Deezil_n_Dachs
Veteran Member
This is pretty lengthy...
We just finished a 3 week trip in our Passat that took us to the west coast and back. We travelled 7600 miles through 18 states, stopping along the way to visit numerous National Parks and historic places that we've always dreamed of seeing. It was our 30th anniversary, and this trip was our way of celebrating. We started working on it back in December, and made several changes as the date grew nearer, but finally nailed down our route in early June.
We packed the car with all sorts of things…blankets, towels, tools (LOTS of tools), quart of oil, fuel additive, suit cases, pillows, wiper blades, emergency kits, first aid kits, cooler, case of bottled water, golf clubs…you name. She was loaded pretty heavy, but we wanted to be as prepared as possible. If you read this forum enough you might begin to wonder if these machines are reliable enough to trust for a trip like this! I did an oil change and tire rotation about 3500 miles early, knowing we'd be pouring the miles on. I measured the tire tread to see if we should change the tires before we left, and decided to wait since they had .006" tread left. I checked all the fluid levels, and topped off the wiper fluid. The oil level was dead-nuts on the full mark, and the coolant overflow was midway between the high and low marks. Tire pressures at 35 psi. I planned to check fluids and tire pressures every morning before starting the car.
We started out on a Friday evening to get a head start on the first leg stopping in Ill, and drove the next day up to Minnesota. My wife wanted to visit Walnut Grove (think Little House on the Prairie) so we spent a few hours there. On our way back down to I-80 we stopped at Pipestone NM in Minn. Picked up a cool looking peace pipe there! Then it was on to Rapid City, SD from there. This was the first time we'd had the car on an 80 MPH freeway. It handled perfectly, but that speed sure does bring the MPG's down. We visited Mt Rushmore & Crazy Horse, drove to Devil's Tower and from there we went to The battlefield at Little Big Horn. Car still handling and driving well. She took the hills and speed demands with no protests. I wasn't sure but it looked like the coolant level was dropping a bit, and oil level looked a little low as well but I didn't add any to either.
We drove through the Beartooth Mountains and Beartooth pass on our way to Yellowstone National Park. The road through the pass coming from the north was exhilarating and somewhat terrifying at the same time with it's switchbacks and shear drop offs. The outside temperature went from 71 F to 34 F by the time we got to the summit. Using the tiptronic mode, the car trudged along the steady inclines perfectly. It handled the sharp turns with ease and the torque was excellent for climbing the rather steep road. It started to rain half way up, and by the time we got to the top it had changed to snow flurries. The road going down the south side is significantly less steep, and again using tiptronic mode helped keep the speed under control without riding the brakes. I was a little disappointed by the lack of engine brake that the car has.
On to Yellowstone and Grand Teton parks. More mountains, and stops along the way to admire mother natures work and the animals in the parks. From the we drove toward Glacier National Park. After staying the night in Missoula, MT I confirmed that the coolant had indeed dropped to the low mark, and the oil level was about an 1/8' below the full mark. We were within a block of a VW dealer so we stopped by and got a gallon of coolant & I topped the reservoir off to the high mark. We drove through Glacier National Park, taking the Going To The Sun Road (on the day it opened for the season to our surprise) for more shear cliffs, switchbacks and steep crowded roads. Once again, the car handled it with no problems.*
From there we drove to Seattle, with anniversary dinner in the Space Needle restaurant. This section of road had some seriously steep changes in slope. I had forgotten to move the shift level from drive into tiptronic, and a couple of brake taps later we're in 4th gear running around 3500 rpms and 70ish MPH! A quick shift over and brought it back under control. I didn't forget that again. A visit with my brother and his wife the next day and then down the Oregon Coast on Highway 101. Checking the oil level again showed another small drop in the level. It was about 1/4" down from the full mark. This was also the first time I had to adjust tire pressures. I added about 2.5 lbs per tire. What a nice drive this was. Plenty of scenery, little traffic, and so many pull-offs for pictures. As we were pulling out from one of these stops, I heard a high pitched whistle coming from somewhere but unsure where. I rolled the windows down quickly, stuck my head out, tapped the go pedal but heard no change. I looked over at my wife and asked if she heard it, and she reached up an re-opened the air conditioner vent that she'd just closed! Whistle stops, my heart rate returns to normal. Down the 101 into Redwood National Park. We were in awe of the size and beauty of the trees!! The tight roads, the proximity to the trees, imaging back when that road was the major highway. The car was dwarfed by the size of the tree trunks. From there it was on to San Francisco and across the Golden Gate Bridge. What fun!! A day was all we had there, but enjoyed Fisherman's Wharf. We drove UP the STEEP incline of Lombard Street and down the famous ess curves. I swear it looked and felt like a 45 degree incline going up to the top of the road. The car was fantastic doing the climbs! And I finally found a legitimate purpose for the hill hold feature!
The drive from SF to Sacramento was a 3-1/2 hr traffic jam! The outside temperature climbed from 74 F in SF to 109 F but the air conditioning worked beautifully. The water temp climbed as high as 217 on some of the inclines once we got past the jam, but it dropped as quickly as I changed to lower a gear. Met an old service buddy for dinner in Fallon, NV. The next morning I had to release 4 lbs of air from each tire, then we drove across the state on highway 50. It's billed as the Loneliest Road in America, but we saw more traffic than we expected. Stopped for the night in Utah, then had a great visit with the wife's aunt and uncle in Denver. While there we drove to Mt Evans, but found that the road to the summit was closed for repairs. We headed to Royal Gorge after deciding to pass up on Pikes Peak.*
The drive from Pueblo, Co to Hutchinson, KS brought us the best fuel mileage of the trip, 45.5 MPG at 70 MPH. Must have been the flat terrain and the drafting help from the semi we tucked in behind. A visit with another service buddy and then on to Oklahoma City. More friends from the service where we met for the wedding of one of them. A couple hours after the ceremony we were on our way home. We topped off in Tulsa and made it back with just a little fuel to spare.*
We had great time together! The trip was a resounding success and the car was superb. The oil level did not change anymore after Seattle, and the coolant level never dropped below the full mark again. I topped the oil level back off when we got home. Every mountain range we encountered after Idaho was driven in tiptronic where I could prevent the unnecessary downshifting on the steep down-hills. We filled the washer reservoir three times through the trip, and changed the wiper blades while we were in Kansas. I felt a tire balance issue show up in California, but its intensity was determined by speed. At 70 MPH it was fine, so we drove home with that way. Measured the tire treads yesterday, we're down to .004", so it's tire shopping time. If there is any disappointment it would be that we didn't get exceptionally high fuel mileage, but I attribute that to the weight of the car with everything we had in it and the speeds that we drove. I entered all of the fill-ups and top-offs in Fuelly yesterday, but didn't do an overall calculation. I'd estimate that it was somewhere around 41 or 42 MPG over the whole 7600 miles. I realized yesterday that I wasn't road sore…at all! The only discomfort I felt along the way was where my right knee contacted the console whenever we weren't on cruise control. Turns out that was quite often. I'm really glad we trusted the car, and I'd do it again.
Oh! And we counted 66 VW Passat's along the way. That was just a fun little thing to do as we drove along. WAY more Jetta's though.
Some pictures from the trip were posted in this thread, if you're interested in seeing them.
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=441052
We just finished a 3 week trip in our Passat that took us to the west coast and back. We travelled 7600 miles through 18 states, stopping along the way to visit numerous National Parks and historic places that we've always dreamed of seeing. It was our 30th anniversary, and this trip was our way of celebrating. We started working on it back in December, and made several changes as the date grew nearer, but finally nailed down our route in early June.
We packed the car with all sorts of things…blankets, towels, tools (LOTS of tools), quart of oil, fuel additive, suit cases, pillows, wiper blades, emergency kits, first aid kits, cooler, case of bottled water, golf clubs…you name. She was loaded pretty heavy, but we wanted to be as prepared as possible. If you read this forum enough you might begin to wonder if these machines are reliable enough to trust for a trip like this! I did an oil change and tire rotation about 3500 miles early, knowing we'd be pouring the miles on. I measured the tire tread to see if we should change the tires before we left, and decided to wait since they had .006" tread left. I checked all the fluid levels, and topped off the wiper fluid. The oil level was dead-nuts on the full mark, and the coolant overflow was midway between the high and low marks. Tire pressures at 35 psi. I planned to check fluids and tire pressures every morning before starting the car.
We started out on a Friday evening to get a head start on the first leg stopping in Ill, and drove the next day up to Minnesota. My wife wanted to visit Walnut Grove (think Little House on the Prairie) so we spent a few hours there. On our way back down to I-80 we stopped at Pipestone NM in Minn. Picked up a cool looking peace pipe there! Then it was on to Rapid City, SD from there. This was the first time we'd had the car on an 80 MPH freeway. It handled perfectly, but that speed sure does bring the MPG's down. We visited Mt Rushmore & Crazy Horse, drove to Devil's Tower and from there we went to The battlefield at Little Big Horn. Car still handling and driving well. She took the hills and speed demands with no protests. I wasn't sure but it looked like the coolant level was dropping a bit, and oil level looked a little low as well but I didn't add any to either.
We drove through the Beartooth Mountains and Beartooth pass on our way to Yellowstone National Park. The road through the pass coming from the north was exhilarating and somewhat terrifying at the same time with it's switchbacks and shear drop offs. The outside temperature went from 71 F to 34 F by the time we got to the summit. Using the tiptronic mode, the car trudged along the steady inclines perfectly. It handled the sharp turns with ease and the torque was excellent for climbing the rather steep road. It started to rain half way up, and by the time we got to the top it had changed to snow flurries. The road going down the south side is significantly less steep, and again using tiptronic mode helped keep the speed under control without riding the brakes. I was a little disappointed by the lack of engine brake that the car has.
On to Yellowstone and Grand Teton parks. More mountains, and stops along the way to admire mother natures work and the animals in the parks. From the we drove toward Glacier National Park. After staying the night in Missoula, MT I confirmed that the coolant had indeed dropped to the low mark, and the oil level was about an 1/8' below the full mark. We were within a block of a VW dealer so we stopped by and got a gallon of coolant & I topped the reservoir off to the high mark. We drove through Glacier National Park, taking the Going To The Sun Road (on the day it opened for the season to our surprise) for more shear cliffs, switchbacks and steep crowded roads. Once again, the car handled it with no problems.*
From there we drove to Seattle, with anniversary dinner in the Space Needle restaurant. This section of road had some seriously steep changes in slope. I had forgotten to move the shift level from drive into tiptronic, and a couple of brake taps later we're in 4th gear running around 3500 rpms and 70ish MPH! A quick shift over and brought it back under control. I didn't forget that again. A visit with my brother and his wife the next day and then down the Oregon Coast on Highway 101. Checking the oil level again showed another small drop in the level. It was about 1/4" down from the full mark. This was also the first time I had to adjust tire pressures. I added about 2.5 lbs per tire. What a nice drive this was. Plenty of scenery, little traffic, and so many pull-offs for pictures. As we were pulling out from one of these stops, I heard a high pitched whistle coming from somewhere but unsure where. I rolled the windows down quickly, stuck my head out, tapped the go pedal but heard no change. I looked over at my wife and asked if she heard it, and she reached up an re-opened the air conditioner vent that she'd just closed! Whistle stops, my heart rate returns to normal. Down the 101 into Redwood National Park. We were in awe of the size and beauty of the trees!! The tight roads, the proximity to the trees, imaging back when that road was the major highway. The car was dwarfed by the size of the tree trunks. From there it was on to San Francisco and across the Golden Gate Bridge. What fun!! A day was all we had there, but enjoyed Fisherman's Wharf. We drove UP the STEEP incline of Lombard Street and down the famous ess curves. I swear it looked and felt like a 45 degree incline going up to the top of the road. The car was fantastic doing the climbs! And I finally found a legitimate purpose for the hill hold feature!
The drive from SF to Sacramento was a 3-1/2 hr traffic jam! The outside temperature climbed from 74 F in SF to 109 F but the air conditioning worked beautifully. The water temp climbed as high as 217 on some of the inclines once we got past the jam, but it dropped as quickly as I changed to lower a gear. Met an old service buddy for dinner in Fallon, NV. The next morning I had to release 4 lbs of air from each tire, then we drove across the state on highway 50. It's billed as the Loneliest Road in America, but we saw more traffic than we expected. Stopped for the night in Utah, then had a great visit with the wife's aunt and uncle in Denver. While there we drove to Mt Evans, but found that the road to the summit was closed for repairs. We headed to Royal Gorge after deciding to pass up on Pikes Peak.*
The drive from Pueblo, Co to Hutchinson, KS brought us the best fuel mileage of the trip, 45.5 MPG at 70 MPH. Must have been the flat terrain and the drafting help from the semi we tucked in behind. A visit with another service buddy and then on to Oklahoma City. More friends from the service where we met for the wedding of one of them. A couple hours after the ceremony we were on our way home. We topped off in Tulsa and made it back with just a little fuel to spare.*
We had great time together! The trip was a resounding success and the car was superb. The oil level did not change anymore after Seattle, and the coolant level never dropped below the full mark again. I topped the oil level back off when we got home. Every mountain range we encountered after Idaho was driven in tiptronic where I could prevent the unnecessary downshifting on the steep down-hills. We filled the washer reservoir three times through the trip, and changed the wiper blades while we were in Kansas. I felt a tire balance issue show up in California, but its intensity was determined by speed. At 70 MPH it was fine, so we drove home with that way. Measured the tire treads yesterday, we're down to .004", so it's tire shopping time. If there is any disappointment it would be that we didn't get exceptionally high fuel mileage, but I attribute that to the weight of the car with everything we had in it and the speeds that we drove. I entered all of the fill-ups and top-offs in Fuelly yesterday, but didn't do an overall calculation. I'd estimate that it was somewhere around 41 or 42 MPG over the whole 7600 miles. I realized yesterday that I wasn't road sore…at all! The only discomfort I felt along the way was where my right knee contacted the console whenever we weren't on cruise control. Turns out that was quite often. I'm really glad we trusted the car, and I'd do it again.
Oh! And we counted 66 VW Passat's along the way. That was just a fun little thing to do as we drove along. WAY more Jetta's though.
Some pictures from the trip were posted in this thread, if you're interested in seeing them.
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=441052
