I am heading out to look at a 2008 Norge next week and was looking for advice on what to check out. I had a 4V Norge but that is another story.
The bike has roughly 30k miles and looks pretty good in pictures.
The current owner bought it a year ago and has decided that it isn’t the bike for him. He rides a BMW GS.
He said the saddle bags are a bit warped and there are minor cosmetic blemishes. The windshield is slow to go up and needs some assist.
It is stock other than a mistral muffler which he stated is a little loud and that the exhaust pops on deceleration.
The battery was replaced by him which means it is less than a year old. He also said the PO had the bike maintained by a dealer
That’s pretty much all I know. Any advice would be appreciated.
If you have a decent long ride, you won’t have to look for much, any issues will present themselves.
Unless it’s been totally neglected, it should feel just fine. Make sure your muscle memory is not still in 8V mode, I used to think the difference was minor, but I accept that the 2VPC is not as free revving above 4,000 rpm, there really is a vast difference.
But you won’t have tappet issues and if you get a Beetle map PROPERLY installed, you’ll be utterly amazed.
If you go ahead and get it though, here are a couple of things.
Mine is an ‘07 very close to 200,000 k
The standard things to do are...
Do the startus interruptus mod..(there’s heaps on that here)
The screen motors were a bit weak from the factory, I had mine replaced under warranty but you can get to the mechanism pretty easily and throw some grease around on the worm drive.
Speaking of grease..
Do not delay and pull the drive shaft out and drop the swingarm down. This is to check for grease or lack of in the pivot races and driveshaft splines, MG are notorious for not greasing them at the factory. There is a piddly little “seal” that is supposed to stop water and contaminant ingress into the space and these seals are usually dislodged on assembly, especially the Right hand (rear brake) side. I have remedied that issue.
The case lids are a bit frail and I did this
upload imageit pulls the lid closed properly.
The popping on deceleration can be air leaks around the exhaust joins but also a good TB balance and TPS reset will help enormously.
Beetle’s map for the 2VPC is fabulous, don’t buggerise around with crappy pretenders, just do it.
Check the tappets, change ALL the fluids and go for a long ride.
Ask as many questions as you like.