Is there an owner's manual available, maybe in the glove box. Recommended tire pressures should be in that publication.

English Cottage wrote :
PS: BTW, she said she called the dealer and was told to take the car in, the person who spoke with her on the phone said he didn't have that information. How can this be?

A real VW service adviser must know what the tire pressures are (right now 30 to 32 psi is close enough).
If not, find a better dealer.
And what would be the reason for bringing the car in ??
Much better to have an independent mechanic do at least 80% of the work - tire pressures will not "throw them"..
The Passat tire pressure info should be on a sticker on either the front door or its jam.. and in the owners manual...

The tire pressure info on the sticker is illegible and there is no reference to it in the owner's manual.

If somebody could let me know what the correct tire pressure for the Passat is, front and rear, it'd be very helpful. Thanks.

38 psi is what the VW book says.And the comment about a
"A real service adviser must know the pressure", that's Laughable. You show me a Service MANAGER that knows the various PSIs' and Capacities and so forth for various models and years off the top of his head.Just because he didn't know the exact PSI, without having to go and look it up, is no reason to stop going to that Dealer. You'd be hard pressed to find a Dealer that wouldn't try and get you into thier service Dept.

A real VW service adviser must know what the tire pressures are (right now 30 to 32 psi is close enough).
If not, find a better dealer.
And what would be the reason for bringing the car in ??

My 1999 Jetta's owner's manual didn't even specify the size and type of replacement bulbs for the car. Instead, it suggested I go to the dealer (and, implicitly, spend $20 or $30 replacing the $1.50 bulb in the taillight).

FWIW, that same manual lists about eight different tire pressures for Jetta tires, based on their size and the load being carried. Multiply that by six or seven different models in the VW lineup, and that's more than anyone could reasonably expect to keep in their head. Now, they could have looked it up for the customer, but carguy is right -- no self-respecting service writer would let a chance like that slip by.

Hi all,
I,ve been a Ford Mechanic for 35 yrs and trained by Ford Mtr. Co. and currently I am the Service Manager at one of the biggest Ford Dealerships in the country. I agree with Steve o and the carguy about the service manager not knowing all the answers. We get calls on a daily basis from owners asking for things that are shocking. I had a call a couple of months ago from a lady who asked, " How often should I have the >AIR

Yup, sometimes us wimmen insist we know what we're talking about...
Years ago, I called around looking for a part for my car. The first place I called asked for the year, make and model and I told him. Then he asked how many cylinders. It being an Audi 5000, I told him; five. At the end of the line was dead silence...then a long drawn out sigh and then "No hon, it either has 4 or 6...they don't MAKE 5 cylinder cars." At that point I hung up on him. Yup, it still p!$$es me off...
But I have to admit the rotating the air thing is a hoot!

Valtog wrote: "Yup, sometimes us wimmen insist we know what we're talking about..."

And sometimes us guys realize there is nothing to gain by correcting wimmen when they aren't so..... VBG....

Sure your Audi has a 5cyl. But when your calling a parts store, your not talking to a tech. You are talking to (likely a minimum wage, or slightly above) peron trained to input information in multiple choice format into a computer, and then it gives them choices. Get one thing wrong, such as model or year, and suddenly they could get a choice of a 4cyl or 6cyl engine and not have 5cyl listed in front of them. Trust me, most of the people at the parts stores are limited to what the screen shows them, and over time if they stick it out they learn where the pitfalls are in their line of work. A more experienced counter person, familliar with Audi would have started looking at his/her input of model and year when you said it was a 5cyl, and he/she didn't have that as a choice on the screen.

BTW remember, the old line you get what you pay for? If the parts store wanted more experienced people at the desk, they would have to pay more to have them and keep them. That means a higher price to you in the end, because that money comes from somnewhere, and that somewhere is the customer.

Which brings me to the newest phase we deal with. Every parts supplier now has a website that we log into and look up and order our parts ourselves on line. When we submit our order, it simply prints the parts slip out at our local store. Then they pull the parts and deliver them. Thereby shifting the burden of making sure the parts are correct onto us, and reducing their payroll at the same time. Cute, real cute, IMO.

The point I was trying to make (and this has happened to me more than once..Like the guy that tried to charge me three times the going labor rate for a new carburetor because....it was...Japanese! Like the guy that tried to sell me a used jetta because "I looked so cute in it"...but I told him it needed a new exhaust....) was that most men assume that I don't know jack and it irritates me. And my husband will be the first to attest to the fact that I admit it when I'm wrong...maybe that's why I'm still happily married after 20 years...

When I was really young and stupid (but not stupid enough) I went in for an oil change, tune-up and "getting my air rotated", I was told that my engine was "weak as kitten" needed new....so I took it to have the compression tested and woohoo miracles occur! It was fine...and that was a mechanic that I had been going to for 4 years...wonder what else he screwed me on or if he just got greedy or his orthodontist needed a down payment. To end on a positive note, I found an honest mechanic that I used faithfully for 8 years till I bought my new car.

English Cottage wrote :
PS: BTW, she said she called the dealer and was told to take the car in, the person who spoke with her on the phone said he didn't have that information. How can this be?

The question was about tire pressure, not nuclear physics; I made it my business to know some simple facts about cars that I serviced; IMO, when a customer calls a dealer service man, the man should be able to give a straight answer OR be able to look it up quickly without making a federal case out of it.

The point is to give the customer the best possible service..If the adviser does not know his product, he should return to sweeping floors or flipping hamburgers..

Another point is that far too many people do not read, even their owner's manual.But in a way, one cannot blame them, some manuals are so loaded with the safety nazi agenda and a thousand sales pitches, that it becomes a complete turn-off...

Hard to believe that the VW manual has no tire pressure info inside...
But no customer should ever have to bring in a car for "missing infomation"...
And they wonder why they cannot sell cars !!

Check with your local library. If they subscribe to an on-line auto repair manual service, then you may be able to access this service to find the information you seek.

Doesn't it also depend on the tires? I mean; the 'standard' tires that came with my Jetta are just one of man 'standard' tires that come on them, I've found out. Just as it is for my F150's.

Perhaps the tire manufacturer's website will have the correct pressure for that tire and that model?

Should there be a tire pressure variation will greatly depend on the tires the car is using.

Here is a link that might be useful: Volkswagen Parts