Recall and leaving the car at the dealer

95,548 miles

Took the car in for one recall - moonroof drains modification, don't get me started I have firsthand experience with flooding of the interior of the car on my Passat. Ended up have a total of 4 recalls out on the car - moonroof drains, brakelight switch, seat heaters - left and right.

This was the first time the car has gone in for service since the kit was installed. One thing one always has to keep in mind is how are the mechanics that need to service the car going to deal with the kit mods. I hadn't given the situation much thought because it didn't seem that the kit would interfere with the drain modifications.What I hadn't thought about was that the car would get hot enough to switch over to oil - or at least want to automatically once the car was restarted. This would be a problem at the dealership when they needed to move it after check in - and cause an auto purge cycle that would make the car idle for 2 minutes after it was turned off. That would be a problem.

On my old manual system this wasn't a problem but by default my new kit is an automatic system unless set otherwise.

One might suggest to simply pull the controller but my experience is that the brains that are separate and installed up in the dash continue to work without the display installed. What I decided to do was set the switchover temp higher on the VO Controller. Normally I have it set to 150º. I raised it to 200º before switchover. That would require the engine to be running for quite sometime before it would switchover.

It's summer time

95,471 miles

Wish I had more to write about but I just don't drive that much. When I drive local I wil use my electric golf cart and since the kids are out for the summer I will use my wife's Ford Hybrid Escape and try and stay on electric for most of the ride. Other then adding a pint of oil everything is fine.

I do feel that this car is not as robust as my sedan that I originally converted. This car burns oil (even before the conversion) and doesn't get that great of gas mileage. I think the car is more of a lemon so I don't know how well it will take the conversion in the long run.

I believe I've said this before but one could look at the conversion as more of a season thing. The doughnut tank doesn't lend itself to this kind of driving because it is so small and not practical.Only switch to oil in the summer months because I don't know how it is possible to get the oil hot enough for the switch over in the winter months - and I have mild winters. I find the best practice for getting the engine/oil hot enough in the least amount of driving is to drive a short distance on diesel and stop the car and let the heat radiate throughout the engine/oil - such as doing a short errand.