Audi Diesel - Manual or Auto

[cpjitservices]

Hi all,

Looking at picking up a new to me Audi A4 Avant, Looking at one with the well renowned 1.9 PD engine.

These engines are great on economy, but what are they like connected to an Autobox ? Same economy or is it worse ? I've never had a Diesel auto.

What are other PH'ers getting economy wise in the 1.9 PD ? (manual and auto)

Thanks in advance.

[Pintofbest]

Do you have an idea of what age? Think at least some of the auto boxes in those will be multitronics (CVT's) so here is a thread from the dim and distant which has lots of experience and advice. I think reliability will be a bigger issue than economy!

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=293...

[cpjitservices]

Probs between 2001 and 2005, well reliability wont be too much of an issue i can do most mechanic work myself.

[cpjitservices]

Looking through that thread it looks like the Multitronics are pretty good for that era.

Excellent. Auto or Manual. Nice to have the choice.

[Pintofbest]

cpjitservices said:

Looking through that thread it looks like the Multitronics are pretty good for that era.

Excellent. Auto or Manual. Nice to have the choice.

You need to read further through to the later pages - they're not known as multichronic for their reliability. As an example from the later pages:

defblade said:

Challo said:

As nearly all the most posts here state it's a matter of when, not if the gear box will fail, is there anything you can check to minimise the risks?

Yep, check you're not buying a multitronic!

[cpjitservices]

Pintofbest said:

cpjitservices said:

Looking through that thread it looks like the Multitronics are pretty good for that era.

Excellent. Auto or Manual. Nice to have the choice.

You need to read further through to the later pages - they're not known as multichronic for their reliability. As an example from the later pages:

defblade said:

Challo said:

As nearly all the most posts here state it's a matter of when, not if the gear box will fail, is there anything you can check to minimise the risks?

Yep, check you're not buying a multitronic!

Just seen that... think I'll stick with a manual version.

[cpjitservices]

Manuals probs best anyway for economy

[MattOz]

For the 1.9, stick with the manual.

[snowandrocks]

Yep stick to manual - the multitronic is fairly unpleasant to use even when it's working so can't see why you'd take the risk. The 1.9 PD unit isn't nearly refined enough to make the constant revs approach of a CVT enjoyable.

Good engine with a manual though - very economical, the power delivery makes it feel much faster than it is and my Passat was still going strong at 300k+.

[cpjitservices]

Excellent. Think I'd prefer manual anyway.

I havent owned a 1.9 PD TDI (Except for in my galaxy - same engine?)

Are they as good as people say they are for economy ?

[Anatonic]

Watching with interest - seems like a good proposition as a stopgap / runaround also in B6 Avant form.

Quite a few under £2k as well with 100-150k on them and a good history, yet I'm seeing some with 250k+ on them!

[steve-5snwi]

Look for signs of an oil change on the multitronic at 40k, make sure it pulls smoothly and there is no jolting when going from d to r. Also that it doesn't roll forwards when trying to reverse up a slope.

We have a b7 2.0tfsi multitronic and I quite like it.

[cpjitservices]

Thanks for the advice all,

I am actually looking at getting the A4 Avant of the same era. Again with the 1.9 manual.

A4 Looks to be wider in the back seats.

[confused_buyer]

I think the multitronic works very well on the old 1.9 PD engine. They drive well and the great advantage of multitronic is that it doesn't have the fuel and emissions penalty other auto boxes from that era had when combined with a 4 pot diesel engine.

That is when they're working though because they do go wrong.