BertWagen

The Great Volkswagen

My Volkswagen Passat 1.8 TURBO 20V

And the Passat with my Polo 16V

This page is dedicated to the Volkswagen cars, specially to my Volkswagen cars, and offer information about the european market of cars and other related items.

This page is recently made, and I will put many information, if you have questions or suggestions, write to alberto.salvador@wanadoo.es, and if you want, you can put a link to my page in your pages, thanks.

To Spanish visitors:

Esta página está en inglés porque la mayor parte de los visitantes de esta página son extranjeros, próximamente supongo que la haré disponible en español.

Aunque antes también tengo que actualizarla y añadir bastante información, referencias y enlaces a otras páginas

Visita también:

Quick link index:

FAQ about european stuffs

Identify Factory Where A VW Group Car Was Built With The VIN

VW Audio and Navigation (NEW)

The Volkswagen cars have demonstrated their quality and durability, the example of this is my old but strong VW Polo Classic CL '86... hasn't strange noises, runs like the first day and too many good things to say all...

Volkswagen Polo Classic 1.3 CL 08.1986 - 1272 cm³ - 55 HP - Weight: 750 Kg (aprox.)

Lighting

This is the Gas Discharge Light (Xenon) of my VW Passat,
that are the same type like the headlights of my Polo.

Xenons cleaning with the headlight washers

Here is a draw that explains the aproximated headlight aiming of an european car:

Suspension

Lateral view with Sachs Sporting Set, very low! 70mm drop at front! (Sachs front springs ref. 990133)

Non dropped yet VW OEM 1BE springs (of the same load code as 1BA), pic. taken only 1 hour after installation.
With Sachs Sporting Dampers, my actual setup. Now 20+ mm drop at front, less at rear from stock 1BA.

Misc.

My old Passat 1.8T '97 (stock Trend Line), the predecesor of my MY2000 Passat

My Passat in Avila (Castilla y León), a town 60km away from mine, I live in the province of Madrid.

FAQ About European Stuffs

This section is written to ask questions about Europe and the cars, if you want, you can ask me any curiosity you have about these things to add to the list...

European Tastes:

The driving it's more active, it's preffered the 5-speed manual transmision (6-speed on some models) and the front whell driving, and also some stiff handling systems, to have an idea about that, the car models of US brands and made in the USA like Chrysler, sold in Europe have harder dampers and springs than the cars for the US market.

The very big motors aren't very interesting in Europe, because the fuel price is high, the most common cars are 4 in-line cylinders with 4 valve per cylinder, and are very popular the turbo-diesel engines like TDI.

Lights:

E-code headlights: The main headlights raises the ilumination some degrees for the oposite side of the driver (the verge), this is the main diference of the E-code headlights, also depending model maybe are generally brighter.

Position lamps: there is a little light in the headlights (white) when the car is stopped, called position lights, in europe these lights are only to indicate the position of the car while is parked on a place that isn't clear visible.

Park lights: on some cars the existing position lights and rear lights of one side of the car (left or right) which is near the road lits, most of times you park at the right except UK or similar countries, then you turn on the left park lights (only the left side position and rear lights).

Rear Fog light it's standard equipment by legal requirement in Europe, normally only lits the left side (right in UK..), used only in poor visual conditions.

Speed Limits in Europe:

Car Speed Limiters, there are only in the fastest vehicles, limited to 250 Km/h, not less, but sometimes as option you can chose remove the limiter in some models, and brands like Porsche or Ferrari hasn't these limitations, and there are installed by the makers (to avoid top speed wars), not by a legal requirement.

Road Speed Limits, these limits are in general for the European Union, but in some countries there are higher or no limits on some conditions... but there is a margin tolerance above these limits.

City: 50 Km/h

Road: 90-100 Km/h

Highway: 120-130 Km/h (In Germany it's only suggested speed on some highways there is no limit)

There are several types of radars, built-in camouflage police cars (like particular cars and standard license plates) running on the road, and when the infractor car overtakes the police car, it takes a photo with the speed, time and place, most of them, at least in Spain works in the Ka frequency, but they will replaced slowly by Laser units.

Radar detectors, at least in Spain, the use of these devices is illegal since a few months, not before, but these devices aren't common in Spain. Despite that there are currently available for buying.

Fuels used in Europe:

Normal leaded: 91 octane fuel. (Not available some years ago).

Normal unleaded: 91 octane fuel. (Not available some years ago).

EuroSuper: 95 octane unleaded fuel. (The standard fuel, also called Green Gasoline, it's green).

Super: 97 octane leaded fuel. (Not available some time ago).
In some countries of Europe it has been replaced by unleaded fuel with additives to replace lead, needed for old cars)

SuperPlus 98: 98 octane unleaded fuel.

Diesel / GasOil

BioDiesel / RME: Ecologic Diesel Fuel, obtained from vegetable oils. (Not available in all the countries of the EU).

Security:

The use of the seat-belts for all the passengers of the car is obligatory in all the European Union on all situations, included in city.

Warning Triangles: obligatory bring two in the car, to put each about 50~100m ahead and behind (or only behind if it's a sigle way road) when the car it's stoped on the road caused by any problem.

Consumption:

The fuel consumption is measured according to European Directives in city, road and mixed driving in litres used to cover 100 Km, usually below real life measurements.

The European Union is imposing lower consumptions and pollution specifications for the maker of cars on specified dates, some brands like the Volkswagen Group has reached these lower consumptions many time before as necessary with cars like the Volkswagen Lupo TDI 3L, that uses an average of 2,99 litres to cover 100 kilometers and the first Diesel car to fulfill the EU4 contamination normative (I think it's similar to the USA ULEV normative), which has to be fulfilled by all the new designed engines from year 2005 in ahead. In some european countries like Germany, buying cars that fulfill EU4 before 2005 (for example, the VW Passat 1.8T fullfils EU4 since 1999) have tax bonifications.

Motor Oils used in Europe:

Mineral Oils, usually SAE 20W-50.

Semi-Synthetic Oils, usually SAE 15W-40.

Synthetic Oils, usually SAE 5W-50 / 10W-50, or even 0W-30 / 0W-40.

Long Life Oils, depending on the car maker there are several specifications, example for the VW specifications:

VW 503.00, Flexible service interval depending conditions between 15000 Km or 1 year and 30000 Km (~19000miles) or 2 years for gasoline engines.

VW 506.00, Flexible service interval depending conditions up to 50000 Km (~31000miles) or 2 years for TDI engines, VW506.01 for TDI(PD).

Here there is a list of approved oils by Volkswagen for the adequate oil specifications:

Explanation only in Spanish by the moment:

Los principales tipos de aceites para VW son:

-500.00 para gasolina/diesel
-501.01 para gasolina/diesel mineral
-502.00 para gasolina
-503.xx para gasolina mantenimiento flexible (larga duración)
-505.00 para diesel (debe cumplir también la 500.00)
-505.01 obligatorio diesel con bomba inyección
-506.00 para diesel mantenimiento flexible (larga duración)
-506.01 obligatorio diesel con bomba inyección mantenimiento flexible (larga duración)

Para adaptar un cuadro de instrumentos en un cambio de aceite con un VAG/VAS se debería hacer lo siguiente:

En adaptación del cuadro de instrumentos (17):
-canal 02: 00000 (para resetear a 15000km aceite/30000 servicio/1año)

si se usa aceite de mantenimiento flexible/larga duración además hay que hacer:

-canal 43: 00015 (15000km distancia máxima para aceites normales), 00030 (30000km larga duración gasolina), 00050 (50000km larga duración diesel)

-canal 44: 00365 (365 días máximo para aceites normales), 00730 (730 días máximo para aceites de larga duración)

-canal 45: 00004 (para larga duración diesel), 00003 (para larga duración V6 diesel), 00002 (larga duración gasolina), 00001 (aceite normal)

opcionales:
-canal 42: intervalo mínimo en miles de km para avisar de cambio de aceite (por defecto 00015), se puede indicar una cifra menor

información adicional para consultar o introducir al cambiar de cuadro:
-canal 40: km x 100 desde la última inspección
-canal 41: días desde la última inspección
-canal 46: litros de combustible gastado por cilindro (motores gasolina)
-canal 47: cantidad de hollín x 100km (motores diesel)
-canal 48: desgaste del aceite x 100km (motores diesel)

estos procedimientos nos son válidos para Polo 6Nx, Lupo ni muchos coches solamente con mantenimiento fijo, debes comprobar la coherencia de los canales existentes con estos datos.

En un Polo 6N se debería hacer de la siguiente manera:
-canal 10: 00150 (km aviso aceite x100)
-canal 11: 00300 (km aviso inspección general x100)
-canal 11: 00360 (días para servicio)
(en otros coches podría ser respectivamente: 00015, 00030, 00036)

Un coche que no tenga los canales relacionados con el mantenimiento flexible no se podrá llevar ese tipo de mantenimiento, pero es totalmente indiferente llevar un mantenimiento fijo o flexible en uno que posea esos canales y sus sensores adecuados en el motor, no existe problema alguno por pasar a fijo y volver otra vez a flexible.

Identify Factory Where A VW Group Car Was Built With The VIN

You can look at the 11th digit of the VIN of a Volkswagen car and compare to the next table to know where was built:

You can see in which country it's located the factory (for example D:Germany, E:Spain, MEX:Mexico, BR:Brazil), in some of them the opening or closing year of the factory, and other coments.

VW Audio / Navigation

Here I will put information about VW audio or navigation systems.

VW Color Radio Navigation System connectors (models released until 2003):

If you are going to link or use any information of my site, please, you should tell me.
Use the information of this website at your own risk, it's only orientative.

Page available since 4/Oct/1999.

Last update: 06 febrero 2005 21:24 +0100.