A TSi update and a few more questions

[dotnet]

I've posted about my troubles with a brand new car late last year. The supercharger was broken on day 1 and it took a week to get it fixed.

A couple of weeks later the drama seemed to continue, when there were hissing sounds whenever the boost needle kicked into action. Clearly, the compressed air was escaping somewhere. Luckily, this turned out to be easy to diagnose and fix within a day (it was a loose hose clamp), but my enthusiasm for this car was rock-bottom by that time.

Several incident-free weeks later I'm a happy camper again. This car was a good choice after all. I enjoy every minute of driving it. There are a few questions I like to ask, though:

What sort of engine oil do these cars (TSi 1.4) come with? The 15,000km service interval is a long time and I expect to top up the oil in between.

The car stereo had a number of stations pre-tuned and labelled with their names. Can I label stations I tune in myself (rather than having just the freq displayed)?

I still owe to this forum pics of my new car. I'll post some as soon as I catch some nice light. Why do people obscure their number plates in photos? These are not typically racing shots you have to hide from the insurance. If you display your plates 24x7, why tape them over for a photo shoot?

Finally, I have yet to see another TSi on the road, and I live in Sydney. Where are they all hiding?

Cheers
Steffen.

[Mischa]

What sort of engine oil do these cars (TSi 1.4) come with? The 15,000km service interval is a long time and I expect to top up the oil in between.

The car stereo had a number of stations pre-tuned and labelled with their names. Can I label stations I tune in myself (rather than having just the freq displayed)?

I still owe to this forum pics of my new car. I'll post some as soon as I catch some nice light. Why do people obscure their number plates in photos? These are not typically racing shots you have to hide from the insurance. If you display your plates 24x7, why tape them over for a photo shoot?

Finally, I have yet to see another TSi on the road, and I live in Sydney. Where are they all hiding?

Cheers
Steffen.

engine oil i would guess 5w30 or 0w30 but check the manual it will have that info in it.

the names come through the airwaves to my knowledge you cant program them yourself unfortunately.

i have no idea why ppl obscure their number plates in photos, i couldnt care less if ppl know my rego.

not many gt's on the road in sydney hey... we're kinda unique

[datracer99]

The service manual lists the VW standards for oils (rather than just 5w50 or whatever) which apply to your car - for the GTI its VW501, 502,503 or 504
The GT is probably the same, but check in your manual.

I found the best value oil in that range that I can find on the shelf was valvoline synpower full synthetic - I got it from repco, and have since seen it in KMart at parramatta. it's about $60 for 5 litres and complies with VW502

Don't wait until 15000km to change your oil if you plan on keeping your car for a long time.
It's a highly stressed supercharged engine, and for me 15000km between changes is criminal.
Do it yourself at 7500km, as long as you have ramps it's not a difficult change. Or take it to any mechanic, it doen't have to be a vw dealer for the 7500km services.
Actually, if you take it to a dealer for the optional 7500km service they won't change the oil anyway. They just do an inspection.

[BarneyBoy]

There's a lot of celebrities on this board, and they don't want the paparazzi stalking them - that's why they obscure their plates

I've checked with 2 dealers regarding the 1st service and they both said "see you in 12 months". Like you I feel uncomfortable with this but then again, what do I know? I mean, there's no run-in period either and that defies conventional wisdom as well! They don't make internal combustion engines the same way they did 5 or 10 years ago - special alloys, special coatings on bores, crazy ring materials, and tolerances unheard of not that long ago. Maybe we gotta let all that 'conventional wisdom' go, and trust the engineers?

Having said all that, I'm still going to do an oil change only on mine shortly (it's 6 months old). Not a full service, just the oil. Maybe it's not necessary, but it can't HURT it, can it?

"Finally, I have yet to see another TSi on the road, and I live in Sydney. Where are they all hiding?"

Well they aren't in Adelaide. I have an original GT (not a Sport) and I don't know where they all are either - I'm guessing all 420 were sold, meaning there ought to be about 42 of them here in Adelaide, and I can only remember seeing about 4 of them (not counting the dealers). Can't explain it.

"The supercharger was broken on day 1 and it took a week to get it fixed."

Glad to hear it's all OK - must have been crappy for a while there! Other than a computer detecting a non-existent A/C fault that dropped mine into limp-home mode (they reset the brain), the only other strange thing has been on 2 occasions: I can't describe any other way than I'm positive the supercharger switched itself off. There was no S/C sound, and very little power until the turbo kicks in at 2500 rpm. On both occasions I stopped, turned the engine off and when I restarted, all was OK Both times I had just started off again after a reasonably quick run. Can't explain it and I don't want to see the dealer with what seems to be a transient fault - they could have my car for weeks! (that's what happened with the 1st fault - they had it for a full week to tell me they really weren't sure what was wrong.).

"This car was a good choice after all. I enjoy every minute of driving it."
They are addictive to drive, aren't they? I find all sorts of reasons to drive it anywhere, moving our other 2 cars out of the way, just so I can take the GT out. Happy motoring, dotnet.

[mark4323]

The car stereo had a number of stations pre-tuned and labelled with their names. Can I label stations I tune in myself (rather than having just the freq displayed)?

It's a feature of the radio called RDS (Radio Data System).
The station has to broadcast their name so the radio can pick it up and display it. In Europe there are heaps of functions that RDS provides - here we only get the station name.
You can read about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Data_System

[dotnet]

Thanks all, for your replies.

Regarding the oil, I'm not going to do an oil change between scheduled services, but I expect to top it up at least once. I'd like to use the same type of oil that's already in there. The manual offers a range of oils, but I want to know what VW puts into new TSi's sold in Australia.

It's a feature of the radio called RDS (Radio Data System).

Hehe, I'm quite familar with RDS (being from Europe) - it's just, I was told it didn't exist in AU... Now, if it does (even with limited functionality) then that answers my question.

Cheers
Steffen.