What did you do to your MKIV today?

Nero Morg said:

Looks like ya missed one

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Yep, 2 more feral ones. This one and a beautiful gray one with orange spots we might keep as a barn cat, but have to catch it and get it fixed first. The hoarder tenants that lived there abandoned 18 cats

Bought another Jetta to fix up again, 2003 which was advertised as blown turbo for $500. Checked it yesterday and it spins freely with no play at all.

But another hurdle presented itself, previous owner "stole" all the relays off the panel underneath the steering wheel. Not having much luck yet of finding all those. Definitely don't want to pay parts store prices.

Which relays do I need as a minimum to be able to crank it?

109 minimum, maybe more.

Thanks I'll try with the 109 first, checking the wrecker in the morning.

109 is to power the ECM is it not? I know when the one is Son's '00 failed it still cranked... If it is an auto, the complex relay that gets jumpered/hacked up on a manual swap is needed to crank. 175 IIRC...if you can't find one, pm and I'll drop one in the mail.

Douglas

Correct the 109 powers the ECM and the fuel shutoff solenoid, but it will still light up the dash and crank without it installed.

Got all the relays from the wrecker, everything works but there is no dash lights in the "on" position except the battery light. Also no crank. So I changed the ignition switch but same result. I know the dash lights came on once before but it seems very random.

More research needed...

Actually maybe it's because I'm trying to jump a dead battery and not hooking it up directly to a good one!?

Caddy 16v said:

Actually maybe it's because I'm trying to jump a dead battery and not hooking it up directly to a good one!?

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Entirely possible. It's better to have the negative jumper cable on the engine block of the dead vehicle. See if that helps.

Drove the '99.5 Golf to NYC and back for a meeting. Car did great, but I don't think I'll see the best FE (50.1 last tank) because of heavy traffic on the way home followed by running at 85 MPH or so when things cleared, A/C on all day.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

Drove the '99.5 Golf to NYC and back for a meeting. Car did great, but I don't think I'll see the best FE (50.1 last tank) because of heavy traffic on the way home followed by running at 85 MPH or so when things cleared, A/C on all day.

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My 99.5 J would get 45-46 under those conditions. Best I ever saw (once) was 50 MPG, all freeway 75+MPH.

That's about what I expect, based on where the gauge is now. Lately this car has been showing right around 50 MPG when driving mostly highway 75-85 MPH. I think it's breaking in (30K since rebuild), as top gear acceleration is improving which to me indicates better compression. I maintain that TDIs take 60K to fully break in.

Not my MkIV but daughters gasser 05 Golf:

changed out the tranny fluid in her 01M. 100kish miles. Was planned. But about a week ago she told me her MIL came on. VCDS said it was the N91 solenoid for the torque converter clutch.

some research on here and a very helpful video from cool air vw made me decide to add changing that solenoid while doing the fluid. Ordered the new solenoid and unplugging tool from coolairvw. I was ready to break the plastic on the old solenoid to remove the plug without breaking the harness side plug, but following coolair’s tips and using his tool (get your minds out of the gutter) the plug came out intact with little fanfare.

Old fluid was dark as expected, but it didn’t look bad. Minimal sludge on the magnet in the pan. Replacement fluid was Rowe from IDparts.

Put it all back together, filled it up, and it shifts like a dream. I think these trannies are better behind a 2.slow than the torquey Tdi, tbh.

This site is invaluable to anyone keeping MkIV cars on the road. Glad it’s around.

Drove home from the Mechanic shop today with a 5 speed swap in my 03 wagon, love it so far, way more enjoyable the the 01M auto.

Accessory belt shredded on my 00 NB . Half shredded and wrapped itself around idler pulley while the other half remained intact. Drove home20 miles with no belt and no problem.
Replaced the idler pulley , belt and the tensioner also.
PO messed up the nut that you use to loosen the tensioner to slip the belt on and off.

Went and cleaned all the grounds and swapped some relays around, got it to crank with the key but the cluster still only had the battery light illuminated.

So I checked the connections and sure enough one was lose. Got all the lights but still only cranks but doesn't fire.

Cracked all injectors and there is fuel coming out but compared to my other Jetta it's just a little squirt vs a pressure washer gush of fuel.
So I'm thinking timing is off, will check that next.

Spent a week chasing a slight clunk in the right rear, only to (eventually) find my airlift shock system had leaked down and the right shock was making some noise when bottomed out.

The noise went away once I charged the air side on the shocks, but it looks like that shock might be due for replacement, and I need to locate where the air leaked out as well.

Still, it was cheaper than a single Bilstein shock for the whole conversion, and supports hauling loads that had the tow ring hitting driveway entrances and speed bumps.

Not today but yesterday, changed the oil and atf/filter on my wife's friends wagon I hooked her up with. Started getting thr torque converter mechanical lockup fault. I've already dropped a valve body into it, but shes not ready for a manual swap. It was due for an atf replacement anyways.

Wagon got a new turbo actuator, return spring was inop on the old one - not surprising given the amount of sand that came out the vent hole. Turbo vanes are a bit sticky in the top (low boost) part of the range, but it's not overboosting and limping now so I call it good.

Sedan has ABS issues, rusty tone rings trashing rear sensors again. Noticed one tank strap was AWOL while I was under there, so I 'fixed' it



Just ordered new rear brakes, hubs, sensors and a tank strap - most I've spent on parts in years, they usually come out of my stash

Scored the last gallon of Rotella T6 from Wally World in Middletown NY. 05W-40W. Brings my total stash up to 7 gallons.

csstevej said:

Scored the last gallon of Rotella T6 from Wally World in Middletown NY. 05W-40W. Brings my total stash up to 7 gallons.

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Our local Napa has shelves full of that stuff... I use liqui-moly, so I don't worry about it.

Out this way all the shelves are bare with diesel rated oil , wether it’s Wally World , Nappa , advance auto or auto zone.
I’m on a list with Nappa here …supposed to call when they get stock in….bit if you can’t get down in time it’s gone as fast as it comes in….

Italian tune-up.

Here are some thermal images of my beetle, and the beetle with a cat

Last Friday I did a liqui-moly engine flush and diesel purge, which made it run a lot better, especially since the previous owner ran biodiesel in it.

Then this morning ran it to a fire call

And this evening it made it to 280k miles.

Did some more diagnosis on the no start issue, fuel can be sucked freely from the tank but I seems like when I use the fuel return line from the pump to the #4 injector to prime the pump, barely anything is getting pulled through.

The normal air bubble in the feed line isn't even moving. And I used an oil extractor so there was plenty of vacuum. Also have a mityvac but that seemed almost useless.

Is the fuel shutoff solenoid hindering my efforts or does it not matter if they key is on or off?

Will check timing tomorrow.

Try sucking from the single return line from the IP to the filter. Those little lines just collect unused fuel at the injector.

3-spoke leather wheel in great shape from an '03 GTI to replace my somewhat worn OEM-4 spoke wheel.

Remediated some cracked vacuum hoses and installed an OEM vacuum check valve.

Wow that's a nice upgrade!

Primed the pump once more with the bigger return line, now fuel shoots up about a foot. Didn't have enough time for the timing so I checked if the crankshaft position sensor might be bad with vcds group 001. I get an rpm reading while cranking (300-400rpm ish) and the injection quantity goes up to a maximum of 50mg/str. Is that enough to start under normal conditions or too low?

Yes, your cranking speed is sufficient.

Squirter of WD40 in intake?