New TDI owner. 06 Jetta (auto) high mileage

Created

New member
Joined
Mar 28, 2013
Location
Arkansas
TDI
2006 Jetta TDI
So I've owned a hybrid, and sold it a couple years ago (the 1st 2dr Honda Insight which got insane fuel mileage. 70+mpg). Recently I've been doing alot of traveling and started to feel the need for another car with great MPG. Was looking for another Hybrid, as well as considerations of a VW Turbo Diesel. My buddy who is a used car dealer took me to a auction... I guess you can figure out which one I ended up getting

2006 Jetta TDI w/ Auto Trans. One owner car, w/ 204,783miles (Now 205k+)

Outside has a few dents here and there, but interior is Very good!
After a thorough detailing here are the results.....







I immediately did a oil change (Motul Synthetic 5/40w). New Fuel Filter (cleaned canister too), and new Air filter. All needed changing, but everything seems to be in very good working order.

Car history shows no evidence of any major repair. The motor is quite, doesnt smoke, and makes good power. The Trans is smooth and quite (no clutch noise). Car feels real tight and drives excellent! The owner traded it back into a VW dealer so I guess they are still happy with VW's haha (as opposed to some who have had problems with their TDI's and have now sworn VW's off).

The very 1st day I got it, I averaged 46.3mpg
310 miles total (about 30miles in city, and the highway miles was driving 75-80mph the whole time). That 46mpg was with me playing and kinda hot rodding it a bit. I learned to drive very efficiently with my Honda Insight (if I choose too). I have absolutely no worries that I can get over 50mpg in this thing! Im running through my 1st full tank now and will report back once its done (can't wait to see the results myself!)

I plan to do the timing and water pump asap. And I'll change the auto trans fluid too. I guess I should take the valve cover off and check the cams (everything seems to be fine to me)?????

Anyways Im real happy with the car. Picked it up for $5200 (not many dealers wanted to try to re-sale a 200+ miles diesel). I figured at that price even if I had to put 2K into it, I could have a nice car right!

So far so good!
I'm happy to have joined the TDI family; Cheers! :)
 
Last edited:

Henrick

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 24, 2010
Location
Ireland
TDI
Golf VI TDI, 77 kW (CAYC)
Congrats. Remember, don't drive your TDI like a grandpa to maximise fuel economy. You might loose more than you win. Turbo vanes might get stuck (if they still aren't). The things I'd suggest checking:
-parking brake, cable. Isn't it too tight, dragging?
-rear and front brake pad and rotor wear. Maybe it's time for a replacement? When replacing (if needed) be sure to check the condition of the seals and boots. They might be worn/torn. If salt or water gets there corrosion might occur resulting in a sticky caliper. Ask me how I know.
-CV boots. Same. Aren't they cracked? Grease showing up?
-rear wheel bearings. While the car is lifted, try to spin the wheel to one and another direction. It should spin freely withought any grinding or humming noise. Also, it should spin no less than 3 times (mine did 6 or so). If it's less then it might indicate a sticky caliper or dragging parking brake.
-check the cam.

Using VCDS, check these:
-MAF
-Turbo health (boot requested vs actual). Might reveal your turbo vanes condition
-Group 013 (aka injection readings). All values should be as much closer to 0.00 as possible. Anything over 0.50 is worth additional attention or a can of Diesel Purge;
-Torsion setting while engine warm at idle (Group 004, block #4). In theory, should be 0.0

Also, check if you can't hear any rattling sounds while the car is running/idle (DMF), the A/C blows cold and you don't have a lumpy/rough/strange idle.

FWIW, you can retrofit an ABS-based TPMS system. Some people hate it but personally I like it and I've done it on my two cars. At least you have a warning when your tyre is flat so you don't trash your rim.

Good luck.
 

Created

New member
Joined
Mar 28, 2013
Location
Arkansas
TDI
2006 Jetta TDI
Thank you VERY much for the advice; I appreciate you taking the time to do that!

I kinda have been driving like a Grandpaw. Why would the turbo get stuck? I have had 5 turbo car before this one. Is it because of the EGR causes everything to get gunked-up?

That's leads me to a question.... At over 200k, Would I be good to remove the EGR components and clean out the intake. I've seen some bad pictures of intakes that looked 20% clogged from EGR crap.

Maybe... Is there on particular spot that is easily accessible for me to remove and to check how bad the EGR has clogged things up?

All things considering my MPG's has been in high 40's so from that I "assume" things are ok
 

Henrick

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 24, 2010
Location
Ireland
TDI
Golf VI TDI, 77 kW (CAYC)
You're welcome.

The turbo your car has has got variable geometry vanes. There is no wastegate. The vanes move back and forth changing the geometry. This varies your turbo speeds. Sorry, not a teacher and have really bad teaching skills. You'd have better luck doing some googling about that. Once short animation video of variable geometry turbo in action would be worth 1000s of words. In short, the exhaust gasses, as well as soot and carbon passes through the geometry. If it doesn't move or moves a little, the soot and carbon simply gets stuck in there. You might also want to search some Drivbiwire's posts here in the forums, I think he's a well respected guru here and has posted numerous things about the VNT turbos.

Oh, BTW, were your previous cars turbocharged gassers or turbocharged diesels? If those were turbocharged gassers, this makes the story a lot more different.

Someone else might chime in and tell you about the need of cleaning the EGR and intake system. I'm not in N.A. and I really have never seen how cars get clogged out there. Personally, I think that at that mileage it's worth to clean at least a bit; you will definitely find there "something".

As for MPG, I think this is almost never a good indicator of diesel engine's healt. Diesels will almost always return good fuel economy unless injectors are in a really bad shape or the compression is too low. Even cars with trashed cams return good FE. So don't trust much on this!
 

sptsailing

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 9, 2010
Location
Safety Harbor, FL
TDI
2006 Jetta Manual, stock with Panzer Plate & Franko6 modified EGR cooler & CAM
Variable Geometry Turbo video

Your post piqued my interest, so I did as you suggested and found an explanatory youtube video pertaining to variable geometry turbos. Thank you for the idea!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbdY1rymBJg


You're welcome.

The turbo your car has has got variable geometry vanes. There is no wastegate. The vanes move back and forth changing the geometry. This varies your turbo speeds. Sorry, not a teacher and have really bad teaching skills. You'd have better luck doing some googling about that. Once short animation video of variable geometry turbo in action would be worth 1000s of words. <snip>
 

Barnitz

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 27, 2011
Location
Chillicothe/Cincinnati, Ohio
TDI
2006 Jetta
Looks like a very clean car!

At that mileage, if the cam was going to go bad, it would have. Same with the DMF. Still wouldn't hurt to check!
Read up on what the accepted oils are. The BRM engine in your car is very picky and will munch on your cam if not properly oiled (And sometimes if it is properly oiled!)

At 200k, it's probably time to give the suspension a look-over. If it hasn't been replaced, you may get a much better ride with it replaced.
Your DSG Transmission is supposed to be serviced every 40k miles. Do some searching on that to read more.

Timing belt is due every 80k miles. If you can't prove the last time it was done, it's advised to do it ASAP. ~$600 for a Timing belt job from a Guru is much better than the TB+Head replacement.

Sounds like you are having awesome Fuel mileage! I've never had over 44 in my car, usually average 40. I do drive pretty spirited though. :cool:

As far as the intake cleaning goes - If the car has been maintained properly, it probably doesn't need done. The PD engines are a lot better than the older ALH engines with intake clogging. There have only been a few cases of BRM's clogging. Sure, there may be a slight coating inside the intake, but proabably not enough to justify the time and effort to clean the intake. If it's not broke, don't fix it.

Drive more, worry less! :D
 
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