98 VW Cabrio - new to everything

[Jeffaray]

I have driven my white VW with tan top for the past 4 years. I have never treated it as anything more than just a vehicle that gets me from point A to point B. This is because I have absolutely no knowledge of cars other than how to drive them. Well I'm about to get a speaker system put in, courtesy of my buddy, and I kind of want it to look as good as it's about to sound. My top is in bad shape, I have a bid dent on the driver side door, huge crack in the middle of the dash, random holes in the interior, many random electrical problems, my horn is currently disconnected because every time I turn left it goes off, whenever I start accelerating you can hear a loud rattle that no one has been able to figure out/fix in the four years I've own it, the RPM gauge will go redline and read as if it's normal there (not actually revving high), and my trunk lock is crud. This is just naming stuff I can think of off the top of my head. I recently had it taken to the mechanic to get a few major things fixed to get it running. I'll post more information on what they did and suggest to do to my car. She's getting close to 150,000 miles. I'd like to invest and work on her myself. I was hoping you all would help and give suggestions as I worked on this project. As I stated before, I'm absolutely clueless when it comes to work on cars, so I might have a lot of questions and need very detailed answers, sorry in advance for that. Pictures to come soon. Thanks!

[YJSAABMAN]

Welcome! Read, read, and read some more, my friend! Do lots of research before tearing into anything. The best places to read? Here, in the Cabriolet forum is good. Also the Golf/Jetta III forums, as they share all the same basic mechanicals as your Cabrio. Finally, and one of the best places to read, is to get yourself a repair manual from Bentley publishers that covers your '98 Cabrio. This repair manual will walk you through most basic trouble shooting and repair procedures on your car.

[CajunSpike]

The repair manual usually runs $100.

I got mine here for much less.

http://www.urotuning.com/shop/bentle...999-p-117.html

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