Mk4 Golf diesel machine
Discussion
colin_p said:
Nowt wrong with a MK1 Focus. Getting rare now due to rot, something a similarly aged MK4 doesn't suffer from except the superfical stuff on the front wings.
It's a good car. The steering and suspension are far better than the Golf, but the driving position is too high. Golf wins hands down on driving position and has more comfortable seats too. I'm having fun with a revvy petrol 
200Plus Club said:
Thanks! This is my freebie car as the wife was given it foc and it's a 175k miler lol.
I need to get under and see what's going on as it might not be worth spending monies on tbh.
Front windows both not working and plastic shims holding the glass up with advisory not to use email lol!
All those bits are pretty cheap to do, so it might well be worth spending a few hundred quid getting it right and it should carry on being cheap and reliable. Hopefully!I need to get under and see what's going on as it might not be worth spending monies on tbh.
Front windows both not working and plastic shims holding the glass up with advisory not to use email lol!
Time to get the spanners out! The Mk1 Focus I borrowed has been doing a brilliant job of running me to work but I want my own car back really 
Firstly, on the advice of Mr Colin up there ^, I checked the synchro angle:
Ok, looking good. It was flicking between 0.0 and 0.6 so the mechanical timing seems pretty much bang on at the moment. I found some scribbled numbers on the top of the timing belt cover too but they mean nothing to me
Top cover off and you're presented with this. Those three bolts are the timing adjustment so I wanted to note where they are now before I start dismantling everything:
Time to get under the car and remove the big rubber bung that hides the aux pulley bolts. While I was there, I noticed the clip on the CV boot I replaced has gone AWOL and there was a load of grease hanging about the place
The arch liner took a pasting too!
I'll have to get a CV clip/cable tie on there, but that's not very important right now! Here's the aux pulley with rubber insert removed:
Before I start removing stuff, just a note of which way the aux belt goes around:
Here's a pic of the timing tools I'm going to use too. Only a cheap Ebay set but they seem to do the trick:
Aux belt slipped off the pulleys. Looks in pretty good condition so I won't be changing that:
Guess how tight the aux pulley bolts were? REALLY tight. Two came off with a small fight and the other two rounded. Good thing I've got rounded nut removers:
These things really are the business. I hammered it on and just undid the bolt like there was never an issue. If you need a set then these are what I'm using:
Aux pulley removed and lower timing belt cover also taken off. Hmm, there's a b
d great engine mount in the way of taking the timing belt off. That'll be fun to remove... 
I'll worry about that later... Back up top, I took the cam cover off and started to get busy on something else:
Removing the injector rocker arms:
Laid out in a box that was handily delivered the other day. 1 & 2 at the top. 3 & 4 at the bottom. Just so I don't forget!
Here's the head without the rockers:
I turned the cam a bit and you can see the real reason I'm having problems clearly now. Apart from the chunk taken out of No.1 injector lobe, No.1 valve lobe is really not very pointy any more...
Yay, that's definitely the problem then! Next up, the engine mount needs to come out of the way. That means the expansion tank needs to come out. And the power steering reservoir... Deep joy
That was relatively straightforward to do. Now the hard part. Getting that massive lump of engine mount off the side of the engine. This proved to be a massive pain. More fiddly than anything else. I got it loose from the engine but there was just not enough room to actually remove it from the engine bay. So I left it there for the time being and worked around it:
Timing belt off! You can't quite tell from the pics but it was just starting to crack and looked definitely past its best. My history file says it was changed in 2013 and this seems spot on looking at the belt. It had a 2013 date on it too:
Here's where we're at now:
Slipping the tensioner off the stud with the engine mount in the way was amusing... Uh oh, that's a damper for the tensioner, which means I bought the wrong timing belt kit.
I'll worry about that later. Time to remove the outer pulley from the cam and then the inner pulley that the outer one bolts to with those three timing bolts I was on about earlier. The main bolt is done up at 100nm so fairly tight. You can see the special tool connected to my breaker bar so I can counter hold while undoing the bolt :
Another special tool to pull the inner pulley from the end of the cam. Luckily my 32mm viscous fan spanner did the trick for counter holding as I didn't have a proper spanner big enough!
That pinged off after some persuasion, leaving me with this:
I removed the cam and cleaned it up:
Looks pretty dead doesn't it! Still, it'll make a nice garage ornament
Spot the problem with tappet No.1:
And the rest of the tappets with no cam in the way:
I cleaned up the loose oil a bit so I could check how everything looked. Here's a close up of cyl 1 & 2. Note the wear on the cam bearings!
And cyl 3 & 4:
Then I decided that the engine mount really did need to be out of the way because I wanted to remove the damper for the timing belt tensioner. After quite a large amount of persuasion I managed to align everything just so and squeezed it out past the brake fluid reservoir. Which I thought I'd broken at one point, that's how tight it was!
Offending engine mount:
Cam caps neatly stored in correct order:
Cap No.4 bearing had taken a beating, look at the scoring:
My garage is full of Escort RS Turbo shell, engine and various other parts so everything from this car went in the boot:
And that brings us up to date. Luckily I'm off work tomorrow and Tuesday because I need to buy the correct timing belt, 8 x stretch bolts for the injector rocker arms and a new set of aux pulley bolts. Oh and some fresh oil and a filter as I'd forgotten to buy those last week when I was shopping for bits!
Stay tuned for 'shiny new bits being put in to engine' pictures!
Firstly, on the advice of Mr Colin up there ^, I checked the synchro angle:
Ok, looking good. It was flicking between 0.0 and 0.6 so the mechanical timing seems pretty much bang on at the moment. I found some scribbled numbers on the top of the timing belt cover too but they mean nothing to me
Top cover off and you're presented with this. Those three bolts are the timing adjustment so I wanted to note where they are now before I start dismantling everything:
Time to get under the car and remove the big rubber bung that hides the aux pulley bolts. While I was there, I noticed the clip on the CV boot I replaced has gone AWOL and there was a load of grease hanging about the place
The arch liner took a pasting too!
I'll have to get a CV clip/cable tie on there, but that's not very important right now! Here's the aux pulley with rubber insert removed:
Before I start removing stuff, just a note of which way the aux belt goes around:
Here's a pic of the timing tools I'm going to use too. Only a cheap Ebay set but they seem to do the trick:
Aux belt slipped off the pulleys. Looks in pretty good condition so I won't be changing that:
Guess how tight the aux pulley bolts were? REALLY tight. Two came off with a small fight and the other two rounded. Good thing I've got rounded nut removers:
These things really are the business. I hammered it on and just undid the bolt like there was never an issue. If you need a set then these are what I'm using:
Aux pulley removed and lower timing belt cover also taken off. Hmm, there's a b
d great engine mount in the way of taking the timing belt off. That'll be fun to remove... I'll worry about that later... Back up top, I took the cam cover off and started to get busy on something else:
Removing the injector rocker arms:
Laid out in a box that was handily delivered the other day. 1 & 2 at the top. 3 & 4 at the bottom. Just so I don't forget!
Here's the head without the rockers:
I turned the cam a bit and you can see the real reason I'm having problems clearly now. Apart from the chunk taken out of No.1 injector lobe, No.1 valve lobe is really not very pointy any more...
Yay, that's definitely the problem then! Next up, the engine mount needs to come out of the way. That means the expansion tank needs to come out. And the power steering reservoir... Deep joy
That was relatively straightforward to do. Now the hard part. Getting that massive lump of engine mount off the side of the engine. This proved to be a massive pain. More fiddly than anything else. I got it loose from the engine but there was just not enough room to actually remove it from the engine bay. So I left it there for the time being and worked around it:
Timing belt off! You can't quite tell from the pics but it was just starting to crack and looked definitely past its best. My history file says it was changed in 2013 and this seems spot on looking at the belt. It had a 2013 date on it too:
Here's where we're at now:
Slipping the tensioner off the stud with the engine mount in the way was amusing... Uh oh, that's a damper for the tensioner, which means I bought the wrong timing belt kit.
I'll worry about that later. Time to remove the outer pulley from the cam and then the inner pulley that the outer one bolts to with those three timing bolts I was on about earlier. The main bolt is done up at 100nm so fairly tight. You can see the special tool connected to my breaker bar so I can counter hold while undoing the bolt :
Another special tool to pull the inner pulley from the end of the cam. Luckily my 32mm viscous fan spanner did the trick for counter holding as I didn't have a proper spanner big enough!
That pinged off after some persuasion, leaving me with this:
I removed the cam and cleaned it up:
Looks pretty dead doesn't it! Still, it'll make a nice garage ornament
Spot the problem with tappet No.1:
And the rest of the tappets with no cam in the way:
I cleaned up the loose oil a bit so I could check how everything looked. Here's a close up of cyl 1 & 2. Note the wear on the cam bearings!
And cyl 3 & 4:
Then I decided that the engine mount really did need to be out of the way because I wanted to remove the damper for the timing belt tensioner. After quite a large amount of persuasion I managed to align everything just so and squeezed it out past the brake fluid reservoir. Which I thought I'd broken at one point, that's how tight it was!
Offending engine mount:
Cam caps neatly stored in correct order:
Cap No.4 bearing had taken a beating, look at the scoring:
My garage is full of Escort RS Turbo shell, engine and various other parts so everything from this car went in the boot:
And that brings us up to date. Luckily I'm off work tomorrow and Tuesday because I need to buy the correct timing belt, 8 x stretch bolts for the injector rocker arms and a new set of aux pulley bolts. Oh and some fresh oil and a filter as I'd forgotten to buy those last week when I was shopping for bits!
Stay tuned for 'shiny new bits being put in to engine' pictures!
Fair play for getting that damned engine mounting out of the way, proper skills!
I've done three belts on PD engined MK4's and each time worked round the damned thing. The only way I could get the thing out was when the water pump was out. Talking of which, you do plan to change the water pump also?
Syncro angle looks good / spot on so no worries there. Apparently and it may be folklore but the factory sync angle setting is written on the cam cover but I've never known anyone who has been able to read it, you included.
As for that dampered tensioner setup, bad luck there! They are a pain, a proper pain. In fact setting the prescibed 4mm always makes my balls twitch as it seems far too tight. The weak point on the otherwise massively over engineered tensioner setup is the tiny idler pulley which fixes to the damper, as a minimum change that.
The damper itself needs to be retracted and a clip inserted into it which holds it in the retracted position whilst you set the infamous 4mm gap. The books say that you can retract the damper with a pegged tool on the tensioner but my experiences are that it needs way more force. The only way I've done it is in the bench vice.
Saying that I've always fitted new dampers but.... the trial and error nightmare of the tnesioning means it had to come on and off, back in the vice a few times.
My prediction is that you will ace it though. If you got that engine mount out then you should pi*s it.
Out of interest, how many miles has it done? (you may have said already up-thread).
I've done three belts on PD engined MK4's and each time worked round the damned thing. The only way I could get the thing out was when the water pump was out. Talking of which, you do plan to change the water pump also?
Syncro angle looks good / spot on so no worries there. Apparently and it may be folklore but the factory sync angle setting is written on the cam cover but I've never known anyone who has been able to read it, you included.
As for that dampered tensioner setup, bad luck there! They are a pain, a proper pain. In fact setting the prescibed 4mm always makes my balls twitch as it seems far too tight. The weak point on the otherwise massively over engineered tensioner setup is the tiny idler pulley which fixes to the damper, as a minimum change that.
The damper itself needs to be retracted and a clip inserted into it which holds it in the retracted position whilst you set the infamous 4mm gap. The books say that you can retract the damper with a pegged tool on the tensioner but my experiences are that it needs way more force. The only way I've done it is in the bench vice.
Saying that I've always fitted new dampers but.... the trial and error nightmare of the tnesioning means it had to come on and off, back in the vice a few times.
My prediction is that you will ace it though. If you got that engine mount out then you should pi*s it.
Out of interest, how many miles has it done? (you may have said already up-thread).
Cheers, I got there in the end, although as soon as I put the new damper back on I'll have to put the mount back or there won't be the space. Then I'l have to do the rest working around the mount again...
I'm not planning on changing the water pump - the coolant is perfect and there are no leaks. It should last a while yet, shouldn't it?
I've got a new damper and all the pulleys on order. I'll pick them up later. I don't have a vice though. Hope that's not going to be a problem! It doesn't look overly complicated to tension but I've not researched the '4mm' thing yet.
It's done 146k almost exactly. I figured I'll get my moneys worth out of all these new bits I'm spending out on. Plus it's going to be cheaper overall than buying another car. I suppose I'll have to actually give it a clean sometime soon!
I'm not planning on changing the water pump - the coolant is perfect and there are no leaks. It should last a while yet, shouldn't it?
I've got a new damper and all the pulleys on order. I'll pick them up later. I don't have a vice though. Hope that's not going to be a problem! It doesn't look overly complicated to tension but I've not researched the '4mm' thing yet.
It's done 146k almost exactly. I figured I'll get my moneys worth out of all these new bits I'm spending out on. Plus it's going to be cheaper overall than buying another car. I suppose I'll have to actually give it a clean sometime soon!
No, the waterpumps on these are renowned to cause trouble. The plastic impellor on the metal shaft debonds or the impellor itself breaks.
Chances are that the one on the car might be a replacement metal impellor type but you'll never know unless you take it out, which for the sake of another £25 means you may as well have put a new one on.
The 4mm gap awaits LOL, but I reckon you'll pi*s it.
Chances are that the one on the car might be a replacement metal impellor type but you'll never know unless you take it out, which for the sake of another £25 means you may as well have put a new one on.
The 4mm gap awaits LOL, but I reckon you'll pi*s it.
Thanks for the replies. New water pump has been purchased! It was only £20 and has a metal impeller so not worth the risk. I might as well as I'm doing everything else anyway. I've got everything outstanding purchased today but need to pick up the aux pulley bolts tomorrow as they weren't in stock. I didn't have time to start putting new bits back in the car today but hopefully will tomorrow. I *really* need a proper workshop. The drive just isn't cutting it, and I always seem to end up doing major work of some kind in the middle of winter...
Update time again!
Carrying on from where I left off, next thing to do was remove the tappets and bottom half of the cam journal bearings from the head. The tappets are ruined! I think there were only a couple that weren't dished, and all were really scratched as you can see. The bearings are looking a bit worn too:
Good thing the new tappets that came with the cam kit are uprated hardened items. Here they are installed and with some break-in lube on top for good measure. The new halves of the journal bearings are in too, again with break-in lube squeezed all over them:
Another angle. You can't really see the break-in lube on the bearings very well but it's a nice snot green colour
Pic of the break-in lube in case you're interested in what I used. The bearings are to go in to the cam caps. Sorry for the out of focus pics, using my phone with oily gloves on doesn't really help!
Here are the bearings that came out of the caps:
Once I removed the bearings I cleaned the caps up and stuck the new bearings in place:
TIme to get the cam in place. Plenty of break-in lube went on this and I also poured fresh oil all over it when doing the oil change:
Time to get the caps on. Plenty of break-in lube on these bearings too:
Caps in place, tightened down. It's starting to look like an engine again:
Next up, rocker arms. I needed 8 new bolts for this from VW as they didn't come as part of the cam kit. They cost £65 AFTER some discount!
Just a pic to show the new cam seal in place, and the small amount on instant gasket it's recommended to put on the end cap before you bolt the cam down. That should seal nicely and not leak. If you look at the pics up there ^ the old seal was just about starting to weep.
While I've still got the cam cover off, I'd better change that injector loom too. It's bathed in oil and over time and heat cycles it seems to break down leading to rough running. Pointless not doing it if I've come this far! Here's the shiny new one:
Removing the old one:
Yet another part of the engine bay I've got to take apart to be able to do something else... Top half of the air box had to move to allow the old loom out and the new one in:
New loom in and connected up to the injectors. Another job ticked off!
The old oil was drained and new poured all over the shiny new cam, then I buttoned up the engine. It's looking less serious now, just the cam belt to go, really!
Another 'while I'm there' job, as mentioned above was the water pump. Good thing I heeded the advice, the one on the car was a genuine VAG part and it had the plastic impeller:
The inevitable small spillage you get when removing the pump. At least the block looks nice and clean in there:
Shiny new pump ready to go on. It's a Circoli branded pump and has a metal impeller. Hopefully this will be good for a while:
Now we're really making some progress. Water pump is now on, as are the two cam pulleys and the tensioner pulley. You can see I've timed the engine back up to TDC too with that allen key sticking out of the cam pulley. Interestingly the timing hole in my cylinder head isn't 6mm and the timing pin wouldnt fit. I couldn't even get a 5.5mm allen key in there, so the 5mm did the trick!
Now for the fun part... Setting the tension on the timing belt and not cocking the hydraulic damper up! It took quite a bit of fiddling but I got there in the end. I used drill bits so I could set the gap between the tensioner arm and the damper body fairly accurately. It's supposed to be 4mm +/- 1mm and that's about what I got. I couldn't get a 5mm drill bit in the gap but the 4mm was a bit loose, so I'd say that was bang on. I turned the engine over by hand a couple of times too and everthing seemed perfect. Lots of compression could be felt and it all turned over smoothly. Happy days
I could now get a few more bits back in to the engine bay, so the engine mount, expansion tank and power steering reservoir went back on. It's really getting there now:
Next thing was to get the bottom timing belt cover and the aux pulley back on. Four new bolts from VW (after rounding the originals up there ^) only cost a fiver. Much more reasonable than those expensive rocker arm stretch bolts...
With that on, all that was left was a few bits and pieces of finishing off. Oh, and I remembered to put a cable tie around the CV boot that the clip had fallen off!
The moment of truth, will it turn over ok on the starter motor? I left the injector loom disconnected so I could build up some oil pressure before firing up as I needed to go straight to 2000rpm and bed the cam in for 20 mins.
There's always a nervous moment when turning the car over after major work that affects the timing, but I'm pleased to say I was pretty confident I'd got everything back together how it should be. I flicked the key and everything sounded great. Time to connect the injector loom and actually run the cam in then!
The tappets got some oil pressure straight away it seems as I only had a tapping for about half a second and then all was quiet. The car is far smoother than before and obviously quieter too. It was a tad boring having to sit there for 20 mins but I was happy with the fact I'd definitely killed many birds with one stone!
After the initial bedding in of the cam I got my laptop out and checked the sync angle again:
Looks pretty good to me! I took the car for a test drive as I needed fuel and it seems great on the road. Plenty of torque and power, eager to accellerate, so all round a successful chunk of work
The only thing that slightly bugs me is that I set up the tension of the belt as per the Haynes spec, but it's giving me the classic howling noise of an over-tight belt. It's only slight but it wasn't there before... I've been over to a friend with a PD130 Golf and had a look at how tight the belt was on that car. It's ever so slightly less tight than how I've set mine, so I guess I just need to loosen mine off a bit, but that'll give me a larger gap on the hydraulic damper. What do you lot reckon? I'm thinking I should loosen it a tad and have another listen. If it doesn't sound tight then leave it like that and not worry about the silly damper gap. Sound like a plan?
Carrying on from where I left off, next thing to do was remove the tappets and bottom half of the cam journal bearings from the head. The tappets are ruined! I think there were only a couple that weren't dished, and all were really scratched as you can see. The bearings are looking a bit worn too:
Good thing the new tappets that came with the cam kit are uprated hardened items. Here they are installed and with some break-in lube on top for good measure. The new halves of the journal bearings are in too, again with break-in lube squeezed all over them:
Another angle. You can't really see the break-in lube on the bearings very well but it's a nice snot green colour
Pic of the break-in lube in case you're interested in what I used. The bearings are to go in to the cam caps. Sorry for the out of focus pics, using my phone with oily gloves on doesn't really help!
Here are the bearings that came out of the caps:
Once I removed the bearings I cleaned the caps up and stuck the new bearings in place:
TIme to get the cam in place. Plenty of break-in lube went on this and I also poured fresh oil all over it when doing the oil change:
Time to get the caps on. Plenty of break-in lube on these bearings too:
Caps in place, tightened down. It's starting to look like an engine again:
Next up, rocker arms. I needed 8 new bolts for this from VW as they didn't come as part of the cam kit. They cost £65 AFTER some discount!
Just a pic to show the new cam seal in place, and the small amount on instant gasket it's recommended to put on the end cap before you bolt the cam down. That should seal nicely and not leak. If you look at the pics up there ^ the old seal was just about starting to weep.
While I've still got the cam cover off, I'd better change that injector loom too. It's bathed in oil and over time and heat cycles it seems to break down leading to rough running. Pointless not doing it if I've come this far! Here's the shiny new one:
Removing the old one:
Yet another part of the engine bay I've got to take apart to be able to do something else... Top half of the air box had to move to allow the old loom out and the new one in:
New loom in and connected up to the injectors. Another job ticked off!
The old oil was drained and new poured all over the shiny new cam, then I buttoned up the engine. It's looking less serious now, just the cam belt to go, really!
Another 'while I'm there' job, as mentioned above was the water pump. Good thing I heeded the advice, the one on the car was a genuine VAG part and it had the plastic impeller:
The inevitable small spillage you get when removing the pump. At least the block looks nice and clean in there:
Shiny new pump ready to go on. It's a Circoli branded pump and has a metal impeller. Hopefully this will be good for a while:
Now we're really making some progress. Water pump is now on, as are the two cam pulleys and the tensioner pulley. You can see I've timed the engine back up to TDC too with that allen key sticking out of the cam pulley. Interestingly the timing hole in my cylinder head isn't 6mm and the timing pin wouldnt fit. I couldn't even get a 5.5mm allen key in there, so the 5mm did the trick!
Now for the fun part... Setting the tension on the timing belt and not cocking the hydraulic damper up! It took quite a bit of fiddling but I got there in the end. I used drill bits so I could set the gap between the tensioner arm and the damper body fairly accurately. It's supposed to be 4mm +/- 1mm and that's about what I got. I couldn't get a 5mm drill bit in the gap but the 4mm was a bit loose, so I'd say that was bang on. I turned the engine over by hand a couple of times too and everthing seemed perfect. Lots of compression could be felt and it all turned over smoothly. Happy days
I could now get a few more bits back in to the engine bay, so the engine mount, expansion tank and power steering reservoir went back on. It's really getting there now:
Next thing was to get the bottom timing belt cover and the aux pulley back on. Four new bolts from VW (after rounding the originals up there ^) only cost a fiver. Much more reasonable than those expensive rocker arm stretch bolts...
With that on, all that was left was a few bits and pieces of finishing off. Oh, and I remembered to put a cable tie around the CV boot that the clip had fallen off!
The moment of truth, will it turn over ok on the starter motor? I left the injector loom disconnected so I could build up some oil pressure before firing up as I needed to go straight to 2000rpm and bed the cam in for 20 mins.
There's always a nervous moment when turning the car over after major work that affects the timing, but I'm pleased to say I was pretty confident I'd got everything back together how it should be. I flicked the key and everything sounded great. Time to connect the injector loom and actually run the cam in then!
The tappets got some oil pressure straight away it seems as I only had a tapping for about half a second and then all was quiet. The car is far smoother than before and obviously quieter too. It was a tad boring having to sit there for 20 mins but I was happy with the fact I'd definitely killed many birds with one stone!
After the initial bedding in of the cam I got my laptop out and checked the sync angle again:
Looks pretty good to me! I took the car for a test drive as I needed fuel and it seems great on the road. Plenty of torque and power, eager to accellerate, so all round a successful chunk of work
The only thing that slightly bugs me is that I set up the tension of the belt as per the Haynes spec, but it's giving me the classic howling noise of an over-tight belt. It's only slight but it wasn't there before... I've been over to a friend with a PD130 Golf and had a look at how tight the belt was on that car. It's ever so slightly less tight than how I've set mine, so I guess I just need to loosen mine off a bit, but that'll give me a larger gap on the hydraulic damper. What do you lot reckon? I'm thinking I should loosen it a tad and have another listen. If it doesn't sound tight then leave it like that and not worry about the silly damper gap. Sound like a plan?
martin mrt said:
Excellent write up of your ongoing ownership.
The PD 130/150 are definitely the puck of the mk4 range (r32 excepted) imo
I’ve had a few mk4s and touch wood haven’t fallen foul of the 150 cam failure yet
Thanks! Yep, it's a good all round car for doing every-day stuff in, which is partly why I decided it was worth repairing. My friend's had loads of Mk4 PD's and not had a cam problem either, so maybe I was just unlucky.The PD 130/150 are definitely the puck of the mk4 range (r32 excepted) imo
I’ve had a few mk4s and touch wood haven’t fallen foul of the 150 cam failure yet
I can't really complain though - I'm keeping a cost sheet going on this car. I've just spent £700 in bits to get it running again and even after all that it's cost me less than 13p a mile, assuming I sold it tomorrow and got £0 back for it. Not bad really, and I hope it's now good for many more miles yet!
Legend!
I want you tell me how you manged that engine mounting?
As for the yowling noise, I had that on the Wifes car. I personally think that the belt feels way too tight when the 4mm is achieved. The yowling did stop after a week or two though and the car has been fine since (early 2016 and 20k on it since).
I want you tell me how you manged that engine mounting?
As for the yowling noise, I had that on the Wifes car. I personally think that the belt feels way too tight when the 4mm is achieved. The yowling did stop after a week or two though and the car has been fine since (early 2016 and 20k on it since).
colin_p said:
Legend!
I want you tell me how you manged that engine mounting?
As for the yowling noise, I had that on the Wifes car. I personally think that the belt feels way too tight when the 4mm is achieved. The yowling did stop after a week or two though and the car has been fine since (early 2016 and 20k on it since).
Haha thanks! Well, the mount came out with just the right amount of jacking the engine up/down, removing the cam pulleys and tensioner pulley, undoing the cam sensor and moving it out of the way, and undoing the power steering return pipe that bolts to the back of the block. With all that undone it just about comes out. To get it back in again I had to remove the new hydraulic damper I'd just put in and it went in easily. It was just fiddly doing everything back up around the mount, but you get used to it!I want you tell me how you manged that engine mounting?
As for the yowling noise, I had that on the Wifes car. I personally think that the belt feels way too tight when the 4mm is achieved. The yowling did stop after a week or two though and the car has been fine since (early 2016 and 20k on it since).
Hmm, I don't want the belt to be over-tight though. It's only fractionally tighter than the one on my friend's car and mine only has a slight noise, but I don't want to do any damage after all that work. So you just left yours at around the 4mm gap setting and it's been ok ever since? Interesting... maybe I should wait a little while too.
BTW thanks for all the advice and tips through my thread. They've been really helpful. Have a virtual pint
The yowl noise really had me worried and I did loads to investigate it, including taking the whole lot off and putting it back again. In the end I just thought what was the worse that could happen.... belt snap and engine turned into scrap. It didn't and it quietened down after a week or two. Very un-nerving though.
I did do some searching and it isn't an unknown thing but certainly isn't a common occurance though.
Look on it as a positive - sounds like it has a supercharger on it !
I did do some searching and it isn't an unknown thing but certainly isn't a common occurance though.
Look on it as a positive - sounds like it has a supercharger on it !
helix402 said:
Great work. Keep an eye on the water pump though. I fitted a Circoli once and it leaked after a very short time.
Thanks, will do. It seems like a good bit of kit, felt every bit as well made as the one that came off with the obvious advantage of a metal impeller. Fingers crossed!A small update this time!
I'm somewhere near 2k miles in after the cam/timing belt/water pump etc work above. All seems good, but the belt still sounds a bit louder than I'd like. I'm tempted to slacken it off a bit for peace of mind. It goes well again and is returning good MPG so I'm happy. I'm back under 13p/mile too even after spending £700ish on parts for the work above. Can't really complain!
The weather's started to cheer up and I realised I can't actually remember the last time I washed the car... It was probably Autumn time last year but I really don't know! The recent rain and driving on motorways had done some of the cleaning for me but I was still left with this:
Minging interior:
Dark blue hides the dirt quite well:
I'm not a detailer. I like a clean car without scratches etc the same as anyone who likes their cars but I'm not getting anal about an old Golf*. I just use a bit of common sense, a lambswool mitt thing, a git guard in the bottom of the bucket and some car shampoo. That'll do for me
Machine polishing it last year obviously helped, all I did was dry the car off and it looks pretty presentable:
It could probably do with some more wax, but I just can't be bothered at the moment!
I did find this had happened over winter though:
Those aren't rain drops in the pic, they're micro blisters. Someone's been at the paint work in the past and there is moisture trapped under the paint. It shows up as these blisters. I didn't see any more on the car, and this wing's had a couple of big stone chips too so I might get the spray gun out and repaint it when the weather warms up a bit more. Again, if I can be bothered to sort it!
I forgot to take a pic of the cleaned interior, but safe to say it doesn't look like you're going to catch the plague any more. I did find a squidgey sopping wet carpet under that drivers mat though. Looks like door seals are now on the shopping list
I'm somewhere near 2k miles in after the cam/timing belt/water pump etc work above. All seems good, but the belt still sounds a bit louder than I'd like. I'm tempted to slacken it off a bit for peace of mind. It goes well again and is returning good MPG so I'm happy. I'm back under 13p/mile too even after spending £700ish on parts for the work above. Can't really complain!
The weather's started to cheer up and I realised I can't actually remember the last time I washed the car... It was probably Autumn time last year but I really don't know! The recent rain and driving on motorways had done some of the cleaning for me but I was still left with this:
Minging interior:
Dark blue hides the dirt quite well:
I'm not a detailer. I like a clean car without scratches etc the same as anyone who likes their cars but I'm not getting anal about an old Golf*. I just use a bit of common sense, a lambswool mitt thing, a git guard in the bottom of the bucket and some car shampoo. That'll do for me
- That said, I did machine polish it/wax it last year to get rid of the worst scratches in the lacquer and try to hide the terrible 'smart' repairs...
Machine polishing it last year obviously helped, all I did was dry the car off and it looks pretty presentable:
It could probably do with some more wax, but I just can't be bothered at the moment!
I did find this had happened over winter though:
Those aren't rain drops in the pic, they're micro blisters. Someone's been at the paint work in the past and there is moisture trapped under the paint. It shows up as these blisters. I didn't see any more on the car, and this wing's had a couple of big stone chips too so I might get the spray gun out and repaint it when the weather warms up a bit more. Again, if I can be bothered to sort it!
I forgot to take a pic of the cleaned interior, but safe to say it doesn't look like you're going to catch the plague any more. I did find a squidgey sopping wet carpet under that drivers mat though. Looks like door seals are now on the shopping list
With all the bad weather we've been having, it was about time to sort out the water leak. I bought new door seals and set about changing them. I didn't realise you have to remove most of the interior just to change the seal though... Half of it is hidden behind some plastic trim, and to remove it you need to take out some other plastic trim first. You also have to remove the rear door card to get the sill trim completely off, but to get the rear door card off you need to remove the rear seats... AHHH!
The carpet was wet anyway and I needed to have a look under there. Things escalated:
Removing the trim. So much easier if the front seats aren't in:
Already quite a collection of bits and I'm only just getting started!
Ok, getting there now. Everything stopping the carpet coming out is out of the way:
I needed to make this cut in the carpet. It must go in before the dashboard in the factory, and there's no way I was taking a load more stuff out for the sake of making a cut you'll never see as it's hidden behind the centre console plastics. I've got a 'quick release' carpet now
You can see what I mean better in the picture:
Huzzah! Carpet is out of the car. It was fairly dry actually, but the sound deadening underneath on the drivers side was sopping wet:
Removing the sound deadening:
Front floor pan is in perfect condition still:
So is the rear:
Hold on, no it isn't! Looks like someone didn't know where to jack it up in the past...
I wet vac'd the carpet and front seats, so here's the gratuitous pic of the manky water afterwards:
Seats came up virtually like new, and they were hardly bad before:
With all the interior out and new door seal in place on the drivers side it was a good time to test and see if the leak was fixed. Good thing I did!
So, it wasn't the door seal all along! The work wasn't in vain though, I cleaned and dried out the carpet and sound deadening so it didn't stink any more. Also, the preious owner had put some cigarette burns in the fabric trim on the A pillar that is all part of the door seal, so those were removed a bonus. I found the real source of the leak, running over the top of the door seal:
That'll be the membrane on the inner door panel then. Door card off:
There's the leak!
The butyl tape seal was falling apart, no wonder it was leaking:
This all needed cleaning off:
Much better now:
Rear of the inner panel cleaned up too:
I didn't have any butyl tape to hand so tried to make a thick gasket out of instant gasket as a temporary measure. I left it to semi dry and put it back on the car:
With that done, and the sound deadening and carpet dry, the next day I put it all back together:
Result: much nicer smelling interior! The instant gasket temporary seal worked better than the old dead butyl tape but still wasn't sealing properly so I ordered some more from Ebay and fixed it properly a few days afterwards. No more leaks!
The carpet was wet anyway and I needed to have a look under there. Things escalated:
Removing the trim. So much easier if the front seats aren't in:
Already quite a collection of bits and I'm only just getting started!
Ok, getting there now. Everything stopping the carpet coming out is out of the way:
I needed to make this cut in the carpet. It must go in before the dashboard in the factory, and there's no way I was taking a load more stuff out for the sake of making a cut you'll never see as it's hidden behind the centre console plastics. I've got a 'quick release' carpet now
You can see what I mean better in the picture:
Huzzah! Carpet is out of the car. It was fairly dry actually, but the sound deadening underneath on the drivers side was sopping wet:
Removing the sound deadening:
Front floor pan is in perfect condition still:
So is the rear:
Hold on, no it isn't! Looks like someone didn't know where to jack it up in the past...
I wet vac'd the carpet and front seats, so here's the gratuitous pic of the manky water afterwards:
Seats came up virtually like new, and they were hardly bad before:
With all the interior out and new door seal in place on the drivers side it was a good time to test and see if the leak was fixed. Good thing I did!
So, it wasn't the door seal all along! The work wasn't in vain though, I cleaned and dried out the carpet and sound deadening so it didn't stink any more. Also, the preious owner had put some cigarette burns in the fabric trim on the A pillar that is all part of the door seal, so those were removed a bonus. I found the real source of the leak, running over the top of the door seal:
That'll be the membrane on the inner door panel then. Door card off:
There's the leak!
The butyl tape seal was falling apart, no wonder it was leaking:
This all needed cleaning off:
Much better now:
Rear of the inner panel cleaned up too:
I didn't have any butyl tape to hand so tried to make a thick gasket out of instant gasket as a temporary measure. I left it to semi dry and put it back on the car:
With that done, and the sound deadening and carpet dry, the next day I put it all back together:
Result: much nicer smelling interior! The instant gasket temporary seal worked better than the old dead butyl tape but still wasn't sealing properly so I ordered some more from Ebay and fixed it properly a few days afterwards. No more leaks!
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