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Re: Please help: Dealer Service giving my friend a run-around (djsilvera)
I have a '99 Passat and I had 2 of those happen to me at the same time and I fixed both myself.
I had a CEL that turned out to be a bad MAF and broken/cracked vacuum hoses off of the manifold. See the pics below:
Both hoses were cracked right at the manifold and also farther down the line. The hoses were so brittle from the heat under the hood that they just fell apart in my hand when I was replacing them.
To replace the hoses the dealer is going to want a lot for just the labor and about 10 bucks a meter for the hose and you need about 2.5 to replace both hoses.
My MAF was also bad and was told that it needed to be replaced. I removed the MAF and cleaned it. Now it's back to normal. The MAF was about $370.00 from the dealer and they wanted a couple hours worth of work to replace it too.
So I would recommend DIY if you/she are up to it. It's pretty easy actually you just have to take your time and do it right. But if you do do it yourself, you'll only spend about $12.00 for everything.
If she wants to get a new MAF, I have one, never been opened, still in the box that I'd sell for way below the dealer's price of $370.00.
[Modified by vwfool2000, 2:26 PM 11-28-2001]