[aaron19922]

I’m a college student with mechanical ability which I used to flip a few cars making my way up to the car I own now. A 2000 VW v6 4motion Passat sedan with 146000 miles on it which I've owned for around 2 and half year now (long time compared to the other cars). I've built this car up from being a 900 dollar front end damaged (in a crash clean title) to a daily driver. I got it with roughly 125000 and now it has 146000. I have done a lot of work to the car which I will list later.

I am wondering what I should do with the car at this point, I love the car, great in the snow, starts up every morning, but I also don't want to end up with a POS that I can't get to class with. I need the car to last or I need to dump it like the last cars. I’ve done oil changes every 3000 miles with Mobil 1 full synthetic oil / filter with STP additive and only used the correct fluids. G12 blah blah blah

I'm looking for opinions only obviously no one can predict a cars failure

Replaced at 125000
Radiator
Spark plugs
Air filter (K&M drop in)
Front brake pads / slotted rotors / pins & boots
Flushed brake fluid
Infinitely component speakers in rear doors (monsoon sound system)
All new vacuum lines
New PCV system
Fuel filter
Timing belt / thermostat / water pump
Serpentine belt
Belt driven cooling fan replaced with electric fan
Flushed trans fluid
Heater core lead hose
Heater core flushed
Post cat o2 sensor
Passenger window clips

Replaced at 143000
Motor motors
Power steering rack with 90000 miles on it
Power steering pump with 90000 miles on it
All control arms
Inner & outer tie rods
Power steering flush
Battery
Coolant temp sensor
Coolant flushed
Exhaust flex pip
Put OEM Passat car bar on

Replaced at 146000 driver door window clips
Rear brake pads / hardware / pins & boots

 

[Ntrain2k]

Looking over the list quickly it appears that all of your major maintenance items have been done recently.

If it runs good and hasn't given you trouble I'd drive it.

 

[Mtech]

Stop using the STP additives! you are wasting your money, and with M1 in that engine, you are well protected. Back to your question: You've done a pretty extensive amount of stuff already, I would replace the battery - if you haven't already and also replace the battery in the key fob(s) and you might be okay for another 3 years.

I'm not a fan of K&N filters, but you do what you want.

 

[aaron19922]

thanks for the replies, i am a fan of the STP additives, I've seen it do wonders on old engines but what is your reasoning behind saying that? as for the battery it is less then a year old and for the K&N I'm not really a fan either it messed with the mass air flow sensor a couple times but i got a good deal on amazon so what the heck

 

[Mtech]

The use of engine oil additives is, with verey few exceptions, not supported by the oil makers or OEMs. Why would this be? if there was a legitimate reason to use this stuff, why wouldn't the premium oil makers add the same stuff to their product and charge more for it? Reason: the oil makers blend their product to be suited to all current engines and current and most past specifications. They make their oils meet or exceed the OEM specs as decided to what market they are seeking (cars, trucks, marine, aviation, locomotives, diesel, HD trucks, stationary ICE, etc)

If you think you are a better tribologist than the guys and gals at Mobil, Shell, Chevron, BP, Motil, Elf, others, go ahead and decide what the brew of additives should be in your engine, otherwise default to let these engineers , technologists, scientists, do their job for us. YMMV.

 

[CntrlNJPassatGuy]

Any chance of getting an update on what you did and how it affected the car's useful life?

I have a 2000 GLS Wagon (V6 ATQ).

Bought it used at 129K, did the control arms and tie rods,
Did timing belt, water pump and thermostat at 144K,
Backflushed the heater core at 175K (Yay! Heat returns.),
New motor mounts at 195K

Started overheating at 198K...Replaced water pump, thermostat and next the coolant pipe o-rings. I'd wager money that a lot of V6's went prematurely to the junkyard because these fixes are not simple or cheap.