What did you do to your MKIV today?

BobnOH

not-a-mechanic
Joined
May 29, 2004
Location
central Ohio
TDI
New Beetle 2003 manual
Pulled the factory radio and the little box.
Need to cut some plastic out to fit my updated cup holder now that there's room.
Then wire it up so I'll have AM/FM/mp3
 

deejaaa

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2007
Location
Baytown, Texas
TDI
FOR SALE, 2002 Jetta GLS, 5 speed
What is your setup for night driving??
I have the LED connected to only come on with high beams. trigger for relay is a scotch connected to HB wire. LED is aimed to the center of the road about 20 feet in front. due to it being a spot instead of flood, there is a lot of light on the sides but most is in front. I just put a clear cover over the light/grille area so airflow is uninterrupted.
here it is unfinished(in this pic, aim is too low, corrected by reworking the bracket. upper gap has been sealed. don't want a perm notch filler in case I want to remove light. a work in progress):

mounted on bracket:

here's the bracket while I was working on it:
 
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WolfgangVW

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2011
Location
Alberta, Canada
TDI
2003 Jetta TDI - Manual
Deejja thats cool. I do alot of night driving , often in fairly rural locations. I have been wanting to set up a light bar or a couple of driving lights. This is cool to see, i am still wondering the best way to do this so i appreciate you sharing......
 

MidnightBlue

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 2, 2013
Location
Seattle/Eastside
TDI
2002 Golf GLS
Replaced the thermostat and flange. I had started to suspect the thermostat was sticking occasionally, but was willing to wait and see... but then It started to drip coolant at the flange, a clear sign it was time to do the job.

This is the second thermostat in about 2 years, 30,000 miles. Bought genuine VW parts this time, hoping for a longer service life! Bora Parts got 'em to me right away, so I was able to take advantage of mild weather and a break between storms today.
 

peterdaniel

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Location
Campbell, CA
TDI
2003 Jetta GL 5 spd TDi, 2003 Jetta GLS Indigo blue 5spd wagon. 2003 Jetta GLS Candy white wagon 5 speed
Let's see....
Timing belt job, new water pump and associated components
Bilsteins HD's all around
new brakes with new rotors all around
new lower control arm bushings
IP pump reseal
new coolant hoses
new radiator
rebuilt head with Frank06 stage 2 cam and ported exhaust
.622 5th gear conversion
New Turbo S Beetle rims with new Yokohama tires
New Pioneer head unit with 700 watt 700/2 JL amplifier, dual 8 inch JL subs, new door speakers with cross over tweeters (all JL )
all windows tinted.
New NOS VW leather seat bottoms for the front seats including new heated seat elements

In the next 2-3 weeks... Stage 3 Malone tune, new DLC1019 nozzles balanced with new clutch

This should keep me happy ( and broke!) for awhile
 

JB05

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 20, 2005
Location
Il.USA
TDI
Golf,2005,anthracite blue
Going to try and change my lower radiator hose. It had rubbed against the spring clip on the oil cooler and started to leak. I will have to be more careful how I position those oil cooler clips. It's my own fault.
 

TDIGAZ

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2008
Location
Eastern Ontario, Canada
TDI
Current: 2003 Jetta GLS Grey 5 spd. Previous: 2003 Jetta GLS Silver 5 spd (lost in a collision)
I went to leave for work yesterday and had a flat rear tire. So today I had it repaired and as I was leaving the tire shop noticed the CEL was on :(.
Scanned the code... P0673 Glow Plug #3.
Checked the resistance on all the plugs and the second plug from the timing belt end was bad. Luckily I kept some used plugs from when I changed all four at once many years ago. I have changed one at a time as needed since then, and now I'm down to my last used spare plug.
Replaced the defective glow plug, cleared the code and now can relax for the weekend (hopefully).
BTW which german engineer decided to run the 2 "paired" injector fuel lines directly over this glow plug... thankfully I have a set of wobble-head extensions which made the job somewhat easier, although mine don't wobble as much as some others I've seen.
A little more wobble would have been nicer. (never thought I'd say that :D)
 

BobnOH

not-a-mechanic
Joined
May 29, 2004
Location
central Ohio
TDI
New Beetle 2003 manual
Modified the inside of my center dash cage plastic to accept the updated cupholder. Dremel and hacksaw blade. A real pain but a much better cupholder. Now for the radio.
 
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nburg

Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2015
Location
Catskills, NY
TDI
2015 Golf Sportwagen SE 6MT & 2004 Golf TDI 4door 5 speed 273K
Finished doing seat swap. Now I got 2000 leather seats in my 2004 golf. Old drivers side seat was rough. Seats were cheap but I broke my hand carrying the first seat out of the guys house. So cheap seats turned into expensive ones. Tomorrow I will try to fix my hatch, it doesn't stay shut.
 

Jake_S

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2012
Location
Charlotte, NC
TDI
2012 JSW TDI/DSG; 05 Jetta Wagon auto (retired)
Replaced all rotors and pads, because of a horrible grinding noise from the left rear. Pulled the pads and they show very little wear (installed this past June), but the rotor looked a bit rough.

Jake
 

deejaaa

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2007
Location
Baytown, Texas
TDI
FOR SALE, 2002 Jetta GLS, 5 speed
Modified the inside of my center dash cage plastic to accept the updated cupholder. Dremel and hacksaw blade. A real pain but a much better cupholder. Now for the radio.
can you post a few pics of that?
 

BluFalcon

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 21, 2014
Location
Kansas
TDI
13 Passat TDI
Replaced my headlights with new units, and everything went fine, until I lost the pin for the hood pull release. So, I'm rocking a yellow zip tie until I can get another one and try to install it again.
 

steve6

Veteran Member
Joined
May 25, 2010
Location
Beaverton, ON
TDI
2003 jetta tdi
Changed the oil. Tried to change the lower engine mount. Couldn't.
No amount of pounding or prying would break it loose.
If you mean the lower dog bone, most people break the bolts and just smash the aluminum around the bolts, and then the bolts will come out with vice grips or pipe wrench. The aluminum oxidizes and wont slide off the bolts.
 

mrrhtuner

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2011
Location
London Ont Canada
TDI
2003 Jetta Wagon TDI, 2015 Passat TDI, 2015 Touareg TDI
If you mean the lower dog bone, most people break the bolts and just smash the aluminum around the bolts, and then the bolts will come out with vice grips or pipe wrench. The aluminum oxidizes and wont slide off the bolts.

I had the same thing happen.
One bolt let loose, the other...snapped.

Haven't got back under there to fix it :-(
 

Jake_S

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2012
Location
Charlotte, NC
TDI
2012 JSW TDI/DSG; 05 Jetta Wagon auto (retired)
R&R the lift pump. Job was incredibly easy, and only took about 30 minutes.

Jake
 

steve6

Veteran Member
Joined
May 25, 2010
Location
Beaverton, ON
TDI
2003 jetta tdi
I had the same thing happen.
One bolt let loose, the other...snapped.

Haven't got back under there to fix it :-(

Its pretty standard, any regular TDI mechanic I talk to said this is the 'procedure' when they change clutches/trans work lol. dog bone and new bolts are factored in.
 

mrrhtuner

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2011
Location
London Ont Canada
TDI
2003 Jetta Wagon TDI, 2015 Passat TDI, 2015 Touareg TDI
Its pretty standard, any regular TDI mechanic I talk to said this is the 'procedure' when they change clutches/trans work lol. dog bone and new bolts are factored in.


Steve/everybody else....when you were presented with this issue and used a hammer to loosen the dogmount bushing from the seized bolt(s), was the mount re-usable afterwards? I didn't understand if you meant that a new mount and bolts are needed or just bolts.
 

Rembrant

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 31, 2014
Location
Canada's Ocean Playground
TDI
2013 Golf TDI DSG
Steve/everybody else....when you were presented with this issue and used a hammer to loosen the dogmount bushing from the seized bolt(s), was the mount re-usable afterwards?
No, I think it's pretty common practice to break the aluminum ears off around the bolts, thus the dogbone mount becomes scrap. I just removed one like this recently from a spare subframe that I bought. Both bolt heads snapped off, and the bolts were locked hard in the mount.

If you look closely at the mount, you may see hairline cracks down the sides of the bolt ears where it mounts to the subframe. The salt and corrosion can only expand so much in the holes, the aluminum will eventually crack anyway.

You can get a new dogbone for about $50 bucks. I think most people don't worry about ruining the old one because if you break those bolt heads off, it's usually because you're trying to replace the mount anyway.
 

mrrhtuner

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2011
Location
London Ont Canada
TDI
2003 Jetta Wagon TDI, 2015 Passat TDI, 2015 Touareg TDI
No, I think it's pretty common practice to break the aluminum ears off around the bolts, thus the dogbone mount becomes scrap. I just removed one like this recently from a spare subframe that I bought. Both bolt heads snapped off, and the bolts were locked hard in the mount.
If you look closely at the mount, you may see hairline cracks down the sides of the bolt ears where it mounts to the subframe. The salt and corrosion can only expand so much in the holes, the aluminum will eventually crack anyway.
You can get a new dogbone for about $50 bucks. I think most people don't worry about ruining the old one because if you break those bolt heads off, it's usually because you're trying to replace the mount anyway.
Great, thank you for the help!
 

where2

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 29, 1999
Location
North Palm Beach, FL, USA
TDI
One '13 JSW_TDI & One '04 Variant_TDI
Changed out my locked up alternator clutched pulley, and potentially cleared up my P0671 CEL by dealing with my #1 glow plug resistance.

Got my parts from Kerma. If the original German pulley lasted 195k, I shouldn't need another German pulley anytime soon...
 

baggedmazda

Active member
Joined
Dec 1, 2015
Location
lincoln,ne
TDI
2001 golf tdi 5 speed
Just starting to dip my toes into these cars I did a nice simple oil change lol next up will be a alarm and double din radio along with some new rear hatch struts
 

giff

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 26, 2015
Location
ransomville ny
TDI
2002 Jetta TDI
Just removed the "tree hugger" bumper stickers from the previous owner. My wife didn't even want to ride in the car until they were off! Cleaned the intake and turbo a couple weeks ago, timing belt is next, then she is going on the road.
 

BluFalcon

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 21, 2014
Location
Kansas
TDI
13 Passat TDI
Towed my Golf from Texas to my GF's house in Kansas in preparation for my upcoming relocation to Wichita.

Tried to drive in reverse to get the car off the tow dolly, and it wouldn't come off of it. Little to no power whatsoever. I eventually got the car off and took it for a spin around the block.

Car felt "weird" while accelerating and had a very hard brake pedal.

Poked around a bit and found a section of the brake booster line cracked completely through and another section with cracks starting. I "band aided" one section with a piece of rubber glove and some electrical tape (If it's stupid, but it works then it's not stupid anymore). The section that was completely cracked through got some heater hose and zip ties. Took it for a spin and everything works again.

Ordered the right parts and I'll fix it correctly when I go up again in two weeks.
 

Davegsm82

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 6, 2010
Location
Newcastle, UK
TDI
MK7 Golf TDI 2.0 CRB 150BHP + T25 Vanagon AFN 110BHP
Drove 300 miles home with either a failed HG or cracked coolant jacket.

Not proud but had to be done. About 8 litres of water vaporised into the atmosphere.

Dave.
 
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