What what point do you stop?

Yeah, because MK4 single din are non-can bus and re pretty much the same as MK3s. MK4 double din is where things changed quite a bit.

Ya but the 2002 can have either a single or double DIN and the wiring is the same as long as they are both monsoon... same if they're both non-monsoon too

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I was going through my leftovers from when I was a vendor and I found that I have a immo3 MFA euro cluster laying around. Thinking I could just do a immo3 cluster swap, and then I can run the can wires to the radio and have full functionality. Then I could have lit needles, distance to empty, and all those goodies on the cluster.

Edit: I also found that the early MKIVs came with two different non-monsoon radios. Premium 4 and premium 5. Premium 4 is what I have now(can it even be called "premium"??) and a premium 5 will swap right in with no mods what so ever.

Old thread but still relevant...this car still kept burning oil despite me having the head rebuilt by Franko6. A good quart every thousand or so. It was starting to smoke pretty bad too. Also last winter it was struggling to start in the cold. Compression was still high around 540psi. Finally had enough of this crap and pulled the engine tore it down to the bare block. This is how it is sitting right now:


Found a few interesting things. First off it was quiet obvious that the oil consumption was due the rings as there was a good carbon/goo buildup around the pistons and head.




So I take the rings off and slip the top compression ring down into the bore and check with a feeler gauge. 18 thou of clearance down toward the bottom. Not great but acceptable. Then I got near the top where the rings stop. My biggest feeler gauge 22 thous, goes right through with no resistance. No wonder this thing is burning oil, thats some pretty bad taper.

Got a set of ASV +.5mm pistons on order from metalman and trying to seal the deal with a local machine shop to bore this thing out. .

Overall everything looks good, crank looks good, mains were decent, should be a straight forward rebuild.

I would definitely get rid of that car. Considering the shape of it overall, time to get a new one. Take better care of the next one and maybe if you were in a similiar situation you would repair it. When all is said and done, sometimes a new car is just nice. I have (2) 2002 TDIs, and in all honestly, it would be kind of a good feeling to have a new one. Age is age. I think I've kept my car in rather very good condition and sometimes I just feel like I want something else. If I were you it would be a no brainer.

I understand what you are saying but I need a working car and ALHs are pretty much all used up around here.

Anyway, I spoke to one local machine shop today and the good news is that they have done several TDIs in past and the owner sounds pretty familiar with them. The bad news is that I got a quote for $675 to bore all four holes, hot tanks, blast, paint and deck. The pistons and parts already blew $500+ there. This is gonna get expensive quick...

Careful decking the block so you don't run into a situation where you need a 4 hole head gasket

Meh, if the 3 hole isn't thick enough just take .5mm off the tops of the pistons, just make sure to measure everything before getting anything coated and you'll be ok.. ASV's have a LOT of material on the tops so no worries about weakening anything.

Since this thread got revived, it seems appropriate to post here.

The 2000 beetle needs a suspension refresh. Motor is good, no rust, interior could use some work, the door cards look bad.

I went through and added up parts, shocks & struts (mid grade koni), all the mounts, bolts, tie rods, all the bushings and bearings and little rubber bits that are 14 years old, and I'm getting a number just over 1k. Based on a new Beetle, that's about 3 months payments, I'll pay my local mechanic to do the work, so figure 600-800 for his time, hopefully less since it's remove everything and replace with new, rather than disassemble to swap 1 thing and put it back together. So, for the cost of 1/15 a new one, all the non-motor moving things are effectively new.

The only real downside I see is that it's still a 14 year old car, motor is solid, new suspension would fix most of the noises it makes, and the body and exhaust are rust free. I really don't care about having a new car, just one that gets me where I need to go.

Anything I'm missing?

Yours is worthy of repairing....

As long as you do a good job and put it together right then you should fix it!

Found a little suprise under the rear footwell.



So a bit of fiberglass later, its all fixed.



Block went off to the machine shop today...he said that the head gasket was ready to blow and he likely will need to deck it a good amount and possibly mill the pistons a bit. We will see.

Ok so the block is back, bored and decked. Got the ASVs installed and ran into a interesting thing. I measured the piston protrusion and I get around 32-37 thou which is within limits of a one hole gasket. This is weird because the block was decked (he told me he didn't take much off.).

I am measuring with a dial indicator that I zeroed for flush with the deck. It has been giving me very consistent numbers of mid 30s.



So I called the shop and he told me that he got about 40 thou without the rings. So I guess I am in the ball park. It originally had a 2 hole from the factory but it looks like I am going to need a one hole. Want to make sure this thing starts in the cold.

Bent rods?

They are all constant so I doubt all four are bent the same. Its still bugging the hell out of my why its so low.

Mine were all bent the same.

I am getting 0.034, 0.036, 0.032, 0.031 from 1 to 4. I think the rods are shot. That 0.031 is pretty below spec.

Ok so I get a set of used PD100 rods coming soon so hopefully they will fix the issue with the protrusion. It just stops all progress in the engine side out now so I am back to working on the body doing what I can.

Put the new updated thick parking brake cables in because my E-brake kept sticking and I couldn't use it. Took what was left of the rotted cable off the drivers side caliper and it still held the wheel solid...so now a need a caliper.

Got the cables installed anyway. Napa has a decent price on reman rear calipers so I'll probably end up swapping it out.

Deadline is august 25th as that's when the next college semester starts. I need to have the car running and driving in good order by then or I am screwed.

I think I just made a breakthrough. I pulled one of the ASV pistons out and put in one of the stock old ALH pistons to check the deck height again. Guess what? 45thou, bang on target for a 3 hole gasket.

So the oversize ASVs are lower in height than the stock ALHs. I bet they made them low so the block can be decked.

The rods are fine, it was the pistons the whole time. I am thinking of just getting a one hole gasket and be done with it.

What is weird is that the pistons say SP 0.05 on them by the +.5mm oversize writing. 0.05mm is 12 thousands which is pretty much how much less height I am getting with them.

Check your conversion again..I think 0.05mm is more like 0.00195"
Grab a caliper and measure from the wristpin to the top of both pistons to see rouhly what the difference in piston height is.

A 1 hole gasket will work, its not the best way to lower the compression ratio though. Rough numbers, each 0.001" of piston protrusion (or lack thereof in your case) is worth 0.1 points of compression ratio. So if you're 0.012" short, you'll be 1.2 points lower.

Ok I know I haven't updated in a while. I ended pulling the pistons out and putting in PD100 rods. Deck height was exactly the same so the rods were fine.The ASV pistons have a pretty low deck and I am kinda pissed that the machine shop did not catch that. The PD rods mated fine to the ASV pistons. Plastigauged the rod bearings and everything was bang on spec. Deck heights ranged from 0.03" to 0.036". 0.0358 is minimum so I am 0.005" short on two. That's only .5 points which I think shouldn't make too much difference I hope.

Good news motor is almost back together. Hopefully tomorrow I can bolt up the trans and get it ready to drop back in the car.

Car is back up and running. No more blue smoke and stinky exhaust. That's the good news. The bad news is that its got a tick now that I don't remember before. Its not super loud but enough to make me very uneasy. Not too happy right now.

what do you mean loud?

Took a quick video. Its most loud by the passenger wheel wheel. Its quiet from on top and goes away when you rev the engine.

http://youtu.be/Ck3KSxg_AFU

Took it for a drive and it still makes the noise. Comes and goes like a lifter tick. It does it when coasting so its not injector related. Put the beans to it a few times and it still the same.

It runs fantastic otherwise. Oil is still clean and no more blue oil cloud following me around.

I am a complete moron. The ticking is fixed. I was going to install a rebuilt OEM dowpipe to replace an aftermarket one that I had in there. So when I installed the downpipe I didn't really go crazy tightening the bolts...well I guess the very top one which is the hardest to get to wasn't tight at all. It was leaking pretty bad judging all the carbon buildup around it. Runs so smooth and quiet now.

Update....So I put about 20K on the car since the rebuild and it runs great and isn't burning any oil at all. Very happy with that.

Now for the bad news, the heater core just went out. Turned up the heat this morning to be greeted by the smell of coolant and a foggy windshield. Son of a $%&@!!!!!! Not looking forward this at all. This sucks.

if you redo bushings put in the audi TT bushings

turbocharged798 said:

Great points, I guess another aspect is that its just a beater car and nothing fancy and I really don't care if its fancy. I have to draw the line somewhere though. There definitely is a lot of personal attachment to this car as its been in the family for 13 years 300K miles.

Thinking I should just replace those rear beam bushings and hopefully it fixes the "drifting around on the road" feeling. As for the seat, I should be able to re-foam it and wash the cover.

Engine still runs fine its still way easier and cheaper to dump in a quart of T6 every 2500 miles than do a rebuild. Not 100% sure what is going on there but I have been thinking of filling the cylinders with MMO and letting sit overnight. The super high compression and oil consumption all point to carbon packed rings. Seems to also have a lot of diesel clatter which is also concerning for me.

I think probably end up just keep fixing it like I have been doing.

Oh, did I mention that radio has 0 reception? Probably needs a new antenna base. Another thing on the list....

Click to expand...

About the high compression: probably built up coking on rings. Ever ran biodiesel in very cold weather or WVO or VO at any time?

Try internal steam clean: fill a 2L bottle with distilled water. Put a tube through cap and run it out the window and into the air filter box (prefilter). Put a hard load (find the steepest and longest nearby hill) and squeeze the bottle (only when under hard load). Repeat until empty. I bet you the compression comes into normal range or close to it.

lol did you guys read the rest of the thread? The engine has been fully rebuilt with oversize pistons. Cylinders were not round anymore and the pistons had massive carbon buildup from the oil burning. Car runs great now aside from the bad heater core...

lol, oops, no, not till now. I stand (sit) corrected.

Back to my cab sav. Was a good thread