Date:         Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:23:56 -0800
Reply-To:     David Kao <dtkao0205@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Kao <dtkao0205@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Re: Wifes Audi - Oil Leak - NVC
In-Reply-To:  <000501c830b2$b7ce9460$6701a8c0@TOSHIBALAP>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Well said, Scott. Audi and Passat are for rich people who do not have
to do anything themselves to the car. But if you have to fix things to
save money it can be a pain to keep them up.

They are not at all like Vanagons. They are high performance cars
but they are very difficult to repair by owners. Small things broke from
time to time. Parts are not cheap and sometimes very difficult to replace.

The Tiptronic transmission is a wonderful German engineering. It is the
best transmission ever made. My Passt usually cruises at 80 MPH at 3000 RPM.
There is still plenty of headroom to go beyond 100 MPH. Had a chance to
drive a Lexus 330 (3.3 liter). I can tell you that Lexus is a dog comparing
to Passat 2.8 V6.

When mine gets to 105K miles I will try to do timing belt myself. This can
be as early as next year.

David


--- Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM> wrote:

> One thing I've noticed about a lot of german engineering is that things are
> designed to be perfect.
> No allowance for seals to leak, or things needing to be worked on, for
> example.  This would be a good example.
> And it's fairly safe for the manufacturers too, they only have to make it
> look and act good for the price for the first 80K miles or so.....after
> that, who cares ?
> Who cares if an 80 dollar part fails, or if it's 3 hours to replace it.
> Great cars on paper, great cars newish, but not a good car to own at all
> when older.
> I started getting leery of them back in the 5000 days - when those were
> about 15 years old.
> You notice none of those are on the road much anymore. In comparison, there
> are still countless Benz diesels from the 80's that just won't die, at least
> not in the west where rust isn't much of a factor.
> Just everything about them is more complicated and often weird - Audi's.
> A car you really only want to work on if you specialize in them and know all
> the tricks and have special tools where required, and rich customers who own
> them.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Zeitgeist [mailto:gruengeist@gmail.com]
> Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 8:42 PM
> To: Scott Daniel - Shazam
> Subject: Re: Wifes Audi - Oil Leak - NVC
>
> No argument from me,  That thermostat design is a direct result of the
> fact that it uses a t-belt.  Truth is, it only leaked 'cause it wasn't
> changed the last time (the only time) the T-belt was changed.   Audi
> should've never steered away from their excellent I-5 engines,
> especially the non-interference 10v versions.
>
> On Nov 26, 2007 8:11 PM, Scott Daniel - Shazam
> <scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:
> > Sorry to bad-mouth audi's .......but I consider them a difficult case. A
> far
> > better car when new than when getting older, put it that way.  A
> thermostat
> > seal shouldn't be that tricky a technical operation to get at, in
> interests
> > of practicality, but that's not been much of a consideration on more
> modern
> > cars for a while.
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> > Zeitgeist
> > Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 7:24 PM
> > To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> > Subject: Re: Wifes Audi - Oil Leak - NVC
> >
> >
> > I found that when I removed the valve cover, the breather hose and the
> > breather filter were nearly occluded with gunk.  After some time in my
> > solvent tank, I got everything back in tip-top shape.  The VC seal was
> > so brittle (original?), it came off in pieces.  The only problem I
> > have with these engines is focused entirely on the timing belt. I
> > strongly feel that no interference engine should have a timing
> > belt--period.  I had to buy the special camshaft holding bar, and
> > crank positioning pin in order to R&R a leaky thermostat seal.  I wish
> > VAG would finally drop timing belts altogether, especially on their
> > diesels.
> >
> >
>



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