jjcuff1

Good reply thanks.

I agree on the street the torque is just fun, numbers aside, it is not slow and feels like an old school big block in the city when you stomp it. That is all that mattered combined with better gas mpg. I have always put 100k on my cars before I see them and none them at 100k have been nice usually radiator tranny issues engine leaks etc which isnt cheap.

So what major maint is required on a diesel? I know people at well over 100 like 150k-200k start to talk about things like cleaning out the fuel rails,injectors etc. but otherwise there is no plugs wires dizzy etc. Just change oil and fuel filter every 5k? 10k?

Of course AC,radiator are same on both cars correct? hit or miss either way.

Like other diesels in truck, people add chip and bigger down pipes for huge gains is that the same for the TDI? or will it sound like a truck then and smoke? will it start to sound like a truck after 60k miles.

idale

Fuel filter's every 20K (on Audi's schedule), oil's every 10K but that's all vehicles. They'll top off the AdBlue (DEF), but that's not a huge expense (just make sure it doesn't get too low if you do it yourself, you'll get a warning and then if you ignore that the car will eventually refuse to start since urea injection is mandatory). As long as you're using reasonable fuel and don't have too many ultra-short trips the DPF shouldn't be a problem (expected lifetime is around 120K, they'll start checking at the 115K service to see how loaded it is with ash), but it's an extra component to worry about. There's concerns on other TDIs with the high-pressure fuel pump (HPFP), but at least from what I've seen it's not common on the engine we have. The fuel filter changes every 20K may be related, trying to ensure the HPFP has as little potential contamination going into it as possible.


You can chip (APR at the least has a program, not sure about other providers), not sure whether exhaust will do much or not, especially with the DPF in the way. If your Q5 TDI sounds like a truck or starts smoking then it's definitely not happy, as this engine is definitely a "quiet diesel" and runs pretty smoothly (and the DPF is there to catch particulate matter so the exhaust should be relatively clean).

My wife's 2004 Golf TDI sounds like a truck, but it pretty much always has (especially in drive-throughs). It'll occasionally have a tiny puff of black if she really gets on it, but it's nothing like what I've seen come out of trucks (or cars with exhaust trouble for that matter).

jjcuff1

What is the DPF? what does it cost to replace at 120k?

What does a fuel filter & oil change out every 20k cost?

The down pipe comes straight off the turbo doesn't it? what is downstream of that, DPF?

Sound wise once broken in the TDI shouldn't turn into a f150 diesel sounding truck should remain the same?

Are muffler systems available help give it a throaty performance sound?

idale

DPF = diesel particulate filter, it's what traps particulate matter prior to exhaust so it's not emitted into the air. Not sure what the replacement cost is once it's time. Some random comments on the internet say "very", but what that actually is, I'm not sure. Supposedly you can clean DPFs to help prolong the life of the filter itself, but how that compares, I'm not sure either.

I'm on Audi Care for now, but my 15K was going to be around $600 at my dealer (costs will vary based on labor rates at the least). I don't know what the breakdown was for the particular components of the service, though, to say what the fuel filter replacement cost would be.

Not sure as to the exhaust system's precise layout, but the DPF is mid-stream with the urea injection after that. DPF's probably the most restrictive part of the system, so the only gains you'd probably see would be modifications after that point. But I don't tend to follow exhaust performance so I'm out of the loop there anyway.