Date:         Sun, 11 May 2003 14:32:53 -0400
Reply-To:     Dennis Haynes <dhaynes@OPTONLINE.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Dennis Haynes <dhaynes@OPTONLINE.NET>
Subject:      Re: Hey folks;  horror;  New Beetle?
In-Reply-To:  <5.1.0.14.2.20030511103555.020e3230@pop.catt.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

So you picked up an "02 beetle at an auction. It is probably bank
repossession. I can imagine how it was taken care of, especially once
they new the repo man was coming.

The battery was dead. How did they move it around at the auction? 1.75
volts indicates one or more open cells. You got it jump started and then
drove it with an "open" battery. Future electrical failures, here we
come. Good luck with just replacing the battery. Plan on an alternator
soon and anything else that resembles electronics.

Needed fuel so you mixed gasoline and engine oil. I'll bet the fuel
injection and the engine loved that combo.

Good luck with your new toy.

Dennis


-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf
Of Horace K. Sawyer
Sent: Sunday, May 11, 2003 11:07 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Hey folks; horror; New Beetle?

Hey everybody.  Been awhile.  Good to see you too.  Right, its been
awhile
for sure.

Listen I need help today and I request this post take the place of my
usual
and customary goofy Friday post.  And to all of you who can remember, I
promise not to say the "G" word.

  . . .  .<thoughts of R.A. "Bob" Alexander flash through, and the City
of
Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee issuing him a citation for 3 foot tall grass in
front of his veternary clinic with a loaf cocked to one side by the
building>
  but I digress as usual

I just picked up an 02 Beetle TDI. I write this because I remember some
of
you bought them.  On this '02 NB the dad gum battery was *completely*
dead.  As in reading about 1.7v.  That's pretty darn dead.  Charging it
up
didn't help.  Driving it home from the car auction with my client for
two
hours didn't even help.  Going through the ghetto at 12:30a on a Friday
night with the fuel so low in the reserve that the needle was a hairline
above the 'zero' in fuel gauge didn't help my blood pressure.  Talk
about
sweating.  We picked the car up late Fri. night.  The place is open
24-7.  I didn't know it was everything self serve.  Well, the car was
just
about slap out of diesel.  Now these car auction places are usually in
the
worst parts of town, and so it was here. We left and began looking for
diesel with none to be found.  I was scared half to death and sweating.
It
was like Mogadishu, Somalia.  I'm not racist, but a white boy with
little
studious glasses driving a brand new Beetle through the midst of
hundreds
of black people walking about with cell phones and cigarettes, beer, and
making transactions in the middle of the night at a convenience store
with
burglar bars and bullet proof glass is not a good situation to be
running
out of diesel.  I finally had to make a command emergency decision.  The
car was literally on fumes.  I pulled into said conv. store and put in a
half gallon of regular gas which I made my own diesel by pouring in
about
one fourth motor oil directly into the tank.  I figured I would err on
the
side of over-oiling.  Several came up begging for money.  One guy asked
me
what the hell I was doing.  I fully explained in a friendly way.  He
must
have liked it, or thought I was sent by the Gods to impart wisdom
because
then he said he would *never* buy diesel again - -he would just make it,
like me.  My heart fell.  Poor guy, I thought.  Crack must have
destroyed
his brain.  My client was scared shipless because he said some of them
were
beginning to circle around us just as we boosted the car off yet again
to
get the heck out of there.  Just then a technical pulled in front of us
and
looked like he was blocking my exit.  I almost had to go over the curb.
I
can still his face.  Driving an old Caprice with every square inch
showing
some body damage, no front bumper or cover, the headlight enclosures
missing leaving the headlamps dangling straight out like some bug eyed
monster.  To top it all , the driver was wearing some huge dark glasses
and
he was fat as hell.  Looked like a killer.  I was so happy to be driving
and *safe* (a mere illusion) that I was chuckling to myself with tears
welling up in my eyes.  (okay I'm a baby when it comes to getting my
throat
slit)

Anyway, I digress again.  Man, I gotta stop that someday.

Well, my question is do any of you have a NB?  Have you had any weird
electrical problems?  The lights on this car blink when the ac is turned
on, and the whole thing shuddered and almost died when I pulled the
headlamp switch OUT to activate fog lamp.  I'm talking at 75 mph on the
interstate.  Electrical nightmare.  Hit the windows and something
beeps.  The door locks and the inst cluster goes haywire, then back to
normal.

What I am hoping for (read:  praying) is that this battery is just
getoasten and low voltage is causing these weird happenstances.  Have to
wait for the dealer to open up this week I guess because no parts store
of
any kind around here seems to have a battery for that car.  When I got
home
after a two hour drive, I shut the car off and guess what?  When I
opened
the door the light didn't even come on.  Turned the key and nada,
nothing.  Deader than Hector.

Folks, I've never seen anything like it.  It's good to be back.

Sorry for the long story but I thought you guys would appreciate it.
Pics
of the NB to anyone who wants.

hk