High Mileage Passat - Roger Harvey
Would appreciate the forums advice/experience/wisdom about my intended purchase of a 98S Passat 1.8T Sport tiptronic estate. It's an ex-lease car with a full book of VAG stamps - but - its done 93000 miles. It had a cambelt change at 80k is well shod and drives straight. Should I be worried about the turbo/tip box or engine? Any advice greatfully received.

PS Thaks to HJ for a top site - not as anoraky as Car mechanics and not as corporate Motor trade as What Haymarket Autocarspor. Rock on!
Re: High Mileage Passat - honest john
Lots of valves in this engine. Like 20, all with their own valve stem seals which can tend to get a bit weak at this sort of mileage. Also, if the previous owner has not been simmering the turbo, the bearings could be shot and the engine could be full of specks of carbon created in the red hot turbo bearings. But the 1.8T is far from a duff engine if properly looked after. Outputs of 150bhp to 225bhp in standard states of tune are fairly remarkable from a 1.8.

HJ
High Mileage Passat - Go for it! - David Lacey
Hi Roger,
Provided the car has full VAG Service History then I wouldn't have much of a problem with this car. The potential for 'expensive' repairs is vast, but the same can be said for most, if not all cars of today.

A 1.8T Tiptronic Estate is a very useful 'tool' indeed - it should give many miles of trouble free motoring.

I, personally, couldn't live with the fuel consumption, if it's anyting like the SEAT Leon 20 VT (180BHP) I recently had for a while. Good job the Company paid for the fuel.......

Rgds

David
Re: High Mileage Passat - Go for it! - Dafydd Tomos
official figures indicate 35 mpg - what is the real figure??
Re: High Mileage Passat - Go for it! - Andrew Smith
About 25 mpg if my A4 1.8T is anything to go by.
Re: High Mileage Passat - Andrew Barnes
Check the divertor valve (DV) is not leaking boost, a very common problem on the 1.8T engines.

Andrew