VW Rabbit Diesel

[Ashmck]

I owned a 81 2 door rabbit diesel 2 years ago and regret selling it for a quick ebay profit!


It was a 5 speed and i got 61mpg mostly 55mph driving.

Also I ran it on FREE WASTE COOKING OIL!

So really It gets 1000mpg in comparison to the cost,
A 60mpg civic cant compete with that

[GasSavers_Ryland]

Originally Posted by SD26

Anyone know when VW and company started using turbo diesels? Was that the mid 90's?

In 1984 VW started offering the option of a 1.6 turbo on the rabbit diesel, it was also the last year of the Rabbit, as they changed the body and name in 1985 to the Gulf, with the turbo the mpg droped by 1mpg or less, I think it was in the early 1990's that all VW diesels were sold with turbos.

[Danronian]

I'm also thinking of getting a diesel VW Jetta or Rabbit as a project. I've always been a fan of the 80s styled V-dubs. They go for cheap, and I've always heard the diesels last forever (unlike the gas powered ones) and get great MPG.

[omgwtfbyobbq]

Originally Posted by Ryland

The down sides of a VW diesel is that they are a VW, the suspention is under engingered so you are alwas replaceing struts (60,000 miles) and the cv joints are simaler in that they need to be replaced every 60,000-80,000 miles, the head is an interference design with a weak timing belt that needs attention every 80,000 miles.

On all the forums I've been on, vw or not, you're the only person that's ever said that about the suspension/axles. The t-belt was designed to go 60k miles/1 year IIRC, so taking it above that is at your own risk. A $10 belt is definitely cheaper than a rebuilt head and maybe new pistons.

[GasSavers_Ryland]

I'm just speeking from expearince, we had VW rabbits starting in the late 1980's, 5 rabbits, a jetta, and a gulf, and had a number of friends with rabbits as well, and every few years they needed axles, and as often as we could afford it we would replace the suspention.
To replace the timing belt, you should have a injecter pump locating pin, and cam shaft locking bar to hold them both in place as you take the timing belt off, as the valve springs, and injector pump both want to turn as soon as you remove the timing belt, and of course after you change the timing belt you should reset the timing with your dial indicator.

[omgwtfbyobbq]

Shoot, ya don't need those fancy expensive tools, just DIY.
Where did you get the replacement axles? As for the suspension, based on how ya said it was treated short replacement intervals don't seem surprising.

[kamesama980]

60k miles on shocks isn't bad. In my experience and everything I've heard, if you use decent shocks, average is 40-60k. cheap shocks more often, really nice shocks less often.

If it's got weak axles, don't get reman'ed replacements. go somewhere like raxles.com and get new beefy ones and you'll never have to wory again.

[Lug_Nut]

Originally Posted by omgwtfbyobbq

On all the forums I've been on, vw or not, you're the only person that's ever said that about the suspension/axles. The t-belt was designed to go 60k miles/1 year IIRC, so taking it above that is at your own risk. A $10 belt is definitely cheaper than a rebuilt head and maybe new pistons.

The interference design is almost required to obtain the high compression ratio needed to squeeze enough heat into the air that the fuel ignites. The ratio ranges from 18.5 :1 to 22 :1 depending on the generation of the VW diesel.
The cam timing belt is about $25~$45, not $10. The first generation TDI (96~98.5 Passat and Jetta) have 60k mile belts. The later ones have an available 100K belt available for retrofit.
I have had issues with axles. I've sheared off C/V to transmission flange bolts, and stripped output splines where the axle enters the outer C/V joint. Apparently these items were sufficiently well designed for the 170+ HP 2.8 liter gas engines, but not quite well enough to hold up to the torque of the 1.9 liter diesels. Both of those happened at over 200k miles on the original axles.

[boofighter]

i learned to drive on a diesel rabbit. it was a great car for a high school student. one of the best heaters that i have seen on a car.
i remember that my parents took it to Vancouver one year. from Edmonton to Vancouver and back was less than $80 in fuel. that was a few years ago. still when gas was under .50 per liter diesel was cheaper, i would 13bucks in and driver for over 600km.