The "What did you do to your B4 today" thread...

iluvmydiesels, if you're driving an A3 (appears so) you may not find things get a lot better. I've seen a lot of variation in FE on A3 TDIs. My son's did great, I know of some that would see 50+, but my '97 in perfect shape would usually get 43. Odd, since I have to work at getting under 50 in my larger, heavier B4 with the same drivetrain.

The last fours days I've been giving my '96 Wagon a little TLC.
New brake rotors all around and ceramic pads. The rear disk take awhile to do.
New bearings on all four corners.
New Bilstein front struts.
New Bilstein rear struts ( not a fun job)
The car handles a lot better now and brakes a little faster.
A new set of General Altimax RT43 Tire195/60R14 86H tires are on order for next Monday and the front end will be aligned as well.
My car is in great shape and runs like new. No rust here,just rubber goes bad,the mud flaps are cracking. Trying to find a B4 set at a "reasonable" price is a challenge.

got just about 42 the other day, i was stupid enough on a saturday to take 95s, was idling quite a bit and slo going for a ways, mpg isnt bad for that situation. never go that route on a sat day again. took way longer that my usual route.
so i hooked up A/C gauges, added some r134, lo side was a little lo, as was hi side. put some good part of bottle in, lo side reads ~33psi, hi side, major jump to over 325psi(hi). all windows open, fan on 3, idle, about an 80dg day. decided to bleed some off so i didnt have a problem. hi side now reads ~290psi, lo is still ~32-33. blows cold enough , other than off lo side reading(and an off hi-side reading) im ok, prolly have to get it checked out sometime, maybe by next year. had kind of figured i may have a problem, at one point i had grill off and may have seen oil on outside of condenser. dont quite know, but she's cold!

about 80dg here so far, so i decided to make sure a/c is safe, bled some off, so high side reads now ~240psi, a bit on the hi-side of charge, not sure of my low side reading, not sure if my low side gauge is working correctly, oh well, i ll make out, its cold! so im ok.
some time ago, maybe last fall i decided to check what my pop's shop did on his timing, the cam was not really @TDC, and pump was @yellow of full retard, well on retiming, i was well i guess ok, a few weeks later i decided to give it another go and (try) get it spot on, so it ends up, crank(after initial setting of timing) and wont start, after fiddling with pump get her to start, as it was had pump all the way rotated advanced, and was within timing spec, a little retarded. its like what the hell, now just out of the blue i now have to advance pump 1tooth, just like that. last night got her spot on. loosened timing belt, took out idler and loosened tensioner, was able to slip pump 1tooth forward, loosen body retard, (of course checking 2x turning over) get her started and got her sopt on. well works(ing) out, so far, but a little disappointed.

check NAPA, this ones around my have a sale, the black bottles of A/C are $33, real good price, its the a/c pro stuff so its the good,cold stuff. warning tho that stuff has sealant in it, so be aware.

Well i popped the hood today to see why my boost gauge creeps up and down when im idling and found power steering fluid EVERYWHERE looks like the seal has fallen out of the front of the pump. Looks like its going to be too much hastle for me to put a seal in it so i guess ill replace the whole pump.

cal327 said:

Well i popped the hood today to see why my boost gauge creeps up and down when im idling and found power steering fluid EVERYWHERE looks like the seal has fallen out of the front of the pump. Looks like its going to be too much hastle for me to put a seal in it so i guess ill replace the whole pump.

Click to expand...

Yes, replacement pump will be much easier. Just find a JY with a late 90's mk3 2.0 4 cyl and you'll have your pump and a pulley too.

Steve

If the seal fell out, then the pump caused it due to an issue on the shaft or bearing, I would also replace the whole pump.

I had a 2.0 mk3 engine in the shed i forgot about that happened to have a pump on it, so i grabbed it and swapped it over. Back up and running again until the turbo swap happens.

just bought a couple of new toys/tools, got 2 welders for a job. a mig, and a plasma cutter. gonna have to figure out how to run the cutter, as it looks like it takes a 50a plug, gonna have to look into that. like 3grand for the two.
so my pop had bought a mk3, turns out when we went to pick it up the inner fender, shock tower, structural, had rusted out, must have been great lake salt water. so they had tried to fix it, had put a few plates together and welded them, some ended up just being blanks, one weld on them they didnt reach far enough to metal. although the welds are good. the rest some smart guy figured to fill in with the old-school-type of slop, and the slop is just one rusty area of just welders slop. no real big deal, as 1st i ll use my new fancy 'toy' the plasma, as it has a gouging option, and get the plates off, and then looks i can quickly cut all that other mess out. had a guy from vortex, he was good enough to totally hack/saw-zall out the entire inner fender shock tower, including some of the firewall, sweet. so after cutting inner, in car, i can take whole inner fender piece and trim it down. and go from there. getting started and clearing the fender will be maybe the more difficult &tedious part of job, so when it goes back it ll all go back ok, and things will work w/o too much problem. its just with welding some metal i ll never have access to, i wont be able to prep it, treat it, or get some paint on it. kind of one of the down sides of doing it this way.
gonna hav-fun

Proper sentences and capitalization, take some time and learn them.

Your posts are painful to read.

i donno, the last couple of months i thought ive done good.
except for a bit long of a post, but still a short critique of my work.

I have to admit, in the beginning, your posts were rough.... I usually skipped over them. I have noticed an improved effort, though.

Anywho, the sedan has been parked for the past 2 weeks due to a sticking e-brake. It always seems to plague the passenger side. I'm all out of A3/B4 rear calipers, and I didn't feel like getting into the AL, A4 caliper installation.

Pulled the e-brake lever, peeked behind the seal and sure enough it was full of rust. Pulled the seal out a bit and blew it out with compressed air, then shot some silicone lube in there. Thinking about it, I should have tried to pack it with silicone grease.

With the e-brake lever moving freely, I decided to rob the AL caliper of its helper spring and swap it to the cast caliper. I've never seen a A3 with these springs, but the mounting holes are there.

Everything now works as it should.

-Todd

Been working on my standalone VNT controller... I run an AHU M-TDI in my B3, I wanted an engine with bomb proof reliability (literally) but with the capabilities of a modern turbo. I built a prototype for my Jetta which worked great; I wanted to build something a bit more permanent after I swapped the engine in to my B3. This is my creation:



It's in a waterproof enclosure, I'm going to sort something out to mount it in the rain tray where the factory ECU would have been if my car had ever come with one.

I've been driving the car for a couple months now without it - the AHU with my upgrades is still a heck of a lot more fun than the stock AAZ even without any significant boost. If I spin it right out to 4500+ the turbo wakes up even with the vanes full open so the 4500-5500 space has been the only place I've been able to to REALLY have fun, looking forward to 2k RPM boost again.



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Repaired my cluster yesterday... Mine is still analog - has a physical odometer and the older style gauges that are electric rather than electronic.

My clock was resetting almost every time I started the car - this was despite the usual things being in good health (battery cables, grounds, etc). As I suspected there was an electrolytic capacitor that had swollen and popped on the board. I followed the traces and they went right to the clock module - jackpot! Replaced that along with the other matching capacitor on the board with new ones. Cost: $1.50 CAD.

I also had issues with my fuel / temp gauges. They were randomly dropping down to 1/4 scale then returning part way to where they should be. The result was I couldn't really ever tell where my temperature was at which ain't good with road trip season starting. I replaced the old obsolete 10V regulator with its modern generic equivalent. The old regulators have the pinout backwards so the new one needs to be installed upside down. If you buy one from VW you get the new regulator with a brass spacer to screw it to the heat sink for about $40. The regulator itself plus some small washers to use as a spacer cost about $3.00.

Both fixes were successful - had a bunch of errands to run yesterday and saw my fuel level and temperature stay right where they should be plus my clock showed the correct time without resetting. Score!

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Where'd you get the needed parts - NewEgg?

Windex said:

Where'd you get the needed parts - NewEgg?

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Just a small electronics store not too far from me. If there's no such thing around you Digikey is my go to for ordering bits. They have an $8 flat rate shipping charge for small orders though which would have more than doubled the cost in this case.

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Completed a 10,000 mile oil change in the B4V.

Last changed 07/22/14 @ 198,735
Today's mileage 07/11/17: 208,800

Apparently, I drive less than I thought...

-Todd

im personally of the opinion using 'more basic' brands of lube/oil 3 whole years? isnt that like really long to have certain oils still in crankcase? im mean for a high-end oil product, it can do fine, that would seem about its limit. isnt 2years for a brand like rotella getting to,past its limits?
if you have the right filter 10k is normal. still.

i just delivered my new 'toys' to my place, going to get in service, in town now getting electrical together. trying to get pic posted. bbl.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4323/35569973970_b799aa89b9_m.jpg

Installed a new head

I use Mobil 1 TDT 5W-40 and Mann filters.

I don't go through the process of getting the oil analyzed, but I can only cross my fingers. Magnetic drain plug was clean...

FWIW, I have a plasma cutter and barely use it. It's good if you cut a lot of thicker metals, but if you're planning on cutting sheet metal, it's a waste of time.

You'll need to dress all edges with a grinder, if you're planning on doing any welding. The heat hardens the metal.

I mainly use angle grinders with cut off wheels. For cutting up cars, nothing beats a Sawzall with a good blade.

-Todd

the other day i made one of my usual journeys. must have been at least 95dg, thats with out the heat index. by the time i hit my town it was later than 7pm, temp in town still read 94dg. i do have my A/C working good, even so i found i needed some more, so recirc button, when you need some more comfort use it, how ever i feel the A/C breathes and cycles better on outside 'fresh' air. instead of letting evap get cold on its self, and stuff its self up, switch back to outside air, it should take a bit to realize the switch, after a while, as it will be on these continuing hot summer days, switch the recirc back on, again get comfortable on it, and dont forget to switch it off. the other trick i use, when coming to a stop, whether home or a pit stop, etc, i, with A/C on, switch to outside air, for a few minutes at the least, before i hit my driveway, or get to my stop, turn A/C off, of course leave fan, i leave it on 1 or 2, and let it warm up. with fan on.

the guy in town was nice enough to sell me the contents of a bottle and let me take it home. medium bottle, 75/25. waay more than i need just for this job. got it for about $40. not bad.

link to pic posted^.
im such a pic poster noob.

About 8 months ago, I installed an 11mm pump and couldn't get the car to run...

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=5207313&postcount=6183


Fast forward to yesterday, I replaced the leaking mainshaft seal. Last night, after a few drinks, I decided to reseal the entire thing. I didn't want to go through the hassle of installation then have another seal spring a leak. I pulled the pump apart, cleaned it and set the parts aside.

Today, I struggled remembering how certain parts of the pump came apart, lol. Take note that the TDI seal kit is missing a few seals you'll need for the ALH pump.... an o-ring for a screw plug and the metal gaskets for the advance piston covers. The latter metal gaskets are also used on some 1Z/AHU pumps.

Anywho, the pump is back together, but someone was definitely in the pump before. I found 2 copper sealing washers being used as additional shims for the advance piston spring, in addition to the 2 steel shims, the QA was scribed and the triangular security screw was rounded off.

No pics since Photobucket is screwing everyone...

I found an exploded diagram of the 11mm pump and verified there should only be 2 steel shims.

I'll get around to swapping the pump back on the sedan, soon. Fingers crossed for round 2.

-Todd

lisab4 said:

Installed a new head

Click to expand...

yes and the work youve done so far looks good, keep it up, &gl, hopefully you get it/her to work.

ToddA1 said:

I found an exploded diagram of the 11mm pump and verified there should only be 2 steel shims.

Click to expand...

Where'd you find the diagram? I'd be interested in seeing that.

Over the weekend I disconnected the wiring harness in the driver's door looking for an electrical short. Very foolishly, I allowed the door to swing almost shut with the harness disconnected, and it broke off the plastic titty for my door lock. I thought about it over the weekend and managed to very carefully machine an intermediate fitting for it. It works again!

Wow! Very nice work!