2003 Beetle Diesel

Greetings,

My wife is interested in purchasing a 2003 Beetle with the 1.9L diesel and
5spd tranny and wants to know if there is anything we need to look out for
on this particular motor and transmission.

I've been driving Chevy diesels for years so I have some experience with
light duty diesels, although none as small as the Beetle. The one thing I
did notice is that the oil in the Beetle is pitch black. I've seen this on
some diesels but not on anything this new (the oil in my 2004 Duramax stays
gold between changes at 5000 miles), and I'm wondering if this is normal for
this motor or if this is an indication of any problems.

Otherwise the car is in very good condition - it belongs to my sister-in-law
who is in Iraq and we've been keeping it at our place for her.

Any sage words of wisdom would be very welcome.

Cheers - Jonathan

Jonathan wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> My wife is interested in purchasing a 2003 Beetle with the 1.9L diesel and
> 5spd tranny and wants to know if there is anything we need to look out for
> on this particular motor and transmission.
>
> I've been driving Chevy diesels for years so I have some experience with
> light duty diesels, although none as small as the Beetle. The one thing I
> did notice is that the oil in the Beetle is pitch black. I've seen this on
> some diesels but not on anything this new (the oil in my 2004 Duramax stays
> gold between changes at 5000 miles), and I'm wondering if this is normal for
> this motor or if this is an indication of any problems.
>
> Otherwise the car is in very good condition - it belongs to my sister-in-law
> who is in Iraq and we've been keeping it at our place for her.
>
> Any sage words of wisdom would be very welcome.
>
> Cheers - Jonathan
>
>
i dont believe the oil should be black. I've heard because its really a
pain in the ass to get to a lot of places wont change the oil in the
diesel vw's. If you've ever watched trucks on Spike TV you can make your
own bio-diesel for about 70 cents a gallon.