Do any VW TDI's come without a turbo installed?

Hey, I know this sounds stupid but I think that it may be possible the 2000 Jetta TDI I just drove didn't have a turbo... but it drives better than another one i test drove.

Please let me know...

Ahem, TDI stands for "Turbocharged Direct Injection". A nautrally aspirated TDI is a contradiction in terms.

ScottRotman said:

Hey, I know this sounds stupid but I think that it may be possible the 2000 Jetta TDI I just drove didn't have a turbo... but it drives better than another one i test drove.

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Hi, Scott. Permit me to be the 1st to welcome you to Fred's!

You may wish to engage the services of your local TDI go-to person prior to purchasing any problem car. Broken TDIs and turbo-less TDIs are very $$$$ to repair

Happy hunting

Correct, TDI = Turbo Direct Injection. The non-turbo direct-injected engines are called 'SDI' (Sauger Direct Injection) and were never sold in North America.

ScottRotman said:

Hey, I know this sounds stupid but I think that it may be possible the 2000 Jetta TDI I just drove didn't have a turbo... but it drives better than another one i test drove.

Please let me know...

Click to expand...

If it is a "TDI" it has a turbo, no other posibility. TDI means "Turbocharged Direct Injection". That said there is such a thing as a non-turbocharged diesel engine, but they are not called TDIs. I believe that some of the earliest diesel rabbits were not turbos, but I'm not certain about that. All I know is that they were gutless enough to be non-turbos.

Have Fun!

Don

Grin! Four replies in 6 minutes, I guess we were all typing at the same time. It looks like I'm the slowest.

Non Turbo TDI = SDI.

Now, it could be that the TDI you test drove had the Turbo more or less "disabled". If there was a vacuum line leak or other fault the turbo would be in a failsafe mode so that it doesn't blow up.

dieseldorf said:

You may wish to engage the services of your local TDI go-to person prior to purchasing any problem car. Broken TDIs and turbo-less TDIs are very $$$$ to repair

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Inversely at the same time if it's a simple fix you could pick up a car for cheap.

... like a bad mass-airflow sensor. Not exactly uncommon. With a bad MAF, the car will still run but won't have much power.

Thanks for all the posts... the car seems to drive fine and actually had better pickup than the one where i could hear the turbo....

that being said I got a really good price on it and expected to fix some things with it.

Would i necessarily hear the turbo like on the other one i drove or feel the difference?

as an additional note... there are no check engine lights or such on at all....

It's perfectly normal NOT to hear the turbo, but also perfectly normal TO hear the turbo, albeit barely or only for short periods of spool up at lower speeds (with stock exhaust (catalyst plus muffler).

If you can't hear the turbo in the car you purchased, cleaning the intake should allow you to hear it spooling at certain speeds while it's still in humans' audible range. When it's at 190,000 rpm you sure shouldn't be hearing anything or something's wrong. If you have hearing loss you probably never hear it unless it's about to grenade.

So in summary: If the turbo of the car you passed on was audible all the time, be happy you passed on it.

Umm..errr..

eb2143 said:

When it's at 190,000 rpm

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Wow a real high spinner........

For teh first poster take the car to Rocketchip if yopu are close and have Jeff inspect.

Is your reason for thinking it doesn't have a turbo just that you didn't hear it? What year is the car? You should be able to hear it at least sometimes, but I agree, if you hear the turbo all the time something is not right. I notice with my 2004 Jetta (which is a PD) you really only hear it spool for a split second if you 'stuff it'. Since you were test driving, you may have been running it hard. What do you think?