15th Jul 2004, 13:52

Agree! A great MPV, but... the front tyre wear on the 2.0 litre TDi Touran is rather excessive! The 8mm depth of tread when new is now down to under 5mm after only 4000 miles! Take away the safety tread level of 1.6mm and I've got another 3.4mm approx. left to achieve a miserable 8000 miles on the pair of reputable brand tyres!

Average speed has been 50mph... not fast!

Anyone else with a similar experience?

Still a good car and great drive!

Bawddwr.

16th Sep 2004, 16:20

Does anyone have problems with excessive front tyre wear on VW Touran 1.9TDI. I only got 12000 miles from 1st set of front tyres.

7th Dec 2004, 11:35

Has anyone had any problems with smoke coming from the front wheel of the 2.0 TDi Touran?

8th Dec 2004, 10:34

I have a Touran Sport (Highline) 2.0 TDi and am delighted with it. My other car is a MINI Cooper S and I find the Touran is almost as fun to drive. The Electronic Stability Program is enormously better than the MINI's - subtly helping you by directing power where it is needed rather than just cutting out all forward motion!

As an enthusiastic driver of a car with enormous torque, I was expected poor tyre wear, but so far I am up to 13,500 miles with about 2.5 to 3 mm of tread on my front Dunlop SP01As. I will replace the tyres soon, but feel satisfied that at £70 each they are reasonable.

My previous MPV was a Ford Galaxy 1.9 TDi which didn't get more than 11,000 miles from tyres. The Galaxy tyres were reinforced and cost £130 each at maximum discount. So, my Touran is working out less than half as expensive in rubber, which is a good saving.

24th Dec 2004, 07:52

The smoke coming from the wheel arch area of a VW Touran is something to do with a turbo heater! Had to call VW Assistance this week as the problem showed on two consecutive 'freezing cold' days! 'Nothing to worry about' apparently! Pity salespersons did not warn us of this phenomenon!!!

2nd Mar 2005, 14:56

The smoke problem is indeed known about, and only happens allegedly after short runs on cold days. It is due to over-zealous functioning of the diesel pre-heater, or something like that. There is a TSB (Technical Service Bulletin) on this and the fix is done free by a VW dealer if you ask. I'm not sure if these things happen automatically during a scheduled service.

We had the fix done some time ago, but I have noticed smoke on one or two occasions since.

6th Mar 2005, 12:36

I have a Touran 2.0 TDi I have covered 6345 miles mostly motorway and have found my front tyres are wearing excessively on the inside three qaurters (tracking is fine)

9th Aug 2005, 14:12

My diesel pre-heater was so bad I disappeared in a cloud of smoke at a busy T junction. VW mechanic told me it was the exhaust!

My front tyres have just been replaced after 16,000 miles, with most of the wear on the inside edge, apparently due to speed humps. It's not a very humpy area round here though!

31st Aug 2005, 08:24

One issue to watch for with the Touran - there is no spare tyre due to the fold-away third row of seats. In the event of punctures there is a supplied rubber injection kit, which will put the tyre into a state where the car can be driven to a garage.

But it turns out to be more complicated than that. Using this method apparently renders the tyre unrepairable, resulting in a bill of up to £120 for a completely new part. Sure, it's just a tiny puncture, but the type is now a useless heap of expensive rubber.

In principle, it shouldn't matter, but the tyres are expensive so a simple event like a puncture turns into a major running cost.

1st Feb 2006, 10:44

I have a 1.9TDI S and have been very impressed with it. It’s a very good drive and very practical for a larger family. One irritation with this base spec model is that it doesn’t have any speakers in the rear seats, which is annoying at motorway speeds for rear passengers. It’s a £70 extra and seems a bit mean not to fit from standard. I too have experienced the smoke and diesel smells from the auxiliary heater and it has just come back from the dealer who checked it under warranty. They couldn’t find fault and said it may be because the fuel level was low….not convinced by that one!! However I filled the tank and it still smokes! The dealer has suggested switching on the Econ button, but as yet I haven’t tried to see if it works. It does however, seem worse on cold days. It’ll probably be going back. Yes, front tyre wear does seem excessive.

25th Apr 2006, 10:53

I have a 2.0 TDI 2 year old with 72000miles on it now, only issues have been diesel smoke from front drivers wheel which dealer repaired on 2 attempt, now on its 3rd turbo, first 1 stopped working, second very noisy all the time. The only issue I have is that as it's a seven seater you don't get a spare wheel, l I have now been recovered home twice on the back of a truck due to punctures, the sealer supplied has failed on both occasions, I would purchase another, but most likely the 5 seater as the spare wheel issue is a big problem when covering such high milages.

12th Sep 2006, 06:55

I own (in the Netherlands) a 2004 Touran 1.6Fsi Tiptronic 6-speed. Besides the interior plastics which mark too easily and electronic problems it's a great handling MPV, safe to drive and very roomy. The Tiptronic is great and in our flat country the 1.6Fsi is powerful enough, but the 2.0L is advisable when money is not a big issue.

Test drived the new 1.4Tsi (double turbo) and the torgue is impressive!

Conclusion after 50.000km : not up to VW standards concerning plastic interior parts and electronics, otherwise buy!!!

30th Jan 2007, 08:40

I can confirm excessive front tyre wear on inside wall only so it is zero thread but 4mm on the majority of the tyre after 13k miles (1.9TDI).

Not convinced about response from VW support line, they said I must be using too many roundabouts??? .Yet I also have a Golf 2001 with 1,9D engine a tyres last for 40k miles.

About time VW came clean on cause for this.

(It appears from other threads /websites this may be caused by a 'geometry' set up problem which requires work at VW dealer . Apparentley cannot be fixed by high street tyre fitters using just tracking tools/adjustements).

20th Nov 2007, 17:50

Has anyone had any problems with juddering in low gears? I have just had to spend out £900 on having the gearbox, dual flywheel and slave cylinder (which have to be supplied by the same manufacturer) replaced. This is because when the car was put together they were not sourced from the same supplier and hence the dual flywheel causes the other two items to fail. I have tried (without any success) to contact the managing director of Volkswagen, who won't even do me the courtesy of replying to my letters, to ask why these weren't replaced under warranty when I pointed out the juddering, but I had to pay out £900 to have them fixed after the warranty ran out.