Hi everyone! Obligatory hello post in all it's glory...

My name is Geoff and I own a 2006 Passat TDi wagon (or is it wagen?)

I've owned it for about two years now, and it's been an interesting time.

I saw these when they first came out here in Australia, and I fell in love with the LED taillights. The whole car looked very modern. Little did I know I would ever own one.

Minding my business one day, I was driving through an intersection in my Lexus ES300. The woman coming the other way figured she would fight the patriarchy and take the right of way away from that despicable cis hetero male and claim it for herself.

YouTube

So, with $2,300 to play with, it was off to the races to replace my poor Lex.

I wanted a relatively largish wagon, but not an SUV. I narrowed down my search to a Passat or Ford Mondeo. I looked at a few of each and flew to Sydney to buy mine. A quick trip to the transport department later with a Vehicle Movement Certificate, I was off to Brisbane. Woo hoo! No plates = no tolls!

I set the factory navigation head unit to my home address. As I was one street from the Pacific Highway, it said "Turn right", then "Stay on road for 967 kilometres". Much later, it startled my by announcing "Take exit", then "Take exit", "Turn right", "You have arrived at your destination". That nav certainly wasn't over-taxed.

My Passat Vinny is a beaut.

It's a dark metallic blue. It has the Climatronic dual zone air conditioning, factory nav and 6 CD stacker, full leather all black interior, and so on. It had 201,000 km on it when I bought it and I have added about 35,000 km in the nearly two years I have owned him.

I've had (and still have) my share of problems.


  • Air con slow to start and int. switch-off.
    Fix: Replace RCV Valve.
  • Air con recirculate not working.
    Fix: Not fixed yet.
  • Unknown timing belt state.
    Fix: Replace timing belt / water pump.
  • Split axle bearing cover.
    Fix: Replaced boot.
  • Air con not warm unless on Max.
    Fix: Not fixed yet.
  • Air con dual zone not right.
    Fix: Not fixed yet.
  • Enormous clouds of fog from AC in humid weather.
    Fix: Not fixed yet.     YouTube
  • Gigantic THUMP on throttle liftoff or reapply.
    Fix: Rear engine mount rubber body bush completely flogged out. Yet to fix...
  • Total loss of drive, need to lift off and reapply throttle to regain drive.
    Fix: Intermittent. Happens rarely, so CBF looking for it. Not fixed.
  • Engine oil leaks.
    Fix: Not fixed. No-one can find the source of the leak.
  • Fuel leak at fuel high pressure pump.
    Fix: Not fixed. But probably should be???
  • Slow crank and no start on first attempt when cold.
    Fix: Nearly always starts on second attempt, so not too bothered.

​

This list excludes my two biggest current problems. My headlights and a water loss situation. I will search the forums for solutions and I will post new threads about them if I can't find anything.

Anyhoo, that's enough about me and my car for now. Overall I'm very happy with it and it's over 900 km city / 1000 km highway range.

Catch you on the flip side!