96 Passat VR6

sixsracing · Post by **sixsracing** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 7:06 am

A friend of mine lost his Accord to transmission failure a couple a weeks back and got himself a 96 Passat VR6 with an auto and 98,000 miles. It's a wagon with leather and roof, pretty car. I put the usual oil cooler seal in last night and checked it over. The upper end is noisy as far as I'm concerned but other than that it seems fine. I am no fan of V6's. Is there anything I need to watch for so that this guy doesn't wind up with another disaster? He bought both the Honda and the Passat from his father-in-law who is a used car salesman in every sense of the word. The Honda lasted less than six months. I have a strong urge to have him sell it and find a 4 cyl. VW but I would like some input from people who have and or like these things. Thanks.

Oh yeah, I was nosing around in the back and there is a small space under the floor near the hatch that has a gray styrofoam covered electric and vacuum operated mechanism wire tied to the floor. It's factory but I have no idea what this is. Anybody?

PDX Cabby · Post by **PDX Cabby** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 12:05 pm

thats the vacuum pump for the central locking....

ericb49 · Post by **ericb49** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 1:02 pm

B4 Passat, infamous for:

tranny failure
sunroof failure
central locking and/or door latch failure
misc electrical gremlins
- intermittent factory starter kill one of my faves!
- power window harnesses
- Dash harness (see ignition, also HVAC and instruments)
- Lighting (headlight bulbs every 5K miles)
Oh yeah, heater core
your usual VR6 stuff (head gasket, coolant leaks (which can lead to bad coolant temp sensors and head warps), MAF issues, timing chain...)

Otherwise it's a good platform!

Post by **Calimus** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 4:10 pm

Yea, tell him to toss the B4 and settle for a nice MK4 jetta. Pretty much all the VW auto trannies in the mid-late 90's were crap. I saw more of them arriving at the local vw shop for replacement then I could imagin. Worst yet, several of the "replacement" trannies ended up being bad right out of the box. How do you like that.

We have a 01' Jetta GLX w/VR6 and so far I love it. it's a 5 speed, but I don't like automagicks. We've put about 12k miles on it since September and so far, not a single issue.

sixsracing · Post by **sixsracing** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 3:39 pm

I'm gonna tell him one more time to sell it before it sells him. I can't really get into it with him because his wife is a real (bad word inserted here) and they got the car from her father through an auction. They'll either listen, or they won't. Thanks for the input, I kinda knew before I asked the question but I like to make sure it's not just my cynicism getting the best of me.

Post by **Calimus** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 4:51 pm

Naw it's cool. Besides, I think we all have friends that have married a real B**ch or a$$hole. It sucks, it makes simple things seem like swimming up-river.

But in the end, all you can do is give your advise and they can choose to listen or not. Unfortunatly it breaks down that simple.

1lowcab · Post by **1lowcab** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 1:25 am

i had a 93 passat vr6, loved it! watch out for the auxiliary water pump and timing chain guides and all the plastic water pipes... had to replace all those in mine. $$$$$

sixsracing · Post by **sixsracing** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 8:05 am

I'll not be putting any timing components in this one, it gets that bad he's gonna find someone else to save him, warned him twice.