In regards to Golf / Jetta diesel / turbo-diesel :
Want to know what the strong points are as well as things to look out for.
'79-'84
- strong points: very simple, no computers or complicated sensor systems. Very good transmissions. Weak points: head gaskets (really terrible, with the original diesel rabbits you'd be lucky to get 100,000km out of them without having to replace the gasket). Body is prone to rust in serious areas, like the area where the solid axle bolts onto the body at the back, and the seams of the floors in the front. Caddys had terrible problems with rust in the front shock towers. Gas tanks were made of very thin metal. Holes developped at the seams and along the bottom due to stone chips. You have to drop the rear axle on a rabbit to get the gas tank out. Engines were not that great. Rings were substandard quality prior to 1981 (especially on german built pre 1980 cars) and tended to wear out quickly. Ditto for main and intermediate shaft bearings. This is particularly true of pre 1980 german built 1.5 litre diesels. The US built Westmoreland cars had vastly superior engines that would last for 100,000s of thousands of kilometers more than the early german built 1.5s would. Injection pumps: early bosch ones were not the greatest. Quality improves as the years go on. Timing belts: a huge headache. Have to be replaced every 90,000km. If they break, you wreck the engine. Pistons hit valves. At high rpms, this means cracked pistons, bent connecting rods, and a destroyed cylinder head. Why they would not design an interference engine like this with a timing chain is beyond me. They still don't, BTW. Electrical systems: early jettas and rabbits had one of the worst electrical systems ever. It rivalled the deficiencies of a 1960s british sports car. I mean, these things were really bad. The diesels were better than the gas cars mainly because there is not as much to a diesel electrical system as there is to a gas system, but both royally sucked. With an early diesel you can expect problems with the ignition switch, the lights, the glow plugs and relay, and the fuel shut off solenoid on the injection pump. I would like to say that things got better with time, but judging from the electrical problems I've had with my 88 Jetta, they haven't. It's something you need to put up with if you want to drive a VW.
'85-'92 ( is this A2 ? ):
Engines: vastly and completely superior to those found in the earlier cars. The 1.6 diesel will do 500,000km without a rebuild. The turbo diesel will do 400,000. VW really evolved here compared to their original diesels. Headgaskets: still a problem. Turbo diesels have a tendency to blow their headgaskets if you drive them with a lead foot. The N/A cars will need a head gasket replacement around 350,000km. This is still a problem area. Body: again, VW has evolved a lot here. The bodies on these cars tend to be much more solid, even if you live in the North Eastern rust belt of north america. Of course if you are on the west coast, what is rust? Who's ever heard of that? Gas tanks on these cars are made of plastic. What an idea! Never need to replace them. Wonderful stuff. Electrical systems: more complex, and still not very reliable. Try figuring out why your glow plug light stays on all the time. Give up? Try replacing the horn relay. Weird, hard to solve electrical problems abound. Transmissions: still bullet proof. They last forever. Unless you are one of those people who like to shift into reverse when the car is moving. The one weak spot is the drive shaft flange seals, which seems to go after around 300,000km. It is best to replace them, as if the tranny fluid level gets too low, 5th gear is not lubricated, and it will fail very quickly.
'93-'98
- no experience with these cars. I've heard that the early 1.9 diesels had a bad problem with the crankshaft pulley bolt shearing, which caused the timing to go out and the pistons to hit the valves, you know what happens then I guess......
