Got a B4 (again)!

[IndigoBlueWagon]

Although I had a B4V a few years ago, lately I'd been thinking that I wanted a sedan, and was just waiting for the right one to come along. So when I heard that BRUSSELS BELGIUM (Jack) was going to part with his '97 I jumped at it. Drove it at Ho5G on New Years, mrchill took a look, and we agreed it's a very nice example. Just turned 250K, Jack is the original owner, it's been carefully maintained by saturnhacker, and has spent most of its life at 57 or 62 MPH striving for optimum FE. Jack got 57 MPG driving up to Ho5G on New Years, and that was on winter fuel. Low 60s are more common in better weather.

So we made a deal and early this morning my son and I jumped in IBW and drove to Philly, then caravaned back with the Passat. Long day, a little over 700 miles round-trip. The car looked great when we got there.

Jack was clearly sad to see it go, and I promised that I would care for it and if I do part with it I'll keep it in the TDIClub family.

We set off for home, probably putting the car into shock because I was going faster than it's used to. It has 195/65-15s on it, so the speedometer, if anything, reads a bit low. I was going 65-70 for most of the drive, sometimes a bit faster.

Jack was very thorough and made listed what he'd done to the car (a lot over the years) and its current problems, all of which are minor. I was able to get the clutch (original) to slip on New Year's, but not today, maybe because it was warmer out. It has RC2, which gives it a nice bump in power, but after driving IBW down to Philly there were a couple of moments on the way home when I thought the Passat was in limp mode. It wasn't. Just has a little less power than I'm used to. The wiper stalk is a bit flakey, as is the radio (antenna). And it needs a harmonic balancer. All else seems good. And no foam coming from the vents!

I'm happy to have a B4 again. This may replace the Benz if my son doesn't persuade me otherwise. Rotary pump TDIs rule!

Oh, and this is still a lower mileage car than my wagon, which rolled over 270K today.

 

[kiva822]

nice pickup..

whenever I think about getting more cars...I don't know how we'd afford the insurance!

Again, great pickup...

 

[john.jackson9213]

Congratulations. Sounds like you got a well cared for one indeed.

 

[Bob_Fout]

I see it is the correct color

 

[Zedbra]

60mpg - I would love that! Car looks good - nice find.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

It won't get 60 with me driving it. 45-50 will be more like it. I'll probably swap back to closer to stock diameter tires and put in a .71 5th. But this will primarily be a daily driver, saving IBW for longer trips.

 

[Mcgink]

I'm happy to have a B4 again. This may replace the Benz if my son doesn't persuade me otherwise. Rotary pump TDIs rule!
.

Nice!!! Sell your Benz to the painter

 

[PeeWee]

Very nice!

 

[compu_85]

Nice!!! Sell your Benz to the painter

Or me

Quick... before VeeDubTDI sees this...

-J

 

[Mcgink]

Or me
Quick... before VeeDubTDI sees this...
-J

Too late, you're quoted

 

[Volk14]

I see it is the correct color

Your monitor must be black and white. The car is green j/k

Nice car. It's always nice to get a car that has been well maintained in original paint and from the original owner.

Do you have a pic of the wagon?

Good luck with the new car.

 

[Bob_Fout]

Your monitor must be black and white. The car is green j/k

Nice car. It's always nice to get a car that has been well maintained in original paint and from the original owner.

Do you have a pic of the wagon?

Good luck with the new car.

Dark green, like my Jetta

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

Only some original paint. This car had the same clear coat failing issues that many B4s have and Jack had portions repainted. I know the roof, hood, and trunk were done, maybe more. But it's a good job. Finding original paint that's survived in one of these is tough at this point.

Here's the wagon:

It had 53K on it when I bought in in '06 and about 65 on it when I sold it. It was a beautiful example, but I never fell in love with it for some reason. I'm already liking the sedan better: tighter and quieter on the highway.

 

[Jetter_Sprinta]

Welcome back!

 

[greenskeeper]

60mpg - I would love that! Car looks good - nice find.

maybe at 40mph in 5th gear on level ground

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

Jack typically drove either 57 or 62 MPH. He'd get 64 in the summer, got 57 two weeks ago driving to NH from Philadelphia and back. I don't know if he hypermiled or not, but I don't think so.

 

[Lug_Nut]

It has 195/65-15s on it, so the speedometer, if anything, reads a bit low. I was going 65-70 for most of the drive, sometimes a bit faster.

It won't get 60 with me driving it. 45-50 will be more like it. I'll probably swap back to closer to stock diameter tires and put in a .71 5th.

I found that 205/55-15 was almost perfect for the odometer accuracy, and that a quick re-index of the speedometer needle for precision at 45 mph made it almost perfect in the 30 to 60 range where I did most of my driving. Sure it read "3" mph when parked, and 87 when doing a GPS indicated 90, but so what?

60mpg - I would love that!

maybe at 40mph in 5th gear on level ground

Under those conditions it will be closer to 80 mpg.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

Thanks for the tip on tire sizes. I'm having fits trying to find what I want. The tire selection in 205/55-15 is really lousy, and it's not much better in 195/60-14. I do remember the speedometer was more optimistic on my B4V than it is on my Jetta. I'm after the same correction, about 3 MPH at 75. So going to 205/55-15s and leaving the needle alone would get me what I want, sounds like.

Thanks for fixing the window and door latch, btw. I may need a tutorial at some point.

 

[RIP TDI]

195/55-15 is way closer to OE diameter than 205/55-15 and there are many more models available in that size. If accurate odo and speedo are an important consideration, that can be achieved with any size tire via a VSS frequency adaptor. About $80 and a fairly easy installation.

 

[Sprocket]

Welcome back Peter! Jack takes really good care of his cars as you well know. I'm glad it went to a good home

 

[rotarykid]

I have owned three 97 TDI Passat sedans, a burgandy, a white and a green one like you just got.

I believe this is the most fuel efficient car ever sold to date in the US. With the mods I have made to mine I routinely achieve mid to high 50s city to around 50-52 highway at real highway speeds in the western US. As my sig says I have pushed mpgs in the mid 60s several times on city loops while running Low Sulpher Diesel. I have owned and driven ALH cars that could come close to what the 1Z can achieve. But I could never surpass it consumption wise....

Great pick up.....

 

[rotarykid]

Thanks for the tip on tire sizes. I'm having fits trying to find what I want. The tire selection in 205/55-15 is really lousy, and it's not much better in 195/60-14. I do remember the speedometer was more optimistic on my B4V than it is on my Jetta. I'm after the same correction, about 3 MPH at 75. So going to 205/55-15s and leaving the needle alone would get me what I want, sounds like.

Thanks for fixing the window and door latch, btw. I may need a tutorial at some point.

I put 215/75 14s on the front of mine, 205/75 14s on the rear. Or you can go with 205/75 14s all around if you want the same size all around. 75 series are taller and skinnier than 50s, 60s, or 70s which will give less rolling friction. If you are sticking with 15s I would go with 70s or 75s, 195 or 205 series.

I installed rubber spring expanders to give the needed clearance to use the taller skinnier tires. This really steps up the gearing in all gears giving a taller high gear which I have documented increased average mpgs by 5-7 mpgs in all types of driving.

On a couple of passenger window regulators, I installed two of those on the passenger side.

And I have had to replace three drivers side and one passenger door handles, I need another one right now. This is a weak point on this car.

The only thing I would add on the door handle replacement is make sure the wire that runs to door lock controls is out of the way of the window after install. I have seen the window come down hitting the wire in the door causing a dead short melting the all the wires in the door. I had to fix this on a friends car, the only thing that saved the car from catching fire was the fuse opened up quickly. But it was quite a mess to deal with...

 

[Abacus]

You may not need a handle, but just a refresh.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

All the doors work fine now, thanks to Jon. The handles do need new gaskets, but I know where to get those.

My plan is to use this car for daily short trips. Consequently, I don't want to make the gearing too tall. I may put in a .71 5th if I decide on longer drives, but I've never been afraid to let TDIs run some revs on the highway. It was interesting yesterday to see how this car could bog down with 195/65-15s on it, not wanting to pull in 5th at 65 MPH. I really did think it had gone into limp mode at one point, although it hadn't. I got 45 MPG driving to the DC fest and back in one day in my B4V with stock gearing and tires, running at 80-85 most of the time.

I'm going to aim for a 23.8-24" tire. It may be a 205/55-15, or a 195/65-14. Once I drive it for a while with those on it I'll see what I think about a taller 5th. I had a .681 in my A3 and in IBW and never really liked it in either. I have a .71 in IBW now and it seems just about perfect, 30 MPH per 1000 RPM (indicated).

And rotarykid, you may have a point on B4 efficiency. Despite the larger size compared to the A3, people seem to get better FE. Not sure why. And despite Jack's gentle driving habits, this car seems strong, pulls surprisingly well in the lower gears. I will check the intake to see if it needs to be cleaned, and I wonder about the CAT being clogged, but I have no evidence of either from driving it thus far. The A3 I bought did have a clogged CAT so I know what it's like.

 

[Digital Corpus]

195/65-15 puts you about into an accuracy of about >0.5 mph @ 65 mph and there is a wide selection of tires. I've been running this size for a couple years and have spot checked with GPS over several miles every once in a while.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

That's what's on the car now. They may work fine with your mods but for a nearly stock car I think they're too big. And I want a 3 MPH speedo error like my other VWs. I think I'm going with either 205/55-15s or 195/65-14s on new wheels. I'd kind of perfer the 14s for the longer contact patch (better highway tracking) and maybe better FE. Kumhos are about the only tires available in those two sizes if you skip summer tires. It's a bit tempting to get something really sticky like Direzzas for fun, but I think they'd be a bit spooky in the winter.

 

[Mcgink]

I'm running 205/55-15 on "I-Red" and the spedo is ~1-2 MPH higher than the GPS indicates.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

Old and new (cevans) at work today.

I did a comparison and the B4 is almost exactly the same size as a MIVI Jetta Sedan. The Jetta is actually bigger in a few dimensions, notably wheelbase and width.

Harmonic balancer and worn Hydroedge noises aside, this is a nice car to drive. The torque is nice, as we all know: smoother and at lower revs than the highly Modified IBW, and more power down low than the MKVI.

I'm starting to make a fix list: looking forward to it. I think the antenna is dead. Radio is new but it's weak on picking up stations. I'm told that's typical.

 

[Lug_Nut]

195/55-15 is way closer to OE diameter than 205/55-15 and there are many more models available in that size.

OE diameter retains the OE error. I wanted to correct as much of the odometer error as I could.
Because the single VSS produced two different percentage errors (odometer off by some percentage, the speedo by a different percentage) it would have required that I use two pulse signal modifiers to correct both. I chose to use tire diameter to get the odo as exact as I could (less than 0.5%), and then relocated the speedo pointer to be accurate when the car was in motion at the usual speed I drove.
The 205-55-15 was available in the Continental Conti-ExtremeContact (I liked the original, directional tread design, not the asymetric DW/DWS).

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

Now there are pretty slim pickings in that size. The best seems to be a Kumho. Others are pure summer tires, and I don't know if I'm up for getting two sets of wheels and tires for this car--yet. Besides, we really don't have a lot of snow here, but it does get a bit too cold to run pure summer tires all year.

I'm leaning towards 185/60-15s. .2" smaller than 205/55-15s, but there's a Conti Eco tire I like in that size. Or 195/55-15 Michelin Pilot Exalto A/Ss. But those are pretty pricey.