Andrew, It is good to hear that you solved your hot temperature issues. I am afraid that I may have to spring for a new radiator myself as my Gli is running a little warmer than I care for. It is odd because I replaced it about four years ago. In addition, my Corrado runs really hot with the A/C on (fan works fine) so I may have to do that in the fall too. Interesting comments on the satisfaction of driving an older car. I have five vw's. I use the Corrado in the good weather and the Jetta Gli sees the New England winters and whenever the Corrado is out of commission. I rent out garage space for the weekend toys: 77 Scirocco, 83 Rabbit Gti, and an 84 Rabbit Gti. They are a lot of fun and are neat to take to the vw events throughout the year. I like the idea of doing a majority of the work on my own and would never consider that on a newer car (void the warranty). However, I have been getting the itch to upgrade to a car payment and have a year-round car but keep a few toys on the side. I was considering the Subaru WRX (new or used if unabused). A friend has one and it seems practical as an everyday driver in New England for my 60 mile commute each day. The only downside is that it would be driven in miserable traffic each way :( For those who agree with holding on the the older cars, if you were to get a fairly recent car (4 years old or less) what would you go after to replace what you have now? Jim
Message: 1 Date: Sun, 07 Aug 2005 22:36:16 -0400 To: [email protected] From: Andrew White <[email protected]> Subject: [a2-16v-list] overheating solved (and a little more..) Swapped out the old radiator for a new one, as folks had suggested (thanks for all the emails!). The old radiator was seriously about 30 pounds. It was full of gunk, and was the original radiator. My guess is that it had been a little clogged for a while (the car used to always overheat after sitting in traffic for a long time), and the extra gunk from the leaking headgasket as well as things getting shuffled around when the new headgasket was installed really plugged it up. With the new radiator, the car runs about 20-30 degrees cooler- it stays right at about 200 on the oil temp gauge all of the time, with the water gauge around halfway. Doesn't really budge much at all, and I tried running with max A/C in stop-and-go traffic with the outside air temp around 95, with no problems. Made a huge difference. Having the Passat dual-fan must help as well! The other thing- I was talking with a few friends of mine this weekend, and one was saying "why would you want a car that you have to fix?" He buys a new car every few years, and although he is in debt up to his eyeballs, never really has to fix his cars, since they don't get old enough to break down. Now, my 16v has never stranded me- I do preventative maintenance so that it doesn't happen, but I do have to do work on it every so often. I'm sure that if I got a new car, I wouldn't have to worry about all of the little things that I have to do with my 16v, but man, it's just so much more fun to drive! My dad got a 2003 Saab, with the turbo motor (forget the model), and I drove it this weekend. Super quiet, lots of bells and whistles, supposedly has about 200HP. Was also super boring! No road feel, motor felt weak, not a lot of fun. This is now my 4th Jetta GLI (I've had an 84, 87, 89, and now a 92), and my first 16v. I've had it about 5 years, and still love to walk out and drive it, which I'm not sure how many folks would say about a new car! Plus- it's got history. I got it out of a barn in Vermont, with 67K original miles. That's a much better story than saying that I picked it up at the dealer! Anyways, just my .02. With the new radiator, the car runs amazingly. I'm going to put a GIAC chip that I had lying around in this week, just out of curiosity. I had taken it out, since it seemed like it made the car knock pretty bad. See how it works now. Andrew ........................................................................ PGP public key available from: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x82D3E4A0 26 + 6 = 1 --__--__--
