Almost as much trouble as a horse

This is what my Dad used to say whenever I would complain about car repairs. This weekend's activity was centered around the failure of the battery on my Passat. The car was getting more difficult to start and finally G decided to look at it. Turns out not to be easy -- the battery is under this big piece of plastic that has to be taken out in order to get to it.

G opened it up on Saturday and found that the battery was bone-dry. The electrolyte level was -- GONE. Because of the undisturbed dust and the fact that the screw that undid the port to check the fluid level was pristine (had never been turned), it was obvious that the fluid level in the battery had never been checked in the nearly 8 years since I bought the car new.

He filled it up with water and we drove the car out into the country looking at some 5 acres to charge it up, hoping to resurrect it -- but it was not to be. Yesterday it didn't get driven because we were out in His car looking at farms. This morning it started but took a while -- wheeawheeawheeawheeastart -- so we took it to the mechanic that we trust here in Corvallis, who put in a new battery this morning. Lucky they were open today.

This vehicle has been completely maintained by the VW dealer here in town, even at a little extra expense, and I relied on them to perform the routine services they were supposed to. VW does say that the battery shouldn't need maintenance under normal circumstances, but the service manual states that at the 20K and 40K mile services, the electrolyte fluid levels should be checked. THAT never happened.

This opened up a whole other line of inquiry and it looks like the brake fluid has NEVER been changed even though it is supposed to be changed every 2 years. So next week the car is going back in to our new mechanic to have a few things checked over . . .