What did you do to your MKIV today?

Adjusted my IQ to get rid of the shudder it had when rolling up to and sitting at a stop sign, my mailbox, etc.
Went from 1.8 to 3.8 with adaptation maxed out... will need to hammer mod the pump and get the adaptation back to nominal.
Also dropped the idle speed down a tad while I was in there.
Seems to run a lot smoother at low revs and idle, now. Maybe down on power just a touch, but I'm not sure about that. Feels different, in any case.

Technically it was yesterday but I was too tired when I was finished lol. I did a bunch of PM fluid flushes (oil/power steering/brake), cleaned out the junk behind the front fender liners and under the windshield cowl, and installed a short shifter, Full Metal Jacket, and Panzer plate from DieselGeek. The car must have had a skid plate in the past at some point some the rivnuts were already in place which made the install much faster.

I bought a Motive Products Power Bleeder to do the brakes. Great investment and learning curve was minimal. It's almost impossible to introduce air into the system and it keeps everything nice and clean.

The short shifter is amazing - gear changes take very little movement now and the tactile feedback is excellent. Install was super easy with the directions and I had it installed and adjusted in about 45 mins.

Last remaining projects before the winter hits is installing the 2.5" stainless steel exhaust from Kerma (was hoping it would here so I could install it before the panzer plate went on) and a machine polishing and sealing of the paint to protect it from the salt and grime of the winter.

My wife texted me this afternoon that there was "something wrong with the driver's window". Sigh. Took the door apart tonight and it needs a new window regulator. I had a spare regulator repair kit and the part number on the box was the correct one (score!), but I went to install it and, what do you know, it's for the other side. Not sure if I bought the wrong side by mistake or just messed up my boxes. I have a spare parts hoarding problem.

Then I got the bright idea of unspooling the cables from the spool and switching them (one has a long piece of rubber insulation, the other side is much shorter) to convert the repair kit to work on the driver's side. Well that almost worked but the big plastic piece that the cable spool fits into (spool holder?) is very similar but not quite the same from one side to the other. The cables exit at too sharp an angle and I was afraid that they either would overtax the window motor or wear out very quickly. Finally I got the idea of putting the spool into the spool holder from the broken regulator and that seems like it's going to work - at least until I am able to get a replacement regulator.

I was hoping for a weekend of not working on the car but at least it didn't happen next weekend when we're going on a camping trip.

Installed the franken-regulator and it seems to work fine. Window now goes up and down. The lower half of the gasket was dried up and shrunken and there was a bunch of rust in the corners of the gasket channel. Removed that portion of the gasket and replaced with foam core butyl tape. The tape worked ok but it's too sticky. It's hard to not get it on your hands or the wrong part of the door while you're feeding the door lock cables through the holes. I wish I could find something that better matches the factory seal.

Today, I ordered a replacement Panzer plate and side skirts for the Desert Jetta. PO had one installed, but it didn't come with the car when I purchased it. I guess he got frustrated with it, because every Rivnut he installed was freely spinning. I solved the problem be spot welding them.

It's a good thing I saved the frame rail mounting posts, even though I didn't their purpose when I rebuilt the suspension, because they cost $40.00 each.

It cost $237.00 for replacement skid plate, new side skirts and washers. I was delighted not to pay the full boat price of $369.00.

I'll have everything installed this week.

I finally got around to installing a set of sway bar end links that have been riding around in my back seat for ~6 months, and in doing so fixed a clunk that had been annoying me for most of my 2.5 year ownership of this car.


I was looking for a larger issue as the source of te noise... The shocks and struts were replaced due to wear and age, but I had hoped that they were the cause as well. It drove me to re-torque the strut nuts, thinking that they were shifting, possibly...


20 minutes on a pair of ramps... 20 minutes.



I'm glad to have found it, but amazed how noisy a tiny bit of motion on the bottom bushings can be!

Not all today, but over the last few days:
- Replaced rear left brake caliper and solid brake line and bled whole system. Took care of brake dragging, which caused a 3-5 mpg drop
- Installed NOCO GCP1 charger port for my frost heater

Some months ago I removed the door cards and had the inserts reupholstered in black vinyl. I recently noticed that the hot glue job I did on the passenger insert had started to come loose. Removed and used 1" sheet metal screws backed by speed nuts to reinstall. Starting to look more like a franken vehicle with every one of these fixes.
In the process of the above I fixed the #1 most annoying rattle in the car. This was due to the auto door lock at 10mph feature. Once the knob is in the down position it rattled around in it's bore like crazy. Fortunately all it took to remedy was to fold in the little teeth surrounding the I.D of the bore on the bottom end.
No more rattle, at least for now.

Recently did:

Timing belt job (my first one yay) camshaft and followers (heard 2002 had some soft cam issues?) followers were in reasonable shape with some bowties but not really dished out.

Timing set slightly advanced, just above the middle line.

Messed with the IQ it was a bit high at 7, brought it to about 5.5 and it feels good. Will monitor MPGs.

When I was doing the hammer mod I unscrewed the top right bolt a bit much and spurted a bunch of diesel all over the engine lol.

I used some assembly lube when installing the new cam, and the car is about 10k kms into the oil so I'll be doing an oil change once I get the filter wrench in tomorrow.

Also noticed slightly harder starts now that it's getting colder in Northern Ontario. I disconnected my coolant temp sensor and the GPs stayed on for a longer duration and it started easier - so I think the CTS is not reading well at startup as the GPs are shutting off super fast.

Took my roof racks off because I'm not really using them and I think it lets a bit of excess moisture/cooler temps into the car having the weather stripping pushed up a bit. Plus FE...

Doing an oil change to get rid of the assembly lube tomorrow and I'll do the CTS then as well.

Cheers nerds

Since Friday drove mine to Cedar Springs, Michigan and back to Kirk Blackmore's GTG. Lots of other MKIVs there.


1900 miles at 75-80 MPH, much of it with the A/C on (in October!). 46 MPG. Hit 355K miles yesterday. Will probably hit 356 this week.

MKIV TDIs are still the best.

I finished repainting my red Golf. Not exactly Tornado Red anymore, more of a Rustoleum "Gloss Sunrise Red." Looks pretty good but still need to spray it with clear coat.

Edit: I'm going to go with another coat first -- I have the paint and I might as well use it. Then the clear coat.

Edit: Added another coat, on last warm day (probably) before the snow flies. Final sanding and clear coat will have to wait for spring.

fitted a 3 spoke wheel from an 01 cabrio in a salvage yard, adjusted IQ to 3.2 with hammer mod and fixed my glow plugs with cage mod and new'ish 180 relay

Driving a TDI without a CEL takes some getting used to.

Replaced my trunk struts today. Really quick to replace and the new stuts are a huge improvement over the 280,000 mile original struts. Now I can open and close the trunk with one hand.

First video:

https://youtu.be/mLdMZSVt4S4

Second video:

https://youtu.be/llyM0-PIInI

Replaced the vac hoses with silicone. Damaged the nipple on the vac reservoir.

So last night inserted the red straw from WD40 through the nipple as a support post. mixed up araldite 2 part glue, glued the nipple onto the reservoir.

Removed the red straw this morning. repair seems to be holding up fine.

dataflow said:

Replaced the vac hoses with silicone. Damaged the nipple on the vac reservoir.
So last night inserted the red straw from WD40 through the nipple as a support post. mixed up araldite 2 part glue, glued the nipple onto the reservoir.
Removed the red straw this morning. repair seems to be holding up fine.

Click to expand...

Famous last words, new vac reservoir being delivered this afternoon.

dataflow said:

Famous last words, new vac reservoir being delivered this afternoon.

Click to expand...

I never had luck with that type of repair.
Tried epoxy on the vacuum pump fitting.
Lasted less then a week.
I did clean and scuff the surfaces.

Actually last night, I reflashed my ECU with my old Stage 3 just to do a FE check. I didn't really see any majorly difference in FE on the freeway, but I didn't have a lot of time to check either. I will say there is a HUGE difference between a Stage 3 and a Stage 4 tune in both throttle response and overall power. The overall power is quite understandable, but I wasn't thinking there would be as much off-idle to 1/2 throttle difference as there was.

The Stage 4 tune probably has a lot more N75 duty cycle to get the 17/22 spooling faster than the Stage 3 did. And I'm sure it fuels heavier. Those two things make a big difference.

(a few days back) Installed a Panzer Plate on the blue Golf. Now all my Golfs are armored up.

Wife's Golf has been wonderful to drive since installing the new suspension (with Koni Reds). And, knock on wood, the new Luk 17-050 appears to be holding power just fine.

Changed the trans fluid and refilled with Pennzoil Synchomesh. Plus gave it a bath and a wax.

Went down to one Mishimoto catch can and relocated it above the valve cover and up on the firewall instead of lower than the valve cover and behind the radiator. I'll keep a close eye on the oil level inside the catch can and report back (maybe in a dedicated thead). Alsto most notably relocating it puts a lot less stess on the rubber gromet that fits in the opening of the valve cover. When my previous gromet broke I ordered six of them because you have to find them in "new old stock" because VW doesn't make them anymore. Surprise surprise, but I still ordered a bunch of them just in case.

I also replaced three vacuum lines with new lines in an attempt to make sure there are no vacuum leaks. I got the idea from a few days ago when I was working in the engine bay and accidentally knocked a vacuum hose off. I didn't realize it until I fired up the car the next day and the car was smoking like crazy, lost 80% of boost, and the brake pedal was really hard to push. I checked the engine bay when I got home and sure enough I had knocked a vacuum hose completely off so I decided to replace as many hoses as I could so I replaced all of the smaller (3/32'nd ID IIRC) hoses.

I also replaced the blue zip ties in the engine bay from the previous owner with black zip ties. Not very many of them were blue but ever since I replaced the windshield washer and coolant caps to black one's the blue zip ties drew my attention every time I opened up the hood.

Here is the new location of the Mishimoto catch can. Upper right hand corner of the engine bay.

Electrodynamic, is this what you have?

https://www.mishimoto.com/compact-baffled-oil-catch-can-2-port.html

UhOh said:

Electrodynamic, is this what you have?
https://www.mishimoto.com/compact-baffled-oil-catch-can-2-port.html

Click to expand...

Yes it is. Depending on how well this new setup works with the catch can located at a higher elevation than the valve cover I may have a catch can for sale pretty soon if I don't need both catch cans. The 42 Drafts design catch can worked about 20% compared to these Mishimoto catch cans. But in full diclosure I found out that the 42 catch can was plumbed backwards after I got the car and the exit from the 42 catch can was being sent to above the air filter ahead of the MAF (not behind like it should have been) which messed up the MAF. But even after I "reversed" the plumbing the 42 catch can didn't trap any oil. The Mishimoto cans actually trap oil and need to be emptied occasionally. Over 8,000 + miles the 42 catch can had nothing in the bottom of it. The Mishimoto cans are massively smaller and work much better better than the 42 catch can that came with my car from the previous owner.

Refinished both headlights in my new to me 2005 Jetta TDI. Ordered a new glow plug harness to replace a crumbling one. Picked up some oil and a filter for the next oil change. Washed her. It's nice being back in a TDI again. I must have a fetish for these cars.

Rotated the tires and cleaned the debris from behind the wheel well liners. As a bonus found my thought to be long lost 7mm socket down there.

volmaniac said:

Rotated the tires and cleaned the debris from behind the wheel well liners. As a bonus found my thought to be long lost 7mm socket down there.

Click to expand...

Ha ha! I wonder how many tools are hiding in various crevices of cars.

When did you last clean behind the wheel wells, and how much crud did you find?

Replaced the inner tie rods and outer ends on both sides, readjusted the front toe, replaced the small radiator fan, the connector for the MAF, and the driver side inner cv boot. Oh and of course I somehow put a pin hole in the outer cv boot on that same axle that I didn’t notice until I had everything back together and doing the alignment.

Have I ever said how much I hate replacing cv axle boots?

UhOh said:

Ha ha! I wonder how many tools are hiding in various crevices of cars.

When did you last clean behind the wheel wells, and how much crud did you find?

Click to expand...

IIRC I cleaned it out about 2 years ago. It was pretty packed, a healthy dinner plate full of dry sandy gritty stuff, leaves, twigs from each side. I need to remember to clean it out when I rotate the tires from now on. There was no corrosion or rust but worth doing as an ounce of prevention kind of PM.