Piston Slap: A Suspension Rebuild to Save the B5 Passat Wagon?
Peter writes:
Sajeev,
My daily driver is a 2004 Volkswagen Passat Wagon 1.8T M/T, purchased new, now with 147,000 miles on the clock. Despite the legends about the poor reliability of this vehicle, it’s been good to me. (By this point, they had worked out both the sludge and coil pack problems.)
My concern is its handling: when this vehicle was released, it pretty much took all the COTY awards … Car and Driver, Edmunds, even Consumer Reports had it as their top pick for years until the coil pack problems became clear. The reviews for the thing all talked about how great it handled.
Well, after 12 years and 147k miles, my car is worn and due for a lot of maintenance: timing belt, tires, and replacement of sagging cloth interior bits with junkyard leather bits in decent condition.
Realizing this, yesterday I took three potential replacements for a test drive — the Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen (lots of cash on the hood now for that one), the Subaru Outback, and the Mazda CX-5. Frankly, I had trouble telling the difference between them because all three felt so much better than my B5.
So either standards are so much better now that even my “great” B5, which was originally released nearly 20 years ago, just isn’t even decent by modern standards, or something is seriously worn out on my car. It just feels like a sloppy mess over anything but pristine pavement; no better than my wife’s 2006 Toyota Solara Convertible.
The corners pass the “bounce test” for worn out shocks, and the control arms don’t seem to give when I wiggle them while in the air. Is the chassis just worn out, or is there an unhappy medium between new and “safety hazard” that leads to such a sad feel?
While all the pending maintenance more than adds up over the sad trade in value of the car, the total is still a fraction of the price of a replacement vehicle. I know its engine has been properly cared for, and I drive it gently, so it should have plenty of life left assuming I can stand to drive the thing. How likely is it that dropping $1,000-ish on new control arms, shocks, mounts, tires, (springs?), etc., will tighten things up? I’d hate to spend that cash and discover that it was still a sloppy mess compared to a new car.
Sajeev answers:
I promise you that a suspension rebuild “will tighten things up” immensely, especially if you experience roads similar to what this journo saw when he got a Corvette press car. Even trucks with beefy suspensions get sloppy, but anything finely honed for tight handling gets punished after 10+ years and 100,000+ miles. I doubt the chassis is severely affected, but there are upgrades if so inclined. I’d jump on it.
I’m also kinda shocked (sorry) the shocks passed the bounce test: if they are original, they’re toast by now. What’s left of the gas/fluid inside has likely turned into something resembling molasses.
The $64,000 question is, will all this single-subsystem restoration be enough to wanna keep a B5 Passat, considering the lures of newer vehicles? Especially those deeply discounted VW products?
No way I can answer that for you.
[Image: Volkswagen]
Send your queries to sajeev@thetruthaboutcars.com. Spare no details and ask for a speedy resolution if you’re in a hurry…but be realistic, and use your make/model specific forums instead of TTAC for more timely advice.
More by Sajeev Mehta
Comments
Join the conversation
I'm in a similar situation with my 97 Volvo V90...205000 miles, fresh timing belt, water pump and tires last summer, suspension is getting noisy...clunks over RR tracks, etc. How far do you go with repairing these things? I'd love to get 300k out of it, but the siren call of cheap leases is appealing too...oil changes, wiper blades and tire rotations are all I would have to do, then dump it after 3 years and get something new. My cut-off has always been $200/mo...If I start spending more than that, on average, it's time to bid the old car adieu. I spent $1600 last year, and so far spent $350 this year, so I'm still good from that perspective. A $149/mo Cruze sounds interesting...if FCA would do some cheap leases on Chrysler 200's I might be game for that too. What to do, what to do?!?
CoreyDL, I tend to agree with you, but I have to admit that a black 200s is a really attractive car. Spoke to the little Chevy store in Indiana that used to be Ande Chev-Olds years and years ago, they only have 3 new Cruze in stock, red, white and blue ones if you can believe that, all with black interiors. In my trade, a black or other dark, somber color, is my preference...the crappy CJD store on Colerain Avenue has a black on black 200s on the lot. Won't buy a Chevy from Ron Joseph or Bob Pulte if I can help it, which limits by Chevy dealer options. I was driving to work this morning, tallying up all the little piddly things I need to fix on the Volvo so I can be happy with it...and the low coolant light flickered on. It's a sign from above. It oozes coolant around the upper rad hose at the radiator...done that for years, I just top-off the overflow tank about once a month, but I guess I should add a radiator to the list.