Shedding properly, 2004 Passat Estate 1.9 TDI
Discussion
I wanted to use what was left of the daylight to remove the sill covers from the car and the wheelarch liners, jet wash it all and have a good look for rust.
A good call, the rear shocks are knackered!
A random shot of the goodies ready to fit stored in the car
Sills covers off as well
Initial inspection, everything is dirty as expected but rust free by and large.
Mud trap but rust free
Bit of crush damage where tyre fitter nobbers have jack it up without care
I jetwashed the underside
More crush damage but not too bad
VW really did used to do a good job of rust proofing and protecting.
That mud trap is now a water trap!
A good call, the rear shocks are knackered!
A random shot of the goodies ready to fit stored in the car
Sills covers off as well
Initial inspection, everything is dirty as expected but rust free by and large.
Mud trap but rust free
Bit of crush damage where tyre fitter nobbers have jack it up without care
I jetwashed the underside
More crush damage but not too bad
VW really did used to do a good job of rust proofing and protecting.
That mud trap is now a water trap!
A good look at the suspension beam. I could have left it as was as it is a substantial lump of steel which would take many many years to rot through but whilst I'm at it...
First job was to jetwash it
And then take some photos of it in all its grubby rusty glory
Part cleaned
Those studs that had sheared off
I had some bolts
So welded them on
And gave the studs that were still present a stronger tack weld
First job was to jetwash it
And then take some photos of it in all its grubby rusty glory
Part cleaned
Those studs that had sheared off
I had some bolts
So welded them on
And gave the studs that were still present a stronger tack weld
Painting time.
I find this extremely therapeutic and would recommend it to anyone. If you are stressed, go to the scrapyard, get some old car bits and paint them, nicely. Better do what I'm doing and paint the bits of your car.
Hubs
Beam hanging ready for paint. Note the MK4 Golf of similar vintage in the background
Not the best shot but 1st coat on the beam
Not the best paint job, a few runs here and there...
Disc shields
Rear caliper carriers, dried to a nice satin finish. Note the Tower of London sign in the background. It is genuine.
Blacking up the lowers. I do this routinely on the car and have no idea why I'm doing this now
Wheelarch liner, clean but not "nice"
Wheelarch liner made "nice"
Hubs dried "nice"
And that brings us bang up to date. The car is currently in bits with various bits of it hanging from the garage ceiling!
I find this extremely therapeutic and would recommend it to anyone. If you are stressed, go to the scrapyard, get some old car bits and paint them, nicely. Better do what I'm doing and paint the bits of your car.
Hubs
Beam hanging ready for paint. Note the MK4 Golf of similar vintage in the background
Not the best shot but 1st coat on the beam
Not the best paint job, a few runs here and there...
Disc shields
Rear caliper carriers, dried to a nice satin finish. Note the Tower of London sign in the background. It is genuine.
Blacking up the lowers. I do this routinely on the car and have no idea why I'm doing this now
Wheelarch liner, clean but not "nice"
Wheelarch liner made "nice"
Hubs dried "nice"
And that brings us bang up to date. The car is currently in bits with various bits of it hanging from the garage ceiling!
hughcam said:
Thanks for the advice! I was lusting after an A6 to replace the Passat but will let that idea go now.
Don't let me put you off an C5 A6.I think the 1.9 TDI is a bit underpowered for it but with a remap that would be sorted. You do have the option on the 2.5 V6 TDI which is nice but woefully unreliable especially as the cars are quite old now. Then of course there are some quite nice petrol engines as well but they'll be thirsty.
LeoZwalf said:
I think you are a little bit crazy but I also really respect what you are doing here 
The repairs and preventative measures you are taking mean this car is going to last you a very long time!
Agreed. The repairs and preventative measures you are taking mean this car is going to last you a very long time! You do have to be a bit bonkers to do this but I look at it in terms of how much a new car would cost me. The equivalent cost of doing all the current phase of work would be only two or three months worth of PCP or lease payments. Time wise there is a rather large investment though!
The following post is more for information for anyone who runs a car with 1.9 PD TDI as fitted to VW, Audi, Seat and Skodas between approx 1999 to 2005.
If you have an early one of these engines it will be fitted with a rather over engineered cambelt tensioner that utilises a temperature sensitive damper on the cambelt tensioner. I think VW developed, designed and fitted this system as a belt and braces effort on the then unknown reliability of cam driven unit injectors.
It works well and is over engineered with one small oversight and that is the idler or delfection pulley is rather small and is the weak link in the setup which means the cambelt change intervals were shorter on earlier cars. This is due to the obvious small bearing(s) in the small idler / deflection pulley.
In about 2002 VW changed the setup to a more conventional set utilising a larger idler / deflection pulley and a normal friction type self adjusting tensioner for the belt itself. The hydraulic damper was omitted.
The earlier type is fine except for two things, one is the shorter belt change interval which I'm convinced is due to the smaller idler and secondly it is a pain to fit and get correctly adjusted. You need to set a 4mm gap between the damper body and a cantilever arm off the tensioner. It really is quite difficult to setup properly.
So recently when I did a belt change on the Wifes 2001 Golf TDI I thought it would be a good time to see if the earlier type could be converted to the later type.
The short answer is, it can be converted, but.....
The long answer is, it can but only once a hole is drilled and tapped to accept a revised location for the ilder fixing stud. There is an existing tapping on the older setup tantalisingly close to where it needs to be but it may as well be a million miles way when you are working with pulleys and timing belts!
For a transverse engined Golf it would mean an engine out job to have the hole drilled and tapped and that would probably be best entrusted to an engineering shop to do it correctly. I thought for about five seconds with visions of me with the Black and Decker drill but that thought quickly dissolved.
On the longditudinal setup on a Passat / A4 / A6 it would be esily done with the engine still in the car but you would have to be an engineering type superhero with some balls to attempt it. I'm not a superhero, not an engineer and certainly don't have the balls to attempt it. Thankfully on my Passat it has the later setup.
Again, more madness in even contemplating this but if anyone never attempted such things, we would never know. Thankfully it, the experiment only cost me £18 for the revised backplate which you will see in the pics below.
Pic below shows the two setups side by side laid out on my bench. You'll have to use your imagination as to where the crank pulley is (at the bottom) and the where the belts runs. Eagle eyed viewers will notice I've highlighted where the 4mm gap that needs to set is and also a red dot. The red dot is where the revised idler stud needs to be.
Another shot of the two setups
And another
Access is tight on the MK4 Golf
And finally, I chose a green dot this time for some reason. This is where the later setup stud needs to be for the idler. Id say it was tantalisingly close. I was hoping it would just be "there" but sadly no, I had to mess about with that painful 4mm gap.
If you have an early one of these engines it will be fitted with a rather over engineered cambelt tensioner that utilises a temperature sensitive damper on the cambelt tensioner. I think VW developed, designed and fitted this system as a belt and braces effort on the then unknown reliability of cam driven unit injectors.
It works well and is over engineered with one small oversight and that is the idler or delfection pulley is rather small and is the weak link in the setup which means the cambelt change intervals were shorter on earlier cars. This is due to the obvious small bearing(s) in the small idler / deflection pulley.
In about 2002 VW changed the setup to a more conventional set utilising a larger idler / deflection pulley and a normal friction type self adjusting tensioner for the belt itself. The hydraulic damper was omitted.
The earlier type is fine except for two things, one is the shorter belt change interval which I'm convinced is due to the smaller idler and secondly it is a pain to fit and get correctly adjusted. You need to set a 4mm gap between the damper body and a cantilever arm off the tensioner. It really is quite difficult to setup properly.
So recently when I did a belt change on the Wifes 2001 Golf TDI I thought it would be a good time to see if the earlier type could be converted to the later type.
The short answer is, it can be converted, but.....
The long answer is, it can but only once a hole is drilled and tapped to accept a revised location for the ilder fixing stud. There is an existing tapping on the older setup tantalisingly close to where it needs to be but it may as well be a million miles way when you are working with pulleys and timing belts!
For a transverse engined Golf it would mean an engine out job to have the hole drilled and tapped and that would probably be best entrusted to an engineering shop to do it correctly. I thought for about five seconds with visions of me with the Black and Decker drill but that thought quickly dissolved.
On the longditudinal setup on a Passat / A4 / A6 it would be esily done with the engine still in the car but you would have to be an engineering type superhero with some balls to attempt it. I'm not a superhero, not an engineer and certainly don't have the balls to attempt it. Thankfully on my Passat it has the later setup.
Again, more madness in even contemplating this but if anyone never attempted such things, we would never know. Thankfully it, the experiment only cost me £18 for the revised backplate which you will see in the pics below.
Pic below shows the two setups side by side laid out on my bench. You'll have to use your imagination as to where the crank pulley is (at the bottom) and the where the belts runs. Eagle eyed viewers will notice I've highlighted where the 4mm gap that needs to set is and also a red dot. The red dot is where the revised idler stud needs to be.
Another shot of the two setups
And another
Access is tight on the MK4 Golf
And finally, I chose a green dot this time for some reason. This is where the later setup stud needs to be for the idler. Id say it was tantalisingly close. I was hoping it would just be "there" but sadly no, I had to mess about with that painful 4mm gap.
bulldong said:
I just sold my one of these. Was f
king great. Swallowed luggage, boats, skis, boxes, Christmas trees, rubbish. 55/60mpg on a run and just brisk enough on the motorway to keep up with stuff in the cruise.
I had a similar issue with water ingress although it wasn't through the pollen filter it was the drain beneath the battery that was blocked. I made a video of how to fix it if you need it.
I know, they are not the fastest but not exactly slow and will cruise effortlessly at high speed and in comfort. They re-map cheaply and safely up to about 165hp will lots more torque, strangely it is something I've not as yet. They are the best kept barge secret and if looked after the 1.9 PD engines will do massive mileages as evidenced by problemchild1976's pic further up, that one is pushing 260k !king great. Swallowed luggage, boats, skis, boxes, Christmas trees, rubbish. 55/60mpg on a run and just brisk enough on the motorway to keep up with stuff in the cruise.I had a similar issue with water ingress although it wasn't through the pollen filter it was the drain beneath the battery that was blocked. I made a video of how to fix it if you need it.
Edited by colin_p on Tuesday 1st March 15:59
Working from home!
During my "lunch" I tackled the slightly bubbling rear brake lines.
Note that this is a temporary measure and I'll tackle the brakes once the suspension is back in place. I also noticed the rear flexi hoses had a few surface cracks in them. Good enough for the forthcoming MOT but not for me. To undo the flexies it means splitting the joint between them and the main front to rear hard lines. From bitter experience I know that these won't split or undo without ruining the main front to rear brake pipes / hard lines. So the that whole job is on the list sometime soon but not immediately.
It is still good enough (hopefully) to pass its forthcoming MOT but I'd not be happy with them as they are.
So a temporary fix was to remove the plastic bubbled coating, scrape and sand the corrosion away and then paint the exposed lines. Sounds like a lot but this only on the short hard lines that clip to the beam. The corrosion ironically was where the green clips are. These particular pipes are £18 each new but as stated above I don't want to disturb the hydraulic circuits just yet.
When doing work like this, things do escalate and unplanned works do creep in. I'll now leave the new rear calipers and drain down the and bleed the system once.
Anyway, I did of course take some photos, saying that, the camera really struggled to focus on the thin pipes so some are a bit blurred.
Bubbly
Part cleaned, notice the white corrosion, these lines are aluminium it seems unless there is some ali in the plastic coating
Prepped
And painted, I'll give these at least three coats as the brake hydraulics side project may not follow immediately.
During my "lunch" or was it the teabreak? I also popped down to VW and picked up £64 worth of bolts !
It was the big beam pivot bolts that cost most, almost a Kings ransom on their own! And good job I counted them as there were only nine of the hub bolts, one short.
During my "lunch" I tackled the slightly bubbling rear brake lines.
Note that this is a temporary measure and I'll tackle the brakes once the suspension is back in place. I also noticed the rear flexi hoses had a few surface cracks in them. Good enough for the forthcoming MOT but not for me. To undo the flexies it means splitting the joint between them and the main front to rear hard lines. From bitter experience I know that these won't split or undo without ruining the main front to rear brake pipes / hard lines. So the that whole job is on the list sometime soon but not immediately.
It is still good enough (hopefully) to pass its forthcoming MOT but I'd not be happy with them as they are.
So a temporary fix was to remove the plastic bubbled coating, scrape and sand the corrosion away and then paint the exposed lines. Sounds like a lot but this only on the short hard lines that clip to the beam. The corrosion ironically was where the green clips are. These particular pipes are £18 each new but as stated above I don't want to disturb the hydraulic circuits just yet.
When doing work like this, things do escalate and unplanned works do creep in. I'll now leave the new rear calipers and drain down the and bleed the system once.
Anyway, I did of course take some photos, saying that, the camera really struggled to focus on the thin pipes so some are a bit blurred.
Bubbly
Part cleaned, notice the white corrosion, these lines are aluminium it seems unless there is some ali in the plastic coating
Prepped
And painted, I'll give these at least three coats as the brake hydraulics side project may not follow immediately.
During my "lunch" or was it the teabreak? I also popped down to VW and picked up £64 worth of bolts !
It was the big beam pivot bolts that cost most, almost a Kings ransom on their own! And good job I counted them as there were only nine of the hub bolts, one short.
258k and 340k, mine at 140k is barely run in then.
It is also strange that of all the "special guest appearance / stars" cars in this thread including mine have all been Reflex Silver and all have been estates.
As for getting rid of mine, obviously with all this work done, I plan to keep it for a while longer. At my current annual mileage though it would take me over ten years to 258k and pushing twenty years to get to 340k. I don't know if I'll keep it that long.
These Passats really are the King of Sheds and as I'm sure I've mentioned in TDI guise mini smoker barges as well. The 2.5 V6 TDI's are proper smoker barges though but sadly they are not reliable.
It is also strange that of all the "special guest appearance / stars" cars in this thread including mine have all been Reflex Silver and all have been estates.
As for getting rid of mine, obviously with all this work done, I plan to keep it for a while longer. At my current annual mileage though it would take me over ten years to 258k and pushing twenty years to get to 340k. I don't know if I'll keep it that long.
These Passats really are the King of Sheds and as I'm sure I've mentioned in TDI guise mini smoker barges as well. The 2.5 V6 TDI's are proper smoker barges though but sadly they are not reliable.
Another estate but a blue one, or is it green?
That is a B5 whereas mine and the others are B5.5's
Is it a 1.8 non turbo? If so not far off the turbo'd 1.8's with 125hp vs 150hp. And if it is non turbo'd it won't suffer from the oil pickup and turbo oil sludging problem.
Nice car, I'd like a B5 with the older 110hp AFN TDI engine, they put modern stuff to shame with their very frugal appetite for fuel.
That is a B5 whereas mine and the others are B5.5's
Is it a 1.8 non turbo? If so not far off the turbo'd 1.8's with 125hp vs 150hp. And if it is non turbo'd it won't suffer from the oil pickup and turbo oil sludging problem.
Nice car, I'd like a B5 with the older 110hp AFN TDI engine, they put modern stuff to shame with their very frugal appetite for fuel.
You know I said there was no rust...
Well, I had a very very good look and found some. Very minor superficial surface rust but I found some. So, I whizzed it off and touched it up.
Can you see it? Clue I've removed the wheelarch liner clips
Same again but whizzed off ready for paint
Some here, whizzed off ready for paint
Just a tad on a spot weld, in fact there were a few like this.
At the moment I'm waiting for a few bits and bobs to arrive before re-fitting the beam and building things up. I also had a think and decided to go for it on the brakes, I've ordered new flexis, hoses and a roll of kunifer to make up new front to main lines if things go wrong.
I think this is now firmly out of shedding and into restoration territory. Shedding requires that NO money is spent on a shed.
This evening I also spent five minutes fitting the bush cassettes and the green clips back onto the beam.
Well, I had a very very good look and found some. Very minor superficial surface rust but I found some. So, I whizzed it off and touched it up.
Can you see it? Clue I've removed the wheelarch liner clips
Same again but whizzed off ready for paint
Some here, whizzed off ready for paint
Just a tad on a spot weld, in fact there were a few like this.
At the moment I'm waiting for a few bits and bobs to arrive before re-fitting the beam and building things up. I also had a think and decided to go for it on the brakes, I've ordered new flexis, hoses and a roll of kunifer to make up new front to main lines if things go wrong.
I think this is now firmly out of shedding and into restoration territory. Shedding requires that NO money is spent on a shed.
This evening I also spent five minutes fitting the bush cassettes and the green clips back onto the beam.
Some will be bored to death of this and some will understand.
Another busy evening.
I got the beam back onto the car with the assistance of my 15 year old son. It would have taken me much longer to do on my own. The bits and bobs I was waiting for turned so it meant I could get things done. I've ended up getting one side 3.4's built up on the beam and then decided I'd had enough. I didn't take any photos of the build up but will when I do the other side.
A load of nice new shiny and rust free trim screws turned up. These are the T25 torx ones that fix many many things to the car, I got 50 delivered for not much. Funnily enough they arrived just as I was putting the arch liner back in so some of the pics below are with the me using the old screws as a temporary measure.
Scabby old vs shiny new. It is the small things.
Oh no... There is run in the paint! This is an example of where I splodged it on on the bits where there was rust!
This tin of waxoyl must be 20 years old. I looked all over the tin and couldn't see a www dot anywhere on it. The irony is the tin is a bit rusty, maybe I should waxoyl it?
Dabs of waxoyl on the arch where the liner tightly fits against it. It'll also help the mounting screw holder holes to not go rusty like the two I had to deal with in a previous post.
Arch liner on
A bit more dabbaging of waxoyl on the shock top mount.
Shock on
The spring cups turned up each in there own nice red box.
The old uppers were possibly re-usable but the lowers were quite knarled up. As I'm going this far, I though whats another £27 or so....
A pointless shot of old and new
Shiny screws
Cleaned up the carrier sliders. They were actually perfectly good from five years ago when I last changed the discs and pads. All I had to do was clean and re-grease
Greasing anything on the brakes should be done with ceramic grease. NEVER use copper grease.
Trial fit of pad in carrier, I wanted to know if the paint had caused clearance issues. It hadn't
So, beam on !
One side 3/4's done before I gave up.
More completely mind numbing updates tomorrow.
Another busy evening.
I got the beam back onto the car with the assistance of my 15 year old son. It would have taken me much longer to do on my own. The bits and bobs I was waiting for turned so it meant I could get things done. I've ended up getting one side 3.4's built up on the beam and then decided I'd had enough. I didn't take any photos of the build up but will when I do the other side.
A load of nice new shiny and rust free trim screws turned up. These are the T25 torx ones that fix many many things to the car, I got 50 delivered for not much. Funnily enough they arrived just as I was putting the arch liner back in so some of the pics below are with the me using the old screws as a temporary measure.
Scabby old vs shiny new. It is the small things.
Oh no... There is run in the paint! This is an example of where I splodged it on on the bits where there was rust!
This tin of waxoyl must be 20 years old. I looked all over the tin and couldn't see a www dot anywhere on it. The irony is the tin is a bit rusty, maybe I should waxoyl it?
Dabs of waxoyl on the arch where the liner tightly fits against it. It'll also help the mounting screw holder holes to not go rusty like the two I had to deal with in a previous post.
Arch liner on
A bit more dabbaging of waxoyl on the shock top mount.
Shock on
The spring cups turned up each in there own nice red box.
The old uppers were possibly re-usable but the lowers were quite knarled up. As I'm going this far, I though whats another £27 or so....
A pointless shot of old and new
Shiny screws
Cleaned up the carrier sliders. They were actually perfectly good from five years ago when I last changed the discs and pads. All I had to do was clean and re-grease
Greasing anything on the brakes should be done with ceramic grease. NEVER use copper grease.
Trial fit of pad in carrier, I wanted to know if the paint had caused clearance issues. It hadn't
So, beam on !
One side 3/4's done before I gave up.
More completely mind numbing updates tomorrow.
Edited by colin_p on Thursday 3rd March 22:17
big dub said:
Nice to see some love being shown to a Passat!
I do miss my old estate, it was a great work horse.
My current saloon is up to 111k miles now, bought it with 54k. It's been a brilliant car, it's regularly serviced and hasn't let me down. It's a 1.9 TDI 130 highline with a revo map to 170bhp
IMG_1356 by Rob Joyce, on Flickr
That is nice, is it on bags?I do miss my old estate, it was a great work horse.
My current saloon is up to 111k miles now, bought it with 54k. It's been a brilliant car, it's regularly serviced and hasn't let me down. It's a 1.9 TDI 130 highline with a revo map to 170bhp
IMG_1356 by Rob Joyce, on FlickrEdited by big dub on Thursday 3rd March 22:04
I also like the side markers which I'd like for mine but they really do cost a fortune. Are you in the UK?
A jolly good session has been had. The rear end is now complete. I've still yet to do the brake hydraulics but as I've mentioned that will be a separate project from the suspension.
As I mentioned in the previous update post, I 75% finished one side last night after getting the beam back on the car with the help of my 15 year old son. This afternoon I finished the 25% of work on the side I'd started last night and then proceeded to build up and finsh the other (drivers side). Whilst doing the driver side I took some pictures...
Passenger side done (except for the brake hydraulics)
Which me the drivers side to do. This is as it was after fitting the beam last night. All I've done is tie the brake caliper back up out the way.
You will note the marks on the paint. This is where I'd 'levelled it off' in truth removing a run with a wood chisel. The hub needs to fit a flat surface.
A bit of dabbage of waxoyl on the mating faces
Hub on
Brake caliper carrier bracket going on
All tightened and torqued up
New nuts and washers on the handbrake cable brackets
Caliper piston wound back in although the picture below gives no clue
Those cheese haeded bolts that were crusty rusty, I didn't want these nice new one going the same way, so I painted them!
And I painted the new nuts on the handbrake cable
Disc on, a nice feature on the rears is that you do not have to remove the carrier bracket to remove and fit the disc
Diego. He is the research and development bloke at Brembo and such is his importance there is a pictore of him on the brake pad box. I wonder what he drives? I bet he has got an old Alpha and goes for long boozy lunches at various pavement cafes and that is where he gets his ideas from.
When fitting pads, a blob of ceratech grease needs to go on the pads end ears. I'm hoping the built in squeal shims will do their job and hence have not applied any to the backs of the pads.
Pads mounted
Old caliper back on for now
Job done. All that hard work will never be seen except by me and the MOT man. But whenever I drive the car, I will know and be safe in the knowledge that the car is "sorted".
As I mentioned in the previous update post, I 75% finished one side last night after getting the beam back on the car with the help of my 15 year old son. This afternoon I finished the 25% of work on the side I'd started last night and then proceeded to build up and finsh the other (drivers side). Whilst doing the driver side I took some pictures...
Passenger side done (except for the brake hydraulics)
Which me the drivers side to do. This is as it was after fitting the beam last night. All I've done is tie the brake caliper back up out the way.
You will note the marks on the paint. This is where I'd 'levelled it off' in truth removing a run with a wood chisel. The hub needs to fit a flat surface.
A bit of dabbage of waxoyl on the mating faces
Hub on
Brake caliper carrier bracket going on
All tightened and torqued up
New nuts and washers on the handbrake cable brackets
Caliper piston wound back in although the picture below gives no clue
Those cheese haeded bolts that were crusty rusty, I didn't want these nice new one going the same way, so I painted them!
And I painted the new nuts on the handbrake cable
Disc on, a nice feature on the rears is that you do not have to remove the carrier bracket to remove and fit the disc
Diego. He is the research and development bloke at Brembo and such is his importance there is a pictore of him on the brake pad box. I wonder what he drives? I bet he has got an old Alpha and goes for long boozy lunches at various pavement cafes and that is where he gets his ideas from.
When fitting pads, a blob of ceratech grease needs to go on the pads end ears. I'm hoping the built in squeal shims will do their job and hence have not applied any to the backs of the pads.
Pads mounted
Old caliper back on for now
Job done. All that hard work will never be seen except by me and the MOT man. But whenever I drive the car, I will know and be safe in the knowledge that the car is "sorted".
A slow day, lots of time spent but seemingly with nothing happening.
Saying that, I did spend a fair bit of time tidying up as things were a right mess with tools everywhere. I hate that and when in that state you can spend, I do anyway, more time looking for tools than actually using the damned things. You put one down and then five seconds later you cannot find it. So I tidied up.
Then I commenced the front end. Jacked it up, axle stands and wheels off. Then wheels back on and down off the axle stands as I'd forgotten to undo the CV joint nuts. And back up it went.
I started to tackle the passenger side first. I've previously had issues with the lower arm balljoints releasing from knuckle so have left them as were / is. I released the uppers though with the infamous pinchbolt coming out easily as expected, it has only been a year since I last replaced it. What was surprising though was the complete absence of any copper grease which I liberally coated it with.
Upper arms released, lower shock mount bolt undone, the three top mount / upper arm carrier plate bolts undone and them I wriggled the strut assembly complete out from the car. Nice.
I swapped the strut over for the new one and refitted it back on the car, no drama. When I do the drovers side I'll take some pics.
I then whipped the complete drveshaft off the car for the CV joint swap on the bench, a much nicer place to do it. With the shaft on the bench, I cut the boot off and gave the joint a tap with the lump hammer and off the joint popped.
Cleaned and inspected the splines, all good.
Old joint. I shall carry out a clean up and inspection of it when I've finished doing the car, more out of curiosity than anything.
New boot on and then a trial fit of the new joint, just to make sure...
Greased it up, the full sachet supplied with the joint and fitted it. Then fitted the clip. A pair of pliers like this are essential for this job.
Cleaned up and carefully inspected the inner joint boot. It is like new with no signs of wear at all. Not bad for something that old.
A random shot of the dirty disc shield.
Back onto the car. This era of VW and Audi's are prone to the front wings going rusty. Starting from here and also where a lump of foam in close proximity remains wet. Mine was / is spotless.
Same here, no rust at all
Edge of the bit of foam on the left, again spotless and rust free.
Subframe alignment holes for reference. I'm not dropping the subframe this time as I don't have an engine crane any more. You need to support the engine to remove the subframe. What I will though is touch up the subframe on the exposed bits facing the wheelarch.
A tiny bit of surface rot on the subframe. Not the best pic but this type of rot leads to bad things and maybe in another 20 years it could cause an MOT failure!
On a Ford of this era, a seam / joint like this would be rusty, this is as clean as a whistle, no sign of rust at all.
Same here, no sign of rust and testament to the VW build quality. Very pleased to see nothing in these areas. I do know that there is a bit on the drivers side but that may be due to a bad accident repair earlier in the cars life.
And that is it for today, I really couldn't be arsed to do anymore.
Saying that, I did spend a fair bit of time tidying up as things were a right mess with tools everywhere. I hate that and when in that state you can spend, I do anyway, more time looking for tools than actually using the damned things. You put one down and then five seconds later you cannot find it. So I tidied up.
Then I commenced the front end. Jacked it up, axle stands and wheels off. Then wheels back on and down off the axle stands as I'd forgotten to undo the CV joint nuts. And back up it went.
I started to tackle the passenger side first. I've previously had issues with the lower arm balljoints releasing from knuckle so have left them as were / is. I released the uppers though with the infamous pinchbolt coming out easily as expected, it has only been a year since I last replaced it. What was surprising though was the complete absence of any copper grease which I liberally coated it with.
Upper arms released, lower shock mount bolt undone, the three top mount / upper arm carrier plate bolts undone and them I wriggled the strut assembly complete out from the car. Nice.
I swapped the strut over for the new one and refitted it back on the car, no drama. When I do the drovers side I'll take some pics.
I then whipped the complete drveshaft off the car for the CV joint swap on the bench, a much nicer place to do it. With the shaft on the bench, I cut the boot off and gave the joint a tap with the lump hammer and off the joint popped.
Cleaned and inspected the splines, all good.
Old joint. I shall carry out a clean up and inspection of it when I've finished doing the car, more out of curiosity than anything.
New boot on and then a trial fit of the new joint, just to make sure...
Greased it up, the full sachet supplied with the joint and fitted it. Then fitted the clip. A pair of pliers like this are essential for this job.
Cleaned up and carefully inspected the inner joint boot. It is like new with no signs of wear at all. Not bad for something that old.
A random shot of the dirty disc shield.
Back onto the car. This era of VW and Audi's are prone to the front wings going rusty. Starting from here and also where a lump of foam in close proximity remains wet. Mine was / is spotless.
Same here, no rust at all
Edge of the bit of foam on the left, again spotless and rust free.
Subframe alignment holes for reference. I'm not dropping the subframe this time as I don't have an engine crane any more. You need to support the engine to remove the subframe. What I will though is touch up the subframe on the exposed bits facing the wheelarch.
A tiny bit of surface rot on the subframe. Not the best pic but this type of rot leads to bad things and maybe in another 20 years it could cause an MOT failure!
On a Ford of this era, a seam / joint like this would be rusty, this is as clean as a whistle, no sign of rust at all.
Same here, no sign of rust and testament to the VW build quality. Very pleased to see nothing in these areas. I do know that there is a bit on the drivers side but that may be due to a bad accident repair earlier in the cars life.
And that is it for today, I really couldn't be arsed to do anymore.
S0 What said:
Nope i use axle stands and ramps, not fun but easyer than the normal FWD as you can use a trolly jack to support and move the box 
just watchout for the gear linkadge support rod bolt! (it's longer than the doctors dong in deep throat) 
This one i removed the engine, as i was doing the timing belt so the front has to come forward by a few inches and fully removing it was like an extra 10 mins work, there is a LOT of wiring and pipes to do however i wouldn't do it this way just for a clutch
The bottom B/H bolts are a PITA tucked up close to the Xmember and many of the bolts are 1/8th of a turn at a time to undo so i have cut down spanners especialy for this sort of issue, going back in lube them well and you can wind them 95% of the way with fingers only
£1500 was a hell of a bill but the car was worth it (full dealer SH), for that money he'd get a similar car with unknown issues and all the main scarey ones were delt with in 1 go on this.
The one problem is even after all that work (clutch appart) the car felt no better, even with many worn parts it felt tight and like a car with 150K less on the odo but it's future proofed and ready for another 100K + with no scarey big bills to come (well hopefully) lol
Thanks for that. I've had the front off completely, swinging the A/C rad to one side when I last did the cambelt, like you say it is only another ten minutes work and makes access to belts much easier. It also makes replacing the coolant radiator much easier as well. The coolant rad and the electric aux being another common failure on these as they age. The rad weeps coolant at the lower corners and the brushes wear out on the fan motor, which is always running when the A/C is on which it always is on my car. just watchout for the gear linkadge support rod bolt! (it's longer than the doctors dong in deep throat) This one i removed the engine, as i was doing the timing belt so the front has to come forward by a few inches and fully removing it was like an extra 10 mins work, there is a LOT of wiring and pipes to do however i wouldn't do it this way just for a clutch
The bottom B/H bolts are a PITA tucked up close to the Xmember and many of the bolts are 1/8th of a turn at a time to undo so i have cut down spanners especialy for this sort of issue, going back in lube them well and you can wind them 95% of the way with fingers only
£1500 was a hell of a bill but the car was worth it (full dealer SH), for that money he'd get a similar car with unknown issues and all the main scarey ones were delt with in 1 go on this.
The one problem is even after all that work (clutch appart) the car felt no better, even with many worn parts it felt tight and like a car with 150K less on the odo but it's future proofed and ready for another 100K + with no scarey big bills to come (well hopefully) lol
So apart from needing acquire an engine crane, it does look like the engine out way for me is preferable for a clutch change. I'm in no hurry on the clutch as it doesn't slip all the time, I just get the occasional slight bit of slip.
matt21 said:
Mine continues to chug away. 54 plate Highline 184k. It's great.
And long may it continue, by and large these cars seem to go on and on and on...JakeT said:
Spent some time in an '03 model with the 130bhp unit. While not a great handler it was very much at home on motorways and dual carriageways. That also explains how the front wings were rusty on the one I was in!
Yes, they are great at wafting along, not full on luxo barges but very close and cheaper and less of a gamble for replacement parts made out of un-obtainium.samj2014 said:
This is ace, not the most 'PH' of cars, but I think it's great that you have so much passion for the car (that's why we're all here, right?) and meticulous attention to detail. That thing looks spotless! I wish I had the time, skills and knowledge to maintain mine to such a high level.
As I've mentioned I should really be in something newer, either take a company car of jump on the the lease / pcp wagon but there is no fun in that. With all this work I'm doing, i'll be safe in the knowledge that I shouldn't receive any nasty surprises and big bills which normally would be at the back of your mind if you run a shed type car.I've already had it almost five years and plan to keep it at least another five. It was all bought and paid for years ago. To put it in context, the cost of all this work to me is just parts and although quite a bit on such a car is still less than say two months of pcp / lease payments.
Madril said:
Great topic OP.
Have you touched the EGR yet?
Yes and no.Have you touched the EGR yet?
I had the EGR off once soon after I got the car to clean it but with it being to Euro 4 emission standards an EGR delete brings on the engine management light. The first one of these I had was exactly the same but was Euro 3 and on that I simply pulled the vac line off the egr and plugged it.
What I have done though is dial down the EGR duty cycle using VCDS / Vagcom to the lowest setting. I had to look up this procedure online and cannot remember how but it was easily done. I would really like to to do away with it completely but that will require it being 'mapped' out. Strangely I've resisted having a re-map and have no plans to get one.
Edited by colin_p on Sunday 6th March 12:42
Another non day.
I got the bumper and part of the front end off as well as the front wings and gave it all a good jet wash and scrub clean So I could inspect things. My suspicion always was that the car had early in its life been involved in a dink to the front drivers side, those suspicions were confirmed when the wing came off, it was / is a replacement.
Having carefully inspected everything for rust, all is good except for some very minor bits here and there which will be easy to deal with. One bonus is there was a bit where I was sure it was a bit rotty but for the time being it seems now that the dirt is out the way it just some runs in the paint.
Font end off
Dirty but rust free
Mud trapped by the poofa block type thing
Removing the big foam rubber poofa block type thing.
A poofa block !
The poofa block stops crud collecting here at the wing base but not all. No rust though in what is a mud trap
You can see the depth of wax applied from the factory, good work VW
Suspicion / exibit Nr1; overspray on the cable gaitor
exibit Nr2; paint off the wing bolt
Wing off
And the other wing off
Initial inspection, just dirty
Hinge and bracket! I can clean these now which is very difficult otherwise
Wings. the factory fitted one is silver, the replacement on is black.
Very clean and totally rust free although I've to carefully inspect these
Another poofa block of foam. This one is bad as it is the primary cause of wings rusting on this vintage of VW / Audi cars. I'm not sure if it is going to remain or if I'll remove it. It is the bit that touches the lip / edge of the arched bit. It obviously chaffs and and stays wet and lets rust get a hold. I've no idea why this car seems to be un-effected by the issue. I was at least expecting to see the start of some rot, but as said I've yet to take a close look.
The other side of the mud trap
Wings on the garden seat cushions. The Wife will be pleased just as she will be when she finds outs about me using all of her cotton buds I used earlier to clean the brake slider brackets!
A quick look after jet washing.
Spot welds again as were a few on the back showing some light surface rust. I wonder why they are susceptible?
A tiny bit of rust but above the paint runs which I thought were rust. The black stuff is factory applied rustproofing wax and nothing to worry about.
And just another tiny bit of surface rust. Likely to be as a result of low standards in the repair done years before when the wing was replaced.
I got the bumper and part of the front end off as well as the front wings and gave it all a good jet wash and scrub clean So I could inspect things. My suspicion always was that the car had early in its life been involved in a dink to the front drivers side, those suspicions were confirmed when the wing came off, it was / is a replacement.
Having carefully inspected everything for rust, all is good except for some very minor bits here and there which will be easy to deal with. One bonus is there was a bit where I was sure it was a bit rotty but for the time being it seems now that the dirt is out the way it just some runs in the paint.
Font end off
Dirty but rust free
Mud trapped by the poofa block type thing
Removing the big foam rubber poofa block type thing.
A poofa block !
The poofa block stops crud collecting here at the wing base but not all. No rust though in what is a mud trap
You can see the depth of wax applied from the factory, good work VW
Suspicion / exibit Nr1; overspray on the cable gaitor
exibit Nr2; paint off the wing bolt
Wing off
And the other wing off
Initial inspection, just dirty
Hinge and bracket! I can clean these now which is very difficult otherwise
Wings. the factory fitted one is silver, the replacement on is black.
Very clean and totally rust free although I've to carefully inspect these
Another poofa block of foam. This one is bad as it is the primary cause of wings rusting on this vintage of VW / Audi cars. I'm not sure if it is going to remain or if I'll remove it. It is the bit that touches the lip / edge of the arched bit. It obviously chaffs and and stays wet and lets rust get a hold. I've no idea why this car seems to be un-effected by the issue. I was at least expecting to see the start of some rot, but as said I've yet to take a close look.
The other side of the mud trap
Wings on the garden seat cushions. The Wife will be pleased just as she will be when she finds outs about me using all of her cotton buds I used earlier to clean the brake slider brackets!
A quick look after jet washing.
Spot welds again as were a few on the back showing some light surface rust. I wonder why they are susceptible?
A tiny bit of rust but above the paint runs which I thought were rust. The black stuff is factory applied rustproofing wax and nothing to worry about.
And just another tiny bit of surface rust. Likely to be as a result of low standards in the repair done years before when the wing was replaced.
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