The NARFmobile, My 2001 Golf TDI

Day 4 Update

Lets start this story by going back about three weeks in time:

I had gone for a few short test drives and managed to overboost and get into limp mode. I have replaced the VNT actuator twice allready for rust so I knew what I needed to do. Sure enough, this car's third actuator was starting to rust inside: it was crunchy to move and pieces of rust would fall out of the vent hole when you shook it. I sprayed some "Rust Check" lubricant (the pink stuff) inside and out and got the actuator pretty much freed up so it would not make crunching sounds when vacuum was applied, and it sort of held vacuum so I thought it might last a while longer.
I remembered to check the VNT lever arm on the turbo itself just before I re-installed the actuator. My heart sank only for a moment when the VNT lever arm on the turbo would hardly move at all. During the subsequent test drive I could repeatedly get the boost to spike at 20 psi and not come back down, confirming the vanes were not moving. After a dozen hard hard pulls in 3rd gear and several times shutting the car off while rolling in gear and switching it back on to reset limp mode, the boost started to regulate again! The turbo seemed to be clean and so were the brakes!
Fast forward to the past weekend, I was not too bothered that the car was going into limp mode... and sure enough, by Sunday, the turbo was working perfectly again!

Now, the Day 4 Update:

The car is running better than ever! It is so much fun to watch the boost gauge. When driving aggressively (over 3000 rpm) the boost builds quickly to 20psi then comes right down to 14psi and stays there right to 4500 rpm when it start to taper off. I don't have a tune, just a PSI Powerbox which is a micro-controller based turning box that plus into the injection pump wiring harness and fools the ECU into injecting slightly more fuel. Anyway, the car pulls hard and smooth all the way thru the rev range and I am really really happy with it.

With the money I saved on the serpentine belt tensioner and the VNT actuator, it was even easier to justify the purchase of two racing buckets with five point harnesses!



I found one these seats on sale at the Canadian Tire in Waterdown for $69.99 and picked one up for the Volkswagen immediately after getting the registration sticker for the car on Friday. Today being Monday I am watching my two year old nephew and had to swap a seat out of the Honda Odyssey first thing in the morning so that I could drive the Volkswagen. I figure that in order to maximize the investments of time and money I am making in the Volkwagen, I need to drive it as much as possible. To drive it as much as possible I would either need to move car seats twice a day four times a week, which ridiculous, or drive the eight passenger van with only three kids in it, which is sad when the Volkswagen is running great and uses half as much fuel. Not to worry, the Van will still get driven at least three time during the week when I have five kids with me, and I weekends when the four kids and my wife want to go somewhere in one car. Besides, the seats were on sale, and they look awesome! Finally, I have matching buckets with five point harnesses!

Speaking of awesome, check out this road sign:

Great to see this thread active again!!! Congrats on driving it again and having the chance to work on it! I look forward to reading about your adventures.

Thanks Bob! Writing this thread is really therapeutic for me and I would write it even if nobody was reading it, but it is nice to know somebody is reading it too. Here is another update and to-do list for the hopefully-near future:

Day 5 back from storage:

She's running great! I feel like the guy in the Midas commercial: https://youtu.be/qidUXPW5by0

Instead of attempting to "jump the bridge", I decided it was about time I washed the car, and put some shine on the tires. It was just a run through the automatic car wash and then some quick detailing around the outside of the window trim but what a difference! Also I quickly brushed some touch up paint in some rusty spots.



It was a beautiful day out today and the kids played outside for couple of hours after dinner and as the sun was going down the Reflex Silver paint on the Volkswagen was just gleaming as if the car was glowing, like it was happy, like it knows that it is truly loved and that the best is yet to come...

TO DO LIST:

- BRAKES: I have a complete set of brake pads and rotors and plan on starting with the front because the rears were changed when I replaced both rear calipers. Also, there is a nasty pulsation when braking hard and the performance is not great so this is top priority. If the replacing the front rotors and pads fix the pulsation and performance issue then I may leave the rears alone as they seem to be clean, not dragging, and able to pull the car to a halt at low speeds and hold it on hills.

- HORNS AND FENDER LINER: I think these may be related, there is a one foot square section of fender liner missing (hit a racoon) allowing debris to be splashed directly at the horns. I had a quiet half tone horn the other day, but today I had nothing when I pulled up behind a Purolator truck in a parking lot and it started backing towards me. Luckily they saw me in their mirror. I have a spare horn but the horns that are on the car may just need cleaning.

- REMOVE REAR SPACERS: Its pretty clear to me in today's picture that the new front springs have settled and now there is too much "rake". Taking one inch out of the rear suspension will hopefully center the rear tires in the wheel arches like the front ones.

- ABS LIGHT: It came on a few weeks ago when I was doing "Italian Tune-Ups" and for some reason my home made VAG-COM cable and particular laptop combination can talk to the engine module but not the abs module. I need to try another laptop because I had this this problem before where I couldn't talk to the instrument cluster when I was trying to join the 300,000 mile club. Also, I need to check the wheel speed sensor wires, sensors and tone rings when I look at the brakes and when I am removing the rear spacers. Not too worried about it, just needs investigating.

- MUFFLER: The "choo"ing of the turbo during gear changes and raw exhaust note during hard accelerations is fun but the droning at certain engine speeds is not fun. I have that $40 flow thru muffler to install.

- SERPENTINE BELT It is on order and I plan on installing it soon after it arrives and also putting the engine splash shields back on.

I had some things on a "wish list" but I don't even want to think about those until the important stuff is done.

Yay! Welcome back

Thanks mrrhtuner! Glad to be back...

Day 6 Update

Front brakes got done! Started at 10:30pm and was done at 12:30am including finding all my the tools, lubes, cleaners and brushes that I needed. The temperature was perfect in the garage with the doors closed it was still T-shirts and pants temperature even tho the temperature was falling outside. I used a new "deodorized brake cleaner" that I had not used before and it actually smelled kinda nice, I wonder if I should have had more ventilation? The old brake parts were in such bad shape I was glad I did not have a phone or camera to take pictures. The rotor friction surface was half glaze and half rust and the pads were worn thin, falling off their backing plates, and one was chewed up at one end. It took me about half an hour to clean up the garage and take a shower before going for a test drive at 1am. What a difference, now you hit the pedal and it just stops, no noise no shaking, no fear, no drama. I went for a long drive without the kinds in the car and thought about a few things. I got home at 3am.

Revised To-Do List (added three new items to the top of the list):

- AIR FILTERS: check cabin and engine air filters for mouse nests and general condition
- OIL CHANGE: only 8000 km but 2 years since last change
- REVERSE LIGHTS: broke wire on top of the transmission while installing starter
- HORNS AND FENDER LINERS: have an idea to add vents to both sides
- REMOVE REAR SPACERS: and rotate the "good" 205/70R15 tires to the front and install the "not so good" same sized tires on the rear
- ABS LIGHT
- MUFFLER
- SERP BELT

Thanks for giving a fairly new member something awesome to read and a great feel good story to follow. Glad to see the narfmobile back on the road. Best of luck with it, and I'll definitely be watching this thread!
-Mike

Thanks Mike! The momentum is really great on this car. I had worried that I would be too busy with the kids to get anything done on the car and it would be a waste to have it on insurance. Luckily, all it needs are a tonne of minor repairs; and I can drive it every day and save the wear and tear on the new van.

Speaking of busy with the kids, I had three toddlers all day yesterday, and they were playing outside with their power wheels and tricycles, so I figured I could safely park the car in front of the shed and watch them while I had a look a the horns...

Testing with a 12V battery pack I could only get faint blips out of the horns, and then nothing. I tapped them on the paving stones, I sprayed "ReleaseAll" into them, rolled them around, tapped them, tried again, nothing. So I took one apart and confirmed they were rusted inside.



I snapped the electrical connector off the one horn to make an adapter from the factory wiring to the new horn. I did some soldering in the sun shine and installed the new horn on the lower bracket with a small extension to the bracket that I twisted 90 degrees so that the mouth of the horn would point downwards and hide behind the bumper. Very satisfied with the results. Here are some pictures:









Since I was watching the kids, and helping them blow bubbles and stuff, I did not have time to fix the holes in the fender liners, not even just with duct tape. I took a picture of the crazy louvers that I was thinking about using: they may be too big, and they are made of sheet metal. I figure a few coats of rubberized undercoating might keep them quiet and rust-free, but them might look cool all sand blasted and rusted? I don't know, will visit this again before winter:

Today I cleaned the cabin air filter, changed the engine air filter and cleaned the snow screen. The engine air filter hadn't been changed in three years, and it looks like it was getting moldy?



It is always interesting to see what the snow screen has collected:



I thought about changing the serpentine belt but then decided it could wait until the next timing belt change in 50,000 km if we make it that far. I used the rare daylight-garage-time time I had to instead scrape the gunk off the engine covers and re-install them.



The list gets shorter:

- OIL CHANGE
- REVERSE LIGHTS
- REMOVE REAR SPACERS
- ABS LIGHT
- MUFFLER

Removed the rear spacers and put the same sized 205/70R15 tires all around and the car is sitting just as level as I had hoped!



After driving around with the trailer and then parking in the garage I found the measurements to the top of the wheel wells were 28.25 inches up front and 28.5 to 29 inches in the rear. I am not sure why one side is lower than the other in the rear, maybe one of the rear bushings is going or the axle is warped, or the body is slightly tweaked from when I was rear ended, or the axle is tweaked from riding on a broken spring on side for a few years a while back, who knows, I am not going to worry about it.





I am finally satisfied with the suspension lift I started so many years ago.

Time for some new tires! After days of soul searching, I decided that I would get three new Uniroyal Tigerpaw Touring tires in the size 195/65R15 (OMGosh STOCK!) to match the one brand new tire that I had from a blown sidewall replacement a few years ago. No matter how hard I tried I could not convince myself to spend more on "cooler" tires. Besides, the stock size costs way less, and I only need three, and the smaller the tire the bigger the gap due to the lift (which I like).

Also, I found http://tredweartires.com where I could get any raised white letters that I want, and I have always dreamed of raised white letters, so now I just have one problem:

What should I put on my sidewalls? I ordered four sets of "NARFATOMIC BLASTOMATIC" but then I realized that I could re-arrange the letters a bunch of different ways. I narrowed it down to nine choices. I need your help to choose a design. Here are the sample pictures, the poll should appear at the top of this page, please vote for your favorite!

Almost 2000 km since being back on the road already, hit 510,000km today!



Turns out my neighbour has a VAG-COM cable! Here is a picture beside my home made cable nightmare:



Neighbour's cable let me check in with the ABS controller, and it turns out is was just a loose connection to the fuse panel on the top of the battery! Wow, that was easy. I guess it did not hurt that I had cleaned the one rusty wheel speed sensor ring on the left rear corner where the splash shield was missing, but that was not the problem at all. Here is a picture of the problem, now I know that if you disconnect this cable it disables ABS:



I also found a bad glow plug today, so I temporarily disconnected it along with one from the "other bank" so that the two banks read equal and it doesn't throw the P0380 code. Ordered a glow plug and will solder a lead to it and install it when it arrives later this week.



It was a good day.

I love this thread! Keep it up!!

Thanks JDSwan87!

I had just enough garage-time today to install a muffler. I had been running just a straight pipe, and had recently added a turn down tip that I had found on the side of the road:



I had welded the tip on and re-aligned the rear hanger pretty hastily, hence this mess:



I cut the tip free and found that is was the exact same diameter as the pipe on the muffler!



After fully welding the tip I used a new muffler clamp to make a new, adjustable, rear hanger (it doesn't clamp any pipes together, it just holds the tip tightly at an adjustable angle relative to the rubber hanger that is mounted to the body):



Working my way towards the engine, I found a perfectly sized reducer, tack welded that to the front of the muffler, and was almost done:



Welded in a small section to bridge the gap:



I had intended to use an exhaust clamp to connect the reducer on the front of the muffler to the small section in the picture above. I only had one rusty clamp of the exact size for the job but I snapped the U-bolt trying to get the nuts off. It turned out to be a blessing because on closer inspection there was a gap between the outer diameter of the small extension and the inner diamerter of the reducer on the muffler. Fully welding this was best solution, so I ended up with a fully welded muffler.

The only thing I am not completely satisfied with and might re-visit is that you can see the muffler clamp from behind the car, here it is highlighted by the flash of the camera:



Otherwise I am very happy with the sound, here is the final product after a test drive:



Here is the obligatory video link so you can hear the sound of the exhaust: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqJ2ojvv1VI&feature=youtu.be

This muffler is still listed on Princess Auto's web site for $39.99 here is the link: http://www.princessauto.com/en/detail/automotive-muffler/A-p8596025e

During the littlest one's afternoon nap, while the older ones were playing outside yesterday I had time to remove the air box and battery tray and get to this reverse light switch on the top of the transmission. The wires were sheared off during installation of the starter this winter. There wasn't much wire left on the connector:



I took the connector apart so that I had enough wire to strip and solder. I know you can get repair wires at the parts counter, but soldering is faster, cheaper, and therefore more fun in my opinion.



I also derive strange pleasure from applying heat shrink tubing. Here is my new connector after four to six layers of heat shrink. I figure the wires can use the extra stress relief of the heat shrink as they leave the vibrating top of the transmission and are zip tied to the side of the engine bay only six inches away. I made sure to leave a nice flexible loop of wire between the car and transmission.



One less thing on my list:

NarfBLAST said:

I also derive strange pleasure from applying heat shrink tubing.

Click to expand...

Me too, lol.

rocketeer928 said:

Oh, that's right. He's one of our friends from the Great White North.

The U.S. should be metric by now too, IMHO.

Click to expand...

If that happened, half of this site would be in the 1,000,000 KM club

Today I made a video of my "Ultimate Glow Plug Tester": https://youtu.be/p6YXtuit6qI



And also made a mash up "How To Solder a Glow Plug in four easy steps" picture:



I got to break out the heat shrink:



And I pulled out the bad glow plug and replaced it.

Here is a picture of all the glow plugs re-connected to my custom harness and the bad plug with the wire lead cut off for analysis. Failure was determined to have been caused by a fault within the glow plug itself, not the soldered lead wire or crimped on connector.

Found a puddle under the left rear today. Blown damper. Parts ordered.

Update: New tires with raised white lettering installed!

EDIT Read the Eight Months Later review of the these tire letters: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=4992411&postcount=322

I had booked the entire afternoon out of watching the kids so that I could do yard work, but my tire letters had arrived this week and my tires were ready this morning, so I had to use this time to do the lettering. I knew it was going to take quite some time to apply all of the lettering, but it actually took a ridiculous seven and a half hours to mount them before I could go for a test drive. It was worth it. Here is why:

First I had to get the tires home and clean them with a degreaser until they stopped giving off the brown gunk. It took a few cycles of Simple Green, brushing, and rinsing with water before the brush could circle the tire without turning brown:



While waiting for the tires to dry I double checked the installation instructions and videos from http://http://www.tredwearletters.com/ and realized I was out of isopropyl alcohol so I am including "running to the drug store" in my two hours of prep time.

When I got back I realized a had a huge bag of letters to arrange, and also I had to align them with some landmarks on the tire so that they covered the "Uniroyal Tiger Paw Touring" letters and were also evenly spaced. This took some time, maybe an hour.



The TredWear letters are a specially bonded layer of white rubber on black rubber to prevent chemicals leeching through from the tire. The black layer makes the letters look like they are levitating off the tire - which kind of makes them look like they are not glued down properly - which sometimes they are not along the edges - which can be nerve racking, but apparently they can be touched up later, so I pressed on (pun intended).



Two and a half hours after gluing the first letter, I only had two tires done, but they looked SPECTACULAR!



Two hours after that I finished the other two tires. I was a bit nervous the temperature might drop below the critical "65 degrees F" required during the one hour I had to wait for the glue on the last tire to cure. The thermometer held around 70 and as the sun started to go down I mounted the last two tires and cleaned up.

I still had 40 minutes to kill so I mounted the mowing deck on the lawn tractor and greased and oiled all the moving parts. I took it for a quick test run on a small patch of lawn near the front porch. I was supposed to have been picking up fallen branches and mowing the lawns all afternoon, but at least the mower is ready to go now.

Just as the sun was going down I went for a test drive, and stopped to make sure all the letters were still attached. Then I went for a longer test drive, on the highway, at speeds, I knew the new tires were going to be smoother than the old ones, but WHAT A DIFFERENCE. The car feels brand new, and looks ridiculous, but I like it.



Ever since I was a little boy my vehicular dreams included certain vague ideas that I am trying to describe and fulfill as an adult. Today I realized one of my childhood car-fantasies: "own a set of tires with raised solid white letters."

EDIT Read the Eight Months Later review of the these tire letters: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=4992411&postcount=322

I grew up in the eighties, so: "own a car with a turbocharger", was on my list also, but I checked that off.

I have a couple items on my vehicular bucket that I may never check off, like:

- own a car with flip-up headlights
- own a car with the engine visible under glass
- own a car with a turbine engine and an afterburner

but I do plan on checking one of these off my list this summer:

- drive to the top of Pike's Peak
- drive the Tail of the Dragon
- drive to TDIFest

With this new set of tires, the Volkswagen is now ready for anything.

I finally replaced the EGR valve! The old EGR valve went up on the peg board in my workshop:



I can not tell you what I replaced the EGR valve with, because it is a forbidden subject on this forum. I dare not post a picture either, I don't want this thread to be deleted. All I can say is that I bought it really cheap on ebay because Dieselgeek stopped selling them and it rhymes with "face wipe". I am especially sad that Dieselgeek stopped selling them because at one point they reference my "MAF Twist" thread (which got deleted from this site anyway) on their product page for the item that rhymes with "face wipe" and that was like my claim to fame, I could show my wife, "Look honey, the people at DieselGeek like my MAF Twist idea! That makes me a official Diesel Geek too!" Oh well, If you are curious, google "Youtube MAF Twist Narfblast" for more details.

Anyway, the old EGR valve was not only leaking crank case vent oil everywhere, but it turns out that it was also the source of a boost leak! There was a hissing noise that used to appear over 3000rpm but is now totally gone! I thought this noise was coming from the exhaust because I noticed it after repairing the flex pipe. After repairing the flex pipe a second time, the noise was unchanged, but I still did not clue-in. Instead, I still figured it was an exhaust leak. I can't believe I didn't realize that if the EGR valve is leaking oil, then there must be boost leaking from there also!

This is the best kind of repair: when it fixes the problem that it was intended to fix and then fixes another problem you had not intended fix, and didn't even know was related, as a bonus!

I should mention that I no longer have an anti-shudder valve, but that is okay, because now I can reach the VNT actuator from the top of the engine much more easily. The shut-down shudder doesn't bother me, I think it is cool that the exhaust sounds so grumbly at idle and when you shut it down is goes, "grumble ba-bump."

I am amazed, the more attention I give the car the sweeter it sounds and drives. I just want to drive it more and more.

I now suspect that I may have the same leak, my egr is very oily and I am hearing a hissing. Do you know were it was leaking?
I love this thread.

jayb79 said:

I now suspect that I may have the same leak, my egr is very oily and I am hearing a hissing. Do you know were it was leaking?

Click to expand...

AndyBees does a really go job of describing why and how the oil leaks out of the EGR in this thread: http://devforums2.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=421152

Oil in the intake is normal and comes mostly from the crank case vent because the crank case receives positive pressure from the vacuum pump (all that air that gets sucked out of the vacuum system gets pushed into the crank case which pushes oily fumes out the crank case vent). This is the reason that the vent side of the N75 and N18 valves must be connected to the clean side of the air box: there is a constant flow of air directly into the crank case, it must be clean air!

When under boost the oily fumes are forced out of the leaks in the EGR valve. The moment these fumes drop down to atmospheric pressure and hit the colder air outside they condense in the atmospheric vent chamber in the EGR valve and leak out of the large holes on either side. The atmospheric vent camber in the EGR is where atmospheric pressure enters to push against the bottom of the diaphragm to lift the valve from its seat when vacuum is applied to the top side of the diaphragm.

Some say oil also gets into the intake from leaks on the intake impeller side of the turbo so you should "check for end-play if you see excessive amounts of oil in in your intake." How do you know much oil is excessive? I don't know, but I have found a mess of oil around the EGR valve for the last 300,000km or so and never had a problem with the turbo (knock on wood). Another place that oil collects is in the intercooler (again, hot oily fumes hitting cold metal causing condensation) so some people freak out when they see oil in the intercooler but it is normal and who knows how long it has been collecting and whether or not it has been blown out properly due to driving habbits.

Thanks for the link, I will check it out this weekend. All my oil is from the turbo, the CCV is elephant tube. It is only wet with oil not dripping, but it was always dry until a few months ago. I do not have excessive end play but some oil always seems to get by. I will eventually fix it with a "face wipe".

The hatch locks again, and I found a use for my big red button:

video: http://youtu.be/ctaMyW6LA1U

I put a switch in the solid section of the parcel shelf, kind of what Herm did in this thread:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=324878&highlight=hatch

jayb79 said:

I put a switch in the solid section of the parcel shelf, kind of what Herm did in this thread:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=324878&highlight=hatch

Click to expand...

I admit I did not take the time to research this, I just threw a switch in to prevent the actuator from firing... And added some labels:

Replaced the rear shocks and upper mounts!

I think I know why the one shock started leaking immediately after lowering the rear one inch: the seal was probably torn on the corroded the part of rod that it had not touched in years, just an inch above its normal full range of travel:



These shocks and mounts had 110,000 km on them so it was a good opportunity to replace both of them and see if I could get rid of the annoying clunk in the rear end. I cut up an old bicycle inner-tube to make isolators between the the upper shock mount and the body for extra insurance (I saw someone else do it on here):



The clunking is completely gone. Now all I hear are creaks and rattles coming from inside the cabin.

A few nights ago I decided to remove the PSI Powerbox from in between the ECU and the injection pump. I cleaned the wires with Simple Green de-greaser and cleaned the connectors with isopropal alcohol and made sure it was easy to connect and disconnect them. Then I wrapped all the wires in fresh split loom and zip ties.



Why did I go to all this trouble? I got the okay from the boss to take a short road trip down to Impex TDI Fest this Saturday, May 16th, 2015.
While there I might get a chance to speak to man from Rocketchip, and the first thing they will ask me to do is disconnect this box, so I don't want to be fumbling with a sticky connector in front of them! Also, if they do their thing I won't need this fine piece of hardware anymore and it should still be worth a few hundred dollars especially in the condition as pictured. I am nervous and excited about the trip. It is a seven hour drive each way.

I also replaced the VNT actuator last week with the previous one I had removed which was on my shelf coated in lube and in better working order than I remember it! I had mentioned that my VNT actuator was crunchy and not holding vacuum, but the actuator that I had in a box on the shelf was, somehow, no longer crunchy, and I guess it never had a problem holding vacuum. I adjusted the rod on the actuator just a little longer to reduce the amount of boost overshoot when flooring it above 3000rpm. I think I have it dialed in now.



I even did some testing with a 3bar MAP sensor just for fun so I know the turbo will run at 18 psi sustained. I put the 2.5 bar map back in because the 3bar throws an "implausible signal" when it reads vacuum just above idle, and it will sometimes put the car into limp mode. Anyway, that was fun, but there didn't seem to be more power at 18 psi than 14 psi probably because there was no extra fuel, so I am looking forward to seeing what Jeff from Rocketchip can do this weekend to an otherwise stock ALH.

I will be very interested as well, I am planing on a new southbend flywheel and clutch on memorial day weekend a tune will follow.

World Impex TDI Fest was AWESOME! I shared my experience and some pictures from the get together over in the fest thread.

I left World Impex at 3pm and got home just after midnight. I had to slow down for some heavy rain and I stopped at one point as the sun was setting to adjust my IQ setting. The car pulls so nice all the way to 5000 rpm I am still in disbelief. I drove up and down so many amazing hills and curves, I don't know how I am going to get to sleep tonight. Here are some pictures from the trip home: