Prius VS. TDI (which to buy)

[dremd]

Originally Posted by Binger

If I were to run biodiesel which is better to run B20? B50? B100?

As high of a percentage as you can get away with. (Bio-Diesel Gels much easier than Petro)

Originally Posted by Binger

For those of you who are against using veggi oil kits...what are your reasons?

Water, water and more water.
If you have a centrifuge (gets the water out), willingness to tinker and a long commute I could recommend nothing other than an ALH TDI, a "conversion" setup, and a 5 speed in a Jetta, Golf, Passat.

[Vwbeamer]

The turbo on my TDi went away at 97K, it blew the oil seal, bearings shot, turbine hit the housing. Lucky that my motor didn't eat some of the turbo. It was no rebuilding it.

The 100K timing belt changes are a pain also. On gas motor , the owner is better able to change his own belt, on the TDi to do it correctly, you need about $300 in special tools.

My car is chipped(upsolute) and i used to tow my 1500 lbs 1956 beetle with it. I this shorten the turbo life I'm sure.

The replacement was new, from a place in new England, i can't remember the name. They sell mostly VW parts.

It took me about 6 hours of work to replace it, it's not hard, but it's hard to get it.

A dealer charges 1600-2000, so the OP is correct in that.

[almightybmw]

VW must be using a pure sh_t turbo. My parents old 1988 Mazda 626 GT is still on the stock turbo with 210K miles, motor never rebuild. 3 radiators yes (plastic endtanks suck), but no other motor work done. IHI RHB5 VJ11 was the turbo. Water and oil cooled.

If VW uses such crap turbos on the TDI's, I'm inclined to remove it and replace it with a better known reliable turbo. No reason to replace failing components with another one that'll fail in the same time period. Upgrade to something more reliable instead of wasting money on maintenance.

[Deezler]

Whoa whoa whoa, this is getting out of hand. VW does not use a crappy turbo.

They did opt for a VNT design to make the engine as driveable as possible. This turbo can spool to 6psi of boost at 1400 rpm and 15psi by 1800rpm, holding 15 psi all the way through 5000 rpm. It is a very capable turbo. The wide range of vane position makes it susceptible to a few issues potentially. People who never use the full range of the VNT vanes or get the turbo and engine hot enough by driving too slow will accumulate soot in the entire mechanism and suffer performance issues relating to this. The dealership will nearly ALWAYS tell you the turbo is shot and needs replacing, in a bid to generate $1000 of income for themselves. Unfortunately people usually believe them and then complain loudly on the internet when all they needed was an actuator cleaning.

On the other side of things are people like vwbeamer who run a crappy chip tune (no offense, but upsolute sucks as is known to overboost), then pull a heavy trailer and expect everything to be fine. vwbeamer, do you have a boost gauge? The turbo is very durable under certain conditions but becomes endangered at anything over 20 psi. It is also very close to the surge regime during full throttle under 1800rpm. Operating at heavy boost and low rpms will shorten its lifespan for sure.

One can find many people over 200k miles on tdiclub.com still on their stock turbo (and fuel injection pump).

Oh and per the biodiesel question, yeah, use as high a % as you can. I see you are in the midwest, so you'll want to run a B20 mixture whenever the low temperatures can dip under 35 degrees F. But 100% is fine all summer long.

[Vwbeamer]

The upsolute was about all that was available in 2001. The car is rated to tow 2000 lbs, so a 1500 lb car ( there is no trailer, the car was towed on a tow bar) should be fine.

But no doubt the combination of the two shorten the turbo's life. I still have the chip, but don't tow anymore. I expect the new turbo to last longer.

The fuel pumps never had a problem until they took the sulfer out of the fuel as it lubricated the pump. Clean Biodesiel is a very good lubricant, and can take the place of sulfer. I run 10% bio just to lub the pump.

Others ran into problems when using Biodesiel that still had Lye or methane in it, both are very corrosive and can destroy the fuel system.

[Deezler]

Good points VwBeam. Sorry, didn't mean to jump to conclusions.

Running B20 here in Michigan is starting to really annoy me. Regular diesel exhaust just smells so toxic in comparison. Can't wait to get back on the pure stuff come May.

[almightybmw]

I certainly didn't mean it to sound like VW used a crap turbo, as any vaned turbo isn't going to be crap. But all the fail replies about replacing the turbo and injection pump.... Well, 2 options: they got rare lemons OR know jack squat about mechanics and take the stealership's word. I guess most people don't know diesel's need to be worked to last longer?
bah. Things I take for granted.

Either way I still want a 1997 Passat wagon with the 25gal tank. 1000 miles/refill is a good goal.

[COcyclist]

Binger, I'll try to answer a question that may not have been addressed. First a disclaimer; I have owned an 04 TDi Golf for about 2 years and I love it. Doing some mild hypermiling you can reach 60 mpg on the highway. If you do need to pass or accelerate quickly there is lots of power on tap and short bursts of acceleration don't totally destroy your trip average.

You asked about straight veggie oil conversions. From everything I have read the TDi has very precise fuel injection due to computer control, extremely high injection pressure and small injector orifices. This makes it a poor candidate for hot oil conversion. If you are really motivated to do the SVO conversion the older mechanical injected diesels are more tolerant of running heated vegetable oil.

BTW the TDi requires no "conversion" to run biodiesel. It can gel in very cold weather though. A friend of mine had his B20 blend clog the in-tank fuel filter during cold weather. That is why you see lower percentages of bioiesel recommended for winter driving.

In the end I think it comes down to your type of driving. If you do mostly highway driving get a manual tranny TDi (and read up on the maintenance requirements i.e. 505.01 spec. oil for a PD engine) If you do mostly city stop-and-go driving get a Prius with it's CVT (automatic).

[BrianAbington]

the drive is mostly highway...38miles each way...and 5 miles on both ends of that are stop and go. The whole highway part is on a 2 lane highway, 65mph all the way. The County dump is along the route...but I work third shift so I don't have to worry about stopping for trucks.
The route is about 3/4ths hilly 1/4th completly flat.

[tasdrouille]

Mostly highway, hilly, you want the TDI.