found two 03 Jetta TDIs since june totalling 153k miles between them both

They're still out there! Luck or persistence? Definitely both for me
03 Jetta wagon with 69k and an 03 Jetta sedan with 84k. ALH or bust!

Automatics or manuals??
The troublesome automatics seem to be a lot more common.

jettawreck said:

Automatics or manuals??
The troublesome automatics seem to be a lot more common.

Click to expand...

manuals, the both of them

Those are great finds and depending on what you had to pay for them, potential great buys.

Yeah theyre both pretty amazing finds and deals. I doubt ill come across another as cherry, but, then again, thats how i felt after i found the first. Paid the same for both within a couple hundred dollars.

HeyZeusBC said:

Yeah theyre both pretty amazing finds and deals. I doubt ill come across another as cherry, but, then again, thats how i felt after i found the first. Paid the same for both within a couple hundred dollars.

Click to expand...

1 Fuelly fuel up. You are on your way!

jokila said:

1 Fuelly fuel up. You are on your way!

Click to expand...

first things first

Someone up in the BC area is selling a 2003 Golf with only 64kms on it. I think this is the lowest "mileage" I've seen yet. Automatic though.

Note for anyone coming along: Careful about such low mileage vehicles as they may STILL be on their original timing belt; AGE becomes a factor, and a 14 year-old belt will start to become the most-likely-to-give-way part of the TB chain of parts. Deduct $1k from asking price if there is no proof of the TB being recently changed: assumes the asking price is inflated owing to the "low mileage."

It's incredibly easy to change the mileage in the cluster; so make sure the car condition fits the mileage, and the appropriate reporting agencies have been checked.

^^ Yup! I won't approach any car unless I can plug in VCDS.

Question: What seems to be the trouble with the automatics? I bought one this spring with 178km, and tranny-wise it's been fine. We did swap the oil though upon purchase and it was expected black. I've heard a majority of the issues were due to running VW's "lifetime oil" but the oil is only rated for 150-200km or something (far less than the true lifetime of a TDI). Any experiences?

AceTdi said:

Question: What seems to be the trouble with the automatics? I bought one this spring with 178km, and tranny-wise it's been fine. We did swap the oil though upon purchase and it was expected black. I've heard a majority of the issues were due to running VW's "lifetime oil" but the oil is only rated for 150-200km or something (far less than the true lifetime of a TDI). Any experiences?

Click to expand...

If you search and read the known issues/problems they're there in their full glory. While environment/driving conditions and maintenance have a significant effect there seems to be some mysteries as to why some of these transmissions last far longer than the majority of them (on the whole it seems like 125k to 150k is the average lifespan).

"We did swap the oil though upon purchase and it was expected black."

You expected it to be black and found that it wasn't, or it was as [you] expected, black? Did you change the filter?

Color is one thing, what's IN the fluid is another. If you have a bunch of crap, especially metallic bits, then that's a red flag.

Look around for CoolAirVW's threads on the 01m. Should be mandatory reading for anyone who has an 01m.