Hopefully looking at a super cheap MKII golf today. Ad says it runs and drives but won't go into 5th gear. I'm hoping it's like my wife's GTI and the shifter is just really sloppy and 5th is elusive.
Unfortunately aside from the runs and drives and a single picture the guy says he knows nothing about the car. There isn't even a year listed, just "mid 80's VW Golf". Says he bought it last fall as a project and lost interest.
I'd love to have a budget autocross car but if nothing else it would be a parts car for the GTI. So, anything specific i should know about this generation of VW's? Anything that would make it worth less than $300?
thanks!
Jacques
"Anything that would make it worth less than $300?"
Yeah, how about the guy doesn't really have the title to this car or he wouldn't be so sketchy about the year?
Claims he has the title and it's clean and ready to go.
Check for rust near the rear suspension bits, cracked strut towers and if it passes these, buy it. Be prepared for minor electrical challenges, but otherwise drive it untill the wheels fall off or......sell it to me. Your choice. 
Scheduled to see it at 530, we shall see. Will make sure to check the suspension for rust, especially with it being in the great rust state of Ohio.
The ad did say $300 obo, wonder if i'll be able to talk him down.
thanks!
Jacques
PubBurgers wrote:
I'm hoping it's like my wife's GTI and the shifter is just really sloppy and 5th is elusive.
That's usually the ball that's on the arm piece in the middle of the pic.
The rubber comes off of it, leaving nothing but a white plastic sleeve. The shifter gets SUPER sloppy after that. There are several grassroots solutions that are nearly free. Sometimes the black thing at the top of the pic wears out, and it's at the base of the shifter and sucks to change. That one is worn out on my '87 16v, but I can still get all the gears as long as all the rest of them are tight. It's been like that for years, and I'll change it next time I have to drop the exhaust for some other reason, but I'll deal with it until then.
me and a buddy replaced the transmission in his mkii yettuh with one from pick-n-pull for 130 dollah billzz. do this and have an awesome little car! im sure that you could rebuild the transaxle in it but finding a junkyard swap would likely be easier.
Also, in my experience, suspension mount rust is almost exclusive to the A1 body. It's the floors you have to worry about in the A2. I once nearly ended up in the back seat after launching from a stop in a spirited fashion, only to have the front seat mount rip off of the floor due to rust.
hotlinked pic for good measure.
The 5th gear issue is most likely the shifter linkage. Once you have the exhaust and transmission out its pretty easy to rebuild the whole thing. Other problem areas would include oily clutch, bad cv joints, worn out suspension bushings, blown struts, ripped motor mounts, backyard guesswork fuel injection repairs that cause most of them to barely run, cracks in the body from worn/misadjusted/improperly installed door latch pins, and any parts that should have been replaced with factory stuff but came from autozone instead.
If you can get everything working right im sure it will be fine, and its easy to get parts for them still, they are just so old now they need everything though.
Watch 5th, if you run the transmission fluid low the gear can eat itself.
You guys already beat me to everything, so I'll just say do it. (and I'll repeat, check the floors) They are great little cars, once you get them sorted.
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/reader-rides/779/
BTW: Guys, I'm looking for a "big bumper" front cover, a right side front fender flare (16v), the 4-light GTI grille (with the smaller highbeams), and the stock front foglamps. Stinking road debris..I just got it put back together a year & a half ago..
Bought it and it's sitting in my driveway. Details to come soon but i think $300 was a pretty awesome deal.
thanks for the info!
Jacques
PubBurgers wrote:
Bought it and it's sitting in my driveway. Details to come soon but i think $300 was a pretty awesome deal.
thanks for the info!
Jacques
Excellent! Welcome to Mk.2 madness. When I'm driving mine (and it's my DD when I'm not searching for bodywork), I get four or five guys a month ask me if it's for sale. Seems dang near anyone who's ever had one wants another one.
Got some pictures. They kind of suck because i had to use the camcorder since the cameras being stupid but they get the point across. So here's $300 worth of 87 Golf:
Apparently the car had been sitting since November without being started. A quick jump and a little gas did the trick though. Started up and idled nice smooth, though it does seem to have an exhaust leak. Aside from the passenger door panel and headliner, the interior is in pretty great shape. I haven't had a chance to try 5th gear yet but the shifter is super sloppy and i think that's probably the culprit.
The body does need some work. While the visible parts aren't too rusty the floorboards do have a few holes. It's also missing the passenger rear fender flare thingy. The back doors don't open and the driver's door has to be opened from the inside. Three of the four doors also have dents/rust. Front bumper cover needs replaced and there's a nice dent underneath the driver's doors where it looks like the car was improperly jacked.
The biggest issue is that the PO never had the title transferred into his name and the guy he bought it from didnt have it properly notarized so i need to track down a "shady" notary.
It also has a couple of goodies attached that i may sell to recoup some money. It has a neuspeed strut tower bar and a Technics axle-back (possibly cat-back) exhaust.
All in all not bad for $300
This should be fun 
How in Jebus's name do you guys find these deals!?! I've been scouring CL for a month looking for a start to my Challenge car!
Congrats on the Mk2 purchase! I just bought a Mk2 Jetta that I'm going to pick up tonight. I've had several Mk2's and some Mk3's. I like the Mk3's better than most people do, but they really are just a bloated Mk2 with more complex electrical bits.
Mk2's rock!!
weconway wrote:
How in Jebus's name do you guys find these deals!?! I've been scouring CL for a month looking for a start to my Challenge car!
Religious scouring of craigslist does it for me. Deals like this are still few and far between, i'm amazed it was still there after being up for a couple days.
After spending a couple more minutes with it:
Battery doesn't hold a charge.
It goes into 5th, at least while running and at a stop, but 5th doesn't do anything. I can completely let out the clutch and nothing happens.
Heat doesn't seem to work.
It does seem to run really well though, as soon as I snag a battery i'll take it for a drive around the neighborhood and see how it holds up. Seems like it could make a decent part time autocrosser/daily driver though as it sits (almost).
Heater cores are a common issue. Cheap - not easy - to fix. The car I'm picking up today has a leaky core and the heater lines are looped together.
As noted previously, if the gearbox gets low on oil, it will destroy 5th gear.
I'll have to check the gearbox oil, though if it is low the damage is done. I was also surprised and a little disappointed to discover it has power steering.
The PS isn't a bad thing, it's a faster ratio than the manual rack.
That might have my old transmission in it. I replaced the clutch on mine and seein as the transmission was out, I took that apart to fix a sticking 2nd gear synchro. It was quite a learning experience. I put it all back together and everything worked very well. For 42 miles. At that point a loud clattering, grinding noise came from the transmission. So out it comes. The bolts that hold the bearing between 4th and 5th gear had backed out and chewed 5th gear up severely. I take it all of the way down , clean it up and grind all of the teeth off of the 5th gear. I put it all together again, using alot of red locktite, And I had a 4spd transmission that lasted another 70,000 miles. I learned the value of locktite.
Stole the battery out of the wife's GTI and took it for a spin around the block.
Oh my...
It runs awesome, doesn't smoke and pulls real nice. Noticed the speedo/odometer doesn't work, can't say i'm surprised. Three questions though:
The brakes are kind of stiff/grindy, i'm assuming because it sat for so long. Anything I can do to speed their recovery?
It seems the piece that prevents me from accidentally going into reverse instead of first is missing, making things a bit interesting. Any cheap fixes or a whole new bushing kit in order?
Last, there's a bit of a whizzing sound as i slow and come to a stop, i don't think it's drivetrain related but i'm not sure. Sort of sounds like a jumping jack firecracker, only winding down. Any ideas?
thanks!
Jacques
doc_speeder wrote:
Heater cores are a common issue. Cheap - not easy - to fix.
Seriously? Those are super-easy! There's even a little panel you can remove so you don't have to take the heater box out or disconnect the ac. Now the Passat on the other hand...there's a reason why mine has needed a heater core for the last two years.
