What did you do to your car today?

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Location
South of Boston
TDI
'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
After similar life (little shorter, 293K) and similar tune for 120K my engine gave up. I put a new long block in it. Wondered what the heck I was doing at the time but 50K miles later I feel it was a great decision.
 

fase2000TDI

Vendor
Joined
Aug 30, 2005
Location
Chesapeake, VA, USA 401-919-0466
TDI
2003 Jettawagon TDI; 2015 GSW 6MT
After similar life (little shorter, 293K) and similar tune for 120K my engine gave up. I put a new long block in it. Wondered what the heck I was doing at the time but 50K miles later I feel it was a great decision.
Not today but yesterday...I killed my 2002 hot rod Jetta I bought new :(

Driving along at 80 mph,100 miles from home, car had a slight stumble for a second, then ran normally for another 2 miles, then lost all power, engine died, and I coasted to a stop near an exit with a wide shoulder. Popped timing cover, belt is tight. Engine locked solid. White smoke from tailpipe as the engine died.

Rescued it from the side of the road after completing my work day and towed it to the shop. Luckily had a coworker just behind me that gave me a ride to where we were going, and was able to work the whole day at the account.

Not sure which direction I will be going, may repair or may part out and crush or sell as is. I got over 335k miles out of it with 235k being on a 28psi tune so it owes me nothing :)
what failed guys?
 

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Location
South of Boston
TDI
'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
Mine suffered from increasing oil consumption and blowby. Ovaled bores was the probable cause. Too many trips to 6000 RPM, I guess.
 

dogdots

Vendor
Joined
Sep 4, 2002
Location
Kansas City
TDI
None
what failed guys?
I haven't done exploratory surgery yet but I suspect head gasket and hydrolock from coolant in cylinders on my car. I have a Bmw 335d for my daily now and driving the Jetta while I am hopping up the BMW. Luckily I still have a few spare b5.5 passats with manual trans swaps to drive since my BMW is apart getting upgrades and I killed the Jetta ?
 

LarrE

Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2015
Location
Campbell,CA
TDI
2000 Jetta
Glow plugs solved

Wingnut's Glow plugs 101 seemed daunting at first. I'm just not used to working on new VWs. Here are the challenges I had: worthless instructions that came with my multimeter, ODBii reader that dinner work on my car, and coolant glow plug boot issues.

It seems like I have to relearn my multimeter each time I use it. Why can't the just write DC on one side and AC on the other instead of some cryptic symbols. Once I figured out how to read resistance I got lucky. The first plug I touched spiked the needle while the others didn't. When I took off the first of those I was met with a sooty tip. After putting the new one in I tested again and got a reading like the presumed good plug. After replacing the other 2 bad ones I saved my last new plug for my wife's '03 TDI Beetle that had recently produced a fault on plug #2. After getting a good reading there I plugged in my reader and cleared the code. Upon startup the code failed to reappear so I pronounced success there.

Now back to my Jetta to do the same. Here's where the answer to a previous post of mine came into play. To make a long story short it turns out that I need to turn off my radio to make the reader work.

Now, lets step back in time to the last time it wasn't raining and I had a chance to tackle the coolant glow plugs. When I pulled the boots off of them they all 3 crumbled in my hands. Since I couldn't really find this part on Cascade German Parts web site I gave them a call. It turns out that regular plug boots off a Passat are the ones to use here because they come 1 to a package.
 

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Location
South of Boston
TDI
'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
I waited for a '15 for nearly a year, but yesterday I bought this:


2011 335d, 49K miles, two owners, clean Carfax. Cost about half MSRP on a 2015 Jetta SEL, and is much, much more car.

Complex? You bet. But parts aren't crazy expensive (I should know) and my guru works on these with some frequency. It won't be my daily so we'll see how it goes.
 

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Location
South of Boston
TDI
'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
Golf and IBW are still my dailies. That's not changing. Probably will store the B4 until one of the kids needs a car or it becomes collectible. :)
 

donDavide

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2005
Location
Severna Park, Maryland USA
TDI
2003 Jetta ;2006 Golf; 2015 Jetta S
I waited for a '15 for nearly a year, but yesterday I bought this:


2011 335d, 49K miles, two owners, clean Carfax. Cost about half MSRP on a 2015 Jetta SEL, and is much, much more car.

Complex? You bet. But parts aren't crazy expensive (I should know) and my guru works on these with some frequency. It won't be my daily so we'll see how it goes.
Nice! Very nice. I am not sure what I am going to do w/mine. I have a few more things to do to my Jetta to get it where i want, Golf now running great, but I may sell mid year once Jetta is 100% for me
 

dogdots

Vendor
Joined
Sep 4, 2002
Location
Kansas City
TDI
None
.....

Complex? You bet. But parts aren't crazy expensive (I should know) and my guru works on these with some frequency. It won't be my daily so we'll see how it goes.

So...that means you will be adding all the maintenance items I will need for my 335d and X5 35d to your website soon, like fuel and oil filters, oil, etc., right ? :)
 

crashtested

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 15, 2010
Location
Nelson, BC
TDI
2016 Q5 TDI Technik, 2014 GSW CL 6MT (RIP), 2004 Jetta GLS 5MT (sold), 2010 GSW HL 6MT (buy back)
Rolled 325k km in the Jetta on the way into work yesterday!!
 

nokivasara

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2008
Location
Sweden @ Lat 61N
TDI
Tiguan 4-motion, Golf mk7
Decided to check if I could find the cause of an intermittant door speaker on my Skoda, the door panels are like on a mk4 Golf.
But first I removed the door lock because it couldn't be turned, so I put it in a bath, with a mix of diesel and ATF.
After that I checked the wires from the body to the door, removed the kick panel to look on the inside too and broke the hood release pin when I tried to get the retaining pin in there. It is a bit silly construction but I've never damaged it before.
Then I removed the door panel, breaking 5/6 retaining clips and the lens of the light on the panel...At this point I figured it wasn't going very smoothly today.
Checked all the wiring and didn't find anything wrong.
Decided to put it all back, starting with the door lock. Guess what!?
The retaining ring fell in to the door! Happy days!

Drilled out the rivets on the speaker, hoping to be able to put the ring back that way, not very eager to remove the inner door panel at this point.
I managed to get the ring on there but it steps out when I tighten the screw, did this about 20 times before I waved the white flag and called it a day.
I didn't realize mrMurphy was visiting me today :mad:
 

MikeS_18

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Feb 18, 2005
Location
Bow, NH
TDI
'03 Jetta Wagon, '13 Passat SE, '64 Ford Econoline
Replaced my LR wheel bearing. A first for me and a first for that particular bearing. 280K miles. NutsNBolts was on call in case I hit a snag - I almost did a couple times as it's not completely intuitive, but it worked out.

I realize now that my car has a bunch of rattles and noises that were being drowned out by a VERY noisy bearing.
 

red16vdub

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2013
Location
(617) City of CHAMPIONS
TDI
03 JSW 5spd
I merge onto the freeway in 3rd an suddenly clutch began slipping a bit, So in amazement decided to check things out. On further inspection I notice fuel leaking from an injector return line and running down the block into the tranny bell housing possibly destroying my SBC endurance 3. I swap out all return 3mm fuel lines and clean things up with brake cleaner. Went for test run, but still have a slip above 20psi. Hopefully it starts to grab over next couple weeks, or replacing clutch maybe the only option. $ucks !
 
Last edited:

ddc

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2007
Location
Indiana
TDI
1997 Passat (SOLD), 2005 Jetta Wagon
Yesterday

In my 05 PD - changed the in tank fuel pump (lift pump).
Just the electric pump inside, not the entire assembly. Kind of a pain, found out it was bad when I changed the fuel filter. Had to mighty vac fuel up from the tank.
Happy to retain the original assembly that will allow the tandem pump to pull fuel from the tank if (when) the lift pump fails.
 

aja8888

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Dec 25, 2007
Location
Texas..RETIRED 12/31/17
TDI
Out of TDI's
You guys gotta be envious..:D...it was 85 F in Houston yesterday and going to 88 F and sunny here today. Our Azalea's are blooming.
 
Last edited:

romad

Top Post Dawg
Joined
May 27, 2011
Location
Prescott, AZ
TDI
2005 Jetta GLS Wagon "Cranberry"
But what about the storm that spawned the tornadoes that hit NOLA? Did it go through Houston earlier?
 

aja8888

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Dec 25, 2007
Location
Texas..RETIRED 12/31/17
TDI
Out of TDI's

That Guy

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2009
Location
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
TDI
2001 MKiv Golf TDI
On my 2001 Golf TDI....
Finished reupholstering the seat covers from Velour to Leather. (Black with burgundy red inserts and stitching. I don't have a picture, but check out leatherseats.com and you'll get the idea.)
Reused the existing heater pad elements for the front seats. Required a lot of sewing....but they work great...just takes a bit longer to heat up due to the extra padding in the leather, and the extra density of the leather itself.
Also fixed the broken spring in both front seats....helps with the seat height adjustment.
Puffed up the seat foam using steam.
Greased some noisy springs in the seat backs.
Greased the gear for the seat back adjustment.
And cleaned and greased the locking pin and sliding assembly.
Used Marine Grade Anti-Seize grease. Should last pretty much forever.

First time driving it with the new seats this morning. Seems like I'm sitting a bit higher, but that's about it. Look fantastic!
 

dogdots

Vendor
Joined
Sep 4, 2002
Location
Kansas City
TDI
None
Not today but yesterday...I killed my 2002 hot rod Jetta I bought new :(

Driving along at 80 mph,100 miles from home, car had a slight stumble for a second, then ran normally for another 2 miles, then lost all power, engine died, and I coasted to a stop near an exit with a wide shoulder. Popped timing cover, belt is tight. Engine locked solid. White smoke from tailpipe as the engine died.

Rescued it from the side of the road after completing my work day and towed it to the shop. Luckily had a coworker just behind me that gave me a ride to where we were going, and was able to work the whole day at the account.

Not sure which direction I will be going, may repair or may part out and crush or sell as is. I got over 335k miles out of it with 235k being on a 28psi tune so it owes me nothing :)
Did exploratory procedure and found carnage in cylinder 2, broken glow plug tip and melted down piston, must have been a streaming injector. It doesn't look like I will be tearing this long block down, I may source a used ALH long block to replace it with.
 

fruitcakesa

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Feb 18, 2007
Location
Vermont
TDI
04 jetta 5 spd wagon
Chasing down the elusive rattle from the rear of the 04, I wrapped the lower shock mount bolt in tape.
I still need to get the proper diameter bolt.
 
Top