1996 Transporter - New Ride and associated questions

[xr6eta]

Hi All
Just joined today, am on several forums but new ride in the Transporter so here I am. A couple of early identification questions, do the Oettinger badges on this vehicle represent anything in particular and secondly, from driving this bus, it is only a 4 speed manual and all searching I have done seems to point at 5sp manuals, no 4 speeds. Does this correct or is it likely to have been a 4sp changeover at some stage for reasons unknown. It is a 2lt manual. Look forward to any responses. Cheers Glenn

[Sunny43.5]

Welcome to the Forum , the T4 was a favourite of ours during the early 2000,s we owned 3 of them at different times , I had the 2.5 petrol model and I think it was a five speed not sure about the 2.0 litre model though . Our second one was the T4 with auto again 2.5 litre engine and I bought a 2.4 diesel T4 for my son for his Moto Cross racing trips . The non turbo diesel was fair slug on the open road you would have to build up a bit of speed in advance of overtaking anyone . I ended up buying another T4 off Ebay which was a 2.5 petrol manual and did a complete engine gearbox swap into my sons one , after the swap I resold the Ebay van back on Ebay and ended up getting $1500 more than I paid for it in the first place . By the research I just did the Oettinger was a special edition but it was 2.5 Turbo Diesel , maybe the previous owner also did a transplant ?

[xr6eta]

Thanks Sunny43.5, I am looking forward to investigating more once the rain stops. I'll pull the engine and gearbox numbers and see if I can match them up with the vin. I know Ford do build sheets by vin but will have to check if VW can do the same. It was owned a few years ago by the son of a service station mechanic so perhaps he tried his hand at some mechanicals himself. The 2lt is fairly sluggish and the 4sp obviously revs high on the highway but I only paid $1500 so I think the scope is there to have some real fun with this. Will keep updates coming and anyone with any info to shed some light, I look forward to hearing from you all.