'98 Passat Won't Start

I have a 1998 4 cylinder Passat. It was running fine until a few days ago when it wouldn't start. When you try to start it the engine makes a whining noise. The check engine light and the battery light remain on once all the other lights go out. We had the battery checked and it was determined to be fine.

I don't know if this has anything to do w/the above problem but after putting the battery back in yesterday, the car's alarm has been going off randomly. This morning it would go off for a few minutes then turn off and go back on a minute later. I don't know what was setting it off because no cars were driving by. I ended up leaving it unlocked so that the alarm was no longer set.

Does anyone know what might be wrong w/the car (and how much it might cost to fix)? I was also wondering if anyone knows a good repair shop to take the car to in Pittsburgh? Thanks for reading my post.

Lesley

Is the starter engaging & spinning the engine?

Is the starter engaging & spinning the engine?

Thank you for responding

I just had someone look at it and he thinks it might be the timming belt. The engine spins but it sounds like there is no compression. I called a place to see how much they would estimate it to be to fix if it's just the timming belt that is wrong and they said $600... do you know if that sounds reasonable?

Since that must be the 1.8T engine don't count on it being that cheap. That usually will bend several valves & possibly destroy the head. Last one I saw was $2500+.