General DiscussionMaintenance Log

Getting the beetle running after its many year nap

The beetle I purchased had been sitting for a few years since it was last used. Not a super long time but enough of one were I knew some things would need to be replaced to get it running.


Day 1: The battery was very much dead, ran to store and purchased new one. We saw the fuel lines and fuel filter were degraded and cracked. Parts were ordered to replace those. Engine did turn over easily but wouldn’t idle. Maybe air in the fuel lines due to how bad of a state they were in?

Day 2: Fuel lines and filter replaced. Notice starter continuously keeps trying to start. Starter solenoid is part of the starter so pulled that and order a new one.

Day 3: Starter replaced but has same issue. Must be key ignition. Also noticed battery is out of juice even though its been fully disconnected while not working on the car. Assume its a grounding issue in the ignition switch. Find the 16 amp fuse to be blown. The local NAPA surprisingly had these ancient fuses in stock. When turning the ignition the horn constantly is activated. Definitely grounding issue, likely in steering column ignition. My friend let me know back in 2018 he had a local air cooled vw shop do work on that and reached out to them. They agreed with our assumptions and wanted to look at it. My friend will be towing the car over this week for them to see it.

Day 4: Ignition replaced and that did the trick. Since the part was under warranty, we had the shop handle it. The shop also did an alignment, basic carb rebuild, carb tune and oil change. The beetle is now running and driving, its sitting in its new home in my garage and next step is registering it and transferring the title to me.