Curious new member!

[monkey1982]

hi all
i'm John from Loughborough, nr Leicester. nice looking site you have here! i'm currently in-between cars, my Subaru Legacy should be sold next weekend (fingers crossed) and i'm looking for a B5 passat, have looked at a few but dont know a great deal about them, either after the 1.8T 20v sport or the TDI 110 Sport so anyone with any useful hints on what to look for, i would be very grateful! also if anyone knows of any decent ones going very cheap then please let me know! i have a budget of up to about £1200-1300, not a lot i know but i have found a few for this sort of price!

cheers and i look forward to hopefully getting to know some of you once i have my new passat!!!

John

[ross passat]

Hello John

I am also new to this site. I see you are looking for any advice on a couple of VW's. I have a b5 R reg. passat SE 1.8T 20v I have had her for almost two years. and just love her. fantastic engine. the back shocks were gone and the water pump(not knowing) had gone when I bought her resulting in me blowing the radiator The VW water pump has a plastic shaft impellar and are renowned for snapping. The shocks and springs were still original after 140,000 miles! I renewed her suspension with eibach pro kit springs and passat sport gas shocks. The guy that had her before me said he had replaced the whole turbo side of her. I had to replace the first section of the exhaust after the cat a couple of months later but the rest of the exhaust is original. In the last three months I have replaced the oil pump and a front lower suspension arm. The money you are planning spending on a 20v Turbo will be not much more than I spent. My girl has FSH has been very well looked after, a few stone chips here and there. She has plenty power, nice smooth delivery. I am planning on chipping her soon but will be holding my breath to see how much of the rest of the original suspension might need repacing. Wishbones(there are 4 each on the front) and anti roll bars. I hope this can be some use to you John.

Ross.

[Crasher]

Be very wary of the 1.8T engine, they suffer nasty oil pressure problems.

[monkey1982]

hi!
thanks for the info Ross, that will help alot!

Crasher: cheers for that info, but what telltale signs would there be on these engines that oil pressure was a problem, i assume that the problems are caused by using lower quality oil?

[Crasher]

The sign is the dash saying “for **** sake stop!”. Unfortunately most people ignore this as they check their oil and it is on full (no one seems to comprehend that no matter how much oil is in there, if it aint pumpin it aint workin) and they drive until it rattles to a stop, dead engine and dead turbo. The demand for used 1.8T engines in the A4 etc is huge and it is the least common engine. Even the best oil money can buy will not stop it through. The only cure I know is to double up the standard interval oil and filter changes (four times the Longlife interval) and use VAG UK’s Longlife 3 oil (but at 5K change intervals) and ALWAYS allow the engine to “cool and spool” after a decent run, that is allow it to idle for at least a minute before you turn it off. This allows the turbo to cool down and slow down from the 800°c and 200,000 rpm it can be at. If you don’t do this, each time it is shut down, the oil in the turbo is fried and a small amount turns into a solid deposit. These build up and stick to the sides of the engine (especially inside the sump and cam cover) but some breaks away and blocks the oil pump pick up strainer.

[monkey1982]

i see, i know a little about turbo engines, i currently have a twin turbo Subaru Legacy and had a turbo timer fitted for this exact reason. although with subarus the problem isnt as severe as with these by the sound of it, i have always used turbo timers with turbo cars so if i do go for 1 of these then i will be fitting 1....if you can get them to fit the passat loom anyway! but tbh i dont think i will be going for one of these now. the reason i'm changing car is economic so i think the diesel one is probably best! not sure wether to get a passat or a Bora though

[Crasher]

A Bora is definitely the cheaper car to maintain.