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  View original topic: H2O Purchase Advice
wifesvw Tue Jan 10, 2006 11:47 am

I’m in the market for a water-pumper for my wife but my VW knowledge gets pretty shaky outside of air-cooled cars. I would really appreciate any input or advice you could share to help me narrow down my search. I’m searching for an A3 94-98 style Golf/Jetta or a B4 95-97 Passat.

I’ve heard that the automatic transmissions during this era tend to be a bit “boggy”, does anybody have any experience with this?

Although they’re a bit harder to find, I was thinking of going with the turbo diesel over the gas engine. Does anybody have any experience with the 94-99 tdi that could convince me to go with it or talk me out of it?

As far as I know there are 3-engine options, the 4cyl gas, the VR6 gas, and the TDI? Are there any engine/tranny combo’s I should stay away from (e.g. Diesel/auto)?

Thanks for your time!

Marc

vdub6v Mon Jan 16, 2006 10:16 am

I know from working on them that the A3 automatic transmission can be trouble. In the 1-1/2 years i have been working part time at a shop we have replaced 2 and junked one car because the auto wents with around 100k miles on them. I believe there are three different automatics, the code is on the bell housing of the trans. I forget which one is the worse. In addition to having a bad mechanical history the auto 4 cylinders are soooo slow, the acceleration is horrible.

The 2.0L four cylinder basically the evolved water pumper from the rabbits. My brother has a 1997 Golf and he is up to 165k with no problems, he gets about 30 mpg.

Micropassatman Thu Feb 02, 2006 2:16 pm

I'm driving a '96 Passat GLX VR6, 5 speed. I love that car to death! It has about 130k. Still going strong. Gets about 25 MPG if I keep it tuned up and my foot off the pedal.



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