Volkswagen Turbo Diesel
 

I purchased a friends VW. It is an 86 Jetta Turbo Diesel.

It is in surprising good shape. Has over 200,000 miles. The engine and suspension have been rebuilt in the last 3 years. I have filled it once after I drove it home. Got 44 mpg.

Included with it was 2 oil filters a fuel filter. A rebuilt master cylinder. A new set of driving lights. A roof rack for a bike. Some new glow plugs (cause it needed some.). A service manual. The original owners manual window sticker and original sales papers.

It runs nice.

welcome to the ecomodder dubclub!

Amazing isn't it ? ;)
First time driving in a "new" car, and you're topping 40 mpg.

40mpg and 25 years old, It has had a lot of love to keep it running so far.

Nice. I had one of the same generation that lasted for 623,000 miles. (no, that's not a typo). 89 Jetta 1.6 L Diesel.

I ran Castrol 20/50 Conventional oil in mine, but if I had it do to over, I'd run a 5/40 Synthetic which should lubricate better and flow smoothly in all temp ranges.

good luck with yours.

Jerry

Wow Jerry, That would give me 400,000 miles or about 20 years of driving. My wife is already talking about something with an automatic. She does fine with the 5 speed shifter but would rather not be bothered by shifting

Here is a photo of it.
Looks great from 10 feet away. Notice the aero wheels. Only small slots for cooling the brakes.
http://www.veloliner.com/vw/jettaTD.JPG

I did a second longish trip in the VW today. I had about 80 miles of local driving including unsuccessful episodes of hard starting before I changed the glow plugs.

After over 250 more miles of highway I got 45 mpg. More than backed up my 44 mpg that I got initially.

The speed was 65 mph for much of the trip.

I have been driving the vw for a month now. It rides like a brick with a ton of road noise. One of the previous owners had put lowering springs and oversized low profile tires on it as well as Koni struts.

I don't have any intention of taking out the expensive Koni's I did notice that the back ones have adjustable spring height. Perhaps the front do as well.
For a start I got some Firestone M+S tires called winterforce. They are made in Argentina and cost about 300 dollars for the set. I got them in 155/80x13 instead of the 205/60x13 tires that were on there. Stock is 175x70 I wanted as narrow as possible for winter traction. The 155's are taller than the 205s that were on there.

The car rides much better and is 3x quieter. Prior to having them installed I couldn't hear the AM radio well at all. Still takes corners very well.

Here is a picture of the tread.

http://www.veloliner.com/vw/firestone.JPG
Time will tell but as much better as the car rides and is quieter I think they should be good for fuel mileage as well. Not as good as summer road tire perhaps but that is not an option for me.