unlucky first time TDi owner

[Gregski]

hey guys

thought id let you know my story as its both amusing and annoying

ill try keep it short and sweet

saw a MY08 GT TDI DSG on the market, went down crunched the dealer, and put a deposit on it subject to finance.

driving it after i signed up (yes i drove it before i signed) i found the Dsg to be really jerky and jolty on take off, holden used car dealer assured me i didnt know anything and that they are: 'all like that'

drove it to my brothers dealership (prior to purchase), whose head mechanic assured me that the dsg is rooted.

took it holden and insisted they send it to VW (seeing it is under new car warranty) to inspect.

surprise surprise the 'mechatronics' and a hydraulic valve were gone in the gearbox and it was repaired and the fluid changed, i test drove it after i picked it up, felt heaps better and bought the car. done.... ?

no

a week after having it, it dies on me, stinking hot day, when i need it most.
VW came in 5 mins and towed in back to the shop (new car warranty) and to make a long story short found a problem with the wiring, so replaced the entire loom, and apprantly VW recommended the service team also replace the ECU and the Injectors, incase the damage caused further issues.

another week later and im driving again, so far so good. I must say aparty from that, it is a cool car to drive

I said to myself if it brakes down again, im selling it, can't afford the risk of losing out financially.

it would of cost me in excess of $15k if i wasnt in new car warranty which expires in Nov

all i can say is i'm glad i didn't go ahead with the Oettinger ECU upgrade!

sorry guys had to vent, feel free to comment and give me crap

Greg

[Buller_Scott]

that's a real shame, man.

there are plenty of people on here with dsg's that havent had any problems during their ownership, and the gt tdi is a damn good car, sounds like you were just unlucky.

get the car over to either audvolks or volkspower to make sure that its tip top, and if it is, get that thing chipped!

[Gregski]

that's a real shame, man.

there are plenty of people on here with dsg's that havent had any problems during their ownership, and the gt tdi is a damn good car, sounds like you were just unlucky.

get the car over to either audvolks or volkspower to make sure that its tip top, and if it is, get that thing chipped!

yes it suuure is, its hard enough my mates giving me shyt for buying a girls car as it is having the thing break down and fault on me twice!

Keen to get it slammed, get some decent wheels, paint the rear bar, do some minor exhaust tweeks and chip it.

[Buller_Scott]

yeah, for sure. lucky gt tdi boys with your factory fmic and pd150 pipework!

(i have LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTS to do to the polo yet)

[Gregski]

yee haa, its never enough though is it?

trying to find tdi tuner stuff on the net, ie drag racing etc, cant find anything!

any links u guys can provide?

[Buller_Scott]

hmmmm. for drag racing, not too sure. check out bankspower.com for some ideas, i guess, but its mostly trucks that he deals with.

kermatdi.com is good, as well as idparts.com for other ideas.

if you want performance talk, check out tdiclub.com 's performance forums. lots of guys running some heavy stuff on there.

[benough]

yes it suuure is, its hard enough my mates giving me shyt for buying a girls car as it is having the thing break down and fault on me twice!

Keen to get it slammed, get some decent wheels, paint the rear bar, do some minor exhaust tweeks and chip it.

a girls car? Diesel is for men! Plus a 2l that eats V6 commodores and keeps up with V8 is man as!

Good purchase btw. Get a rear sway bar and bushes and the car becomes very neutral and confident

[Gregski]

Yea when I take them for a spin they come back smiling, but I still get crap for it... Mind u my previous cars include a ttv8 Ss, an avo 200sx, and a 10 sec rx3 rotary so my mates expect alot when I go car shopping

really happy with the handling already will def do the sway bar when I lower it, thanks for tip! Always thought it wld be a great getaway car cos of the torque and handling out of corners

[benough]

I see. Yeah that would seem like a puncy move.

At least you now have a cabin that's comfortable and built well ;-)

[gregozedobe]

it would of cost me in excess of $15k if i wasnt in new car warranty which expires in Nov


You can buy an extended VW new car warranty which will cover you for another 3 years (do a search in VWW for details including best prices).

[Greg Roles]

A fast diesel......pull the other one!:rolleyes:

[Gregski]

I don't by any means condone street drag racing or anything but....... I did give a mate from work a run for his money in his vx Calais supercharged v6 complete with yella Terra pulley kit and exhaust and mods

and just tonite again fair and square twice In a row beat my brother in his 05 350z with exhaust, all the way.

Might actually start to get street cred and recognition after all haha

[benough]

Nice one on the 350Z! I might have to line one up someday... ;-)

Imagine how it will go with a DPF delete? From 125kw up to 170kw!

[Gregski]

Mate forgive my ignorance and laziness but tell me more about this dpf delete....

This is all new to me, this tdi bizzo. :stupid:

[jayjay]

yeah, for sure. lucky gt tdi boys with your factory fmic and pd150 pipework!

(i have LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTS to do to the polo yet)

?? pd 150? it's already got 170hp stock... j:

greg you've landed on a pretty sweet car on the vw side of things. i cant imagine it feels particularly zippy after a 10 second rotary though..

the dpf delete and chip is basically an exhaust restriction removal and maps to suit. makes the gttdi an animal..

[benough]

Mate forgive my ignorance and laziness but tell me more about this dpf delete....

This is all new to me, this tdi bizzo. :stupid:

The latest EURO emissions spec was adopted by Australian so that from 1 Jan 2008 all diesels sold in this country needed to have a DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter).

What it does is essentially stores all the 'soot' that comes out from the motor and burns it off slowly over time as you drive so as to not release any soot sized particles into the atmosphere.

The things is is that it is a restriction to the motor. It has to force exhaust gas through about 3 90 degree bends and through tiny meshes to trap the soot.

It took people about 18 months to finally circumvent it and for about $2k you can have it replaced with a straight dump pipe and a software tune.

The first batch have just arrived in Aus but from what I know they haven't been installed on anyone's car just yet. Can't wait though!

[Gregski]

Wow so is it a matter of a new exhaust? or deleting the rear muffler? And just adding an oettinger chip??
Now I'm really excited

[benough]

Mate forgive my ignorance and laziness but tell me more about this dpf delete....

This is all new to me, this tdi bizzo. :stupid:

Also TDI's have a Variable Vane Turbo.

Basically it electronically adjusts the vanes in the turbo to keep maximum boost pressure across the rev range. That said if you see a boost gauge on a TDI it doesn't really show that.

The only petrol car with one is the 911 Turbo. Even the polos have em in diesel. The reason being is that TDI exhaust gas temps, EGT, are considerably lower that petrol.

That and the immense amount of torque, due to the long stroke and v. high compression of diesel motors, 19.5 :1, is what makes it stand up and go in any gear.

The GT is quite different to all other TDI's in that the power doesn't fall away after 4000rpm, it holds up to 5000rpm, if you wanna redline it :rolleyes:

[benough]

Wow so is it a matter of a new exhaust? or deleting the rear muffler? And just adding an oettinger chip??
Now I'm really excited

Well the DPF delete comes with software to trick the car into believing that the DPF is still there but while you're at it you moswell tune it up to match the new exhaust flow.

So doing that kinds covers all bases.

Suspension will give you tons more control and traction. I have bushes, an ALK, anit lift kit, and a rear sway bar on mine and it takes out the understeer just nicely, so no more "loading up" feel of the motor wanting to go the opposite way in hard cornering.

You'd want coilovers though. A guy I know who races his R32 said to me he has bought every diff type of suspension, springs, dampners, combo kits, and coilovers and you wouldn't waste your money on anything but coilovers.

Michas GT TDI has H&R coilovers on it and it's cornering ability leaves my car behind.

[craigy]

The GT is quite different to all other TDI's in that the power doesn't fall away after 4500rpm, it holds up to 5500rpm, if you wanna redline it :rolleyes:

Last time I looked my GT TDI redlined at 4500. Any time I've reved it that high the power dropped away sharply and there was a lot more acceleration at lower revs.

[benough]

Sorry you're right, take all the figures back 500 rpm :-)

[Sammy125TDi]

Well the DPF delete comes with software to trick the car into believing that the DPF is still there but while you're at it you moswell tune it up to match the new exhaust flow.

So doing that kinds covers all bases.

Suspension will give you tons more control and traction. I have bushes, an ALK, anit lift kit, and a rear sway bar on mine and it takes out the understeer just nicely, so no more "loading up" feel of the motor wanting to go the opposite way in hard cornering.

You'd want coilovers though. A guy I know who races his R32 said to me he has bought every diff type of suspension, springs, dampners, combo kits, and coilovers and you wouldn't waste your money on anything but coilovers.

Michas GT TDI has H&R coilovers on it and it's cornering ability leaves my car behind.

Hi Mate,

Where did you get your anti lift kit? my jetta 125tdi desperately needs it!

cheers
Sam

[benough]

http://www.rennenhaus.com.au/products/volkswagen/mkv-handling/whiteline-anti-lift-kit-fwd-awd/

Dude they are great. When it first goes on you can feel the tyre pushing into the road more for better grip.

I think they were designed for the 2.0 Petrol motor so w/ the extra weight of the TDI they creak on small slow bumps.

[gldgti]

Welcome new TDI owner to our happy forum :-)

Mk5 chassis does indeed seem to perform well with coilovers, i think the mk5 is a little sloshy on stock suspension :-)

Just for the record, I was once very confused one early early morning when I had a mad run up the old pacific hyway going south from Brooklin towards Berowra with a 350Z. This guy had a little rear end step outage around some of the corners and I could see from his tailpipes smoking every time he applied power that he was up if for the money.

I was surprised to keep up in my mk3 turbo diesel, thats for sure.

[Gregski]

Faaark I'm just magining my car with an extra 50kw, that wld be :brutal: not to mention torques

Read about the dpf's too keen to hear how they go, hurry up delivery guy!

Started a similar thread on tdiclub and got ab****e zero response, maybe the yanks are a little upset they don't get GT's.

Having said that they have some serious bizzo goin on over there with their tdi's hence me askng cog on his thread what's next heads, cam inlet etc

[benough]

Faaark I'm just magining my car with an extra 50kw, that wld be :brutal: not to mention torques

Read about the dpf's too keen to hear how they go, hurry up delivery guy!

Started a similar thread on tdiclub and got ab****e zero response, maybe the yanks are a little upset they don't get GT's.

Having said that they have some serious bizzo goin on over there with their tdi's hence me askng cog on his thread what's next heads, cam inlet etc

Yeah we are like 3 years ahead of them in terms of motors from VW but they tune the bejesus out of their older ones.

There's a guy on vortex who has a MK3 TDI that makes more torque than my car. He told me to get all these injectors, turbo, manifolds etc. Turns out I have better stuff from the factory plus 16V, haha!

[Gregski]

Yep definetly an anger jealous thing then!

Hey can anyone tell me why I'm seeing oil on my driveway? Is it e cessive blow by? I have been driving quite spiritedly of late! Any way I can rectfy? I'm 5ks away from my 90k service

[benough]

no idea dude.

Can you see any signs of leaking in the engine bay?

I doubt it would be blowby. Let's just hope it's something simple like a sump gasket.

[Greg Roles]

I'd hazzard a guess it's the blowby that pools in the bottom of the intercooler pipes dripping out of the pipe - intercooler junction.

[Gregski]

Just popped the hood and can't see shyt

just saw the engine covers are loose and all the mounting brackets have been broken as well, fkn hopeless service techs!

Oil looks quite clean, and I did top it up about a week or two ago? Might be some excess overflow?

[Gregski]

I'd hazzard a guess it's the blowby that pools in the bottom of the intercooler pipes dripping out of the pipe - intercooler junction.

Thanks cog
might have to invest in a catchcan if I'm to keep this up

[number 2]

a girls car? Diesel is for men! Plus a 2l that eats V6 commodores and keeps up with V8 is man as!

Good purchase btw. Get a rear sway bar and bushes and the car becomes very neutral and confident

Lol, i get **** too. When i say i get 20km/l they shut up tho :P

[Buller_Scott]

hell yeah man. some kids at work cant afford to run their glorious [deep voice now] "big v8's", and i can drive from sydney to melbourne on a vented tank, and still have a quarter of a tank left out of 45 litres.

meh, you'll find that the folks who give you crap for driving a vw diesel dont have much ground to stand on when the roads get twisty.

[jettapilot]

Diesel's for men?
So is manual transmission, I'm told.

Best go check my chromosomes.

[Buller_Scott]

cherish it!

the way things are going, manuals might be phased out of the VW group altogether sooner rather than later.

no manual in the next-gen polo gti!!! horrific...

DSG might shift quicker etc etc, but driving for fun is all about sensory perceptions. take those away and you might have the fastest car in the world with low engine noise, instantaneous gear shifts, super easy steering etc etc, but you lose the things that make driving, fun.

like grabbing a gear stick and having to use a clutch.

[Transporter]

cherish it!

the way things are going, manuals might be phased out of the VW group altogether sooner rather than later.

no manual in the next-gen polo gti!!! horrific...

DSG might shift quicker etc etc, but driving for fun is all about sensory perceptions. take those away and you might have the fastest car in the world with low engine noise, instantaneous gear shifts, super easy steering etc etc, but you lose the things that make driving, fun.

like grabbing a gear stick and having to use a clutch.

Naah... you lose only clutch pedal, you can still shift the gears manually. IMO, in the 20 years time people will look at it differently. :)

[Buller_Scott]

i LOVE the clutch pedal!

p.s. shameless plug for some answers to my questions in the intercooler cleaner thread!

[jettapilot]

Me too.
You don't get the same rhythm without using your foot.

[Buller_Scott]

it makes the good ole ''italian tune-up'' easier, too!

DSG is VERY interesting to me, and im going to test drive the new polo with DSG this weekend, but then there's that little niggle that DSG boxes cant handle as much strain as plain old manuals.

looking forward to the test drive, though. a DSG would make things easier for my left foot when it gets weak after a day's hard snowboarding, on the 3 hr drive back from buller 2-3 times a week [unknowingly walked around for 8 months on a broken ankle lol]