Volkswagen TDI - Performance and Maintenance

Salespeople at car lots are great, aren't they

_{mercenaries, I mean.....}

Certainly; paragons of truth and honesty...heh, heh.

Have you hugged your car salesperson today?

Does clamping their heads in a vise and slowly turning the handle tighter and tighter count as hugging?...

VW TDi is a great little car. Thousands of them run beautifully all over Europe for hundreds of thousand kilometers and never get much above idling speed on congested city roads.

Shoot the salesman, he talking ****.

We have a VW Passat; it is not a TDI. It's a fast car and I've had the impression it needs its horses let loose on occasion; to which I oblige. Under the gas flap it has two sets of pressure reccomendations for the tires: psi for speeds less than 100 mph and psi for speeds greater than 100 mph.

I love your second sentence. GA

That about sums it up. Since I am both an electrical engineer by university and trade, and an avowed gear-head at home, I find ample opportunities to skewer minimally informed self-inflated sales people at both car dealerships and electronics stores. It's fun to watch them tuck tail and slither away. Diabolical, yes, but I can't help it.

It's most probably one of the VW 'common rail' models that are so efficient now.

Check here,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_rail

and google for other sites that explain its virtues in more detail.

They certainly don't need 'blowing out' and it sounds like the salesman was more interested in 'fattening out' his wallet.

I own a 2002 Jetta TDI and a 2005 Passat TDI. Both are outstanding engines, although the Passat is slightly larger. The Passat, for whatever reason, tends to "load up" a little bit on carbon if not "blown out" at highway speeds- It is definitely not out of the norm (compared to my Dodge/Cummins, anyway), but the Jetta is definitely the cleaner of the two. I would recommend either vehicle to anyone.

I think the reason that Cummins says this happens is due to turbo oil getting into the exhaust stream during excessive idling period. I never considered it worth mentioning to VW. I just saved punching the throttle for the occasional tailgater.

You beat me to it...GA for ya.

I too think the salesman might be thinking of bigger, older or less efficient diesel engines that accumulate a bit of crud when run at lower rpm for extended periods.

TDI engines, both diesel and gas are often misunderstood. Read as much as you can about the engines as the newer they are, the better they are (at least for burning cleanly and getting hybrid equivalent mileage).

My first thought about where people run into trouble with diesels is in fuel quality. Where possible, you should use low sulpher diesel fuel. The regular diesel fuel often "cokes" up more than low sulpher necessitating the take-it-out-and get-rid of-the-carbon-buildup or Italian Tune-up if you prefer.

Brand new TDI engines have to be smokeless and meet the same emissions standards as gasoline engines and Volkswagen is no exception. To do this they use a system where Urea is added into the exhaust and there is a seperate tank to hold the the compound complete with warnings about what it is for.

The other issue that many don't not realize is that older diesels often require more frequent oil changes than gas engines. New engines, gas or diesel are close to the same service interval. New diesels also require the use of low sulpher diesel oil (I can't remember the SAE standard) and use of the wrong oil can cause carbon build up as well.

The verdict: Nothing wrong with the new TDI engine, do your due dillegence learning about the engine, work the best deal you can at a dealer you feel comfortable with and enjoy driving your new car.

The other issue that many don't not realize is that older diesels often require more frequent oil changes than gas engines. New engines, gas or diesel are close to the same service interval. New diesels also require the use of low sulpher diesel oil (I can't remember the SAE standard) and use of the wrong oil can cause carbon build up as well.

My engine uses Long Life 3, the computer on my Touran kept check of what I did (including towing a 1.5 metric ton trailer) and worked out when the oil and filter should be changed. With my driving style that workes out at between 32,000 and 35,000 kilometers......which is better than any petrol/gas engined car I ever had.......

What does a modern petrol/gas engined car do between oil changes, miles wise?

Depending upon the quality of lubricant and the filter medium and size of the filter; synthetic blends about 11000 kilometers, pure synthetics about 17000-48000 kilometers...

I have had 5 cars with the VW TDI motors. I have driven probably 50 other TDI cars, Audi has them as well.

I have never heard or found the need to do anything that this crap salesman said!!

Diesels are general nice to drive and are very economical.....

A couple of points:-

Due to the fact that diesel fuel is less flammable, diesel cars are quite a bit safer to drive.....good point.

Diesel itself is sticky and it smells awful......bad point.

But I still prefer diesel to petrol.....

If newer diesels are so much cleaner, why is it that so many diesel vehicles are denied import into north america because of emissions? I took my family to Costa Rica for Christmas and we rented a Nissan Urvan...turbo diesel, roomy for how big the vehicle was...I was quite impressed with the simplicity of the machine and thought it would make a better vehicle than the mazda we currently drive in Canada. Turns out that you can't get it.

Any comments on this sort of thing?

It's a marketability issue.

Citizens of north America have a mind recession regarding diesel powered vehicles.

WOW!!!!

Any idea why?

Largely due the troubles experienced when GM tried to convert the small block gasoline design into a diesel fuel engine though very successful the problems; transmissions were worked out upon the consuming public, so a bad rap it got.

Add to that, the consumer looks at the costs of fuel at the pump and diesel ironically is always more than gasoline.

Modern turbocharged diesel engines (at least here in Europe) come equipped with a particulate filter to reduce carbon (soot) particle emissions. This is common to all TDI makers, some do not even offer a TDI without it. The typical fume clouds behind a diesel car during acceleration could soon be history.

This filter is mostly marketed as maintenance free, if certain driving instructions are followed: drive over a certain speed e.g. 25 mph for over 15 minutes every couple of weeks, says the GM Opel instruction manual for example. If the exhaust pressure increases above a certain level because of the saturation of the filter, a regeneration (burning-out) process is initiated for example by changing the air fuel ratio of the combustion (you can notice this by elevated momentary consumption, rougher engine sound and heat underneath the car). The exhaust gases are heated to extremely high temperatures so the process can take place in the filter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_particulate_filter

The 25 miles / 15 min rule (might be different for Volkswagen) sounds easy to follow but if you are using the car for short distance and/or have a lot of stop and go traffic it can be a problem. As far as I know, the cars do not have an indicator when the regeneration is about to happen and the regeneration attempts are stopped each time with a certain number of attempts until the car gives an error indication. I had my car in the garage more than once because of that. They can just reset that error or in cases of severe clogging perform a manual burning out.

I love TDI engines and will get a Cross Touran TDI as company car in september. This car is not sold in the US. For those interested, here a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Touran. I hope the VW system is a bit less problematic for our driving conditions than the Opel´s.

I think this is what the salesman was referring to.

Merecedes Blue Line or similar, have a tank of special fluid to clean up the exhaust filter when it gets clogged (Urea?)......