Our 2003 Golf CL is losing fluid... It's green in colour and we can't really identify where it is leaking from.
The coolant seems to be red, washer fluid is blue, brake fluid looks to be a yellowish colour if I can see thru the bottle correctly.
Just another one of the list of small problems we have had all year with this car... we're thinking of trading it in on a 2004 Volvo XC70 and using our old 1993 Volvo 960 as the secondary car - my 1999.5 Golf TDI might be the only V-Dub left here soon :-(.
Rob. Murphy's VW Law. :) My A3 Jetta only had 8000 miles on it at the time the windshield wiper motor died. Warranty job. After the warranty ran out I replaced the motor two times.
Yah probably Murphy's Law, kind of ruins the new car experience tho.
This car has been plagued with little BS problems right from the get go... and it burns oil to top it off. (we didn't know about the 2.0L burning oil at the time or else we wouldn't have got that engine... our 1.8L didn't burn any it just leaked it - when we stopped the leaks it didn't lose anything between changes)
Yep. If dealerships would really do a complete PDI including checking all the switches and gadgets before they put them on the lot, you would probably have the dealers complaining about all the problems they found instead of the costumers doing the complaining.
VW wants to get out of the affordable car market. However they don't realize that in order to do this you also have to implement extra quality and re-designed parts so these little BS issues do not happen. They are still using the peoples car part designs for economy vehicles on heavier and more plastic laden bodys. If the cost changes, then the quality and part design to make the vehicle more reliable must change too.
Now Rob, you must have known about the 2.0L OBD-II engine having the light oil weight ring design. Somehow the mechanics of the 2.0L engine promotes more oil consumption than other newer light oil engine OEMs. I'm thinking it's because of the lack of tolorance with is very rare for German engineering. My 2.0L 1994 OBD-I does not consume any oil until after about 7000 miles. I think the early A3 2.0L is more robust and doesn't have the lame light weight oil rings.
The 1.8L 8Vs are great engines. The 16Vs were more expensive to maintain and are considered moneypits unless you DYI.
Maybe if they did a good PDI at the dealer which would catch poorly constructed factory flaws first.
That is the old saleman snake-oil speaking there. :-) Sure they want you to buy new and speak that line. I say hang in there with all the warranty fixes and stuff. Weed out the weak parts and your 2003 will become reliable. That is how I did my A3. The reason your 99.5 feels more reliable is because the engine is not a gasoline engine. Diesels, especially the old NA ones make the vehicle feel like they are more reliable, since they generally have less gadgets to go wrong.
DYIing after the warranty runs out with new A4s might not make sense now that VW parts are so outragously bubbled. You have to setup your own wholesale account and buy direct from the part OEMs that resell w/o VW logos.
My Diesel is a TDI GLS with every conceivable option VW could have put on the car at the time!... Way more stuff then my fathers CL... Actually my TDI is hooked up to the automatic transmission, thus making it in need of shorter service intervals then the 2.0L engine - needs a timing belt every
60K Kms... this alone eats up the cost savings of not having to buy spark plugs and most of the fuel savings difference.
Yes Corrados are money-pits. You got out while the getting was good. :)
The TDI design in part must be a better electrical and hardware placement redesign. Enough to make it reliable. Proof that they can do it. I bet the Polo and Lupo TDIs are reliable too over in Germany. I just wish we could get them here in the US.
Lucky you. As I stated above. I think the TDI wiring and is generally different enough than the gas engine siblings which allows it to somehow be more reliable. Proof that VW can make this happen. Of course the timing belt is a PITA. I would say the TDIs are owned and kept more for the lack of BS issues compared to the gas siblings. The MPG is also a big deal. :)
You talk out of your butt. I had a dead horn, a dead seat belt (3 visits), a leaky cv boot all fixed under warranty. Now I have a slipping clutch 7,000 miles out of warranty. What kind of crud its that? I have been driving VW's since 1977. 3 air cooled and this is my
3rd water cooled. H>Note. I didn't get Rob's post yet so I am piggy-backin on Pauls post. :) >
Clutches aren't covered by warranty! But VW has been known to pay for them during the first year especially if the cars got low miles. ever see a customer burn out 3 clutches in 9000 miles? First one was free and she paid for the other 2... afterward she admitted it was her first standard trans. The fix was she traded the car in for an automatic.
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