Can you order a 3rd gen truck with a VW diesel rabbit engine???

[Tony T.]

Hey Roper, you ever done a oil anayzles on that Rabbit. What brand oil does she run in it.



Tony

 

[Yo Hoot]

Was looking at the pictures of the head gasket replacement of the Duramaxi, I am surprised the GM allowed that verses a replacement engine! It is my understanding the the block is headed to one temp and the heads to another for assembly at the factory. Your comments? SNOKING

Not sure i understand the question. The truck had 65,000 miles on it when the head gaskets were done. It actually was a rare case. They aren't having unusually high headgasket failures on Dmax's but they are having a high injection failure rate. I'm guessing it's in the 20% range before 100,000 miles.

 

[roperteacher]

Tony T, I have never had an analysis done on any of our vehicles. I change my oil every 3,000 in all of mine (Except for the moms rabbit) . SO I never think anything can get bad. I never run synthetics either. I just couldn't leave the oil in there that long and cannot afford BOMBS. My truck out performs my expectations as it is. If I can pull 8500 lbs of horses up and over southern Calif mts going 65-70 STOCK, why do I need this stuff or the expense??? LOLOL ANyway, on the oil, I get whatever is cheapest. We don't even care about weight. Although the last 3 oil changes ( Dec of 02, 03, 04) I have put Delo 1540 400 in it. When I was under there I checked for leaks etc. . completely dry!!! Never had a seal done either!!! Mom was mad the ONE TIME she blew a radiator hose going over DOnner Summit into reno. That was the BIGGEST deal! And she still drove it a few miles until the temp was in the red and she was fine. She bailing wired it back to gether and off she went! Any local TDR guys besides myself near Paso... I would LOVE for one to come out and "VERIFY" this car and post back on here. . roper

 

[MChalkley]

Hmm, well, I've had a 4 Rabbits/Jettas of the "1st gen" type, and my Dad has had 5. Plus, I had a '96 Passat TDI, and now own a '04 Passat TDI. With two exceptions, all of them have gotten over 300k without ANY engine problems and NONE of them have EVER been sold/retired because the engine was worn out. The first exception was my Dad's original '78 Rabbit, the car that started us on our long VW diesel sojourn - it self-destructed the head at 287k, but that was because the timing belt broke, and it had NEVER been changed, so it was his own fault. After that, all of them got timing belts replaced every 100k or so. (He rebuilt the head, and put another 100k on it before deciding to make it a parter because of wear and tear on the rest of the car. ) The second exception is my '04, and I guess everybody can figure out why it hasn't made 300k yet - it's only got 12k on it so far.



Now, that having been said, every one of those VW's, except the original '78 my Dad owned, has run Amsoil in it, with yearly changes. Other than that, I can't tell you why our experience seems to have been incredibly atypical...

 

[WStoops]

Hey Roper, you seem like a nice guy. Hope you have a nice holiday. My experience with these rabbit diesels is not limited to just one car or pickup but to probably hundreds over a period of years. Not withstanding your mothers experience, they really were a POS. There are, of course, exceptions to every rule and your mom got real lucky. In my experience none of the problems with the VW diesel engine were related to lubrication or lack thereof. The bottoms were very good and you could always see the cylinder cross-hatching from the factory cylinder hone, even after 100k miles. We had a turbo once that ran away due to oil being sucked and pumped into the engine through the bearing. The thing must have hit 8,000 RPMs before it blew. Only one I ever saw throw a rod. Here on the right, er, east coast, I haven't seen one in years. I'm sure they're around but even the gas versions from the 80's are rarely seen. 150k to 175k on a gas rabbit was not uncommon but I don't think I saw too many with much more. 200K on a diesel was seen fairly often but only on cars where there had been many repairs. Hard to imagine how your mom managed to escape the weak casting problems, cylinder head cracks, blown exhaust manifold gaskets do to different expansion rates between the cast iron manifold and the aluminum head. Additionally, those engines weren't direct injected. The fuel was injected into a pre-combustion chamber which also housed the glow plug. Over time, that chamber just carboned up something terrible. The passage from that pre-combustion chamber into the combustion chamber was just a little slot. That chamber was steel, machined and pressed into the aluminum head. It may have a lot to do with the weather out there as we always saw more head gaskets blown in the winter than the summer. Vw does deserve a lot of credit for introducing a small diesel car in the US. My problem with the German manufacturers is that they are very reluctant to admit they have a design problem and will stick with the same flawed design for years. Early rabbits, even into the 80's used to leak water around the radio antenna, allowing water to run down the cable and drip onto the fuse panel which contained printed circuits. ZZZZT!! VW paid to replace thousands of fuse panels under warranty for years before dealing with the problem. Still, I think they can take a lot of credit for starting and promoting interest in small diesel powered cars, something that was long overdue in my view. Have a nice holiday. Good luck to your mom. You might consider getting her a gift certificate from a a towing company for Christmas. I make myself laugh. Just can't resist taking a shot at old VeeDubs.

 

[dewdo]

I had one of those little jewels when they first hit the U. S. market. I was a salesman covering the Northwest piling a lot of miles on it. I got eighteen cents a mile gas allowance. Got 35 MPG. Only gripe I had was it lack of hill climbing and the fact you had to get a reservation to get on the freeway. Loved it though. Had it two years and sold it for $500. 00 more than I paid for it.

 

[roperteacher]

Yep, I consider myself a pretty good dude! And yes, the CAR GODS are with my mother every step of the way!!! She has been sooooooooo lucky over the years with all of her vehicles. She always tells me I take too good care of them and thats why I have had more problems over the years than she. . I USED, I say USED to have a "Powerjoke"truck. That sucker leaked over the valve cover since new and had 3 trannies in 16,000 miles. It was a 96. . the first year for them I guess. It was the Latest deal. ANyway, the powersteering was also leaking like a siv and she needed to borrow it. I told her at each fuel stop to top off the power steering, or when she heard it squeel. Well, She drove it from Freaking Calif to Oklahoma ( I wouldn't have trusted it to go out of the county)... she made it all the way there and the %^&%*&^%*&^%* pump never leaked on her. As soon as she got it home, I drove it to town ( 6 miles) and the thing gave up the ghost!!! Blew fluid all over the place! I soon there after made a trip to my local dodge dealer, and bought a 98. 5 24V and have been with dodge ever since! She drives a 96 24V and takes "Better" care of it, but not maticulous like me... . thing just keeps going and going. She gets better MPG than me with my 04. 5!

 

[geusterman]

The secret... synthetic. We got 334K on a Chev Citation 4cyl/4spd. Died because the kids broke the back axle carrying tile. Bought one with 100K and it overheated. Pulled the head on the 334K to put on the 100K and the cylinder wear was 1/3 the wear of the 100K. Gonna keep it? Synthetic. George

 

[SGBARRACUDA]

If you could order a Ram with VW diesel you would have a truck that couldn't pull a fat girl off a stool, even if you greased the seat!

 

[Gonzo 1066]

Before you get many more miles on it you better change the cam belt. When it fails the valves contact the pistons. $$$$$$$$$$

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

roperteacher I don't doubt your story, some vehicles do run far longer than people expect, such as what you've seen.



Speaking of your pickup I remember in '80 when we were looking at new trucks the salesman at the GM dealership told us we'd be lucky to get 150k out of the 5. 7 diesel in a pickup. Heh. . . maybe more like 15k. Luckily we didn't give it much consideration. '81 was the last year for the 5. 7 in a pickup, '82 they went to the 6. 2L.



As much of a disaster as the 5. 7L was, they actually improved it to the point of being halfway reliable by the time it was discontinued, but of course the terrible reputation had been established. Our neighbor had a '78 Olds, no problems with it 'til 110k when he screwed up on an oil change and the filter came loose and dumped the oil. It threw a rod. They bought a '83 LeSabre after that and had no trouble at all 'til they traded it at 148k.



Vaughn