Diesel Hypochondria: Events of Ownership at High Mileages

I guess this entire post is about the hypochondria while owning a high mileage vehicle and reading these forums. Do you walk away each evening after reading TDIClub.com wondering if that rattle, shake or vibration could be one of the hundred issues you've recently skimmed?

Brian!

Diesel hypochondria....Yeah I think you're correct. Especially since these are so darn hard to replace now!!

How about the neurotics that expect a car to function perfectly forever
while never collecting a dent, scrape,scratch,nick or even a wear mark.

And if THEY break something, it is defective and the car it was part of
is a LEMON!

Bill

40X40 said:

How about the neurotics that expect a car to function perfectly forever...

Bill

Click to expand...

True story. Had a close friend who came over one day with a check oil light on and asked me what was up. I pulled the dip stick and it was bone dry. I said the car needed oil immediately or the engine would die.

He said, "I bought this car with oil so why am I missing oil?"

It had 54,000 miles [Honda Civic 5-speed].

Those were his exact words.

Brian

Bump.

larithmos said:

I heard a story about a guy who went in for an oil change... the guy working on it drained the AT fluid, instead of the oil, and then proceeded to 'fill' it up with oil. He stopped when the oil was coming out of the fill cap.

Click to expand...

I had a friend where the EXACT same thing happened with his new Explorer.

40X40 said:

And if THEY break something, it is defective and the car it was part of is a LEMON!

Click to expand...

Don't forget how it is also the fault of the Mexican assembler.

(Even if their VW wasn't assembled in Mexico)

BrianCT said:

He said, "I bought this car with oil so why am I missing oil?"

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Yugo syndrome? (Yugos weren't unreliable cars. Yugos were cheap cars that people thought didn't need maintenance, and they took special oil and had 40,000 mile timing belts on interference engines. Hmm, sounds familiar.)

Brain,

And now we have to worry about cam wear apparently!

*see cam threads

Here is a good example of new car obsession.

I left out the name of the poster as this is just an example, not an attack
on another member. I think it shows the level of nuttiness that new car
ownership can involve.

un-named source said:

i just measured the stock ride height on my TDI. left side is a little lower than my right side by abount 1/8"
this gonna affect anything in a negative way? tire wear, suspension longevity?

Click to expand...

Perhaps the car and the owner are both a little OFF PLUMB?
ROFLMAO

Bill

40X40 said:

Here is a good example of new car obsession.

I left out the name of the poster as this is just an example, not an attack
on another member. I think it shows the level of nuttiness that new car
ownership can involve.



Perhaps the car and the owner are both a little OFF PLUMB?
ROFLMAO

Bill

Click to expand...

Sounds like a valid question to me. Over tens of thousands of miles it might cause some variation?

That all right a Kid i know bought a used golf with a VR6 in it on the way home he flys over a hill hits the pan tears a hole in it and instead of stopping he drove it the reat of the way home, said it was ONLY four miles. can you guess who is looking for a new engine?

regarding:

left side is a little lower than my right side by abount 1/8"

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Unless you put a car on a flat plate or frame machine 1/8in. is
a meaningless measurement. The posters' next post said he/she had the
left and right reversed. So his car is (according to him) 1/8 in. high
on the left side. If he sits in the drivers seat, what do you think happens?
Concrete is usually poured with a slope for drainage so it makes a
poor reference.
The original poster has engineer in his/her job title, but he/she had to
ask for the formula to figure his gas mileage.... I find it very funny
that in this country a person can have a job title like that and be
dumber than a box of rocks. (He/she is not a real engineer, it is just a job
title. (I HOPE))

Bill

"The original poster has engineer in his/her job title, but he/she had to
ask for the formula to figure his gas mileage.... I find it very funny
that in this country a person can have a job title like that and be
dumber than a box of rocks. (He/she is not a real engineer, it is just a job
title. (I HOPE))"


I sure hope so too. My dad was a tool and die maker a company in Wisconsin and he had epic arguments with the engineers as to details on blueprints. (his education as an engineer was aborted due to WWII and a family farming accident in which my grandfather lost a leg). Anyway one day he gets a blue print in which the threads per inch specified on one part of the die were incompatible with the other part of the die. He tells the supervisor, "If I make this according to the blue prints its going to be a boat anchor!" It was to be made out of some sort of special hard bronze (read this as expensive). The supervisor said to make it according to the blue prints. Of course he gloated for years afterward after proving this idiot wrong. I do believe that that engineer was put to the grills on account of this situation.

40X40 said:

The original poster has engineer in his/her job title, but he/she had to ask for the formula to figure his gas mileage...

Click to expand...

Yes... because all engineers are completely versed in all disciplines of their own degree, and all other engineering sciences as well.

Maybe the guy had... a job... and didn't have time to derive the formula himself. Maybe he figured that there was someone else out there who did know the formula off the top of their head.

I've worked with plenty of people who think the Engineer is the dumbest one on the jobsite... And most of those guys didn't know which end of the screwdriver they should use to scratch their ass. But they all sure talk as if they know everything.

Just because someone is knowledgable in one area, doesn't mean they're qualified to spout off in every other area as well.

Lots of numbers on the odometer are just bragging rites to me.

In addition to my 380,000 mile Jetta, I have a 400,000+ mile Mazda pickup I've serviced so many cars with over 300k miles, many Volkswagens, even gassers. Have a '98 GTI at the shop now with 212k miles. Runs perfect. Other than a lot of paint chips on its unprotected nose you'd never know.

If people will just take care of a car, it'll last almost indefinitely. It is a machine. So long as its body doesn't rust away (and some prevention can be done there) you can always maintain/repair the mechanicals.

oilhammer said:

Lots of numbers on the odometer are just bragging rites to me.

In addition to my 380,000 mile Jetta, I have a 400,000+ mile Mazda pickup

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I've always been impressed with your high mileage achievements. I'm at the 173,000 mile mark in a bought new 3 year old car.

oilhammer said:

I've serviced so many cars with over 300k miles, many Volkswagens, even gassers. Have a '98 GTI at the shop now with 212k miles. Runs perfect. Other than a lot of paint chips on its unprotected nose you'd never know.

Click to expand...

New England. Tough to keep a nose clean on these roadways especially during winter-time. Sand/salt and sun. Reads like the "beach boys."

oilhammer said:

If people will just take care of a car, it'll last almost indefinitely. It is a machine. So long as its body doesn't rust away (and some prevention can be done there) you can always maintain/repair the mechanicals.

Click to expand...

Okay, this is where I was heading while creating this thread. Have you ever sat down and read the threads on turbo's blowing, trannys and clutches exploding, cam shafts and followers eating up an entire engine ...and lastly the electrical problems ...not to mention "MY WINDOW just DROPPED" threads.

Next morning you open your car door, get in and start your motor and relish within your mental Diesel Hypochondria.

That sound? It's not normal.
That creaking? Where's that coming from.
That squeal? A timing belt roller or pulley?

My example is yesterday. I drive over to Braintree, MA to have Chris Hill check out a groan in my front end. Wheel bearing? CV joint? Tie Rod? Control Arm Bushing?

Chris lifts the car into the air ...with a machine of course. Checks the suspension and finds I've toasted a left front Bilstein HD strut. The piston-shaft has play right down into the assembly. He's never seen an HD wear out. But then again? How many people buy a set of strut/dampeners and have 170,000 miles on them in such a short period of time.

Diesel Hypochondria.

I firmly believe that many mechanical problems can be prevented. And while some simply cannot due to poor design or just plain wear, you can decipher some things to avoid.

I worked at an independant shop for years, and from that experience I know I will never, ever, ever, own a GM product. Ever. I have good reasons. And apperently others do, too, as GM's market share slips year after year after year (down 26% I think this year alone from last year I recently saw on the evening news). Things like leaking intake gaskets on their cars...that is a design flaw. A flaw that would require an entirely different engine because I don't care what planet you are from you cannot seal a V-shaped intake manifold on an engine with 8 tiny bolts going at 2 different angles and sandwiching a plastic intake gasket with a little ribbon of neoprene. Ain't gonna happen! But GM's beancounters insist they use this leftover 60-degree V6 that came out with the X-body in 1980. OK, so the Citation had a carburetor and displaced only 2.8L, but that "new" port-injected 3.5L in that Malibu is still the same old rehashed lump of pushrod-toting garbage.

But, others think GM can do no wrong, and they have found ways to deal with that. I for one think a failed alternator every 50k miles is hogwash when there are plenty out there that last several hundred thousand. However I make no excuse for Volkswagen's consistently crappy power windows although I have not ever had much trouble. But perhaps frequent lubing of the window channels is the key to prevention???

Now, what can you do to make those GM intakes seal up for good....

"The original poster has engineer in his/her job title, but he/she had to
ask for the formula to figure his gas mileage.... I find it very funny
that in this country a person can have a job title like that and be
dumber than a box of rocks. (He/she is not a real engineer, it is just a job
title. (I HOPE))"

This reminds me of when I bought a new (sacrilege!) Honda Accord way back in 1990. I was meticulous about checking fuel consumption. I stopped to fill up one evening in my way out to a dinner reservation with my wife. I noted the liters on the pump, but not the dollars, and was proceeding to calculate the mileage when I noticed the pump jockey wasn't coming to see me for payment.

I went into his booth to ask him what was going on. He said he accidentally reset the pump to zero and didn't remember the amount. I said "no sweat, I noted the liters, it took 52 liters, and the gas is xx.x cents/liter" and went back to my car.

Again he didn't come. I assumed he was intelligent. When I went back to ask him what was going on I got "duh, how do you calculate the amount???". This dude looked to be about 18 or 20...a testament to our education system....

PlaneCrazy said:

...This dude looked to be about 18 or 20...a testament to our education system....

Click to expand...

Conversation Daily my better half has with clients.

Client: "Gas is so expensive!"
Kathy: "I bought a Volkwagen Jetta Diesel."
Client: "Diesel is SO EXPENSIVE, more expensive then gasoline..."
Kathy: "Well, I get better fuel mileage with diesel."
Client: "How much does it cost for you to fill your tank?"
Kathy: "About $40.00."
Client: "You see? Diesel ...it's so expensive!"
Kathy: "I can drive 700 to 800 miles on a tank full of diesel."
Client: "Yes, but it costs you $40.00 to fill it up, my 1998 Blazer is about $35.00 to fill it up."
Kathy: "Yes, but how far can you drive on a tank full of fuel?"
Client: "A week and a half around town so I spend less than you."
Kathy: "You don't get it do you?"
Client: "What? That you spend $5.00 more for a fill-up then me?"

" Conversation Daily my better half has with clients.

Client: "Gas is so expensive!"
Kathy: "I bought a Volkwagen Jetta Diesel."
Client: "Diesel is SO EXPENSIVE, more expensive then gasoline..."
Kathy: "Well, I get better fuel mileage with diesel."
Client: "How much does it cost for you to fill your tank?"
Kathy: "About $40.00."
Client: "You see? Diesel ...it's so expensive!""

This is why diesel cars will never cath on here in the good old USA!

--Nate