The NARFmobile, My 2001 Golf TDI

Is that Mr. Lahey from Trailer Park Boys in your avatar?

JDSwan87 said:

Is that Mr. Lahey from Trailer Park Boys in your avatar?

Click to expand...

Haha, no it's me. I guess I was having a bad hair day. I had a TDIclub member that I met in person at the fest this weekend say that they were surprised I was not much older.

I think it is time to change my picture.

I think a shot of your gear shift knob or the tire would be fun.

or that tac in redline territory.

(not that I encourage that kind of thing)

meerschm said:

I think a shot of your gear shift knob or the tire would be fun.

Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing, started working on it last night but animated gifs tickle my OCD side so this may take a while.

meerschm said:

or that tac in redline territory.

(not that I encourage that kind of thing)

Click to expand...

Haha, okay, I managed to squeeze everything into 80x80 and under 35kb and whamo, animated avatar - is it too much? I dunno, I think it captures the fun factor of the car, or more specifically, the "for the LOLs" factor. Thanks for suggesting those three elements, meerschm!

edit: this is the gif animator I used: https://imgflip.com/images-to-gif It is really nice you can upload your 80x80 images and move them around and save the gif and check the size and go back very easily.

I think it is a thing of beauty.

Perfect. lol

What IS your gear shift lever??

JDSwan87 said:

What IS your gear shift lever??

Click to expand...

Its an old Thrustmaster II video game controller flight stick.
Details here:Any interesting shifter knobs out there? - TDIClub Forums

NarfBLAST said:

Its an old Thrustmaster II video game controller flight stick.
Details here:Any interesting shifter knobs out there? - TDIClub Forums

Click to expand...

OMG!!! I'm SOOOOO jealous!!!

I recognize that handle! You have the buttons hooked up? Trigger? Could be a good way to flash your high beams.

fxk said:

You have the buttons hooked up?

Click to expand...

Friday night in the garage... I decided to install some new fender liners, and then I figured while I had those out it was good time to take the bumper off. I find it very satisfying to take the bumper off every few years to straighten and re-enforce all of the bulges and split seams:



Since the bumper was off there was an opportunity to properly address the broken cover on the back of the passenger headlight.



Yes, I drilled a hole right thru the housing, but it is better than to have the cover completely off! The lower zip tie acts like a hinge and the upper zip tie can be cut off and replaced after a bulb change:



Had to move two clips on the bumper to fit the "City Jetta" vented fender liner... but this is was a good thing, because most of the plastic was torn away in the old locations!



Finally, venting for the intercooler! I don't know why these cars never came with this.



Check out how close the intercooler is to fender liner, it would be like a door in a building where you opened it and two feet later there was a wall so you had to shimmy sideways down the hallway. It makes no sense. A couple of pictures from underneath:





Also, replaced the starter this week with a shiny new Valeo unit! The new starter doesn't so much "crank" the engine as "fire" it. It makes a sound like a star wars laser PEEEEOOOWWW and the engine is running, there is no cranking, the engine is just running instantly. Kinda terrifying. I love it!

Here is a picture of the new starter nestled in its new home, I took the time to wrap its signal wire in split loom (on the left), and I also wrapped the back up light wire in split loom (on the right) and I think the came out pretty tidy looking:



Also this week had both radiator fans out and tested them, found out they were fine and it was the fuses on top of the battery that were corroded.

Looking forward to driving the car again, possibly tomorrow, after I replace the coolant tee I broke by hitting the vacuum bulb I had zip tied to it. I have moved the vacuum reservoir bulb back to its stock location.

Need about four hours and a warm yet well ventilated area to krazy glue the white letters on to the trailer tires. Not sure when this was going to happen so I took the clean tires and mounted them without lettering, which is even more motivation to get the lettering on, because this picture could be more epic.

that trailer would look good in silver.

I've been meaning to ask for a while. How did you accomplish mounting the VW wheels on the trailer? Adapters? Redrill the hubs?

Jason

SilverGhost said:

I've been meaning to ask for a while. How did you accomplish mounting the VW wheels on the trailer? Adapters? Redrill the hubs?

Jason

Click to expand...

Yes, I used wheel adapters I ordered online from these guys: http://adaptitusa.com/

The only mistake I made was not specifying M14 studs so they threw in M12 studs. Also I had to buy the lug nuts with the spherical seats separately. Details here: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=3101074&postcount=4

Intermittently Not Cranking Again Day 1 of 3

I recently replaced the starter, because the original Bosch unit had started doing the "run-on whiz" and at one point it clicked and failed to crank. I had take it out and replaced the small wire between the solenoid and the motor and it ran for a while but then it started "sticking"... I figured it was the solenoid sticking, but I am sure I was wrong because my brand new Valeo starter began to exhibit the exact same symptom.

I figured the starter solenoid that fires out the gear and also makes the connection for the main starter motor was not getting enough current. All the power for everything comes from the fuse box on top of the battery so I figured I better address the small amount of corrosion that I found there:







Once all the fuses were clean, I had read somewhere that the box could be pried apart, and it indeed it was surprisingly easy!



The red wire connects the box to the positive battery terminal, and it was very corroded inside the box, so I stripped the corrosion, and the plating apparently, off of it.





Ready for re-assembly...



Everything back together with di-electric grease between every mating surface:



I figured the problem would be solved, but the very next day, the starter went "CLICK", but did not crank... (continued)

Intermittently Not Cranking Again Day 2 of 3

So I did notice that sometimes if you hold the start button it will crank a few seconds after the click... surely the solenoid is just not getting enough current to fully engage right away, is it possible the small fray in the wire to the starter solenoid allowed water to enter and caused corrosion that created a less than ideal connection?

I replaced the "suspect" solenoid power wire and connector:



The very next day, the starter went "CLICK", but did not crank... (continued)

Intermittently Not Cranking Again Day 3 of 3

The only thing left were the grounds under the battery tray, which I had never disturbed before, they were crusty outside, but clean inside, so I don't know if they were the problem. I buffed everything thoroughly with a wire brush on a cordless drill before taking this picture:



I also pulled every relay from the relay panels and did not find any signs of water or heat damage.

The car has cranked first try at least a dozen times in the past two days so hopefully this is behind us.

My favorite bit of driving today was when heading to soccer, when I parked with the other SUV's straddling a nasty piece of curb near Memorial Park in Waterdown:

Uh, I've actually seen a positive battery cable loose in the crimp at the battery cause this problem. Very rare, but I have seen it once or twice over the last 15 years. Might pay to scrutinize both ends...

Jason

SilverGhost said:

Uh, I've actually seen a positive battery cable loose in the crimp at the battery cause this problem. Very rare, but I have seen it once or twice over the last 15 years. Might pay to scrutinize both ends...

Jason

Click to expand...

Thanks! That was easy to check, mine is solid but the insulation was pulled back about a quarter inch (not be me, just by age/heat/vibration) and a few strands of copper have broke loose. I think it will be okay. Fired up fine a few more times today.

Planning a road trip to Wisconsin, for this:
Sturgeon Bay, WI GTG/Cruise June 20th, 2015

Never been before, but thought it would be a great excuse to drive for twelve hours, twice, in two days.

Rear Brakes and Preparation to Replace Wheel Bearing

Saturday night, wife working late, got all the kids to bed before 9pm so I cleaned up the garage and laid down a fresh clean piece of cardboard.



Took my time replacing the pads, rattle clips and rotor on the rear passenger side and had no issues other than a sticky slider pin. Noticed the splash shield was still in good shape on this side...



On the drivers side the splash shield is missing, and the wheel bearing is making noise, so I ordered those parts last week plus new bolts and, for $32 more, a stub axle to make life easier. The parts for the wheel bearing job should arrive Monday, but I thought I would get the brakes out of the way ahead of time. Took the opportunity to scrape off some rust and get some penetrating oil on the stub axle and ABS sensor bolts.



While rotating and retracting the piston on this side I got the piston boot twisted and it popped the out of the bore on one side. I tried to push it back in with my picks but I soon realized that would be impossible. The only thing to do was push the piston all the way out, seat the boot back into the bore, then push the piston back in. It got a bit messy.



I finally got everything cleaned up and went for a test drive around 2am. I am looking forward to replacing the noisy wheel bearing without having to mess with the brakes again; I am really glad I split up these two jobs.

Here is a random photo from of my youngest making the car look huge:

Replaced My First Wheel Bearing Last Night (Part 1 of 2)

I had noticed the splash shield was missing from behind the left rear brake rotor when I had the ABS light on a month ago and I took the rear wheels off to work on the suspension. The ABS ring was exposed and extremely rusted but it turned out the ABS light was on due to a corroded fuse on top of the battery. Regardless, when that same wheel bearing started making noise I figured it was an excellent opportunity to replace the splash shield and ABS ring. I also ordered a stub axle because I figured that for the small extra cost, I would not have to worry about getting the old bearing off cleanly. The entire job would have gone perfectly except that I could not get the old ABS sensor out of the old stub axle, so the ABS light is back on till the new sensor arrives, no big deal.

Perhaps I should have re-used the old stub axle, but I was afraid of damaging it and not being able to get the new hub on properly. The way the brand new bearing and hub slid over the brand new stub axle was was worth the price of a stub axle and ABS sensor. I lubed the old stub axle to protect it from corrosion and put it in a plastic bag in a box on the shelf as a spare with the inner race still attached.

The anticipation and excitement and enjoyment and pride from doing this job are priceless. I am glad I attempted it. Here are the pictures:

The hub cap puller I use for the utility trailer worked great on the dust cap:



I used a breaker bar to remove the axle nut, but it came off super smooth and easy. I bought a new heavy-duty three-jaw puller for this job but the bearing came off so easy I probably could have gotten away with my light duty two jaw puller:



The hub and outer bearing and the inner bearing outer race come off:



Followed by the inner bearing:



Followed by the inner bearing's inner dust shield:



Now I had good access to the stub axle bolts, which I needed to remove to install the new brake rotor splash shield, and I had a new stub axle anyway, so I didn't need to mess with the inner bearing inner race which is still attached to the old stub axle in the following picture. I used a pick to play dental hygienist and remove the plaque from the bolt heads:



I think it had more to do with the coating they use on these bolts and the low torque value (44 ft-lbs) than the PB Blaster but the four stub axle bolts came off really nice and easy. Surprisingly they were still 16mm after removing layers of rust from each bolt, it was weird, the rust must have grown on the bolts from iron that came off the brake rotor or something, but not from the bolts themselves. I did not have a 16mm socket so I used a 15.875mm socket (aka 5/8" socket) which fit snugly.



I cleaned up the mounting face of the trailing arm using a knotted wire brush on a cordless drill:



(continued...)

Replaced My First Wheel Bearing Last Night (Part 2 of 2)

When everything is ready for the the new parts to be installed I always make a special effort to try and slow down and relax, this part is always over too quickly.

The trailing arm received its new stub axle, splash shield, and bolts:



After lubing the axle, the new bearing and hub assembly slid on easily:



The new locking nut went on easily and I encountered only slightly more resistance than the nylon on the nut when it encountered the bearing and pushed it the last few millimeters on to the axle.



Grabbing the hub and moving it back and forth by hand I found it moves much smoother than the old one.



I reassembled the brakes and bagged the ABS sensor wire for now. That is not brake fluid on the hose, its grease from where I lubed the ABS sensor hole to keep it from corroding before I had a chance to put the new sensor in.



Also, not shown, I installed a new dust cap: with a light coat of grease inside the cap I used a rubber mallet and a block of wood to tap it in to place.

The test drive was a success: no more howling noise at any speed, and the wheel did not fall off.

Not having the wheel fall off is always a good test.

thanks for the photos, looks like a fun project

Starting Issues May Have Been My Fault

I am still getting intermittent "no cranks". So far I have:

- replaced the starter
- replaced the starter solenoid power connector
- cleaned the fuse panel above the battery
- cleaned all the grounds under the battery tray
- repaired the starter/clutch interlock switch
- swapped the starter/clutch interlock relay with the horn relay

Now I realize that there is no separate "starter relay" and the current required to fire the starter solenoid must pass thru the ignition switch. I had replaced the ignition switch with some undersized relays. I am truly sorry and I humbly repent. I hope my car can forgive me.

I have started to build Push Button Start Version 3.0

I will post details in my Push Button Start Thread,

Heading to TDIFest in less than a month!

Added extra long steel antenna with Canadian flag: