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

Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
Been a few months, so I went to the junkyard. Last 2 trips, I left empty handed. This time I found a vr6 Passat sedan.... haven’t had a B4 in the yard in probably 5 years. Body is good, but the paint is trashed. Interior is also trashed.

Grabbed the 2 piece grill, door pins and instrument cluster. There were 2 rubber pads on the rad support that the metal grill sat on... never saw these before. Will be going back for the hood, bumper and front doors. Don’t need them, but you never know...

The mirror control actually had the clips on it... pretty rare to see this.

Rear left door won’t open from the outside or inside... I’m guessing the door panel will need to be sacrificed to get in?

Found some old A/D/S passive crossovers in the trunk. This was high end audio, from yesteryear... curious what’s in the doors. Me loves some quality gear....

-Todd
Todd, nice catch, haven't seen a JY B4 passat in quite a while. Keep hoping that one will come in. OTOH my local upull got a 1987 Quantum Syncro a month ago and failed to let me know, they sold it whole and rightfully so, it was actually in decent condition. Paint was dry and there was some clear loss but I didn't see any rust concerns. I would have liked to have had it, I had a red one years ago...it was nice.

I'd go ahead and sacrifice that door card in order to find out what's in that door, maybe you can just slice a big hole in it inside to access the door latch?

Also, I would see if it has the lower belt cover on the right side, those are nice for preventing water from splashing belts in rain and / or winter. Especially if you don't run the lower belly pan.

I wonder if their goal is to kill their own company. They now have millions of images all over the web, that deliver one message: "This is how your photos will look on Photobucket."
Yeah, most people will just sacrifice the images that are there and move on to something new. I have had imgur account for a while but just opted to use PB because most of my pics were already there, now it's time to move, blurry pics aren't pics at all, and that big photobucket watermark is awful.

Steve
 

Abacus

That helpful B4 guy
Joined
Nov 10, 2007
Location
Relocated from Maine to Dewey, AZ
TDI
Only the B4V left
I have a ton of black door cards someone can have if they want them. I need to clean out the barn and they’re just getting tossed otherwise.

I also have most of an interior and exterior to a B4V someone can have if they want. Also free.
 

ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
Also, I would see if it has the lower belt cover on the right side, those are nice for preventing water from splashing belts in rain and / or winter. Especially if you don't run the lower belly pan.

Good call. Forgot about that part. I actually bought on a few years back, and I still haven’t installed it.

-Todd
 

Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
Good call. Forgot about that part. I actually bought on a few years back, and I still haven’t installed it.
-Todd
There's also an exhaust shield but I doubt it's there. I've only seen two ever on 6 cylinder B4 cars and bought one of them. I had to straighten the front but managed to get it fixed. The other was ok shape too but passed on it when I probably shouldn't have, I could have used it on the Mk3 I would think.

I need to start checking the JY searches again just to be sure I'm not missing any B4 cars when they come up. I have notifications setup on Row52 but there are a couple yards that have their own search facilities.

Steve
 

Phi1osopher

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 31, 2019
Location
Austin, TX
TDI
'96 B4V TDI Passat Wagon
Yay! Got a few handy things knocked out today: replaced the A/C fresh air/ recirculating vacuum switch, fixing a problem that has nagged me for months.
Then I replaced the shift-cable "Manual Transmission Relay Lever Cable Carrier" that broke on my Mexico trip. Boom goes the dynamite. FIXED!

and then I tried to replace my missing clutch pedal return spring, but I got the wrong one sent to me... the one I received is too long. I'll have to order another and try again.
 

lisab4

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2013
Location
Belgium
TDI
1996 Passat B4 1.9 TDI
Half-installed the rare gun case in the passenger door. Needs a bit of tweaking to finish it :/
 

97B4TDi

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 5, 2007
Location
Wisconsin
TDI
1997 B4 Passat, 2013 Jetta Sportwagen TDI
Air up the tires and drove it after neglecting it for a week or two.


The beloved B4 has taken a back seat to the JSW lately, but it still fired right up and ran like a sewing machine.
 

CAYB

Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2015
Location
Austria
TDI
MK6 1.6 CR
Installed bags and test fitted some wheels.

BBS RS (RS008 & RS009)
16x7 16x8 on 165/40






VW MK6 Vancouver with a bit frame notching.
18x7.5 on 165/35









 

Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
Slightly OT but just the same want to keep this thread going. Also everyone likes pictures so....

Dragged home a donor for new project. Had been sitting for a while, probably at least 5 years in a yard in the country. Was last purchased in 2008 so maybe off the road since then. Owner said it had electrical issues, particularly lights and cluster, or so I was told. Have not run the engine, not going to risk with this timing belt. Odometer reads 196k miles.

Car is complete although very rotten, but will be completely suitable for a project. It even came with engine cover and the belly pan / diaper.

Took some time to get wheels unstuck and replace with usable tires. Also was not easy to pull out of the ruts it was in.

Made the 240 mile trip back to Dsm without incident.

Steve











 

Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
Nice. You and TDIDaveNH need to get together, you're a lot alike.
Thanks Mark, I'll take that as a compliment :)

Did some minor exploration on the rotten mouse dropping filled green car today, got the driver rear door open finally and opened all the windows to air it out..maybe.

Pulled the air cleaner, yep, snow screen still installed, the mice were unable to get any further in so they didn't chew up or get through the filter media.

Pulled upper timing belt cover and was glad I had elected to not start it on-site before dragging it home. The belt is in very poor condition, see attached pics of the one section. This is why I rarely start cars with interference engines if the age of the TB is unknown, it's too risky.

Interesting note, the TB was a VW branded belt. Gates Power Grip but with the VW and audi trademarks, which likely means that this belt was installed by the dealer, which means if I knew someone who worked in service at VW I could probably find out at what date / miles it was changed last. Not that it matters....just curious TBH.

Also, cranked the engine over by hand several times, it rolls over fine, no bumps or hickups. Also attached VCDS and pulled up faults, there were three, GP fault, EGR fault and CTS problem.

Not sure I'll be doing much more with this before the end of the year, it's parked where it will live for the rest of the winter and buttoned up as best I can. The new shop has no heat or electricity at this point and I don't anticipate having electric turned on before next spring.

Steve



 

Phi1osopher

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 31, 2019
Location
Austin, TX
TDI
'96 B4V TDI Passat Wagon
Sweet, Steve! Love it when good decisions are vindicated with empirical evidence. Conrats on the mess/project.
 

Digital Corpus

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 14, 2008
Location
Ontario, California
TDI
'97 B4 w/ 236K mi body, 46K mi soul
Replaced rear shocks and did a brake bleed all around after cleaning the brake fluid reservoir. After a couple of weeks I'll bleed out the cheap stuff after it has circulated some and put in some good Typ 200. I'm slowly loosing coolant and given that I know the head gasket is good, I'm betting that it is the EGR cooler. This is on the other B4.
 

Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
I wonder if their goal is to kill their own company. They now have millions of images all over the web, that deliver one message: "This is how your photos will look on Photobucket."
It would appear that PB isn't happy with customers right now, the 'download album' feature has been removed. You have to download photos individually now if you want to keep them.

I think I have everything that's there although I'm sure I'll lose something, but since I cannot actually see any of the photos now unless I open them completely I have no way of knowing, and I'm not spending hours doing the activity, so I'll just mark albums completely and delete albums contents completely.

Also it appears the PB website may be under attack or something malicious is going on, there's some pretty aggressive adverts running causing redirects to crap spam websites. Ad blocker required to stop it.

No great loss to pics on PB IMO.

Steve
 

Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
New project time

To complement my recent rotten green Jetta tdi acquisition I have dragged home this 1998 GTI VR6 car that will be completely gone through and reworked as a GTI TDI.

I always wanted a 20th anniversary (Europe) GTI, and only 1000 were built. Of that 1000 600 were 8v 2.0 gas cars, 150 were 16v gas powered and 250 were TDI cars, none of the tdi cars were sold outside Europe. The gas cars made it into the UK but to my knowledge none ever made it here. Also, legally cannot import one for another year(ish).

All the anniversary cars had the Plus suspension (5x100) and I believe they were black, flash red, mystic blue or satin silver in either 3 or 5 door. I've never seen or read that white was a possible color, but I'm not painting this thing. They also got 16" BBS wheels (maybe I'll do these...dunno) and they had the wheel opening trims that you see sometimes on modded Mk3's in the US.

At any rate it won't be a true 20th anniversary GTI but it will be as close as I can reasonably get. It will also probably have some performance mods too, but what those are I really don't know yet. The real anniversary GTI TDI cars got the AFN 110ps engine so they were already about 20hp more than our US cars.

I do have a full eibach suspension kit with front and rear bars that's been sitting around for probably a decade now. Has Eibach dampers and lowering springs along with bars. These will definitely be used on the project.

So I decided a while back that should a clean VR6 car present itself I would try and make this project happen. And the purchase of the rotten green TDI was the donor acquisition to make this happen.

Fast forward to last Saturday and this thing got dragged home from southern Missouri, not as clean as I had hoped and not as complete as it should have been but it will as least provide a good starting point I think. It's almost completely rust free but there is some damage to the rocker pinch welds near the front wheels that the seller didn't divulge to me before making the trip. He also didn't mention a lot of things but for what I paid it'll probably work out fine.



Here's a red anniversary GTI. I doubt that I'll go for the full anniversary side trim but I might try and do the black styling theme carried out on the US bumpers and trim. We'll have to see, much of this yet it just in the idea phase...

 

PassatLife

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 27, 2019
Location
Coquitlam, BC
TDI
1996 Passat Tdi Wagon
After months of eating foam and having my defog barely work, I finally got around to pulling the dash today to repair the blend doors. I've been putting it off because of how tedious the mk3 dash removal is but this was surprisingly very easy. There was only 4 bolts holding the dash in, after I got all the wiring out of the way. Only took me around 1.5 hrs working by myself. Will tackle the blend doors another day as I ran out of sun

 

powerstrokeless

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2011
Location
VA
TDI
B4V
Sorry. Hadn't been visiting much! Still have my B4v, love driving it when I can. Last inspection - they failed it due to a rust hole underneath, you could put your finger in and feel the carpet. Took it to another inspection place and they came up with other stuff that needed repairs and said nothing of the hole in the floorboard.

My son's MKIV manual trans went out on him for the 2nd time. He has been driving the B4V.
 
Last edited:

Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
Sorry. Hadn't been visiting much! Still have my B4v, love driving it when I can. Last inspection - they failed it due to a rust hole underneath, you cold put your finger in and feel the carpet. Took it to another inspection place and they came up with other stuff that needed repairs and said nothing of the hole in the floorboard.

My son's MKIV manual trans went out on him for the 2nd time. He has been driving the B4V.
Have heard of MK4 transmissions going out not sure why. They are bigger cars but shouldn't be that big of a deal, I think a B3/4 wagon probably weighs as much as a Mk4 Jetta.

Steve
 

quantum_tdi

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2004
Location
Seattle, WA
TDI
R320 CDI, '96 B4V (for sale)
Sorry. Hadn't been visiting much! Still have my B4v, love driving it when I can. Last inspection - they failed it due to a rust hole underneath, you could put your finger in and feel the carpet. Took it to another inspection place and they came up with other stuff that needed repairs and said nothing of the hole in the floorboard.

My son's MKIV manual trans went out on him for the 2nd time. He has been driving the B4V.
Yeah, when I decided to clean mine thoroughly I found enough floor rust (thanks sound insulation and crappy drains) I'm going to put a new pan in on the driver's side. I was preparing to sell it a few years ago but stored after I found that. I just pulled it out from under the car cover at the cabin... She still pulls strong and is a fun ride, but I do need to be done with extra cars :eek:
 

ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
Welded a few teeth on the driver window regulator, for the wagon. I’ve been putting it off, since I was being somewhat conscious of stopping the window, before it got all the way to the bottom. If it went all the way down, it wouldn’t come back up.

If it got to the bottom, I was removing the door panel and lifting, while using the switch. Happened around 5 times and it got old... I got pretty fast with removing and replacing the panel and other parts, though...

I’ve been chasing a steering wheel shimmy on the sedan, and have been making progress. Inner cv had a little play, so the shaft was replaced, on a Saturday. Tie rod ends were embarrassingly bad, and they were replaced on another Saturday... this was when I noticed the brakes.... rotors are rotted. Ordered Zimmerman front rotors, and they’ll get done on a future Saturday. The car has been sitting a few weeks and the battery died. Charged it last night.

Considered robbing the Rotbox of the front brakes, but that would have likely continued and I don’t want a immobile car on my property. Charged that battery yesterday, too.

-Todd
 

jhax

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Location
Golden, CO
TDI
96 Passat B4V, ALH engine out of a 2002 Jetta, some IE Rods and ASV Pistons. Nothing drivable yet though
Not today but about 2 weeks ago I changed the balance shaft seal, replaced the rear main, clutch, front wheel bearing, axles, tie rod and control arm bushings. Took me a week and a half to complete but I did it.
 

Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
I changed the timing belt on the rotten green 98 Jetta today. I suspected it had a bad hose or something else when I brought it home (on car toter) it had no coolant in the reservoir, but today I discovered that the offender was the water pump, so I replaced that as well.

Odd thing was that for all the time this thing has sat and all the crust on everything cuz it was an illinois car, ALL the bolts came loose without much fuss. The allen bolts holding HB on, the allen bolts at the water pump and what really surprised me all 8 bolts in the water pump itself.

None of these fought me at all, so the only real annoyance was when my #6 allen bit tip broke off when the last HB bolt broke loose. I found another eventually that I used to button it all back up. The only other annoyance was the odor of mouse urine that just eminates from this rotten thing...yuck.

Anyway, new belt on, car running but will have to deal with the VCDS and timing adjustment when I'm back there later this week. Also will need to do some vacuum line replacements and probably pull the ECU and replace the hose inside. It has CEL and blinking glow lights...lol

Steve
 

ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
... this was when I noticed the brakes.... rotors are rotted.

Ordered Zimmerman front rotors, and they’ll get done on a future Saturday. The car has been sitting a few weeks and the battery died. Charged it last night.

New rotors came in and they’re “made in Germany”... pretty surprised at that for $30 each. Decided to save these for the GTI, and swapped the GTI’s Raybestos 10.1s and Hawk HPS pads to the sedan. For the short time the GTI has been off the road, the rotors were way rustier than expected. The ones on the Rotbox look better than these and the Rotbox hasn’t been driven a mile in the past year...

Pulled the brakes off the sedan and one inner pad had no meat.... oops. The other inner pad had a little meat, but the rotor’s inner face was badly rotted. Both outer pads had about .25” left. All slider pins moved perfectly. I was thinking about it, and I don’t think I ever did anything more than a fluid flush on this car.

Anywho, the hubs had some crustiness to them and it was removed with a grinder with a stringer wheel. One broken set screw was drilled and tapped. The rotors were cleaned up with a Roloc disc. The hubs and rotor hats were given a light coat of epoxy paint. The carrier’s pad surfaces were cleaned up with the stringer wheel. Sliders, boots and bores were cleaned out and freshly lubed.

Reassembled and road tested.

I noticed B4’s pistons took a bit of effort to get them to retract.... made me think... I grabbed a bad caliper, from the shed, (frozen piston from the Rotbox) and managed to get the piston to retract. Wd40 sprayed in the caliper and under the boot then some beating with a hammer, did the job. 120psi of air got it to pop out... watch your fingers.

The caliper bore and piston looked perfect. What I did notice was the square o-ring had swelled a bit, compared to a new o-ring. After pulling the o-ring to inspect, I couldn’t stuff it back in the groove. I’m thinking the o-rings in the B4 calipers may be swelling too. Not sure if this would have anything to do with the premature wear on the inner pads....

-Todd
 

Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
Well weather is finally warmer now so I set the timing on the rotten green jetta that got the replacement timing belt on the 27th. And since I had to warm the engine fully to make the adjustments I went ahead and did the oil change too since that was probably very old too.

After I drained the pan I went to punch a hole in the filter with a junky screwdriver I have around for such things and as I touched the filter it moved! I punched the hole and let it all drain off and when that was done I cleaned off the oily mess with a rag and when I went to undo it I found that it was barely finger tight....in fact you could say that it was very loose for an oil filter.

Makes me glad that I changed it...aside from the fact that it was a STP filter and not something I would use, and likewise I have to wonder what oil was used in it?

Also have all the CEL faults figured out now save for GP's (harness or plugs) but that's probably the harness, and a faulty brake pedal switch, but otherwise all the others seem to be resolved.

Would have driven it around the block but it has no brakes so that was out. Now just waiting to be dismantled...

Steve
 

Mcgink

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2004
Location
South of Boston MA
TDI
I-Red,"The Passat formerly known as Harlequin" 97 B4, a non VW GTDI too
Started up I-Red today after about a year. After an hour on the charger she ran like I drove it yesterday ��
My 66 Olds is headed to LA for her new owner to restore. Unfortunately, I-Red still likely needs a clutch so I didn't take her around the block. It was great to hear that diesel clatter again though.
 
Last edited:

thechoochlyman

Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
May 7, 2015
Location
Campbellsville, Kentucky
TDI
1997 B4 Sedan
My sunroof handle finally disintegrated into a million pieces, so I made a new one from a piece of aluminum 2x2 angle. Have some tan colored spray paint I may shoot it with later.





Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
 

ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
Lol, you did that in CA, where everything is illegal? Nice job!

In NJ, I’m allowed to paint 2 cars per year, although I’d probably never want to undertake a project like that.

-Todd
 

turbodieseldyke

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2010
Location
Free Mustache Rides
TDI
98 jetta
If they don't enforce laws against living in a tent on public property, or crapping on the sidewalk, or "peacefully" vandalizing and looting stores, then there's a good chance they won't bother you about your paint job.

Laws only apply to law-abiding citizens.
 

Sprocket

Sprockette's hubby
Joined
Nov 18, 2004
Location
MI
TDI
2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit Eco Diesel, 2005 Passat Silverstone Grey, 1996 Passat Storm Grey
Installed an updated tune from RocketChip to go with the newer 1756VK turbo. Asked him to turn the boost down a little bit to a max of 27 PSI.

Changed the cabin air filter and also changed injector copper washers, clamp bolts and washers. I was having an issue with 2 of them leaking slightly, so I ended up pulling all of them, cleaning everything, & installing new hardware. So far so good!

It's time to pass the torch to someone else who will take care of her. I hardly use this car anymore and I'm using my free time elsewhere to do projects around the house. So, when things need attention, it's getting to be more frustrating than rewarding.

Anyway, any ideas on what I should ask for my B4V? It has a lot of upgrades and goodies + a bunch of extra parts to go along with the sale (most everything needed for a 5 lug conversion + a set of 5 lug wheels to go with it).

I need to clean it up to take some pictures and post a for sale add, but I wanted to get your opinions on pricing before I list it.
 
Top