Ian F wrote:knb13 wrote: From what I'm finding, if you don't follow the 7,500 mile semi synthetic oil change rules and go with a 5,000 or less full synthetic oil change rule, you can prevent the sludge build up.THIS. Modern VAG cars do not seem to tolerate crappy oil at all. A full sythetic of decent quality (with a proper VAG rating) is required. For the first few years I owned my TDI, I could only buy oil at the local dealer. Fortunately, it's now more common. I'm currently running Mobil 1 0-w40 Euro Formula or Castrol Syntec 5-w40. Fortunately, a TDI runs a bit cooler than the gas cars and has been ok with a 10K mile OCI (factory spec). Some of the oil nuts on tdiclub have gone even farther between changes, but they test the oil for impruities at regular intervals. I occasionally miss the '98 A4 Avant 2.8Q I owned for a few months. Really nice car. Unfortunately, the 24 mpg (driving it like a granny) was not working for me. Having owned a '03 TDI since new for over 256K miles, it seems any VAG car can be hit or miss. Sometimes you get a good one... sometimes not. The folks who have had bad experiences tend to be very vocal about it... It seems to me, maintenence is key. They don't suffer American appliance treatment well.
I would (and did) replace the Passat with another VW. The wife is motoring a 2010 Golf Wagon. I would not touch another 98-2001 Passat.
I sold a 95 Golf TD (IDI not TDi) to buy the Passat - that car had a 1/3 of a million KMs on it and was still going strong - body was sarting to go. I should have kept it.
