I went to change the oil in my girlfriends Jetta TDI and only saw 1 big plug underneath there that was guarded by a little skid plate, so I put the pan under and opened it up.

Turned out to be the $15/quart ATF, on top of the fact that I topped off the dirty oil in the engine with the new $6/quart engine oil that is "only available" from VW because it meets some "505.01" spec, so I had to get another 5 quarts of that, all of this on top of the fact that there is no dipstick for the tranny so you need their stupid service tool to tell if you have the right amount of fluid in there, and supposedly if you have as little as 50 ML too much or too little the transmission won't drive right.

Of the 2 plugs underneath the car, they put a hole in the skid plate for the transmission fluid and not the engine oil?

Finally when I found the engine drain plug, it was underneath 18 torx screws and a "skid plate" that is less durable than my hood liner that I ripped off the day I got my truck.

Yes, this was all my fault but man, I'm so glad I own, drive and maintain a vehicle that isn't so backwards and so... "sensitive".

 

how does that tdi do with a 15k mile oil change interval?

 

It's a Volkswagen. You went in there thinkin like you were working on a normal car.

 

Isn't there some law that requires a dealer to provide - free of charge - a required maintenance part if they're the only ones who provide it?

 

I'll bet those VW engineers are still laughing about that engineering marvel. Remember, those engineers got paid BIG bucks to design it that way.
I do NOT like the new engineering that all the manufacturers are applying to our new vehicles. They are all guilty of that. They are engineering the vehicles to not last 200,000 miles and 10 years, and make them cost prohibitive to keep beyond the warrentee period, and get you back into the show room to buy another new car. Remember, the auto companies are in the business of manufacturing new vehicles and selling the complete car, NOT selling a car that anybody can fix and maintain for a few bucks, and last 30 years and go 800,000 miles trouble free. That would put them out of business. People need an incentive to buy new, and they are engineering that into all the vehicles they build. How many vehicles do you know of that do NOT have some cronic problem that is very expensive to repair? I can't think of one!!! Well, maybe the model T. Then they are obsoleting the parts to repair the old vehicles to get them off the street too.

 

That's funny??? I never had that problem changing the oil in my VW.

1971 Super Beetle.

Nothing gets much simpler than that.

backward? yes, but definitely simple.

 

Scarey part is on the air-cooled VWs,....This counts as the oil filter.......

 

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This one actually I believe is a 5K oil change interval! I'll have to check the book, but either way this was the first change @ 4900 miles. It is not broken in yet and not showing signs of great mileage yet (about 35 mpg city). I'm hoping it'll go up after this oil change.

 

Is her's the 1.8 or the 2.0? My dad's 2002 with the 1.8 gets between 45-48 mpg with an automatic. Changing oil and other routine service is goofy on the thing but I think it is a great car.

 

and you only had to clean that every 8k or so.....

 

I use a small hand pump and pump the oil out the dipstick tube. This works good and no going under the car at all. Been doing this for 2 years.
Bob

 

yep that will stop the big chunks Shovel

 

I think it's a 1.9 actually.. 04 or 03 was a changeover year, now each injector has its own injection pump or something, called "PD" for short. We just measured last night and we're up to 40 MPG mixed city/highway. It is just not broken in yet so it's still going up.

 

Old VW's: That "strainer" and 2 and 1/2 quarts of oil! I loved my VW days... so cheap, so simple... ah those were the days.
K.

 

That strainer reminds me of my '79 Shovelhead. When I changed the oil and filter "element", I'd drain the oil, replace the old filter in the oil tank, refill with new oil, then remove the lifter strainer and clean out what was left of the old oil filter. It's a wonder the thing worked at all. The new ones, '92 is new to me, have a screw on filter cartridge like a small car filter. Lifter screen stays clean.