Long term Passat issues?

2003 Passat wagon, 1.8 turbo with tiptronic.

Check engine light - replaced secondary vacuum valve and hose at 43,000 miles, $250. Vibrating warped rear rotors and lining $410. Replaced dip stick (broken plastic pull handle!!!) $20. Noisy left front wheel bearing replaced at 47,000 miles, $600. And the wiper blades wear out about every six months and I can't find the cheap refills at Walmart anymore, so I have to buy the full replacement from the dealer.

Repairs aren't quite as frequent as on my wife's 2000 Beetle, but the Passat seems to be working on catching up...

For my '02 (pre-aero blades) I just buy the rubber inserts and spend a few minutes at the workbench sliding the old ones out and sliding the new ones in. They're cheap.

According to this

youcan do essentially the same with the aero blades.

The bigger the VW the quicker the standard designed parts wear out. VW always had a habit of designing a vehicle from existing designs and trying to make the hardware work in heavier VWs. The lighter the weight of a VW the longer they last. Most people on RAMVW have older smaller DIY vehicles and the OP question is out of the scope of this group if you know what I mean. He needs to find the "what car should I get next after my warranty runs out" group.

So David, What do YOU want? :-) A Hybrid may give you the economy you want in mpg and is definitely different than your Passat. You may even get a rebate for buying one too! I think more Hybrid owners drive differently than Passat owners though so expect to change your driving habits.

You probably have a ways to go before your Passat gets "too expensive" to maintain. Expect: ....Brakes =Normal around 40K or a little longer depending on usage ....Timing Belt = not bad at around 100k miles but will include water pump, thermostat and misc. items ....Front Suspension replacement = not cheap and maybe at 100K miles or a little longer. ....Turbo maybe after 120-140K miles maybe ....CV Joint Boots

If you use the correct synthetic oil and let that turbo cool down after a spirited run you can hopefully keep them both in tip-top condition. I am trying to learn about these cars and engines, so these are just some of my observations and opinions. ;-)

The vwvortex procedure was what I was doing, but as stated in one of the posts, Walmart stopped carrying the refills last year. The alternate Trico refills aren't carried in any of my local parts stores. Good news is the dealer price for the complete replacement blades has come down a little, but still much more expensive than the refills. And since I'm there so often (reference my original post), at least its not overly inconvenient...

A major criteria for selecting my two VWs was crash test ratings and safety equipment. When I bought them, antilock brakes, side torso airbags (2000 Beetle), and side curtain airbags (2003 Passat) were not generally available. In 2008, most manufacturers make them available and there are many models with good crash test ratings.

I changed my wiper blades on my 2003 Jetta 2 months ago. Those blades were installed in June of 2002. I bought another set of really over-priced Bosch blades from the local national parts store(Autozone) in hopes that they might last a long time. It seems that the blades from the factory seem to last a long time but after that I have not had a pair last more than 6-12 months.

I buy mine from the dealer's parts department; they're still only a few bucks a pair.

They used to come in boxes of two, but now I just get handed the rubber strips. That's handy because I no longer have to buy 4 at a time just to have one for the rear wiper.

Didn't that car come with some sort of warranty? My 2003 had a 50,000 mile 4 year warranty. Maybe a few more miles for the engine. I thought that at least in the US they emissions system had to have a 50,000 mile warranty. I had a few minor things taken care of just under that

60,000 mile mark. Although I guess maybe the 4 year time w>PP's sarcasm aside, I appreciate the comments. This is not a warranty

Except for a misfire problem that Woodchuck solved on this newgroup and which took the dealer service dept four visits to fix (needed two new coils), our 2002 1.8T Tip Passat was pretty much trouble free until about 61000 miles when BOTH front outer CV boots blew out. Our dealership servce dept is very friendly and accommodating and the repair with the 60K oil service was "only" about $600 (ie, actually not too bad). But that was a wake up call for me. I contacted WarrantyDirect for a quote on a 2 or 3 year extended warranty. It was about $1500/2000. I was all set to get it when VW announced a $1500 Passat loyalty rebate on a new one. I did the math: $1500 + 2000 = $3000 towards a new car.

So what I'm saying is that VWs are great cars but even Woodchuck (with way over 30 years as a master VW dealer mechanic) says that if you're going to keep a VW, you'd better get an extended warranty. You might make it to 100K with minimal cost, but don't count on it. I suspect we wouldn't have used the entire $2000 but I'm at a point in life where I don't like living with uncertainly and can afford the alternative.

Here's my philosophy re: VWs: If you want to keep them after the warranty runs out and you want piece of mind, you either have to fix everything yourself or get an extended warranty. I had my 95 Golf for 7

1/2 years and I did all the repairs myself. It never went to a pro except for tires. Same with my 82 convertible. But the Passat - no way. Too exotic and too hard to work on. I'm hoping that VWs will become more and more reliable with each new generation. So far my MKV GTI and 07 Passat have been pretty much trouble free. But time will tell.

Bill

I replaced a egr valve on my 2003 car that I goofed up when doing my

100,000 mile maintenance. I did new injector nozzles a few thousand miles ago. I would have received no value in an extended warranty. If they extended the warranty to 500,000 miles and included timing belts it might make sense to me. 325,000 miles to go to hit that 500,000 miles. Lots of people report low repairs. Depends on luck and engine maybe. Heck the Rabbits were supposed to have bad ac and electrical problems. I did not experience that with 300,000 plus miles on two Rabbits. Gti had 300,000 miles when sold and the other Rabbit had over 200,000 miles when wrecked.

Don't forget a full timing belt/waterpump/tensioner change at 60-65K (go longer at risk of a $3.5K engine rebuild) at about $800-1,000.

I believe it's 105,000 miles for the timing belt on 2001 (B5.5?) and later cars.

...snip

You're right. Chances are that you'll never "use up" the extended warranty, expecially on a diesel. Note also what I said above. You're doing a lot of your own work and staying ahead of the TDI problems (like the EGR valve) so your car is less likely to break. For the Passat, the first step in a lot of repairs is: put the car in the "service position." In other words, the whole front of the car has to be detached and jacked out about a foot so that you can get enough room to work. And a quick look at the repair instructions for replacing the axles scared me off since it involved messing with that complex and expensive to repair Passat front suspension.

But I really didn't trust that 1.8T. The engine itself was fine, but I was concerned about things like the secondary air motor/pump, diverter valve, etc. In other words, all the things that are connected to it. VW clearly didn't have a trouble free owner experience in mind when they specified those WWII era fabric covered rubber vacuum hoses under the hood. These broke twice on our Passat. And they put a rats nest of those vacuum hoses right on top of the exhaust manifold in the cars with transverse 1.8Ts (like the Jetta).

To me, the big money items after warranty would be the A/C compressor and the ABS system. Either of those could go over $2000. By the way, the Warranty Direct warranty also supposedly covers wear items like CV boots.

My friend brought over his 2002 Passat with a 1.8T. It had an error of running lean sometimes. That remove the front end to change the timing belt is not fun.The TDI is fairly easy to work on. Maybe the 1.8T in a Jetta is ok but not much fun in the Passat.

Let it go that long and let us know how that worked out for you .

Let it go that long and let us know how that worked out for you .