[lutz3dprinting]

Hey I am new here and just bought a 166,500 mile 2008 3.6L vr6 Touareg. it has a mostly unkown service history. I am wondering with its miles what your thoughts are on if I should do diff and transmission fluid changes right away? are there any other service items that I should do on top of that? It also has a vacuum leak and I plan on trying to find it later today however if there are any known common leak points that I should check first that would be helpful information. There are more issues with it but I plan on tackling it one thing at a time with and will likely post again with questions if I struggle with any of the trouble shooting and repairs. lastly i am in the west Michigan area. does anyone know a shop in the area that knows about and likes to work on touaregs that I can take it to if anything gets more difficult than i can figure out myself? my regular local vw specialist already told me they arent really interested in messing with a touareg.

 

[lutz3dprinting]

Yes do it.
After that, buy VCDS.
Learn to do your own wrenching instead of relying on shops.... especially with an egg.... it will get expensive very quickly.

yeah I already do all my own work on my other 5 vws and have gone pretty deep on a few of them for repairs and already have a majority of the type of equipment processional shops have. I meant more as if I cant figure out an issue and have exhusted other resources if there are any shops in my area that would know enough about these to help me solve Touareg specific issues.

 

[lutz3dprinting]

That's NOT a VW Specialist. Shame on them.

they know about them and I have seen touaregs being worked on there a few times when I drive by but the owner told me they dont really like them and that they dont recommend them generally unless you can do everything yourself and that if I got one that they werent really all that interested in looking at it if i have issues and i would rather take it to someone who is actually interested in looking at it if there are issues i cant figure out any way other than taking it to a specialist.

 

[lutz3dprinting]

If it was me, all fluid would be done.
Drivetrain, brake, steering, coolant, oil.
After that, (this is a lie... this would've happened even before I entertained getting it), full VCDS scan.
Then deal with anything that comes up on VCDS before starting to drive it to see if there are other mechanical issues (brakes, bearings, suspension)

i dont have vcds but i have a vw specific scanner that lets me do like 95% of what vcds does including activating and deactivating features,long coding ect. i can get vcds if you think its that critical but my scanner will do most of it.

 

[lutz3dprinting]

If it was me, all fluid would be done.
Drivetrain, brake, steering, coolant, oil.
After that, (this is a lie... this would've happened even before I entertained getting it), full VCDS scan.
Then deal with anything that comes up on VCDS before starting to drive it to see if there are other mechanical issues (brakes, bearings, suspension)

i did multiple scans with the vw specific scanner before, after driving, cleared codes drove and scanned again to see what stuck and what just wasnt cleared after the recent battery replacement.

 

[lutz3dprinting]

OK.. let's see a full report of the vehicle form your specific scanner.

I did not have a good way to get it home last night when I bought it so its at my sisters which is close to where I bought it. I will be heading out there to diagnose and if no major parts are required fix the vacuum leak after work today and will post an update with the list of codes. i already know what a lot of them mean as i looked everything up and even got parts prices on the most likely causes for most of the codes prior to making an offer. I also suspect that some of them might be due to the drivers footwell ground so I plan on checking that before proceeding with any electrical based component issues.

 

[lutz3dprinting]

OK.. let's see a full report of the vehicle form your specific scanner.

Here are the current codes. Diagnosed the vacuum leak in about a minute. Torn pcv diaphragm as it's leaking from the vent hole. Could either steal the one off the spare 3.6L vr6 that i believe should be completely identical which I have laying around left over from the Passat drivetrain donor for my AWD mk1 rabbit project or more likely I'll just order a gasket and diaphragm kit online and fix it before driving it home. The electrical and couple other mechanical items aren't critical drivability concerns at this point so I'll just get it home and then tackle them. My thought process With there being multiple modules having codes and the low voltage codes I'm thinking there might be a common ground that is acting up. In my research so far it sounds like the ground under the left foot rest in the drivers foot well is poorly insulated from the factory and is often an issue. My plan is to check and if needed fix that first and if that doesn't fix everything then I'll go down the rabbit hole of getting wiring diagrams from erwin.vw and checking what I can reasonably easily access on the harness and electrical system before deciding if I need to do harness repairs or start replacing modules.