Up to now my daily driver 03 has been relatively inexpensive to maintain. Engine demons have yet to strike, the second RMS is holding, and I do the easy stuff myself: brake pads, flush brakes and clutch, etc.
Of course luck only holds out so long and in the last few weeks everything happened at once. I'm not ********************ing; two problem free years is pretty good.
1. During state inspection the dealer said coolant is a little low and I may have a leak. Not surprising. While flushing the brakes I saw a few drops of coolant clinging to the bottom edge of passenger side front wheel well.
2. The driver side window retracts when pulling the door handle but immediately goes back up again rather than staying down with the door open. Same behavior using either the inner or outer door handles. With the driver's door open the cabin lights goes out so the system thinks the door is closed. The window works fine otherwise, so based on the cabin light observation, I'm inclined to look for a malfunctioning microswitch rather than blame the window regulator. It's just like this report
http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=16191
3. Top squeaks from somewhere behind the seats and is driving me nuts. I pushed and pulled and didn't get any sound from the frame itself but reproduced by pushing near the window. I've yet to figure out exactly where the sound is coming from. It started off only on parking garage ramps but now the car replies to every minute bump or crack in the road with a chorus of squeaks.
4. Pump clicks off prematurely while fueling. Annoying but it may be something I just have to live with.
61k miles and a daily driver. Probably soon it will be time for new rotors and clutch and I see the $$$ growing!
So anyway, I'm trying to decide whether to tackle these myself one at a time or take the car to RUF and have them fix everything at once. One takes less money and a lot of time; the other is a lot less time but probably a lot more money.