Thinking about a diesel VDub?

[ducpainter]

I read it on the net...

it must be true.

zooom is right about the waste veggie thing. The older diesel engines were much more tolerant of it, and there is more room for the hardware.

That said one of the restaurant vehicles running around on it is one of those newer Mercedes panel vans. They are, however, only using filtered fryolator oil from a heated tank without all the nasty chemicals added.

Good luck on your decision.

[mookieo2]

Thanks. Are parts for a 2003- 2005 becoming scarce already?

WVO aside, everyone claims 45 MPG highway with a manual TDI. Diesel right now is $.40 more a gallon than regular. I'm not sure if that difference goes up as a percentage as gas goes up. Even if its $1 more I will still save a lot of money over my current situation.

If I'd attempted the wvo it would probably take me a long time to research the most reliable way about it. Its just something that sparked my interest. For the record I'm not a crazy hippy tree hugger environmentalist. I have pretty good electrical and mechanical skills. It would be more for the cheap ass nerd in me. I just like to waste  time building and designing things,  just to do them.

[ducatiz]

I currently have an '05 Golf TDI and I love it, but I would not try converting that engine (PD) to WVO/SVO.  They really pushed the envelope on cam run injectors with them and moved to CR type diesel in the new '09 and later models.  Mine gets 35 city/mixed and 50 highway.  I typically drive like an a-hole too, so if you drive nicer, you'll get better mileage.  My highway mileage is averaging 70-75 mph on the straights.  I have 95k on the clock.  I love this little car.  My interior looks GREAT, mainly because I don't treat cars like shit.  If you don't keep it clean, it will degrade -- in every car I've seen with a crappy interior I've been able to find half a box of french fries, a few open taco bell sauce packets and other crap under the driver seat/parking brake well.  Some people take a dump in their cars and whine that they don't look brand new 10 years later...   

I know you said you don't see getting an MB but the 300 series diesels are around and can be had for fairly cheap and convert very easily.  I see used ones for 4000-9000 in my area depending on condition and mileage.  Ironically, many of them are owned by oldsters that think they are troublesome and are selling them low.  I have neighbors down the street with a 1980 300SD.  They have treated it well -- it has 180k miles on it and it's a 3rd car for them.  I am getting it for cheapo when they move in a few months.  Yes, it will get a WVO conversion.

[Howie]

Gotta agree with zooom and ducatiz,if you plan on running WVO an older MB is the way to go.  Any new diesel, not just VW is not as tolerant to WVO.  If the WVO is clean enough and good quality you might get away with it, bit ask zooom about the price of an injector pump and injectors.  1.9 VW diesels will be in short supply in New York since there were a few years there were no 50 state diesels.  Used diesels from other states can be registered in New York, but it is a PITA.
http://www.nydmv.state.ny.us/register.htm#california

A friend of mine installs WVO systems.  IMO, for you it is a good DYI task though and I'm sure my friend would be glad to talk to you.

[ducatiz]

Other marques to look at?  Mitsubishi.  If you can find a Mitsu diesel, they are like a TANK.  Ford used them in their 1983-1987 Escorts and Rangers.  They are complicated but bullet proof -- bonus, the exhaust pipe is a straight pipe, no cat.

[pennyrobber]

Diesel? Blasphemy. What's next, half electric and half gasoline cars? 

[zooom]

Thanks. Are parts for a 2003- 2005 becoming scarce already?

WVO aside, everyone claims 45 MPG highway with a manual TDI. Diesel right now is $.40 more a gallon than regular. I'm not sure if that difference goes up as a percentage as gas goes up. Even if its $1 more I will still save a lot of money over my current situation.

MK4 Jetta/Golf parts are not becoming scarce yet per sey...but I see it happening with the previous generation/body of cars where in the past they supported the parts structure of a body/generation for well more than 10 years beyond it's run...nowadays, I see them trying to stick to the 10 year run and be done...

now, if you are dead set on WVO'ing a VW, then the VW you want to use is a 96-97 Passat or a 98 Jetta TDi...otherwise, the various tolerances of the vehicles fuel and fuel management system and array of electronics for monitoring will haunt you once you start the process...PD TDi and CR TDi both also are not built for the slop factor of WVO and you can run into serious issues, which is where an older less electronic Diesel with more of a "slop" tolerance made to it ( like the 300D for example) ends up being a much better candidate, especially if you are serious about this as a long term/long haul vehicle run this way...

[mookieo2]

Some great info guys. Thanks. I'm going to keep looking around. Hopefully I can get my taxes done soon. So I can buy one with some of my return. I doubt ill go the MB. I just can't see myself driving one of those. Ill stick to the golf or Jetta even though I'm partial to the golf.

Howie if I get one I may have to pick your friends brain about this WVO sytems. I'm m going to keep doing some more research on it in the meantime.

[sugarcrook]

I know this might seem like a crazy idea given this is a motorcycle board, but what about riding your motorcycle?  It may not fit your work situation, but I thought I'd toss that up there. 

[mattym750]

For what it's worth, when I sold my perfect running 82 300D, it had 371000 miles on the original motor and transmission.

I looked into TDIs, but the small, gas-engine-derived 1.9 has nothing on the purpose-built, over-engineered MB OM617. I haven't personally seen a TDI with over 200k but I have personally seen several 300Ds with over 300k.

You don't need an extra tank to run biodiesel on a TDI or a Benz diesel of any stripe, although Viton fuel lines are a good idea. You do need one to run waste vegetable oil; as stated, you start on diesel, and once the veg oil's warm, switch to the other tank. You also shut down on diesel. Biodiesel is veggie oil (new or waste) that has been chemically altered; you use a reactor to "crack" the esters in veggie oil to convert it into something similar to diesel. It just goes in the regular fuel tank. You can buy it at some fuel stations; B5 is 5% bio and 95% dino, B20 20% bio, and B100 as you might guess is pure bio.

If you're into bio, I strongly recommend "From the fryer to the fuel tank," which tells you how to make your own.

Whichever you choose, you'll gain weight! The exhaust smells like french fries, or donuts, or whatever was cooked in the oil!

[Speeddog]

I know this might seem like a crazy idea given this is a motorcycle board, but what about riding your motorcycle?  It may not fit your work situation, but I thought I'd toss that up there. 

110 miles a day moto commute is pretty aggressive.

That'd be 4 major services a year on a Duc.

[AkLiz]

I kinda miss my '06 TDI Beetle (although I have to admit my GTI is a LOT more fun to drive).  I was running close to 55mpg highway (sometimes 60 mpg during the summer months), which was the bulk of what I was driving.  Sadly, the Beetle suffered an entirely unexpected (and unexplained) catastrophic engine failure with 110K on the clock.  I was coming up for my regularly scheduled oil change (I tend to be ridiculously particular about getting my cage and bikes in for service) when the engine seized.  No warning lights came on, no unusual behavior, just a sudden seizure.  The verdict was two blown rods and a hole in the engine, caused by a distinct lack of oil.  It had never had any problems prior to that, save for a minor run-in with a moose.

I am still boggled a year later.  Only thing VW could come up with was the possibility of an unknown pinhole crack in the engine after I hit that moose with it early in its life, but even that's not a sure thing - like I said, there was no indication of low oil.  Despite the fluke happening, I'd buy another one.  We never did the biodiesel conversion, but that's because the price of diesel didn't make it worthwhile at the time.

Good luck with your decision!

[lethe]

I looked into TDIs, but the small, gas-engine-derived 1.9 has nothing on the purpose-built, over-engineered MB OM617. I haven't personally seen a TDI with over 200k but I have personally seen several 300Ds with over 300k.

Give me 3 years with my TDI and we'll see if they can do it and if they hold up well. 

[Howie]

There were plenty of old Rabbit diesels that ran very high mileage only to reach the junk heap due to either diesel pump failure, excessive rust or accident.  Someone I worked with has a 2 liter Jetta diesel that is running close to 200K miles with only normal replacement of wearing parts and maintenance, overall mileage 42MPG.  Oh, the interior still looks good.  Many 1.9 diesels had camshaft/lifter problems if under spec engine oil was used, other than that, I don't know of any problems.  IMO, VW's biggest problem in the US over recent years have been bad dealers.  Oh, we have been happily driving VWs since 95 until last year when we bought an Audi.  Yeah, the kid had a problem with his used VW.  Maybe ignoring the fact that his check engine light was on for months with the car running like shit had something to do with the clogged cat and other collateral damage

[zooom]

For what it's worth, when I sold my perfect running 82 300D, it had 371000 miles on the original motor and transmission.

I looked into TDIs, but the small, gas-engine-derived 1.9 has nothing on the purpose-built, over-engineered MB OM617. I haven't personally seen a TDI with over 200k but I have personally seen several 300Ds with over 300k. 

thank you adding to the weight of what I was saying about the 300D's...but I will have to correct you on seeing 1.9TDi's with high milage...2 employees here have B4 chassis Passat's, 1 with 365K and 1 has 310K and a customer we have has 460K some on his B4 TDi....1 retired employee who doesn't drive as much as he used to has a MK4 Jetta TDi with over 140K on it and I have seen several other TDi cars that are past the 100K range with ease and they usually get traded in for a newer TDi model nowadays instead of driving them into the ground like old tried and true long term diesel owners...because these newer TDi owners aren't diesel converts, they are just wanting more milage for the buck and not wanting a compact hybrid for a premium price and are the "Ooooo-bright shiny" types with ADD wanting the newest and latest and greatest....unfortunately these are the people that in a way Howie is reffering to here...

   Many 1.9 diesels had camshaft/lifter problems if under spec engine oil was used, .....  IMO, VW's biggest problem in the US over recent years have been bad dealers.  ......  Yeah, the kid had a problem with his used VW.  Maybe ignoring the fact that his check engine light was on for months with the car running like shit had something to do with the clogged cat and other collateral damage

these customers who want to save a buck and shortchange themselves in the long term by not maintaining spec grade maintenance on the vehicle get bitten in the end and the dealers look like they are robbing the customers when they tell them it costs umpteen thousands of dollars to fix all that they themselves caused and then those same persons go on the interweb forums and everywhere else and pregnant dog and give the dealer a bad name because they don't want to be responsible for the damage they themselves caused due to being cheap...