Performing a DSG transmission service on your Volkswagen or Audi is one of the most important maintenance tasks you can do at home. The DSG such as the VW 02E featured in this DIY is a complex electromechanical mechanism that requires regular servicing. It's pretty different from other...

Even the best kept Volvo can unavoidably feel, well, old. While it would certainly be a tall order to refresh every surface and restore every nook and cranny of the car, you can pretty quickly return some of the things you come in contact with most. Master Window Switch After inadvertently...

A very common oil leak on any older VW is the valve cover gasket, but using the original parts is not always the best course of action. The factory gasket, used on pretty much all 4 cylinder VW/Audis from the early 70s to early 90s, is a three piece set, with rubber and cork, that leaves much to...

The Mark 4 Volkswagen is all things to all men. Its simple, serviceable, bulletproof design brings both reliability and driving pleasure to the consumer, all at an affordable price. The chassis design was so good that for a period, almost everything was built on this platform – Golf, Jetta,...

Winter is still coming on strong, and rain is still falling. We've written a lot about what to do to prepare your vehicle for the severe weather, but sometimes good preparation is not enough – even the Titanic had a bilge pump! If your car should flood this winter, it's not the end of the world,...

Diagnosing a newer car is easier than you think. Since 1996, all new cars like the Volvo S60 and BMW 325i have been fitted with the OBD-II system, which monitors the engine very closely, specifically the emissions systems. If anything looks wrong, and the computer cannot regulate it, it will set...

Misfires can be the easiest things in the world to cure, or the thing that drives you to drink. Luckily, OBD-II cars are straightforward to diagnose, and diagnosing a dead coil is gravy work that can be done in a little under an hour. You'll need an OBD-II scanner, a sharpie, and a spray bottle...

Early fuel injected Volkswagens have the most ingenious fuel delivery system I've ever seen. The system worked so well, in fact, that it was used in pretty much everything Volkswagen, Audi, Mercedes, and BMW put out – to name a few manufacturers – for decades. Forty years later, these cars are...

Back in the day, servicing your own car was a labor of love. On air-cooled Volkswagens, there were millions of things that needed to be checked during a service. Points needed to be adjusted, zerk fittings needed grease, and valves needed to be adjusted. On newer cars, even the humble dipstick...

It seems that the newer the car, the less serviceable it is. New Audis don't even come with an oil dipstick! The transmission dipstick was phased out years ago, and transmissions were equipped with “lifetime fluid.” Fast forward to today, and this “lifetime fluid” is dirty, your car shifts...