A Reckless V10 Purchase
Discussion
hondafanatic said:
Admire the OP's attitude and bravery, but actually, could be an astute investment?
For £1700 and then some minor planned investment, you have a runner that will tow with a long MOT.
If you get six months out of it, it's done it's job. Anything more is just pure upside?
If it borks, you can probably break it and recoup the initial investment?
Very brave!, isn’t stuff like an alternator an engine out job on the V10?, still it must be a great engine and you paid little enough for it that if it does let you down you can scrap it and forget about it, hope it works out for you, don’t think I’d have been as brave though, I’d have liked to have been and probably got the V6 if I were buying one!.
I had an early Cayenne Turbo which,apart from its thirst for super unleaded and a blower motor fan, didn’t have a single problem, was great for towing too, but think that V10 diesel torque would be better still, I bet performance wise it’s not a million miles off the Cayenne either!.
I had an early Cayenne Turbo which,apart from its thirst for super unleaded and a blower motor fan, didn’t have a single problem, was great for towing too, but think that V10 diesel torque would be better still, I bet performance wise it’s not a million miles off the Cayenne either!.
Edited by Walter Sobchak on Saturday 13th July 18:00
Had one of these as a tow barge for 5 very happy years until it got written off by an errant skoda which hit Mrs Bigmowley in the snow. Ran it up to 130K miles without any real issues. It was a series one with the R50 chip and it was awesome. Would still have it otherwise.
Brilliant for towing, probably the best we've ever had, the torque, the step off, the stability all first rate, much better than any LR product. Laugh out loud grunt when not towing, 50 to 100 MPH incredible, with a massive cloud of diesel smoke
rolling coal!
Used vast amounts of diesel but who cares when it's this much fun about 19Mpg over the whole time we had it. It was £125 to fill it during the last fuel crisis, ouch.
Had the usual miscellany of electrical issues but none that actually caused a breakdown. Used to get a message every month or so warning of a "serious gearbox fault, drive straight to workshop" which I just ignored and nothing ever happened. Great on tyres, 25K miles out of each set which for me is very good. The only mechanical issue was knackered prop shaft bearings which is a common fault, had a new shaft at about 90K miles. The brakes are a easy to upgrade as they are from an early Porsche 911, a 996 Turbo I think, we had better discs and pads with standard calipers and they were great. Sat nav was a very early system and laughably bad.
You have a lot of car for the money OP and if the engine stays together it's a bargain. If not just flog it for bits. Good luck and bookmarked.
Brilliant for towing, probably the best we've ever had, the torque, the step off, the stability all first rate, much better than any LR product. Laugh out loud grunt when not towing, 50 to 100 MPH incredible, with a massive cloud of diesel smoke
rolling coal! Used vast amounts of diesel but who cares when it's this much fun about 19Mpg over the whole time we had it. It was £125 to fill it during the last fuel crisis, ouch.
Had the usual miscellany of electrical issues but none that actually caused a breakdown. Used to get a message every month or so warning of a "serious gearbox fault, drive straight to workshop" which I just ignored and nothing ever happened. Great on tyres, 25K miles out of each set which for me is very good. The only mechanical issue was knackered prop shaft bearings which is a common fault, had a new shaft at about 90K miles. The brakes are a easy to upgrade as they are from an early Porsche 911, a 996 Turbo I think, we had better discs and pads with standard calipers and they were great. Sat nav was a very early system and laughably bad.
You have a lot of car for the money OP and if the engine stays together it's a bargain. If not just flog it for bits. Good luck and bookmarked.
Wonderful choice. Always had a soft spot for these and the mad Phaeton of the same era. Haven't run one but have put 100,000 miles on a 5 pot T5 Transporter which is effectively a split block of this engine. Apart from one nasty bill at 4 years old it has been absolutely dependable helped by the gear driven camshaft and the fact that certain items like the the water pump that went at 40,000 seems to have been improved as the current one is 60,000 miles and counting. By the way, 23mpg is great mileage for a V10. Watching with interest.
Loads of replies, it seems like the Touareg V10 leaves an impression on anyone that's owned or driven one.
Looked at it for the first time since buying it this afternoon. Trying to work through some of it's issues.
First up was the steering angle sensor fault. It was MOT'd 4 months ago and the garage that did the MOT also changed the track rod and track rod end on the right hand side. They seem to have ripped off the guy I bought the car from. The invoice shows the track rod £29.16 and the track rod end £45. Underneath the car, there is a brand new inner track rod and the end looks like it's been on the car 100k miles, rusty and covered in grime. Definitely not been changed. If you live in Taunton, have a good look at that invoice before you chose your next garage.
Not fitting parts they've charged for is probably the least bad thing they did. They let Stevie Wonder fit it the inner tie rod. This is the left hand side which they hadn't touched, nice and straight.
This is the right hand side. I've never seen a wheel so obviously out of line, it's like they didn't even look at it after fitting. Not acceptable, more dangerous than the track rod end being worn. Tracking wasn't on the invoice but even so you'd expect better.
This is the angle of the steering wheel to make it drive straight. A bit of a clue here. I can't believe the last owner paid up and took it away like that. He did say he wasn't happy about it.
I straightened it out by eye and then used my tracking plate to confirm it was right. Once that was done the steering wheel was straight again. I then re-calibrated my steering angle sensor on VCDS that was showing a malfunction before. This reset and that's a major fault (2 warning lights on the dash and limp mode when it first came up) sorted for zero cost, one nil to me!
A few parts the car needed that I happened to have in the garage. Jump start post cover. A boot handle, I didn't know it was dodgy when I made by original assessment of the car at the start of this thread, it takes some fumbling about to get it to open. Struts for the rear glass screen as the originals are weak and can't hold it open. The little square thing is an air quality sensor. If the car detects pollution it stops drawing fresh air into the cabin, this means when it's hot all you can do is re-circulate hot air which isn't much fun. Now I can draw in cold air but the A/C isn't working. The system is pressurised and i've got no faults for the system, i'm starting to think I might get away with a simple re-gas. Fingers crossed on that one.
I have the small coolant leak I photographed in the original post. I also have a tiny one on this plastic section coming from the radiator top hose, you can see the 2 little spots where it's seeping through the seam. This and the other leaking pipe which seems to be a complicated one are probably where the Touareg bites back and hits me with a hefty bill. I'll call TPS tomorrow and find out the damage.
Looked at it for the first time since buying it this afternoon. Trying to work through some of it's issues.
First up was the steering angle sensor fault. It was MOT'd 4 months ago and the garage that did the MOT also changed the track rod and track rod end on the right hand side. They seem to have ripped off the guy I bought the car from. The invoice shows the track rod £29.16 and the track rod end £45. Underneath the car, there is a brand new inner track rod and the end looks like it's been on the car 100k miles, rusty and covered in grime. Definitely not been changed. If you live in Taunton, have a good look at that invoice before you chose your next garage.
Not fitting parts they've charged for is probably the least bad thing they did. They let Stevie Wonder fit it the inner tie rod. This is the left hand side which they hadn't touched, nice and straight.
This is the right hand side. I've never seen a wheel so obviously out of line, it's like they didn't even look at it after fitting. Not acceptable, more dangerous than the track rod end being worn. Tracking wasn't on the invoice but even so you'd expect better.
This is the angle of the steering wheel to make it drive straight. A bit of a clue here. I can't believe the last owner paid up and took it away like that. He did say he wasn't happy about it.
I straightened it out by eye and then used my tracking plate to confirm it was right. Once that was done the steering wheel was straight again. I then re-calibrated my steering angle sensor on VCDS that was showing a malfunction before. This reset and that's a major fault (2 warning lights on the dash and limp mode when it first came up) sorted for zero cost, one nil to me!
A few parts the car needed that I happened to have in the garage. Jump start post cover. A boot handle, I didn't know it was dodgy when I made by original assessment of the car at the start of this thread, it takes some fumbling about to get it to open. Struts for the rear glass screen as the originals are weak and can't hold it open. The little square thing is an air quality sensor. If the car detects pollution it stops drawing fresh air into the cabin, this means when it's hot all you can do is re-circulate hot air which isn't much fun. Now I can draw in cold air but the A/C isn't working. The system is pressurised and i've got no faults for the system, i'm starting to think I might get away with a simple re-gas. Fingers crossed on that one.
I have the small coolant leak I photographed in the original post. I also have a tiny one on this plastic section coming from the radiator top hose, you can see the 2 little spots where it's seeping through the seam. This and the other leaking pipe which seems to be a complicated one are probably where the Touareg bites back and hits me with a hefty bill. I'll call TPS tomorrow and find out the damage.
6 or 7 years ago we were looking for a distance cruiser and I found a V10 Phaeton reasonably local. We went to look at it but the wife vetoed it on the interior. TBH she was right - muted grey exterior but the leather was the colour of David Dickinson, and there was a mixed smattering of glossy wood bits that looked plastic, some bits of turned Ally, and a few Carbon Fibre touches just to add to the mix. Shame really as it was an absolute monster to drive.
At the time I didn't know about the huge bork potential of these engines. I guess I had a lucky escape getting the Maserati instead.
At the time I didn't know about the huge bork potential of these engines. I guess I had a lucky escape getting the Maserati instead.
Escy said:
If you live in Taunton, have a good look at that invoice before you chose your next garage.
Blimey. Pleased to say there are lots of decent garages in Taunton - including a VW indy I know well - so there's no need to go there. That place is owned by the guys who used to own the main VW and Audi dealerships here. They sold the main dealers to Marshall a few years ago and kept that place on.
Best of luck with this adventure OP, great stuff!
Nice work OP, both myself and my bank account can relate to your buying approach (I'd be considering a remap too, because why not roll the dice again....)
Neither 4x4s or VWs have ever really been my area yet I've always been fascinated by the V10 Touareg in the same way as the W8 Passat - it's such a wonderfully-unnecessary engine. That torque figure is something else too; I recall a younger and (slightly) slimmer Jeremy Clarkson towing a tree around quite happily with one of these on Top Gear many years ago.
Neither 4x4s or VWs have ever really been my area yet I've always been fascinated by the V10 Touareg in the same way as the W8 Passat - it's such a wonderfully-unnecessary engine. That torque figure is something else too; I recall a younger and (slightly) slimmer Jeremy Clarkson towing a tree around quite happily with one of these on Top Gear many years ago.
Edited by apm142001 on Monday 15th July 16:09
TPS will sell to me, they want £105 plus VAT for the plastic hose at the top and the other one he couldn't find. I'm going to buy second hand ones from ebay, have found a breaker that's got them for £40.
I've done a few little jobs on it. None of which are important but help make it a bit nicer
Replacing the dodgy boot handle.
Replacing the fuel cap lock, had to remove quite a few things to get access. I did worry there might be a wiring fault which would explain why it was broken in the first place. Luckily that wasn't the case and it now works fine.
Getting under the headliner to replace the struts for the boot glass, you can see the strut is leaking. The ones i've got were the wrong size so had to order them off ebay.
I've done a few little jobs on it. None of which are important but help make it a bit nicer
Replacing the dodgy boot handle.
Replacing the fuel cap lock, had to remove quite a few things to get access. I did worry there might be a wiring fault which would explain why it was broken in the first place. Luckily that wasn't the case and it now works fine.
Getting under the headliner to replace the struts for the boot glass, you can see the strut is leaking. The ones i've got were the wrong size so had to order them off ebay.
ChocolateFrog said:
The semi sensible option is the Q7 with the V8 4.2TDI, similar power to the V10, better NVH and economy and a little less wallet melting. Atleast £8k more than the OPs car though which is a half decent bork fund.
I lost all sense and bought a V8 4.2 petrol q7 it makes me smile its an 06 and goes pulls and sounds awesome so I am as mad as u good luck With 185k its still a great car and leaves most SUV tractors spluttering haha but the sound track just makes sooo much sence
I'm not currently driving it as i'm waiting to sell my current car first but I have been sorting out a few jobs.
It had a faulty parking sensor at the front and one at the back. I removed the bumpers to replace them and I noticed there was a bowed out radiator at the front. On a closer inspection the metal pipe running from it was crushed completely flat. The car must have run over something to have done that. The build up of pressure in the radiator must have caused it to go out of shape, it also explains the small coolant leaks I found elsewhere. The radiator is for engine coolant but I don't know what exactly it's purpose is. Whatever it is, it's no longer doing the job. Luckily I found a replacement radiator on ebay for £40 posted that includes the metal pipe that's been crushed. Another nice cheap fix. The parking sensors now also work.
It had a faulty parking sensor at the front and one at the back. I removed the bumpers to replace them and I noticed there was a bowed out radiator at the front. On a closer inspection the metal pipe running from it was crushed completely flat. The car must have run over something to have done that. The build up of pressure in the radiator must have caused it to go out of shape, it also explains the small coolant leaks I found elsewhere. The radiator is for engine coolant but I don't know what exactly it's purpose is. Whatever it is, it's no longer doing the job. Luckily I found a replacement radiator on ebay for £40 posted that includes the metal pipe that's been crushed. Another nice cheap fix. The parking sensors now also work.
Just realised its you with the 2.7 S4 engined boxer off audisrs. Didn't realise you were a complete nut case! Good to see you making your way through the niggles. It's the fixing of the small stuff that really makes the difference I think on these types of projects.
edited to correct typo
edited to correct typo
Edited by Michaelbailey on Wednesday 31st July 12:03
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