.

 

[GoFastTSI]

It isn't inevitable, just use common sense when test driving and test compression/leakdown as well. My car exhibited signs of crankwalk at 17K miles, but it wasn't a common known malady until I had reached 40K. It became somewhat undriveable at 49K miles when I put it back to stock and traded it in. I've known some 2G's to go forever without crankwalk, even with 2600lb pressure plates. Good luck with the purchase.