Buying the right starter

why not tell the parts man you year & engine & which trans is in the car? May also be a good idea to inform us too?

Higher Kw ratings are usually for diesels.

'cause I'm an idiot! I don't know how to check which transmission it is (unless you mean manual -- which it is). But am I correct in assuming this is a 1.8L engine? On parts4vws.com they want to know if it's 1.8 16V or 1.8 8V, and I don't know what that second part is referring to. I already got one starter from Autozone and it was either bad or incorrect. The body was a half-inch shorter than the one I pulled. Anyway, now I'm going to Advance Auto to try again, but they had two totally different starters listed for my car -- one was 1.4 kilowatt and one was .8 kilowatts(or "kilometers" as read by the parts guy -seriously)

Am guessing Rabbit GTI. 8 valve, 1.8L. Early 80s.

Maybe an incorrect guess will tweak the information from the poster?

Oops. Yes '83 Rabbit GTI. Not sure how many valves though.

then it's a 8 valve engine and I presume it's a 5 speed trans. Now should be easy to find a starter, but before you do make sure it is the starter and not something like the ignition switch, poor grounds, etc

I also have a 79 Rabbit (not GTI). Do you think I could use that starter in the 83 GTI? It looks the same and even has the same VW part number printed on it, but it has an extra terminal. I would have tried it already, but I want to make sure I'm not going to damage the starter from the '79 rabbit. Thanks for all the help!!!! Fred

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