Oppo Advice Requested. Car Stuff.

"Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection" (itsalwayssteve)
08/18/2014 at 09:00 • Filed to: car buying, passat

Some B6 Passat porn for your trouble:

So my wife and I own a b6 Passat 2.0t wagon that is starting to develop some issues that will not be covered by the warranty. We love the car and would like to keep it but it's seriously getting expensive. It seems that the cooling fans have stopped working and there are electrical gremlins hiding throughout, causing intermittent issues. The A/C has been failing intermittently. These issues are infuriating, but also excluded from the warranty. It isn't a great warranty. Also, I work about 45-50 hours a week and start classes again today. I'm only taking six hours this semester so it isn't a really heavy class load but it still takes up a good bit of time.

I don't have much mechanical ability beyond the absolute basics - the most advanced thing I ever did was a brake job including pads, rotors, and bleeding on my 89 Volvo 240. I don't really have the time to learn it, either.

Add to that the fact that we overpaid because we were desperate to get a vehicle at the time, we are upside down by about $5000 and we are in a pickle.

We've discussed some options but haven't made a decision yet because it's a big issue.

First option is to call the bank and do a voluntary repossession. That is worst case scenario, because her credit score would likely drop 100 points or more. We plan on buying a house within the next five years, so this would be an absolute last resort. The only upside is the lack of a car payment.

Option 2 is to trade the car on something new, and hopefully we can get into a closed-end lease without a huge down payment. I currently drive less than 200 miles a week and that isn't likely to change. My sister did this with her Mini Cooper S that blew up. She now drives a leased Sonata and will be able to hand over the keys in about a year, and walk away from the car debt-free. If we can get into something for three years, that's about enough time to graduate from school and move on.

My credit score is not bad but my wife's is still a bit dinged up because of her divorce 5 years ago. Alternately, we could find something where the dealer can "hide a bunch of money" so we could have a down payment in our budget.

This is the most attractive option, even if it is the most expensive.

Option 4 is to suck it up, pay for the repairs with credit cards, and worry about how we're going to be screwed the next time something breaks. With my wife only working part time, we don't have a lot of wiggle room and our credit cards are only now recovering from my stint of unemployment last year.

So, Oppo, what say ye?

I sure as hell don't know what to do.

DISCUSSION (20)

mr_gofast > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
08/18/2014 at 08:39

i would say trade, however im not suer youd get a whole lot on trade due to mechanical issues w the car, maybe sell the car outright and buy something cheap that you expect to last you three years and thats it.

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
08/18/2014 at 08:41

Option 5 - Go on some VW forums, ask around about what might be causing the problem, and if it isn't a simple fix you can do in 30 minutes, ask if someone local will do it for cash on the side. The shop labor rate doesn't all go to the tech who does the work. You might be surprised to find someone willing to do a 1000$ repair for 500 or less.

505Turbeaux > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
08/18/2014 at 08:47

fix the damn thing. It sounds like you are trying to convince yourself to take a more expensive option and get into something new. There are numerous forums and videos to help you fix all of this at home. It is a 90s-00s VW, you should have expected electrical issues! Fix all the little stuff yourself, leave any suspension or heavy work to a good indy garage

Is it a climatronic? Those are prone to issues. Best thing you can do is get VAG-COM for a laptop so you can suss issues and reset stuff when done working on it. Cheaper than one trip to the dealer to get codes read

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
08/18/2014 at 08:48

I second themanwithsauce, check out forums first. Some pretty scary problems may have been worked out to be a simple fix by someone on there. If that goes nowhere, maybe trade it on something simple, used and cheap so you don't have to add much money to it. That way you can get cheap reliable transportation until your money situation picks up a little.

Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles
08/18/2014 at 08:55

I see what you're saying — the Fan issue is likely either a fuse, a fusible link, or a relay. The A/C issue, I don't know. But I see things only getting worse. Like I can see more issues coming in the future. It will need brakes eventually and it's likely to need rotors because there's been a little noise/shimmy on wet mornings.

For the things that are covered by warranty, it's only $100 deductible. But that's only powertrain stuff.

Milky > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
08/18/2014 at 08:56

Honestly if you're just trying to get through the next few years car repair-worry-free I'd ponder trading it in on some thing like a 2010 Civic.

I've heard VW's are hit or miss … and if yours is already a miss, I don't think it will turn into a hit anytime soon.

CalzoneGolem > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
08/18/2014 at 09:00

If you don't want to do the work yourself it is probably best to bail on this car. Once a VW gets electrical gremlins, in my experience, they continue to have them.

GTI MkVII > 505Turbeaux
08/18/2014 at 09:05

+1 on researching to do the fixes yourself or via a local mechanically inclined person. As for the VAGCOM, again - head to the forums and see if someone in your area has a cable. There are likely quite a few who will let you use their cable for a few bucks or a six pack.

Tohru > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
08/18/2014 at 09:07

Why the shit do you want a new car when you drive less than 200 miles a week?

Open your local craigslist. Select "cars and trucks - by owner". Set minimum price of 400 and max of 1500. Search.

Here's what I found on my CL:
1986 Volvo 240 - $899

1987 Mazda B2000 - $900

1994 Honda Accord (125k miles) - $900

1997 Cavalier 2.2L - $1400

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
08/18/2014 at 09:07

Brakes are actually very easy to do. See if there's a repair manual for your car and go to a site like rockauto.com to buy parts on the cheap. Replacing rotors is no more difficult than changing pads since you're there already, often all it takes is a screw or two that fix the rotor to the rest of the assembly.

Electrical gremlins *could* pop up. Or maybe they could not. If you're upside down in your loan as-is, try making the car work until you're at least at a break-even point. You can live without A/C so ignore that for now. Your issue might be fixed by looking into this - http://www.passatworld.com/forums/74-volk… and then buying a used part off of a website like ebay or car-part.com

505Turbeaux > GTI MkVII
08/18/2014 at 09:18

cable is cheap these days anyhow. 40 bucks on ebay

qbeezy > CalzoneGolem
08/18/2014 at 09:24

This is great to know. I don't know about the quality of electrical on newer vw, cause my wife's Passat just had the issue with the wiring harness in a headlight. Have they gotten better?

GTI MkVII > 505Turbeaux
08/18/2014 at 09:24

Tread carefully. Those cables might work for the most part, but they often require a cracked version of the VCDS software. And even then, certain modules and functions are not accessible. Its pricy, but I pulled the trigger on a genuine RossTech cable for my Mk7. Best $250 I've spent in a long while! Was able to tweak tons of stuff and I'm sure even more things will come along as the menus are translated.

Squid > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
08/18/2014 at 09:28

If you are upside down as it is with this car, you'll probably end up upside down on your next car if you get rid of it.

The fan issue you can trace down with a wiring diagram and a pin point test and I'd wager that some of your ac issues stem from your fan issues. But really a cooling issue should be covered under the warranty as your cooling system is a major component of your powertrain. But really see if you can do a little research on the forums and then see if someone near you is willing to help you out for the price of some beer.

505Turbeaux > GTI MkVII
08/18/2014 at 09:28

tis true on the genuine ross-tech. The hacked cable isnt too bad for the DIY guy, but wont hold up to production work at all. I have a Ross cable myself but I think I am swore off VAG for a while...I have a ton of friends to loan it out to. Keeps me in beer at least

Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection > 505Turbeaux
08/18/2014 at 09:33

Not climatronic — But time is an issue. I'm at work from 8-5:30 or later Monday-Friday. Then on Tues and Thursday I'm in class from 6-9. Add to that homework and online classes that'll take about 1-2 hours or so on each night monday-wednesday-friday. Weekends are full of family stuff, grocery shopping, dog maintenance, cleaning, yard work, and everything I didn't get done during the week.

I'd like to fix stuff myself but that also means I'd have to go buy tools or borrow stuff from my father in law. I only have minimal stuff at home — like a screwdriver set, a hammer, a drill, and a crescent wrench.

Then, because of my lack of mechanical ability it'll take significantly longer than if I knew what I was doing. I see myself being more frustrated than satisfied with this car if I try to start fixing it.

505Turbeaux > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
08/18/2014 at 09:34

ah the age old quandry...time vs. money! I don't have time for anything these days myself, so I hear you

Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection > Tohru
08/18/2014 at 09:44

The main reason is because it's my wife's credit that will take a beating if we just give it up

Hi there > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
08/18/2014 at 09:57

Whitetrashsteve, you need to get a book about your car or find a pdf of the service manuals online AND buy a used beater to drive while you have your vw down for maintenance. If you're not going to have disposable income to burn on paying people to fix your stuff then you'll need to learn how to do it yourself or make friends with a good shadetree mechanic in addition to the aforementioned used beater because shit will take longer because you don't know what you're doing. However, if you can read and follow instructions or learn by watching and hands on activity then you can do it.

Tohru > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
08/18/2014 at 09:57

You said yourself you overpaid and are $5k upside down on it. There's no easy solution. Either you take the hit now and have 5 years to recover the credit score, or throw that $5k on top of another car and get yourself ratfucked into a deeper financial hole.

The other option you didn't mention is fix it, sell it, buy cheap used, and pay off the note.
Yeah, you'd be making payments on a car you don't own anymore. Yeah, it would suck ass. But you'd get clear of the bad debt honestly and with no hit to credit score.