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Explain the title you nerd You remember the “fahrvergnugen” VW ads, right? It translates to “driving pleasure.” “Fahrverweiflung” is a word I’ve made up based on the words “fahren” (to drive) and “verweiflung” (desperation). The term “bench racing,” for those unfamiliar, is THAT doesn’t look particularly exciting. That’s because it’s boring. Widely regarded as the blandest of all the marks, the mark 4 line of Golfs lacks all the punch and pleasure that one might derive from a 2-door hatchback with a 5-speed manual. Even the GTI version is without the embellishments of the other marks, left with a measly “GTI” emblem on the boot lid. No lipstick, no badge that indicates the number of valves within the engine, no fun at all. VW’s attempt at elevating the GTI to a higher shelf left it with a moaning fan base and the character of a saltine cracker. But this specimen is no GTI. No, friends, this is worse. Much, much worse. In my garage sits a Golf with the GL trim, meaning it’s as plain-jane as was available. The only power things besides steering are the locks, and those are all broken. Being the base trim, this is a Golf with the beleaguered 8 valve 2.0 liter engine that tops out at 114 ponies, 63 fewer than the turbo-equipped GTI. It has a power to weight ratio, roughly, of a watermelon on a speed bump. What’s the plan, stan? Bop on over to my Trello board and peruse. I’m planning on doing everything I can to the vehicle in order to The biggest problem? Oil consumption. This motherfucker burns near a quart every 300 miles, give or take. It’s burning and not leaking out of the engine because every 1,200 miles or so I have to remove and clean the spark plugs, which are coated in oil and carbon build up: If I don’t go through this regular cleaning, it starts misfiring. The post-cat O2 sensor is grumpy because, according to it, the cat is operating below performance threshold. It’s very likely that all this oil is junking the cat and I’ll have to replace that AND the O2 sensor. After the oil’s fixed the next on the list is the A/C. It’s completely shot, but doesn’t leak at all, leading me to believe that the compressor has disintegrated from the inside, so I’m going to replace everything, preferably from a junker/donor car. What’s been done so far? I overhauled the entire suspension, front and back, chasing a steering wheel jerk problem. Everything strut or shock related, it got refreshed with brand new parts. The springs are much stiffer than their predecessors, and a fair deal higher; the car is sitting 1.5” higher than it had been. The jerk, turns out, was due to junk control arm bushings. Apart from replacing the valve cover gasket and the brake pads, she’s pretty much as I bought her. Oh, right, and then there’s this: Hey, whoa, what’s that? THAT, friends, is a Volkswagen Passat W8 wagon, and here’s its wack-a-do, far-too-in-depth history: Pops has been a car nut since I was small and he’s bounced around with manufacturers for as long as I can remember. Growing up, we had nothing but Mopars, but in high school he sold them all away for GM vehicles. Over the course of a couple years we had a couple Oldsmobiles, Saturns, and an S10 or two. Once all us rugrats had vanished from the house, he sold all of THOSE away (save a GMC 1500) and bought Volkswagens. Lots of Volkswagens. He has two-and-a-half Jettas at his house, plus a mark She bought it and showed up at Christmas and pops laughed while shaking his head. “What?” she asked. “VWs are reliable and you all own ‘em so I thought I’d break my bad car luck streak with something dependable!” One year and $2,500 worth of maintenance and repairs later, pops took the Passat under his wing and she bought a Chrysler Concorde (which is another exciting tale). She was involved in a hit-and-run while the car was parked and the front drivers side was smooshed kinda good, but none of the internals were affected (I don’t believe that, either). Dad did a lot of work, replaced the thermostat, replaced and painted some body panels, and it’s about as mint as it can get. Exceeeeeeeeeeeeeept for the CEL, which is lit. And the heater, which isn’t running so hot ( ). There are likely other things wrong with it, but I haven't gotten my mitts on it as of yet but I'll be diving in for sure. If anyone has any Carfax runs they'd like to donate to the cause, playes halp. Good, no more of that, what’s so special about this thing? Aside from being a monument to German engineering, it’s awful. Will at Jalopnik daily-drivered one of these bad boys for 2 years and he came up with this handy flowchart to determine whether you’re a good fit for a Passat W8: From what my pops tells me, it’s 100% accurate. He’s also told me that it’s one of the best cars he’s ever driven and if it weren’t for most of the parts being NLA, he’d drive it into the ground. Instead, he’s going back to restoring his mk2 1.6L EcoDiesel Jetta. Step-sister should definitely have went with the Toyota branch of the chart. Moving on… What’re YOU doing with it? I’m fixing it. Stop laughing. I’m fixing it and then I’m selling it to the next masochist who thinks a W8 is a good idea. A few VW enthusiasts that I know tell me that there are a lot of VW enthusiasts in the area and they have meet-ups every year, so that’s my deadline: get this thing sale-ready by the next big ol’ meet-up in the summer. On the outside chance that I decide owning this is a better idea than my other long term idea (building my Golf’s 2.0L into something useful and putting it in a Caddy then converting it to RWD), I’ll keep the drat thing. It's still at dad's and I'll be picking it up this weekend along with his ODBII reader, since it's apparent that I'll need that at some point. Oh, since pops owns the car and I’m only working on it, he’s paying for all the parts that are needed for repairs. Good for me, since I’m trying to save money. I’ll be getting paid to do all of this nonsense, also. Scoff, good luck, you dipshit. I am fearless and naive when it comes to car repair. “Sure, I can do it!” is my motto, regardless of whether I can. Update links! When I post updates, I’ll link ‘em here. Updates might be sparse for now since it won’t be above freezing in my garage for a week or so. Update 1: the W8 has landed. Bonus CEL ODBII codes! Update 2: put it on a slip, jim, it's not goin anywhere scuz fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Jan 28, 2016 |
# ? Jan 18, 2016 23:42 |
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# ? Mar 28, 2024 21:27 |
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I thought bench racing was talking/bragging about how fast your car is and inflating how much horsepower it has, while never ever showing real numbers by racing it or putting it on a dyno. Either way, I'll enjoy watching your W8 torment. Maybe "extreme W8 loss thread" would be a more apropos pun.
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# ? Jan 19, 2016 02:16 |
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Haha you loving maniac. If you're going to set fire to huge stacks of money why not jam the W8 into the Golf and get the license plate "gently caress IT?" I am so happy that AI has decided over the last few weeks to start trying to top themselves.
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# ? Jan 19, 2016 02:27 |
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I'll admit that my tastes lay primarily in VW's earlier offerings, I find the VR6 to be particularly abhorrent. But I do like the fact that there was a brief period where VW was shoehorning enormous engines into their offerings and this is probably one of my favorite ones. Godspeed man.
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# ? Jan 19, 2016 02:33 |
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Please V10 TDI swap this, and put the W8 in your Golf. Then put the 2.0 in the Tuareg the V10 came from. Hats off to you if you pull this off, or for that matter what you planned to do. IIRC you mentioned the W8 has the MIL on for a heating circuit or something not the important bits on the NLA/$texas engine, right?
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# ? Jan 19, 2016 02:38 |
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kastein posted:Then put the 2.0 in the Tuareg the V10 came from. Then try to trade it in and see if they notice.
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# ? Jan 19, 2016 03:16 |
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LloydDobler posted:I thought bench racing was talking/bragging about how fast your car is and inflating how much horsepower it has, while never ever showing real numbers by racing it or putting it on a dyno. gently caress, you're right about the bench racing definition. You're also right with the apropos pun, not to mention it's simply a better pun. It also fits cuz I'm ultimately trying to get rid of the thing. Mods, plz halp!! kastein posted:Please V10 TDI swap this, and put the W8 in your Golf. Yeah, there's some kind of climate control shenanigans that're going on that thankfully don't have anything to do with the engine. It has the VW Climatronic system, which is over-engineered to hell and back. The Googles are telling me that I might have to re-run some likely corroded wires to the control module for the thing (WHICH IS LOCATED UNDER THE DRIVERS SEAT).
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# ? Jan 19, 2016 03:59 |
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Godspeed you dumb bastard, Godspeed.
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# ? Jan 19, 2016 04:05 |
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edit: I totally replied to the wrong thread Since this is here though I'll say that that golf looks really nice and clean and best of luck with it Bibendum fucked around with this message at 01:38 on Jan 20, 2016 |
# ? Jan 20, 2016 01:34 |
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scuz posted:He has two-and-a-half Jettas at his house, plus a mark 3 1.6 diesel engine on the floor of the garage. Isn't the mk3 tdi a 1.9L?
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# ? Jan 20, 2016 04:47 |
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Bibendum posted:edit: I totally replied to the wrong thread Raluek posted:Isn't the mk3 tdi a 1.9L?
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# ? Jan 20, 2016 05:14 |
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scuz posted:Thanks for stopping by! As uninspiring and bland as it is, it's in really good shape, body and paint wise. There's a spot or two of rust on there, but if I'm gonna wanna drive this thing for the next 3 years, I'm gonna have to make it freakin' sweet somehow. Oh, huh, I didn't know about those. Is it as slow as I'm imagining?
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# ? Jan 20, 2016 06:41 |
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Raluek posted:Oh, huh, I didn't know about those. Is it as slow as I'm imagining? Content! Here's a photo of all the suspension equipment I put into the Golf: I wish I would have taken photos of the progress since there was quite a bit of drama involved. I didn't have the right size socket to remove the axle so I had to use spring compressors to remove/install the struts. Took loving forever and I hated everything. There's a full set of gaskets in there, too, along with piston rings. I'm still kicking around the idea of a full rebuild on the engine and probably will if my valve stem seals don't stop the oil problems. Driving around with that on its roof wasn't as white-knuckle as I anticipated, but it wasn't a walk in the park. Looks like it'll be warm enough to spend some time in the garage today so I'm gonna take measurements for my new hatch bed scuz fucked around with this message at 16:13 on Jan 20, 2016 |
# ? Jan 20, 2016 16:07 |
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CEL wouldn't be for the door sensors and wiring on the side that got hit would it?... no wait. Check Engine Light. But... VW... so my question still stands
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# ? Jan 20, 2016 16:38 |
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scuz posted:Here's a photo of all the suspension equipment I put into the Golf: Nothing is more VW then setting light to a pile of cash and putting nothing but the best suspension stuff in. I think when I worked it out I put close to $3k into my Scirocco's suspension. Thing is laughably stable on gravel snow and ice now but its probably worth exactly the same as what I paid for it.
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# ? Jan 20, 2016 16:44 |
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my brain posted:When people are calling you a "loving maniac" and a "dumb bastard" while wishing you luck, you're on the right track. extreme_accordion posted:CEL wouldn't be for the door sensors and wiring on the side that got hit would it?... no wait. Check Engine Light. 1500quidporsche posted:Nothing is more VW then setting light to a pile of cash and putting nothing but the best suspension stuff in. I think when I worked it out I put close to $3k into my Scirocco's suspension. Thing is laughably stable on gravel snow and ice now but its probably worth exactly the same as what I paid for it.
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# ? Jan 20, 2016 16:46 |
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Yeah I did get top of the pile stuff and I also had to pay a shitload sourcing the lower spring perches that I threw out when I went to coilovers. To top it all off I did the alignment myself so the cornering is less then exceptional but holy poo poo does my car feel like its on rails while going over snowed out gravel roads, which is fairly impressive considering I'm pretty sure the chassis is bent at this point.
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# ? Jan 20, 2016 16:57 |
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Thanks to IOC for the new thread title 1500quidporsche posted:Yeah I did get top of the pile stuff and I also had to pay a shitload sourcing the lower spring perches that I threw out when I went to coilovers. To top it all off I did the alignment myself so the cornering is less then exceptional but holy poo poo does my car feel like its on rails while going over snowed out gravel roads, which is fairly impressive considering I'm pretty sure the chassis is bent at this point.
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# ? Jan 20, 2016 17:22 |
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I must have something wrong with me because the concept of a W8 with a less weird engine really appeals
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# ? Jan 20, 2016 17:24 |
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Wrar posted:I must have something wrong with me because the concept of a W8 with a less weird engine really appeals
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# ? Jan 20, 2016 18:47 |
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Wrar posted:I must have something wrong with me because the concept of a W8 with a less weird engine really appeals Found out that my client is firing my company and I'm being relocated. Wouldn't bother me at all except I won't be able to bus in to work so any/all car repairs need to happen like right away so I don't strand myself during the week. Blergh.
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# ? Jan 20, 2016 21:13 |
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scuz posted:If that solves my problems, then loving awesome, but since the heater isn't doing so well I kinda doubt it. It's possible that the impact messed up the wiring that goes to the Climatronic control box, so maybe the problem's there. Totally worth it. I spent $250 on the new rear struts for the Justy and the difference was mindblowing, it was actually driveable afterwards without terrible butt puckering moments skipping sideways around a gentle corner because I dared to take a 50mph posted corner at 50 (it wasn't even really a corner...), on dry warm pavement, and there happened to be some mild washboarding. I didn't even expect that, it scared the poo poo out of me. I doubt wiring got jarred that hard by the accident, it takes a really really hard hit (like, "your car now only drives around corners" hard) to damage wiring that isn't directly physically impacted by the collision. It's probably just VW wiring being VW wiring.
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# ? Jan 20, 2016 21:58 |
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kastein posted:Totally worth it. I spent $250 on the new rear struts for the Justy and the difference was mindblowing, it was actually driveable afterwards without terrible butt puckering moments skipping sideways around a gentle corner because I dared to take a 50mph posted corner at 50 (it wasn't even really a corner...), on dry warm pavement, and there happened to be some mild washboarding. I didn't even expect that, it scared the poo poo out of me. VW wiring being VW is what I'm counting on; those wires are prone to corrosion and will likely need to be replaced. On a side note, ugh, USRT's website is very much a wallet trap. Ever since seeing this Escort engine in the latest Ken Block monstrosity I decided that ITBs and NA were totally for me, as much as I wanna slap turbos on everything. I know I can have both at some point, but I can't get over how awesome that bay looks.
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# ? Jan 20, 2016 22:38 |
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I dunno if this translates well to later golfs but the Mk1 platform responds incredibly well from disconnecting the front roll bar and running as thick a rear roll bar as possible. If you're going on gravel ditch the rear bar as well. I would guess that this setup doesn't work once they switched over to IRS. And yeah me and my friend noticed how nice new suspension is when six hours into a TSD rally neither of us had slammed our heads into the roof going over bumps.
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# ? Jan 20, 2016 22:45 |
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Looks like you're well past listening to the voice of reason but you should sell your car and get a real GTI and probably just clear the CEL on the W8 (depending on what code it is and how terrible it is to fix) and try to sell it. Disclaimer: I've never sold a car like this and am generally an honest seller but this sounds like hitting your dick with a hammer.
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# ? Jan 21, 2016 15:19 |
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Larrymer posted:Looks like you're well past listening to the voice of reason but you should sell your car and get a real GTI and probably just clear the CEL on the W8 (depending on what code it is and how terrible it is to fix) and try to sell it. To the tune of "Got My Mind Set On You."
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# ? Jan 21, 2016 15:29 |
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.... A whole lot of spendin money. It's gonna take plenty of money.. Edit: drat you.. I haven't thought about that song in probably over a decade and it is now solidly going to be on mental repeat for the rest of the day.
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# ? Jan 21, 2016 15:54 |
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Can't outrun the dark horse
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# ? Jan 21, 2016 16:01 |
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scuz posted:The whole pile you're looking at ran me ~$450. The Bilsteins are nowhere near the top of the line, but holy cow, did they make a wonderful difference. They're not adjustable or anything, just new and amazing. seconding the Bilstein love I put a set of them on my lovely Durango a while back and holy poo poo what a change. Went from cartoon-ship levels of body roll to maybe a degree or two. Its almost fun to hustle that big bastard through corners now. Related. Why are the VW W / double-V engines so problematic?
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# ? Jan 21, 2016 17:39 |
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If it makes you feel better your car gets 25-35 more horsepower than my truck.
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# ? Jan 21, 2016 17:48 |
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buttcrackmenace posted:seconding the Bilstein love Will @ Jalopnik posted:There are 4 different types of valve. Long and short versions for both intake and exhaust. The engine has 2 balance shafts, 2 belts, and 3 timing chains. The dimensions are the same as a Ford 289, but sideways - the W8 is as wide as the 289 is long, and shorter than the 289 is wide. To account for the extra vibration induced by moving away from a 90 degree V, VW used a split pin crank, balance shafts, and variable stiffness vacuum actuated hydraulic motor mounts. And they didn’t stop there - because of various package restrictions, combustion inefficiencies from the engine layout, and the brilliance of German engineering, you will find the following under the hood:
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# ? Jan 21, 2016 17:53 |
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scuz posted:2 balance shafts, 2 belts, and 3 timing chains Never said by a VW engineer: "maybe this engine design isn't worth the hassle of all the extra poo poo we have to tack on to get it to work".
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# ? Jan 21, 2016 18:02 |
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Gorson posted:Never said by a VW engineer: "maybe this engine design isn't worth the hassle of all the extra poo poo we have to tack on to get it to work".
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# ? Jan 21, 2016 18:05 |
scuz posted:Very true, but when it all goes well, it's loving brilliant. This is never though
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# ? Jan 21, 2016 18:43 |
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The best part is that all the Passats have their battery in that location. There's plenty of room elsewhere with other engines, but that's where it had to go for the W8 so that's where it has to be for the others. And of course you have to angle the drat thing to get it through the hole, always a lovely prospect with a plastic box full of sulfuric acid and lead ions.
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# ? Jan 21, 2016 18:49 |
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Jaw hit desk at vacuum actuated hydraulic motor mounts Jesus.
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# ? Jan 21, 2016 19:19 |
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Caddy also experimented with a water cooled alternator on one of their engines in the late 90s to early 2000s. Tell me who you trust less with that poo poo, caddy or vw?
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# ? Jan 21, 2016 21:04 |
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Only one of those manufacturers has had coolant migrate from the reservoir to the turn signals. Gonna go with trusting vw way less on this one.
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# ? Jan 22, 2016 00:04 |
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Man, you make one silly mistake that results in auto-refilling blinker fluid reservoirs and no one ever lets you live it down.
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# ? Jan 22, 2016 00:08 |
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# ? Mar 28, 2024 21:27 |
Bmw are quite fond of liquid cooled alternators too. And let's not forget their computer controlled thermostat malarkey and the plastic electric water pumps that fail with depressing regularity and the hydraulic lifters that somehow airlock if you don't thrash the car enough.
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# ? Jan 22, 2016 00:22 |