Which Jettas had Digifant ?

May 08, 2004 16 Replies

I'm thinking of looking for a good used A2 Jetta but I'd prefer CIS-E injection rather than Digifant simply because I've had more experience with it and know it better.



Is there a rhyme or reason to which years/versions had Digifant ? I've previously owned an '85 that was CIS, and '88 that was Digifant, but I think I've seen '90 or '91s that were back to CIS (Could be wrong about that last one).



- FM -


From 87.5 onward, all Golf and Jetta models were Digifant. No exceptions.

about 88 and up. Don't look for a CIS-E car as the Digifant are more expensive to repair and more problem prone!

The models thru 89 or so were problematic due to dirty connectors, which lead to all sorts of gremlins. And, if you ran down your battery trying to start such a car you could (and would) fry the ECU jump starting it, especially if the grounds were dirty.

Starting in 90 I understand VW fixed the dirty / corroded issue was addressed with gold connectors. Better still, VW mechanics (who thought they were good mechanics if they could fix a Rabbit and the air cooled stuff) finally got the repairs and fixes and such figured out, which made the cars seem better.

Tim Wohlford '89 Golf yes, digifont. Yes, I've fried a few ECUs.

*************

WOW ALL.........and........NO EXCEPTIONS??????????

There were 16 valve engines in the 87.5 onward Jettas and Golfs that did not have Digifant I or II There were also Diesel engines in some of the 87.5 onward Jettas.

later, dave Reminder........ Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them, and you have their shoes. Frieda Norris

Yes there are exceptions.

The 16Vs were not Digifant. They were CIS-E (1.8) and Motronic (2.0).

1988 and up gas-powered 1.8 8V engined Golfs, GTIs, and Jettas were Digifant.

Digifant really isn't bad. A lot of people don't like it but I'm not sure why. It's been pretty reliable for me in the 13+ years that I've owned my Digifant '91 GTI. The only thing that ever went bad was the coolant sensor (which can happen on CIS-E cars too) and occasionally I have a crappy idle that comes and goes but that's about it.

Well, not the ones in North America.

ABF (IIRC) engine code is 16V Digifant.

I forgot about U.S. GLI and U.S./Canada GTIs....I'm so used to my GLI which is Digi that I forget about CIS and Motronic....

Um, *yes* the ones in north america. No 16V here had Digifant.

Wrong, all the 16v cars had cis-e(87-92). 8v's were digi2 from

87.5-92 Corey From VWsport.com NNTP Gateway

Little late...I already retracted my statement....and for the record, my '90 Canadian Spec GLI has Digifant

Digi-1 if 1991-1992 built to California specs.

from the factory? 16V? weird.

Actually, it's an 8-Valve GLI with an automatic transmission....when I worked for Volkswagen I confirmed with the port where the car was shipped to...it came from Wolfsburg as an 8-Valve GLI with Automatic...

Only about 90 of these Jettas were imported into Canada.

- Peter

Hmmm...interesting. We didn't get any of those down here (the 16V replaced the 8V in our GLIs, unlike the GTI where an 8V did return alongside the 16V after masquerading as a Golf GT for a couple of years). Although our Jetta Carat more or less had what would have been a Jetta GLI 8V powertrain (a few more HP than the base and GL Jettas...usually 105 versus 100 in Digifant form).

Digifant rhyme and reason at

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Cheers!

Ken

92 Jetta

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