2006 VW Beetle Miami 9C

[gstsaver]

Just purchased a 9C Miami 2006 Beetle from auction. 1.6 Auto
I buy cars sometimes as a hobby to fix up and this one is for my daughter.

- What are some of the common problems with these ?
- Bought with engine light on and will scan for codes but was hoping on some comments on what usually goes wrong not just from engine and transmission but also suspension, interior etc.

[mikk]

Nice, I've had this Beetle hobby for awhile.

Have heard of auto problems being common but there seem to be a lot that are just fine. In general for the Beetles the interior is the problem.
-The plastics break down if the car is out in the sun a lot. The become less and less flexible and start to crack and fall apart.
-Get entire aftermarket new design replacement interior handles from eBay.
-Reinforce the door trims by removing them and bracing inside early if there's any cracking. A stitch in time saves nine.
-The rubberised coating on the interior plastics becomes goo from being in the sun too. You just have to scrub it off with some solvents. New genuine parts don't come with the coating too.
-Centre console latch can snap but is about $3 on eBay. The entire lid is about $20 but quality varies a lot from seller to seller
-Headliners sag (convertible doesn't have this problem), cheap to fix, but sunroof models take twice as long.
-Armrest foam backing becomes goo, get replacement leather/material of your choice from ebay and get a pro to apply it.
-Foam from blend door rots and you lose some of the hot/cold ratio control and chunks of foam dust blow in your eyes. Pain to pull the dash apart.
-Starter motor gets noisy. I replaced mine on my 1.8T with one from a much newer Polo GTI and it's way better.
-Old alternators can go but they're a fairly common Bosch unit and usually it's the regulator part which you can get easily.
-Have heard of the secondary air pump failing but i never had a problem with this for any of my cars apart from the rubber mounts getting old on one and somehow causing a short thanks to things moving.

Apart from that they're actually pretty good. Some of the bigger pains can be the hard plastic and rubber hoses in the engine bay that crack when they get old. Vacuum lines especially thanks to the time diagnosing it. Unfortunately for some of the weirdly shaped ones there isn't always a cheap exact replacement because the beetle ones aren't always the same as the other mk4 cars. You may have to make some slightly ugly/longer hoses out of universal stuff, which works out pretty cheaply.

[gstsaver]

Thanks very much ! I had a good look over the car and so far not so bad. The exterior is really good.
The interior is much better than on a Golf I bought a couple years ago for my other daughter.

-I need to take out the headliner and get it re-done (did the same with the golf)
-Glove Box is completely stuffed - there is usually a fix but they ripped it off and broke it terribly. Having trouble finding one but sure I will eventually
-on one cylinder there is a slight bubbling at edge of spark plug , so maybe head gasket but has no other symptoms of head gasket

Do you know of any good videos on removing the inlet manifold or other repairs for this 1.6 L engine ?

Last car I did was a Mini Countryman and there were heaps of videos on repairs but can't find any for Beetle

[mikk]

I had a stuffed glovebox on one car, i suspect that it was broken into because the plastics were in good shape apart from the glovebox looking like it was pried open. I managed to chisel and cut the 2 halves of the lid apart to access the insides, put it all back together and strengthen it.

I think looking for a Haynes manual would be your best bet regarding the engine.