Date:         Sun, 11 May 2003 10:28:28 -0700
Reply-To:     wilden1@JUNO.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
Subject:      Re: Hey folks;  horror;  New Beetle?
Comments: To: hksawyer@CATT.COM
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

On this '02 NB the dad gum battery was *completely*
dead.  As in reading about 1.7v.  That's pretty darn dead.  Charging it
up
didn't help.
----------------------- Clip ---------------------------
Check VW for a recall on this item. The battery can arc to the body and
cause a battery explosion or a fire.
I only know this because I watched them do a retrofit of a smaller
battery and add insulation to a car at the local VW Casino.

Stan Wilder

On Sun, 11 May 2003 11:06:33 -0400 "Horace K. Sawyer" <hksawyer@CATT.COM>
writes:
> Hey everybody.  Been awhile.  Good to see you too.  Right, its been
> awhile
> for sure.
>
> Listen I need help today and I request this post take the place of
> my usual
> and customary goofy Friday post.  And to all of you who can
> remember, I
> promise not to say the "G" word.
>
>   . . .  .<thoughts of R.A. "Bob" Alexander flash through, and the
> City of
> Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee issuing him a citation for 3 foot tall grass
> in
> front of his veternary clinic with a loaf cocked to one side by the
> building>
>   but I digress as usual
>
> I just picked up an 02 Beetle TDI. I write this because I remember
> some of
> you bought them.  On this '02 NB the dad gum battery was
> *completely*
> dead.  As in reading about 1.7v.  That's pretty darn dead.  Charging
> it up
> didn't help.  Driving it home from the car auction with my client
> for two
> hours didn't even help.  Going through the ghetto at 12:30a on a
> Friday
> night with the fuel so low in the reserve that the needle was a
> hairline
> above the 'zero' in fuel gauge didn't help my blood pressure.  Talk
> about
> sweating.  We picked the car up late Fri. night.  The place is open
> 24-7.  I didn't know it was everything self serve.  Well, the car
> was just
> about slap out of diesel.  Now these car auction places are usually
> in the
> worst parts of town, and so it was here. We left and began looking
> for
> diesel with none to be found.  I was scared half to death and
> sweating.  It
> was like Mogadishu, Somalia.  I'm not racist, but a white boy with
> little
> studious glasses driving a brand new Beetle through the midst of
> hundreds
> of black people walking about with cell phones and cigarettes, beer,
> and
> making transactions in the middle of the night at a convenience
> store with
> burglar bars and bullet proof glass is not a good situation to be
> running
> out of diesel.  I finally had to make a command emergency decision.
> The
> car was literally on fumes.  I pulled into said conv. store and put
> in a
> half gallon of regular gas which I made my own diesel by pouring in
> about
> one fourth motor oil directly into the tank.  I figured I would err
> on the
> side of over-oiling.  Several came up begging for money.  One guy
> asked me
> what the hell I was doing.  I fully explained in a friendly way.  He
> must
> have liked it, or thought I was sent by the Gods to impart wisdom
> because
> then he said he would *never* buy diesel again - -he would just make
> it,
> like me.  My heart fell.  Poor guy, I thought.  Crack must have
> destroyed
> his brain.  My client was scared shipless because he said some of
> them were
> beginning to circle around us just as we boosted the car off yet
> again to
> get the heck out of there.  Just then a technical pulled in front of
> us and
> looked like he was blocking my exit.  I almost had to go over the
> curb.  I
> can still his face.  Driving an old Caprice with every square inch
> showing
> some body damage, no front bumper or cover, the headlight
> enclosures
> missing leaving the headlamps dangling straight out like some bug
> eyed
> monster.  To top it all , the driver was wearing some huge dark
> glasses and
> he was fat as hell.  Looked like a killer.  I was so happy to be
> driving
> and *safe* (a mere illusion) that I was chuckling to myself with
> tears
> welling up in my eyes.  (okay I'm a baby when it comes to getting my
> throat
> slit)
>
> Anyway, I digress again.  Man, I gotta stop that someday.
>
> Well, my question is do any of you have a NB?  Have you had any
> weird
> electrical problems?  The lights on this car blink when the ac is
> turned
> on, and the whole thing shuddered and almost died when I pulled the
> headlamp switch OUT to activate fog lamp.  I'm talking at 75 mph on
> the
> interstate.  Electrical nightmare.  Hit the windows and something
> beeps.  The door locks and the inst cluster goes haywire, then back
> to
> normal.
>
> What I am hoping for (read:  praying) is that this battery is just
> getoasten and low voltage is causing these weird happenstances.
> Have to
> wait for the dealer to open up this week I guess because no parts
> store of
> any kind around here seems to have a battery for that car.  When I
> got home
> after a two hour drive, I shut the car off and guess what?  When I
> opened
> the door the light didn't even come on.  Turned the key and nada,
> nothing.  Deader than Hector.
>
> Folks, I've never seen anything like it.  It's good to be back.
>
> Sorry for the long story but I thought you guys would appreciate it.
>  Pics
> of the NB to anyone who wants.
>
> hk
>
>

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