Audi / VW - Educate me

You have to be kidding?!?!?!

Where the hell is the thermostat?

Even on the easier 2.0l, the thermostat is on the waterpump. Which is typically buried underneath a bunch of shit.

That sucks. VW has replacing intake manifolds like popcorn on the TSI motors......they should have given you some goodwill on the repair, even tho you were past the end of the powertrain warranty.

i love when a customer that has always owned jap. cars and never really had to spend money on maint. decides to treat themselves to a used german car. the warm and fuzzy feeling usually wear off the first time the car need repairs. $1,000 for brakes $ 1600 for timing belt /waterpump the warm and fuzzy becomes ass puckering and sobbing. .

different mind set jap stuff runs with nothing more than simple maint. euorpean cars no such thing as simple maint..

survey says!!!!!

20 hrs. for the drivers side motor mount on a 2001 S4. The engine has to come out.

FWIW I have a 2000 Passat wagon with 4 motion. Essentially an A4 Avant. Just had the t-belt/water pump/tensioner/thermostat/cam seals job done at a local shop that specializes in German makes. It was $806. I pick it up and my temp is staying low at highway speeds. They never changed the t-stat I bet. Bring it back, tell em the t-stat still isn't working, no problem it's a warranty job. They fixed it right and I'm a happy camper.

I have plans on changing the tippy fluid in the next month or so. I usually do my own maintenance. It's really not that hard, but can be time consuming.

All in all it's a decent car. At 6'7" I was looking for a smaller wagon that I fit in, and the Passat was all I could find. I do like the AWD for WI winters, but I think next go around will be just FWD.

Yup. I had to go flapping my gums.

I'm in NJ and wife is in NH. Check engine light came on with a flashing glow plug light. Car runs and drives, but roadside assistance said they'll tow it anyways. We'll see what we're up against.

At least it went 11,000 miles before it had a problem- that's our record so far!

Year after year you can always count on VAG to stick to their same quality standards

But I will admit to buying a 2005 Jetta TDI brand new with the PD engine and having a great track record with the car (and this was one of the mexican built VW's). We sold it to another inmate here just shy of 100k miles, and the only issues were a recall at 5000 miles, a cd player that failed in warranty, and a fuel pump at 85,000 miles. Otherwise it was just maintenance items like oil changes, filters, and tire rotations. To my knowledge it has provided owner #2 with a similar experience.

I was diligent with maintenance, used only parts and oils that I was positive met VW's rather stringent specs, and even when folks started running different weight oils as the specs changed I refused to deviate from what the owner's manual said. I think things like this can sometimes have a lot to do with whether or not the ownership experience is good or a nightmare.

I'm coming up on 100k on my 2008 DTM S4 and so far it has cost very little. I bought lifetime oil changes with the car and the dealer complains about how much money they've lost on that little arrangement. The troubles I've had all have to do with the build quality of the interior. The console lid broke, the glove box door broke (fixed it once and it just broke again the other day), the door handle broke, the blinker fell out. All cheap plastic parts with poor engineering. Love the motor and the transmission on the car but it does not handle nearly as well as an M3 or any other stock 3 series BMW. Too much weight up front and there is just something special about the suspensions BMW puts in their sedans (the new X3 is terrible, rides like a buck board). This may change though. If I lunch the motor it's a cool 20k to replace it. I'm guessing the transmission would be in the 5-10k range.

Yeah we'll see what turns up. My wife is pretty pissed over this. I've calmed her down and told her we need to wait to see what the problem is. Might just be a one time fluke.

Used VAG cars are a "get what you pay for" kind of thing. It's the old adage- Fast, cheap, reliable... pick any 2.
I've got a 2002 Audi Allroad 2.7TT. It was like a $40k car new full of every whiz-bang option you can imagine. Heated everything, adjustable air suspension, etc.... and they are cheaper now than a Honda Civic of the same year.
You get all kinds of performance, good looks, super comfort.... but the trade off is turbos (2 of them!) that like to fail, flaky computers running everything, and pretty bad gas mileage .I baby it to get 23mpg on the highway- town can easily be 12-15, with a 6 speed manual. What can you expect for a 4200 lb AWD car?
I do all the work on the car myself, and I don't find that parts are really that expensive. But, the car is packaged very tightly, so some repairs (turbos, etc) are better done with the engine out. So, it is a labor intensive car to own. To me its a "hobby" to own it. I do something to it at least a couple times a week- lubing this, adjusting that...etc.
Overall, it's a great car to own. It is WAY more car than the price would suggest- but go into it with your eyes open.

A buddy of mine had a BMW 850i.

When the heater core went in it, the interior from the rear seats to the dash had to be removed to get at it.

Having done this work recently myself, I would hazard a guess that they may of just slide the front end to the "service position" , gave the pump and cam seals a quick visual, and slapped a new belt on it. Given that I dropped 1/2 of your bill for German parts, on-line, and it took at least six hours to do the job properly, I can't imagine a local shop doing ALL the work for eight bills. If you think about it, it's a pretty safe bet for a shop to make. If you hit the mileage that you need a belt, on a 12 Y.O VW, you are well into the land of $2K repair bills. Chances are you will tap out before paying the second one of those, and your orginal cam seals and water pump will do just fine as the car awaits the crusher.

Seriously? Is there some need to generally make your life miserable, or is this a case of a noble effort to teach your son a valuable lesson. As in, " Son, NOW you understand why you don't drag low end, eurotrash cars out of the weeds, spend countless hours and thousands of dollars, only to end up with a spectacularly unreliable piece of shit? " BTW, as a deleriously happy former Passat owner, I have some very valuable advice. First the "common problem areas" you speak of start at the badge on the grille, and end as the exhaust exits the rear. If, in the first year of this project, you drop less than $3-4K making this thing semi road worthy, and keep it from riding the hook home several times, it will be a fucking miracle. Secondly, and most important, call the salvage yard, ask what they are paying for cars, and for a name of somebody who will tow it there cheaply, then do the right thing.

I haven't heard anyone mention the windows falling down due to the cheap ass little plastic piece on the motor regulator that holds it up. Another one of those "common" problems because every dealer in town stocks the entire inside door panel that you have to replace.

I'm a two time loser, bought a 99 Passat becasue it drove so well, had amazing interior space and felt so quality built. We put several thousand into it before finding someone silly enough to buy it and then we got a 2001 Passat wagon to replace it.

Happiest day of VW ownership was sticking it to the dealer on a trade-in for a Honda Pilot. Over five years with only routine maintenance on the Honda.

My daughter's boyfriend just got a 2003 Passat for his first car. I just smiled....that kid doesn't realize the fun he has in store.

I have had 5 VW's from a 1989 Jetta Wolfsberg (one of the best cars I have owned) to a 2007 GTi. I But like others, there have been a couple of misses. a 2001 Jetta I bought brand new was probably the worst of the bunch with everything from the AC compressor to the window motor to the rear brakes getting smoked in the first 10,000 miles. I still love VW's. I have had more good than bad and the good ones have been quite good. The GTI is by far my favorite and I think best bang for your buck for a "driver's" car.

A co-worker of mine is helping her 17 year old son buy a B6 S4 (yes, the one with the V8)... I cringed when she told me and promptly told her stories of my buddy that has a B5 S4 and how can not keep the thing out of the shop as awesome of a car as it is (truly, probably my favorite car I have ever driven)...

I explained that my buddy is a contractor that does very well for himself and though the repairs are expensive, he can afford it and feels that it is just the cost of owning such a fun car. I went on to say they might be getting into something that will be much more problematic than they ever would have imagined, but then she went and did the unthinkable: she test drove it..... Throw all logic out the window because as we know.. they look great, drive like a muther-fucker and who wouldn't want one based solely on a test drive... and hey.. it's only $11k... and that is a lot of car for $11k

The son is 'paying' for half with the money that has been gifted to him since he was born (birthdays, x-mas, various other holidays) and the mom is taking out a loan for the other half...

Son has no job... can't even pay for insurance.. so how he is supposed to pay off the loan is beyond me... Because he isn't 18 he can't even be on the loan... so I'm sure in his mind, it's his mom's problem...

Once the car is purchased, he has no money.... as in.. he spent it all buying the car... and again, without a job, has no means to pay for gas, let alone repairs...

The S4 (black on black) has 100k miles, has no mainteance records, has had at least three owners, been in an accident and was just repo'd by the bank before being put on the dealer's lot with a dashboard lit up like a christmas tree with sensor warnings (ABS, airbag and CEL)... Ohhh.. and it needs a set of tires before it can even get a sticker (the son 'figures' they'll be around $400 for the set )

Did I mention it is a stick and he doesn't drive stick???

As a bad omen: they were supposed pick up the car from the dealer last week but as part of the P&S agreement they asked that all repairs associated with the Festival of Lights that comprise the dashboard be repaired... Dealer said OK.. but is now $1800 into the repairs and is waiting for a part to arrive from Germany that may or may not fix the airbag sensor issue.. Beyond this, the dealer said that if this doesn't fix it he is done putting money into the car and will 'give them their deposit back' cuz he can't make any money on it from here on out...

Now mom is wondering if this was such a good idea...

I hope it ends with a kid driving a bitchin car that has no issues for the next 100k... but I think those are pretty long odds...

Pray that the dealer can't get the part.

Was just talking to the mom.. that's what she's feeling..

Sucks.. cuz she's a peach and just wants her son to have a cool car...