Bought my 3rd VW in April last year, 2nd diesel. First VW was an '89 Fox which I seemed to be fixing all the time. It was a learning experience. I finally got sick of fixing it when one of the front wheel bearings went, so I sold it with 250,000 some odd kms and bought a '93 Golf TD. It was a little more reliable, put 130,000 km on it and parked it at 368k. The floor is now all rotten and the rear axle bushings are shot. Still I did a lot of fixin on it too.
Then there's the '94 Jetta I got in the spring with 215k. I bought this particular car because of the relatively low kms, the body was relatively rust-free and the floors were solid. I have put a lot of kms on it in the past 9 months...its now at 242k...or what I might call "middle age" where stuff starts to break. I drive 180 km round trip 5 days a week to work and back.
So far, I have done what I would call the normal maintenance items:
-front brakes
-oil changes
-air/fuel filter changes
-timing, serpentine, water pump belts
-cam, crank, and i-shaft seals
-coolant hoses
-t-stat
-snow tires
Then there's the PITA things that leak/wear out over time:
-replaced the head gasket at Christmas due to oil in cooling system
-rear struts
-springs all around
-R/F wheel brg
-replaced the heater control switches with those from the Golf because fan only blew on high
-one ball joint
-crankshaft damper (the rubber was separating and the whole assembly was wobbling)
Also I have installed a trailer hitch, alternator clutch pulley, and 1.6 boost pin.
This past week, the clutch started slipping, I found that the left front wheel bearing has failed, and the master cylinder crapped out completely. Obviously I bought a car that probably did not have much maintenance done to it other than the basics. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect this stuff to last forever. It's a 15 yr old car with a quarter million kms. I just get sick of spending my precious weekends arseing around with the car and stressing over whether it will make it to work and back for another week.
The thing is, I could afford a much newer car with under 100k on it that I wouldn't have to touch with a wrench other than regular maintenance. My family, friends, and co-workers think I'm kind of nuts for driving these old things when I could afford much newer. The real reason I drive these older VW diesels is because I appreciate their simplicity, fuel economy, styling, and ease of service. I like to do all my own maintenance and repairs, and would not want to do the timing belt on a mk4 tdi for example. Having a check engine light come on would just piss me right off. It's not that I'm afraid of electronics...I repair electronic engines at work all the time. And driving pretty much anything gas powered just doesn't do it for me. I think being more pro-active with repairs might help alleviate the hassle. For example, one could replace the front struts, strut bearings, wheel bearings, tie rod ends, control arm bushings, and ball joints all in one shot, have it aligned, and be good for another 200k. I hope that I can get some of these more major repairs out of the way and be done with fixing for a while so I can focus on mods/upgrades :lol: .
Anyway, sorry for my ramblings...just need some encouragement to stick with the old dubs.
Topic: Will someone remind me why I still like these old VWs? (Read 4966 times)
