[geeks] question about audi and jetta seats

[Joshua D Boyd]

On Tue, Jul 30, 2002 at 03:49:31PM -0400, Tim H. wrote:

> hmm, your mechanic probably knows what he is talking about, but I have
> never seen an inner CV joint go on an audi or volkswagen, and the sum of
> volkswagen and audi odometers currently in the family right now is
> probably > half a million (of course not all of those miles aren't ours,
> we can't afford new German cars :-))  I have personally swapped a
> handful of outers, but no inners, not even the ones I yanked on with a
> chain before I learned that they screw to a flange, not pop out like
> american ones.

Well, I don't know the exact miles, but I know my car is well past the
quarter million mark.  My Dad's (or Sister's depending on how you look
at it) is rapidly approaching the quarter million mile mark also.

And it seems that the problem was a CV joint, but it didn't really go,
since all the mechanic did was lube the joints and the problem went
away.

I've never worked on the CV joints.  I've done a fair amount of work
on this car, but I paid a mechanic to do the CV joint replacement.  My
mechanic describes my car as tight front end, strong engine, excelent
condition, once I replace the rear struts (not to self, buying the
cheapest struts possible doesn't really save me money in the long
run).  But I noticed that where the floor rises to meet the drivers
seat (the bit where the rail on the seat slides through) and around
it, the floor is rusted.  But it seems to be something that I should
be able to sand down then spray with rustoleum and not have any
serious damage. 

I really like the 1986-1988 range of Jettas, but they are just such a
pain to keep runing these days, despite the fact that the engines last
well.  When I can, perhaps next year, I want to move to a newer car,
but probably a Jetta again.  And before getting rid of this car, I
want to make sure my fiance learns to drive stick.

Here is the thing that impressed me about my current mechanic.  Last
december, the first time I went to him, his estimate was hundreds of
dollars less than my old one (who is widely regarded as being good,
honest, and affordable).  The work in question was replacing the
clutch, and also replaceing the metal bracket that holds the clutch
and brake pedals, along with other smaller things.  He called me and
told me that he'd run into a pretty serious problem.  I really
paniced.  But, he was able to also fix the serious problem (I forget
what it was.  It might have been a presure plate that was too far gone
to resurface), and still get the whole job done for less than $10 over
estimate (and he showed me the various parts he'd taken off, and they
were indeed pretty useless).

> I haven't seen a non-height adjustable seat, but based on the way they
> are all built it should be doable, but it will lean the bottom of the
> seat back a bunch.

The passenger seat in my car was non-adjustable when I got it (and
thus I never did feat in my cars passenger seat)  My Dad's car had
non-height adjustable seats when it was a the used car dealer, but
they swapped in adjustable ones for us when he bought it.  My
understanding is that the adjustable is more and more common the newer
the car, and in '92 it became standard on all Jettas.

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd