Lori gets a Diesel!

[Darrin Tosh]

Ok so it is not a truck, but I picked up this 2001 VW Jetta TDI Automatic last week, sort of for the lot, sort of to see if Lori would like it, so we decided to drive it for a week and she loves it. Lots of power, not too noisy and the autos are hard to find (that's all she will drive) plus we got 38 MPG on our first tank.

So it looks like we are saying good by to her 1998 Volvo V70 AWD Turbo Wagon and hello to the TDI Diesel Jetta!

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[IDIDieselJohn]

Put a stack on the side

 

[sassyrel]

see that wonderful fuel filter assm on the right fender---theres a gent on the tdi forum--that sells a piece he makes--to mount a cat filter on---thats 2!! microns---absolute--the factory one--is right at 30 microns----huge diff---i use a fleetguard filter,cause the cat is twice the cost--fac filter is around 30 bones--flgrd is 8, and much finer---

 

[F350farmboy]

Gotta love those tdi's. I'm driving my brother's '96 passat while he's in college and it gets close to 45 mpg....but thats on a few fill-ups cause it takes about 2.5-3 weeks to reach empty . But seriously its averaging 43-44.

Hope she lasts a long time, we rebuilt the motor this past summer with 450,000miles. Started to shake real bad and smoke real good....or bad, whatever you want it to be.

 

[The Warden]

Congrats to her! Gotta love those TDI's...have you been over to TDIClub.com yet?

The biggest things to remember are that it doesn't use standard 15W-40 oil...you have to buy a special oil; it's available at the dealer or at a few retailers online. I don't remember the exact specifications, but it's posted on TDIClub. Also, replacing the timing belt isn't a simple matter of lining the marks up and throwing a belt on. Many people have tried that method only to end up with pistons and valves colliding The proper procedure's outlined on a few websites...it requires some special tools, but they're not that expensive, and for a FWD car, the job isn't TOO terrible from what I've read. And, lastly, VW dealers are iffy for service...some service departments have diesel techs who know what they're doing, and many more don't

I didn't realize that the autos did that good for fuel economy...I've heard that the slushbox TDI's do considerably worse than manual transmissions, but I never paid close attention as I'd rather shift my own gears

I want a TDI someday...but finances won't allow it. Someday... *sigh* ...but that's why I did some research on them...

Again, congrats!!!

 

[F350farmboy]

Yeah, you pretty much hit the nail on the head warden. We are part of TDIClub.com. I'm pretty sure the coolant is even a special coolant available from the dealer.

Tools? yeah, there's plenty of specialty tools...sprocket holders, stoppers, etc,etc...there's a box of them on the shelf we might be able to loan to others like someone does here for timers and such. They were pretty much a one time use for us.

My brother also downloaded something like ***-com.....for codes, adjustments, etc.

 

[vegas39]

If I may throw in my two cents worth. We had 10 2004 Golfs and 3 2006 Jettas at our company. We still have one of the Golfs, which is what I drive daily and we also have one of the 06 Jettas.

I have to say, although they are nice to drive and get great mileage, they are very expensive to repair and have not been too dependable for us.
As far as using special oil and coolant, yes thats true but it sucks, because it aint cheap.

When our lease ended on the Golfs, I kept the best one out of the bunch and bought it outright but now at 75,000 miles, I'm starting to have issues, radiator fan motor, fuel sending unit, transmission (automatic) takes several seconds to go into drive when it's warm outside And a few other issues.

I like these cars but I think VW is going to have to up the reliability on them before I would spend the kind of money that they want for their products.

 

[Russ]

I've been trying to talk the wife into one for a while now. Nice ride!

 

[vegas39]

And before everyone flames me for the last post, I am only going on personal experience.

To Darrin. Please dont take my last post the wrong way. That is a nice looking Jetta and I hope it provides great service for you guys.

 

[Diesel JD]

My friend has a lot of miles on an 06 Jetta TDI, and gets great mileage with B100 biodoesel even. Worst issue he's had was it shutoff because he had some crap in the fuel tank that resulted in the tank needing to be dropped and cleaned, but that was our fault for poor QC on the biodiesel and his does have the manual transmission. They sure aren't as simple as an IH IDI or even a Cummins or PSD, but they do have a certain appeal.

 

[argve]

That's a nice looking ride Darrin.

 

[George_7.3IDI]

Dang nice... I'd like to get one of those for myself but haven't had the money for one... it would definitely need to be a standard though...

 

[DragRag]

Congrats on the buy, one day we will own one of these tdi's also.

 

[gonecrazyi]

The thing with VW's is that you have to be able to source your own parts. You have to figure that VW's are sold in the same dealerships as Mercedes and BMW's so the parts will be over priced. A little online searching and most of the parts can be had for cheap.

As for the timing belt, it requires a computer and some software to read where the timing actually is.

We use nothing but Rotella 30 wt in all of our VW TDI's, My dads has over 200k on all original motor parts and is still running strong and gettin between 51-58 (with a 5 sp and some computer tweaks, also the ac has to be off). My moms has a 03 wagon automatic and gets around 38.

Great little cars and run forever, just have to be smart when it comes to repairing them.

 

[GOOSE]

What's better than a diesel parked in your drive way? TWO!!!!! Ummm, three? Ok, thats enough. I always wanted a TDI to give the Excursion a break. Their a little easier to park also. Good luck with the new ride. The fuel economy numbers will probably be addictive.