[teasley]

Hello everybody.
I am picking up a 01 Jetta TDI on the 25th. And I have a few questions that I was hoping you could help me out with.

1) I am picking it up in TX and driving it 675 miles to get home, a nice quick road trip. Is there anything that I should do maintenance wise for that trip? I will check my fluid levels, tire pressures and such, but I was wondering if anyone would recommend an additive or something along those lines since I will be burning a full tank of fuel in one run.

2) Once I get it home I have b20 diesel at the corner gas station, what are your pro/con thoughts to running that?

3) I enjoy working on cars, and have owned a diesel truck before, but is there anything that would be great to know about the Jetta?

Thanks in advance.

nic

 

[xmachineheadx]

http://www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q_how_to/a4/newowner.htm

Look through the checklist linked above. The FAQ has some good info. If you're doing it for 1 day, see if the seller will give you a 1 day get-home warranty. If you're reeealy unlucky the timing belt could snap on the way home. Have it done ASAP because if it breaks it'll trash the head! I wouldn't put any additive in. It's unlikely but if it cleans out too much and the fuel filter is almost clogged, it could put you over the edge and clog the fuel filter. B20 shouldn't be strong enough to clean out the fuel system but it could be enough to swell the seals. If you switch to bio, stick with it. Some have used B100 and when they switched back to dino, the seals seeped fuel.

 

[chittychittybangbang]

After you bring all maintenance up to speed, some power service in the white bottle wouldn't hurt. It should help with starting in winter conditions. I tried B20 before and didn't notice any leaks but this is possible with older seals and the switch to USLD in general.

 

[teasley]

That is probably a good idea on the additive. I would like to make it home, and not swapping out parts on the side of the road.

I think the timing belt was swapped about 50k ago with the 100k belt, but I need to confirm that. Any way to tell the condition of the belt?

I was thinking that the B20 would be okay to run all the time. Thankfully there are quite a few around TN, so that I can keep B20 in there and not have to swap back and forth. I doubt I will ever run B100 since it seems that far to many people have problems with the seals.

 

[chittychittybangbang]

After the part numbers are worn off from use, it's hard to tell a high mile belt from a very high mile belt. If it's lasted this long it's most likely good. If you have part numbers on the receipt , compare them to the part numbers in the timing belt writeup. Those are 100k part numbers.