RUST
The front wings are made of plastic. On a sunny day if you look up and under the wing you'll see they are translucent! (T1-T2)
However, the rear doors are made of steel and there have been reports of rust.
Open the rear doors and look for bubbling under the paint on the curved inside edge [the curve that follows the forward edge of the rear wheel arch] that sits on the door rubbers.
WATER RETENTION
There are five areas where you may find water problems.
1. The sun roof drains can block. There are threads on here about this.
2. The bulkhead drains can block with leaves over time. There are threads on here about this. It is easy to check by putting a hose at the bottom of the windscreen and seeing if water runs of of the front wheel arches where the drains emerge. If not it take 30 minutes to remove the wheel arch linings, pull the rubber drain bungs and clean the drains out on each side. NOTE that if the blockage is not cleared water can ingress through the pollen filter on the passenger bulkhead and run under the carpet where it can seriously damage ECUs and electrics down there so lift and check the underside of the carpet is dry! If not, get the pollen filter out and see if that it wet as well.
3. When you accelerate or brake you may hear water sloshing to and fro. This is a very easy fix. There are three grommets in each of the cills the run along under the doors on each side of the car. Remove a grommet and the retained water will run out. I threw the grommet away for a permanent solution as no one seems to know where this water comes from.
4. The air conditioning condensate pipe can block. Again there are threads on here about this.
5. If someone has been mean with the screen wash during the winter, the pipe to the rear wash wipe can freeze and burst in the rear roof lining on the driver's side between the rear door and the tailgate. Open the hatch and look up and to the right for water stains. It's a known problem and cost about £100 for a dealer to drop the lining and fix it. I recommend VW dealer as inexperienced hands may damage the one piece roof lining so in my opinion it is not worth the risk.
KNOW YOUR TOUAREG:
The best thing any prospective Touareg buyer can do is to invest several evenings looking through the threads on here to get a feel for the problems. Remember people come to forums when they have a problem so don't be too put off!
THESE ARE NOT BUDGET CARS
Touaregs were expensive when new and they can be very expensive to repair. These are not cars for someone on a tight budget. Engines and gearboxes can run away with £5,000 each. The V10 engine costs over £10,000 and it takes 30 hours to remove and replace it.
There are next to no VW specialists serving the Touareg community. There are plenty for your Polo, Golf or Passat, but definitely not for the Touareg [some don't even have car lifts man enough to lift 2.5 tons] so you are probably going to be in the hands of main dealers and their labour rates. But even here there are few dealers recommended for their Touareg knowledge but at least they may have the right tools to do the repairs!
Unlike Land Rover where you have an excellent choice of independents AND alternative sources for parts, with the Touareg most of the bits have to be sourced from VW and you can either pay dealer prices [sometimes things are very reasonable, sometimes not!] or use one of the motor factors who offer decent discounts.
And don't think that if you are buying new or nearly new, VW dealers are going to roll out the red carpet as you buy one of their top of the range cars. They don't. And VW GB don't give a sh"t either even if you have a serious problem with a brand new car!
BRAKES:
Brakes can be done by any competent garage and thus save you up to 50% on VW dealers' prices tho' some dealers will try and price match so it's worth asking. Mine does and they're good - VW Maidenhead. Note some dealers try to tell you that you need new discs and pads well before the brake wear warning light comes on so be warned. You have at least 2,000 miles to get your car booked in when the light comes on so there's no need to rush into this maintenance unless there is a major fault.
PARKING BRAKE PEDAL
The parking brake pedal should engage in about 5 to 8 clicks. If it takes more, then the parking brake shoes which are inside a drum incorporated in the rear discs need adjusting or replacing. Becasuse they are only applied when the car is stationary, there is no friction so these drums rust badly and the reduced braking efficiency can fail the MoT test. Once a month, drive very slowly with the parking brake partially on for a couple of hundred yards to try and keep the rust at bay.
If, when you release the parking brake, the parking brake warning lights stays on, this is a very common problem that can be solved in several different ways. The first is to hook your left toecap under the pedal to pull it up the fraction of an inch it needs to turn the light off! The second is to count to two after you have pulled but before you release the parking brake handle. The third is to check the parking brake shoes are correctly adjusted to only take 5 to 8 clicks to set the brake. The fourth is to replace the tired hydraulic piston that pushes the pedal back up when you release the brake.
The front wings are made of plastic. On a sunny day if you look up and under the wing you'll see they are translucent! (T1-T2)
However, the rear doors are made of steel and there have been reports of rust.
Open the rear doors and look for bubbling under the paint on the curved inside edge [the curve that follows the forward edge of the rear wheel arch] that sits on the door rubbers.
WATER RETENTION
There are five areas where you may find water problems.
1. The sun roof drains can block. There are threads on here about this.
2. The bulkhead drains can block with leaves over time. There are threads on here about this. It is easy to check by putting a hose at the bottom of the windscreen and seeing if water runs of of the front wheel arches where the drains emerge. If not it take 30 minutes to remove the wheel arch linings, pull the rubber drain bungs and clean the drains out on each side. NOTE that if the blockage is not cleared water can ingress through the pollen filter on the passenger bulkhead and run under the carpet where it can seriously damage ECUs and electrics down there so lift and check the underside of the carpet is dry! If not, get the pollen filter out and see if that it wet as well.
3. When you accelerate or brake you may hear water sloshing to and fro. This is a very easy fix. There are three grommets in each of the cills the run along under the doors on each side of the car. Remove a grommet and the retained water will run out. I threw the grommet away for a permanent solution as no one seems to know where this water comes from.
4. The air conditioning condensate pipe can block. Again there are threads on here about this.
5. If someone has been mean with the screen wash during the winter, the pipe to the rear wash wipe can freeze and burst in the rear roof lining on the driver's side between the rear door and the tailgate. Open the hatch and look up and to the right for water stains. It's a known problem and cost about £100 for a dealer to drop the lining and fix it. I recommend VW dealer as inexperienced hands may damage the one piece roof lining so in my opinion it is not worth the risk.
KNOW YOUR TOUAREG:
The best thing any prospective Touareg buyer can do is to invest several evenings looking through the threads on here to get a feel for the problems. Remember people come to forums when they have a problem so don't be too put off!
THESE ARE NOT BUDGET CARS
Touaregs were expensive when new and they can be very expensive to repair. These are not cars for someone on a tight budget. Engines and gearboxes can run away with £5,000 each. The V10 engine costs over £10,000 and it takes 30 hours to remove and replace it.
There are next to no VW specialists serving the Touareg community. There are plenty for your Polo, Golf or Passat, but definitely not for the Touareg [some don't even have car lifts man enough to lift 2.5 tons] so you are probably going to be in the hands of main dealers and their labour rates. But even here there are few dealers recommended for their Touareg knowledge but at least they may have the right tools to do the repairs!
Unlike Land Rover where you have an excellent choice of independents AND alternative sources for parts, with the Touareg most of the bits have to be sourced from VW and you can either pay dealer prices [sometimes things are very reasonable, sometimes not!] or use one of the motor factors who offer decent discounts.
And don't think that if you are buying new or nearly new, VW dealers are going to roll out the red carpet as you buy one of their top of the range cars. They don't. And VW GB don't give a sh"t either even if you have a serious problem with a brand new car!
BRAKES:
Brakes can be done by any competent garage and thus save you up to 50% on VW dealers' prices tho' some dealers will try and price match so it's worth asking. Mine does and they're good - VW Maidenhead. Note some dealers try to tell you that you need new discs and pads well before the brake wear warning light comes on so be warned. You have at least 2,000 miles to get your car booked in when the light comes on so there's no need to rush into this maintenance unless there is a major fault.
PARKING BRAKE PEDAL
The parking brake pedal should engage in about 5 to 8 clicks. If it takes more, then the parking brake shoes which are inside a drum incorporated in the rear discs need adjusting or replacing. Becasuse they are only applied when the car is stationary, there is no friction so these drums rust badly and the reduced braking efficiency can fail the MoT test. Once a month, drive very slowly with the parking brake partially on for a couple of hundred yards to try and keep the rust at bay.
If, when you release the parking brake, the parking brake warning lights stays on, this is a very common problem that can be solved in several different ways. The first is to hook your left toecap under the pedal to pull it up the fraction of an inch it needs to turn the light off! The second is to count to two after you have pulled but before you release the parking brake handle. The third is to check the parking brake shoes are correctly adjusted to only take 5 to 8 clicks to set the brake. The fourth is to replace the tired hydraulic piston that pushes the pedal back up when you release the brake.
