Two days ago I found this 1999 Passat with 177k miles for sale within 20 miles of me for a steal of a deal and had to grab it. It belonged to the owner's son, who left for college and never came back for it. It sat for over a year with a dead battery, and was described as unable to start due to the ECU needing reset. It would run for a couple seconds, then rumble to a stop. I was able to get it up and running with VCDS in under 30 minutes.
Before I was able to drive it home I filled up the coolant tank (PO described as having a slow leak), topped off the oil with what was in the trunk (5w-30 full syn I'm fairly certain), topped off the PS fluid (also had some in the trunk), then had to rock it back and forth a bit to unstick the E-brake which had been left on. I got about three miles up the road to fill up the gas tank and found out I couldn't steer. I managed to get it in the lane, where I saw the steering rack pouring fluid like crazy. I bought four small bottles of PS fluid from the gas station and managed to get the car home, stopping every five miles and filling the reservoir back up.
Also - twice on my way home - the oil light started flashing. I checked the level, which was good, and it took a while for it to come back on after I started driving again. I've read that this can be caused by the notorious sludge issue, so I'm intending to clean the engine out when I change the rack.
Other things I know for sure need to be fixed on the car:
Good things are:
Should I change the timing belt? What should I do for preventative maintenance? I will certainly be doing a lot of reading and research on the matter. But if anybody can give me tips for the issues listed above, I would certainly appreciate it! For now I'm an expecting dad who is also trying to finish building a house, so I likely will not be able to get started on the car for another month or so.
I do have a friend with a B5 wagon for parts, and he's offering to sell me the used rack from it. Is there any reason why it wouldn't work?
Before I was able to drive it home I filled up the coolant tank (PO described as having a slow leak), topped off the oil with what was in the trunk (5w-30 full syn I'm fairly certain), topped off the PS fluid (also had some in the trunk), then had to rock it back and forth a bit to unstick the E-brake which had been left on. I got about three miles up the road to fill up the gas tank and found out I couldn't steer. I managed to get it in the lane, where I saw the steering rack pouring fluid like crazy. I bought four small bottles of PS fluid from the gas station and managed to get the car home, stopping every five miles and filling the reservoir back up.
Also - twice on my way home - the oil light started flashing. I checked the level, which was good, and it took a while for it to come back on after I started driving again. I've read that this can be caused by the notorious sludge issue, so I'm intending to clean the engine out when I change the rack.
Other things I know for sure need to be fixed on the car:
- Hood lift support
- Front right door will not open from outside
- Headliner sagging
- Door panels are falling off
- Driver's armrest control panel is all busted up
- Windshield appears to have silicone around it, so possible reseal by a pro?
- Center armrest is broken, along with a few other odds and ends on the interior
- Truck doesn't latch
- Power mirrors nonresponsive
- Metal bar hanging from underneath, scrapes the ground
- Driver's window sounds like scraping metal when I roll it up
- At least one speaker is blown
- MFA knob is stuck or broken
Good things are:
- Engine runs strong
- Transmission feels good
- Paint is 6/10 with no rust
- No dents really
- suspension is good
- two new front tires
- windows are already tinted
Should I change the timing belt? What should I do for preventative maintenance? I will certainly be doing a lot of reading and research on the matter. But if anybody can give me tips for the issues listed above, I would certainly appreciate it! For now I'm an expecting dad who is also trying to finish building a house, so I likely will not be able to get started on the car for another month or so.
I do have a friend with a B5 wagon for parts, and he's offering to sell me the used rack from it. Is there any reason why it wouldn't work?
Just picked up a '99 Passat 1.8T Automatic
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