Author Topic: Going to look at a rabbit (Read 4567 times)

moose-tek · « **on:** September 16, 2006, 11:40:14 pm »

Hello all,

I have come across a person selling a few Diesel Rabbits not too far away from me. I am nearly a complete diesel newbie (been lurking about on many forums) and need advice and tips about inspecting these cars.

I have very little background information about the cars, except that the previous owner died and the cars went to his widow.
Her son-in-law is helping her sell them and he said that one, possibly two of them run, while the third is a parts car.

I am planning on taking metric tools, some diesel fuel and a battery with me.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

bvolks73 · « **Reply #1 on:** September 17, 2006, 05:14:31 am »

I've owned 4 Rabbits so far (80, 2- 81's and an 82 which I still have) but they were all gas, not diesels. However, the only real problem I ever had with them was in the fuel injection system and leaky windshields. Water would run right down onto the fuse box when it rained and cause lots of problems. Otherwise, they're great little cars. Easy to work on, parts relatively cheap. I kept my last one after the FI started giving me trouble with the hope of putting a diesel in it someday. I'd never own another gas one again but would jump at the chance to get ahold of a good diesel one.

RabbitJockey · « **Reply #2 on:** September 17, 2006, 08:11:39 am »

check for rust, don't worry about surface rust and stuff, you wanna look under the car and check the floor boards on the passenger and drivers side, the strut towers are a very important place to check for rust, front and back. the next thing i look for on any car when i am looking into buying it, is look at what kind of a driver had it previously, anything laying in it or under the seats or in the glove box, was it some kid beating the piss out of it or was it some old lady that only used the first 1/4 inch of the pedal to drive it. since they're diesel engines, you want a diesel with good compression, so it shouldn't start too hard, althought bad glow plugs will cause hard starts, if it has good compression it should still start either way. once it's running open the oil cap and check how much air is blowing by, and compare it to an engine that you know is good, obviously another vw diesel, not i can tell you most engines will have a bit of blowby, at idle there will be a nice amount of air coming out, it feels about the same as if you blow on ur hand pretty hard but not extremely hard. anyways, watch when it starts for smoke and stuff. go to each corner and push down on the bumper and see what condition the shocks are in, look in the wheel wells for broken springs. lots of stuff to check.

i love going to look at cars with my dad, we look those things over like crazy, we're a 2 man wrecking team, nothing gets passed us haha

Kudagra · « **Reply #3 on:** September 17, 2006, 08:55:56 am »

A friend and I went and looked at my Jeep before I bought it. Some kid had it that didnt have an idea about it. Jeeps have a nasty habit of breaking the FlexPlate (auto flywheel) and it sounds like mains. So anyway..friend and I are looking it over making bad faces about the noise. Telling the guy how the inline 6 has a bunch of mains and isnt cheap to fix. Probably need to go through it. Worse case. He dropped the price from 1500 to 1000. Told him Id think about it. Next day called and offered him 900 cash. He took it.

So basically...take a friend along. It helps convince them what ever you say. Hopefully this guy isnt too mechaincally adept. Nit pick all the problems to knock the price down. 2 sets of eyes are better then one. Dont feel bad about having a little huddle out of his ear shot. Feel free to walk away. But still look interested.

BTW...I could have sold my Jeep for twice as much a week later. I love making money off of uneducated people.

moose-tek · « **Reply #4 on:** September 17, 2006, 05:38:39 pm »

Thank you for the replies, they will be of great help when I go look at the cars tomorrow afternoon.

Also, since I have no details, is there a part number list somebody can provide that will help me determine what these cars are equipped with?

How do I identify the cars model year?

Finally, what should I do to check the engine before trying to start;
Any critical must-check items, common starting issues, random unknowns, etc.?

I will try to bring a camera with me and post a few pictures here for analysis.

burn_your_money · « **Reply #5 on:** September 18, 2006, 01:45:41 pm »

Check the timing belt. Remove the cover (it's a pain on the mk1, especially to put back on) and then hit the timing belt with a mallet ir your fist between the injection pump and the cam. If it's going to break that is when you want it to. Because if it's running and it breaks you're looking at smashed vavles at the very least.
On most rabbits the driver side floor will go out first. This is due to the windsheild leak previously mentioned.
Check the wiring. Most rabbits have electical problems and many owners just hack everything apart. That's a good barganing point. The diesel rabbit is very simple as far as wiring is concerned.
Check the air filter and tubes. Squirells, mice etc like to make nests in there and you don;t want to suck all that crap into the engine.