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Wife's choice - TDI

1387 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  larrysmiths1, 
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Hi! We were car shopping a decade ago. I wanted a 330xci and she wanted fuel economy. Practicallity won out and we special ordered a TDI - dark blue, alloys, 5sp, black leather, Monsoon. We took delivery in March 01.

I've been pleased with the economy. Using the car's ODO we get ~42mpg on the highway with a Thule Adventure car top. We have ~150k on the car now. We've experienced typical issues such as window regulator and clogged sunroof drains (where's my settlement check?).

However, we did replace the cam at the second timing belt interval and that just didn't seem right having to do that. The CD changer has been replaced once, but the replacement quit working shortly after the warranty expired. The stero has the poorest reception of any car radio I've used.

The glove box broke and I fixed that. The center console/armrest is broken and I haven't gotten around to fixing that yet. We're on our second set of rear pads and still haven't replaced the fronts. Weird cars. But....I sure love driving right past the gas stations!!

Using today's diesel prices I estimate we've spent $12,187 on fuel for this car over the past decade.
Compare that to the other vehicle we have that gets ~18mpg? We would have spent $25k in gasoline over the past decade. So, despite the high cost of timing belt jobs and $450 in sunroof repair labor (where's my settlement check) I'm pretty happy we bought "the little Jetta" as we call it.
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Keithuk
Welcome to the forum. welcometomyturbodies

Nice reading.

What year is this Jetta you could add that to your car spec rather than users asking?


Oh I forgot the mension if you have replaced 2 sets of rear pads and no front pads then the rear discs are sticking somewhere.
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chittychittybangbang
Lol....it certainly sounds like a journey...

The rear discs aren't necessarily sticking. The rears normally seem to wear out faster due to the bias under light braking. Since you have a GTD, I'm guessing you drive more aggressively which uses the fronts more. Yes the fronts have more capacity but the rears always seem to wear out first for a reason.
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Keithuk
Sorry Chitty I don't agree with that statement. 66% of the braking is done by the front wheels on any vehicle because you have the mass transfer therefore the fronts should wear quicker than the rear. Why do you think they have bigger discs on the front?

My last car used to wear rear pads quicker than the front well one rear pad because it used to stick a bit thats why I suggested that. If the load lensing/bias valve is maladjusted then the rears could be braking more but you would notice this if you braked hard as it would try and turn the vehicle around like doing a handbrake turn. ;)

Update: How to adjust parking brake on VW Jetta TDI to loosen dragging brakes
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chittychittybangbang
To the best of my knowledge, the electronic brake distribution on the newer cars with ABS squeezes the rears harder to minimize brake dive. I have noticed that the VW brakes flat. Maybe it's VW urban legend but I've been told this for years. I'll look for some official explanation later.

Yes, most braking capacity is in the front and I don't how much know the exact bias shifts as you brake harder but I believe that under light braking, the rears proportionally brake more than the front (but the fronts probably still do more overall braking) which would help explain why the rears always seem to wear faster and as braking increases, the bias shifts towards a better distribution for the load. I found this pic online to illustrate it, don't know how accurate it is or where it's from.
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chittychittybangbang said:
To the best of my knowledge, the electronic brake distribution on the newer cars with ABS squeezes the rears harder to minimize brake dive. I have noticed that the VW brakes flat. Maybe it's VW urban legend but I've been told this for years. I'll look for some official explanation later.

Yes, most braking capacity is in the front and I don't how much know the exact bias shifts as you brake harder but I believe that under light braking, the rears proportionally brake more than the front (but the fronts probably still do more overall braking) which would help explain why the rears always seem to wear faster and as braking increases, the bias shifts towards a better distribution for the load. I found this pic online to illustrate it, don't know how accurate it is or where it's from.
Click to expand...
This isn't an urban legend. I was in the dealership in 2000 & 2001,we had a few cars come in for the factory paid 10k and 15K services with the rear brakes GONE!the front brakes were still 85% there. The first couple of cars we attributed to the customers driving around with the hand brake on. Soon however it came to light that some of the ABS control units were screwed up so we had a good many to replace. I seem to remember the problem was resolved by mid-2000 production cars.
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