Psst!!!, VW gets kickbacks from them, it’s like the mafia, What? you think I’m kiddin?(now where is that suspicious sneaky secret agent lookin’ smiley??).
The owner’s manual isn’t going to tell you jack. The official service manual is published by Bentley Publishers. You can order it online, but it’s not cheap. Worth it if you want to do any work yourself, though. I don’t think anyone makes user-friendly cars anymore. I used to have an Acura Integra, and changing the oil was a nightmare. The oil filter was in the most inaccessible place possible. I have a Jetta now, and IMO Volkswagen service is terrible. The first time I took my car in, I was indoctrinated into the insane world of VW service - They required me to make an appointment, and when I diligently arrived at the correct time, I was confronted with a long line of cars, all waiting to get service in a first-come, first-served fashion. Five hours after dropping off my car, I called to inquire as to their progress, and was informed that they hadn’t even taken my car into the garage yet. If you’re out of warranty, you would do well to find a good independent mechanic who works on VWs - you’ll save a lot of money and aggravation.
What’s really sad is that working on an original Beetle was about as easy as playing with Tinkertoys.
Oh yeah - forgot:
You might want to check out vwvortex.com, as well as the VW usenet group. Sometimes a little research will net you a lot of info.
I think VW just throws in crap bulbs on purpose. I swear, I see 2 week old Golfs and Passats driving around with a missing brake light, head light, indicator… it’s unreal. Given that most people wouldn’t bother with the difficult changing procedure as described here, and given that a vast amount of VW’s sold in Europe are lease cars (which means service doesn’t cost the driver anything), I’d say they’re just making the buying public sponsor their dealer network.
blowero, the original Beetle was a legend. And it didn’t have the engine in the front, or a frickin’ diesel engine either. This one’s just a Golf with different bodywork. And don’t get me started on that stupid flower vase in the dash.
No offense, FCM. 
My Golf had a head light go out a couple of months ago. The headlight setup sounds like what everyone is desribing here. I went ahead and bought two bulbs. Then I did the passenger side bulb first (without the battery) for practice, and did the driver’s side (behind the battery) which was the one that was out. I figured the other would go out soon, so I might as well get it over with adn replaced both.
I’m with Blowero. There used to be no easier car to maintain than a VW Beetle. Of course, that was back when the engine was air cooled, and the War on Americans I Mean Drugs hadn’t even started yet.
No offense taken, Coldfire - it’s not my car! But my daughter is about to get an indoctrination into the world of automotive maintenance. This time next year, she’ll be on her own 800 miles from us, so I gotta equip her to handle it the best she can. I’m wondering how long before she gives up in disgust and gets another car…
My plan is to change out the light after work today. I get home by 3 - I hope we get done before dark. :eek: And from all the stuff I’m reading here about Jettas (I wanted to get a Jetta wagon some day) I’m thinking I’ll be looking elsewhere for my next vehicle.
Have I ever mentioned how much I hate cars?
Another thing about original Beetles (and all other older cars) - they used to use this ancient material called “metal”, which is now obsolete. It had the distinct advantage of not snapping in half when you tried to work on it.
It’s not a crap bulb, it’s a easily shorted wire harness.
I lost the passenger sensor for the airbag when the battery died at four years of age.
I went almost 3 years in my Beetle before needing to replace the headlights. Almost 3 years with nothing other than regular maintenance, in fact. Our Passat wagon needed bulb replacement after just over 2 years, but it had twice the mileage (and hence time the bulb was on) that the Beetle did. I would think it more fair to say that the there’s a fair percentage of bad lightbulbs from the bulb manufacturer, which get distributed all over the place. I’m sure that Peugeots drive around with blown bulbs, too. 
A VW Beetle has no headlights accessible from the engine compartment. This is because the engine compartment is at the rear of the vehicle. It also has no water pump, as the engine is air-cooled. What you and your daughter are dealing with, FairyChatMom, is a fiendish counterfeit placed upon the earth by SATAN, in an effort to convince atheists that God actually exists (apparently the logic goes, that if Satan exists, so does God. I have no clue why Satan would want this publicized).
It’s just one of the many ways Satan manifests his existence in the world today. Some of the others are: Designated Hitters, lights in Wrigley Field, The Crystal Cathedral, mild cheddar cheese, and decaffeinated coffee.
Y’know, kaylasdad99, there’s a really sweet story about how the New Beetle started. It’s about a man and his niece, and some american rebels, and the will of the people.
I’ll tell it to you later. Honestly, it’s half the reason I bought one…
The other half is the look on little kids faces when they see it and point and smile. Or adults.
I grew up in a '74 Superbeetle, myself. Green.
I have a VW Passat, and I must admit as much as I love the car, it is a pain in the ass to replace anything or get it serviced. Any part, no matter how mundane will cost twice as much. You can’t just pop in any old place for an oil change, and it apparently needs it’s own special coolant or it will blow up. The coolant is not mentioned in the owner’s manual, however, at least not under the coolant section. After putting the wrong coolant in once we did discover a small addition in another section of the manual that said for coolant we should “'contact our local VW dealer.”
Now some people tell us that the “red” coolant is ok, but others insist it is even more special, “red VW coolant”. We put red coolant in the car and it has not blown up. We even put green in the first time and nothing happened.
It is currently in the shop getting body work done (due to getting rear-ended), and this was quite a process also, to order the parts. We at least could pre-order and drive the car for the month it took to get them in. I don’t know what would have happened if we couldn’t drive the car until we got the part.
Maybe I will have more to add tomorrow, when we are supposed to get the car back…
I still love the car, good thing, too…mumblemumblepainintheass
Mmmmm, coolant. VW has used their own “special” coolant for years. It used to be the Blue coolant, which was phosphate-free or some such and (surprise) available pretty much only at your local VW dealer. Blue coolant could be mixed safely with your generic, available at Wal-Mart green coolant. Then, with the birth of the present generation, or about 1999/2000, they introduced Red coolant. I don’t know what the special properties of the magic Red coolant are, but I have heard that one Should Not Mix the Red and Blue coolants as Red + Blue = a gelatinous mess.
Will your car blow up with the wrong color coolant? Probably not. Our Cabriolet was made for Blue coolant, but has run a complete system of Green on and off over the years depending on when and where the system was flushed. We have bottles of Blue and Red in the garage right now.
As for the body work, pretty much all body shops suck. Five or six years ago, Mr. Ben and I were hit by a Rent-A-Cop on the way home from work the week before Thanksgiving. The car (a Ford Probe) went to the body shop the next day, but we did not get it back until the end of January. How much of that was due to the holidays, I don’t know, but my Mom’s car was in the shop for a week just to have the tail gate replaced and that was with a couple week’s notice.
I hear ya’.
The antenna rod on my Golf got broken (stupid parking garage with hydraulically raised, tight assed parking spaces … grumble grumble) and VW wanted about fifty bucks for one. I found an after market “styling accessory” replacement that actually said “limited radio wave compatibilty” on the package. It was too short, so I unscrewed the base and the cap and put a fifty centimeter piece of threaded rod in and sprayed the wholes thing black. It cost me and twelve bucks, total. VW has you by the short and curlies, and they’re gonna make you pay (or else shave off the fuzzies and go else where.)
The coolant issue: Yes, the Red Coolant should be fine. It’s simply a lesser used in america formulation. There was an article in Motor Trend a while ago… fascinating, but I can barely recall a word of it. In short, though, the new formulations for older cars are worth it.
Yeah, now the Valvoline by us keeps the red coolant in stock so I can go there for a top-off. They used to turn us away because they only had green - that’s how we first found out that we weren’t supposed to use green, after we had already topped off with green. They used the term ‘jello’ also, but I haven’t seen any effects from it. We didn’t use very much.
But some of them are still reluctant to use red, they still insist there is another red form of VW coolant and I have to persuade them to put the regular red in. Aarrgh.
All you folks complaining about modern VW’s and VW dealers and how much parts cost, try owning an Audi It’s like the same car, only everything costs twice as much, and the dealers are even more difficult!
Oh and I forgot to mention the power steering fluid is just as ridiculous as the coolant. No, they can’t use regular power steering fluid, they have to use “special” power steering fluid (I assume this is the same for VWs)… Is VW/Audi strange like this in Europe, or are American cars the ones that use weird fluids over there?
Mine’s white. And I’m still growing up in it.
