2011 VW 125TDI Build & Maintenance Thread

[drjekl]

Hey guys

I decided to start a build and maintenance thread for my Passat (Well it’s my wife’s but technically its mine!) I’ve done a build thread for my other car in an attempt to help others and as an enthusiast share ideas, products etc etc

I’m only somewhat new to VW’s, but I had a 2009 VW Jetta TDI for 12 months back in 2010 but hated that thing as the DSG gearbox was very unresponsive, clunky rolled back on hills and had a heap of electrical issues (ABS sensor faults, airbag lights, electric window issues, central locking system)

My daily use to be an old 2000 magna wagon for my ‘parts hauler’ and general runabout and it was a bloody reliable old workhorse but the 4 spd tranny was woefully slow, and she had a massive drinking problem (14.0L per 100/km around town or 10L on the hwy) and my weekend toy a bmw 335i which is extensively modified, and the wife had a 2004 Corolla.

The corolla is a great car, cheap to run reliable and zippy around town. But as the old adage goes babies change your lives forever and the corolla boot was a tad small and in terms of safety being a 12 y.o car no doubt a larger more modern vehicle would score much higher in the NCAP ratings.. My wife is a typical female driver (to nicely put it there is room for improvement in her driving skills) and funnily enough her small corolla has a series of carpark battle scars on the front bumper and rear bumper… So she would have next to no hope of parking the fagna (extremely poor turning circle on those things) so I needed a wagon that was good on fuel, easy to park, reasonable large cargo area and cabin as I’m 6’7 and and the large cargo area to fit all the crap that babies need when mum is going to her baby n mum yoga classes and future family holidays. The VW Passat was the obvious choice for me in the price range the mazda 6 has a small cargo area, the liberty is ugly as sin, VE commy too big for the wife to park and a bit of a guzzler. The VW offered park assist as an option which would be perfect as unfortunately my dear wife cannot reverse park!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rfMnRN_H-k

So I decided to sell my gas guzzling fagna and search for a B7 TDI Passat. Since I’m pedantic with servicing maintaining and detailing all my cars, the fagna sold within 2 days and I had my eye on a 2012 TDI wagon in Sydney with 50k kays for a few months. The car had been on carsales for a few months and had the park assist 2.0 optional feature, and looked extremely neat and tidy and the wife was happy as it was black (her favourite colour, but she doesn’t have to detail the bloody thing I was keen on candy white or Icelandic grey) I phoned the owner to arrange to view the car but alas it had sold only a few hours earlier… Damn the bmw was having a ‘xmas vacation’ in the workshop (its turned out to be a summer vacation so far as sadly I still don’t have the car back and it was dropped off in early Dec) which left us with only one car..
I smashed all the obvious methods of media available to acquire the right car (carsales, gumtree, carsguide, Mannheim, pickles etc etc) for a few weeks with no luck.. I was contemplating dusting off my motorbike and getting it regoed to get to work each day (massive hassle with a newborn baby) or crumbling and buying a V6 highline.

The V6’s at the time were selling for the same $ as the TDI’s albeit with a few more features. I’ve heard they’re kinda thirsty and use around 11-12.0L per 100km around town which wasn’t much better than my magna, so I decided to stick it out for a TDI when a tidy 2011 icelandic grey wagon popped up in QLD.

It had the optional park assist 2.0 feature and child booster seat option (which will come in handy when our new born gets older) with 79k kays. Ideally I would have preferred a car with less kays, but it was the right spec and I liked this colour more so than candy white (to me the golfs look great in candy white, but the Passat’s body shape doesn’t suit it as well) It was also extremely cheap and looked quite tidy. I mulled it over for a few days initially thinking there must be something wrong with it, if it’s $5k below the market price but it had the right specs and in the few months I had been looking at the TDI wagons it was extremely well priced and rare to have the options I wanted. I had purchased a few cars interstate before for similar reasons (couldn’t find the right spec/colour locally and found a cheaper alternative interstate) I decided to shoot the owner an email to see if he would drop the car off for a pre purchase vehicle inspection. He was located in Eumundi QLD which was by memory an hour or so nth of Brisbane so would have been a PITA for me to get to if I was to purchase flying in to Brisbane. I asked the owner if the car checked out could I collect from Brisbane airport. Turns out the car was regularly driven from Eumundi to Brisbane as he worked in the city hence the high kays. The owner had the vehicle serviced at ultratune, as it was convenient for him being next door to his workplace, I wanted a euro specialist to conduct the pre purchase vehicle inspection, so I tried to get mike weber prestige (a few bmw guys I know love this guy) but alas they were booked out, so I tried phoenix engineering. They could do it and they seemed very friendly and willing to help out. The seller was a bigwig ceo type and wasn’t too keen as it would take time out of his busy schedule (he wanted it to be done at ultratune) but he eventually agreed and the inspection was done. There were no error codes stored, the car was due for a service at 80k kays (so it would be due practically on the drive home from Brisbane to Newcastle) the rims were mainly all gutter rashed and shod with cheap chinese boto tyres (I never skimp on tyres and always fit continentals, Michelins, goodyears etc) the rear bumper was scuffed from wear and tear (removing items from the boot and dragging on the paint work – decided to buy a scuff plate to cover these defects up) the car had missed its 60k kay DSG tranny fluid and filter service (had a full service history from ultratune using the correct Castrol professional 5W30 VW 504/507 fluid though) and the brakes had plenty of life left in them and the car drive fine, idled fine etc etc

So I decided to book a flight and collect the car in 2 days time. The car was at a great price, but I’ve never paid the asking price for a car before, I attempted to negotiate $500 off the price to cover my flight, vehicle inspection, fuel etc etc. The seller was non negotiable apparently he had 2 other interested parties (which I didn’t doubt) and I was happy to pay the full asking price.

On the day of collection it was a bloody big day as the night before I was busy getting everything ready and I had to be up at 4am to catch the 6am flight from Newcastle to Brisbane. The flight was great and on time getting me to Brisbane around 6:10am by memory. I told the seller to meet me at 7am to give me time to have some brekky etc in the airport and an extra 30 mins or so in case of a flight delay. Like clockwork he arrived and we done the deal in a local burger king shell servo carpark. It was in good condition (the carsales pics were bloody terrible as the car was parked in his underground carpark with low lighting) with no major panel/paint defects the leather interior had never been cleaned/conditioned and had small particles entrapped in the seams and the leather had a chalky/glossy appearance to it instead of a matte deep black hue that a clean leather should have and whilst he obviously had the car recently detailed the wheel wells were full of red dust and the engine bay was putrid covered in dust and general grime that a car accumulates during 80k kays use with no cleaning.

Carsales pics: