The "What did you do to your B4 today" thread...

bikeprof

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Location
Pagosa Springs, Colorado(YEAH!)
TDI
1996 Passat B4 Variant white, 1996 Town & Country 3.8 LXI
LOL................

I am in the process of getting the B4 wagon somewhat road worthy again, it is a long process but for now, I am sort of still ahead in $'s and use of the vehicle.

Got two new tires, ready for the winter now!

I will be replacing the Bilstein struts and one rear shock, you need these?

John
 

Windex

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 1, 2006
Location
Cambridge
TDI
05 B5V 01E FRF
Heh. One more. Got busy last night and finally got around to Frankenstein'ing a driver's seat together that isn't all torn and flattened.

I took the foam and covers from a pristine passenger seat and grafted them onto the frame of my drivers seat.

The only real issue is the pre-existing hole for the lumbar adjust knob, but it is hidden quite nicely by the center console.

"New" seat on the right, crappy old foam and ripped covers on the left:

 

TonyJetta

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Sep 15, 2005
Location
Tucson, Az
TDI
'15 Jetta TDI SE / '06 Jetta TDI DSG Pkg0 / '96 Passat TDI
So today...

1) Replace the passenger airbag cover. This was leftover from my airbag oops, in early July.

2) Replaced the drivers door window switch.

3) Fixed the clutch pedal...I'll have a separate thread on this.

Tony
 

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Location
South of Boston
TDI
'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
Struts.

Front flex lines.

SMOG .205's (the car has gone from anemic to tolerable!"

and my favorite, installing new shifter and e-brake handle boots to finally get rid of the ratty vinyl ones that came with the car:

Very nice. Where did you get those?
 

bikeprof

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Location
Pagosa Springs, Colorado(YEAH!)
TDI
1996 Passat B4 Variant white, 1996 Town & Country 3.8 LXI
I may be having the two front seats available.
I will be having the two front Bilstein HD struts plus ONE rear shock, decided to go the Koni way after too much effort and $ for them Billy's(rear install and replaced 3!, yes, 3!).

NICE shift/e-brake covers!

- Installed two NEW tires and rotation,
- swapped rear brake pads(keeps them flat) AND lubed the pins,
- noticed there is a leak in the drivers side rear caliper ONLY when I apply the E-brake and never when foot operated(!?) so I bought used caliper
- washed wagon but dirty again, we have been having LOTS of rain here
 
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WVU TDI

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2007
Location
Beckley, WV
TDI
2013 Passat SE 6m
Entertained an offer for it, and counteroffered.
Heh, likewise. A couple, actually.

On IBW's comments about the redline shift boots, have the same thing in our B4 and I couldn't have asked for anything more. Quality is top notch, install instructions were perfect and I found the shipping pretty quick considering they came from Poland.

Plus I got an extra $10 back when I posted about my positive experience with them, here on tdiclub :)
 

Windex

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 1, 2006
Location
Cambridge
TDI
05 B5V 01E FRF
Woot!

Doesn't really count yet, but this arrived by courier today:





Finally going to have a hitch to haul my utility trailer around. Quality of the hitch looks very good, powder coating is quite thick. Not crazy about the lack of bracing on the toungue though. Might have to do something about that.
 

Ralphy

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2003
Location
Sherbrooke, Québec
TDI
Passat TDI sedan, 1997, silver, ABS
I would love to install a ASR/EDL module to my car that already has ABS. Could it be done, assuming the control module would be independant from car ECM?
Yes it can be done, and will soon be done:)
The ODBII 97 B4 w ABS already uses the 4 chanels MK20 controler with a 25 pin connector. All I have to do is find an ABS/EDS/ASR MK20 module that was used on A4 Golf/Jetta until 2001 where change to MK60 occured.

The only things that will have to be added is an ASR kill switch and a dash icon that tells me when the ASR is working. Also, the load reduction line...
 

Digital Corpus

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 14, 2008
Location
Ontario, California
TDI
'97 B4 w/ 236K mi body, 46K mi soul
Struts.

Front flex lines.

SMOG .205's (the car has gone from anemic to tolerable!"

and my favorite, installing new shifter and e-brake handle boots to finally get rid of the ratty vinyl ones that came with the car:

We have the same interior! Only thing is that mine is starting to tear. I've been thinking about getting it reupholstered. I happen to get a set of redline boots too. They are very nice quality.
 
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BolaB4V

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2007
Location
Northern NY
TDI
1996 passat tdi wagon, 97 F-150 XLT 4x4, 99.5 Mk4 Jetta VR6/5M
Had two rims I bought from a member installed and all wheels balanced.
Tires rotated, steering wheel almost dead, tracks without pulling. Mechanic said that a front rim was out of wack but the two on the front now are dead on. He just got a new balancing machine:)
...got to look under the carriage and He said My LCA's are good but have a fwew holes in the straight pipe from vcat back. Wonder what it woulod be to have a pipe run from the cat back in a solid pc.
 

surfbus

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2010
Location
WA State
TDI
96 Passat, 03 Jetta
Passenger side inner CV boot the other day, i'm still finishing it up today. Major PITA !! :mad: Hopefully we never have to do it again.
 

BolaB4V

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2007
Location
Northern NY
TDI
1996 passat tdi wagon, 97 F-150 XLT 4x4, 99.5 Mk4 Jetta VR6/5M
Ordered oil filter and new thermo tee. This weekend I hope to 3m tape the passat badge I bought to the rear gate...has been missing for some time.
 

twentyeight

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2009
Location
Phoenix, AZ
TDI
1Z & ALH
Loaded it up with all my belongings and moved to a condo :)

The B4V is a surprisingly capable vehicle... The big stuff fit in a trailer which the wagon pulled great.

It's times like this when all the work that was put into the car pays off.
 

Digital Corpus

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 14, 2008
Location
Ontario, California
TDI
'97 B4 w/ 236K mi body, 46K mi soul
Put my dashboard back together as I put metal tape over the holes in the blend plate in my HVAC. Royal pain going that far into my dash. Everything is okay except that brace above the passenger airbag that has to be held in place by hand before the screws go into it. Since it has no support from any other part of teh dash, I had to get another member of the family ot hold it in place while I aligned it and put the first screw in it.

Since everything was taken apart to free up the movement of the dash, I took the opportunity to detail everything as well.
 

bikeprof

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Location
Pagosa Springs, Colorado(YEAH!)
TDI
1996 Passat B4 Variant white, 1996 Town & Country 3.8 LXI
WOW! Tell us about the labor that it took you for the job, mine NEEDS the plenum fixed as well!

I am dreading it, like replacing the rear shocks AGAIN!

Put my dashboard back together as I put metal tape over the holes in the blend plate in my HVAC. Royal pain going that far into my dash. Everything is okay except that brace above the passenger airbag that has to be held in place by hand before the screws go into it. Since it has no support from any other part of teh dash, I had to get another member of the family ot hold it in place while I aligned it and put the first screw in it.

Since everything was taken apart to free up the movement of the dash, I took the opportunity to detail everything as well.
 

Digital Corpus

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 14, 2008
Location
Ontario, California
TDI
'97 B4 w/ 236K mi body, 46K mi soul
I didn't do my rear shocks, I had someone else do them for me :)


It's not that bad. I did it over the course of three days since I was cleaning and detailing each piece and the fact that it was over 100˚F outside during the day. I'm a guy who likes wearing shorts when it's in the 50's :).

I suggest the complete removal of the dashboard for sanity's sake, especially if you are doing this with a one man crew. In order to get the dash off, you need to remove the steering wheel and the stalks for the wipers and turn signals. It's fairly straight forward.

I don't know about other instructions already posted, but there is a frame that hold the flap on over the passenger airbag. You do not need to remove this frame. It'll give you problems if you try and put it back on (the top three screws that go into a mount I talked about earlier) with the dashboard inside the car. All you need to do is remove the three screws that hold the cover flap down, swing it up, and disconnect the wires from the holding loops in the back of the dash itself.

If you have been inside your dash before, you'll find this whole process fairly easy, but lengthy due to how long it takes to unscrew and screw back every screw :). If you have a good spacial memory, it should take you about 9 hours or less. I took longer because I had the time, and I wanted to fiddle with how the wires were arranged for future access.
 

Windex

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 1, 2006
Location
Cambridge
TDI
05 B5V 01E FRF
I'm not looking forward to doing the heater core and door foam combo.

I've done a heater core on a B3 before, not too bad, but I slid the dash rearward and squeaked it out the top. If the HVAC box goes, so much for that, ze whole dash must be excized...

Today's list of what I wanted to get done:

Install keyless entry module
Install Trailer hitch
Install center flex section in exhaust.

In order:
Need two relays, must wait
Didn't get done
Brother borrowed my sawzall, so I put this on hold

What did get done:

I finally finished my homebrew pop-tester!





I've been meaning to test the spray pattern and primary breaking pressures on the SMOG .205's I installed last week, all was good. Next week, I'm getting the sawzall back, so the flex section in going in.
 

bikeprof

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Location
Pagosa Springs, Colorado(YEAH!)
TDI
1996 Passat B4 Variant white, 1996 Town & Country 3.8 LXI
1. Washed the dirt/zoot off the back,
2. installed new P.S. belt and re-worked one of the mounting bolts for the P.S. pump(both bolts broke, earlier attempt by paid mechanic broke E-Z out IN bolt!). Made bridge with existig bolt hole and new hole, now it does not clatter and feels quite solid!
3. took DOG food out of bottom of rear seat :)
 

ed mocz

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2010
Location
Las Vegas NV
TDI
1997 Passat
Replaced a cracked intercooler, new fuel filter, new vac lines, cleaned grounding points under the battery and installed new window regulator. Next up is the headliner and antenna. Had a furlough day today, so I thought it would be a good day to catch up on the maintenance on the b4.
 

Abacus

That helpful B4 guy
Joined
Nov 10, 2007
Location
Relocated from Maine to Dewey, AZ
TDI
Only the B4V left
Installed a SBC Stage 2 Endurance clutch (formerly Stage 3), pressure plate, and bearing. New basepan gasket, new rear main seal, new pass drive flange gasket, changed oil and filter (OEM filter for a '98 1.8T and Mobil-1 5W-40 TDT oil), changed tranny fluid (used Amzoil 75W-90 GL4 again). Test drove and all seems well right now, shifting is smooth and clutch pedal is lighter than the LUK clutch I removed. I hope everything stays good for awhile.
 

BolaB4V

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2007
Location
Northern NY
TDI
1996 passat tdi wagon, 97 F-150 XLT 4x4, 99.5 Mk4 Jetta VR6/5M
Took the front clip off the B4 to get at the radiator fan belt. ..managed to get my hand between the rad and shroud once everything was out of the way. Reinstalled the belt that fell down between the two sections cause the one I ordered was a little too big (said for a B4 when I ordered it but too loose).
 

TonyJetta

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Sep 15, 2005
Location
Tucson, Az
TDI
'15 Jetta TDI SE / '06 Jetta TDI DSG Pkg0 / '96 Passat TDI
IIRC, there are 3 versions. I'll have to look in the morning at my spare for the PN.

Tony
 

kooyajerms

grocery getter
Joined
May 5, 2004
Location
Pomona, Southern California
TDI
97 B4V (mine), 11 x5 35d (hers) 04 V10 (that one you want), 2014 Q7 (mom's) 74 Shasta 1400
Put the wagon on an enclosed trailer and sent it to Whitbread in Ohio. :eek:


Yes I will be picking it up.
 

paramedick

TDIClub Enthusiast, Vendor
Joined
Jul 29, 2001
Location
Versailles, Kentucky
TDI
2015 Audi Q5 TDI
Put the wagon on an enclosed trailer and sent it to Whitbread in Ohio. :eek:

Yes I will be picking it up.
Dayum! Fly into CVG and I'll see about picking you up (if work permits) and taking you to Lima when it's done.

Delivering the 1996 Passat to the new owner this morning. She's going to live in Missouri.
 
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