Why owning a cheap german car is a horrible decision... specially in the winter.

"KanataSZ, Peugeot-lover in distress" (kanatasz) 01/15/2016 at 15:09 • Filed to: None

2

19

Day 5 of my adventures... many hundreds of dollars later in parts and maintenance items and absolutely no labour having been performed.

Today I went to the junkyard (Standard Auto Wreckers on Fallowfield), I had gone to scout there earlier this week and scored 2 year old winter tires with excellent tread off of a 1993 Mercedes-Benz 190E (185/65R15).
I went there with the intention of seeing which parts were really worth pulling out of the Audi A4 on Row 54. Grabbed a wheelbarrow, loaded my toolbox and socket set on it and walked what seemed like a frozen eternity (-13 and some nasty winds) to reach the end of the lot to find the silver, almost mint condition, 2000 Audi A4 2.8 V6 30V Quattro manual. Unloaded my tools, got under the hood, and decided it would be an excellent idea to pull the spark plug wires and coil packs off (since mine were probably drenched in oil thanks to destroyed valve cover gaskets).
Of course with a German car nothing is straightforward about simple maintenance... to pull the wires out first you have to remove the main engine cover, held down by 4 plastic Phillips head screws that are massive, then the two valve cover plastic covers with “5V” writing on them are held by 2 plastic screws... of course the driver’s side needs you to remove the coolant expansion tank, held down by three pesky 10mm nuts. Once all of that is off the spark plug wires are available to remove... but with the bitter cold they were more than a handful to remove. I decided removing the coil packs first would be a better idea. And here we go again with German engineering.. T30 screws were holding down the coil packs to the coil pack frame.. my T30 socket fell down some void where I could not retrieve it. So now what? With no T30 socket I had to resort to my T30 bit on the 3/8ths screwdriver. So thinking that would get it off I removed them from the frame but they were connected to the main frame due to the wiring, so I started removing the 10mm bolts that were holding down the frame to the block... once those were loose I could remove the entire thing. Oh wait, there’s a connector that does not seem to be able to disconnect... oh now it broke thanks to the bitter cold. Okay screw this, I snipped the wires on the connector’s side and took it all out finally... after 45 minutes of bitter cold
55 dollars later, back at home, I wanted to see what was under the engine cover. With it off I discovered that the engine was one oily mess. Hackjob repairs to the breather hose, spark plug wires drenched in oil... I took a few pictures and called it a day.
See, with a Honda Civic I would have been able to easily do all of this in half an hour and have a great running car, but no! German engineering dictates that everything must be obnoxiously complex. And that your Audi A4 takes Dex-Cool according to the parts store.

bob and john > KanataSZ, Peugeot-lover in distress 01/15/2016 at 15:14

1

just saying...there is a difference between a cheap german car and a $300 paperweight with an audi badge on the front.

KatzManDu > KanataSZ, Peugeot-lover in distress 01/15/2016 at 15:17

2

There is no such thing as a cheap German car.

pip bip - choose Corrour > KanataSZ, Peugeot-lover in distress 01/15/2016 at 15:17

3

i’m convinced that is not complex German engineering but German humour.

much like Opel part number 90570817 lower radiator hose for a Opel/Vauxhall/Holden Vectra 4-cylinder.

Ross Kraz > pip bip - choose Corrour 01/15/2016 at 15:25

0

Those tubes are just stupid cheap to manufacture in any geometry possible. Beats the hell of out something with fittings that would be easier to remove/replace.

CB > KanataSZ, Peugeot-lover in distress 01/15/2016 at 15:34

0

See, this thing makes the $995 Acural 1.6EL on AutoTrader with 515,000 km on it look like a good idea.

OPPOsaurus WRX > KanataSZ, Peugeot-lover in distress 01/15/2016 at 15:53

1

Don’t listen to them. Attack that thing

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > pip bip - choose Corrour 01/15/2016 at 15:59

0

Woah! What does that beauty cost? I bet they’re really proud of it.

pip bip - choose Corrour > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 01/15/2016 at 16:04

0

$450.00 (that is not a misprint)

they-will-know-my-velocity > KanataSZ, Peugeot-lover in distress 01/15/2016 at 17:19

0

And that your Audi A4 takes Dex-Cool according to the parts store.

U wot m8?

they-will-know-my-velocity > pip bip - choose Corrour 01/15/2016 at 17:21

1

There is a hard coolant line coming out of the block on a 2.0 Jetta. However that hardline is expensive and my friend and I discovered that there are no less than 3 variations of that hardline on the 2.0 motor. With no differentiation except for checking the engine serial and how it was specced. We found this out somewhere after the 5th junkyard. Thanks, VW.

sdwarf36 > KanataSZ, Peugeot-lover in distress 01/15/2016 at 19:16

1

I would have said the same thing up until a month ago. I had a mkII diesel jetta for 9 years—and The wife’s been in a 99 A4 for the last 4. Did motor swaps in both. I know all about the WTF factor.

I just bought a 97 e300 (diesel) Benz last month for a song. It had minor needs I’ve been correcting. It had leaks on the injector pump. Although you could get at it, there was much more room if you pulled the intake manifold. 15 minutes it was off. All the bolts were where you think they should be. All the electrical connectors were easy to figure out how to remove them. The leak was an oring replacement. Push a clip one way-pull up on a hose-replace the oring-push hose down + slide clip the opposite way. Thats it. I had to do a battery. Its under the back seat. The seat comes out in 2 seconds-the battery was easy to remove-and the seat goes back in in 2 seconds. I had the dash center apart for a radio replacement-undo a couple of (easy to find) screws-push a clip here and a part comes out. Pull up on a trim piece and another piece comes off. 4 screws + 2 minutes + everything from the heat vents on the dash back to the arm rest can be removed.

I think we-and I was one of them-think VAG products as the metric for “German engineering”. But the ease I’ve seen working on the Mercedes has me thinking quite different.

KanataSZ, Peugeot-lover in distress > they-will-know-my-velocity 01/16/2016 at 11:18

0

Well if it’s non-Glycol based it should work, no?

KanataSZ, Peugeot-lover in distress > CB 01/16/2016 at 11:31

0

Sounds like a good car. If you need a replacement engine or manual transmission we got one in our parts 1999 Civic Si.

KanataSZ, Peugeot-lover in distress > OPPOsaurus WRX 01/16/2016 at 11:32

0

Will do sir!

KanataSZ, Peugeot-lover in distress > sdwarf36 01/16/2016 at 11:34

0

Mercedes is really awesome to work on. I don’t mind them at all.

they-will-know-my-velocity > KanataSZ, Peugeot-lover in distress 01/16/2016 at 11:57

1

Probably. I assume* the Audi is running G12 coolant. Nasty shit but I’m paranoid about German cars so I usually just use the G12. Never had a cooling issue** to deal with. I would flush the block and radiator before replacing it with dexcool/Prestone/water hose fluid.

*VAG amirite?

** Caused by G12 coolant

KanataSZ, Peugeot-lover in distress > they-will-know-my-velocity 01/16/2016 at 16:19

0

That’s right sir, and I went to buy some G12 equivalent stuff at Canadian Tire. My friends say they run it in their cars so hopefully it works out!

His Stigness > KanataSZ, Peugeot-lover in distress 03/15/2016 at 00:38

0

You’ve got to be kidding me, right??? You’recomplaing about taking off a few screws in order to get to the plugs and wires? And then you’re comparing a German V6 to a Honda 4 cylinder??? Of course your Honda is going to be easier to change the plugs on, they’re right in front of your face.

And if we’re going to compare Germans to the Japanese, how do you explain having to remove the intake manifold on pretty much any Japanese V6 in order to change the plugs (the same can also be said for some American V6's)???

Maybe if you had power tools, right tools, and weren’t working in freezing weather you wouldn’t have such a hard time? Don’t blame Germans for your bad choices.

KanataSZ, Peugeot-lover in distress > His Stigness 03/15/2016 at 00:41

0

Yo bro, chill man. If you had a bad day take it out somewhere else. This was in nasty cold weather, I just dramatized things to get some more views. It’s not even that bad.
I actually really enjoyed working on this car and wouldn’t mind owning another B5. I’ve worked on cars thousand times more complex and weird than this car (Peugeot), I’m not a little bitch haha :)