Tiguan wading depth

[Arctra]

Hi guys

For the few of you that do take your Tig's offroad, I thought I would give you a quick update on the wading depth the Tig is capable of when crossing deep water. The "official" wading depth is 200mm I believe, but recently I took the Tig through MUCH deeper water than that. I estimate that it was closer to 500mm of water I drove through without a problem. Here's a video of it for you:

So once again the Tig proves itself a far more capable offroader than I think a lot of us give it credit for.

[Fred Nurk]

Good to see, theres a road up North here that I was thinking of taking my car along at some stage next year, its got a few creek crossings, though they're not as deep as that.

Are you still running standard road tyres?

[tigger73]

Nice.

I haven't seen a Tig with a snorkel yet... maybe you could get one and take it up to the window sills

[phaeton]

Arctra what gave you the courage to test the wading depth?

Not many Tiguan owners would do that I am unbelievably amazed

[MGV]

That's pretty cool!! Any seepage, as that's well above the door sills !?

Have taken mine to about the centre of the wheels, which is about 350mm, but had a smooth concrete surface below me... My GF freaked out!

[pologti18t]

What about the breathers for gearbox etc?

[Transporter]

Very often the water damage shows later. I would be checking the oil in the diffs, making sure that it's not contaminated with the water.

Relocate your breather hoses and there is also drainage hose at the base of the air filter box, that should be relocated higher, if someone needs to drive their's Tig over the flooded areas. The hose has very simple one way valve which will still pass the water if submerged. Relocate it higher as well.

[Arctra]

Arctra what gave you the courage to test the wading depth?

I felt I didn't have much of a choice. I had just driven a few hours to a dirt bike event and this was the last bit of the journey - where we were camping was literally 100m further on. There was plenty of "umming" and "ahring" before I finally bit the bullet and did it.

That's pretty cool!! Any seepage, as that's well above the door sills !?

No seepage at all - I was well impressed actually.

Miro - you have me worried now. I have done a couple thousand km's since the crossing without incident, but if there's water in the diffs then there won't necessarily be any obvious signs that I am damaging the vehicle is there? Other than change the diff oil, what else should I do in case there is water damage?

[Transporter]

If you find that the water entered the diff, change all the oils (diffs, bevel gearbox, transmission). They all have the breathers and they aren't high enough. Relocate them to the highest point at the engine firewall.