Phaeton Curious

[Panther427]

Hello to everyone.
Im looking into buying a 2004 w12 5 seater model silver w/ black 75xxx miles.
This is a North American USA car

I have done a bit of reading and learning through the FAQ.
I do understand these are expensive to repair, and have some pretty "normal" problems across the bored. Electrical issues that randomly fix themselves. TPM, Vent doors sticking, Rear head rests with a mind of there own. ect

So what i need to know is what parts and functions should i be looking at. Where should i be concentrating my attentions at. I will have the dealer put the car up on a lift so i can fully inspect it.

I have looked at this vehicle and driven it. It seems to be in working order, Once we got the standard operating procedures of the trunk learned.
I was told the previous owner gave up on replacing the TPM and just delt with that.
On my initial start up it had the warning message about the workshop level or something along that line with the Air suspension. But after driving and restarting the car it went away. This seems to be normal from what i read.

Two things that im curious about. How to get the massage features to work, and is it obvious that it is working or more of a tech gimic.
Also I thought when you chose speed in the DIC(driver info center) not sure what the term is for the VW. the Digital display in the center between the gauges. that it was to show your current speed in a digital manor. Is this correct. If so I couldn't get it to work.

Any little tidbits of info and advice would be of much help.

Also any specialty houses for these cars?
What about modifications. I would like more power lol
And info on wheels. just any wheel will not hold up to the weight of these cars.

Thanks again Cori

[VloJoh]

There is a lot to be learned about all the features in the Self Study Programmes which can be found here
www.volkspage.net/technik/ssp/index3_eng.php

Massage is nice (I think) but distracting whilst driving. It is only present on 18 way adjustable seats.
The "Tempomat" comes in two varieties: normal and adaptive (with a radar distance measuring device in the front. The speed is shown in the infoscreen on the dash and prsented on the speedometer with red lights at the set speed (which looks really premium I think).

You do not need more power...

This car is made for ultra-comfortable (ultra-) high speed cruising, not for races at the traffic light.

Hope this helps.
If you want luxury, comfort and preferably have an Autobahn to sometimes enjoy 250+ kph this car cannot be beaten.
Fuel economy is like the Greek economy but you probably already guessed that.

John

[Panther427]

Thank you for that link. The information on that site will keep me busy for a very long time.

Lol Greek economy. The fuel economy is no worse than the large SUV's in America. Which i also was looking at.

[Expoman]

Just celebrating my first year of ownership of my 2004 V10.

I think the use of the adjective "celebrating" indicates that this is a feel good post!

In terms of non wear and tear costs over the year, this has been the boot (trunk) latch replacement. I had to replace the LHS battery but I count this as wear and tear and it was the original 2004 battery.

I have covered almost 12,000 miles over the period and I have enjoyed every mile and I must say I have enjoyed the somewhat quirky nature of the car and the posts and support of all on this forum, IMO the most valuable single thing for the Phaeton you could buy but you don't have to, it's free.

I've been lucky to find a very good Phaeton tech at a nearby dealership but from studying this forum and from some experience back in the UK, it seems clear that the VW support and servicing network worldwide does not live up to the car itself : it's rather like a great meal but bad server.

There's no question that in buying a used car like this you have to be able to allocate $5 to $10K for contingencies - relax, mine has cost nothing even close to that but if you do this, you will enjoy the ownership experience more and if you can get a good warranty then it's definitely worth it.

Good luck,

All best,
Steven

[Panther427]

Well I drove the car again today took it down to an Indy shop I trust to look it over and pull any codes. I got a complete list of all the codes that were present. I can post them later. Most were intermittent shorts. A lot were in the HVAC system it seemed.
They found one of the fender liners cracked, underbelly tray is missing, brakes will need replacing in the not to distant future. Also they said all four control arm bushings were worn out.

Now what I found. The driver seat massage doesn't seem to work. At least I couldn't feel it. I couldn't get the head light washers to work. They should have come on with the windshield spray. Is that correct.
Small chip in bumper near a fog light. One of the front chrome trim pieces is cracked. The one below the headlight.
On the same side as that crack I found what appears to be one of the small hair line cracks right below the headlight. Also that headlight is slightly pushed into the fender/wing. And the trap door for the headlight washer nozzle does not close. This leads me to believe the car was in a minor fender bender. Or ran into garage wall. The car fax came up clean though far as accidents. On the car fax it says coil pack(s) replaced. Is this common?
The storage compartment/ cover for battery is broken. Ideas on replacement cost for that and visor. Thoughts and opinions on the car.
Thanks Cori

[Victor R]

Cori,

You are looking at a eight-year old used car and things you found are to be expected to some extent (chips, small cracks).

The coils were replaced as part of a VW recall. No worries.

The biggest ticket item I see are the control arm bushings. That is the one thing my Fidelity VW RealDriver warranty did not cover. (Ironically in light of recent conversations, they blamed it on "driving style"...)

Keep in mind that only about 500 W12's were ever sold in the US. 330 of them were the Premiere editions (2004 black W12's with Sonnenbeige interior). That leaves about 170 non-premiere W12's. You are looking at a rare bird indeed.

Victor

[Wideawakeu2]

Yes headlight spray should come on after you hold the windshield spray for 3 seconds. One headlight will spray first, then the other.

[MichaelGa]

Yes headlight spray should come on after you hold the windshield spray for 3 seconds. One headlight will spray first, then the other.

I am not 100% sure more like 99%. The headlight washers spray only when the headlights are in the on position. Otherwise just the windshield gets sprayed and yes one headlight gets sprayed at a time. I'm pretty sure this is the case with mine. I also have the DRL's off.

Michael

[invisiblewave]

The cracking on the bumper may well not be due to a collision, it's more likely that it was cracked when it was removed to change the serpentine belt (or some other maintenance issue). This would also explain the headlight positioning and the crack in the wheel well liner. When mine was removed to do the belts, they managed to crack it in three places, in the centre under the bonnet where it's bolted on, and that hairline crack on the narrow part under the headlamp. They had difficulty getting it back on, so they removed the headlamp and didn't reposition it correctly, and also cracked the wheel well liner. I had them realign the headlamp, but didn't notice the liner crack until about a month later, and by that time I'd spent nearly 6 months trying to get them to complete the job to my satisfaction, so I decided to live with the crack.

[Panther427]

Just signed papers on the silver beast http://m.cars.com/mcs/projects/cars/...ar=2004&t=used Thanks guys. This car is located in Colorado. The dealer said they had some one call from Canada and got a car fax. Was that anyone on here.
And for anyone interested I found two more P for sale in Colorado that I didn't see up on cars.com. one is a 4 seater. Black wit dark gray. Other is 5 seater half wood silver dark gray

[Panther427]

Thanks for all the info and advice. Car is great. And still has first aid kit, manual, service pen, and flashlight.

[VloJoh]

Pics...!

[EnglishPhaeton]

Thanks for all the info and advice. Car is great. And still has first aid kit and the factory flashlight.

Hi Cori,

Welcome and good luck!

we are a very friendly, mildly eccentric/mad lot here, please update your profile so that we know your location etc etc. It will help you get the correct (and polite) info as and when required. Good to have another member aboard!

Stu

[Victor R]

Welcome, Cori!

Wishing you lots of enjoyment and best of luck on your new ride.

Victor

(Like Stu, also member of Le Club 2P...)

[Roger Moore]

Aloha! and Welcome aboard!

[Panther427]

Pics...!

UMMM ya can someone direct me to the link with the uploading instructions. I dont have an online account to host my own photos i have always just uploaded to other forums.

[Paximus]

Hi Cori,

The Help and FAQs on the forum software aren't very helpful, unlike the sticky FAQs on the Phaeton forum index page itself, which are excellent!

Here's some comments on posting photos. I'm sure you know all this, but I didn't and it's probably helpful to someone.

1 -- To upload pictures to the forum software, well - you can't, the forum owners don't provide us any free hosting. So first get yourself some web space. Your Internet Service Provider might have provided some free space with your connection contract, or else create a free account on some photo sharing site.

2 -- Upload your pic there using the advice on that site. Looking at your photo on that site in your browser, either click the box they provided on that page to copy the url web address of the pic, or else in IE you can right click the photo, click 'properties' and select and copy the (usually long, sometimes multi-line) url to your PCs clipboard. Here's an example:

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSPr0TvNdsiD1FksK0yx5Op6Yy87VkwuarC2HsUrV35_IX0SG00

3 -- In this forum, click the "Reply to Thread" button to get the edit window. If you click the different "Reply" button in a posting it first quotes the whole posting, which isn't always what you want, especially if there are photos in that other posting. At the start of a new line in your new edit window, click the picture framed tree icon and in the pop-up box paste the url of your hosted pic. Click OK. Click the Preview Post button to see how it comes out. You can make any changes required in the edit box below the preview.

4-- Click Submit Reply to post. You have often half a minute or so to click the posting's "edit" icon to make further changes without the system appending the 'Last Edited at...' line, after which time it's started emailing other posters that a reply was added using the old unedited post text.


I hope that helps!

Cheers,
Chris


PS - Bear in mind that if your free hosting account expires or gets frozen, or you change ISP who gives you new blank space, then your posted photos will vanish from the forum. If you intend to take part in the forum for a while with your photos live, it's a good idea to keep copies of the photos on your PC in an accessible folder in case you ever want to rehost them if your free space vanishes, which it does tend to do over time.

PPS - if you can, post JPG format photos because the file sizes are smaller, and choose the appropriate image size so the post isn't swamped. 800 pixels wide is a good (large-ish) choice. The file size increases quickly and download speed slows with larger pictures.

[Panther427]

Well i'm hoping this works for everyone to see. If not please let me know and ill find a different place to host the photo's from. These were shot using my cell phone, but quality seems good enough. I can get higher quality if requested. Its just more work as my Digi camera will require me to manually resize them before hosting or else they will be way to big.

So couple question what is the name of my wheels? Interior color is Anthracite? Any idea of paint colors name.

I did try holding down the washer sprayer arm and magically the headlight washers came out.


Thank you for the warm welcome. This Phaeton FAQ is the best i have ever seen on a car forum. Extremely detailed and full of information.. I swear every time i look at it i see 5 more posts i had not seen before. Its a shame about the photo hosting. Lots of great photos and info have been lost. And for a noob like me that loves to know all the details its a shame. Though i do understand the job of rehosting every photo would well be a full time job.

I did my first bit of mods and work to the car today. First moved things around in the garage so the car would fit with out doors hitting anything.. Then i removed the dealerships "free advertising". They had a small sticker above the tail lamp and one large sticker of there web site on the back window. These photos were takin before i removed the stickers hense no rear shots.

Fixed my little opps with the small swinging door that hides the key hole on the truck badge. I had pushed it completely inside them emblem. Had to get a small pick to pull it back out.
Then got some Dry lube and sprayed the wire loom that goes up into the trunk. Will have to do a better job though and remove the liner and make sure to spray the whole loom and shieth not just the exposed portion.

Also did some exploritory work. Removed the outer covers to gain access to the air filter boxes and get a better look around the car.

[Paximus]

Neat photos, lovely car! I hope you have a lot of satisfaction from it.

Cheers,
Chris

[Victor R]

Cori,

The rims are "Challenge", the most common rims for a W12. The W12's are more demanding on rims because of both weight and torque. The only VW rims recommended for the W12 are Challenge, Performance, Innovation, and Champion. Keep this in mind if you look for any other rims, eg for snow tires.

I believe the color is "Silver Atmosphere". The very early 2004's came in a color called "Silver Mirror", but I don't believe that is what yours is. If you search "2004 vw phaeton paint and exterior colors" on the internet, you'll find some sites with color swatches. (I am unable to give you direct links to those as they are sub-pages that revert to the main page when I try to link them.)

Unfortunately, the section on paint and exterior colors (post No. 6 on the Forum Table of Contents) no longer has pictures - you could request these from Michael (PanEuropean) as per the top "sticky" post on the Phaeton Forum.

And yes, the interior is Anthracite.

Victor

[Victor R]

Also, your interior wood trim is walnut. This was the factory default wood for W12's.

Victor

[Panther427]

Thank you very much Victor

I found this http://automotivetouchup.com/choosec...&model=Phaeton

Just went and looked at the code in the trunk and it is the Silver Mirror Metallic.

Should add this sight or one simular to the New member info FAQ

[Victor R]

Just shows that one can continue to learn. The two different Silver colors for the Phaeton likely accounts for the subtle color difference on the cars at our Philadelphia Phaeton Phans GTG last year. I don't believe that is just the lighting.





Victor

[Panther427]

Wow that is very very subtle differance between the silvers.. You could never tell unless you saw two side by side. And then you could just think it was a difference between batches of colors.

[j3w]

I have the exact same color/wheel/interior combo. With slightly less wood in the interior and 4 less cylinders up front.