Questions and Answers

Volkswagen Passat Concerns Q. Hello, I have a 2000 Volkswagen Passat GLX 4-motion. I've recently had a major work done on my car. Dealer replaced the transmission. The first week after I've got my car back, everything was okay. Then the weather over here got really cold and heavy snow for the next two weeks. When I go to work in the morning, the temperatures were around the single digit.

Anyway, maybe well within the two week cold spell, I noticed a smoke coming off at one end of the front grill when I parked my car, more toward the passenger side. (Yes, it was snowing that morning). It was still dark, so I couldn't see anything. I didn't smell burning oil. (but I don't know.) Ever since that event, I continued driving my car to further figure out what's not working right. I couldn't find anything. I haven't seen any smoke or anything. Only thing that I noticed was that the hot air coming from the front windshield defroster is not that hot anymore.

It's warm, but not hot enough. In the past, I remember myself turning off the defroster because it gets too hot in the car and I remember sweating. Now, the air is kind of cool when it reaches my face with the defroster blasting. The car drives fine. I have the automatic climate control. Am I just imagining this? I don't know.

Just a history. My recent service at the dealer took a month to fix my car. I notice a squealing sound in my car. The dealer checked everything, the engine, transmission, whatever. It took the dealer several days to figure out the program was at the torque converter. I got the feeling that they literally took my car apart. So they replaced the transmission under warranty and also performed a "Replace engine secondary air vacuum line" recall service.

Hope you could help.

A. The puff of smoke could have been some snow or ice splashed up onto the exhaust. Of it could have been a sign of coolant leakage. I would express my concern to the dealer and have them pressure test the cooling system and top it off if there are no leaks. I think it is just an air bubble in the cooling system from the transmission work. But get it checked anyway.