Bit of a change in Australia. In the bush apparently Bush Rats have developed a taste for the wiring insulation on hybrid Honda Cities. Couple of mates (who were naive enough to buy them) have resorted to using nylon "wrapping" around the looms. john
And what does this have to do with VWs. Or maintenance on vws.
65K to 200K miles depending on things like if you change the oil every 1000 miles and whether or not you use a new case.
Oil. use one for classic cars with ZDDP like Brad Penn for less cam shaft wear.
The engine in my '73 beetle is a near stock engine. I have had it for over 12 years and it has about 14000 miles on it.
I change the oil every 850 miles or every 3,4 months whichever comes first.
I follow a good maintenance checklist:
For starters you need : brakes and front end engine, clutch, and tranny possible a new wiring harness interior paint job
...not trying to be a know-it-all. Just my 2 cents worth!
maybe nothing.... that said, this is a group of people and in print or person conversations always have a bit of sway to them...
This should read: For starters you 'might' need : brakes and front end engine, clutch, and tranny possible a new wiring harness interior paint job
65K to 200K miles depending on things like if you change the oil every 1000 miles and whether or not you use a new case.
Oil. use one for classic cars with ZDDP like Brad Penn for less cam shaft wear.
The engine in my '73 beetle is a near stock engine. I have had it for over 12 years and it has about 14000 miles on it.
I change the oil every 850 miles or every 3,4 months whichever comes first.
I follow a good maintenance checklist:
For starters you need : brakes and front end engine, clutch, and tranny possible a new wiring harness interior paint job
...not trying to be a know-it-all. Just my 2 cents worth!
How come so soon on oil changs. They wont get 3000 miles ?
This should read: For starters you 'might' need : brakes and front end engine, clutch, and tranny possible a new wiring harness interior paint job
I put some feelers on craigslist. There's a few people want to trade beetles for for winter cars or trucks . And I have a 85 diesel VW Golf and an 82 3/4 Suburban Silverado. Im trying to get rid of.
The stock engine has a strainer, but not a filter. You can extend your engine's oil change intervals from the original 1000 miles, to 3000 miles by adding a real oil filter
Beetle maintenance and repair can interfere with your spare time.
They are easy to work on and there are plenty of parts available.
You probably won't get your money back if you decide to sell it.
The heater usually does not work too well or takes 20 minutes or so to start working.
It makes for a great hobby. It gives a sense of accomplishment.
They are easy to work on and there are plenty of parts available.
Instead of J.C. Whipme you might want to try:
for tech help:
I drove in a rare one that had heat, A 66 . It was aout 50 out and I remember actually turning the heat down after a bit.
I know what that means. Its gonna make me pull my hair out. A love hate type of thing. Like my watercooled diesel VWs.
Yes, but I'd say it's relative. I just used several weeks to repair an old BMW and I could have done a full engine restore to Beetle with that amount of work. ;)
Here (in Finland) a Beetle is an worthy investment, not only you get your money back, it's also inflation adjusted, if the car is at least in same condition you bought it or better. :)
More often than not the heater channels have rusted away and flaps/wires are stuck.
Very fast it isn't, but 20 minutes seems a bit excessive, my van is pushing heat into cabin at end of my daily trip to work, about 10 minutes in city traffic. Not much, of course as the air flow isn't high at those speeds.
Once you got all the maintenance that previous owner hasn't done, done, it's working like a charm for a long time. Old age of the car shows best in there that you can't skip maintenance, these are designed for regular maintenance. On the other hand, they last almost forever if maintained well. 100k miles from an engine designed in 1930s is a lot: 30k miles was quite normal engine replacement interval in European cars at that time.
If you replace some cheap and easy to change parts like spark plugs, distributor rotor, condensator, breaker and check/install fuel filter right after buying, you'll save much hair pulling later. :)
(Keep the old ones as spare parts in car, just in case something breaks on the road. A kind of insurance. Or buy two each.)
I had misfiring problems in van all summer and what was the guilty part? The distributor rotor, $3. Argh!
I'm still kicking myself because I didn't change that first. On the other hand, almost 3500 miles this summer. :)
I'm very pleased with that. Maintenance done: Oil changes (2), valve adjustments(2), brake adjustments(2), front axle greasing, gearbox oil addition. Nothing too time-consuming, less than an hour each, not bad for an
50-year-old van.Dark sides: Gearbox is howling >40mph, front brakes are quite random as I didn't find new brake shoes for those (current ones are real vintage, from
70s :) ) and lights are a joke. I saw some 6V HID kits available in China but those might glare way too much to be used on the road. Might work as driving lights, though.
Socialism at its best perhaps. Supply and demand.
Yes, I agree.
Old age of the car shows best in there
Yea its better then I thought. However, I ve seen quite a few horror stories where people rebuilt them and they locked up . Im thinking they are intolerant of the lack of basic maintenance. I also fing it hard to believe that theres not a lot of people who drive them and never adjust the valves until they wont run right.
I guess the thing is. You cant sell the car now due to the EPA. They dont want you to have cars like VWs now. Cars now are $2-300 on those EPA engine sensors now. And they got the cars rigged to limp home and die. Its not like the 80s or 90s escorts where you get a $24 ignition module changed and run it for 5 or 10 years. And you get 35 mpg all day and carry more and have heat. Your not getting a $5 set of points on anything. Ive been doing the diesel VW s for decades because they are emission exempt, Have no sensors or ignition systems to screw up. So a little more maintenance is ok. Unfortunately they are all rotted now. And hard to find that arent junk.
my heat works wonderfully... much warmer, in less time, than my watercooled cars... But mine is setup the way VW intended it....
Short answer DD? Presuming your feedback wasnt rhetorical.. At work I manage the technology in a major hospital. When interviewing new applicants, after the electronics questions I always ask 1/ what car do you drive? and 2/ do you service it yourself?. I,ve always found people who answer 2/ by saying they do it ( particularly with older cars) are more able to deal with challenges, more resourceful amd mor reliable. Its because they are more interested in ALL facets of engineering, not just focusing on one area ( or brand). Get angry DD, get angry at why Mary Travers died young, why good Australian and American blokes are dying in Afghanistan., get angry at the dying of the light, not why 800 bits of binary data are stored in some obtuse corner of a PC.
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