1997 Volkswagen Passat

Wagon

4 Cylinder 1.9 Liter Diesel

Manual

WVWHG83A8VE012585

Clear

Diesel

This is a 1997 Volkswagen Passat TDI Wagon purchased and converted to run on waste vegetable oil by us in 2010. The car starts promptly and runs well. The intake was recently cleaned out and the car now has excellent power. This car has a 5 speed manual transmission.The veggie conversion is a dual tank system. The original diesel tank remains in place while another tank for the vegetable oil was installed in the back. The car can be switched to run on vegetable oil when the engine is up to running temperature. To preserve the engine, the car should be started and turned off while running on diesel. In the pictures you can see the red vegetable oil tank in the back, the fuel line and coolant lines (used for heating the fuel) running up the passenger side in the car, the Hot Head (for heat transfer), the Veg-therm (electric fuel heater to heat vegetable oil before it enters the engine), the valves used to switch between fuel sources, and the switch installed in the dash. This system has worked very well and can save considerable amounts of money in fuel costs. With a full tank of vegetable oil one can travel over 500 miles.There are a few rusts bubbles on the doors and around the windshield (see pictures). The diver's window does not work at the top of its range, it sounds like the power mechanism is stripped at the last 2 inches. We do not have any headrests for the rear seats, though these aren't too difficult to find. The AC works, but it needs to be charged. We were told when we purchased the car that the timing belt was replaced at 175,000 miles.