NSW New to VW: Looking to buy a Tiguan 103TDI

[fergo308]

Hi everyone,

My name's Justin and my wife and I are looking at potentially buying a used 103TDI Tiguan fairly soon,so I'm here to learn a bit about them as far as what to look out for and what can be done to them for better performance,braking and handling.

I'm a licensed mechanic who now runs an online car parts business,and 90% of my on the tools experience is with Japanese cars so it's a learning curve for me to some extent with the specifics of VAG vehicles. I hope you guys can help me out a bit with some of the codes and little tips and tricks.

Look forward to getting to know you and the cars!


Justin...

[tigger73]

New to VW: Looking to buy a Tiguan 103TDI

Firstly welcome.

There's less options for performance upgrades on the TDI than the TSI (petrol) engines. You'll find a few chipped petrol Tiguans running around - and a number of Tiguan owners on this forum with these upgrades. As they run the same engine as the GTI you can get 189kW and 0-100 in the mid-low 6's just from a stage 1 tune.

Though you said you had your heart set on a diesel so we digress... You'll find a mix of manual, auto and DSG transmissions. The auto is slower than the manual/DSG but is pretty bulletproof and probably the pick if you're going to be doing any towing.

There's not a major difference mechanically between the earlier model and the 2012 update shape. There's also an update around 2010 where the display changed from the mk5 (red) to mk6 (White). This makes a difference if you want to buy/install Bluetooth.

Stock brakes are pretty good. You can get aftermarket lowering springs, sway bars, anti-lift kits, etc. Or if you're going off-roading there's raising springs also. Main thing is to work out what purpose the car is going to have and what you're looking to achieve.

Good luck with finding a good example.




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[fergo308]

Cheers for the reply and welcome Tigger73.

I've been flicking through a bunch of threads today (including your build thread) while at work.
Suspension is pretty much already sorted in my mind as I sell super pro product in my own online business,so I'll be fitting everything from them (including the ALOY001K kit if the arms are suitable),and will then decide if I want to play with ride height or not.

A good friend on mine who is on here in the skoda section has an octy RS and just threw a set of 4 pot callipers on it,and I'd like to go down that path at some point on the tig. Maybe audi bits bolt up?

The DSG is my biggest concern after age. If an older auto model is going to remain reliable with higher km on it,we may go for one of those as I'd rather deal with smaller issues due to age than to try and claim warranty on a failed DSG from towing,even though the setup is well below the 2T the car is rated to by VW.

The pathy my wife drives now is faultless mechanically but is 8yrs old and we'd like something smaller,better on fuel and a bit newer for daily duties. Ideally we'd prefer a wagon like a passat all-track,but our budget won't let me anywhere near one of those.

We'll see what happens as I do more research and we get closer to purchasing one.

Justin...

[tigger73]

I think it depends on how much towing you're going to do with it as to which way you decide to go. The default set-up of the DSG is possibly not that well suited to towing. The stock program tends to ride the clutch a fair bit through the lower gears. When you're fully loaded with a 2T trailer I personally don't think this is ideal.

Agree if I was towing with DSG I'd want to have it covered by warranty as I wouldn't want to bust it. Though the DSG in the Tiguan is a lot stronger/higher rated than the other DSG's VW makes but still I think you're stepping out into the unknown a bit as there are not a lot of people using these for towing. Having said that they put the same 7 speed DSG into the Transporter/Multivan and these can lug around a fair amount of weight when fully loaded.

What I would look into if you were heading down the DSG path is a DSG tune to reduce the amount of clutch slippage (and prolong the life of the gearbox). There are a few DSG tunes on the market but only one that I'm aware for the DQ500 gearbox: Harding Performance DSG Software & Hardware program DQ 500

This is something to keep in mind if you go for a newer car with DSG instead of the auto. And from my own personal experience something that is very worthwhile from both a safety and general driveability perspective.