Getting very serious about a common rail in my Tiguan

2002tdi

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2012 jetta premier DSG
I picked up a blown up 2010 Tiguan awd fully loaded for my wife to drive once the buy back happens. So after i get it all back together it runs like a top but hits about 21 mpg on the highway. My wife loves it but we hate the fuel economy. The CCTA engine in it is big money. $4000 on the used side with the miles it has 103k (escpically since all the timing components are new along with a lot of other common failure parts). i work for a salvage yard so having access to buying a donor vehicle is no problem. i know as far as mounts and what not, it should go together. my biggest concerns are transmission, fuel tank, and ecu. i have searched, and came up with nothing. looks like no one has done it before. Anyone have an insight on doing this?
 

Hasenwerk

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1982 Cabriolet (BEW|VNT17|Stage4), 1989 VW TriStar Syncro soon-to-be CR TDI (CBEA), 2001 Ford Ranger Edge 4x4 (ALH|VNT17|R520|Stage4)
I picked up a blown up 2010 Tiguan awd fully loaded for my wife to drive once the buy back happens. So after i get it all back together it runs like a top but hits about 21 mpg on the highway. My wife loves it but we hate the fuel economy. The CCTA engine in it is big money. $4000 on the used side with the miles it has 103k (escpically since all the timing components are new along with a lot of other common failure parts). i work for a salvage yard so having access to buying a donor vehicle is no problem. i know as far as mounts and what not, it should go together. my biggest concerns are transmission, fuel tank, and ecu. i have searched, and came up with nothing. looks like no one has done it before. Anyone have an insight on doing this?
I bought a 2013 Tiguan for my wife and have the same thoughts as you - the 2.0L CR TDI would be awesome in this car and one of these days I am sure I will do a swap like this.

The CR TDI would be pretty much a bolt in for the Tiguan. The electrical systems are pretty much the same as well, so you aren't going to have the no-power issue due to lack of CAN bus communications that the CR TDI would normally have as the Tiguan has the same electrical system as the MK5 Jetta CBAA. Get the DSG transmission reprogrammed for Diesel shift point and you would have a pretty much "factory" TDI in my opinion.
 

oilhammer

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outside St Louis, MO
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There are just too many to list....
If you can get the details worked out, there will always be lots of donor Tiguans available with blown up engines since all they got here were the crap CCTA.

Just sucks that supposedly with the buyback of the evil CR TDIs that any scrapped are *supposed* to get the engine rendered useless.

Not a big Tiggy fan myself (not really a fan of the genre in general) but I think that model would have been infinitely better had they offered us a TDI option like they do everywhere else. That ship has of course sailed. And sunk. :(
 

2002tdi

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Im hoping that maybe the vehicles becoming "branded scrap titles" then i will be able to pick up an entire donor car inexpensive. As far as i know the tiguan didnt come with a dsg. its jsut a basic 6 speed auto. Has anyone done this swap at all? i think it would make an awesome winter prioject.
 

Hasenwerk

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1982 Cabriolet (BEW|VNT17|Stage4), 1989 VW TriStar Syncro soon-to-be CR TDI (CBEA), 2001 Ford Ranger Edge 4x4 (ALH|VNT17|R520|Stage4)
Im hoping that maybe the vehicles becoming "branded scrap titles" then i will be able to pick up an entire donor car inexpensive. As far as i know the tiguan didnt come with a dsg. its jsut a basic 6 speed auto. Has anyone done this swap at all? i think it would make an awesome winter prioject.
All Tiguan automatics are DSG, there are no torque converter style automatics.
 

oilhammer

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There are just too many to list....
All Tiguan automatics are DSG, there are no torque converter style automatics.

That is incorrect. I remove the Aisin 6sp 09G/M automatics out of them all the time to replace the blown out rear main seals. I am 100% certain of that. And I am 100% certain that all the crazy spaz out valve bodies I replace in the Aisin automatics are also often in Tiguans.

Now there may be some newer ones that use the DSG, not sure. But I can tell you at least through 2012 they used the Aisin, because I have many Tiggy customers with 2008-12 models that come through here, and the lion's share of them are 2-pedal versions.

What sucks about removing the Aisin from the Tiguan is that they have an external ATF cooler that has this idiotic contraption with pipes and an adapto-flange atop the rear part of the transmission and all that nonsense is in the way of getting the bellhouse bolts out. The Jetta/Golf/Beetle with that trans just has the cooler back on the trans with coolant hoses going to it, like the 02E, 01M, etc. The B6 Passat and CC use an external cooler but it is less asanine of an arrangement as it sits off to the side up high near the battery. Although the pipe and adapto-flange is similar to the Tiguan. The Aisins also anger me in that their driveaxles are virtually impossible to remove from the transmission, so you either just leave them hang and take them out with the trans, OR you cut the big clamp on the inner boot and slide the plunge joint out and leave the stump in the trans and then slide it back together when done with a new clamp. But then the clamp can be a pain to crimp, especially on the driver's side. Argh, I've done so many of those stupid rear main seals.
 
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GTiTDi

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you aren't going to have the no-power issue due to lack of CAN bus communications that the CR TDI would normally have
What if I told you I was about to reveal THE solution to this problem? Commonrail swaps for Everyone soon! :D:D:D:D
 

Hasenwerk

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1982 Cabriolet (BEW|VNT17|Stage4), 1989 VW TriStar Syncro soon-to-be CR TDI (CBEA), 2001 Ford Ranger Edge 4x4 (ALH|VNT17|R520|Stage4)
What if I told you I was about to reveal THE solution to this problem? Commonrail swaps for Everyone soon! :D:D:D:D
Guess that makes about three of us at this moment. :cool:
 

2002tdi

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Keeping the 4-Motion. i want to keep it as stock as can be. Oil hammer... do you think one of these transmissions will hold up to everyday driving of a tdi? also wonder if I am going to have flex plate/ torque converter issues.
 

oilhammer

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outside St Louis, MO
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There are just too many to list....
I think the Aisin is a reasonably decent transmission, so long as you can get the engine and transmission controllers to work with one another. Since they didn't use (at least not in our market) the transverse Aisin with anything but a gasoline engine I don't know what would be involved.

I am dealing with a similar problem with putting a BHW into my 4mo AWM B5, and they both use the same basic ZF transmission.

And that would be the big issue, is that the programming to make the best use of the engine's power is very different from a CJAA diesel to the CCTA gas. Even though both are 16v 2.0L turbo direct injected engines. At the same RPMs the diesel is starting to make a huge nose dive, the CCTA gets a second wind and starts to REALLY come alive.
 

2002tdi

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The whole cluster/IMMO kind of worries me also, but then again, i think i can have it all disabled and should be good on that part. I wonder if I can give APR, Malone, whomever a call and see what they think about doing this. at least getting the PCM to communicate with the rest of the modules. Do the factory tig transmissions use a seperate TCM, or is it built into the engine computer. that might also be an issue, because I believe that the dsg uses a internal tcm (mechatronics) or correct me if I am wrong please.
 

oilhammer

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outside St Louis, MO
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There are just too many to list....
The Aisins use an external TCM. The DSG has an internal one.

I think the Tig's J217 TCM is on the left inner fender somewhere, maybe under the fender liner.

And of course the J492 AWD controller is on the Haldex unit itself in the rear of the car.
 

2002tdi

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2012 jetta premier DSG
The Aisins use an external TCM. The DSG has an internal one.

I think the Tig's J217 TCM is on the left inner fender somewhere, maybe under the fender liner.

And of course the J492 AWD controller is on the Haldex unit itself in the rear of the car.
See, that might be another issue, will the tdi ECM communicate with that tcm? that might be a whole other level of issues
 

bobbiemartin

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2010 Tiguan TDI 4Motion, Jeep Grand Cherokee 3.0 CRD
Last year I converted a 2012 Tiguan S, FWD manual to a CR TDI, complete with Mircon2 filter and "upgraded" fuel pump. Donor car was a 2013 Golf with 6 speed. Definitely doable and worth it.
I bought the Tiguan from vwztips a while back. I've put over 10,000 miles on it It's a great daily driver. We were also using it to pull our Casita travel trailer. It did OK, but have recently bought a TDI Touareg for that.

Consistently got 32 MPG in town with my heavy foot and low to mid 40's on hwy.
I get mid 30's for the most part. The best I've got is 39. Mileage drops to 19 towing, but that is still not bad. All in all, it's a great all around vehicle. When we were using it to pull the Casita I was going to convert to 4Motion. I sourced the rear suspension and had bought a TDI 6 speed 4Motion gearbox and transfer box. However, FedEx lost it (how do you lose something that big?). It took several months to get that sorted and we decided to get the Touareg so the 4Motion conversion has been put on hold.
 

2002tdi

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Last year I converted a 2012 Tiguan S, FWD manual to a CR TDI, complete with Mircon2 filter and "upgraded" fuel pump. Donor car was a 2013 Golf with 6 speed.

Mike at TDTuning did the ECU programming.
Marin did the instrument cluster and Immo work.

Mechanically it was a direct swap. Only issue was that the gas cars use different fittings for the intercooler vs TDI and the IC sits 4" higher on the Tig than a Golf or Jetta. So I found the correct IC and plumbing for a TDI Tig from Europe on Ebay.

Definitely doable and worth it. Consistently got 32 MPG in town with my heavy foot and low to mid 40's on hwy.

Currently have a 2011 Tig 4mo. Bought it with a bad chain tensioner and 8 bent intake valves. Got that running.

Picked up a wrecked 2011 Jetta TDI with DSG. Once my 2004 Passat TDI wagon, 4mo, 5 speed manual sells, going to swap the Tig over to a TDI FWD. Have located a 4mo DSG in Europe in case I decide to go the 4WD route once I get the FWD up and running.

what did you do about fuel tank and fuel lines?
 

2002tdi

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Back from the dead. Just picked up a 2010 Tiguan 6 speed that is getting a common rail. Is there a year to buy that the harness and pcm will plug in and talk to each other?
 

2002tdi

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Joined
May 8, 2011
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NORTH BALTIMORE OHIO
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2012 jetta premier DSG
Last year I converted a 2012 Tiguan S, FWD manual to a CR TDI, complete with Mircon2 filter and "upgraded" fuel pump. Donor car was a 2013 Golf with 6 speed.

Mike at TDTuning did the ECU programming.
Marin did the instrument cluster and Immo work.

Mechanically it was a direct swap. Only issue was that the gas cars use different fittings for the intercooler vs TDI and the IC sits 4" higher on the Tig than a Golf or Jetta. So I found the correct IC and plumbing for a TDI Tig from Europe on Ebay.

Definitely doable and worth it. Consistently got 32 MPG in town with my heavy foot and low to mid 40's on hwy.

Currently have a 2011 Tig 4mo. Bought it with a bad chain tensioner and 8 bent intake valves. Got that running.

Picked up a wrecked 2011 Jetta TDI with DSG. Once my 2004 Passat TDI wagon, 4mo, 5 speed manual sells, going to swap the Tig over to a TDI FWD. Have located a 4mo DSG in Europe in case I decide to go the 4WD route once I get the FWD up and running.
Can you message me the person name who did the cluster. And did you use the Tdi or the Tiguan cluster?
 

Owain@malonetuning

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Wiring is the biggest challenge on this conversion
^^^

CR harnesses are not for the faint of heart. erwinvw has pinouts but even then the full cars harness barely fits in a 9x5ft area and will take many hours to untangle and depin. Quickly shrinks with deletes and removing body side components but it's a royal pita compared to an alh or pd.

DSG would be awesome, there's one with a euro TC auto floating around on the east coast with awd, guy who built it for the customer is very far off the deep end in terms of ability and shenanigans though.
 
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