New Beetle Regular Service?

[MYNB2011]

I got a question here for you guys.

Where do you go for NB regular service such as oil change,
change timing belts and water pump? Do you always go to VW dealer or you just find a local mechanics to do service?



Since NB needs special coolant, what about oil or oil filter?
Can local mechanics offer the same quality of work as VW dealers?

[Dee-Bug]

Depending on your state,you can most likely find someone by looking through this thread. I know these guys are on the TDI site but that's where I found the local guy who is doing our timing belt on our 1.9TDI Beetle tomorrow. He works on all Beetles as well. He comes highly regarded and charges waaaayyy less then the quote from a dealer. I called my local dealer and was quoted almost $1000 bucks for a timing replacement,Dennis was about $550. Several have suggested him so I feel good about that. Most definitely,you should take it to a mechanic that is familiar with VW's. I have been working on cars over 30 years and I decided to take it to have it done by someone who is familiar with them more than I. Not saying I couldn't have done it,but he has more experience and priced right.

Trusted TDI Mechanics - By State - TDIClub Forums

[janitz]

Originally Posted by MYNB2011

I got a question here for you guys.

Where do you go for NB regular service such as oil change,
change timing belts and water pump? Do you always go to VW dealer or you just find a local mechanics to do service?



Since NB needs special coolant, what about oil or oil filter?
Can local mechanics offer the same quality of work as VW dealers?

I go to a local shop that is known for good work on VWs, especially diesels. The local dealership is hit and miss, too much miss, and too much hitting my wallet!

In addition to the already noted coolant, you will need specific oil and transmission fluid for the VW as well as
steering fluid. Brake fluid seems to not specify anything other than DOT4, so the stuff on the shelf should work. NOT DOT5!!!

Regular Maintenance:

Windshield Washer Fluid as required

Visually inspect tires every day

Check cold tire pressure every week, inflate to values listed on inside of fuel door.

Check the oil level on a warm engine, let it rest 5 minutes after stopping on a flat surface. Add oil as needed. Every 1000 miles (1600km)

Wash the car. Dirty cars look bad. Once a week! or every day, must keep baby looking good.

Oil and Filter change every 3000 miles (5000km)

Tire rotation, watch for directional tires. Every 6000 miles or two oil changes. (10000km)

Fuel Filter for Diesel TDI change every 12,000 miles (20,000km) or four oil changes.

Less regular maintenance:
Brake fluid flush and replace every two years. DOT4 fluid. To do it right you either need the patience or the tools.

Brake pads and rotors will vary, need to inspect them regularly. I read recently a recommendation that the rotors get changed every second change of the pads or even every change if you're a bit nutty on this.

Coolant fluid flush and replace... not sure on the interval. I believe this is done with the timing belt and water pump change.

Transmission oil for manual, they say it's lifetime, but we find changing regularly to be a good idea. Every 50,000 miles (80,000km)

Automatic transmission fluid, every 50,000 miles? I'm not sure on this, I'd never own an auto personally unless my leg broke and fell off and I couldn't get a peg leg to allow me to use the clutch and I couldn't figure a way to clutch with my teeth, then I'd guess I'd use an automatic.

Timing Belt for 1.8L turbo, 2.0L and 1.9L TDI, INSPECT: every 20,000 miles (30,000km)

Timing Belt and Water Pump Replace for 1.8L turbo, 2.0L and 1.9L TDI by 80,000 miles. On this I might go lower, I had mine done at 80,000KM and the shop told me I was running on borrowed time (ing belt, ha ha). That's only 50,000 miles. But it's a much harsher climate up here in winter which could account for this.

Battery replace every 3 to 5 years depending on climate and quality of battery.

Power steering fluid flush and replace, no interval but I did this recently and it helped so lets say every five years?

Gasoline engine fuel filter change, 40,000 miles is what I've read (65,000km).

I'm sure I missed something, every 1 post (3.333km)

[Smileybug]

No reason for 3k mile oil changes. Synth is perfectly fine to take to 5k.

Also I believe the diesel fuel filter is an every 20k replacement.

Never done a power steering fluid change. Never had any issues with it.

Manual trans gear oil replacement every 100k. I had mine done then...noticed no difference after the change. 50k is a bit overkill. Some don't even change it until they do a clutch, which can be closer to 200k. The fluid in a manual is not nearly as critical to be changed out as an auto. But 100k is pretty good.


And to answer the OP. I do a lot myself...oil changes, air filters, spark plugs, etc. Going to be replacing my serpentine belt myself soon too in my GTI. Any big work I take to a local VW mechanic. The guys there are also good friends of ours. Been taking our cars there for over 4 years now. Great place. I would never take my car to the dealer, ever. Last time I did was 6 years ago.

[VWBubba]

@ Janitz.

I would love to be your mechanic if I can talk you into all that lot..

should not need to add oil unless it is burning it or losing it.

Power steering fluid .. Did it last week on my 28TDi Mitsy because I had the pump off, other than that I have never changed the fluid on one of my cars.

Oil and Filter every 3k.. Over Kill. but if you want it, that's fine.

Rotors .. Why ? Unless you are heavy footed or run the pads to the metal they should last a lot longer than that. Again I have just done my Mitsy as one of the calipers seized on the previous owner .. I had them skimmed for 20 euro, why buy new?

Really, if you have the money and feel like doing all this .. good on you as it certainly won't hurt the car as much as your pocket but for Joe normal on a small budget .. OMG

[janitz]

No you wouldn't, because I do it all myself except the timing belt.

I may have got some of the KMs confused with the miles there (being Canadian I don't do miles), 20k does seem the right number on that fuel filter. I tried to list the VW numbers rather than "with better synthetic oil" numbers. If buddy goes and throws garbage oil in, 3000 miles. I myself use Rotella T6 synthetic for my diesel and change it every 5000 miles, about 8000km.

Also, does that actually sound expensive to you? I guess since I do a lot of the work myself it's only the cost of parts. For the rotors and pads, honestly when I read that recommendation to change them every second pad change I was pretty puzzled, but then I looked at the cost of rotors and they're not really that expensive. I found EBC rotors online for $25 each. Considering that every second pad change would be something like 5 or 6 years for my driving, that's not expensive.

Looking at the cost for myself:

Fuel lasts about 1000km, which is around 2 weeks of driving. A full tank costs around $60. So $120 per month on fuel.

Oil change every 8000km, $40 for oil, $12 for the filter. My car loses some oil, have to add a liter in between. So estimating up, about $60 per oil change. This is about 3 months of driving, so $20 per month.

Should also change the air filter when the oil is changed. $24 for the filter. $8 per month.

I run the car through the automatic wash at the station every second fill up, so there's $10 on washing per month.

Washer fluid, can't even actually estimate this, two or three jugs a year at most, at $5 per jug. So about $2 per month.

Filling the tires, costs nothing, rotating costs nothing. Unless I were to count my time, that would be unfortunate.

The tires themselves, they were about $800 for what I got on the car now, last two years for me according to their specs. $33 per month.

Pads and rotors, well based on my own driving I need new pads about every 3 years it seems. If I change the rotors ever second set of pads that would be 6 years. Pads are about $100 for both front and rear. Rotors are about $100 for all four wheels. That works out to about $5 per month.

One bottle of brake fluid every two years. $10 for the bottle, $0.5 per month.

Transmission oil, lets say 100,000KM then. Sounds good and easy for me to remember. The oil was $32 for two 1 liter bottles of OEM G70. That's once every 3 years or so. $0.88 per month.

Battery I get the best I can, lasts five years unless it for some reason freezes solid over winter (which happens a lot to me unfortunately). $100 for the battery, $1.66 per month.

Timing Belt, unfortunately I haven't tried this myself so the mechanic gets to charge me labor as well as mark up on the parts. $1200 here is about what I end up paying all things and taxes taken into account. 100,000km is what its been on average. So 3 years. $33.50 per month.

Plates and insurance per month: $63.11.

So in total that would be $297.65 per month, adding in unexpected expenses and anything I missed we should bump that up by 10%. So if I were to budget out the total expenses I would be looking at around $330 per month I would need to set aside for maintenance and upkeep.

If $330 dollars is outside a small budget, I don't know what a small budget is then. Because that's not very much at all.

Removing the replacement of the rotors, doing oil changes every 10,000 km, never changing the transmission oil, and not changing the brake fluid and power steering fluid would only drop the monthly budget by $25.

[MYNB2011]

Regardless of plate and insurance, can I say the timing belt
+ water pump changes would be the biggest part of maintenance
expense in terms of mechanical parts, provided your Beetle never gets involved in any unexpected accident. Oh, I think
changing headlights costs a big buck as well. I have never done
a comparison between a Camry and a NB in terms of ownership expense to see how much more we need to pay for a NB.

It is always said that owning a NB is very costly. Does anyone
here have such an experience in comparing the ownership cost
between a mid-size sedan and a NB coupe?


I would like to know how much more we need to pay.

Originally Posted by janitz

No you wouldn't, because I do it all myself except the timing belt.

I may have got some of the KMs confused with the miles there (being Canadian I don't do miles), 20k does seem the right number on that fuel filter. I tried to list the VW numbers rather than "with better synthetic oil" numbers. If buddy goes and throws garbage oil in, 3000 miles. I myself use Rotella T6 synthetic for my diesel and change it every 5000 miles, about 8000km.

Also, does that actually sound expensive to you? I guess since I do a lot of the work myself it's only the cost of parts. For the rotors and pads, honestly when I read that recommendation to change them every second pad change I was pretty puzzled, but then I looked at the cost of rotors and they're not really that expensive. I found EBC rotors online for $25 each. Considering that every second pad change would be something like 5 or 6 years for my driving, that's not expensive.

Looking at the cost for myself:

Fuel lasts about 1000km, which is around 2 weeks of driving. A full tank costs around $60. So $120 per month on fuel.

Oil change every 8000km, $40 for oil, $12 for the filter. My car loses some oil, have to add a liter in between. So estimating up, about $60 per oil change. This is about 3 months of driving, so $20 per month.

Should also change the air filter when the oil is changed. $24 for the filter. $8 per month.

I run the car through the automatic wash at the station every second fill up, so there's $10 on washing per month.

Washer fluid, can't even actually estimate this, two or three jugs a year at most, at $5 per jug. So about $2 per month.

Filling the tires, costs nothing, rotating costs nothing. Unless I were to count my time, that would be unfortunate.

The tires themselves, they were about $800 for what I got on the car now, last two years for me according to their specs. $33 per month.

Pads and rotors, well based on my own driving I need new pads about every 3 years it seems. If I change the rotors ever second set of pads that would be 6 years. Pads are about $100 for both front and rear. Rotors are about $100 for all four wheels. That works out to about $5 per month.

One bottle of brake fluid every two years. $10 for the bottle, $0.5 per month.

Transmission oil, lets say 100,000KM then. Sounds good and easy for me to remember. The oil was $32 for two 1 liter bottles of OEM G70. That's once every 3 years or so. $0.88 per month.

Battery I get the best I can, lasts five years unless it for some reason freezes solid over winter (which happens a lot to me unfortunately). $100 for the battery, $1.66 per month.

Timing Belt, unfortunately I haven't tried this myself so the mechanic gets to charge me labor as well as mark up on the parts. $1200 here is about what I end up paying all things and taxes taken into account. 100,000km is what its been on average. So 3 years. $33.50 per month.

Plates and insurance per month: $63.11.

So in total that would be $297.65 per month, adding in unexpected expenses and anything I missed we should bump that up by 10%. So if I were to budget out the total expenses I would be looking at around $330 per month I would need to set aside for maintenance and upkeep.

If $330 dollars is outside a small budget, I don't know what a small budget is then. Because that's not very much at all.

Removing the replacement of the rotors, doing oil changes every 10,000 km, never changing the transmission oil, and not changing the brake fluid and power steering fluid would only drop the monthly budget by $25.

[Smileybug]

Well, if you have a turbo motor, you better be putting synth in it. The 2.0 can run ok with conventional, but even that should be run with synth (no VW spec oil is conventional). So 5,000 miles should be the minimum for sure on an oil change. Or once a year if you don't drive much.

Yes, the timing belt service is really the biggest deal. Otherwise, if you keep the car maintained, it shouldn't be too bad. I had my NB for 6 1/2 years and she really didn't cost me that much. Maybe $2,000? $3k at the most. We also have a Honda. Its been cheaper for sure, but the trans is dying on it.

If you think you're going to be able to maintain the car like a Toyota or Honda, you can't and if you can't afford to do the maintenance correctly and on schedule, then don't get a NB. They do require maintenance and it needs to be done correctly for sure.

[janitz]

Yah, timing belt is the biggest thing.

Like Smileybug my Beetle hasn't really been that expensive to operate over my 14 years of ownership.

The most costly service in that time has been the timing belt changes at the shop costing around $1200 each time.

[Smileybug]

$1200?! You need to find another shop. That's insanely high, even for a TDI!

[janitz]

Originally Posted by Smileybug

$1200?! You need to find another shop. That's insanely high, even for a TDI!

One word, proper noun: Canada

Just as an example in pricing differences, Bosch Mass Airflow Sensor for a TDI, online price from IDParts, $99.95. Purchased locally, $235.00 + taxes.

Parts were around $600, labor was around $400 for four hours.

And then we have taxes, at 10%...

So really it was closer to $1000 prior to taxes, $1200 was me rounding up from memory.

The parts cost gouging that goes on is really the big thing, at your US shop I bet the same parts are about half the cost, while labor is comparable. You likely only see 10% taxes in nightmares.