New Passat Owner - A few questions

[burk]

Hello everyone,

I've just bought a 110 TDi Passat this morning on an R plate with 106k on the clock. It's a lovely car. Anyway, I would just like to know a few things if anyone can help.

What's the MPG like on these cars? The guy at the garage reckons I'll get about 40-45 MPG, I thought maybe it would get better MPG than that although it's still pretty good don't get me wrong. Also, one more thing.

I bought Practical Permorfance Car magazine a couple of months ago and they ran a good feature on Turbo Diesels. There was a piece about VW TDi's, it said that the difference in power on the various models (115/130/150bhp etc) is down to a larger Turbocharger, is this true?

I'm going to be looking at increasing the power next year sometime, was just wondering wether it would better to get a larger turbo off a more powerful model or go down a re-map/chip route instead. A guy that works with my old man has got a Skoda Fabia VRS which is 130bhp standard I believe, he's recently spent £400 on a chip or re-map of some sort and he say's that the power increase he's had is unbeaulivable and that it leaves his friends Clio 182 for dead!

I'm trying to find out where he's had it done and also to get some Rolling Road figures to see if it's true. Can anyone shed some light on this for me.

Cheers.

[Turkster]

40 - 50 MPG is normal, its all down to how heavy your foot is, i did a 300 mile trip on a quarter of a tank of diesel, Motorway miles,

As for re mapping, i will find out for you. i have a man who does this for a living.

[burk]

Cheers Turkster, thanks for your help, much appreciated.

[adamss24]

The higher power diesels in the Vag range have bigger injectors, more agresive fueling maps and also the turbochargers are able to hold more boost. Bassically if you transplant your turbocharger from a pd tdi 130/150 in conjunction with upgrading the nozzles and then take it to a reputable engine tuner(remap) you will see a rough increase of min 25 Bhp. Keep your car in good order and dont skimp on maintenance otherwise dont be surprised when your engine go pop. Use synthetic oils/genuine parts and keep an eye on the turbo, cambelts, water pump and the general condition of the engine as you will put more stress on it. I drive a chipped 98 a4 2.5 tdi quattro and i can asure you it always puts a smile on my face as its a real motorway sleeper. As for your friend with the clio 182, he should take some driving lessons as a chipped pd 130 should leave it for dead from trafic lights due to the big difference in torque but he should keep up from 60 miles onwards due to the fact that diesels runs out of puff from 3000 rpm(about 80 miles or so !). Go with good vendors PSI Motorsport, Steinbauer, Diesel Power,Superchips as all good tuners will stock them if you decide to keep the car pretty standard or do a remap if you plan to mod ya TDI further(uprated turbo/injectors/air filter/performance exhaust, etc) ! Good luck and enjoy the power.

[burk]

Thanks for the info with regards to tuning etc, it's a big help.Cheers guys.