Fudgey

iTrader: (4)

Morning all, i sold my impreza on sat to free up some cash etc so now after a car that is cheap to run etc.

just found this on autotrader

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...Cnew?logcode=p

pics are crap but its not too far away so might go have a look.
£125 a year to tax, good mpg and big enough to get the kids etc in.

is there anything specific to look out for?

cheers!

Bailes1992

The engines are far from reliable from what I've heard!

I know my Uncle had one back in '07 and he got rid after a few weeks because it was unbearable day to day.

luke19790_3

Got one now 113k zero issues unlike most mondeos

luke19790_3

Good family cars, mpg around 45 for normal driving

I've had mine from new, 3 years old now zero issues, engine is untouched apart from a service every 12.5k.

Fudgey

iTrader: (4)

my brother has had one for a while now, says he gets 41mpg so i cuold live with that - deffo better than the 22 i was getting out the impreza lol

i might go and have a look at it then!

cheers

RichieST

iTrader: (2)

Have a good drive of it before making your mind up, we have Civics as our rep's cars at work, I find the driving position and general visibility out of the things terrible.

Misterk150

Www.civinfo.com will have all the info you need, very helpfull site as I used it a lot up until I wrote off my type r.

Lift the rubber seal along the top of the windscreen and check for rust also check behind the rubber seal on the the doors at the top as they also rust.

costina

iTrader: (1)

Dan NOOOOOOO I used to build these for a living rear visability is shocking and plastics are crap even when new I used to remove them they cracked.

Paint is also very thin and silvers not the best colour.

Paul

LHD220Turbo

iTrader: (4)

thought you wanted an estate!?

cant speak for the build quality like Paul can, but the accord diesels was a nice car to drive when i got to drive one, it had done 170k but drove so well

Fudgey

iTrader: (4)

Cheers guys.. Well we have a cmax for family car o decided on getting a smaller car as all i will use it for is to drive to work and back... So 20 miles a day.

I have now changed my mind again lol. Just going to go for a mk4 golf tdi, £2kish and 150k miles lol.

Will leave a couple of grand free for the house... Off to ikea tomoz afternoon after the bedroom carpets have been fitted

costina

iTrader: (1)

The accord is a better car.

Fudgey

iTrader: (4)

so after looking at a couple of fucking nails advertised for top money...

i have settled on an 02 audi a3 quatrro 1.9 tdi. 130bhp model

going to look tonight!

fingers fooking crossed...

Colin_P

I'd go for a simpler FWD car rather than one with the wanky haldex 4wd.

The old 1.9PD engines though are turning out to be very reliable with only minor niggles unless you are very unlucky.

You get the normal EGR clogging as you do on all diesels but specific to the PD problems you can encounter are;

Misfiring; worn / broken down injector loom.
Top end rattle; worn cam lobes, you must use the correct PD spec oil.

In addition you can get the following but I put them under the wear and tear category;

Thermostats can and often fail
Waterpumps can and often fail
Coolant temp sensors can and often fail
Alternator pulleys fail
Aux belt tensioners fail

I'm on my 4th 1.9 PD engined VAG car and have done well over 100k miles driving them, all of them older cars with 100k on the clock and apart from a few niggles they have been faultless.

As above though, the haldex 4wd as fitted on the A3 is more trouble than it is worth in my opinion. If you want 4wd then get an A4/A6/Passat with the proper quatro 4wd system.....

Then again the six speed boxes on the A4/A6/Passat have weak diff bearings and are a costly repair.

cossiestu

Wasn't it the 1.9PD lump that they put in the Galaxy?

Colin_P

Yes they did.

Oooo....

And to add.

Never ever buy anything with the early 115hp PD engine, they are cack and have a reputation for head gasket failure.

Fudgey

iTrader: (4)

Cheers colin. i am limited tho as all the golfs i have looked at are shit, and this is the only reasonable A3 around.

mate lives round the corner had the injector loom fail on his a3 1.9tdi.

this one im going to look at had a cam belt and water pump last july, and service in nov.

one thing that is wrong tho, the drivers door open light stays on. after googling it, it looks like its a common fault on the microswitch in the door lock assy. a pain in the ass to get to, but relatively simple fix.

so that should hopefully be a good bargaining point.

if its as clean as it looks then ill buy it. im not too worried about how good the 4wd system is, as i wont be driving it flat out everywhere.
oh this has a 6-speed box too.

cheers for the info tho!!

Colin_P

No problem.

The transverse 6 speeds are ok. It is the longitudinal boxes on the A4/A6/Passat that are weak.

As said, I've done (thinking about it now) pushing towards 200k in 1.9 PD engined VAG cars now without issue. I'm on a few VAG forums as well and as said the these 1.9 engines are turning out to be very reliable.

When I got my first one nearly 10 years ago now they were not proven and there was a lot of worry speak about / what if's on injector failure at £400 a pop. All unfounded as with time these engines have proved to be really tough if looked after with the correct oil.

The modern common rail stuff is just like the Ford common rail stuff and that is fragile and a bit shit, I wouldn't touch one.

Fudgey

iTrader: (4)

Oh right, well im going for an older one to free up some cash for the house.

they still go for strong money and there are lots about with well over 200k miles!

this one has been family owned for a fair few years etc full service history except for 2 years when his parents had it in italy they just never brought it back over here for servicing (so he told me anyway)

so it sounds pretty legit.

Fudgey

iTrader: (4)

well... I bought it!

the dash issue is not that the door open light stays on, that's the only thing that works.

so when the door is shut the display is just blank... guy recons a fuse... im not so sure!

other than that its pretty tidy. it is 12 years old so does have a couple of little dinks but nothing serious that I could see.

drives well and got me home lol. not fast but for a change, I didn't buy it for that.
although a revo remap will see 180bhp and 400nm torque lol

Colin_P

Good stuff.

If you are near me I'd happily waz it with vagcom / VCDS to see whats up with it.

Fudgey

iTrader: (4)

not far mate, Swindon way.

basically the middle bit of the dash that should say your mpg and the outside temp etc does not work, other than to say the doors are open.

im an electronics repair tec so if I cant find a blown fuse ill whip the clocks out and run the soldering iron over them lol

Fudgey

iTrader: (4)

what is vagcom by the way? like a code reader thing?

Cossie Sean

http://www.ross-tech.com/vag-com/

Allows you to do pretty much anything with a VAG car electronically, diagnostics, actual values, measuring blocks, change settings in the body control module, fookin allsorts!

Best aftermarket bit of kit available for any brand of car i have seen.

the door mechanism/latch switch fails on them all the time.
hence the clocks dont show fuel info etc, just door open, and interior lights go pear shaped as triggered by open door.

dont leave the key in the ignition, they can self lock even when running lol

if its 6sp, must be 150bhp?

amazing cars, you got a bargain, A3`s fetch big cash, even more so for the Quattro`s

Pics ASAP!

**oh and 100% get it mapped, speak to Rick/Unicorn on here. Top guy, cracking maps. Totally transforms the car, better mpg, fuel economy and best of all......... driveability is amazing, throttle response from 1200rpm is instant, rather than backed off untill 2000rpm

Sean

markk

iTrader: (2)

Good cars, the haldex system btw is operating 90% of the time just at varying pressure as its pwm controlled. Very common misconception that it only works when you give it some.

A lot of things mentioned that are not really all that common tbh, having spent 10 years working with the PD seeing prob 5 a day on average.

Only recomendation, don't stick to long life servicing, change the oil religously at 10k miles.

Colin_P

Mark, my sentiments exactly.

As above I'm my 4th PD 1.9 and am pushing 200k miles with them. I've never had an issue but I listed what can sometimes go. Saying that, it is why I'm keeping my current car as the newer stuff scares me.

Most niggles I've had were with the cooling system, thermostats seem to stick open and the temp sensors go bad.

I think the Haldex system is a lot of bother though.

And Fudge, the Haldex unit needs its oil changing and that needs to be done with the help of Vagcom/VCDS.

Fudgey

iTrader: (4)

Cheers bud, i paid £2625 down from £2800. He had a lot of interest in the car and it was on autotrader for 2 days. If i hadnt of bought it someone else would have today. He had several people want to see it but luckily i got in first and he gave me first refusal. Turns out he used to play football with the brother in law lol.

Anyway having a quick look round it in the daylight, the front bumper has had a fairly hard knock that is didnt see last night, there are 2 other small dints and a scratch that hopefully will polish out. Oh and the car is swirl marked to fuckery!

So fingers crossed a good wash and poilish will sort it out 90%


How much would i be looking at for rick to remap it? Is it a genereic flash etc? As there is a revo place less than 2 miles from my house, they charge £299 iirc.

Fudgey

iTrader: (4)

Cheers mark, i will change the oil yearly, i do 6-7k miles so that should be fine then! Any oil recommendations?

Fudgey

iTrader: (4)

Are you an audi tech mate? Although the car has a good record of service stamps, i have no info as to what has been done. What sort of price would i be looking at to get the oil changed, and where abouts are you lol?

kosman

what is a haldex unit? ive got a 2005 reg 1.9tdi passat,130bhp model,will mine have the haldex unit? i change the oil in mine twice a year and the engine (touch wood) has been spot on except for when some water got into the fuel,(fooking morrisons).

LHD220Turbo

iTrader: (4)

pics?!

Oranoco

Haldex is the 4x4 system used on the A3 and S3. Your Passat won't have it.

Fudgey

iTrader: (4)

Is the 4wd system mate, think its the same as on the golf r32.

So if yours is not 4wd it wont have the haldex system.

Matt, will try and give it a wash tomoz. But it looks just like a black audi a3 3dr lol

Colin_P

......You'll be looking at getting the Haldex controller chipped / mapped next.

You can you know......

kosman

nice one fella's

Fudgey

iTrader: (4)

Lol what does that do?

Is it part of a normal remap or is that engine only?

Do you do it?

Colin_P

I'm just a bloke who likes VAG cars as much as my Fords, I'm not a tech or anything and truth been known, I don't know fuck all about anything

I do have VCDS which I use on my car and will quite happily help anyone out.

As for the haldex mapping / chipping it makes the car more 4wd than it is. As standard a haldex 4wd drive car is mostly fwd and is only 4wd when the system senses it needs to be. This is unlike the proper permenant torsen quatro 4wd system as fitted to A4/A6/Passats. A haldex map makes it 4wd more often, that's all.

That said, the haldex system is still good though despite me dogging it a bit

Fudgey

iTrader: (4)

Oh right i see..

So is it a dealer only thing then to change the haldex oil if you dont have vagcom?
Any idea on costs?

Oh i fixed the dash yesterday... Pulled the fuses one at a time for the instrument cluster, none were blown so just refitted them.

Switched the ignition on and it was all lit up, done the checks etc and had the full display.

Then i found a button on the bottom of the wiper stalk... You press it it turns the display off... Press it again and it comes back on lol

So im thinking that he just turned it off pmsl

So everything is now working as it should!

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Weird seeing people call the PD unreliable. My last one did over 200k no problem.

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Ps.
Evolution chips work well on those engines IME

Nick.W

iTrader: (1)

My mrs has the 1.9pd in her A4 sport. Just tipped past the 150k marker and it's spot on. Had no spend on it other than service items and cambelt in 4 years.