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Comments
Can anyone let me know what to do?
Also, we just moved to the Davis CA area. Does anyone know of a good VW mechanic? Should I just bring my car into the dealership?
Thanks in advance for your advice.
Don't know what was causing the idle noise (would you describe that sound as "Click and clack"?) As I said, I don't know much about cars. But the brake thing makes me nervous. (Brake and tire things always do.)
Hope this helps!
Well, it's nice to be wrong. For once, Jim Ellis VW in Marietta got it right. The service advisor called me about 8:30 AM Friday morning to let me know they'd diagnosed the brake problem as warped rear rotors. I figured it was that. The shocker was that they were covering the rotors under warranty! They also said the pads had about a third of their life left (10K miles?), and they'd replace them just for the cost of the parts ($70). I took them up on that offer. So I got out of the service department with new rear brakes for less than $100. However, it does frighten me to think that I can only get 30K out of a set of rear brakes....
I bet that'll never happen again. So based on what you've said, I'd do as brozhnik has suggested and get your car in for service. It looks like it #2 is definitely covered by the warranty (you're well within the 12,000 miles... for brakes and wearable items...is it also less than 12 months?). Hopefully they can find the problem for #3. As for #1...outside of the seven years of bad luck, I doubt VW will cover that (unless it was a flaw that broke the mirror).
Good luck!
I have had my Jetta serviced at Gossett several times and have been completely satisfied. It is sort of comical that this same dealer was deemed qualified to sell VW's signature Phaeton. I truely hope that Phaeton owners receive better service and quality that you did.
But let me give you two alternatives to the dealer brake job:
1) Find a VW/Audi independent garage and see what they will charge. Ask what is the source of their parts...OEM, or other recognized high quality manufacturer. See what they would charge.
2) Consider doing the job yourself. Buy the parts on line and do the install. It's not a difficult job (and step-by-step instructions are available on some other VW forums).
In either case, youy would get qulaity parts and a job well done. If you have a bent towards DIY, then there's the add'l satisfaction of doing it yourself.
Finally, before assuming that Midas, et al will charge soooo much less...call them. Because sometimes the price you see in the ads has fine print (most cars - but not yours!). My personal experience has been that they have a tendency to want to replace all components, perhaps more than you actually need.
YMMV.
The buying part was very good, I happened to get a good sales guy. I researched the price and got
the car for about $700.00 over invoice.
The car was not on the dealers lot, otherwise
I might have tried for a lower price.
I had one minor problem on the 2nd day of ownership, the temp sensor for the electric fan.
The electric radiator fan was running on full speed when it was very cold out, and with a cold engine. I took the car back (pain in the butt)
and after 3 days, they said they could not find any problem. The day after I got the car back, the fan started running on high speed all the time again.
I went back to the dealers and bought a new sensor, for the grand cost of $5.00.
The parts guy said they sell a lot of them, and had a big bag. The new sensor was different from the original one.
No problems with the car since.
I have heard the back brakes wear out quickly, but suspect that was on the 2002 cars, when VW used softer pads. My 2003 has 15,000 miles on it
and seems to not be wearing the pads at all.
Brake parts are cheap, new rotors can be as low as
$45.00 or less, pads are about $60.00 for a set of four quality pads.
$450.00 for a brake job is crazy, but you pay
full list price and labor, and get a poor job
in return.
Flush services, injector cleaners, carbon removal,
are all bogus money makers for shops, and most places will rip you off badly every way they can.
The boss pushes the techs to do a job as fast as possible, and dont worry about quality.
I do all my own work, and always have, and would never go back to the dealers unless the transmission fell out of my car, as they will only screw things up.
I mail order parts, oil, filters, etc, and do
my own work, saving huge amounts of money and getting a much better job.
I love the Passat, hate the VW service, and feel very sorry for people who have to use it.
I dont know how people afford cars with the
kind of repair bills I see here.
The VW vortex fourum is great for VW info,
and how to save money.
Brett
2003 GLX
Thanks so much for the advice! Luckily I love my car so these problems will be forgiven...this time
Carrie ~2003 Passat GLS 1.8T AT, Candy White, Tan leather.
If they were warped, you would get a pulsing
when stopping, like you were pressing the brake pedal easy/hard/easy, slows down with wheel speed.
Rear disks rarely ever warp, front ones do, mostly
from the bozo's over tightening the lug nuts, and
doing a poor brake job (they dont clean things up).
Bet you got ripped off.
I heard rotors are covered under the warentee as long as you dont grind the pads down into them.
Brett
2003 GLX
Carrie ~2003 Passat
-les
If, however, you are not under warranty, it's a different story. Failure of the timing belt results in significant valvetrain damage (like many modern engine designs, the VW engines are "interference" engines - i.e., the non-moving valves can be struck by the moving pistons if the timing belt fails). Very costly repair - I'm talking thousands.
Finally, what did the service advisor tell you about the condition of the timing belt? In other words, was this "hey, we didn't look at it, but it's 60K miles, do your belt," or was it, "gee, we carefully examined your timing belt and it doesn't look good?" If it's the latter, then I could possibly see that you might have a problem with the warranty, if the belt actually breaks within the warranty period.
Good luck.
-les
What you really want to read is the warranty and owner's manual that came with the car. Photocopy the page from the manual and give it to the service dept and get the cost estimate based on those items only. Further, I keep in mind those items checked by my state's annual safety inspection. No point in doing the same checks twice (like brakes, exhaust, etc).
-les
I posted last week about my car having warped rotors and a loose engine block panel all being fixed. However the rapid clanking noise is still there AND getting worse and now the car vibrates when idling. I've left 2 (!) messages this week with my VW service manager and have yet to have them returned.
Sometimes it sounds like a card is stuck in a fan; a rapid clicking has started with the rapid clanking noise (along with a snap, crackle and pop, lol).
Any ideas??
Thanks!
Carrie ~2003 VW Passat GLS
I don't know what a loose engine block panel is. Sorry I can't be more helpful.
You indicated that you saw records indicating regular oil changes. How regular - in other words, what was the average oil change interval in miles? Also, could you tell from the records whether the oil used was synthetic or not?
Thanks for your additional input.
Thanks for your feedback.
If you check the synth manufacturer's sites (try Mobil 1 and Valvoline's webpages), they deny it causes leaks. I've got no evidence personal evidence since I've been running synth since new on my 1.8T VW and on a Honda engine.
I'm running Valvoline Synpower in the 5w-40 viscosity, as that is the grade recommended in my VW owner's manual. Mobil 1 5w-30 is used in the Honda.
If your engine is already significantly sludged, you might want to consider having a tech drop the oil pan, clean out what's there, and remove the valve cover gasket and do the same up top. You'll want to change or at least clean the screen on the oil pump screen. None of this is cheap, but it may not be too late. I'd use pure synth after that.
And the sludge may be the reason the previous owner sold the car.
While looking at other cars to buy (eventually settled on a Honda Pilot) my trusted mechanic, who told me 2.5 years ago what a lemon the VW's are, said that he could take it to the state wide auction and probably get me $10,500, maybe $11,000. This was a $30,000 car 3.5 years ago! The reason why was because there are about 500 VW's that go up every week, most off of lease. Apparently the only way that VW keeps "sales" up is to offer very attractive lease deals, thus dumping them 36 months later.
My advice to anyone looking to buy, or owning a VW Passat is to dump it immediately, and if not, prepare for constant, consistent and expensive problems!
If you want to know what happened with mine, do a search under lonegunman and enjoy the reading. My suggestion is to do it on an empty stomach or else
P.S. I read somewhere a person having problems with water in the back floorboard, this happened to me, it is a warranty item, plugs in the under frame are falling out allowing water in, also use your parking brake when starting the car, it will keep the headlights from surging during startup, keep you from having to replace headlight every 10,000 miles Good Luck God Bless
Thanks for the feedback.
Does anyone have experience replacing the bulbs that illuminate the dash vent controls? The one on the passenger side dash vent (indicating open or closed) is out. Thanks for any feedback.
Now we have an warning light about low coolant. The first time it happened was 5 weeks ago. The overflow reservoir was empty and I filled it with anti-freeze and it was fine until a few days ago when the warning light came back on and I found the reservoir empty again. So I guess we have a slow leak, but I have never seen any evidence of it. I saw that a Technical Service bulletin was issued about a coolant leak (1702-01/APR 02/Engine Oil Cooler Hoses - Coolant leak), but I can't find the actual bulletin, only the title.
Has anyone had this problem. Does anyone have the service bulletin? Will they fix it for free even after the warranty has expired?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm going broke with this car!
After this experience, I requested from the selling dealership, and then VW of America, a replacement vehicle or a full refund. This morning I received both dealerships' negative response to my request and their decision to adhere to the existing warranty. At this stage, I may have to wait until my car has problems for the third time before I can invoke Virginia's lemon law. In the meantime, I would appreciate any feedback on similar Passat experiences, and advice on next steps.
Good Luck!!
I've seen the directions on other Passat forums. Part # is 3B0-919-243A. Your email is private, otherwise I'd send you a link (Edmunds frowns on links to other forums).
I haven't done it, but it doesn't look that hard to do.
P.S.
Buy an extended warranty with any VW....you will not regret it.
Darren
Can't say I've heard of the shifter problem.
The heater core thing has popped up on VW's for years. I know I had my 87 Golf heater core done under warranty.
You didn't by chance get the lemon list from this site, did you?
http://www.lemonlaw.com/lemonlist.html
Looks like a site by lawyers trying to scare up more business.
There are also entries on this list from Audi, Toyota, Honda, Buick, and Subaru, among others (Ford, GM, Chrysler)...
P.S. Got a call from my lawyer- VW USA is willing to settle out of court!
The Passat is a very nice car in many ways, but there is little to enjoy about a car which rattles, whines, squeaks, and hums. Most of this is dashboard-related (it appears that the dash is simply out of spec). This is not an issue like hitting a pothole at 60 mph, it is like listening to a marching band all the time while driving.
I have taken the car to a dealer three times already but it has become apparent that there is no interest in replacing the dashboard. Instead, the dash got coated in silicone spray. Months later silicone continues to drain into the instrument cluster on hot days. The head mechanic of the dealer who sold me the car admitted on a test drive that this problem is as bad as it gets, but this is of little help (and of course not in writing).
Having moved I now have to deal with dealers who did not sell me the car and have even less of an interest to address this issue. I am getting ready for one more trip to a dealer before I would qualify for a lemon law claim here in California. Does anyone have advise on workmanship/lemon law issues with VW?
Thanks,
Frank
Other than these rattles, I have not had one mechanical problem with my car.
Since we only have it serviced at 2 VW dealerships so far, one of them goofed up. It's hard to imagine a VW dealership would make such a mistake, but that's another story...
The engine must be power-flushed to remove any traces of the green glycerine-based coolant.
It's pretty hard (in fact, uncommon) to mix up the two coolants since they come in different (distinctive) bottles, but there is that rare occasion that a mix up occurs.
I found it impossible to access the passenger side headlight bulb without removing some air duct. As I am afraid of breaking something while removing the air duct, I hope someone can tell me how to remove the air duct. I assume it's fairly easy but haven't found the trick yet.
Thanks in advance.