PD tdi (volkswagen/skoda/seat) hints and tips
 

Hi, I'm starting this thread to avoid taking robchalmers excellent Polo thread off topic. I'm about to embark on a project to develop a fuel sipping tdi based daily driver. Looking at the cars available in my area and budget,i've identified 3 main possibilities:

1. Skoda Octavia tdi estate
2. Seat Cordoba vario tdi
3. Vw Passat tdi estate

As these cars all have the same family of engines in them, i'm hoping there are a few well known gains and tricks to gaining some benefit out of them. I'm open to all suggestions-fairly handy with a spanner! thanks Neil

oops, my phone seems to have lost the formatting when i posted-could a kindly mod space it out a bit for me?

thanks

Have you seen Vekke's Seat Cordoba Vario 1.9 TDI thread? He's getting ridiculously low fuel consumption numbers now that it's summer again.

Deezler also has a good thread to for his Jetta (Bora, to us brits) there is plenty of people on here and some really good info once you find it. I'll try and pick out some links

Deezler's thread is here and its a good source of info on TDIs - I'm looking to copy his Grill block when I have time...

Any of the models you choose will be good for FE, especially the Octavia and the Cordoba estates. The Passat is quite heavy but with an Octavia or Passat you may get a 6sp box - I don't think this was available on the Polo / Cordoba.

The 2nd gen Octavia is amazing for FE, my wife gets over 60 in hers and never ED's, and my dad has the 105 1.9 version and gets near 65 average.

If you can find one cheap enough also take a look at the Megane dCi estate (avoid the 1.9) or a Pug 206sw / 307sw HDi like PWs will give good mileage too. Astra estates are also cheap and there is a 1.3 CDTi option.

thanks for the pointers to some awesome threads folks!
I'm glad i'm not too far off the plan that others have taken.

As for the astra and french cars, i'd rather not-i dont like engines thst outlast their cars:) plus if i got an old astra or cav with the izuzu lump i'd just ramp up the fuel pressure..smokin!

initial investigations suggest that an octavia tdi with the 90bhp lump for £500-700..so it may be possible to achieve good gains for under £1000 all in.

You could be right. Last time I was in a Mk1 Octavia it was a Taxi in 2005 and it already had 120K on the clock. No rattles at all though.

Keep us up to date with any mods :D

Thanks for that,

Where abouts are you in Scotland? I'm out West Lothian Way.
seems your getting that Fabia VRS working well.

I suppose first thing to do is buy a car!

I'm in Edinburgh and my travelling is about 50 % bypass or M8/M9 and 50 % in the 'burbs. I think my tanks are starting to, er, tank a little now so what I was doing is working less well now. I think my VRS is unwell somewhere though.

Where are you going to find the car ? Just tried a quick Autotrader search and the cheapest Octavia SDi within 30 miles of me is 1300, the cheapest TDI is 2.8K. I don't think AT is as good as the local papers though.

ah, the joys of the a720..
I work in livingston, and stay fairly close, but have family near glasgow and stuff out east lothian too-doing 2500 miles a month..

As for getting the car.. I have a history of travelling miles to get cars, so a wee trip for an octavia should be no hardship.

There are a few sub 800 octy's near here:)

As for your fab-take it you're on briskoda?

I have been a member of BSkoda but I go there less and less now. I used to note the discussions on VRS's and ask for tips on problems, but once the Roy Bacers started posting about how they had raced a local Porsche etc. it kind of got boring.

Disclaimer - mine has big wheels but they weren't my choice.

I do go on TDI Sport a bit and more and more on EM.

Keep us up to date on your Octavia seeking.

try Fleebay, but make sure you see it before bidding, sounds obvious but I have a few friends who have seen a bargain and found out later why it was soooooo cheap :( (one who doesn't deserve annominity, made an assumption that a car that was £1000 under value had an engine......total numpty)


p.s. spent a lot of tme in my youth around Currie and Balerno in the 'burbs of Edi:thumbup:

worry not fellas i'm pretty used o buying at that end of the market and have learnt many a hard lesson!

i'll take my time and see what i can find-pref an estate but cant be too picky!
i'll have a look at the tdi sport site.. My briakoda experie ce was all about felicias, rather than fabias.

Currently running a 1.4 16v auto fabia.. No wonder i am after a tdi-as that ar dont know the meaning of torque!

if it was in budget i'd suggest a fabia bohemia estate.

it has Arragonisis' 130bhp tdi engine and suspension and front seats, but steel wheels, a total stealth rocket!

Used to drive them or similar when working at europcar.bloody ridiculous.. Def a left field option..

Did someone call :D

I'm reasonably sure (roughly 95% or more - nothing like hedging your bets eh ?) that there wasn't a 130 estate Fabia. If there was then I want to find one asap as most of us 'real world' (i.e. luggage, kids, bikes, life) VRS owners want more space.

There was a 80 (1.4 TDI) and I think 1.9 TDIs at 90 and a 100 but not a 130 as standard from the factory AFAIK.

A few people have built them since and a few more 100s have been 'chipped' to 130.

Shame as I would have loved one as I tapped above.

The ones I drove were at least 110bhp, steel wheels and s*it loads of torque. This was around the 02/03 model years, possibly earlier.

Found this - wiki to the rescue as usual!
List of Volkswagen Group diesel engines - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

nice one!
i'll review that next time i have a pc..
Certainly the more i read, the more promising they look.. Although ipm still tempted by a skoda felicia 1.3mpi estate..i'm a wrong un!

I had a 1.3mpi hatch, BOMB PROOF little bugger but Very tappety and being based on a stolen A-series design not exactly highly efficient. I managed a peak of 50mpg

you have to adjust the tappets most services and renew the timing chain every50k..

i've had 2-one that took 80k of abuse, and another that died after 30miles..

Best two mods in my Cordoba has been:

175/80R14 Toyo 350 tires to front. Any tires with same dimension will do the trick.

And maybe 175/65R14 tires to rear or even 165/70R13 to rear. I think the last ones worked better for fuel economy, even if the 175/65R14 are michelin energy savers...

Other one reguires no mods. Use push and glide speeds under 95 km/h if your car is stock.

If you have lots of mods like my car you can continue doing that at higher speeds also.

Just today drived behind a bus @ 100 km/h with consumpion of 2.2l/100km for 40 kilometers ;).

I would buy the ligthtest car possible with a TDI engine.

lupo!

i need a practical car-not a rollerskate!
lupo's and arosa's are hateful hateful things.

I love the 1.7sdi (PD NA)I borrow - granted its not the most practical but 72MPGuk without trying was just hilarious, kind of reminded me of an original mini.....with a diesel....that was built properly!

p.s. love the original mini, even with some of the 'quirks'

Vekke,

Thanks for the info on tyres- something I'll investigate once I actually get the damn thing!

Rob, you're a proper Wrong un! That Lupo must have been horrific...

A quick check of Ebay has netted me two possible Skoda Octavias..

Both SDI's:(

and a Polo SDI in my price rage...sub £1000

the most expensive car would leave me £300 to play with. I'll need to be making some decisions soon, although I'd hold out for a TDI

Get the octy sdi!!! its great living turboless!

.
Bear in mind the octy is a least 200kg heavier than the polo..
So the lump will be worked harder.

Octy SDi also has lower gearing than the TDi and a different gearbox. Its also weaker than the TDi one and not a straight swap.

See this Briskoda thread.

I would hold out for a TDi. :thumbup:

I had one of those email searches on ebay and this popped in last night

Cordoba Vario TDi in Weston Super Mare

Looks in pretty good condition, no service history though and a bit of a drag from Scotland. So a bit closer

Seat Leon TDi

Has service history but from Arnold Clark :o. As long as you get it serviced quickly that should be ok :D

cheers for those links fella-i'm happy to travel!

Unfortunately i'm gonna have to buy a car quicksmart due to my fabia runaround being traded in. Plus side is i can get a manual and its mine to change as i like:-)

Offto a local auction tomorrow eve for a scout about..fingers crossed-aiming for a diesel with t&t..

Good luck at the Auctions. I've never been but I would love to go, however the Mrs says no. She's right of course as I would buy nothing I went for and every bit of old tat I fancied.

Which is probably why she confiscates my credit card and gives me the cash when I visit Machine Mart. The time she didn't I went in for some latex gloves for decorating and came home with a MIG welder. And I forgot the gloves.

well, found a few candidates with t&t but most of them were horrific once started..
A sdi golf estate went for1200 too rich for my blood..
the search continues

In what way horrid, rattly or smoky ?

They vary quite a bit in terms of smoothness. Mrs A's Octavia sounds rough compared to my dad's Octavia at idle, and more growl at speed. Hers sounded a lot worse when the exhaust was pressing against the floor. Mine sounds horrific at idle - the SMF and clutch rattle like mad but it runs OK and I usually pound the stereo anyway.

You know you want a TDI anyway :D

oil age makes a Huge difference too, Mine was quite coarse on start up, but after the service runs a lot calmer when cold.

My naive way of looking at things was that if it don't blow out a pile of diesel stir when you start it from cold and give it 3500rpm then it probably was a good engine. If it smoked or sounded like burly men when welting sh*t out of Iron plate with lump hammers its was best to walk away....

It wass more the Petrols that sounded like diesels that i was confused by...

Looking more likely that I should throw the budget at my 320i and get her running with LPG...

Don't loose faith brother

No Faith to lose fella,

I love my 6 cyl 2.0,2.5,2.7,3.0,3.5 L too much to actually care or get attached to any 4 banger..

just as long as it turns in some decent mpg i'll be happy (once I find a car!)

At the moment, that Avensis has done 36.77 mpg (UK) which is not too bad...

what about trying to find a e36 318td they should be creeping under the 1k barrier by now?