What did you do to your MKIV today?

Swapped out the ignition switch but same result: power but no starter action. So I decided to fiddle a bit with the ground wire as everything else looked right. Voila! Gonna swap in my new starter anyway and when I do that I’ll make sure that bugger stays on better and use dielectric grease.

Made progress on the lift pump but am waiting on the fuse block. All the wiring is about ready.

Happy to put new parts in. When all is said and done I want her to be reliable and ready for many worry-free miles.


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Saw this in IBW when I got home last night.


So today I changed the oil and filter, and also replaced air, fuel and cabin filters. Cabin filter replacement included cleaning out some evidence of mice. Time to set more traps in the garage.

Also changed the gear oil with fresh Pennzoil Synchromesh. The 5-4 shift is still a little difficult sometimes. Synchromesh has already made a huge improvement, so I'm hoping the fresh fill takes it the rest of the way.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

Yesterday, drove the Golf to NYC and back. I felt a little out of place in the garage in midtown with the BMWs, Porsches, and Mercedes. And it isn't black or white.

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The Golf is the best looking one of the bunch IMHO.

Finally replaced the broken driver side washer jet.....

Oil change/air filter/fuel filter are due. It’s supposed to be kinda nice out today, I might get there, or i’ll use the shop one day next week

Also helping the neighbour kid get his V6 4mo Passat running.....

Wired up the lift pump with the used relay/fuse box I got from a 'tex member. Looks stock.

Not sure if the lift pump is working, mind you. I drove around for a while, and still have issues getting going off boost. But at 2000 RPMs she's a monster. If I floor her at 1500 she doesn't have any guts. Maybe my car needs the timing set differently than dead center in the green?

Question: If the lift pump isn't working, would the car even start and drive???

Anyway, I wired in the power into the fuse block in the relay/fuse box so it looks stock and used a 25 amp fuse. And I ran a ground wire direct from the battery. Both wires run inside the factory loom under the cover. The power wire to the lift pump runs through the firewall and along the driver's side to the pump. All wires running into the engine bay through the firewall and others are covered with a typical plastic wire loom and zip tied to stay in place.

Judson said:

Wired up the lift pump with the used relay/fuse box I got from a 'tex member. Looks stock.

Not sure if the lift pump is working, mind you. I drove around for a while, and still have issues getting going off boost. But at 2000 RPMs she's a monster. If I floor her at 1500 she doesn't have any guts. Maybe my car needs the timing set differently than dead center in the green?

Question: If the lift pump isn't working, would the car even start and drive???

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Your signature says you have a "2001 Jetta TDI, converted to manual" with "PP520s, rc4, franko6 cam, 11mm pump." So an ALH TDI, which did not come from the factory with an in-tank lift pump. What you probably have is just the 11mm injection pump, which serves double-duty as it pulls fuel from the tank and pushes it under pressure to the injectors.

So what did you wire up?

It's not clear to me whether or not the sender will bypass the pump if it's not working. Recently I thought mine had quit, because I couldn't hear it when I turned the key before engaging the starter. I disconnected the feed to the filter at the Tee (tank side), put a bunch of paper towels in there, and cycled the key. I could see it was pumping.

Hey IBW - that helps. I may just pull the cover and feel the pump directly. I will say I think it’s working as this car will now rev to 5000 RPMs easily.

TornadoRed - i installed a lift pump in my ALH to support the mods, and (hopefully) to fix very low RPM and high RPM performance. It seems to have fixed the latter.


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Judson, you don't mention in your signature whose tune you have. A VNT-17 spooling slowly at low revs can be helped by changing the N75 duty cycle to close the vanes more aggressively when you request fuel. But despite that, part of why people liked the 17/22 was that it spooled faster at low revs. A better solution is probably to keep it above 2000 RPM.

My temp gauge on the dash started dropping out and acting wonky recently. Ran a scan with VCDS and sure enough there was a code for the CTS. Ordered a CTS kit from IDParts (along with some other parts that I plan to install this week) and installed the sensor today. The old black sensor came right out with the o-ring still attached. However getting the new sensor to seat was a bit more difficult and I lost more coolant then I would have liked but fortunately had extra on hand and didn't need much. Eventually got it seated, topped off the coolant, cleaned the spilled coolant, and gave the car a test drive to bring it up to temp and check for any leaks around the sensor (thankfully none noted). Gonna try and take advantage of the warm weather we're expecting to replace the blower motor, serpentine belt and tensioner, and the parking brake cables.

Hey IBW - I have rc4.

Did two things: swapped in new Bosch starter from IDParts. Used dielectric grease on the ground connection and made sure it was on tight.

Jacked up the left rear, in first gear with e-brake disengaged. (E-brake cables are new.) As I thought, left rear caliper is dragging. For comparison did the same on the right rear and the wheel turned freely. I am thinking this might cause my off-idle issues. Anyway will shop for a caliper rebuild kit tomorrow.

Judson said:

Jacked up the left rear, in first gear with e-brake disengaged. (E-brake cables are new.) As I thought, left rear caliper is dragging. For comparison did the same on the right rear and the wheel turned freely. I am thinking this might cause my off-idle issues. Anyway will shop for a caliper rebuild kit tomorrow.

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Before you do that, run the caliper piston through its full travel with the bleeder open so you get fresh fluid in the caliper. Then remove, clean, and lubricate the guide pins, and clean out the pin bores in the carrier. That may will fix the issue without replacing the caliper. I had dragging calipers last year and new carriers fixed the problem. Calipers are still original.

Regarding the turbo, you may want to run a boost log of actual versus requested boost. If it's lagging significantly an actuator adjustment may help.

Thanks IBW. Food for thought, as well as the boost log.


Update: with lift pump and new starter, she turns over so fast I forget to let the glow plugs glow. When I do, she starts up faster than I can ever remember her doing. Savannah is getting there folks!

Been getting my 04 TDI ready to sell. 260k miles on it, trying to make it a nice car to be inside, since the outside isn't really worth fixing. Grabbed some black/tan interior from a Jetta (had to mod the rear door panels a little bit, but not too bad otherwise).


The seat bottom is a Mk5 Jetta seat bottom, I put the Mk4 frame on it. The Mk4 Jetta bottoms in the junkyard were torn and scratched.




I was going to leave the Mk5 Jetta seats in the front, but I don't like the idea of selling a car to someone with seats that had to be adapted to fit, and had to have the seat airbags disabled, so I'm going to grab the front seats from the donor Jetta after work today. I'll just sell on the Mk5 Jetta seats, they're near perfect as it is. We pulled them from the wife's 09 TDI before we sold it back to VW.

Also patched a leaking tire, had a nail in it. Replaced the AC compressor, now need to get it evac'd and recharged. Should be able to put it up for sale this week.

Installed the new rubber inner timing cover plug after the cam position sensor replacement.
The old one had broken and dropped towards the skid plate and I just got the new one yesterday.

Got the rearview camera wired into reverse lights so that’s finally working.

Installed new used Gentex autodim mirror with homelink installed, wired, and programmed.

Progress!

I strapped tire chains onto mine for the first time, during my morning commute.

I really need to get the replacement springs installed, as that would have made getting my hands under the fenders a lot easier!

That said, even with ~4 inches of snow on the ground, it gave no complaints and purred along like normal.

Judson said:

Got the rearview camera wired into reverse lights so that’s finally working.

Installed new used Gentex autodim mirror with homelink installed, wired, and programmed.

Progress!

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I have the same mirror in my Prius; I was disappointed in the AutoDim function as the front light sensor interprets oncoming headlights to be daylight and disables the autodim. However if I cover the front light sensor with tape, then the autodim will try to work in the daytime also. Oh, also if the cars behind you are not positioned perfectly (too close or too far back) for their headlight beam to hit the rear light sensor, then the autodim doesn't work either. I prefer the manual "dim" lever on my mirror and the HomeLink in my visor on my Jetta.

Judson said:

?.. Installed new used Gentex autodim mirror with homelink installed, wired, and programmed.

Progress!

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Congrats, I'm a big fan and have collected WAY too many of them trying to come up with the perfect solution.

I'll have to say, the Audi A6/C5 with compass is my favorite.

Well so far the autodim works well, but I’ve only been driving it one day. It certainly is as good as the manual method.

That you could get a visor with homelink is cool ! Never read/heard about that before.

And that one can take a MK4 and update it to the point it makes a new car irrelevant is even better.


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Judson said:

Well so far the autodim works well, but I’ve only been driving it one day. It certainly is as good as the manual method.

That you could get a visor with homelink is cool ! Never read/heard about that before.

And that one can take a MK4 and update it to the point it makes a new car irrelevant is even better.


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I've had one of the autodim mirrors with Homelink on it in my Mk4 for several years. There's only one manufacturer of these things -- apparently there's a patent involved that is responsible for that.

Yeah, it looks and functions the same as in my 2004 Jeep GC Overland. I keep forgetting to bring my garage door opener to access my parent's place, so having homelink will fix this.

Next up: getting the Sirius antenna installed.

Judson said:

That you could get a visor with homelink is cool ! Never read/heard about that before.

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They were in the Passat models. I found a set of two in gray on eBay. In addition to having the Homelink in the driver's visor, both visors can be extended when by the door.

Judson said:

Yeah, it looks and functions the same as in my 2004 Jeep GC Overland. I keep forgetting to bring my garage door opener to access my parent's place, so having homelink will fix this.

Next up: getting the Sirius antenna installed.

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BTDTGT

Here is a thread that might help you:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=357992&highlight=FAKRA

Thanks Romad. I've seen that thread before - just now need to read the Alpine manual, and investigate whether or not I can feed the satellite antenna cable I have through the roof at the existing hole for my VW antenna. Or, of course, look at a combo antenna, but I listen to AM radio, so need to keep that.

Judson said:

Thanks Romad. I've seen that thread before - just now need to read the Alpine manual, and investigate whether or not I can feed the satellite antenna cable I have through the roof at the existing hole for my VW antenna. Or, of course, look at a combo antenna, but I listen to AM radio, so need to keep that.

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If you went through that thread then you saw the problem I had with my Jetta Wagon hatch hitting the AM/FM mast on the combo antenna. But if you have a sedan, then that won't be a problem and you can use the same antenna I used for AM/FM/Sat Radio.

Judson said:

Thanks Romad. I've seen that thread before - just now need to read the Alpine manual, and investigate whether or not I can feed the satellite antenna cable I have through the roof at the existing hole for my VW antenna. Or, of course, look at a combo antenna, but I listen to AM radio, so need to keep that.

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If you went through that thread then you saw the problem I had with my Jetta Wagon hatch hitting the AM/FM mast on the combo antenna. But if you have a sedan, then that won't be a problem and you can use the same antenna I used for AM/FM/Sat Radio. Here is a close-up of the antenna that shows where the AM/FM mast screws on. Since I don't use it, I just capped the adapter post.

It was yesterday not today, but I loaded a new Stage 4 Custom Tune into my ECU. I asked my tuner to re-scale my fueling to increase my FE as 95% of all of my driving is done in town so I seldom ever need WOT power. Disclaimer: I am using Torque Pro for my MPG readout; I realize the numbers it gives me may not be exact, but it did show a 16% increase in my in-town FE. The increase I can be quite sure, is fairly exact though. I kept reading of long-term posters here with way more aggressive tunes and hardware than I was running; they have verifiable high 50's and low 60's MPG in their sigs and I wanted some too.