Apparantly a Death Trap...

[Tomsy]

Apparantly a Death Trap...
Ok so had my mk2 storm about a month and got a new tyre fitted the other day. guy came to pick up the car while i was at work. now we have our own mechanics at my work anyway for sorting out our vehicles, so when the tyre was fitted and car brought back to my work the guy said its basically a "deathtrap"...
First things, its just started idling at around 2k. the car steering wheel is off at about quarter lock. the guy said the rides a bit harsh (but my other cars a skyline so seemed alright to me).. When i went to drive it off later on its had completely lost 1st gear! the gearbox was absolutly fine before i let it out to get the tyre changed! Guy said he'd never drive it again as it was dangerous??? ive managed fine!
Got the mechanics at work to look at it and as per usual with them lot, they were all doom and gloom, and came to the professional opinion of "ya cars trousers mate" and dont know whats wrong with 1st gear.
So now i'm using my missus's old car as a runaround but now i'm just gutted how within 4 weeks of owning the car with 0 problems, its apparantly got loads...
i had to replace the belt and the alternator the other day as it was knackered. anybody got any suggestions cos this was supposed to be my cheap runaround and my skyline was the project lol.
Should i just get the problems fixed and get rid or hold onto it and hope nothing else goes wrong......???

[ianaudia4]

You must remember that the Storms are 25/26 years old and therefore things will start to go wrong. Your car may have been sat around and hardly getting driven and now you are driving it things are breaking.
My Storm took me about 4 months to get into a nice condition, this was after replacing many parts that had reached the end of their life. It only let me down once, and that was a knackered alternator when I first got it, it has been fine since and I attended 8 shows last year with it.
I would persevere with it and change the consumables as you are going along,things like belts,cables etc.

Most people now would jump into a Scirocco and find it hard, no power steering, drums brakes on the rear etc, etc. Don't throw the towel in mate.

[bensspares]

theve thrashed it and posibly curbed it to boot, my bro left his gtx with a airport carpark company and when he returned it had done 100 miles and a battery he had left in the boot was on its side so god knows what the t***s had done to it.

i have a correct good gearbox you can have for £50 if you collect or pay a courier to collect.

[the edmundator]

The loss of first gear might just be a problem with the gear linkages/bushes etc, especially if it's been working fine and all the other gears are ok. If your steering-wheel was straight before, and they haven't tried to re-set the alignment when they've done the tyres, then this does suggest that there has been some damage to your steering geometry. If the guy says it's a deathtrap, I imagine that it is, as suggested, because he drove it like a hooligan, which is how he would have caused the damage.

I'd suggest that if the best your mechanics at work can come up with is saying your car is rubbish and they don't know what's wrong with 1st gear, either they aren't trying, or they don't know what they're doing. Did they give you any more detail about exactly what is wrong with your car?

[PeteGLi]

Whereabouts are you?

[Reverend Frog]

I never trusted run-of-the-mill mechanics with my Scirocco.They are all, to a man, clueless. Unless a car has a socket for them to plug their diagnostics machine into, they're lost. Seek a second opinion from somebody who actually knows what they're talking about

[ianaudia4]

Tomsy, where are you based as there are plenty of people on here that can recommend a specialist.

[Tomsy]

i'm in Hemel Hempstead.... cars in shenley.
Steering was off when i bought it but hasn't bothered me much... apart from lining the wheels up in parking lol.

[ianaudia4]

I know great old skool VW technician who is based in Chelmsford, along the A414 from you!

[fev1983]

i took mine in for a tyre and the bloke who drove car in said how do you drive that,,,why? i said he said the steering is way too heavey and my gear box is like stiring porridge :) ,,i just laugh because its them thats missing out on old skool fun,,,,
ps,,is they a specialist anyone knows of in west yorkshire fed up of these clowns not having a clue,,,,,
danny

[fonzooorooo]

Mine's on standard shocks/springs, and by modern standards, yes - the ride's a bit hash. As you say though - nothing too drastic.
As for the steering wheel being out of alignment, there's only tracking adjustment on one side, so assuming the tracking's OK, it's just the nut in the centre of the wheel to allow you to remove/rotate/replace to suit.
High idle speed (when warm) can be adjusted.(assuming the car's injected? ... I've never played with one, but i'm sure advice would be forthcoming on here, or a glance in the haynes)
As Ed said - have a look at the linkages before you write off the 'box...

It seems to me, that unless you hit upon the VERY rare exception, most of the 'roccos out there are in a basically similar state when "we" get hold of them... all suffering from neglect!... They have the habit of working just fine for years with only minimal servicing (which is exactly what the previous owner's normally done!) Then we get them, and have problems in all the "usual" places. They all turn into either a project of some sort, or a series of garage bills!

With the few issues you have with yours, if it were me, i'd have a look at it myself, sort the few details out, keep it and run it. They're an incredibly practical car, returing reasonable economy, fun, comfort, a huge load space for a car of their size, the parts are cheap, and they're easy to work on. How's that for a sell?

As above, most mechanics suck. I'm lucky to have the time to do mine myself, have a good mechanic in town (has a mk2 golf as a daily himself) and an independant VW specialist 10 miles up the road. The only time i've used them though is when I really didn't want to do a polo clutch outside in february! ...

[duncancallum]

as said 24mm spin the wheel round to straight, then get it tracked if it still pulls.

The issue with 1st does it go in through the gate?

High tick over look at the throttle pedal rubber where the cable goes.

[Dutch GT]

As mentioned above, the gear linkage selector popped off on ours when the mrs wasn't used to it and forced the gear a bit too harshly! Just clips back on and should be fine, hopefully the same has happened to yours when they had it.

I also thought old sciroccos were a death trap until I got used to the brakes!

[rocco1982]

None of the things you say/the mechanics say are wrong with it make it 'death trap' at all! None of it's gonna make you crash into something...just persevere and sort things out bit by bit. It'll be worth it. A lot of things that make the car feel like a sack of poo are such simple little things like tracking, wheel balancing and worn out suspension components. I had a similar gear problem with 1st and 2nd requiring 'plunging' down of the gearstick to be selected - it didn't stop me driving it safely and it got sorted in the end (funnily enough by two friendly chaps in this club, not by a mechanic who didn't even like the thing).

[DT1]

...I also thought old sciroccos were a death trap until I got used to the brakes!

This is probably what caused their reactions.

If you are raised on the sharp, responsive brakes of today's cars and drove the Scirocco expecting similar braking characteristics then I would imagine that it would cause a few brown trouser moments.

But to echo others, it doesn't strike me that there are any major repairs required.