who drives a TDI car in the forum?

[Derek]

I recently traded in my 2006 4.2 A6 for a 2012 Jetta TDI. I miss som of the comforts, but honestly, the fuel economy has won me over.

I commute from Middletown to New Haven and I get around 42mpg at around 70. Highest I have gotten is around 53mpg, lowest around 30. The Audi got around 14-20 with 93 octane.

No regrets so far.

[MadSmith]

I heard about this and wonder if there is an online guide to "convert" it back to European mpg? I would buy in...

In older model diesels, you could disable the EGR, tweak the injection pump timing, use Euro injectors or nozzles, and in some Stanadyne pump models, use an injection pump vacuum adjustment.  In newer diesels, there are bootleg chips and programmers, and you could disable the exhaust afterburn injector in front of the soot trap.

Note that the ecofascists got laws passed which makes it a crime to disable emissions controls and tweak your own engine in that direction.

[Alex22]

I drove a 96 Passat for a year or two.  Ugly and slow but damn it got good mileage (best tank was 54mpg) and it would drive to Virginia on less than half a tank.  Now I'm driving my brother's modded 2003 TDI.  Fresh engine, RC3+ tune, injectors, exhaust, VR6 springs, big brakes and 18's.  I need to knock the fueling back a bit, too much smoke and only gets about 38mpg.  Its quick though.

~Alex

[Derek]

Actually, it looks like 55mpg is the best I've gotten so far.

[PogiMoto]

I owned a 2004 jetta TDI back in 04, and they are wonderful cars. I always would get 40+ mpg and the maintenance on it was a breeze. The only down fall about owning a diesel car is the gas is alittle more expensive and you do have to keep everything up and running condition. I made the mistake and did not change the timing belt at 75k and the timing belt broke which I believe bent a valve in the head and blew the turbo seals. But other then that, I would defiently buy another one!

[BlueMax_VMF114]

Good friend of mine used to drive a VW Jetta TDI.  He claims 45mpg consistent and drove it into the ground.  Good cars, but don't think of converting to biofuel.  They're rather 'cold blooded' and a VO conversion will cause massive carbon deposition and crankcase fauling, while biodiesel will eat through the fuel lines and oxygen sensor and could damage the fuel pump.  They're great on regular diesel though.

Any TDI VW will at some point have to have the Manifolds taken off and cleaned of Massive Carbon build up.I Just did one today 2002 TDI complete carbon fouled! I have seen this alot and its always goin to happen to a TDI no matter what ya do to try and keep it clean.After i cleaned it all up it ran like a bat out of hell again.Takes about 2 hours of soaking and scraping out the heads on the intake side  And the complete Intake manifold.Most causes for this are leaking Turbo oil seals...

[timw]

I bought a used 02 VW TDI about 18 months ago, it gets awesome fuel mileage.  I primarily use it as a beater, and let my 16 yr. old drive it.  I've always been a diesel fan, and own an 02 Dodge 2500 diesel.  The first thing I did when I bought the Jetta was instal a metal skid plate (Panzer) and do an egr delete.  The car had less than 100k miles on it and the turbo was frozen (vanes) from sitting in the guys barn for a couple of years.  The turbo was fixed with Easy Off oven cleaner...lol