just got back from a recent 1550 mile round trip in our recently purchased Passat B5 110 TDI SE (1999) Estate! Car was faultless and we got around 750 miles to a full tank of cheap(er) French diesel!!
Anyway the only thing I noticed was a slight knocking from the front end over rough surfaces such as cobbled streets! The car has done 132K now so I reckon it is due new control arms. I have whipped the front wheels off and checked both the pinch bolts by undoing them and these are nice and free and not seized, which is a bonus. Had a wiggle of the control arm bushes by using a big screwdriver to check for play and there seems to be lots of movement.
I have booked the car into a specialist VW garage that we use in Telford (half the price of garages in Kent!!) and I am going to get the whole set changed. I have seen a Meyle Heavy Duty set with a 4 year guarantee on Ebay for £279.00 inc free postage. Would these be any good? I want to avoid the cheapo stuff that is available.
Also our car has only 110 BHP and for a little more oomph we were thinking of having slightly uprated injector nozzles fitted? Is this worthwhile? The garage have done it to my VW T4 Transporter which runs a 1.9 tdi conversion and that seems great.
Will fuel economy be affected, what about power?