NA %^*}^ VW Jetta NA

denverpilot

denverpilot

Tied Down
Joined
Nov 8, 2009
Messages
55,469
Location
Denver, CO
Display Name
Display name:
DenverPilot
Arggggh. What a week.

Just jumping mad that Karen got in her '04 VW TDI Wagon this morning to head over to meet her ride out of town and she turned around and came back after going one block...

Auto Transmission in the piece of crap is shifting so hard it'll try to give you whiplash.

This is transmission number two in this junk heap of "German Engineering". The first one suffered a complete failure at around 65,000 miles and was replaced by an extended warranty. Total repairs for that plus intake manifold cracks, exhaust manifold cracks, and tons of other miscellaneous BS cost that 3rd party warranty company over $13K.

So I think to myself, I don't normally work on this car but I know how to check transmission fluid at least. Ha. Right. After looking in vain for a damn dipstick for 10 minutes, I Google it and find out the bastard transmission is "sealed" (well actually there's a hex screw based filler underneath and the car's computer measures the tranny fluid levels). No easy way to just see if she developed a leak and it needs tranny fluid. I hate these "idiot proof" cars.

I gave her a ride over of course, and now I sit here on a Friday afternoon waiting for a tow truck to drag this pile of crap out of my driveway and over to the VW dealership again.

Never again will we own a German car. What a hunk of ****.
 
They're not German anymore, they're built in Mexico, have been for a while now.
 
Bad deal.

We have a 2003 Jetta, has been (knock wood) a great car, just shy of 90k miles. 1.8 turbo.
 
Aeric said:
They're not German anymore, they're built in Mexico, have been for a while now.
Click to expand...

Yeah. This one was assembled in Germany, engine from Italy, and I forget what the sticker said for the Tranny. I think it was Canada. The original tranny that is. Never saw any paperwork on the second one. Probably a cheap rebuild. LOL.

Tow truck guy spent 15 minutes trying to get the I-bolt to start into the threads, another lovely new invention of modern
vehicles. No frame structure strong enough to winch from to get it onto a flatbed. VW does it and I know Hyundai has started. Not sure who else.

Of course if you don't know where it is or what it's for, and don't dig it out to hand it to the tow driver, some will just wrap a chain around stuff and bend the frame. Not their problem.

I need to start shopping for a real truck for this girl. This prissy Euro-trash ain't happening again here.
 
SCCutler said:
Bad deal.

We have a 2003 Jetta, has been (knock wood) a great car, just shy of 90k miles. 1.8 turbo.
Click to expand...

I think the TDI has had more problems than the 1.8 in general before they re-designed it again. 135K on this one, engine fine. Everything else around it a disaster.

It was my one bow to the "green" movement. It gets 40 MPG on the highway and we've done South Dakota to Denver in it on a single tank of diesel.

But they weren't ready for prime time in '04 drivetrain-wise. Might be now, but I'd never risk it again.
 
Been buying Nip cars for years and have yet to experience a significant mechanical breakdown more serious than a dead battery.
 
VW never had much luck with their automatic transmissions. I have an '05 TDI that, aside from the obligatory transmission at 33k*, has not given me a lick of trouble.
The models up to '04 have the VE type engine which is simple to work on and lends itself to endless tuning possibilities. Plenty of them with 200-300k on the odometer by now. I am sorry to hear of your atypical experience with the vehicle.




* innocent bystander when the #)_#$ of !$%% LuK dual mass flywheel came apart
 
denverpilot said:
I think the TDI has had more problems than the 1.8 in general before they re-designed it again. 135K on this one, engine fine. Everything else around it a disaster.

It was my one bow to the "green" movement. It gets 40 MPG on the highway and we've done South Dakota to Denver in it on a single tank of diesel.

But they weren't ready for prime time in '04 drivetrain-wise. Might be now, but I'd never risk it again.
Click to expand...

"Green." Bah! I had a Cadillac DeVille that got 28mpg at 80 mph (dropped to 26 once they tainted the gasoline with corn juice).

steingar said:
Been buying Nip cars for years and have yet to experience a significant mechanical breakdown more serious than a dead battery.
Click to expand...

Heh. My by-far worst, could never count on it ever car ever, was a Honda Civic. Stuff happens.

I may just stick with Chevy trucks.
 
I had a '92 VW Jetta. Turned out to be one of the worse pieces of crap I've ever had! That and the Plymouth Voyager minivan:mad2:

Bought both brand new. Automatic trans.

One problem after another with both vehicles....Transmission as well as engine!

Currently driving my second (1st was an '88) Nissan Maxima '03 (235000 miles)...never any major issues.


My very first car was a used Oldsmobile Firenza, that was pretty good.
 
Last edited:
I had an 85 Jetta. I think that was the first year. It was the best operating care I ever owned.
Drove it into the ground, like 285000 miles in five years.
Liked it so much, we ran out and bought an 87 Quantum and drove it till the wheels fell off.
 
how do you think I feel - the wife has an 06 MB CLK 500 convertible - the top motor is a simple hydraulic pump - however - MB has managed to engineer a pump that costs TWO AMU's just for the part. My gosh, its a pump that runs forward and backward to generate what? 30psi probably?

We found a guy in Missouri who rebuilds them for $1200 - oh boy - what a bargain - and without the electronic signature from their stupid connector the system will not work?! so I can't even jury rig something that will work for $100 . . .

Now i have an electric windshield wiper motor from a 1957 Packard or Chrysler that costs all of $50 to rebuild putting my landing gear up and down - a somewhat more significant event than a convertible top - give me a freaking break here people. Whats it made out of - unobtanium?
 
SCCutler said:
Bad deal.

We have a 2003 Jetta, has been (knock wood) a great car, just shy of 90k miles. 1.8 turbo.
Click to expand...

(writes down Spike as a future customer for this engine) :D


@Nate: I looked and have an auto trans for 1.9 TDI spotted in Portland, OR for less than $1200 (that's you calling them direct). That company gives 6-months parts warranties but also "sells" 1 or 2 year parts+labor warranties. Let me know if you need the contact info.

Everywhere else had them at $1500 and higher.
 
Last edited:
comanchepilot said:
how do you think I feel - the wife has an 06 MB CLK 500 convertible - the top motor is a simple hydraulic pump - however - MB has managed to engineer a pump that costs TWO AMU's just for the part. My gosh, its a pump that runs forward and backward to generate what? 30psi probably?

We found a guy in Missouri who rebuilds them for $1200 - oh boy - what a bargain - and without the electronic signature from their stupid connector the system will not work?! so I can't even jury rig something that will work for $100 . . .
Click to expand...

Joe; I have a good connection in FTW for later model MB parts. And the recycling yard owner is also a pilot (has a very nice 1968 A36 based at KFTW).
 
Blame it on " farfegnugen"... the Germans love real driving so much, they simply cannot conceive of a proper "slushbox" transmission. :D


Best automatic I ever owned was a 1996 Geo Tracker (basically Suzuki guts)... put over 170,000 miles on it in less than 8 years, and never a peep out of the tranny or the 4WD transfer case. I think the fluid got a little bit low once, that was it. I do prefer a manual transmission, but that car did just fine with its little Japanese slushbox. The lack of oomph was not disappointing, because it was scary to drive it over 80mph anyway. :D
 
Last edited:
I've put 250k miles on a pair of VW's - a GTI and a Passat. The only problem I had that wasn't basic wear related was a blown head gasket on the Passat a week before I sold it with 170k miles. The sad thing was that I had made the deal with a guy and we pushed back the transaction to wait on my "new" car. So I paid something like $1400 for repairs on a car that was worth ~$2k...

Oh. Both of my cars had 5 speed manual transmissions. As have both of my cars since then. My car before the two VW's had a 4 speed manual...

Barring driver error or abuse, there is a lot less to go wrong with a manual transmission.
 
My current car is the #1 worst rated vehicle you can own, by a long shot...

Jeep Wrangler.

Never had a single problem with it in the 3 years I have owned it. Just put gas and oil in it, and it works perfectly.

Just bad/good luck sometimes when it comes to cars. Not sure I would write off an entire country because of one car however.
 
denverpilot said:
Arggggh. What a week.

Just jumping mad that Karen got in her '04 VW TDI Wagon this morning to head over to meet her ride out of town and she turned around and came back after going one block...

Auto Transmission in the piece of crap is shifting so hard it'll try to give you whiplash.

This is transmission number two in this junk heap of "German Engineering". The first one suffered a complete failure at around 65,000 miles and was replaced by an extended warranty. Total repairs for that plus intake manifold cracks, exhaust manifold cracks, and tons of other miscellaneous BS cost that 3rd party warranty company over $13K.

So I think to myself, I don't normally work on this car but I know how to check transmission fluid at least. Ha. Right. After looking in vain for a damn dipstick for 10 minutes, I Google it and find out the bastard transmission is "sealed" (well actually there's a hex screw based filler underneath and the car's computer measures the tranny fluid levels). No easy way to just see if she developed a leak and it needs tranny fluid. I hate these "idiot proof" cars.

I gave her a ride over of course, and now I sit here on a Friday afternoon waiting for a tow truck to drag this pile of crap out of my driveway and over to the VW dealership again.

Never again will we own a German car. What a hunk of ****.
Click to expand...

Having owned a 1977 Rabbit that we named, "Fuhrer's Revenge", and not out of love, I feel your pain. The purchase decision was driven by the gas crisis at the time, and we paid full retail and waited weeks for this collection of mechanical mayhem to arrive.

Fahrvernugen, my butt. That thing needed a couple of rounds of Winchesternugen way before we wised up and got rid of it.
 
SCCutler said:
"Green." Bah! I had a Cadillac DeVille that got 28mpg at 80 mph (dropped to 26 once they tainted the gasoline with corn juice).
Click to expand...

Early Northstar V-8 with tall OD? Nice combo.


Heh. My by-far worst, could never count on it ever car ever, was a Honda Civic. Stuff happens.
Click to expand...
That's what makes threads like this fun. Your dud Civic cancels out our really awesome one.

I may just stick with Chevy trucks.
Click to expand...
May I kindly suggest a Ford, as long as it's not powered by a 4.6 or 5.4 V-8? Yeah, that eliminates several million of them, but still...
 
My worst car -- 1984 Cadillac Sedan deVille (blown head gasket at 80K -- dealer said that was doing pretty good for that 4.1 aluminum engine).

My best car -- 1989 Cadillac Sedan deVille. Bulletproof.

Go figure.
 
BurtM said:
May I kindly suggest a Ford, as long as it's not powered by a 4.6 or 5.4 V-8? Yeah, that eliminates several million of them, but still...
Click to expand...
I had an '87 F250, 351 carburated V8. Only problem (other than thirst) was the front fuel tank had rusted through; I learned that the first time I tried to fill it up, and cleared the 100 feet from the pay phone to the truck in about half a second (here in NJ we aren't allowed to pump our own gas). Other than that, she was built like a brick ****house.
Now I have a 2001 GMC Sierra. Gets about 15 MPG, which I consider pretty good given the 220,000 miles on her. (Bought with just under 45K in 2004)
My only gripe is changing the upper ball joints during/after every winter from hanging a snowplow on it; if only they made better ball joints or upper control arms...:hairraise:
 
AggieMike88 said:
(writes down Spike as a future customer for this engine) :D


@Nate: I looked and have an auto trans for 1.9 TDI spotted in Portland, OR for less than $1200 (that's you calling them direct). That company gives 6-months parts warranties but also "sells" 1 or 2 year parts+labor warranties. Let me know if you need the contact info.

Everywhere else had them at $1500 and higher.
Click to expand...

Appreciate you looking as a preemptive strike on the target, Mike. ;)

Amazingly, even those $1500 ones are a bargain. You should have seen what VW charged that poor 3rd party warranty company for this one!

I'll know more tomorrow or more likely, Monday. And there's always the possibility I'll tow it off to a priavte shop for a second estimate since the dealer is always incredibly high, but usually does good work.

(I will admit, our VW dealer's service center does good work, but I'm starting to think it's like LightSpeed. Because the stuff always breaks, and they *have* to all the time. I've never seen the place not completely swamped with vehicles.)
 
airbornejohnny said:
I had an '87 F250, 351 carburated V8. Only problem (other than thirst) was the front fuel tank had rusted through; I learned that the first time I tried to fill it up, and cleared the 100 feet from the pay phone to the truck in about half a second (here in NJ we aren't allowed to pump our own gas). Other than that, she was built like a brick ****house.
Now I have a 2001 GMC Sierra. Gets about 15 MPG, which I consider pretty good given the 220,000 miles on her. (Bought with just under 45K in 2004)
My only gripe is changing the upper ball joints during/after every winter from hanging a snowplow on it; if only they made better ball joints or upper control arms...:hairraise:
Click to expand...

Yep, the old Fords with EEC-IV 351s can run for many hundreds of thousands of miles with rudimentary maintenance. Ours is running on it's second E4OD trans, but the motor is totally untouched after almost 300,000 miles. It's a total pig on gas, and 300k miles means almost 30,000 gallons of gas. That's like 5 fully loaded tanker trucks :yikes:. Hopefully the person that buys it from us is into reforestation or organic farming or something like that.
 
Mafoo said:
My current car is the #1 worst rated vehicle you can own, by a long shot...

Jeep Wrangler.

Never had a single problem with it in the 3 years I have owned it. Just put gas and oil in it, and it works perfectly.

Just bad/good luck sometimes when it comes to cars. Not sure I would write off an entire country because of one car however.
Click to expand...

I owned a Wrangler - and it was great til it was ugly. And when it got ugly it got Chrysler ugly. But there is such a demand for them I was able to dumpt it easily. I owned a CJ7 from new in 1984 - when I finally sold it in 1997 I got a) more than I paid for it and b) had a line out the door - which if I were smart back then would have figured out and not sold it - but - well - we all make those mistakes in life.
 
denverpilot said:
Winchestermugen!!! That made me laugh out loud on the back porch.
Click to expand...

The final straw was when it crapped out for the last time in our garage. My lovely and talented better half made a deal on our new 1989 Camry and part of the deal she negotiated was for the Toyota dealer to remove the expired Rabbit from our garage.

I don't think she was so averse to the concept of me unloading my .308 Model 70 into that complete piece of garbage, but she was concerned about trade-in value...

Another lost opportunity on my part.
 
BurtM said:
Yep, the old Fords with EEC-IV 351s can run for many hundreds of thousands of miles with rudimentary maintenance. Ours is running on it's second E4OD trans, but the motor is totally untouched after almost 300,000 miles. It's a total pig on gas, and 300k miles means almost 30,000 gallons of gas. That's like 5 fully loaded tanker trucks :yikes:. Hopefully the person that buys it from us is into reforestation or organic farming or something like that.
Click to expand...

Don't worry. Henning's tug burns more than that in a week. ;)
 
Well... sorry you guys are having probs with the Jetta.. My buddy's got a 2006 TDI Jetta.. nary a prob with it, and he burns biodeisel in it..

My mom got hers in 2008 after hearing me rave about my buddy... its getting up there in miles and not a prob either..

I bought mine in Oct of 2011 and have 26,000 miles on it so far (and the extended warranty) and the only thing thats needed fixing on mine is the horn.

All the while getting 40+ mpg and a fuel cost around 10 cents/mile. First "foreign" car I've ever owned - had ford and chevy previously...
 
BurtM said:
Yep, the old Fords with EEC-IV 351s can run for many hundreds of thousands of miles with rudimentary maintenance. Ours is running on it's second E4OD trans, but the motor is totally untouched after almost 300,000 miles. It's a total pig on gas, and 300k miles means almost 30,000 gallons of gas. That's like 5 fully loaded tanker trucks :yikes:. Hopefully the person that buys it from us is into reforestation or organic farming or something like that.
Click to expand...
I forgot to mention, the day I bought it I was more excited about picking it up than really diving into the engine compartment, and only after trekking up and over a big-for-Jersey hill (15% grade) without a hiccup did I realize the two rear spark plugs were not connected. 351 V6...that thing was a tank. Hindsight 20/20, I wish I didn't sell it. Oh well.
 
Doggtyred said:
Well... sorry you guys are having probs with the Jetta.. My buddy's got a 2006 TDI Jetta.. nary a prob with it, and he burns biodeisel in it..

My mom got hers in 2008 after hearing me rave about my buddy... its getting up there in miles and not a prob either..

I bought mine in Oct of 2011 and have 26,000 miles on it so far (and the extended warranty) and the only thing thats needed fixing on mine is the horn.

All the while getting 40+ mpg and a fuel cost around 10 cents/mile. First "foreign" car I've ever owned - had ford and chevy previously...
Click to expand...

The '06 was after the drivetrain redesign so you may be ok. Our engine has been a tank. Never babied, runs great. I think the turbo output is falling or the common problem of intake manifold crud is happening because power is a little low, and/or there's a little turbo lag, but I have a hard time switching from the Vortec V8 in the GMC to the laggy 90HP plus turbo lag Jetta now.

It's slow to respond then takes off like a scalded cat. Just have to wait for the squirrels to wind up the rubber band, I guess. ;)

Plan on 50%-100% higher new parts costs over its lifespan. Nothing from the parts shop is cheap on a VW or Audi. Even with that factored in, our costs other than the major repairs under that now long gone warranty ($13.5K!) have been quite low.

I've been impressed with the cold-start capability too. Car is garaged but has started fine on winter diesel when left outside in -10F once. It wasn't super happy about it until it warmed up a bit, but it did it.
 
I try not to bash other makes, being a Ford dealer, everybody has stories about every car ever made. BUT, the VW automatic transmission is not only a POS, no one except VW can/will work on it. Unless you buy a used one, you ain't taking it to AAMCO or Fred's transmission and Bridal Emporium. With most automatic transmissions you have a few vendors that rebuild them, we have Ford reman and Jasper that we normally sell, but the only ones we have found for used VW's that we trade in are from the VW dealer and IIRC they are $4K.:yikes: :mad2::mad2:
 
Nate,

If you get bored you can go to http://forums.vwvortex.com/forumdisplay.php?574-Automatic-Transmission-Forum and read about everyones automatic transmission problems. Don't know which transmission you have but VW uses Aisin a lot and those are not made in Germany. From my reading the hard shifting problems can somethimes be fixed by replacing the solenoids or the valve body. I don't think VW dealers will do this, generally, they only replace transmissions they don't repair them.

greg
 
I have a 2012 JK. Thing is built like a rock. No problems granted it only has 2400 miles. Only thing I'm not a big fan of is the new 3.6 Pentastar. Wish it had a v8
 
We have owned various and sundry cars and trucks since college and nary a problem on any of them except the very first one. Always ran at least 80-100K miles on each and always bought new except the first one which threw a rod.

Latest is a BMW X3 with 6 Speed MT I picked up in Munich. 85K so far and only routine maintenance. Also a Jeep GC pressing 60K, same history

Some guys have all the luck.;)

Cheers
 
river_rat said:
Nate,

If you get bored you can go to http://forums.vwvortex.com/forumdisplay.php?574-Automatic-Transmission-Forum and read about everyones automatic transmission problems. Don't know which transmission you have but VW uses Aisin a lot and those are not made in Germany. From my reading the hard shifting problems can somethimes be fixed by replacing the solenoids or the valve body. I don't think VW dealers will do this, generally, they only replace transmissions they don't repair them.

greg
Click to expand...

Yeah, had done some research last time. The valve fix doesn't always work.
 
Bought a '87 Jetta in Dec. '86. 1.8 FI, 5 speed manual. 280,000 miles later still on the original clutch:thumbsup:, with lots of life left(it will pull from a stop in 3rd gear). Other than normal mtc...(oil changes, tires, x4, brake, sx3, and struts, x2) there has been no major problems. Always changed oil and filter @ 7,500 miles. It now uses about ½qt. between changes. Sure got my $$$$ worth. Might be a different car now. The automatic transmission has always been their weak point.

Just lucky I guess..
Noah Werka
 
BTW, for the many folks who've mentioned the manual transmission, for that type of car that's also my choice.

Don't get me started on why it must have an auto... someone's lazy. ;)
 
SCCutler said:
"Green." Bah! I had a Cadillac DeVille that got 28mpg at 80 mph (dropped to 26 once they tainted the gasoline with corn juice).

Heh. My by-far worst, could never count on it ever car ever, was a Honda Civic. Stuff happens.

I may just stick with Chevy trucks.
Click to expand...

Worst car I ever owned was a Chevy S10. Absolute worst. And a horrid dealer & zone manager experience to go with it. (It blew three trannies in the course of it's first 8 months of life, then dropped the torque convertor at 11.5 months. They tried to deny the warranty claim on the TC because their shop didn't get around to looking at it until 2 weeks after I took it in.) Finally go rid of that piece of carp and got a Nissan Pathfinder - the first of 2 that each went over 130K miles without major repair.

Civic has been OK as a city car, though the sheet metal is thin. Drives pretty well, no major issue over (now) 6 years. Would consider buying a Honda again, might opt for the Accord, as long as I didn't have to deal with the sleazy dealer that I got this one from.
 
I bought a 1974 VW Dasher manual 4 speed. I really liked the car, it ran well and strong. On the basis of my experience, my Dad bought a Dasher automatic.

POS.

-Skip
 
Nate, leave those I-bolts installed permanently. Preople will only bumper tap you ONCE when parallel parking. After that one time, never again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top