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

Shock spring broke?

Replaced my tensioner, arm, bushings, and pulley today. About to change timing belt in the coming weeks

Vabcguy is closer, but that would've trashed the head. Closer, but not it.

In the last couple weeks:
oil change, fuel & air filters, replaced a chaffed through set of filter to IP lines, diesel purge session, replaced the hard brittle injector hoses with new stuff, new Redline fluid for the transaxle with lots more planned soon. Only been changing the oil in the last 8 months or so; I've been neglecting it more than usual.

Digital Corpus said:

Vabcguy is closer, but that would've trashed the head. Closer, but not it.

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Oil pump pressure relief spring?

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Clutch disk spring. Wedged itself in the pressure plate preventing decoupling of the clutch of the engine.

Auwtch :/ You managed to stop safely?

All is good. It was a about half engagement so it was possible to difficultly shift. Anyhow, that B4 now has a pinion brace, 2 drilled holes for 5th gear lube, and a LuK DMF. You know that shift-into-2nd-then-1st that's a thing, not anymore.

Also swapped out an axle on mine since I have a work out CV joint. Need to investigate what caused the early failure. This weekend (the next two days for me) I'll be pulling my turbo to see what broke inside so it can be fixed up and I get boost again.

Digital Corpus said:

Anyhow, that B4 now has a pinion brace, 2 drilled holes for 5th gear lube, and a LuK DMF.

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You added a DMF to a car that originally came with a SMF? Maybe I just don't read enough in the forums, but I've never heard of anybody doing that.

Stromaluski said:

You added a DMF to a car that originally came with a SMF? Maybe I just don't read enough in the forums, but I've never heard of anybody doing that.

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The early DMF's were unreliable, the replacements that followed later were much better. While a lot of people who had DMF's OE early on swapped their broken DMF's for SMF's and new clutches some who originally had SMF's (97-9 Jetta tdi or 96-7 Passat tdi) have gone the other direction when the better more reliable DMF's came out.

Steve

Bleh, less than 10k miles on my timing belt, and theres been an oil leak somewhere fouling the belt (an oil leak on a 1z, you don't say!). Cleaned off everything in the track with soap and ran it for a week, and got the same greasy film.
I'm hoping for a cam seal vs a crank or intermediate seal, we will see in the next couple weeks when I can get into the garage. I'll put a new belt on but leave everything else.

Anyone have a crank yank to borrow?

Also, has anyone noticed on Dieselgeek that there are no longer 1Z/AHU timing belt kits available?

Driving the V10 around till then.

Steve Addy said:

The early DMF's were unreliable, the replacements that followed later were much better. While a lot of people who had DMF's OE early on swapped their broken DMF's for SMF's and new clutches some who originally had SMF's (97-9 Jetta tdi or 96-7 Passat tdi) have gone the other direction when the better more reliable DMF's came out.

Steve

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Really... What advantage does that give over the SMF? I'd assume it would run smoother?

I did that on mine (now Abacus') wagon - smoothed out the idle vibrations some, as the mount system in these cars is primitive.

Injectors, a tune, and a whole lot of weight couldn't make the LUK 17-050 slip. I was quite happy with that clutch.

There is a little trimming needed for the dust shield around the rear main to prevent the flywheel from locking up - ask me how I know.

Ask Abacus - he has owns and has driven examples with and without DMF - he would be a good resource.

It's an inexpensive clutch and claimed to have a light pedal feel. The driver of this B4 needed that so we opted to give it a try. Don't regret it one iota. This B4 has 520's onlY because the cost was the same as stock to get everything fitting and purchased, but it is the driven hard and and should last a long while. Here is a link to idparts' listing:
http://www.idparts.com/luk-17-050-clutch-kit-p-740.html

Digital Corpus said:

It's an inexpensive clutch and claimed to have a light pedal feel. The driver of this B4 needed that so we opted to give it a try. Don't regret it one iota. This B4 has 520's onlY because the cost was the same as stock to get everything fitting and purchased, but it is the driven hard and and should last a long while. Here is a link to idparts' listing:
http://www.idparts.com/luk-17-050-clutch-kit-p-740.html

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For that price, I don't know that I would have been able to pass that up. That's cheap.

Turbo carnage!



When I swapped the engine in to the Passat I noticed a little nick in each of the primary compressor blades. I wasn't sure what was going on - at the time I thought since they were all pretty uniform it must have been made that way. Guess not!

Pretty sure I fatigued the turbo pretty good back when I had the engine in the Jetta. I know I hit 35+ PSI more than a few times. Add in the episode with the big hole in my boost pipe and I can explain why I wasn't seeing boost come on as quickly as I would have expected...

Ever since I got the control system together in the Passat I've been noticing it was taking a lot more N75 duty cycle to get the boost I was requesting than I was seeing in other people's logs. Over the past while I've been really noticing it wasn't behaving right at all - I was having trouble achieving my requested boost on some longer pulls where I would have expected overboost to be the issue. Then last week it finally gave up the ghost...



Boost suddenly dropped off, then the turbo started whining like crazy, though it was still producing boost. I prepared myself for a possible runaway and made my way back home. Opened it up today and found the carnage in the first photo.

Well, now I know why I was having to push the turbo so hard!

There was a bunch of grey fuzz and n the turbo outlet which I'm expecting is powdered turbo wheel. Going to have to clean out my IC for sure. Hopefully not too much made it in to the engine.

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While I still believe I was having some issues with my turbo prior to this "event" I've discovered I'm missing a rubber piece of my aftermarket airbox. And my intake tract is full of black fuzz that burns when you hit it with a torch. You can figure out what happened there.....

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B4V ramblings...

Hey gang,
I just got back from two wonderful weeks in Acadia national Park, and used my 96 TDI wagon to tow my little sailboat, a canoe on the roof, and three bikes up there from Maryland.
I had fixed the air conditioner which worked flawlessly on the way up installed new brakes ( which are mediocre at best) 2 new General 14" tires on the front and polished up the headlights as best I could.
Mods on this car are 520 nozzles, set up by drive by wire, and Malone chips. The power on his car is strong enough now to cause my clutch to slip if I step on it too hard or too low an RPM.
I drove very conservatively with the boat behind me, holding between 50 and 65 miles an hour on the interstates and turnpike. In return, I averaged about 35 miles to the gallon towing the boat...you can't beat that with a stick!
Aside from the annoying resonance at about 2000 RPMs , and the check engine light which would go from off to a faint glow to full on randomly throughout my trip, the drive was perfect. I'm going to post about those two things in a separate heading later.
With 1/2 of the rear seat folded down, a Thermarest, sheet and pillow, my partner Nancy slept most of the trip back there in moderate comfort…
I have a set of the code headlights, but did not have a chance to get them installed. That would be one thing that would be a nice improvement! At 244k, I burned about half a cup of oil in 1500 miles of driving… Not bad at all!
I enjoyed the motor performance on this so much, it's getting me enthused about installing a 1Z in the Phoenix… My 82 diesel Westy, which still runs around on the 1.6 na motor. I'm hoping I can then tow my boat up with it, and not need to go camping with the Passat.
I guess if there's a moral to the story, it's don't be afraid to take your 20-year-old TDI out for a long trip!

Hit a milestone

Windex said:

There is a little trimming needed for the dust shield around the rear main to prevent the flywheel from locking up - ask me how I know.

.

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Word you elaborate a bit on this trimming? I'm getting ready to put that LUK DMF in mine once the transmission is back together and it would be nice to only install the thing once.

h2oskibum said:

Word you elaborate a bit on this trimming? I'm getting ready to put that LUK DMF in mine once the transmission is back together and it would be nice to only install the thing once.

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I don't have a picture of the shield trimmed, but I do have one of the piece I trimmed off:

Here is the shield intact:



and the part I had to trim off:



You can hopefully get an idea of the part that needs to come off in order to make the flywheel not bottom out on the shield.

Alternatively, you could leave the shield out altogether...

Thanks windex!

Finally concluded the troubleshooting/proving the no start issue on the B4V, which was 2 fold.

First issue was high resistance in the 50 circuit. I was seeing 12v at the starter solenoid, but wasn't always getting the starter to crank. Added a jumper and realized the feed was getting hot.

Soldered in a spare 12" pigtail at the starter side and fixed that issue. Insulation was broken and moisture likely got in.

2nd issue was a bad relay in the starter kill circuit (aftermarket remote start/security). This was a brand new Hella relay, although "Made in China".

I ended up pulling that part of the harness, to help clean up the wiring. There's very little room under these dashes for anything extra.

I've been driving around without a knee bar for the past week, just in case... time to reinstall.

I also added a 1997 Jetta TDI to the stable, today. About 240K on the clock, pretty rough and came with a clutch disengagement issue. I'll check the slave, but I have a feeling the transmission will need to come out. Engine bay needs to get pressure washed, first. It's thick with oily grime.

I'm expecting a Quick Jack to be delivered Wednesday, so it'll get put to use quickly.

-Todd

Topped off the tank in I-Red at $2.47 /gallon in anticipation of fuel prices going through the roof. Been about 2 yrs since I bought diesel and about 10 gallons filled her to the brim. With I-Red and the Z topped off, I should be able to go at least 1K mi before refueling. Hopefully, fuel prices will drop down by then.

I just filled up at $2.65 per gallon. Price rose $.20 in less than a week.

Fixed the steering column clamshell's spring loaded flap on both B4s. Only took me about 6 years, to do so.

-Todd

Windex said:

I don't have a picture of the shield trimmed, but I do have one of the piece I trimmed off:

Alternatively, you could leave the shield out altogether...

Click to expand...

I have been very busy these last few months and am just now getting back into a somewhat previous routine.

I have put 70K on the wagon since buying it from Windex and the clutch is still doing fine. It is MUCH smoother than the sedan and quite the cruiser with the 6 speed. I would not hesitate to go with the DMF he used.

It does need a new rear wiper motor, timing belt, rear struts (got them from Cascade, Bilstein HD's) due to overloading the car for a mountain bike camping trip), rear calipers, a condensor since the AC stopped working, the windshield sealed, and various rust spots touched up along with a repaint. Overall it's been awesome and I've been driving it a lot. Now it's time to start working on it again.

ToddA1 said:

I just filled up at $2.65 per gallon. Price rose $.20 in less than a week.

Fixed the steering column clamshell's spring loaded flap on both B4s. Only took me about 6 years, to do so.

-Todd

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I got lucky and filled at $2.34 / gallon at fleet farm last week. I had run the tank down about 800 miles worth and felt like it was a good time to fill. I suspected Harvey was going to end up impacting prices. Other stations around here are now at $2.59 / gallon now.

Injector line drip fixed for now. How it started I cannot say, but all of a sudden I had a leak at one of the IP valves. I had to tighten more than I cared to to stop it but it'll hold for now. 17,000+ miles without a leak of any kind and now the drip. I believe I have extra lines somewhere, I'll try replacing with another.

Also had to replace one of the short lines between tank sender and the one-way valve. Still have a few tiny bubbles but not nearly as bad as it was before.

Steve

a few bubbles i think are "technically" ok, i suppose it means you have a tiny ("bubble") problem (if you get what i mean). anyways i would suppose its proportionate. gl in tracing it down.

Spent all day cleaning the new rot box.

The engine cover was tossed in the shed and the engine was pressure washed, in anticipation for the transmission removal.

The seats, carpet and associated plastic was pulled and soaked with straight Purple Power, and also pressure washed.

This may have been the dirtiest car that I've ever bought. It looked like coffee was draining from the seats. There was no way I was driving it as it was. Amazing difference, from how they started off. Door panels, dash and the rest of the plastic still needs to be scrubbed down.

Found a pretty big hole under the driver seat. I don't want to get the welder out for this car (or put money into it), but the hole is letting a lot of dirt and moisture in. I was thinking of just screwing a piece of metal in and seam sealing it.

Replaced the duct tape repair from the accordion tube, cleaned it and sealed it with some Ultra Gray. Need to change the original colored/braided vacuum lines.

Is there a way to remove the goofy oil fill tube without breaking it? I'm missing the rubber seal between it and the valve cover. I already broke one and it doesn't look like it's designed to be removed...

-Todd

if you mean that necked added filler to valve cover. if its the same as a jetta mk3 it seems to twist off just like the oil fill cap. cap will now just fit there; if you want. or whatever. maybe use some channel locks-