New to me ‘03 wagon

Hello all! I’ve kept my eyes open for a 03 wagon for a few years now and finally found the one for me, now that tdi wagon prices have shot through the roof!
03 silver/grey wagon, 5 spd, heated seats, moon/sunroof, 90k miles on body, 45k on new engine installed at a dealership up north. (Only info I could get was insurance paid for the engine and work, so maybe it was in a wreck?)
Appears to have been garage kept, no clear coat issues and the headlight lenses aren’t even beginning to fog.
Timing belt only has 45k on it but it is 9 yrs old. Looks absolutely pristine, but I’m scared of it.
Serpentine tensioner raises hell sometimes bouncing, I assume it’s the alternator clutch.
Yesterday I did oil and filter, fuel filter, air filter, cabin filter, 205/60/16 wheels and tires (I get slight rubbing at full lock on bumps for anyone curious), philips vision plus headlight bulbs (minimal difference if any), repaired tail light housing, unclogged rear window washer, cussed a sagging headliner, lots of cleaning and inspecting. My blend doors are trashed.
Put about 400 miles of mixed driving on it and got a crude estimation of about 42 mpg. I’ll be interested to see what it can get on the highway.
I’ve had a love/hate relationship with my wife’s previous vw’s, but I really like this little turd.

Do the timing belt ASAP, fix the serpentine belt and pulley(s).
While you're doing fluids, do the brakes as well.
Pin the headliner, lol, that works for me, some not so much.
BIG tires, wow, you might want to look at some spacers.

Congrats! If you care to share, price?

Ha! Those would be some big tires! I edited from 255 to 205 in the original post. All fluids will get changed and I’ll definitely get on the timing belt. I’ve had good results with other vehicles removing all the foam off the headliner and coming over it with spray on bedliner. I’ve started reading threads and stickies to get familiarized with the platform, one of my powerstrokes is coming up on 400k miles and I plan to get at least that out of this Wagon.
I paid $3k for the car.

Congrats on the find and welcome.
Your at the right place for help if and when needed.
My current DD is at 427,xxx miles and climbing.

Good for you for finding one, although I wonder what killed the engine at 45K miles. And if the blend doors are shot it wasn't inside. My '99.5 had OK clear coat but the doors were done, I don't think it was ever inside.

Enjoy the car. My wagon is at 402K and is still my daily.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

Good for you for finding one, although I wonder what killed the engine at 45K miles. And if the blend doors are shot it wasn't inside. My '99.5 had OK clear coat but the doors were done, I don't think it was ever inside.

Enjoy the car. My wagon is at 402K and is still my daily.

Click to expand...

Thanks! No idea on what took the engine out. I found a dealership card in the owners manual and gave it a call, they ran the vin and verified that a new engine was put in and paid by insurance.. 9 yrs ago. Other than some small maintenance stuff, that’s all the info he had. I think the guy I bought it from just flipped it, he didn’t know much of anything about the history of it. The fuel filter I replaced was a Mann, so I was glad to see that.

csstevej said:

Congrats on the find and welcome.
Your at the right place for help if and when needed.
My current DD is at 427,xxx miles and climbing.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the welcome!

Izzybird said:

Ha! Those would be some big tires! I edited from 255 to 205 in the original post. All fluids will get changed and I’ll definitely get on the timing belt. I’ve had good results with other vehicles removing all the foam off the headliner and coming over it with spray on bedliner. I’ve started reading threads and stickies to get familiarized with the platform, one of my powerstrokes is coming up on 400k miles and I plan to get at least that out of this Wagon.
I paid $3k for the car.

Click to expand...

Ahhh, still a bit bigger diameter than my 215/55/16s. Your speedo's off.
Stock is 24.9", mine at 25.3", yours 25.7". I'm about <1mph speedo vs
GPS. Lift the suspension a little and you'll probably lose the rub, or some
10mm wheel spacers.
Good deal! Congrats. Now of course we need pics.

Well, since the timing belt on this motor was 9 yrs old, I parked the car until I had time to dive in to it. Bought the metalnerd tools from a fellow member, got all the parts, and got after it. I am fortunate enough to have a lift, so that makes it at least a bit more pleasurable. I’ve done quite a few gas burner 1.8 and 2.0 jettas and beetles, but never a
TDI. Everything went smoothly and what I took away was..
The guide on here was a great resource for the first time, although folks with some mechanical background can skip some steps. The metalnerd tools are nice but not everyone will need them, I could have easily done the job with what I had.
At first fire up, I could immediately tell it was advanced from the sound. Don’t remember the numbers I set it to, but matched just below the blue line on the vagcom screen image I had to reference. Sounded good at idle but had heck starting cold and no power above 3k rpms. I’ve been around common rail, mechanically injected, and heui diesels most my adult life so I ditched the scanner and went by how the car “wanted” to be timed. Bumped it up until cold starting was no issue and the power was there in the upper rpms. I may hook back up to it and see where the timing sits and I may not. It’s been extremely consistent with 42mpg mixed style driving, can’t wait for a road trip to see what kind of numbers I can achieve. I’d be plenty happy to squeak close to 50. Cool little cars, I can see why you guys and gals like them. I may have to look in to shoving a alh in to my little Mazda 2600i for gits and shiggles. Guess I don’t have a high enough post count to post a pic of the little pimp wagon, how many posts do I need?

Don't believe there is a minimum post count here. You cannot simply drag and drop.
Short version:
Log in again at pics.tdiclub.com
Select Upload button, follow prompts (check your file type)
At the end, harvest the url to use as a link for your post
Note there are 3 sizes with separate urls. For large data use the thumbnail, it shows the full size when clicked.
More complete instructions in my signature.

pins for headliner. make a diamond pattern with pins for effect

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GQFTG3K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

good find on that car!

BobnOH said:

Don't believe there is a minimum post count here. You cannot simply drag and drop.
Short version:
Log in again at pics.tdiclub.com
Select Upload button, follow prompts (check your file type)
At the end, harvest the url to use as a link for your post
Note there are 3 sizes with separate urls. For large data use the thumbnail, it shows the full size when clicked.
More complete instructions in my signature.

Click to expand...

Ok, here goes..

I need to get some center caps for those wheels and and the little insert for the drivers side of the front bumper. I bought this thing to be a good, reliable, extra vehicle to have around and I’ve just always wanted one. The wife has already stolen it and turning it in to her daily, guess that means I get to take over her SHO. Fine with me..

Rxfire said:

pins for headliner. make a diamond pattern with pins for effect

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GQFTG3K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

good find on that car!

Click to expand...

Thanks! I think I’m going to take the spray on bedliner route, I’ve done a couple Jeep Grand Cherokees that way and it turned out pretty dang good.

Welcome. Wagons are the best. I found my unicorn on here. Chasing them is tough, but when you see a clean one come up, you have to jump on the opportunity. Read through the forum, loads of great info on here. There's some mods that would REALLY improve the experience of having one, but that's something I'd leave up to you.