Passat shite

[Bren]

Having had my fill of vauxhalls I decided that an old shape passat would be a potential sensible purchase. Lots of ropey clocked examples knocking around. This morning I netted this -

Passat highline TDi. 3 owners, 123 k with spare key and partial history.

A trip to Aldrige was in order to collect the car as there was nothing local that appealed.

Car looks honest but is minging - it looks like former keeper has used it to move gardening equipment about.

It has a couple of marks and some rust around the tailgate window. The ciggy lighter and ashtray in the rear are fooked and will only be replaced if new parts are cheap enough.

Under the bonnet is dirty and will need a clean however are levels are correct and the oil does not resemble shit after a night on the guiness.

Car drove beautifully on the way home - no knocks from the clutch or front suspension and the engine is quiet and pulls well. Even in stop start M6 traffic and around Warrington it bettered 50 mpg on the way home.

 

In fact it is so nice it made me realise how bloody awful vectra C's are to drive.

A de - skunking inside is in order, I will service it myself but put money aside for the water pump/cambelt - apparently the second owner had it done but their are no receipts.

I will not be throwing £££ at it but it seems a nice example of the last well built VW and it does'nt have a dpf.

[timolloyd]

Looks nice. My FIL had a similar age Passat, except his was a saloon. No idea on running costs but it always felt pretty unburstable when I used it and he piled around 125k on his, semingly just with annual servicing.

[twosmoke300]

Check the plenum drains and pollen filter housing seals asap !

[Bren]

Checked before I did the deal.

Also it has the five speed box - the six has issues, the like of which killed my dads.

[D Spares & Tyres]

So much better than a vectra. I have some bits for these

[HMC]

+1 on well done for checking on the pollen filter housing. It just doesn't seem that well designed. Is the " highline" the run out model with all the toys? it certainly looks fully kitted out. loved the 130pd lump, superb, gutsy and economical engine that seems to be considered one of VAG's best efforts. Well bought!

[HMC]

one of my 130pds was sold at 160k and the other at 250k- both running superbly, with nothing other than routine engine service work.

[Bren]

The cd player has been replaced with a jvc item - it has blutooth so wife is happy.

[xkjagnz]

Door locks have a tendency to shit themselves. If it starts playing up on the central locking then change it out. Otherwise they dead lock and take about 3 hours to change. (Have to be cut out) You can get them new on eBay for about 22 quid delivered whereas 200+ from dealers then God knows how much to fit

[tommotech]

They are a nice steer and that looks a decent honest car, once cleaned it will be lovely.

Much better than any Vectra, definitely.

 

Enjoy that, hope it serves you well.

[dave j]

Looks Good! I will probably be looking for the same in the spring, getting fed up with my mk4 Golf golf and miss my old Passat!

[CreepingJesus]

Been a while since I've had a Pisshat, and both of those were 2.0L 8Vs. These are winking suggestively at me though, so I'll be following this one! Good luck.

[privatewire]

I have to say, that looks the business, I have a 56 plater as a company vehicle ( yeah we run shite till it explodes) and I love it, comfy, nice to drive, and seemingly runs on fresh air.

[twosmoke300]

Changing door locks is a pita if you are not familiar with the way they are put together .

[Cavcraft]

Oh dear.

[Bren]

Oh dear.

Sorry Billy I know you detest VW but another vauxhall and I swear it would have been the rubber gun squad for yours truly.

[twosmoke300]

I'd have a pisswet pd over a vectra c and I quite like Vauxhalls generally

[twosmoke300]

There aren't many cars I wouldn't have over a vectra c tho

[SiC]

I'd rather have a Saab 9-3 over both. Yes it has a similar linage to the Vectra C, but they really are very different cars to drive, NVH, style and comfort. Like a V50 is very different animal to a Focus.

[LessThanEqual]

I wouldn't worry too much about the cambelt, my old 1.9 TDI made it to 120k and 11 years on the original belt though the tensioner didn't sound great.

[beko1987]

I wouldn't worry too much about the cambelt, my old 1.9 TDI made it to 120k and 11 years on the original belt though the tensioner didn't sound great.

I'm surprised you heard the tensioner over the engine clatter! Amys sister has a 2002 1.9tdi a something, and it's incredibly loud on idle. Not in the nice xud way either...

[SiC]

I dunno. VAG plastic pulleys aren't known to the the strongest of parts. The intervals for cambelt changes are all over the place with these. They kept changing the period over its manufacturing run, so much so, the different age books, manufacturer guidance and dealer scheduling all said something different. The forums seem to recommend around 60k changes nowadays to be on the safe side.

 

I seem to remember that these are really picky in timing the cams up on a belt change and really need checking with a diagnostic tool in doing it? I believe it'll run with it out, but you won't get the best fuel economy and smoothness (what little that PD engines have) unless done properly.

 

No doubt twosmoke will know the full score and story.

[Dave_Q]

I think timing faffery is on mechanical TDIs to time the pump to the cam/crank.

 

On these there is a pin to lock the cam (floating pulley) and a thing to lock the crank and that's it. 

 

Access looks poor in the pictures but the whole front end comes off pretty easily, much better than trying to poke spanners down the inner wing on a transverse installation.

[xkjagnz]

Changing door locks is a pita if you are not familiar with the way they are put together .

Not so bad as long as the deadlock hasn't engaged when the central locking has stopped working (20 minute job) 3+ hours when it has though (or $750 here! (including lock mechanism at $350!))

Had to have 2 done due to stupidity in not having them done as soon as they started playing up

[twosmoke300]

Steel idlers on the pd Sic

 

Never seen a 1.9 belt let go but I've come across a few wobbly water pumps .

You need a segment tool to lock the crank pulley and an m6 bolt for the cam . If you don't lock it up properly there is a good chance the timing will be slightly out and it won't start very well . Usually throws up a cam sensor code.

The front end comes forward into a service position . I use a pair of k series head bolts to slide it forward on to save degassing the ac.

[twosmoke300]

Not so bad as long as the deadlock hasn't engaged when the central locking has stopped working (20 minute job) 3+ hours when it has though (or $750 here! (including lock mechanism at $350!))

Had to have 2 done due to stupidity in not having them done as soon as they started playing up

 

Would you like a job ? If you can change a drivers door lock on one of those in 20 mins with no broken clips and no water leaks afterwards

[vaughant]

I dunno. VAG plastic pulleys aren't known to the the strongest of parts. The intervals for cambelt changes are all over the place with these. They kept changing the period over its manufacturing run, so much so, the different age books, manufacturer guidance and dealer scheduling all said something different. The forums seem to recommend around 60k changes nowadays to be on the safe side.

 

I seem to remember that these are really picky in timing the cams up on a belt change and really need checking with a diagnostic tool in doing it? I believe it'll run with it out, but you won't get the best fuel economy and smoothness (what little that PD engines have) unless done properly.

 

No doubt twosmoke will know the full score and story.

Cams?

Single cam on these babies, don't look too bad to change really and that's coming from a non timing belt expert.

I've got the pre PD engine in my Seat, it is a bit tractor like but it keeps doing what it's doing with little fuss, always starts first time, gives me approx 45/50 mpg which I'm happy with. Nice bit of torque to them as well.

[Dave_Q]

Forgot about the AC. My old A4 B5 didn't have it so I just pulled the lot off seeing as I was replacing the coolant anyway.

[DaveDorson]

I've never really understood the VAG hate on here to be honest.

 

Yeah, granted I'm a dubbore, but much of the reason is because they didn't make an unreasoable car in the first place.

 

That said, the cost of buying into a 1980's/90's golf doesn't half piss me off, and I still reckon that's about where the golf peaked

[DaveDorson]

Nice arrows on the Pissant Bren.  The PD130 isn't a bad beast, but do keep on top of it.