School me on B5 Passat 4motion

[akorcovelos]

Im picking up a 2000 4motion wagon for stupid cheap ($350) this weekend, just wondering if anyone has experience with them? Its an auto, 153k and needs a timing belt since the owner doesnt know if its ever been done. Might also need a heater core if a flush doesnt fix it, and a new CV on the front drivers side (comes with a new one, just have to instal it). Says trans acts up once in a while when its cold, but no slipping, just hard shift from 1st to 2nd.

AWD works great, and engine runs like a top. Body is really clean, no rust, decent paint, no dents. Interior is very nice, fully loaded, heated leather, power everything, no rips or tears, just normal leather wear for a 12 year old car.

I can do all the work myself, so should cost much more than my time to get it mechanically sound me thinks. Opinions? I'll post some pics when I see it this weekend.

[fronton]

What does it mean that it is hard to shift from 1st to 2nd in the cold if it is an automatic? I have a B5.5 V6 4motion wagon and have not had any troubles but only 85k miles. The only slightly annoying thing with mine (really my wife's car) is physically sliding the shifter out of park after start up which sometimes has more resistance than "shifting" into any other gear.

That and auto-lock feature needs to be shot in the wenis.

"Oh, I just arrived and need to open the passenger door to get at something... (gets denied at handle)... grrr I hate autolock...(goes to driver door to press unlock button) well now I need to unload all those things I'm grateful to have a wagon to haul...(gets denied by trunk handle)... AHHHHHHH AUTOLOCK, why can't you unlock all doors and trunk when the key is taken out?!??!?! And how come the unlock all doors button has to be pressed 20 times to unlock all doors and still doesn't activate the trunk!?!?

Sorry, obvious rage on a daily basis with autolock. Don't even get me started with the gas door release. Yeah, I don't like cars built after ~1995.

[akorcovelos]

he said sometimes when its cold it will jump a couple hundred RPM between 1 and 2, resulting in a hard shift into 2. Been doing it since he bought the car 2 years ago. Maybe needs a trans flush? He dropoed the trans pan and refilled it when he bought it, which would only change oit a small percentage of the fluid in the system. He has experienced the difficult shift from park also. I have a mk5 Jetta, so I know all about the auto lock BS, I hate it!

what is the B5.5 nomenclature mean? What would this car be?

[fronton]

he said sometimes when its cold it will jump a couple hundred RPM between 1 and 2, resulting in a hard shift into 2. Been doing it since he bought the car 2 years ago. Maybe needs a trans flush? He dropoed the trans pan and refilled it when he bought it, which would only change oit a small percentage of the fluid in the system. He has experienced the difficult shift from park also. I have a mk5 Jetta, so I know all about the auto lock BS, I hate it!

what is the B5.5 nomenclature mean? What would this car be?

Passat generations are denoted with a B. B5 is like '96-2000, B5.5 is late 2001 (post face lift but not officially a B6), B6 and B7 is 2002-11...

I did a search on the world wide web and came across this obscure site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Passat

Also, get involved at passatworld.com. It is the r3v of passats but without the sass. :( You might get some if you tell people you are buying a mk4 passat though.

[Julien]

sounds like it's flaring between shifts, MIGHT just need to be re-adapted, but more than likely needs a trans

[LuckyHenriksen]

Also a high chance of a trans fluid flush making it worse. But, for the basically free price, you are doing pretty well already

[akorcovelos]

lol, what is this world wide web you speak of? As a grad student I dont ever think of using wikipedia as a reference for anything since I could go right now and make it so there is an mk4 Passat. ;-) So I dont sound like a complete n00b, its a B5 Passat, good to know. I'll join up at passatworld, thanks. Already found some good write ups at vortex too.

Would the trans re-adapt after unhooking the battery for a while? It will be unhooked for a week or whike Im doing the tbelt and such.

As far as the flush making it worse, I know it can cause problems if the trans hasnt been flushed regularly so I probably shouldnt do a full flush, but dropping the pan and just changing that fluid might be ok. I think the problem with an actual flush is dislodging particulates that get caught on the clutches, but just swapping the pan fluid seems less likely to do this. I may try doing this every oil change for a while so I slowly clean the fluid in there. Thoughts?

Thanks for the info! Here is a quick shot my buddy sent me earlier this morning.

[Julien]

eh, don't waste your money on that $bling fluid, i'd just try topping it off and readapting it (which I believe you can do with the key, atleast on jettas you can)

[akorcovelos]

well I guess there is no trans dipstick, so I guess to check the level there is some sort of plug that the fluid needs to be up to? Kinda like the diff on many cars...Getting excited to tear into this thing.