[Vwdiesel] Opinions on '96 Passat TDI

[LBaird119 at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/22/2010 4:19:43 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
vwdiesels at gmail.com writes:

> Just had a look, but the owner was called in to work so I couldn't drive 
> it.
> Body is mostly good, except for a few dings and some rust on front left
> fender lip. Red paint is surprisingly shiny and unfaded, so could be a
> re-paint, although not recent. Some clear coat coming off on the trunk.
> Cloth seats look good except for loose fabric on driver seat. Has stock 
> 14"
> steel wheels with crap tires, so I would swap my 14" alloys from Jetta for
> now, which have new tires. Has belly pan, but it appears steel oil pan
> sticks through it? I saw drips of oil on oil pan, but none on ground. 
> Yuck.
> I was hoping to avoid oil leaks, as my Jetta leaks like a seive. To be
> expected with mileage I guess, unless seals have been done. I will 
> probably
> drive it tomorrow and offer $2k if it drives ok. Seeing state of tires 
> make
> wonder what else might be wrong, bearings, CVs, etc. Owner say brakes were
> all done recently. Are brakes same as Jetta or larger?
> 

  Seems a lot of the lower and upper pans/engine covers get tossed.  
They're effective at making the engine even quieter.  The oil could 
easliy be from changing oil and filter without removing the pan (a 
bigger pain than removing the pan to do it!)  That could easily make 
it oily, no drips and actually no leaks.  They don't seem prone to 
leaking.
  Clear coat peeling on the trunk sounds about right for the age 
of the paint so probably original.  Same with the loose driver's seat 
fabric.  Steam cleaning it tends to tighten that up quite a bit.  If the 
boots aren't torn on the CV's, they're probably just fine.
    Loren