Yeah, the CEL has been an almost full-time feature of my Golf since about
60,000 miles (that's 236,000 miles of looking at the CEL). The Passat, on the
other hand, never displayed the CEL, except for when the coil went bad.
Really, I've learned not to pay any attention to the CEL in my Golf, so I no
longer notice it. I've had it taken care of a few times, only to have it come
back on after only a few miles/minutes of leaving the VW dealer. But, I was
only charged for one scan, plus a token charge for whatever had to be done,
the first time. Like I said, I've been very happy with my local VW dealer.
They've managed to get it through emissions testing, each year, without having
to charge me for fixing anything (and, emission-wise, there has never been
anything wrong with the car, anyway). Like I said..........
I'm surprised to hear that VWoA refused to cover the CEL under warranty, since
you would have been on record at your dealer as having the problem before the
car went out of warranty. I'd be pissed, too. With my Golf, after some
research, I told my dealer I could live with it, rather than have them
constantly trying to extinguish it (they would have kept on trying, at their
expense.....since I paid for it once and it didn't "hold".......but they'd
have to get into some areas I really didn't want to disturb unless it was
absolutely necessary (MAF, ECU.....some Bosch stuff is better off never being
touched, as long as it works, 'cause it's bad juju for the rest of the car).
Really, the only thing that I've been unhappy about, with our Passat, is the
cost of brake service. It seems like every other brake pad change is
accompanied by new rotors. I realize that, with the banning of certain
friction materials, the wear factor on brake rotors is high, plus no one wants
to risk cutting (re-surfacing) ventilated rotors, due to the corrosion issues
(they corrode from inside, out). Also, in PA, they (mechanics performing
state inspection) are required by law to replace rotors when they get below a
certain percentage of original thickness. Our region's frequent use of very
aggressive (read: corrosive) de-icing materials plays a major role in that
equation (corroding from the inside).
Bud Osbourne
----- Original Message -----
From: Bill Gilroy
To: Bud Osbourne
Cc: Peter Caldwell ; spridgets@autox.team.net
Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 6:05 PM
Subject: Re: [Spridgets] paging Peter C
My main beef is Check Engine Light. The CEL was on more times than I can
count. My favorite was it was on and the fix was a "new version of firmware".
I left the dealer and was about 5 miles away when it came back on again. One
other time I was short on time because I was leaving NJ going to WA so I had
the dealer fix a couple of things, a headlight that rattled and the CEL.
Turns out they did nothing with the headlight, it still vibrated and the CEL
was back on before I got to the 100 miles into PA. I call the dealer to
complain about both items and I contacted VW America. Short story was by the
time I got to WA I had put enough miles to be out of my warranty period. It
was up to me to fix the issues at that point and VW refused to do anything I
was more than pissed. I will never purchase their products again.
Funny thing is the Outback is a very useful and versatile car and I love it.
My wife's main complaint is that it has more road noise and does not ride as
good as the VW and I agree. Tons of people lover their VW, but not me. I
want my wife's car to need very little care, just routine maintenance and oil
changes.
-g
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