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bigjilm123 t1_isf8dla wrote

I had a 86 Jetta GL, 5 speed, sunroof. First car I bought myself and the exact spec I had lusted after for two years of searching.

One night, my clutch cable snapped, dumping the clutch at a light, stalling the car and leaving me stranded.

Tow truck shows up, and they tow it away with the E-brake on. Kills the E-brake and trashes the tire. Mechanic replaces the clutch cable, E-brake and tire and then says “engine is damaged by the cable snapping”.

I pick up the car and the engine has a new ticking sound. I drive it out of the shop and run over the handle of the gas station tank cover, puncturing a different tire.

Mechanic fights me for a week on the cost of a tire, finally throwing a piece of crap on it so I can leave. Tick tick tick goes the engine.

VW tells me it’s three grand to “rebuild the top end”, so I traded it for a Honda.

A couple years later, one of my buddies drives up in a Golf. Tick tick tick. “That’s fuckin normal man. A tappy valve is a happy valve”.

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JohnGarrettsMustache t1_isgtj99 wrote

I have a similar story. I had a Subaru Legacy that died going up a hill. Mechanic said they would have to remove the engine for the repair. Clutch had been slipping so I had it done at the same time to save labour. $3000 later I was driving again.

Following that, the clutch felt like crap. Good when the car was cold but when warm it had a hard time disengaging and the pedal felt awful.

I took it back, they told me the master cylinder went. Another $500 in parts and labour. It was still shitty so I brought it back again and they replaced the slave cylinder. Still sucked, so I traded it in for a 2001 Jetta TDI.

Years later, I get an email from a Subaru forum I had joined to ask about the clutch issue. Someone finally answered my post to say that there was a bad hose that Subaru had recalled that expanded when it was warm and caused pressure to drop. My car had it replaced at some point, but the new clutch kit had the old hose.

Cost of the hose: $11. What I spent trying to have it fixed: $700+

Still the worst car I ever owned. Gutless, bad on gas, and a total lemon.

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korky1318 OP t1_isfjdg5 wrote

Hahah! Hydraulic lifters my friend. Jetta goes tick tick for 10min every other week that I start it up.

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redglasscoffee t1_ishrinx wrote

My first car was the a grey '86, same as yours. I paid $400 in '96. It was a fun little car.

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