Top 10 1996 Volkswagen Jetta Questions & Answers

there are 3 thing need to be fixed first the top timing belt pully should be between o.t so should be on . between o.t and secondremove the distrubuter cap it should be one mark 1 which is pointing on block and 3rd is crank shaft should adjust on 0 which you will find on the gearbox there is a green ruber cap remoce it and turn the main crank shaft u will find mark on the frywheel 0.
Thats it

If your temp seems to come down when idle or at a stop, it is most likely the water pump.

VW has a known problem with the water pumps breaking. The plastic impeller on the water pump fails cracks.

Do not let your car overheat to the red line, once it beeps, turn it off. Other wise it can damage your engine. In fact watch the temp gauge, as you drive when it gets near the red line turn it off.
Turning your Heater on full will help to cool your engine.

My water pump made it to 84000 miles. I have a 2003 Jetta 1.8T Wolfsburg
At which time my timing belt, thermostat and water pump was all replaced. This saves on labor.
The water pump is driven off the timing belt. So while they are in there get that done.

Your owner’s manual has a Maintenance schedule list, your timing belt should be replaced at something like 60000 miles or so, I am not exactly sure of service schedule as I do not have it in front of me. If your getting your timing belt done, get your water pump replaced to. It will fail eventually.

As for over heating?
When is it over heating?
If you read the Owners manual it clearly states in there these cars run hot, do not let it idle for a long period of time. In the middle of summer in Fl, while sitting idle for long periods of time in traffic with the air conditioning on, my car will over heat a bit. This is normal.
Most people like to start their cars and let them warm up, this car you don’t let it warm up, and again the owner’s manual has this in it.

As for coolant, do not use water or green anti freeze, use G12 (it is red, pinkish) which you can find at Napa, or a Mercedes, VW dealership, in a pinch to top off the coolant you can use Dex Cool, not ideal but it works as G12 is not easily found at wal mart or AutoZone type places, I couldn’t find it there? The people at AutoZone told me Dex Cool is the same as G12, my mechanic says it is not the same. Close but not the same. It will do to top off the coolant.

Take out the pc board and examine the copper traces. On my '94 Jetta I found one corroded trace that disabled the the same functions. I had to solder a wire to fix the connection. Good luck.

There are two items that can be leaking oil there. There is a gasket between the oiler cooler flange (the item attached to the engine), and the rubber gasket/seal that goes between the cooler and the flange. (the latter is the one that leaks most often as most oil change shops over tighten the oil filter).
I just replaced the gasket between the cooler and flange recently. I chose to do it quick and dirty: 1. remove oil filter 2. remove oil filter nipple (the portion you screw the filter onto) 2a. you'll need a deep well socket to get the bolt that holds the cooler tight (I believe 27mm)
2b. pull down the cooler, Grab the nipple with a pair of pliers between the flange and cooler and loosen/remove
3. remove old gasket/seal and clean surface 4. put new seal/gasket in place 5. re-seat the nipple back in. use the pliers method, just make sure you don't scar the threads where you NEED them( you don't need all of them). 6. put some gasket sealer (oil friendly) on the gasket and make sure its in place 7. tighten oil cooler onto flange with large nut and socket 8. replace oil filter and add oil as needed.
it is a tight working area, expect some scrapped knuckles, but it isn't too difficult.
good luck

my 95 vw jetta oil light is on and there is a beeping sound what might be wrong

You have to be very careful with input shaft rings. They like to eat into the pump stater. Also always buy new vb don't buy rebuilt because they only work 2 out of 5 times. I know this for experience

Hi nick. I have a T5 04 model and recently had the same problem. i was told it was a blown turbo so i had a friend look at it and turbo was fine. got vw to run a diagnostics and it had a broken wire running from the charge pressure meter. replaced for 9 euro. 3 weeks later same problem and it turned out to be a loose plug on the air mass meter. now its perfect again. apparently what happens is that if the engin management is getting a wrong reading from the pressure meter it limits the van to 40 horse power for fear of blowing the engine. whenever i switched the van off and back on the problem would fix itself but as time went on it got worse until complete failure. the wire is located under the coolant resivoir. dont know exactly where though. email me on [email protected] if you need to know more. if it does turn out to be the turbo (which i doubt) then there is a website called CRTurbos that seem to be the cheapest around. but i seen another forum where the turbos were replaced and the problem remained. I suggest first look at the charge pressure meter.

This and other graphic details can find in Jettatech/techset

Hope helps.

Firing order is 1-4-3-2

cylinders are numbered:

Front
3 1
4 2
Rear