On Dec 22, 2:36 pm, Trevor Jones wrote:
Brent wrote:
On Dec 22, 1:05 pm, Larry Jaques
wrote:

On Sat, 22 Dec 2007 07:27:08 -0800, with neither quill nor qualm, JR
North quickly quoth:

Phooey. My '79 diesel Rabbit gets 50 mpg+ just bopping around town.

How do you feel about the engine, besides it being a VubDub and the
noisiest futher mucker in the known world? Cost to maintain? Ease of
maintenance?

--
Seen on a bumper sticker: ARM THE HOMELESS

i get 50 around town
60+ in the highway in a semi new VubDub

Its no worse than a honda with a fartcan exhaust

it IS as loud as a V8 gas like the ford 4 liter but still its not the
end of the world to make a reasonably sized efficient vehicle that
still feels and drives like a car.

Maintenance isnt terrible either, Cost is a bit higher granted but
between stuff done at home and the engne block being rock solid its
not a biggie

From one of the VW forums, the skinny on the VW diesel engine is that
it was designed as an industrial powersource, with an expected lifespan
of 50 000 hours running until it would require a rebuild.

Solid stuff!

I have a '90 Jetta with a 1.6 Turbo D in it. Just rolled 400 thousand
KMs on it, and had to rebuild a head off a 600 thousand KM's parts car
for it, because I cracked the original, changing out the glow plugs.

It's not running great and need some new nozzles, so I am getting
around 40 MPG highway. It will do better with new nozzles.

Cheers
Trevor Jones

My timing belt is supposed to be changed every 100 000 and it might
have been missed the first time because it looks like it stretched
ever so slightly as to give a fuel mileage hit that cleaned out after
i replaced it.

My only issue with VW is there are a lot of oil lines in my 1.9 TDI
that drip occasionally and I need a shoehorn to fit my oil filter in
the the enclosure where tis supposed to be. but for the time it would
take me to deal with them all and the downtime i need to sort them all
out i've just been keeping a spare litre in the car and adding it at
some point between oil changes

I have far and away the highest mileage vehicle out of my entire
family at 278 000 km now and i've never had anything i could call an
"engine" issue

I've needed to do work on the suspension a few times now and there is
something unhappy int he glow plug system that a block heater has been
compensating for.

Basically the only reason i have any problems with the VW is because i
cant take it off the road for a week to deal with all the itty bitty
issues or with the issues that are coming due (Rear struts and 4
wheels worth of brakes will be due in the spring)

At least here in canada we are a lot more Diesel friendly despite the
winters.

Brent
Ottawa Canada