Shedding properly, 2004 Passat Estate 1.9 TDI
Discussion
myvision said:
What's the big green button on the dash?
Oh that.I thought it would be a great idea to not miss out on the modern DRL craze so I wired up the front fogs to act like DRL's.
I never use them though and it was a pointless exercise as I hate DRL's.
I honestly don't know what came over me when I did that.
colin_p said:
This is what really got me back home into shedding.
I got ahead of myself and went up market. Bear in mind these photos are quite old and the A6 was quite new at the time. It was my pride and joy....
How does the passat compare to the a6? I love my b5.5 estate and its still strong at 163k!I got ahead of myself and went up market. Bear in mind these photos are quite old and the A6 was quite new at the time. It was my pride and joy....
hughcam said:
How does the passat compare to the a6? I love my b5.5 estate and its still strong at 163k!
I actually prefer the Passat as it hasn't got the tosspot Audi image problem, not that anyone who drives an Audi is a tosspot, gosh no, Audi drivers are the Saints of the road.The A6 I had was exactly the same mechanically, the engine, gearbox, suspension, everything. The A6 had a lot more stuff in it and hence was heavier. It was very nice and at the time was my pride and joy but looking back years later, the Passat is the better car.
The comparison on current ones isn't valid though as the current Passat is based on the Golf chassis with the A6 on its own. I don't know a great deal about the current cars really but they are now very different cars whereas of the era of my current Passat and old A6 they were effectively the same car.
My advice is; keep the Passat.
That brings things almost up to date. Other than the big ticket items I've posted about above I really keep on top of the servicing doing 5,000 oil change intervals. They cost less than £30 and about an hour of my time. The other filters add about another £20 on top and are done every 3rd or so service, they are never that dirty.
The current phase of work started off as something minor and has grown. I wanted and needed to sort out an annoying squeal on the brakes which I believe is due to a worn carrier bracket. Coupled with me wanting to change both outer CV joints prior to the MOT the list has grown and grown and now I'm committed in doing much much more.
The CV joints? Yes, I've got two cracked, cracking boots which although not split soon will, see above somewhere where I explained due to the layout and tight turning circle these cars have an appetite for CV boots and not long after joints.
Anyway....
Not long after getting the car I changed all of the brake discs and pads, so probably about 40k miles ago'ish and noticed a bit of wear on the caliper carriers, the bits where the pads 'ears' bear on and slide along.
You can see the wear in the pic below. I knew this was present but have carried on. Now the pads are about half worn, they are obviously at the point where one of them is stuck in the low spot causing the squeal, or that is my theory.
So....
There were a pair of genuine ATE carriers on e-bay at an un-ignoreable price
Which I painted in readyness for fitting. These things rust! Ignore the glossy paint, it dried to a nice OE satin finish. Also ignore the bolts, they are temporarily fitted so I can hold the bracket while painting it.
And then of course despite them being half worn, I wanted to fit new brakes all round. So I've got a full set of Brembo items ready to fit. You will notice in some of the following pics that I've painted the discs, painted the bits that go rusty.
And then I got thinking, if I'm taking everything apart I might as well......
Do a suspension spring and damper refresh, afterall the old ones must be getting tired.
Bilstein B4's, purportedly the best OE shocks.
And some Eibach springs, again very very good and high quality.
And then....
In readiness for the brake disc and pad swap I thought a brake fluid change was in order once again. I got the car jacked up, all four wheels off, bled the fronts, no problem at all. went to the first rear and the bleed nipple was seized. Tired the other one, seized. I'm old enough to know how far to push things and how much force to use and I know that anymore would give rise to snapped bleed nipples.
So I bought a new pair of calipers. Again, cheap, most things are for VW's of a certain age.
And painted them. (painted sics in background)
They dried to a nice OE satin finish.
After acquiring all of the bits and bobs to build the struts up, bumpstops, covers, cup rubbers, topmounts etc I built the struts.
Rears, not much to do as the shocks and springs are separate
Front bare shock with new base plate and rubber spring cup
Compressed spring. No matter how many time I do this, it is a job I hate.
A random shot of the new CV joint kits
Ready to fit
The current phase of work started off as something minor and has grown. I wanted and needed to sort out an annoying squeal on the brakes which I believe is due to a worn carrier bracket. Coupled with me wanting to change both outer CV joints prior to the MOT the list has grown and grown and now I'm committed in doing much much more.
The CV joints? Yes, I've got two cracked, cracking boots which although not split soon will, see above somewhere where I explained due to the layout and tight turning circle these cars have an appetite for CV boots and not long after joints.
Anyway....
Not long after getting the car I changed all of the brake discs and pads, so probably about 40k miles ago'ish and noticed a bit of wear on the caliper carriers, the bits where the pads 'ears' bear on and slide along.
You can see the wear in the pic below. I knew this was present but have carried on. Now the pads are about half worn, they are obviously at the point where one of them is stuck in the low spot causing the squeal, or that is my theory.
So....
There were a pair of genuine ATE carriers on e-bay at an un-ignoreable price
Which I painted in readyness for fitting. These things rust! Ignore the glossy paint, it dried to a nice OE satin finish. Also ignore the bolts, they are temporarily fitted so I can hold the bracket while painting it.
And then of course despite them being half worn, I wanted to fit new brakes all round. So I've got a full set of Brembo items ready to fit. You will notice in some of the following pics that I've painted the discs, painted the bits that go rusty.
And then I got thinking, if I'm taking everything apart I might as well......
Do a suspension spring and damper refresh, afterall the old ones must be getting tired.
Bilstein B4's, purportedly the best OE shocks.
And some Eibach springs, again very very good and high quality.
And then....
In readiness for the brake disc and pad swap I thought a brake fluid change was in order once again. I got the car jacked up, all four wheels off, bled the fronts, no problem at all. went to the first rear and the bleed nipple was seized. Tired the other one, seized. I'm old enough to know how far to push things and how much force to use and I know that anymore would give rise to snapped bleed nipples.
So I bought a new pair of calipers. Again, cheap, most things are for VW's of a certain age.
And painted them. (painted sics in background)
They dried to a nice OE satin finish.
After acquiring all of the bits and bobs to build the struts up, bumpstops, covers, cup rubbers, topmounts etc I built the struts.
Rears, not much to do as the shocks and springs are separate
Front bare shock with new base plate and rubber spring cup
Compressed spring. No matter how many time I do this, it is a job I hate.
A random shot of the new CV joint kits
Ready to fit
And whilst I was at it, I thought it would be nice to do a bit of a re-fresh generally.
I won't add a lot of text to the below other than the odd note here and there but the work comprises of dismantling the complete rear suspension assembly, cleaning the rust off and building it back up.
Crusty rusted and looking like they wouldn't come out without a fight, the hub / wheel bearing assembly mounting bolts
VW are obseesed with using these stupid allen headed (chesse headed) bolts.
Stuck solid, need a bit of tappage!
Rear caliper carrier bracket off, these despite being rusty are not worn like the fronts so are good to be re-fitted once cleaned up.
There she blows! Not the best idea to have the hub hanging off the ABS sensor cable
The ABS sensors did not want to come out without a very gentle fight. I didn;t want to break them, no Sir, not at £millions plus VAT Sir
Grubby but servicable bits ready for refreshment.
Scabius McScabby beam end
I won't add a lot of text to the below other than the odd note here and there but the work comprises of dismantling the complete rear suspension assembly, cleaning the rust off and building it back up.
Crusty rusted and looking like they wouldn't come out without a fight, the hub / wheel bearing assembly mounting bolts
VW are obseesed with using these stupid allen headed (chesse headed) bolts.
Stuck solid, need a bit of tappage!
Rear caliper carrier bracket off, these despite being rusty are not worn like the fronts so are good to be re-fitted once cleaned up.
There she blows! Not the best idea to have the hub hanging off the ABS sensor cable
The ABS sensors did not want to come out without a very gentle fight. I didn;t want to break them, no Sir, not at £millions plus VAT Sir
Grubby but servicable bits ready for refreshment.
Scabius McScabby beam end
Now that the hubs were dismantled the next phase was to drop the suspension beam off the car
Tied the caliper etc up out the way.
Getting there
The good old Halfords jack.
Off and on the workmate
I knew there was an unexplained rattle. Two of the studs that the hand brake cable bolt to had sheared off. Previous pic of the other end the studs are there.
Yuk
These are the beam pivot bushes. Only a few years old, just dirty.
Weapon of choice. Mini grinder with an assortment of wire brushes. This is a curious thing to do as bits of wire ping off at a few hundred miles an hour. Goggles are essential as are ear defenders. But when a bit of wire hits you on say the lip, it stings a little bit.
Cleaned
Rusty dirty
Cleaned
Dirty
Cleaned
Tied the caliper etc up out the way.
Getting there
The good old Halfords jack.
Off and on the workmate
I knew there was an unexplained rattle. Two of the studs that the hand brake cable bolt to had sheared off. Previous pic of the other end the studs are there.
Yuk
These are the beam pivot bushes. Only a few years old, just dirty.
Weapon of choice. Mini grinder with an assortment of wire brushes. This is a curious thing to do as bits of wire ping off at a few hundred miles an hour. Goggles are essential as are ear defenders. But when a bit of wire hits you on say the lip, it stings a little bit.
Cleaned
Rusty dirty
Cleaned
Dirty
Cleaned
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!
colin_p said:
I actually prefer the Passat as it hasn't got the tosspot Audi image problem, not that anyone who drives an Audi is a tosspot, gosh no, Audi drivers are the Saints of the road.
The A6 I had was exactly the same mechanically, the engine, gearbox, suspension, everything. The A6 had a lot more stuff in it and hence was heavier. It was very nice and at the time was my pride and joy but looking back years later, the Passat is the better car.
The comparison on current ones isn't valid though as the current Passat is based on the Golf chassis with the A6 on its own. I don't know a great deal about the current cars really but they are now very different cars whereas of the era of my current Passat and old A6 they were effectively the same car.
My advice is; keep the Passat.
Thanks for the advice! I was lusting after an A6 to replace the Passat but will let that idea go now.The A6 I had was exactly the same mechanically, the engine, gearbox, suspension, everything. The A6 had a lot more stuff in it and hence was heavier. It was very nice and at the time was my pride and joy but looking back years later, the Passat is the better car.
The comparison on current ones isn't valid though as the current Passat is based on the Golf chassis with the A6 on its own. I don't know a great deal about the current cars really but they are now very different cars whereas of the era of my current Passat and old A6 they were effectively the same car.
My advice is; keep the Passat.
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.
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