86 Golf Diesel questions

[CG]

I'm looking into buying a 86 Golf. I need to know as much about them and their non-tdi engines as possible including expected engine endurance. The one I'm looking at is currently at 360k miles. Is this a healthy number? Should it have 50k, 100k, 200k miles left in it?

I'd like any info and opinions anyone can give.

[Cheesetoast]

a td golf? my mechanic had a td mk2 jetta in his shop recently, 640,000km on it, only died because it had a coolant leak and the lady kept driving it.

[VWRacer]

CG, car care and driving style are as important as mileage. If the rest of the car has been well taken care of -- brakes, tires, clutch, interior, exterior, etc., are all in good shape, that speaks well of the owner, and is often an indication of the engine's condition as well.

However, if the owner is selling it because it's "worn out", then maybe it is, and the asking price should reflect that. (I wouldn't pay more than about $1000 for that vintage a car.) Does the car drive well? Does everything on the car work? Do some max rolling accelerations from ~2000 RPMs to ~4500 RPMs...does it smoke under load? What color is the smoke? (Black indicates fueling issues; blue means it's sucking oil past the rings.)

Personally, I wouldn't be too concerned about that many miles put on a car by someone commuting an hour-plus to work every day, but if it was delivering pizzas or some such, I'd be more worried.

The other issue that comes to mind is the question of your aims for the car. Is this to be your daily driver? Weekend warrior for autocross or track days? Fun project car? Obviously, a daily "earn your wage" car needs reliability first, foremost, and always. Ask yourself those questions and maybe the rest of the puzzle will fall into place. Ain't car shopping fun!?

[chrissev]

I'm looking into buying a 86 Golf. I need to know as much about them and their non-tdi engines as possible including expected engine endurance. The one I'm looking at is currently at 360k miles. Is this a healthy number? Should it have 50k, 100k, 200k miles left in it?

I'd like any info and opinions anyone can give.

I can tell you a quick few checks you can do to determine if the engine is any good or a basket case.  First thing to do is look at the engine visually.  Especially look at the front of the engine, in the middle, where the oil passage passes down through the head and block.  You will see the head gasket sticking out here with some notches on it.  Look for oil or signs that oil has been leaking down the front here.  Start the engine and rev it while looking at this area and see if the oil is bubbling out of the head gasket here.  If you have an oil leak here, you need to replace the head gasket.  Other places to look for oil leaking are inside the airbox, through the valve cover gasket, and dripping out of the bottom of the transmission where it attaches to the engine (leaking rear main seal).  If you find a lot of oil leaks, chances are the engine has excessive blow by and will need rebuilt.  
Second thing to do is to take the thing for a drive.  Drive at around 50km/hr in third gear, then accelerate hard up to red line, and shift to fourth and continue accelerating hard.  Look behind you.  Can you see anything or is it all just grey diesel smoke?  If there is a lot of smoke, your engine probably has low compression and will need to be rebuilt.  A lot of the smoke is also probably oil.  
Ideally, when these cars were new, they leaked no oil, and didn't blow smoke.  If your car is far from this ideal, it hasn't got too much further to go.
Those things can run when they are almost dead, so no matter how nice it sounds idling, remember that an oil covered, smoke blowing diesel engine is an almost dead diesel engine.  Fortunately they are cheap to rebuild.  The rest of the mechanicals are pretty much bullet proof (but those cars seem to eat drive shaft seals for some reason; might be the placement of the seal, and they are a b*tch to replace because of the spring that's behind the drive flange.

[CG]

Specs:1986 VW Golf 52-hp diesel engine. 40-50 mpg. Running. 4 doors, hatchback, fold-down back seat, PA inspection through September 2004, reconstructed title. Not sure if this was one of the last VWs made in Westmoreland County, PA, or if this is one of the German ones.

The Good News: This car is PA inspected through the end of September 2004. I've driven it nearly every day for almost 4 years (I purchased it in October 2000). In that time, I've driven approximately 53,000 miles and it's been a great car. I think the only time it let me sit was this past winter when the glow points went bad and the temperature would drop below 25 degrees. The garage replaced the glow points and everything has been fine. I've driven it up through this week to work and I haven't had any problems. This summer, I've driven it on trips of more than 400 miles, so I would personally trust driving it a long distance.

The Bad News: This is an 18-year old car with 363,000 miles. Things are not all perfect. For example, it has no radio, the paint is burning off the roof, the paint is gold in some places and silver in others, it has no inside door handle on the driver's side, the hood doesn't close smoothly, the windshield is cracked, the hatchback needs to be propped up to stay open, no A/C, and it has rust in different spots (see pics—the rust looks a bit worse in real life than in the photos). One strange problem is that these models had an early computer board (probably more of an electronics control board with a few ICs). Anyway, this board has been semifunctional since I bought it: the low-oil light flashes most of the time, but not always. It was disconcerting at first, but I've always had the oil changed regularly, so I've gotten used to it flashing for no reason and I stopped worrying.

I'm no mechanic, but I'm only aware of two things that would prevent a new inspection on this car: #1) the tires are bald in places and #2) the front passenger-side strut mount is rusted through. I went to a local auto body place and have a written estimate for $206. If you want to buy this car, you could take it there, find someone else to do the work, or if you're handy with a welding torch, you could do it yourself.

One more thing that most people would consider a problem: It has a reconstructed title. I bought it from a place that put together a bunch of diesel VWs from accidents. From, the same place, I bought a 1981 diesel Rabbit that I drove for 10 years and 109,000 miles. That car was totalled by someone who didn't see me and broadsided me (it was her fault) and the meager insurance money went to buy this VW Golf. So, despite the fact that the titles were reconstructed, I had good luck with these cars.





Thats the info I have on it. It's in Pennsylvania and I'm in Colorado so I have no real way to test drive it or check it visually.

[chrissev]

reconstructed title means the miles probably aren't correct for all the parts (ie, maybe it has a different engine).  If you have the VIN I can tell you where it was built, but I am guessing West Germany.  You really have to see the engine to know whether the car is junk or not.  The engine on my TD Jetta was dead at 350,000km (not miles)  (although it ran great, just didn't have any power, was hard to start, and smoked a lot and leaked oil everywhere, so did a compression test and found one cylinder had no compression at all, two were below specs quite a bit, and one was just on the edge of passability - it idled really great and sounded like a brand new diesel).  It has been rebuilt and now doesn't smoke at all, has lots of power, doesn't leak oil anywhere (but burns some because it leaks through the valve stem seals, because the head was not rebuilt, though it should have been), and starts in -20 degree weather without a block heater.

[Greasemonkey]

.....and starts in -20 degree weather without a block heater.

great to hear, is that celsius?

[chrissev]

.....and starts in -20 degree weather without a block heater.

great to hear, is that celsius?

no, centigrade (I live in Canada eh?)  Summer is when the ice melts enough that you can see the frozen ground underneath.