99.5 MK4 Build Thread

DISCLAIMER: I am not responsible for any hatred you may have for my car. I like it this way (lowered, big wheels, etc.) and since it is my car I feel that is fine. If you want to be grumpy and tell me that my sump is too close to the ground and that I'm statistically much more likely to die in a wreck, please understand that I have heard it all before and you don't need to post. That being said hopefully there is some stuff in here that helps you get creative with your own car. Feel free to ask any questions about anything I've done. I'm more than happy to help you figure things out.

Moving this thread over here from the local Michigan VW forum. I will just update both from now on.

Well I've been on here for a bit now and have been to a couple shows to check out everyone rides and enjoy hanging with other people who love these cars as much as me. I figure it's time I share what I'm working on and get some feedback and input.

Story:
In Nov. 2010 I knew nothing about VWs but decided that I wanted a diesel car for the mileage and reliability and since VW makes the best one out there 9within my price range) I set about scouring Craigslist. I turned up a 1999.5 Tornado Red GL in Chicago and after contacting the seller drove out there that night to check it out. When I got there I found the check engine light on and the car took 10 seconds to start. I had no experience with these or any other diesel but decided I would be ok fixing whatever it was and managed to talk the seller down a couple hundred bucks. Brought it back on my tow dolly w/ my F150 and the next day after checking the glow plugs with a meter I proceeded to change two out of the four which drastically helped my starting. Car wasn't perfect yet though and I ended up meeting Kirk (rockford TDI guy) in an attempt to get my timing adjusted. With that fixed all was good until I broke the plastic shifter guide on top of the tranny in the first week. It looked like it had been JB welded together at some earlier point in the cars life so a quick trip to the dealer and an hour more of work and I was set.



Got a 2.5" custom catback exhaust. I had the shop leave it long out the back so I could cut it later when I fitted a different lip to the bumper.


Got tuned by Rocketchip. Stage 2+. There are a couple things that I have planned for the engine but I'm holding off on most of them as the car is a daily. I want to have all my ducks in a row so I can get it all done in a weekend.

Interior stuff that has happened so far:

GLI Recaros
Upgraded to the larger style glovebox
GLI brushed aluminum trim kit (this got tricky because I don't have power windows so I sold the power window piece and bought another rear driver's door piece to put on the front driver's door.
GLI brushed aluminum pedals
Pioneer stereo (nothing too fancy but it's nice to have)

Well I couldn't put in the black headliner kit from a GLI due to not having a sunroof so I bought some Arlant Red perforated Alcantara (I'm told it's what's in the new LFA) and had Buckskinz wrap the headliner, pillars and parcel shelf.



Then I installed the black headliner bits from a GLI but had to order this from europe due to me not having a sunroof again.

Next I installed a GLI ebrake handle and center console.


Then an Audi S line steering wheel and bag. This won't be what I end up keeping but it looks good for now and you can't beat the plug and play.


Then I did this.


So that it would look like this. *hint* No passenger side airbag pop-up cover. It's a little thing but those are the ones that count.

Externally there have been some changes too. When I go the car the fenders were rusting/had some wierd patch-type gunk on them so I had the marker lights shaved and the fenders resprayed.

Bumpers both got shaved w/ molded GLI lips. This would look nice except for the fact that flying objects onthe freeway then developed magnetic qualities in relation to my bumpers. Needless to say they will be getting redone for this show season.

There was some rust along the roof by the rear glass so I had it taken care of and the roof sprayed black.



Changed out the faded antenna base while it was accessible.

So Kirk helped (aka he did it while I got in the way) me w/ a timing belt swap. While we were in there we used block off plates to delete the EGR gas cooling system. It will help keep my intake manifold carbon free and also leaves me with some more working room behind the engine.

After that I made a couple more changes. Inlcuding a full GLI big brake kit. New rotors and pads. Raceland ultimo coils. 1.8t spindle upgrade. New ball joints and inner and outer tie rods. New strut bushings/bearings. Deleted my front sway bar completely. I also drained my trans and swaped the axle flanges for a set off a VR6 which allowed me to install the VR6 axles which are significantly beefier than the TDI/2.0 axles.

I wanted to upgrade the headlights but wasn't sure which way I wanted to take them. In the end I decided I liked the look of the stock GLI lights but would upgrade them a little more. I bought a set of lights super cheap because one of them had a fist-size hole in the rear casing and you literally could not see the internals of either lights due to severe yellowing of the lenses. I took them completely apart and cleaned them out. I swapped the amber turn lenses for clear ones. I then swapped a rear casing from another light I had w/ a broken lens. I then installed glass lenses that I bought from Volkstuning (I think that was the place). It was a night and day difference and now if I ever want to clean my lenses a little windex is all I need.

Another big project/headache of mine was my wheels. There is a long story behind them but for now I'll just give you the specs and a teazer pic. Fronts are 8.5x17 and the rears are 11.5x17. Nitto NeoGen tires stretched very nicely to get under that rear arch. I rolled my fenders and will need to pull the rear when I need to go lower. My car got lower since this pic but this is the only one I have to show for now.


This pic also shows my shaved/molded bumper. GLI tails and a GLI trunk lid. My license plate has been a little disappointing w/ how many people have asked me what "dizzle" means. I may shoot for something more idiot-proof in the near future.

Another project that I undertook was creating my own stubby mirror. Some passats come w/ a passenger side stubby mirror that you can swap bases on to adapt to our MK4s. Mine was a little more tricky in that I also had to swap it to be manual instead of power. I was pretty please with the outcome although looking back I don't have any pictures of it on the car atm.

Had to change the driver's side axle shaft due to it being destroyed from driving pretty low last summer. Moved the car in under my father-in-law's Shelby to do the work.


I also got a new plate. But then I got a letter from SoS saying that they made an error and that the plate is already taken so I need to get a different one. Anyone know who currently owns "TDI"?


Car got a bath to clean off all the winter build up. Then it rained the next day but oh well. It looked good for a day.


Here is a picture of the seat harness adapter I put together to allow my 99.5 to work w/ the airbag connectors on the 03+ seats.


Here is my new driver's seat out of the r32 I'm parting out. The leather feels like that of a drum after sitting with the window broken and being exposed to the elements for who knows how long?


I don't think VW made pockets in the seat base.


Took the seat to Van's Upholstery near 76th and Division. The guys are all upholstery vets and do amazing work. I am picking up the seat tomorrow but stopped in a couple of days ago and snapped some pics of the progress.


All new back sections:

Seat is in place.


In order to keep the r32 embroidered piece the upper inner piece is a little stretched. Other than that the seats came out on point. Big props to the guys at Van's.


This Lupo mirror also showed up from a friendly soul across the pond. Need to get it sprayed black and swap the internals to work for my car. Then on it goes.

Bringing this build back. Lately I have just been driving the crap out of this car and loving it. I stored it for the winter and picked up a 2003 TDI wagon to roll around in. I've been doing some research here and there trying to decide what to mess with next. Then I picked up a box with some goodies from Dameon. Time to get busy.

Box contents may or may not include the following: Slim fans, in-line filler neck for coolant as well as overflow tank, everything I need to relocate my battery, and a blingin oil cap.



Oil cap installed *phew* that was rough. Then I removed the washer fluid tank. This is still going to be a daily when snow is gone but I never use my washer fluid anyways when it's warm and lately it has been leaking slowly so... out!



Then tonight I got busy and pulled the cowl panel out. Moved the battery into the trunk (still need to run the cables). Pulled the battery box out. Then I just mused and wrote down all the supplies/tools I need to get.


Here is my to-do list (we'll see how much I get done before it gets warm):

Buy/Install PD150 intake and race pipe
Delete N18 and all unnecessary vacuum/EGR lines/wiring
Delete coolant glow plugs by using a coolant flange from an automatic TDI (no coolant glow plugs)
Battery Relocate
Change intercooler to one with MAP sensor attached (the 99.5 tdi's have the map sensor in the hard plastic hose above the intercooler)
Reroute all passenger side wiring
Relocate power steering reservoir
Relocate N75 valve and vacuum ball
Delete the Engine fuse block (tuck fuses into waterfall)
Setup aftermarket air intake (low priority)

Hmmm.... Speaking of those bumpers...

So I paid some guy I barely knew some $$ to shave/mold the bumpers but it wasn't done properly so now they are all cracked up. There are several areas where filler is separating. There is also a huge crack in the lower lip from traveling to Motorstadt last year. A Buick in front of me hit a pothole and kicked out a huge chunk of asphalt that flew threw the air until hitting my GLI valance. I was pretty sure it was toasted but it wasn't all that bad considering the situation. I have been doing some studying and think I have figured out the best way to do these so I began tonight by taking off the front bumper and ripping out all the filler. Then I separated the lip. Need to pick up a couple tools and supplies and then I will get started.

Pics for proof:

Cracked up


More cracks and peeling paint


Damage from chunk of asphalt traveling at 80mph


And all scraped out with a screwdriver before separating the lip

Alright so I'm making strides to get her ready to go back on the road in April.

Last summer I picked up a 4" deckscrew in my rear driver's side tire. When I pulled the wheel off I noticed a crack on the inner barrel that was slowly creeping but hadn't made it's way to the bead yet (forgot to get a pic). Got it dismounted and dropped off at Carlisle Welding on 76th and division. He has welded wheels for me in the past and is first rate. Here is the poor thing immediately after surgery. Luckily the tire just popped back on because stretching it out last time was a pain. Thanks to Bob Houskamp at Houskamp Auto Services for letting me use their tire machines all the time. This is just one step closer to being rolling soon.







Battery relocate in next post...

Finished my battery relocate this last Thursday evening. Took me a while but it was my first time doing any wiring of this sort so I'm ok with taking the time and doing it right.

I'm running 0 guage wire all the way through. Starting in the engine bay connecting straight to the starter. I had to widen the o-ring coming off the factory fuse block to get it to fit onto the starter as well. Twisted the fuse block around so it would sit lower and is nice and snug. 0 guage goes all the way up the waterfall and into rain tray. I opted for the rain tray instead of the firewall grommet because, although most use the firewall, I find it looks too tacky to have such a large glaring wire coming out of nowhere and not fitting in nicely. This method is more subtle.



Once in the rain tray I discovered that there is an unused grommet (at least on my car) for the main harness-cabin entrance. This seemed ideal so I ran it through there.



And with the cover back on.



Wire then runs behind the main relay panel...



... and down under the driver's door harness plugs/behind the hood latch pull.



Down along/under the lower door trim...



... to the 140a fuse block under the rear driver's side seat.

EDIT: The 140a works well for a gasser engine but on cold starts (below freezing) I have been tripping the breaker after a couple cranks. The TDI requests more power to start in the cold than this 140a can handle. I have since removed it and ordered a 200a breaker ($9) to put in it's place.



And to the battery in the trunk.



I will be moving the battery to the spare wheel well but need to change out the wire running from the fuse to the battery terminal itself as it is about 4" too short currently. I ran the ground to the rear seatbelt bolt. I made sure to clean all my grounds until they were nice and shiny before I tried hooking everything up. Power works for now but I can't fire it because I have too much disconnected in the engine bay still.

I hope to get coolant and PS relocated at some point this next week. Have been too busy working on other cars of mine to be able to give this one the attention it needs. It will be on the road within the next 2 weeks though.

That gets us caught up to present day (March 23, 2014)!

I like what you have done with the car. Nearly the same direction mine is going accept you are a few steps ahead of me haha. I haven't seen another TDI with a black roof like mine up until now. Looks great!

Lots of love into the old girl

Car looks good! Way better than when uou picked it up.

Swapped my radiator fans out. I had a pair of radiator fans from an r32 that I parted out. They are about 1.5" slimmer than the stock fans and they look much nicer.

Here are the originals:


Here is what went in:


You can kind of see the height difference in this pic:


Installed:

Bought a used Neuspeed 28mm rear sway bar that looked TERRIBLE I only paid $24 for it though so that wasn't bad. I really wish I would have remembered to take pictures of it in it's original state. For a minute I wasn't sure it was saveable but upon further inspection I deemed it solid.

Dropped it off at Southwest Sandblasting here in Grand Rapids. Nice guys. A week later I picked it up. Freshly sandblasted and powdercoated:


I then place an order with Neuspeed for some new bushings (the old ones disintegrated upon removal of the brackets). I also stopped by Fastenal for some fresh hardware. Both places had great customer service. I hope to get this thing mounted up soon.

Installed my FUNK button. I don't have it wired up for anything yet. Still trying to figure out what I want it to do.


As far as progress with the wiring goes, I bought a new soldering station: Hakko FX-888D. I look forward to many hours of use.


I also swung by Howie's Hockey Tape here in Grand Rapids and picked up 4 rolls (25ft each) of hockey tape. They are supposedly the best in the business and the fact that they are local is awesome. I will be wrapping my wiring with it as it is very durable stuff and is water resistant. The guys at Howie's are super cool.

Hockey tape. That's a great idea.

nice mods and detail.

I'll have an update hopefully tomorrow. I've got some parts that are supposed to come in today at the dealership to finish the engine bay up and get it running. I've been busy though and she's almost ready to fire up again. Pics tomorrow if all goes well.

NHgranite said:

Hockey tape. That's a great idea.

Click to expand...

I can't say enough good things about that tape! It looks so good when wrapped and is some tough stuff.

A lot has happened over the past 2 weeks. I've finished up the engine bay for now (have a couple more things to tweak before summer), so she is back on the road. Looks like things went well as there are no new lights on the dash and the car runs strong. Here are the latest pictures of the progress:

PS Res Relocated:

Mini pipe cutters taken the the hard return line down below the turbo.



Installed new hose with clamp.



Installed new pipe onto the return side of the PS res. Attached a 90 degree elbow which will connect to the return line that I just attached above.



Used a hole saw to drill a hole next to the ECu bracket in the rain tray.



Bought an oil filler next grommet at autozone for $2. Fits great and gives a ton of protection around that hole. Return line installed.



Used the original line that runs to the pump. Rerouted it underneath the frame rail by the intercooler. No cutting required. I used a hose connector to attach the old hose to the new one from NAPA. All the hose cost me about $6 (guy said he gave me some sort of discount, Thank you kind sir).



Hose runs into the drain outlet from the passenger side of the rain tray. I drilled a hole and used an adjustable hose clamp from somewhere on my engine bay that is no longer in use.



Here is how it sits. I reused the heat shield cloth that had been on the return line before.

Wiring Stuff:

Switched my intercooler and upper pipe for the 00+ style in order to move the map sensor off the pipe and onto the intercooler.



Routed the MAP sensor wire out the rain tray and the headlight harness into the frame rail. I didn't have to extend either of them for them to reach but the MAP sensor just makes it.



MAP sensor wiring now runs along under the PS hose in the fender well and down to the intercooler (you can see some other angles of it in the previous post where I show the PS line in the fender well).



This pic shows how the headlight harness emerges from the frame rail:



All other wiring was deleted:

Hood latch sensor = cut back and kept both wires separated.
Coolant level sensor = cut back and soldered wires together.
Washer level sensor = cut back and soldered wires together.
Washer Motor = cut back and kept both wires separated.
Washer Fluid Tubes = Deleted

That will pretty much clean up the passenger side wiring with rerouting the headlight and MAP sensor wiring. Only things I left were the AC sensor and the ABS wiring. They are located right up by the firewall and may get moved later but for this stage of the build they are fine where they are.

Coolant Delete:

You don't have to delete the coolant glow plugs in order to delete the reservoir but I am trying to declutter as much as possible so I replaced my entire housing with one from an automatic TDI. I just swapped my coolant temp sensor in with a new o-ring and got the new o-ring for the head and that took care of it. My coolant glow plugs/harness weren't in wonderful shape anyways.
(NOTE: after doing this my engine runs quite cool. It takes longer to get up to temp and since I have been driving in temps below 50 degrees these days it hovers just under 190)



With the glow plugs out I removed the relay box that sits next to the n75 valve on the rain tray. It contained these two relays for the coolant glow plugs. I then dissected harness all the way down to the fuse block that sat on top of the battery and removed the main wire that gave them power. I forget off the top of my head which one it was but will edit this later to post that info. This cleaned up quite a bit on the driver's side bay.



My 99.5 had a coolant sensor also located in the split pipe directly after the filler neck. I replaced it with one from a 2003 manual TDI which does not have this sensor. You need the manual style because the autos have an extra line running down to the trans cooler iirc.



Some people run without an overflow tank at all when doing this but I decided that I wanted one just to be on the safer side. I installed it by the driver's side headlight. It fits very snugly. I had to move some wiring to the side to get it in.



There is an AN line off the bottom running up to my in-line filler for the overflow. I keep about 3" of coolant in the tank in case the system requests more you just don't want it to pull air in. It is hard to see but there is a drain spout right next to the fitting for the line. This runs up inside like a straw almost to the top of the coolant res. It allows for expansion/venting/overflow as needed.



Here is where the line routes up to the CSR filler neck. The cap is rated for 19-21lbs. To install the neck simply cut the right size chunk out of your existing upper radiator hose and then use two extra clamps to secure it.



Coolant delete stuff continued in the next post...

Here is the auto coolant flange installed. For the small coolant line that runs to a T at the head above it I simply removed the T fitting and connected it straight to the head. The T fitting used to run to the pipe that ran along the raintray and over to the top of the OEM expansion tank. Since the line is no longer there we don't need the T fitting.



A pic of the small line connected straight to the head:



I snagged a Heater core hose from an auto TDI to route to the coolant flange I just installed. It routes straight whereas the older one routed around the side to come through the plugs.



When I removed the original flange it loosened the hard coolant pipe that runs to the water pump. I didn't intend to loosen it but the design on these older style pipes makes it tricky to remove the flange without bending the pipe bracket. I didn't want to risk leaking coolant at the water pump so I pulled the whole pipe out. This was a great opportunity to install a braided stainless turbo oil feed line I had laying around. I put a new o-ring on the pipe and used my pipe cutter to shorten the piece that used to be fed by the bottom flange of the OEM coolant globe. The hose that came off the globe wasn't needed anymore so I used a 1/2" cap on the portion of the pipe left after cutting along with the previous clamp that had been there. This made installation a whole lot easier. I forgot to mention that I broke my dipstick tub while removing the hard pipe. I had to replace that too.





This picture shows towards the end of the whole coolant deal. The GP wiring and everything is cleaned up on the driver's side. I removed the brake fluid level sensor cap (just tucked the pigtail into the plastic waterfall of wiring) and replaced it with a regular cap (which has since been replaced with a black one from a 97 Passat iirc).

Next up was cleaning up the engine bay side of the rain tray. This is a picture of my weepy EGR valve and the N18 mess of vacuum lines that I wanted to clean up.



Got a PD150 intake and race pipe from Daniel on here. Check the vendor forums for his PD150 FS thread. Great guy and crazy fast shipping (3-4 days from Bulgaria to Michigan).



Pulled off the EGR valve, sensors, N18 and all vacuum lines.



... and here is how the car will stay for a little while (air intake is in the works though). I am scheming on a fuel filter relocate which wouldn't be all that hard. Just trying to figure out whether to keep running the regular filters or to move on the an aftermarket. All in all the bay is much more accessible and as I continue I have more and more access to various locations and things become easier to install/remove.

Wow, lots of hours of work there! I love simplified engine bays with lots of deleted stuff. It's only practical to a certain point, and I am too chicken to even start down that road, but it's sweet.

New (shiny) fuel lines and intercooler piping is a must now.

Just a quick update.

A couple pics of the air ride installed. This just shows where I routed my lines for reference. I wrapped several of the lines in the hockey tape as well to protect them from rubbing. 30-way dampening plus coils on the shocks and struts and camber plates on front struts. Air Lift Performance makes some wicked product.









I got my frame notched by a buddy of mine. If anyone else needs it done he is willing to do more.



Got my Aerocatch hood pins installed. They turned out quite nice and now my hood isn't shaking like a leaf while on the freeway driving against a wind. It did take me forever to install them. Maybe I'm just terrible at this stuff but I had at least 3-4 hours into that install.



Replaced my rear beam bushings in order to stiffen up the rear and avoid clunking noises.



Turned out my clunking was from a bad upper shock mount so I replaced that next. Clunk is gone.



Removed the bracket in the trunk that is supposed to hold the Monsoon amp that never existed in my car.