[Vwdiesel] observations on Tdi Passat after 1yr(long)

[LBaird119 at aol.com]

  Dad's just nuts about his Passat.  He was a bit more than frustrated
with it what with the air bubbles in the supply and the accompanying
loss of power.  That seems to be finally over with.  :)
  He had similar problems with some light jerkiness.  I haven't driven it
since, but the new air filter eliminated at least 90% of it.  With the new
fuel filter and next to no air it drives quite impressively he says.
  He had the EGR valve cranked down as described and now wished he'd
had the idle turned down too. It now idles faster and he said it's hard to
say for sure but seemed to run better once the EGR was reset.
  He was getting about 45 mpg with it before and we just never seemed to
be able to take an "easy" trip with it.  He's talking heading over to the
beach
again this weekend so he'll have a chance to check mileage with all the
repairs done.
  So far his windows all work just fine.  I hope it stays that way!  He still
says he likes the ride of the Mercedes a little better.  Honestly I think the
Passat is smoother.  It handles better than his 300D but it never has
handled like it should.  The seats are very different than a Mercedes
and I think that's what he notices as the real difference.
  I've seen several pulling to the right type of situations lately and
several
have been the tires!  Try swapping the front ones across and see if it
changes.  When they checked the alignment did they tell you the cross
caster or difference between the two sides?  I don't remember which
way it goes but if the difference is over a certain number of degrees,
it will pull toward the lower or higher side.  I wouldn't think a brake
caliper would be dragging yet.  It almost sounds like you have a little
oversteer.  I'm having that on the Rabbit right now but it's from the
different two tire on the front vs. what's on the back.  I think lowering
the pressure on the rear helps.  I can't remember at the moment which
does which.  If the caster is out of whack that can affect oversteer too.
Of course a rear wheel out of alignment can affect steering and pulling
too.
  I've noticed that a lot of the newer cars' power steering takes more
effort to steer than I'd expect from a power assist.  They give a good
non-power type of road feel but don't seem to give way like I'd like to
see.  I've even had thoughts of checking into raising the pressures so
as to get more assist.  My wife's Dodge minivan and Dad's Dodge pickup
are the worst I've seen so far.
  When Dad first got it, it was about a quart or more over full.  It smoked
a bit then too.  Now that it's mentioned, he did say that stopped once he
drained out the excess oil.  He was NOT happy at how changing the
oil filter went on his first oil change!  Read, not fun!
     Loren