The NARFmobile, My 2001 Golf TDI

Which words in raised white letter for my tire sidewalls? See post #220 for pictures

  • NARFATOMIC BLASTOMIC

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • NARFATOMIC BLASTOMATIC

    Votes: 4 23.5%
  • NARFOMATIC ATOMIC BLAST

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • NARF ATOMIC BLAST

    Votes: 1 5.9%
  • NARF BLAST

    Votes: 5 29.4%
  • NARFBLAST ATOMIC

    Votes: 1 5.9%
  • NARFOMATIC ATOMIC BLAST

    Votes: 1 5.9%
  • NARFATOMIC ATOMICBLAST

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • NARF ATOMIC BLASTOMATIC

    Votes: 2 11.8%
  • EPIC FACEPALM

    Votes: 3 17.6%

  • Total voters
    17
  • Poll closed .

NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
Hi Louis, The underground parking lot was McMaster University.

I have two sets of 15" alloys with all season tires and one set of set of 15" steel wheels with winter tires now... :D I was going to put a pair of wheels and tires on a free Mk4 rear axle I picked up and mount that under my 3x6 utility trailer but then I ended up selling the utility trailer instead.

I am having fun with my collection of 13 wheels; they all fit into the current master plan:

- 2 alloy wheels on the 4x8 utility trailer (all season tires with 4/32" of tread remaining will get rotated on the rear of the car next spring)
- 1 alloy in the Golf's spare tire well (has a brand new tire from a warranty replacement)
- 1 original spare steelie with no tire
- 4 steelies on the car (used winter tires, should do two winters)
- 5 alloys in the garage (one old cracked flat tire, two nearly bald tires will rotate on to the utility trailer, two 50% tread all seasons will go on the front of the car in the spring)


Some people play sports for fun. I would rather rotate tires.
 

NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
464,500 km... only 35,500km to go!

Checked under the injection pump and found it very dry compared to a couple of months ago when it was dripping wet! Haven't changed the seals yet but they are on hand along with the triangle bolt tool.

Checked the oil, should make it to the next oil change without having to top up again, probably burning 1.5L per 16,000km.

Redneck repaired the broken drivers inside door handle: (picture)

 

NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
Thanks for the nice comments, here is a 474,000 km Update:

Had both front wheel bearings replaced at a local shop, they charged $750 but it was worth it. The wheel bearing noise had gotten so loud I was actually wearing ear-plugs on the highway. I would have tried to replace these myself but it was cold outside, there was no room in the garage, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go through the hassle, and then... We bought a house with a big two car garage! So I definitely did not have time to learn how to replace the front wheel bearings is my tiny garage.

I wanted the Golf roadworthy for towing. I have been using the utility trailer to clean up and move stuff to temporary storage so that we can show our house for sale. The goal is to move the entire house, except for the piano, using the utility trailer. Here is a picture of trailer load number three: most of my garage is in the trailer and the car.



edit: grammar and spelling
 
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NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
Hit 480,000 km today just before pulling in for fuel here:



Yes, those are four new tires, size 205/70R15 :D
(Motomaster SE's were on sale at Canadian Tire)


Things I am putting off fixing:

- vibration under load from 60 to 90km/h suspect original CV joints
- drivers seat front mounting point cracked
- exhaust leak from flex pipe
 
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jayb79

Top Post Dawg
Joined
May 20, 2000
Location
Exeter,NH
easy fixes for the most part,
cv joint can be taken apart, cleaned and reversed, have haven't' done it but i read about it somewhere here i think.
flex pipe is fixable with an adapter that goes into the cat and over the pipe.
 

NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
easy fixes for the most part,
cv joint can be taken apart, cleaned and reversed, have haven't' done it but i read about it somewhere here i think.
Yes I read the reversing trick somewhere too... might try this it fits my style.

The CV Joint vibration has gone from "barely perceptible" to "consistently repeatable and slightly annoying" somewhere in the past 20,000km.... I am hoping I can make it to 500,000 km before it becomes "moderately disconcerting". :eek: Also I would like to get all of our stuff moved and put away at the new house before I take the car apart. Alltho, it shouldn't be too bad of a job if I just order new axles they are less that $70 each here: http://www.primechoiceautoparts.ca/c-50-axle-shafts-mmy-VOLKSWAGEN-GOLF-2001.aspx
 

jayb79

Top Post Dawg
Joined
May 20, 2000
Location
Exeter,NH
$70 dollar axles are tempting, but I tried 2 of them that were bad(both had ripped boots at the crimp) before just putting my old one back on and fixed the bad wheel bearing that was really cause the noise on my golf.
 

NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
A better picture of the Motomaster SE 205/70R15 tires (click and log in to enlarge):

Edit: the trailer has Uniroyal Tiger Paw Touring 195/65R15 tires for comparision. The actual tread is more wide and square on the Uniroyal even tho on paper it supposed to be 10 mm narrower (I know, can't see this in the picture).
 
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dubboy2707

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 8, 2012
Location
Sheffield UK
TDI
Passat B5
Got the used fender installed, thanks to REDNECKDZL for the part!



Checklist is going pretty well, upcoming projects:

- Front Light Bar / Brush Guard
- Hatch or Hitch Mount Spare Tire Carrier
- Adding cruise controls to the Thrustmaster Shifter

When are the font light bar brush gaurd and hatch mouth spare wheel coming on the car would love to see them

Keep up the good work
 

NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
When are the font light bar brush gaurd and hatch mouth spare wheel coming on the car would love to see them
Thanks!

I started the brush guard mounts and removed the lower grilles so I just need some time to work on the design and fitment.

I think I have given up on the hatch mount for the spare, it is just not very practical. But I will be designing a tongue mount for the spare on the utility trailer.

Its been really crazy for the past couple of months with the move to the new place, every single day I am working on putting things away and organizing the new house.

My wife got her dream house, except that it doesn't have a swimming pool, yet. I got all the work shop space I can handle right now and plenty of room to expand and park things.

Here are some night shots of the new parking lot, shed, and two car garage:





Edit: the Golf and the 4x8 Utility trailed DID move just about everything except for the piano! Since the movers were picking up the piano we let them move a ping pong table, couch, love seat, chair, dining room and kitchen chairs and table, single bed and queen size bed, dresser, book shelf, baby crib, entertainment center and a china cabinet. I swear the Golf and trailer could have moved these items cheaper, but, it would have taken five trips and 20 hours instead of the 3 hours it took the three young gentleman and their big moving truck.
 
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dubboy2707

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 8, 2012
Location
Sheffield UK
TDI
Passat B5
That workshop / garage aarea is awsome . I wish i had that much space to work/play in.

Looking forward to seeing the bush bar progress.
 

NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
I would like to present an example of how supportive my wife is of my hobbies...

It was was the night before June Jitter Bug and after a couple of beers I got the idea in my head that I wanted to bring my trailer to the car show. I have seen VW's with matching trailers at shows before. My trailer has matching wheels, with VW emblems, that counts right? But I couldn't just show up with a utility trailer... it needed something EXTRA... So we have this folding picnic table, and well here it is:



I was only up utill 11:30pm finishing the adapters for the front legs and strapping everything down. The next morning we all slept in late, and we figured we would miss the 9am sharp departure of the TDIclub Ontario 3rd Annual Spring Cruise to Jitterbug and we needed speed and dexterity to catch up with the cruise in progress and keep up with them up and down the Niagara Escarpment so I decided to just wash the car and we showed up as a fairly normal family of five with our canvas folding chairs.



I told the kids to be safe, if you are going to climb onto the roof, climb onto the center arm rest and out the sunroof, not out the windows. They are only allowed to do this at car shows. :)
 
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Aron1120

New member
Joined
Aug 6, 2012
Location
hagaman,ny
TDI
02 jetta
po402 egr flow excessive

hi there noticed you have a link for "quick fix" for this problem but cant seem to open the link
never had an egr code on. put a diesel geeks racepipe on and obviously it threw that code but recently new york changed the law for diesel inspectionsso i put the egr valve back on and now cant get rid of this code and cel
 

NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
P0402 egr flow excessive

The MAF Twist link does not work for me either, it is like that thread has been removed? Sorry, I tried all sorts of ways to access it not sure what is going on. (EDIT: THREAD WAS DELETED AS EGR DELETE THREADS ARE AGAINST THE FORUM RULES)

Here is a video, the description explains what I can not speak of here:

How to do the VW ALH TDI MAF twist - YouTube


hi there noticed you have a link for "quick fix" for this problem but cant seem to open the link
never had an egr code on. put a diesel geeks racepipe on and obviously it threw that code but recently new york changed the law for diesel inspectionsso i put the egr valve back on and now cant get rid of this code and cel
 
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NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
Update: Major oil leak from the oil feed line to the turbo repaired! It had rusted through just above the big nut that connects the line to the union on the top of the turbo. While I was waiting for parts I cleaned up the EGR valve and replaced the ASV linkage with some pieces from a Meccano set. Also finally deleted the EGR cooler.

Here are some pictures:





Coming up NEXT:

- Ontario drive clean test
- new silicone vacuum hoses
- replace exhaust flex pipe
 

duwem

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2012
Location
Wi
TDI
2002 Golf GLS TDI 5 Speed
I like the vac res relocate.

Whats the twisted maf do for you?

Sweet barn.
 

NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
Update! 488,800 km exhaust system refresh front to back with pictures:

So I finally replaced the flex pipe by hacking off the old one and clamping in a new 2" by 12" piece I picked up at Canadian Tire:



I am not very proud of the above flex pipe install, I applied generous amounts of muffler cement then loosely slipped it over the existing pipes and clamped them. This pipe SHOULD be welded in but that would involve taking the down pipe off and I really didn't want to go there (nuts, studs, gaskets, etc). So anyway it is done and it only leaks above 3000 rpm when you get a strange whistling noise but I figure that will go away when the cracks get clogged with soot and rust.

The original catalytic converter went back in, but I did revisit the repair from three years ago with the clamps and the adapter pipes behind the cat, here is a picture from three years ago:



I ended up removing the far left exhaust clamp and welding that piece directly to the back of the cat, only because I broke the 3 year old clamp when trying to remove it and the used pipe adapter did not want to stay clamped to the cat with a new clamp. Sorry no picture of the welded up piece. I re-used the original VW clamp from the far right of the above picture but picked up some new 3/8" by 3" long carriage bolts because the old ones were too short to re-install without too much wrestling of rusty old parts.

Now the exhaust was nice and quiet, too quiet, so I decided to cut the muffler off. Here is a picture looking at the front (input) of the muffler:



Here is where I cut it off near the axle. I used a piece of a rusty old U-bolt as a hanger which I welded to the original beefy (thick walled) exhaust pipe on the left. In the center of the picture below is a 2-1/4" exhaust clamp. To the right in the picture is the first of two 18" sections of 2" straight pipe (fits very tightly inside the original pipe):



Each of the 18" sections cost $10 and I debated trying to find something cheaper. Turns out that with two sections I did not have to do any trimming and I could telescope the sections inside of each other to get the length absolutely perfect on the car. I welded the last 2" exhaust clamp to another piece of old U-bolt and put that through the rear muffler hanger with a nut on either side of the rubber mount to keep it in place. When I was happy with how far the tip was poking and how high it was tucked up against the bumper I tightened the clamps and am very happy with the alignment. If I ever want to change anything back here I can just loosen these clamps and the two pipes will slide right out. So for a few extra dollars I am happy with my fully adjustable system.






I had cut the bumper a few years ago in preparation for dual exhaust tips which never happened, but it doesn't look too bad:



In total the exhaust refresh took place over three nights during the past week. Major costs were flex pipe at $57 and the straight pipes at $10 each plus about $15 in clamps and cement. The total was around $100 including tax. I probably could have had the same job done cheaper at an exhaust shop but it would not have been as much fun, and I probably would not have been happy with where the tip ended up.

The only thing left might be a nice chrome finisher, or not:

 
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