What do I need to know about a 2002 Beetle?

That I bought today...with 225,000 miles on it?

Actually, it's not rusty, is in pretty good condition other than some interior trim, and runs/drives well. It came with quite a few receipts for repairs too: New pads/rotors on all-4 corners, plus one caliper. T-stat, flush & fill, new alternator & battery.

My concern is the air-bag light is on, and when I pulled the codes(with my cheap Acton scanner) I found 2 errors - one for an engine speed sensor(sounded like a crank position sensor based on the description), and another code for a serial communications error...that one worried me a bit, but it seems to not presently be affecting anything.

Then I got it home & looked closer at the receipts...I'm the 6th owner since last March. I guess it's time to buy a VAG-Com and jump in with both feet!

What drivetrain does it have? I hope you love the smell of melted crayons.

In reply to SlickDizzy:

It's a 2.0, and no crayons that I can smell, though it'll be my step-daughters car if/once I can confirm its reasonably reliable. She didn't want it because it's cute...oh no, she wants to witness people slugging each other as she drives past. I'm so proud of her...

If 1.8t check on oil pump, pan, and pickups to see if they've been updated to the newest iteration. Lots of issues with sludging on that motor. All in all the 1.8t has been a better motor than many of the 2.0t motors seven with sludging issues. Once you have it healthy starting hunting for a chip as there is a nice chunk of hp available with an aftermarket tune.

petegossett wrote: In reply to SlickDizzy: It's a 2.0, and no crayons that I can smell, though it'll be my step-daughters car if/once I can confirm its reasonably reliable.

So... You've bought her a car she'll never get to drive, eh? Nice!

In reply to Ian F:

Well her 200SX still runs well, but it's quickly returning to the earth - the fenders are no longer attached on the bottom & just sort of flap in the breeze.

Maybe I should just do a swap...yeah, that seems like the logical answer...

The crayon smell will be well-understood once you get in after it's been sitting outside on a sunny day for a while. All VW's of the era do it, but the Beetles are particularly bad. You never forget that smell.

At least it's the more simple/reliable of the engines. Has the timing belt been done recently? You'll want to take care of that. And if it's an automatic, god help you.

the good news about a 2.0L automatic beetle is that when you decide to run the other way, which should've been when you first saw it, that it'll be easy for you to outrun it.

In reply to SlickDizzy:

Yes timing belt was done this year. Surprisingly the auto trans seems to be working fine...so far.

In reply to captdownshift:

Part of the charm is that it's slow - she has a lead-foot like her mother. And if I need to move it on down the road at least there's always someone looking for one, even if I have to take a loss on it.

In reply to SlickDizzy:

My '03 Jetta has never had the crayon smell. Owned since new.

In reply to Ian F:

Maybe you got lucky? Google indicates I am FAR from the only person who's noticed the smell: https://www.google.com/search?q=vw+melted+crayons&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

I hope you know a good florist.

All I know about Beetles of that era is that my wife's friend had one. Even the dealer shop gave up trying to fix the CEL after about $4000 worth of work on it.

In reply to Duke:

Honestly if it keeps running/driving fine I could give a damn about the light. Time will tell...

It's just a light to me, too, but in my state, that would stop it from passing inspection. If that's not the case for you, you're golden.

In reply to Duke:

No inspections, no worries.

I got the bug plated & insured today, and spent a bit of time with it. Yeah, now that you mention it I do smell crayons. It's certainly not enough to bother my(my 88 G3500 had been painted from top to bottom inside days before I bought it, and the enamel smell never bothered me). I took it out in the country and ran it up to 70, it seems fine and the slight pull to the right I'd felt when I test drove it in the city is much less out on the highway.

I discovered the gas door wouldn't open, so I fixed that & filled it up...only to discover the gauge won't go over 3/4 full. I presume it's the same problem my van has with the high-ethanol fuels, so I'll do a bit of research and probably toss a bottle or 2 of fuel treatment in the tank.

I also discovered the the radio isn't working today(it worked fine yesterday). It's the crap stock AM/FM/Cassette, so I'm thinking I can probably find an OE CD-equipped one from a junkyard for cheap. I'm going to attempt to drive it to work tomorrow(40-mile round-trip). I figure if this thing has any serious recurring problems I want to find out now before I sink much more into it!

My experience with VW's is that high mileage ones are better. The lemons got crushed or parted fairly early on. If they make it to 100,000 or so relatively trouble free, they'll go a long time. The bad ones (and I believe there are a fairly high number of these) start having significant trouble while still under warranty.

Well I drove it for 2 days, then it started running like crap. Turned out the plugs were pretty much gone. Replaced those & much better now...although the wires are old - like almost makes me wonder if they're original?

Took it in & found out the a/c is charged, but the clutch still isn't kicking on. Time to troubleshoot that. It runs & drives nice though.

Here's the list I still need to work on:

The alarm has been going off randomly. The driver's outside door handle is also loose. I'm thinking the two may be correlated.

The aforementioned a/c issue.

There are codes for a rear ABS sensor, "engine speed sensor", and the air bag light is on.

The radio works intermittently and is only an AM/FM/cassette, so I'll eventually replace it.

Lastly, the speedometer is off, by a seemingly random and large amount sometimes. For example, driving around some familiar curves today at an indicated 60mph, but based on the tire squirm I was getting I'm confident I was truly going 75mph +.

Oh and I might be going to look at a 2nd one.