Couple quick soon-to-be do-it-youselfer questions

I have a couple quick questions. I've already posted about a potential bad hazard flasher relay (2000TDI Golf). Now I just got back from a long (2000 mile) trip and had a lot of symptoms reported here in this forum that might indicate an impending failure of the MAF (slight loss of power and acceleration, cruise control can't maintain RPMs on grade, etc...). That looks like yet another repair I can do on my own. So my questions are:

(1) What Bentley manual do people recommend. It seems like there is a cd-rom version and a web version that sounds more comprehensive, and a hard paper manual which may be less so.

For example:

http://www.bentleypublishers.com/product.htm?code=vya4

this

http://www.bentleypublishers.com/product.htm?code=va44

and this

http://www.bentleypublishers.com/product.htm?code=vg03

I'd like to have something I could carry around with me and actually read. Which service/repair manual should I get/do people use?

-and-

(2) I know the Vag-Com(sp?) seems to be the most popular diagnostic hardware/software here, but it's a bit pricey. Has anyone ever had experience with:

http://www.obd-2.com/

It's quite a bit less money, runs on older hardware, and it seems to do what is most important to me, read diagnostic codes. I would just need somewhere to lookup what the code means for a VW.

Any help/thoughts would be most appreciated.

Thx in advance,
jeff

The online manual looks pretty interesting. I would think it would be continually updated with new information and therefore would be pretty handy in that regard. Can you print out pages from the online manual? Your car is a 2000, most likely any updates to the information has already been done and they aren't likely to do many updates to the older cars. If you owned a 2004, it's got many new features from the <2003 cars and I would expect many updates to become available. It is also very expensive, especially if you can't print out pages to carry to the car...unless you have a laptop and a wireless network.

The CD would be very useful, but again could be troublesome getting to the car, although I know this one allows printing of pages, therefore you could print out the pertinent pages and take them to the car. If you own a laptop you could carry it relatively easily on road trips and could be used in the garage, although grease and dirt might be an issue while looking things up on the CD.

The manual sounds most useful to you from what you mention. I would be tempted to get this version, and as mentioned above, I don't think there will be many, if any at all, updates to the information avialable on the 2000 MY. If you now own, or plan in the future to buy a 2004, you might consider the online version, it's more expensive but would be more useful with the newest cars.

As to the VAG-COM question, that other software seems more aimed at someone with extensive computer hardware and software knowledge. I have extensive hardware knowledge and limited software knowledge, but prefer to work on the car and not have to configure the software each time. It also appears as if you would <font color="red"> NOT </font> be able to make adjustments to the ECU as you can with VAG-COM. Ross-Tech has done a ton of work on that software specifically for the VW, it works, and works well. That other software doesn't even specifically mention VW and I bet it would be of limited usefullness in that regard. VAG-COM is updated often and many people on this and VW Vortex boards have extensive knowledge of how it is used and are willing to help if you have trouble--I don't think you would find anyone on either site to help if that other software was giving you fits. Besides, the people from Ross-Tech are well known for their great customer service and willingness to help people on this site and through one-on-one contact.

If I have read your requests correctly and there are no other criteria, I recommend you get the VAG-COM, even though it's a bit more money. It is all inclusive and you won't regret the purchase. I also recommend the paper Bentley as you did mention portability.

Just my $0.02 worth.

YMMV

Mike /images/graemlins/cool.gif