I have a jetta gasoline with 100,000 miles I need to replace the timing belt, can somebody tell me what ELSE i need to replace when i do this big job,
1- the water pump, that all the dealer is telling me to replace, but I dont want to go back and find out that I should have replace somthing else Thx for the help!!!
Thank you VANESA

Post edited 04/30/06 8:52 PM by VANESA

I changed over to synthetic oil about 12,000 miles ago at the suggestion of VW (their new policy). I have taken my car in every 5,000 miles for service (including oil changes) and have never had an oil loss problem. About 3,000 miles after the first oil change with synthetic oil, my low oil light went on. I had to put over 1.5 qts of oil in to get it back up to a normal level. I had my car checked for leaks and none were found. After the second oil change with synthetic oil, the same thing happened…this time 2 qts. needed to be put it. Now I realize I should have checked my oil at regular intervals, but seeing as how I never had to for the first 40,000 + miles, I wasn’t in the habit. I had 2 other repair shops examine my car and no leak was found. Not too long after getting my 3rd synthetic oil change, my check engine light went off. I went in and found that my catalytic converter needed to be replaced. I had to wait 6 weeks (I was told there were 1,900 + converters on back order) to get mine replaced. I was wondering if the synthetic oil, being thinner, could slip out and burn off therefore wrecking my catalytic converter. Any thoughts?

Any response to the trim panel peeling on the 2001 Beetle? The odor from the raw plastic is breath taking.

i think my car’s transmission might be slipping because 3 times yesterday and 4 times today, i had to jam my foot into the accelerator just to get the damn thing to move from a stopped position. i checked all my fluids and things in my engine look pretty much normal. at the very least i know it has nothing to do w/my exhaust system b/c i just got that fixed. my muffler rusted off the rest of the exhaust system. first of all, why there a rear muffler and a front muffler on my car. second, it’s a FOUR YEAR OLD CAR!!!! the muffler is not supposed to rust off of a four year old car. the way the rust looked to me, indicates a faulty weld. so, let’s review:

the car is a 2002 Volkswagen and was purchased from Burke Motors in Cape May Court House in March of 2004 for $15,000. in the time that i’ve owned it, i’ve experienced the following problems in chronological order:

May 2004: interior cup holder in back seat and front passenger side seat belt cover popped off FOR NO REASON!
July 2004: car stalled in a bank parking lot. wouldn’t restart until the 3rd attempt.
August 2004: a recalled starter overheated and melted a whole mess of wires and caused me to have to sit and wait for AAA for 3 hrs on Princeton Pike (AAA messed up my service call).
August 2004: Princeton Volkswagen installed a refurbished starter which inevitably gave me the same problem, this time on train tracks on State St. in downtown Trenton. AAA didn’t screw up this time. thank God because it was about 90 degrees and that’s a horrible place to be when it’s getting dark.
February 2005: the car was either backed into, or somebody fishtailed and hit it with the corner of their bumper. either way i had a huge-ass dent and a lovely insurance mess to deal with. mind you, this isn’t VW’s fault, but this led me to have the following conversation with the mechanic who did my body work, a man that i’ve known since i was 18 and have done business with before. he’s honest and he does great work and if it’s convenient for you to go to Pleasantville, NJ i highly reccomend him.

Gene: the car took a while to fix because we had to wait about a week for them to send us a part because they don’t make it anymore.
Me: did you have to replace the panel?
Gene: no, and even if i did i wouldn’t want to. the way that body is built, if it’s been cut, if you get hit in the same place again, the car will buckle right in half.
i’ll say it again, b/c it bears repeating: BUCKLE. RIGHT. IN. HALF. i did a little research and found that my car has never been crash tested and by that i mean not a single model year for the Cabrio. i checked both the insurance institute and the federal commission on highway safety (i know that’s not right but the real name escapes me) I’M DRIVING A ROLLING DEATHTRAP! SUPER!
anyway, to continue, May 2005: my brake light proceeds to come on at intervals for no apparent reason. i’m someone who doesn’t mess around w/brake lights so i asked that they check my breaks at my next check up. i told them i felt they were fine and perhaps i had a bad brake light switch. the man at Hamilton Volkswagen proceeded to talk down to me and tell me that there wasn’t a brake light switch in my car. ok, i don’t come into that place to get disrespected and just b/c i have ovaries doesn’t mean i don’t know about my car. my boyfriend’s father is a licensed mechanic who knows his shit and knows it well and that’s what.
December 2005-February 2006: the car stalls/quits on a fairly regular basis. before it does this, it runs really hard even when idling. we’re talking the shakes here. i could chalk this up to the cold, but this happened on more than one occasion when it was 45 degrees and the car had been sitting no more than fifteen minutes.
March 2006: the muffler adventure. see above for details. this wasn’t covered under the warranty which to me says that VW doesn’t stand behind their cars and for good reason: THEY’RE PIECES OF CRAP!!!!!
Present dilemma (April 2006): a slipping transmission. if this isn’t covered under the warranty then VW is going to total the car and give me my money back or they’ll be hearing from a lawyer. the car’s been nothing but trouble since no more than 2 months after i bought it. you cannot tell me that a four year old transmission can have something wrong with it and that’s normal wear and tear. no, no it’s not.

so now you know why my affectionate nickname for my car is the German piece of crap. unfortunately, you and i know the car is a lemon but after reading a copy of New Jersey’s Lemon Law on the Division of Consumer Affairs website, the state does not view the car as a lemon. the bottom line, is VW willfully screws people by selling us crappy, watered down versions of what they make in Germany. given that there are so many complaints about bad service and even worse mechanical defects (love the whole airbag going off for no reason thing) on this site and others like it, perhaps a class-action lawsuit is in order? there’s no reason they shouldn’t be held accountable for all this.

INTERNAL MATRIX LEAKED INTO CAR, HAD THE DASHBOARD REMOVED TO REPLACE WITH NEW MATRIX, SOMEHOW THE IMMOBILIZER HAS KICKED IN AND I ONLY HAVE THE ONE KEY FOR MY CAR, PLS HELP,
****************************************************************************************
PS , THE ONLY OTHER THING THAT HAPPENED WAS THAT I CHANGED THE BATTERY INSIDE MY KEY FOB WHILE IT WAS AT THE GARAGE, ONLY TO FIND THAT A LITTLE COMPONENT HAD FALLEN OFF INSIDE, I SOLDERED IT BACK AND MY CENTRAL LOCK/UNLOCK USING THE BUTTONS SUDDENLY STARTED TO WORK, PREVIOUSLY THIS FUNCTION HAD CEASED USING THE BUTTONS SINCE MY LAST BATTERY CHANGE, I CAN ONLY PRESUME, THAT WHEN I HAD OPENED IT LAST TIME TO CHANGE THE BATTERY, I MUST HAVE KNOCKED THIS LITTLE COMPONENT OFF..
BUT I AM SURE THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE IMMOBILISER