(11-21-02) Okay, honestly. I've driven this thing over 110,000 miles since I bought it. I've replaced stuff as I've needed to... finally put a water pump on it with the second timing belt.. the replacement tension roller I installed started to fail after about 90,000 miles. I'm currently needing some new shocks and the cv joints make noises every now and then... Had to replace the alternator brushes, and I've swapped out the fuel pump with a quieter, used one but other than that, nothing major. It uses a quart of oil every tank of gas. I top it up with slightly used mobil 1 0-40, and change it and the filter every 10k miles. It's been driven about 100,000 miles this way. Mobil 1 is the bomb diggity.
| Date | Mileage | Items | Cost |
| 06/17/03 | 188,000 | 1989 VW Jetta | $950 |
| 06/17/03 | 188,000 | Wiper Blades | $14 |
| 06/21/03 | 188,000 | Timing Belt Tensioner |
$37 |
| 06/21/03 | 188,000 | Thermostat | Free |
| 06/25/03 | 188,000 | 185/60R14 Goodyear Tires 2 new, 2 at 80% |
$80 |
| 06/25/03 | 188,000 | Coolant bleed hose | Free |
| 06/26/03 | 188,000 | Brake fluid service | Free |
| 06/26/03 | 188,000 | Replaced all vacumme lines | Free |
| 7-1-03 | 189,000 | buff finish of car | Free |
| 7-2-03 | 189,000 | Front Engine Mount | $21 |
| 7-2-03 | 189,000 | Fuel Filter | Free |
| 7-2-03 | 189,000 | Front brake pads | $25 | 7-3-03 | 189,000 | Alternator Belt Air Conditioning Belt Power Steering Belt |
$25 |
| 7-3-03 | 189,000 | Checked C02/exhaust gasses. Butterflies and bunny rabbits are hopping out of the tailpipe |
Free |
| 7-11-03 | 189,000 | 3.5" 2 way dash speakers 5" 3 way rear speakers 5" midbass door speakers |
$42.81 |
| 7-12-03 | 189,000 | GTi snowflake wheels $45 for wheels $15 supplies to refinish |
$60.00 |
| 7-15-03 | 189,000 | Wheel bolt caps | Gift |
| 7-30-03 | 189,000 | Hella Air Horns | Gift |
| 8-6-03 | 189,000 | Left axle boots | $15.00 |
| 8-20-03 | 190,000 | Bossal stock exhaust | $115 |
| 10-9-03 | 192,000 | Headliner recovered Sunroof pannel recovered light/crank trim recovered |
$38 |
| 10-10-03 | 192,000 | Strut Bearings | $20.00 |
| 10-10-03 | 192,000 | Oil Change Castrol GTX 20-50 VW Filter |
$11.00 |
| 10-11-03 | 192,000 | Alignment | Free |
| 11-10-03 | 193,000 | Shifter Bushings | $25.00 |
| 1-20-04 | 198,000 | Oil Change Castrol GTX 5-30 VW Filter |
$11.00 |
| 2-24-04 | 199,000 | Front engine mount Hydraulic type |
$45.00 |
| 2-25-04 | 199,000 | LR wheel bearing | $19.50 |
| 3-2-04 | 200,000 | Front Struts KYB gas/oil |
$92.00 | 3-2-04 | 200,000 | Ft wheel bearings | $39.00 |
| 4-4-04 | 201,000 | Sunvisor clips | $3.80 |
| 5-12-04 | 203,000 | NOS parking brake boot | $36.09 |
| 5-12-04 | 203,000 | parking brake bezel | $2.86 |
| 5-13-04 | 203,000 | Door handle bezles | $11.04 |
| 5-13-04 | 203,000 | Outter seat rail caps | $6.42 |
| 5-22-04 | 204,000 | NOS Pedal pads | $1.18 |
| 6-15-04 | 205,000 | Oil Change Castrol GTX 10-40 VW Filter |
$11.00 |
| 9-18-04 | 209,000 | Oil change Mobil 1 0-40 VW Filter |
$5 |
| 9-24-04 | 210,000 | Negotiator NH60 tires 185/60R14 |
$136.00 |
| 10-28-04 | 211,000 | throttle cable clutch cable tie-rod ends alignment |
|
| 11-7-04 | 211,000 | heater core blower fan fan resistor |
Okay, I'll use this section to note specifics on some of the things I've done to the car and other misc. thoughts, rants or ideas. I decided to leave the car stock, and only use accessories that someone could have purchsed at a Volkswagen dealership, with the exception of the stero speakers... All the work has been done by myself, so cost of repairs is for parts only. I work at a dealership that also sells Audi cars, so I get parts from volkswagen at a pretty good price, so the prices shown may not be what you will pay at the counter.
Wheels:
The wheels My dad sent me from VT, a friend of his donated them to my Jetta. The clearcoat was coming off of one of the wheels and the others were in nice shape but were a bit weathered and there was corrosion in the aluminum where the clear had chipped and the bare aluminum was exposed. I decided to remove all of the clearcoat from the non-painted portions of the wheel and I painstakingly polished all the aluminum to a medium luster, I didn't go the extra step to make them look like chrome because I wanted it to look like polished aluminum, not chrome. First I removed the clearcoat and major blemishes using 150 grit sandpaper, then I moved to 220, 360, 400, 600, 800, 1000, and finally 1500. The trick is to make sure you remove all of the 150 scratches with the 220, and remove all of the 220 scratches with the 360, etc. After the sanding I polished the aluminum with Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish. I restored the painted finish using automotive buffing compound, but you can also use 3M Finish Restorer which you can get at Wal-Mart along with the Mother's, and the sand paper. Total cost was around $18 in supplies, and about 5 hours EACH wheel. I had to keep looking over at the wheels I had already finished to keep me motivated about the one I was working on. I used a 15 gallon drum with a piece of carpet over it as a "Table" for the wheels, the 14" wheels fit just right with the carpet in place and did not wobble or side around. I cleaned the corrosion off of the bead areas using a 3M surface prep disc on my air grinder, I then used a marine grade Zinc Chromate primer which is made for aluminum lower units on boats, it is super anti-corrosion and it is made to bond to bare aluminum. It was and additional $9 for the primer, but I shouldn't have to worry about bead corrosion again.
GLi Spoiler:
I actually purchased the spoiler when I still lived in VT, about 4 years prior to owning my own Jetta. I took it from a car at the junkyard, paid $10 for it. I was going to give it to my dad so he could put it on his car but he was worried about drilling holes and rust eating out the reat trunklid of his car so it sat in the garage until he mailed it to me so I could put it to use. The install took place in the parking lot at work, pretty straight forward.
Air Horns:
My dad got me the air horn set for my Beetle, and I installed them but never got a horn button for the car before I sold it, and I decided to keep them for my next vehicle so I took them back off when I put it up for sale. I removed the high note horn that is behind the front valance on the left side and the bracket I had made to mount the horns on the beetle bolted right up, I installed the comperssor infront of the battery, bolted to the front clip to the left (sitting in driver's seat..) of the radiator, and I wired it using the wires for the hi-note horn, I disconnected the low-note behind the grill. If it was too much current for the horn circuit, the fuse would blow. It is setup with a relay/fuse/etc from the factory for the oem horns, so I decided that I didn't need to use the included relay to operate them. (maybe it's for when you use the original horns as well) they're pretty loud, especially when I tested them inside the shop.
