AWD Jetta...is it possible?

[jinjabread_man]

I have a 2001 Jetta TDI and I live in a wonderful little town called Montreal where we have snow for 6 months of the year. I have a friend of whom i'm very envious because he has an 06 Impreza. He loves to rave about how much fun it is to have AWD in the winter and this got me to thinking, could i swap in an Audi A4 Quattro drivetrain (aft the tranny) into my 01 TDI? So to you forum dwellers i ask this question. Can I convert my TDI to AWD and what would I need to do it.

I honestly have no idea where to start, but I don't see why this wouldn't be possible, so anyone who has ever tried this, succeeded or failed, let me know how it can be done.

Any links to parts would also be greatly appreciated

 

[gforce1108]

Big job - including rear floor pan section. Here's a recent thread on the same subject:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=194065

 

[Scott_DeWitt]

It is doable, but requires ALOT of work, and the body has to be jigged up as the floor pan is a structural member. I recall HPA motorsports charges 16-20,000 usd for such a conversion. Another option is to buy a car from europe less engine and swap parts.

 

[GoFaster]

... could i swap in an Audi A4 Quattro drivetrain (aft the tranny) into my 01 TDI? So to you forum dwellers i ask this question. Can I convert my TDI to AWD and what would I need to do it.

That specific drivetrain cannot work, since the Audi engine sits lengthwise in the chassis and your VW's has it transverse, which changes *everything*. The post above discusses installing a VW 4motion system from a european VW Golf 4motion - which is a system designed for the transverse engine in a Golf.

And, yeah, on a Mk4, you have to cut out the rear section of the floor pan and weld in the 4motion floor pan, which makes it an extremely complicated and expensive job.

 

[RoundHouse]

Best way is sneak one in from Europe already done.

Id love to have an AWD tdi golf.

 

[truckinwagen]

saying that someting cannot be done is kind of wrong, it has more to do with how much you are willing to cut the car up. almost anything can be done, for a small price even,if you are willing to put in the time and hack the car to peices, look at the Durroco twin engine four wheel drive. anything is possible my friend you just have to believe.

 

[lupin..the..3rd]

anything is possible my friend you just have to believe.

... and have the free time and financial resources $$$$$ to make it happen. (minor details)

 

[merkerguitars]

Would probably be ALOT easier trying to make a TDI Audi quattro TT, engine bolts up/flywheel bolts up, just the wiring would be the hardest part.

 

[GoFaster]

saying that someting cannot be done is kind of wrong, it has more to do with how much you are willing to cut the car up. almost anything can be done, for a small price even,if you are willing to put in the time and hack the car to peices, look at the Durroco twin engine four wheel drive. anything is possible my friend you just have to believe.

Okay, YEAH you could make a tube frame chassis with the outside panels of a Mk4 Jetta surrounding the mechanicals of an Audi A4 with the engine sitting lengthwise. You can indeed make anything fit anything else given enough cutting, welding, machine tools, time, and money. But, for *reasonable* purposes, I consider an engine swap to be one in which the main bodyshell remains substantially intact, there is no compromise made with regards to collision protection (all crush zones and collision structures intact), and the final outcome retains as close as possible to an OEM-level of function and finish.

You're not going to achieve that if you try to stick a longitudinal engine and gearbox underneath a vehicle that was designed to have a transverse engine.

(P.S. Somewhere around here in Ontario, there is a drag-racing car that is the ultimate sleeper. If you look at the outside, or even the inside, as long as you don't look underneath or at the rear tires!!, it looks for all the world like a bone stock 1981 Plymouth Reliant K-car, complete with stock interior, vinyl roof, bench seats, the whole deal. But, it has a Hemi sitting lengthwise under the hood and it's rear drive. Yeah, they had to cut up the floor pan for the transmission and driveshaft to fit, but they made it look like the car was originally built that way. Original appearance? Yep. OEM function? Uhhh, not quite ...)

 

[truckinwagen]

ok granted it will not be "stock" but there is little more exiting than re designing things in your garage in an afternoon that took highly paid engineers years to perfect.
it just depends what you want, a reliable and easily maintained four wheel drive, or a glorious project worthy of the gods.

 

[dieselgus]

What would be wrong with converting over a 4 motion V6 Jetta, swap in the V6 TDI and associated bits.......

may be easier to find an older 1.8T quattro A4, and do a TDI swap into it......

 

[compu_85]

I didn't think any Jetta was sold with 4motion here in the states, only the R:. cars.

-Jason

 

[Scott_DeWitt]

What would be wrong with converting over a 4 motion V6 Jetta, swap in the V6 TDI and associated bits.......

may be easier to find an older 1.8T quattro A4, and do a TDI swap into it......

A v6 tdi won't fit, and the Audi a4 quattro has a different drivetrain orientation.

 

[GoFaster]

True that the V6 TDI will never fit into a transverse-engine Jetta (see my post above about the swap being "reasonable"), but you CAN fit a 4 cylinder (or even V6) TDI into an Audi A4 Quattro. They came with those engines in Europe, so it's a matter of making the same thing happen here.

There is a documented swap of a V6 TDI into a VW Passat B5 4motion here in North America, and the story is elsewhere on this website. An Audi A4 is mechanically not a whole lot different underneath from a VW Passat B5, so it's pretty much the same job.

P.S. It was expensive.

 

[GoFaster]

should address one other point for dieselgus. The 6 cylinder engine in the VW Jetta is a "VR6" narrow angle engine that is specifically designed to fit into the transverse engine cars. The V6 TDI is a conventional V6 with separate cylinder banks, and is FAR too wide to fit transversely in the space allowed in an A4-chassis engine bay.

 

[dieselgus]

Ah yes, totally forgot about that little detail! Bingo on the B5 platform though. Little more room in the engine bay, and going from the 1.8T to the 1.9L TDI would be the more logical step (minding, of course, the 20% or so BHP loss thanks to the quattro set up.) V6TDI would be the better bet, I would love to do a V8 TDI swap into an A6 personally.

Did drive a V10 Touraeg the other day, and I must say, it was a treat and a half. If only I could stand an SUV style vehicle as a daily driver.

 

[dieselsRus]

what about buying a 1.8t 4 motion passat with a 5spd and swap a 2.0 tdi out of a b5?

 

[Scott_DeWitt]

what about buying a 1.8t 4 motion passat with a 5spd and swap a 2.0 tdi out of a b5?

For those with a very large wallet, both of those cars are pretty pricey! also you'll have to do something about the tdi being auto only.

 

[dieselsRus]

you could buy just the tdi swap or buy a wrecked tdi passat and buy a high mileage 4motion and you would be at the price of a tdi passat anyway but it would be AWD!

 

[likmywagon]

Along this same line I have a Euro PD130 1.9L TDI engine, wiring harness and ECU out of a German 2001 Audi A4 in my garage waiting for the right time to invest in a project like this. I won't be doing the work so I have to look at practicality. My initial plan was to install it into a B5 Passat 1.8t wagon , I even went out and bought one but I’ve since moved to snowy Winnipeg and the merits of all wheel drive a pretty obvious out here.
The most straight forward move would be to get an Audi 1.8t wagon for the recipient but a 2000 Passat V6 4Motion is available to me here and it would cost $5-$10K less than a comparable A4. My question though is as I can’t drive an automatic transmission and the Passat is a 6 cylinder how difficult would an engine & transmission swap into said Passat be?

Thanks

A

 

[mrchill]

If I could get the powertrain for reasonable money. I'd do an AWD conversion to a Jetta. Yes its a lot of work, but its fun, and I get to have an AWD Jetta......who has one?

 

[Bob_Fout]

If I could get the powertrain for reasonable money. I'd do an AWD conversion to a Jetta. Yes its a lot of work, but its fun, and I get to have an AWD Jetta......who has one?

Mmmmm a 4motion MK IV Jetta