Checks for a 2nd hand car?

connundrum

Hey, after weeks of faffing about trying to find the 'right' car, I've finally decided to go out and have a gander at a 98 Passat 1.6. I'll be going out on my ownio so I just wondered had anyone got hints/tips for what I should be looking for?

With the last car I had bought and all before I discovered that the drivers window didn't work (it was raining that night :rolleyes: ). He's getting it NCT'd today so I would hope that it'd be in gwo anyways.

Any help is appreciated
Dave

Slinky>

Before you go anywhere make sure your paying a decent price for it, there's a lot of dreamers on carzone and autotrader looking for way too much for their cars,

Really you should bring someone who's fairly confident with you a friendly mechanic or even someone who's bought and sold a few cars
Check all paperwork the old nct's and service receipts <if any> should give you an idea if the milage is correct and if the car has been well maintained,

A simple test to see if the clutch is slipping is to put the car into fifth at about 50kph and floor it, if the rev's go up and the car doesnt speed up the clutch is well on the way out,

Check under the oil cap for 'mayonaissey' type white gunk which comes from water in the oil normally means a headgasket gone,

Check everything works inside the car , stereo windows ect, ,

Get the owner to drive on the worst road you can find in the vicinity with the radio off and listen for bumps and rattles which will give you an idea of the state of the suspension

check www.carsurvey.org and www.honestjohn.co.uk and see what common problems other people have had with the age passats,

Check the panel gaps they should all be the same size and all panels the same colour


You will find lots more by googling but if your at all put off walk away and think about it!

Best of luck

conor_mc

Have a read of AutoTrader.co.uk's Buying Advice

Some of it relates to UK documentation etc, but it does give some good pointers.

connundrum

Cheers for that!

Should the fact that it's going for it's nct today put me in a better position though?

SouperComputer

some things to look out for on the passat:

Clogged plenum chamber\wet carpets: The plenum chamber is the area that the battrey sits in under the bonnet. It is where rainwater drains into. There is a drain hole underneath the battery that gets clogged.. This leads to flooding in the chamber & leakage into the passenger cabin and in some cases, floods the ECU causing serious issues.

Clonking\squeaking front suspension The fairly complex from suspension geometry can cause problems, especially on irish roads. Listen for squeaking and clonking on the front end over bumps. To replace the parts can cost as much as €700.

Timing belt\water pump This apples to any car in terms of the timing belt. Failure "usually" means a destroyed engine. The timing belt should be changed every 75K, the less the better. This applies to the 1.6 only though, 1.8s have a habit of snapping belts sooner. Ask to see a receipt if they claim the work has been done.

Also, the original water pump (driven by the timing belt) had plastic impellers that are prone to failure. The main problem is that the timing belt has to come off to replace it, so you are looking at anything from 200-400 to get it replaced. Just be sure that if the timing belt has been replaced, the water pump was done too as all aftermarket pumps ship with metal impellers.


On the window, I had a similar issue, but for some reason, disconnecting the battery fixed it!

Passats are nice comfortable cars, the 1.6 wont set the world on fire but they are a solid engine.