What did you do to your car today?

Last night after finshing the touch up paint repairs to fender wells etc.etc.
I cleaned and wiped down the tired/dry looking interior palstic parts dash ,steering wheel, and anything else looking dingy' with some Four Peakes protective wipes I got from Wal-Mart[1.98 for27 wipes]. Its kinda like ArmourAll but I think is a little less greasy looking and smells better to me. Should have done this along time ago, looks ALOT better now.

Went and had a set of mail-order i3s installed. Those POS 35psi max pressure Pirellis weren't making the cut.

Factory brakes, 77K miles on them, still have some padding left.


Somewhere, there is a VR6 Jetta without front brakes. New wheel bearings pressed, glass beaded everything to clean up then painted for that fresh clean look.


The just bolts right up. Didn't even have problems removing the wheel speed sensors, just wiggled them right out. Keeping in line with my whole OEM look.


Ahh, much better. With a VNT-17 showing up very soon, any "go faster" should always be balanced out with "stop quicker".

Not really shown, the VR6 axles and flanged (with seals) I slapped in. All this stuff just bolts right up, pretty simple.

Nice looking OEM+ mods there. Keepin' it classy. I like it!

Replaced 3 of the 4 wheels caps. They were stripped of paint and one got the emblem ripped off in a car wash yesterday.

Sure looks first class...

I assume the VR6 brakes would not work with 15" rims?

shagin'wagen said:

I assume the VR6 brakes would not work with 15" rims?

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They do.

Hot damn! I'm going to the wrecker.

shagin'wagen said:

Hot damn! I'm going to the wrecker.

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ooo how much for a set? I may go find a set too.

CSM Jetta said:

ooo how much for a set? I may go find a set too.

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I don't have a clue. I just hope there is one at the Pick 'n Pull. One more thing, will they mess with the ABS system? It's a life saver here in the winter. Saved me more than once.

shagin'wagen said:

One more thing, will they mess with the ABS system? It's a life saver here in the winter. Saved me more than once.

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Not at all. You are good to go!

But with the big brake upgrade comes this:



I got lucky, the rear end is in great shape, not perfect, but better than 99% of the rest. The front is about as perfect as I could ever hope for as well. Steering wheel once again level. Oddly, this is the first alignment I've done to my car, 77K miles on it, lowered it after 25 yards... those springs should of settled by now.

ABS, ESP all working the same with the big brakes, no issues. New brakes take a little while to fully seat, so the first few stops are not so great.

New wheels today - Audi TT 17s with modded VW centre caps and DIY refinishing.







Simon

That DIY refinishing looks 100% spot on from the pics. Good job!

Continued....

tedali2004 said:

So, my first post on changes to my 03 Jetta. Only had it since May 1 (7 weeks). The 100K timing belt kit (Bora), Platnium tint and dash cover (FL must) and Bilstein HD dampeners (Bora).
I noticed the stock front left strut was quite stiffer than the right side. After 75k miles they were pass their prime. I wish I knew if the original owner lived on a dirt road.
The ride seems tighter now, not so much dive when I try to turn corners. I didn't want to lower the car so I'm staying away from springs unless I find stiff w/stock ride height.

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So now I have a Curtis hitch, VW roof rack and Autotech rear sway bar.

The hitch match up with the roof rack and a home built T-bar for transporting my canoe.

The RSB has begun to tame the body roll. I have the medium stiffness setting now and might try the stiffest. The 195/65R15 tires are limiting grip, so this will be the extent of chassis mods.

Today, I yanked an 01m out of a newbeetle (owned by kgirlbug2k) replaced it with a 5 speed (o2j) and got pedals replaced & wiring started with the help of some good friends.

I did not replace the automatic brake pedal because after an hour of fighting with it, I gave up on getting the booster separated from the brake pedal.

I do not have whatever the special tool is to pop that loose.

few more hours tomorrow, and it should be ready to run under its own power.

need to replace the reverse light switch, axle bolts, and the pivot with the ball end on it for the side to side shift throws. TT short shift installed. PS line mounted out of the way with minimal fuss.

time for bed. restart the fun in the morning.

Finally her bug will be back on the road. It seems like a thousand posts ago in this thread she was having problems with the rebuilt slushbox.

Today, I washed my car. We finally got some better weather so it's time to show off LOL. (I know, not much but it's something).

I finally got to detail my beater Golf, first time in few months. Cleaned everything inside and out, used mequares for cleaning vinyl & quick detail polish on exterior. Now my golf looks like new on inside and outside also touched up some paint chips. Will post some pics tomorrow.

Busy day, finished putting it all back together after changing valve stem seals, drove it, and then washed it thoroughly outside and gave everything a good wipe down on the inside. Stupid gravel road dust...

Stupid gravel road dust...[/quote]

just cleaned mine up and waxed top half then had to go to a dinner at a place on a dusty road, with cars ahead and behind

NB_TDi said:

Convinced my mother to buy one, she loves it. Now my father is eyeing one. So he says. I actually just switched my friend over too.

It's easy.

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Yeah. I just got our bookmobile librarian in one. She got an 06 NB convertible -- too bad it's a gasser.

NEXT!!!

Growler said:

I did not replace the automatic brake pedal because after an hour of fighting with it, I gave up on getting the booster separated from the brake pedal.

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Looky here Aaron:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=2315103&postcount=800

Just got back from Wash, clay bar, wax, wax and drying my Jetta. Took about 4hrs. Also did the engine bay again. Looks amazing.

Installed Vnt-17, 3-bar map, and a updated tune to bring it all together.

Drove out to Amherst (about 270 miles round-trip) to see my sons. I haven't driven any distance in a while so I kept leaning into the accelerator to get the soot out of the turbo. By the ride home it wasn't overboosting any more. Even with a fast run for the last 40 miles or so (85-90 on the Mass Pike, staying with traffic) I was at 7/8 tank at 250 miles. Gotta love that.

Looked at it trying to figure out what could be causing my intermettant shudder. Remembered I should put my original throttle pedal back in and return this one to JasonTDI since that didn't do anything. Decided to check compression again for something to do.

1 = 400 psi
2 = 420 psi
3 = 390 psi
4 = 380 psi

112k miles on the engine

Numbers are likely low for two reasons - The engine was cold and the check valve on my compression gauge is really big and light spring so it probably closes a bit slow and won't trap pressure as well as a smaller one would. Kept cranking until the gauge would rise anymore.

More details in my shudder problem thread after I get something to eat...

Ouch, seem like your rods have all creeped down a bit.

Did your compression gage fitting have the protruding end that goes down into the head like a gp, or just a threaded end that leaves the gp chamber open??

Does your car give white smoke when idle is slowly raised to 3000 rpms?

Pull the head and check your piston height. Call me if you like.

Jeff

I've got a homemade compression gauge made from a drilled out glow plug a hydraulic check valve (~3/4" diameter with a 4 psi spring - it's what I have laying around....) and a 600 psi glycerin filled gauge with a ~0.020" snubber orifice. I should probably break down and get an actual compresion gague someday.

It's measured low on another car by a 100 psi or so when I had another "actual diesel compression gauge" to compare it to so I'm not too concerned by the low numbers. I was mostly looking for a weak cylinder.

No white smoke - but I'll check it again tomorrow...

I changed the timing like you suggested - didn't do anything except make EGT's go up really quick and lowered the duty cycle by ~25% across the board.

I'll go update the shutter thread now - sorry for dragging this out here...

TDICADDGUY said:

Looky here Aaron:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=2315103&postcount=800

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Thanks, I saw that before, tried it this morning,. wasnt successful, MoGolf came to my Rescue with the special tool for releasing the booster ball from the back side of the pedal...
unbolted the auto pedal from its pivot, loosened the brake booster from the firewall, popped the new 5 speed pedal into position and all is good with the world.
Kgirls bug is now officially a 5 speed. It drove around the block under its own power for the first time since MAY according to her. Car runs WELL! pulls nicely for 170 k miles. has no reverse lights, but everything else is as if it originally was a 5 speed.

now I need to make an order on impex for all of these misc bits... About $175 worth...

02a 301 115 a
Tranny inspection Plug (was missing)

n 911 082 01
Axle bolts (12x) Reused ones that came with the used axles for now...

1j0 711 693 a
boot clamp sleeve (1x) for the 5 speed leather boot to hold it properly..

n908 482 01
(bolt for ring on shifter (2x) luckily she provided 2x shift boxes. 2nd one had this ring, but I had to slot one of the screws and drill out the other one to get it apart and on the box I installed.

1j0 711 202 p
shifter relay lever with guide piece. converts (melted) ball shifter ends to pin style (late style) to match the Audi TT short Shift Boraparts sent.

02k 945 415 g
reverse switch. To replace the melted one on the tranny

068 103 645 m
tin cover. Small inspection cover on back side of trans. Large one was in the parts.

n 010 208 5
bolt for tin cover 1x .

06a 103 171 a
rear main seal. to replace the one I had to use when I pulled the flex plate off.

1j0 973 702
reverse switch connector. to wire up the new reverse switch on the tranny since the auto doesn't have this connector.

fun fun. its a lot of work, I applaud the guys who do a bunch of these.
Could not have done it without Mogolf, and without Compu_85, my resident (well 3.5 hours away) Wiring expert.

now to drive the car for a week or two to break in the new clutch. Look for the beetle to make it to Whitbreads GTG if some of these parts make it in time.