98 Passat TDI Wagon

Hi there everyone. I'm from Manitoba, Canada and just joined the TDI Club. Looking forward to getting emmersed in TDI culture. Last year I bought a 98 Passat TDI wagon with about 175k miles. The 1st year of the B5. This thing is in excellent condition seeing it is 17 years old. This is one amazing car. Last year my wife and I took a 8500km road trip. We averaged over 50 mpg... usually driving over 70 mph up and over mountains. I only had to shift down once or twice... crazy good torque.
The crazy thing is...I found out that this car was imported to North America sometime after 2010. It was originally manufactured in Emden Germany and sold in Germany. At that time I was unaware the the B5 TDIs were only available in NA beginning in 2004. It has a AFN engine and a manual 5 speed transmission. I'm very pleased to find out that this is a very good VW TDI drivetrain and I now know that this drivetrain was never available in NA.
My concern is parts availability. I had to order my timing belt kit and serpentine belt tensioner from the UK and Germany because they were not available in NA.
Does anyone know if the AFN engine subs over to a different TDI engine that was available in NA...Or would you think my best move would be to sell the car and buy a TDI that sold here in NA? I must say it kinda cool driving such a rare TDI.
Thanks for your thoughts.

Sell it to me and go buy another one...

Keep it!!! Its super cool and take me for a ride in it!

Is an online vendor like Boraparts able to get the parts for you? Im positive Frans at Dutch Auto Parts could easily supply and source the parts. He's where lots of us have got our manual transmissions from among other cool euro goodies.

Ive been toying with the idea of importing my own bit the exchange right now is crap. What color is it? I've seen someone with a silver B5 running around that I know was imported. I havent been able to corner them and ask them about their car! Im sure the forum would love some pics!

My AFN uses almost all the same parts for a ahu/1z and some from the alh. Direct fit for the ahu timing belt parts. The overwhelming majority of the parts should be a direct fit from the AHU system, and some from the ALH (Turbo and ecu for example in the ladder).

That said, there were enough different versions of the AFN to warrant investigation... Longitudinal vs Transverse.

Email Frans from Dutch Auto Parts: info@dutchautoparts.com. Member here. He can tell you everything you need to know. He probably helped import the thing in the first place.

This question might be better serviced/answered in the conversions section. I only saw it because it was first on the list.

Andrew

Thanks for your ideas. I'll give them a call and check parts sourcing. I have uploaded a couple of pics and I hope that the link will work for you.
If you can't open the pics please let me know and I'll see what I can do.

http://pics.tdiclub.com/showfull.php?photo=110246

http://pics.tdiclub.com/showfull.php?photo=110248

Oh how I hate you, that is one nice car. I've always loved the look of the B5 and thought the reliability of the AHU coupled with it would be a great idea. Add the VNT turbo and I'm sold.

The 3 valve cover studs are the same as on an AHU engine, which is basically what the AFN is, with ancillary modifications for more power.

changeyourworld said:

Thanks for your ideas. I'll give them a call and check parts sourcing. I have uploaded a couple of pics and I hope that the link will work for you.
If you can't open the pics please let me know and I'll see what I can do.

http://pics.tdiclub.com/showfull.php?photo=110246

http://pics.tdiclub.com/showfull.php?photo=110248

Click to expand...

Thanks for the pics! Really sharp! Do you drive hwy 75 sometimes? I'm pretty sure it's your car that I saw! How many others could there be? lol

Yes it probably is me. I drive that route fairly often. Actually there is another B5 wagon in my area but it's not a TDI.
have a great day!

I made the car you have: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=372842
Just did the timing belt, water pump, and serpentine tensioner...

I had to order the serpentine tensioner and water pump from overseas, but the timing belt parts for an AHU fit perfectly.

Here's another thread you should read: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=291294&highlight=98+passat

I'm pretty sure the serpentine tensioner and water pump are the only 'european only' parts.

Abacus said:

Oh how I hate you, that is one nice car. I've always loved the look of the B5 and thought the reliability of the AHU coupled with it would be a great idea. Add the VNT turbo and I'm sold.

The 3 valve cover studs are the same as on an AHU engine, which is basically what the AFN is, with ancillary modifications for more power.

Click to expand...

Abacus... Mark... You could so easily make one of these. Heck, you could make a 6 speed manual awd version in your sleep. I covet and respect the bejesus out of this passat the op has, but there are even better engines out there for it (from Europe... let's face it; from Frans).

Anyway. Sorry to be off topic here. You do have a very cool passat there! Thanks for sharing and have fun learning all about it.

Andrew