There really aren't any specific guidelines on things like bearings and bushings. Bushings soften (or harden) with age but that's incredibly subjective depending on where you live, how you drive, if the car is garaged, etc.
With these older cars, I'd do an annual inspection to look at suspension bushings, ball joints and the like. Get the car in the air and use a pry bar to test for movement - most state inspection tests are NOT allowed to use this method of testing as it tends to be more invasive than a visual inspection. That said, I doubt that anyone has a problem with going "above and beyond" the bare minimum for state inspection. Flush the brake fluid annually and change the oil annually if you log less miles than is "mandatory" to perform an oil change. Even if the car doesn't get used, stuff still wears because the grease solidifies and the bushing material develops a memory for a sitting position. Worse is the moisture that develops from condensation in the fuel tank, brake lines and even in less obvious places such as inside the engine, trans and even the interior. On Friday, July 18, 2014 3:10 PM, Larry Velez <[email protected]> wrote: Speaking of wear items, is there a list somewhere of how often and what to change across the whole car? I know tire wear will depend on use and whether any racing is happening but what about all the other wear items? New cars come with a handy page in their manual but our 'historic /ancient' cars are way past that. Any guidelines somewhere on how often time-wise or mileage wise to change stuff? Just curious, Larry (PS, many thanks to Chad who has been tolerating months of stupid questions from me as I try to revive my 16v after a couple of years of sitting and having the gas go bad and cause multiple problems. Hope to have promising news soon.) -----Original Message----- From: a2-16v-list [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Matthew Yip Sent: Friday, July 18, 2014 12:35 PM To: Volkswagen a2 16v discussion list Subject: Re: [a2-16v-list] distributor cap and tires It's funny how these wear items, well, wear - I put probably 12K on my last 16v and was complaining that it ran poorly with bad fuel economy. Why? Because the idiot owner (looks in mirror) hadn't performed a tune-up in over a year. I'd check the distributor shaft to make sure it isn't wobbling a bit with old age - I wobble with old age and it's not pretty. Dunflop makes a multitude of Direzza tyres - I'm honesty uncertain which ones are "the best" but you may want to haunt some of the autocross forums for their input as well. I wouldn't be too concerned about rain performance - these tyres are treaded to 9/32" so they're fairly deeply grooved. Add to that the fact that they have grooves (unlike most R-compound tyres) and you should be fine. Just don't drive them in temperatures under 45 degrees F or you'll find they're like little carbon bricks. On Thursday, July 17, 2014 11:03 PM, Chad Rebuck <[email protected]> wrote: Not much has been going on with the 16v lately. The car was misfiring in the past week after the rain at times so I took a look at the distributor cap and found it was really worn down. One of the contacts had a 1/16" inch slit in the middle of it from the arcing. Looks the same as if someone took a dremmel tool with cutoff wheel to it. There was quite a bit of carbon all over the place so I installed a used cap that I cleaned up that was on hand in the spare parts box. The used cap was in decent shape.... so far, so good. 2.5 years and 14k miles later my Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 tires are at the limit. They did see a number of fairly long track days and an auto-x or two. The front set now looks like slicks, while the rear have a little more tread remaining. I don't drive the car much in the rain anyhow. I may opt to get some tires that are so high performance oriented this time around since my friends aren't as interested in track days anymore. I don't get the itch to go much anymore either. Last time around the tires ran $460 for the set shipped from Tire Rack. I think the tires performed fine and with my driving I shouldn't expect much more mileage. I was thinking about trying the Dunlop dz102. Here are all the tires in 195/50-15 http://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireSearchResults.jsp?width=195%2F∶=50&diameter=15&performance=ALL Any feedback from you all is welcome. Thanks _______________________________________________ a2-16v-list mailing list [email protected] http://mail.a2-16v.com/mailman/listinfo/a2-16v-list For list archives, see listinfo link above. _______________________________________________ a2-16v-list mailing list [email protected] http://mail.a2-16v.com/mailman/listinfo/a2-16v-list For list archives, see listinfo link above. _______________________________________________ a2-16v-list mailing list [email protected] http://mail.a2-16v.com/mailman/listinfo/a2-16v-list For list archives, see listinfo link above. _______________________________________________ a2-16v-list mailing list [email protected] http://mail.a2-16v.com/mailman/listinfo/a2-16v-list For list archives, see listinfo link above.
