Please help. Need advice from people that know vr6 basics

[SeekingVR6 0]

MI'm in limbo, I just went and looked at a 97 Passat VR6 with 126,XXX on clock and there are a couple things I'm just know knowledgeable about that came up. So im hoping you nice people might take a minute and give some input to assist me in this. Thanks for your time and input, it's a HUGE help.

     So I pull up to the owners house and the Passat is running. I take a seat and notice 2 red light. The temp/coolant is blinking, and the trunk light is on. Verified trunk is closed, light stays on, no biggie. Probably something stupid.( I have always heard VW has had issues with electrical problems. Not sure if that's true but anyway). After doing some fast research I go check the coolant reservoir and of course I can't see any coolant in the reservoir. Go to AutoZone and get some G11 and mix with water. It only took about 1 to 1.25qt solution to reach the full line.  Correct me if I'm wrong but the only way you lose coolant is a leak like a radiator or hose, or a head gasket leak. Anyway after topping off coolant I take her for about a 15 minute tester on residential roads. Accelerating seemed ok I guess. I kinda thought VR6 would be a little faster/mean. It was rather quiet and seemed to lack. Coming to a stop seemed good. I even failed to realize an incoming speed bump and it floated over it easily. In any of the civics I have owned it would have been way worse. So im impressed with braking, suspension, clutch seemed pretty good, although the pedal felt a little firm and has a long-range from floor to fully released. And it seemed to engage up near the top of the range. Would like some comparison to others. The idle seemed good and it has a quiet and smooth sound. No ticking or other weird sounds I could notice. The battery he said is probably time for a new one as he admitted to jump starting it and it was a little slow when shutting off and starting again, although it did do it. The battery light was not lighting up, but each time it was shut off with key, when starting again the clock on dash went back to midnight. Also next to clock was "MFA2". Not sure what that means. The stock stereo also had "safe" on display with no music. The interior was clean. I felt the passenger floor and it was dry. I saw while researching the coolant light that it.is good to check pass floor for heater core failure. Now the heater only worked on number 2. If increased to 3 or 4 on dial it just stops. I also checked the engine bay and below and could not not find any leaks. However when on the ground looking for leaks I noticed the exhaust was coming out of muffler with what seemed like excessive steam. It was probably 50 deg f. Maybe just under that at lowest for outside temp. I suspect a head gasket leak but could be wrong. I compared it to the exhaust on my Dodge hemi pickup and saw no steam coming from my truck. It a little bit of a weird odor that wasnt oil to the best.of my basic knowledge. I thought VR6 passats had leather seats but this one had plain cloth material. My main concerns are the coolant being a lil low at first, the steamy exhaust, the MFA2 on.dash as well as clock issue and radio. Could it be something besides the battery? For what I found it did seem to run pretty smooth. It idles right at 600rpm when at operating temp. Which never went above the 200 degree line. Stayed just under that. Is there anything else I should be checking or doing? I have been all Honda up until now this is.really foreign to me but I'm interested. The asking price for this is 1300. However when I told him I was coming with the head gasket and wanted to look into it and hold off buying at the moment he quickly got desperate and asked me to make an offer. All the info I could extract from him the whole time was it was his ex.wifes car. Hadn't been driven in a few months. And the battery was obviously having an issue. And that's it. His English wasnt good and I'm not sure if he truly knows nothing about cars or if he is acting to a degree. Any help at all would be awesome. He did spit out a fast offer of 800 which was tempting it's just that I need a daily not a project right now. Thanks for any input you might have. I'm open to anything you think is necessary to look at tomorrow if I go back or anything at all. I'm new to these engines/cars but want to learn/try a new scene.

[Philly-R6 28]

Head/Coolant - you are right, it should not loose that much fluid, so there is a leak somewhere.

Could be the head gasket - or a cracked head? Try a compression test?

It is also worrying the exhaust "steams" - is coolant weeping into the exhaust port and blown through the exhaust?

 

Battery - Deffo needs replacing. You will need the code for the radio - it may even be written on it!?

 

MFA2 - This is the display for the Multi Function Analyser. There are two counters in the dash for MPG, trip distance, drive time, average speed. MFA2 is cumulative until one of the counters rolls over, then they all reset to zero. The other counter (MFA1) is the same but for the current trip. The switches are on the end of the right hand stalk: a slide switch selects the memory, the end button scrolls through the counters.

 

That particular car might need a lot of attention before it is reliable enough for a daily, but you can decide that!

[SeekingVR6 0]

Thanks for your input. The main concern I had was also to exhaust that seemed to be steamy. It wasn't like a ton, just noticeable. And it did seem to drive around ok. But a little leak can turn into a big leak fast. Especially as this car had been sitting for roughly 6 months until that day I drove it. Always hard on a car to be sitting. Well I passed on it for now even though I know I could pick it up for like 5 or 6 hindered easy. How much or how hard is a head gasket on a vr6? Anyone?