An early B5 just fell into my hands

[flit156]

Hi, I thought I'd introduce myself here as I may be needing some help in the near future! I've been a site member here for a while now as my wife had a Polo and I've had a Golf for the last 5 years, just haven't needed to contribute much.

I recently sold our Mk5 GTI which I was only using very occasionally and didn't make financial sense to keep, not long after one of my in-laws said he'd donate his Passat B5 to me as he doesn't use it much any more, thanks very much!

So I've now got a slightly creaking but serviceable 98 B5 and a load of questions. I don't want to sink cash into it but do want to keep it running for as long as possible. The previous owner has let a few things go on it (auto is sticking going up hills and A/C is out) which probably won't get done but there's others that can get fixed e.g. bonnet strut.

I'm used to working on the Golf and found it pretty easy, one torx set and I could rebuild the body in full. Is the Passat similarly easy to work on? I'd like a service manual for it, I had the Bentley for the Golf which is excellent but expensive, is the Haines ok for the Passat?

Also, is it easy to home-service, I don't mind getting my hands dirty on it as long as it's not too complex? Anything I should change myself, plugs, filters etc. The previous servicing has been minimal but then so have the km's.

The owner says it's one of the first in the country of the B5's, it has steel wheels with caps instead of the alloys, are there any other oddities on these early ones? He say's the engine is the 1.8, does that mean it's the Turbo, I haven't had a good poke around under the bonnet yet.

J

[The One]

Try regassing the A/C first or making sure the fans are working...

With your transmission issue 99% sure the trans probably has never seen new oil in it (or for a long time) so I would be changing it, not very expensive and even if it doesn't fix your problem it will make your gear changes alot better.

1.8L it will most likely be the turbo, I'm fairly certain they didnt do the passats in 1.8l NA... Heavy car, needs turbo I'd imagine.

Check all suspension, older Passats seem to have dramatic suspension problems (particularly the FWD v6's) e.g wishbone mounts, castor bushes, coils, struts (leaking) etc etc.

Quite easy to work on, just check out some manual online don't ever bother buying one... Considerably harder than a Golf but not hard at all. Servicing yourself is a dream.

[flit156]

Hi, previous owner re-gassed once a year so there must be a leak somewhere, not sure it's worth pursuing as I will only drive it morning and late afternoon and the windows still work fine

I'll try and find out the last time the auto was serviced, it might be some time ago. Once I change the gas strut on the bonnet I'll take a closer look at the engine, didn't spot a turbo last time but it was a very brief look and I wasn't looking for one.

Not looked for an online manual yet but I'll have a look around, I did find having the Bentley manual in print useful with the golf but I'll try living with soft copy and see how I go.

Now that I've put some air in the tyres the steering is quite 'wooly', it's got 250k on it so a number of things could be worn.

A quick look around shows a number of them being broken for parts so finding spares may not be too hard, I ended up sourcing a lot of parts for the Golf from the UK as they were so much cheaper.

Thanks, J

[flit156]

I should also mention that he had the rear shocks done a year ago so hopefully that's it for suspension for a while.