DEF Capacity

40X40

Experienced
Joined
Feb 12, 2006
Location
Kansas City area, MO
TDI
2013 Passat SEL Premium
I think my owners manual states 5 gallons. Lots of neat info in there....

Bill
Remember that some people like to do research before they buy so they might not be as special as you in having an owners manual..

Which is why I gave an ACTUAL number of gallons...... even though the OP apparently already has a Black on Black 2012 Passat as you probably noted in his sig. Tire kickers do read the forum after all.


Bill
 
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mihneagabriel

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 21, 2013
Location
Kingwood
TDI
2009 Jetta
Which is why I gave an ACTUAL number of gallons...... even though the OP apparently already has a Black on Black 2012 Passat as you probably noted in his sig. Tire kickers do read the forum after all.


Bill
I'm on tapatalk. Can't see sigs. I just dislike when people make smart comments to people's questions. That is all
 

nord

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2010
Location
Southern Tier NY
TDI
All turned back to VW. Now a 2017 Hundai Tuscon. Not a single squalk in 10k miles.
I just did the 10k mile service on our 2013 SEL. DEF was down about a gallon and a half. Actually so little that I was surprised.
 

Rico567

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jun 13, 2003
Location
Central IL
TDI
2013 Passat TDI SEL Premium (Turned in 7/7/18)
I'm on tapatalk. Can't see sigs. I just dislike when people make smart comments to people's questions. That is all
I dislike smart comments too, but I don't construe that as some sort of brief to correct them. There's far too much Internet bandwidth taken up by this sort of thing, and that's why we have moderators.

Oh, and- 5 gallons, mas o menos.
 

jrm

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2013
Location
Oregon
TDI
2013 Passat SE with nav (totaled)
I used to read manuals cover to cover in my spare time, but after running across several manuals with drastically wrong info I have since ceased reading them, for instance my dodge truck manual says to use 5 quarts of 5w30 oil when it uses 10 quarts of 15w40 (and yes it states that under the Cummins engine section and not the gasser section)
I have noticed that VW does print a pretty nice and detailed manual though-:D
 
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rjp0627

Active member
Joined
Jan 6, 2013
Location
Shamong,N.J
TDI
2012 Passat TDI SEL Black/Titan Black
I think my owners manual states 5 gallons. Lots of neat info in there....

Bill
Thanks for looking that up for me..........you saved me from having to go out to the car and thumbing through the owners manual.
 

50pascals

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2013
Location
Rochester, NY
TDI
2014 A6 3.0 TDI Prestige, prior was a 2013 TDI Passat SEL Plus
I have noticed that VW does print a pretty nice and detailed manual though-:D
Perhaps you noticed that every section also has an impressive list of warnings, drawn out in excruciating detail? In fact some sections have more warnings than they do actual information.

Clearly written by lawyers.

But to your bigger point - I did read the manual cover to cover and it still did not cover basic things about my car.
 

vw_norm

Gone, but not forgotten.
Joined
Jul 22, 2012
Location
Hawaii
TDI
2012 NMS TDI SEL Platinum Gray w/moonrock
I find our car uses just under 2.5 gal every 10k miles.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Did my 30K service this weekend - for the third time, I put in 1.75 gallons of Adblue for the 10,000 miles traveled. Real consistent IMO.
 

panther_v

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 28, 2003
Location
orange county, so calif
TDI
'13 Passat TDI SEL
I'm about 1000 miles away from the 10k service. Yesterday I hooked the car up with VAGCOM, trying to read the DEF level. There are 2 items (forgot the names), but figures were 99.8% and 100%.

Can this be true? drove 9000 miles and DEF is still full? or do I have to measure while the car is running? (I turn the key to on, but not crank the engine).

As for owners' manual, why doesn't VW have PDF available for download? Before buying this TDI, I really wanted to read the manual and check out the features, but couldn't find it anywhere. Almost all of the auto makers make their manuals available online.

I find VW's manual is difficult to understand, contains fewer information, and is not well organized. The best, IMO, are Japanese auto makers... even BMW manual is easier to understand than VW. I tried to look up interior light bulb replacement info and didn't find it. Manual only covered exterior lights. Why?

Sorry - a little off topic....
 
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nord

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2010
Location
Southern Tier NY
TDI
All turned back to VW. Now a 2017 Hundai Tuscon. Not a single squalk in 10k miles.
Two things stand out... Liability and profitability. Further, VW tends to somehow think that their products have a certain aura and that owners should be willing to part with considerable treasure in order to keep their vehicles in top condition.

So... It seems that most issues tend to be lightly discussed and end with the "See your dealer". It must work because the advice hasn't changed in years.
 

rjp0627

Active member
Joined
Jan 6, 2013
Location
Shamong,N.J
TDI
2012 Passat TDI SEL Black/Titan Black
I'm about 1000 miles away from the 10k service. Yesterday I hooked the car up with VAGCOM, trying to read the DEF level. There are 2 items (forgot the names), but figures were 99.8% and 100%.

Can this be true? drove 9000 miles and DEF is still full? or do I have to measure while the car is running? (I turn the key to on, but not crank the engine).

As for owners' manual, why doesn't VW have PDF available for download? Before buying this TDI, I really wanted to read the manual and check out the features, but couldn't find it anywhere. Almost all of the auto makers make their manuals available online.

I find VW's manual is difficult to understand, contains fewer information, and is not well organized. The best, IMO, are Japanese auto makers... even BMW manual is easier to understand than VW. I tried to look up interior light bulb replacement info and didn't find it. Manual only covered exterior lights. Why?

Sorry - a little off topic....
I couldn't agree with you more.......the manual does not flow well.
 

panther_v

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 28, 2003
Location
orange county, so calif
TDI
'13 Passat TDI SEL
It's not just VW manuals. Technical writing is becoming a lost art.

The Icom ID-51 amateur radio Handy Talky has a 300+/- page manual!!! If you print it out it take up 4 or more times the space of the device it describes......

http://www.icomamerica.com/en/products/amateur/dstar/ID51A/default.aspx

Bill
Baofeng UV-5R has one of the worst manual. Luckily we have Miklor's edition, much easier to understand.

Never owned an Icom radio, but Yaeus's manual is good. Kenwood is so so.....
 

Rico567

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jun 13, 2003
Location
Central IL
TDI
2013 Passat TDI SEL Premium (Turned in 7/7/18)
I've had Icoms, I have a Baofeng. With what you pay for the respective units, you're not entitled to a manual for the Baofeng. There is an informative Yahoo e-mail newsletter on it, however.

WE9E
 

Rico567

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jun 13, 2003
Location
Central IL
TDI
2013 Passat TDI SEL Premium (Turned in 7/7/18)
I've had Icoms, I have a Baofeng. With what you pay for the respective units, you're not entitled to a manual for the Baofeng. There is an informative Yahoo e-mail newsletter on it, however.

WE9E
 

Airborne1cav

Well-known member
Joined
May 15, 2014
Location
Auburn, WA
TDI
2014 TDI SE w/ Nav
Getting very close to my 30k maintenance and I've heard the dealer price is steep for DEF, so I decided to fill it myself. The VW has 29,500 miles and the tank took 2.5 gallons of Peak DEF, worked out pretty good since the jug was 2.5 gallons ;) The price for 5 gallons was $25 at my local A-zone.
 

panther_v

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 28, 2003
Location
orange county, so calif
TDI
'13 Passat TDI SEL
When I did my 10k mile service, dealer spilled DEF in my trunk. So when it's time for 20k mile service, I brought 2 empty kruse bottles, asking if they could just fill those up. My SA was cooler than I thought, he ended up giving me a 2.5 gal jug of VW DEF.

Just FYI, the VW jug will not work with the MB hose. I bought a jug of MB DEF to work with the hose.
 

Ack1214

New member
Joined
May 15, 2018
Location
Poconos,PA
TDI
2015 Jetta TDI S
I have a 2015 Jetta TDI and around the 10k mark my warning indicator comes on displaying 1500 miles to empty. However, I commute 200 miles a day and cruise between 75 - 85 mph. Still get 42 - 46 mpg at those speeds. I also do a lot of sitting in gridlock traffic so at times my 98.4 mile one way ride takes up to 3 hours. Perhaps all that idling time is where I’m burning up the def.

I change my oil every 5k and put a 2.5 gallon jug of def in to avoid the low indicator. Never checked to see what the level comes up to but it definitely does not fill it completely.
 
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740GLE

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Location
NH
TDI
2015 Passat SEL, 2017 Alltrack SE; BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat,
With those kind of miles you're putting on, why change your oil at 5K? Do you really enjoy changing the filter on the 15 that much? Stretch her out to the 10k and enjoy your time/cash in your pocket.
 
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