gear box and poss head gasket problem on 1996 golf vr6 auto

[betts87]

I'm thinking of buying this vr6 with a faulty auto gearbox (through out every gear change it seems that clutch is staying half decompressed, therefore not having good friction and over revving and hardly no pull). The owner is telling me that he has had a new clutch and the gear box looked at. and the problem is down to the ecu, he has give me the code of ecu it needs and I have found one, but I am wondering if that will solve the problem. also on inspecting under the bonnet I found a small amount of baileys coloured residue on the oil fill cap, but none inside, the owner says its condensation. Its goin for a really cheap price but dont want to get it and it blow up in a few weeks time. can anyone help

[Steve_D]

The condensation may be just that and be the result of it not being run at full working temp recently. On the other hand it may be indicative of pending head gasket failure.

You need to add the cost of an ECU and a (fitted) replacement gearbox to the purchase price. If it is still a good price then it may be worth a go.

In your mind you should really want this car rather than just seeing it as an investment otherwise the hassle will not be worthwhile.

Steve

[Pumaracing]

There's no reason to think a bit of mayo inside the oil filler is indicative of anything serious but a compression test would be a good idea.

However if the box just needed a new ecu then any sensible owner would do that before selling it rather than lose a big chunk of the price. Avoid, or at least tell him to fix it and prove the fix with a long test drive if he wants to sell it.

[crossle]

Pumaracing said:

There's no reason to think a bit of mayo inside the oil filler is indicative of anything serious but a compression test would be a good idea.

There's a whole lot more to worry about on a VR6 engine than a bit of mayo...

Timing chain noise/failures and dodgy coil packs were the two biggest issues I recall.