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I have been a Toyota owner for many years, so I will be very disappointed with a VW that falls apart quickly.
Any feedback?
If you're not prepared to do your own maintenance and maybe even some/all repairs, you might just want to stick with Toyota. Toyota is not the greatest thing on the planet anymore (long-time Toyota owner talking here), but a VW will likely be more expensive to operate if you're relying upon the dealer for everything. Of course, I was willing to trade some reliability for the better driving experience and the fuel economy was icing on the cake. So far, no regrets althought I don't drive the TDI much anymore. My daughter (who I bought a Celica GTS back in '03) prefers to drive my TDI to school. Luckily, I don't travel much anymore so it's not a biggie.
Now to the nitty-gritty...if you're really serious about buying a used TDI, I don't think the year has as much importance as how the vehicle was cared for. There are a lot of these on the streets that were purchased by folks that know nothing about diesels or VW's. VW dealers aren't known for understanding the TDI's and they tend to throw parts at them until the problem is fixed. So after an owner spends a ton on unneeded repairs or multiple warranty trips, they toss the vehicle. They probably performed minimal maintenenace, maybe the dealer didn't even do it right. Anything is possible. What you have to find is a private owner that knows all about the car, took care of it, and is selling for whatever reason (market is good, lost job, etc.). I'd be very hard pressed to buy one from a dealer unless I had access to all the history and maybe even the previous owner.
It also very likely could be a clogged intake. It appears you don't drive this vehicle all that much, or perhaps do a lot of city driving. That is an easy way to clog the intake. We have really bad diesel here in the US and in order to pass emissions some exhaust is recirculated into the intake. This builds up soot and restricts airflow which reduces performance.
You could have a combination of both problems going on here which might put you at the performance level you describe. These are really easy things to diagnose. Do a search in these forums and there will be more details on what to do about this. The intake can be cleaned out fairly easily, although to REALLY clean it out can take a couple hours. The MAF is a breeze and shouldn't cost more than $100.
I drove a short distance during daylight and turned the car off and went into places to eat. When I came out I found that one of the headlights and turn signal lights were on. Only one. One time it was the driver's side; once the passenger side. I did not have the headligts on; only the drl lights. I was able to turn the renegade lights off by starting the car and turning the light switch on and off. The dealer acted like I was nuts. Has anyone else had this experience?
Returning the indicator to "neutral" solves the problem - at least for me.
It is annoying and I can just see myself doing it some cold winter night and waking to a dead battery the next morning.
your battery should by fine if you do use this functionality overnight.
I am VERY NEW to the VW's, so please be patient w/ me. I have a 1981 Jetta, w/ I think a 1.6 diesel engine. I am experiencing overheating. We (me paying, my mechanic working) have replaced the radiator, water pump, had the head completely redone and its still overheating. Mechanic says it seems to have excessive preasure in the cooling system. The mech. thinks the excessive preasure may be due to a cracked block.
Has anyone got any imput on this.
One more thing. If it is a cracked block, what do you all think my best option is? Trying to get a new short block, and if so, where is the best place to get one, or getting a complete replacement engine, or cut my losses. Right now I have $1,100 in it.
Thanks so much. I really appreciate any imput you all have, as I'm kind of a duck out of water on this. I just got the car because of the increase in gas, and when school starts I'll be putting at least 80 miles a day on the road, and my truck only gets about 19MPG.
Thanks again & Blessings to All,
Jack
Thanks!
I love the car, but VW's Customer Service (or lack thereof) is notorious.
Do you have any Idea if you hit the key and engage the starter (without starting the car) will the fuel pump run any longer then when you just turn the ignition on?
My cummins diesel will run for 30 seconds if you engage the starter. I do this twice before starting after a fuel filter change.
Sandro
Would you prefer that your entire car vibrated at idle? ;-)
now i think i'm going to try disconnecting the MAF and driving around and see if it does it again. from what i've found, it sounds like disconnecting the MAF causes the ECU to run on a "default" air/ fuel concentration. i just had it replaced like 2 months ago, so if that is the prob, i'm going to be pretty irate. it better be covered at teh dealership.
Otherwise am very pleased with the car. Wish the trunk would open at the trunk latch instead of with the key or interior button. Only getting 35-36 mpg with first few tankfuls. But better than 19 mpg I was getting with MB C320. Keeping fingers crossed.
Mine did that a couple times before the turbo seals blew catastrophically with only 53k miles.
according to everybody I have spoken to, VW dealers have no freaking idea what to do with TDIs.
Check out TDIClub.com and this link. Top of the page, look for "Trusted TDI Mechanics by state"
http://forums.tdiclub.com/forumdisplay.php?f=43
Only one in my state, but he lives close, so he's helping me out. What an awesome resource.
If interested, e-mail me and I'll tell you what ends up happening.
Good Luck!
Dealer wanted $1120 for the crappy VNT-15 replacement turbo, didn't even ask how much to install.
Solution: upgrading to VNT-17 with all gaskets, hardware, adapters etc (KermaTDI.com). Paid $1170 this morning. Local guru's installing for about 300.
Will letcha know how it goes if interested.
what would cause "boost spikes" and what would it act like? i'm thinking it's the MAF because when it started doing this months ago, the dealer finally found an error and said that it was bad and replaced it - which fixed it for a little while, but then it started happening again, to which they said it was the intake valve of the MAF which was dirty - they cleaned it, but again, only fixed for a week or two. (but youre right, dealers don't know crap about tdi's). the first time it started doing this intermittently it turned out to be a cracked turbo hose, which i replaced (and fixed the problem for about 4 months).
i unplugged the MAF and drove around yesterday. it was sluggish, but not nearly as bad as it gets when i loose accelleration or power.(just before i unplugged it, i had NO accelleration at all). i plugged it back in and now it's fine. intermittent = sucks [non-permissible content removed] to troubleshoot. i know a "failed" MAF would cause the problem all the time, but a "failing" MAF might be intermittent, which is what i'm thinking now.
other ppl have suggested the injectors are getting clogged or other problems in the fuel line, but i don't know - i can't seem to nail down anything consistent when it does it, and i've ran bio-d and other injector cleaners, which don't seem to make a difference. it's seriously driving me nuts. this is my first experience with a tdi and a vw, and so far it's not exactly stellar.
A co-worker mentioned to me a little while later that I had one tail light, and one headlight on, and that turned out to be what the problem was, so it doesn't seem to be peculiar to your vehicle.
Also there is a key lock back at your trunk, just look up into the top portion of your rear license plate mounting area. It's hidden up there, but it seems like that would be a lot less convenient than using one of your remote buttons.
Your MPG should increase with time, as the engine get broken in, and loosens up, but I was getting mid 40's even when my 05.5 new Jetta with a manual transmission was new. If you have the automatic transmission you will most likely get about 5 mpg less.
MPG seems to be improving by one MPG with each fillup. Perhaps I'm not driving the manual conservatively enough. Like to drag it out a bit between gears.
Never noticed the key lock at the trunk before. Glad you mentioned it although guess the remote button is still better. Isn't the hook/hanger that comes down in the trunk neat for bags, etc.? Huge trunk. LIke the simplicity of the dashboard after a cluttered one before. All in all, it's a pretty cool car for the money.
running a couple tanks on biodiesel would clean out your injectors and what-not (or fuel injector cleaner, if you can't get bio-d where you are, but from what i hear, they're usually not as good), which may help, but intake de-carb is pretty pricey, if that's what's happening.
You should have your Injection Timing checked/adjusted.
I use PowerService fuel additive at EVERY fillup in my 2003. (last tankful was over 700 miles) PS is available in Wallmart. Use the GREY bottle in the summer and WHITE bottle in the winter. About 6oz is enough for each tankful.
Manual xmission has more of them than the automatic due to the fact that the automatic xmission wastes power as heat thus heating up the engine.
As far as I am aware, since the coolant heaters have virtually nothing to do with the emissions, then they may not throw any errorcodes if they are burned out.
Do not forget that most of the "errorcodes" are dictated by federal law to tell the driver when engine is out of emissions tolerance. Thus, if somthing does not cause emmissions issues, it may not light up the CEL (Check Engine Light)
There are SOME errorcodes that will not light up the CEL an example of one would be when an electric mirror heater is burned out. As long as you keep your electric-mirror controlknob not in the center position, they will not burn out anyway.
It is easy as pie to check coolant heaters with an ohmmeter. Checking the combustion-chamber glowplugs is almost as easy. (need to remove engine cover to get to them)
engine off, and open the door, I get a chime. 2006 (late)
TDI Jetta.
I recal that my 70's Mercedes actually had a feature on
the headlight switch where you could turn on eith the left
side or right side parking lights.
..pat