Chris Hill's car trouble

mrchill

TDIClub Enthusiast, Super Secret Diesel Ninja Vend
Joined
Sep 16, 2003
Location
MASS! home of THE WORLD SERIES CHAMPION RED SOX! x
TDI
96 B4v red \ 98 Mk3 green\98 Mk3 Jetta black\ 99 Mk4 Jetta green x2\ 99 Mk4 Golf silver x2\ 99 Mk4 Jetta black\ 97 B4 sedan green\04 JSW gold\03 JSW silver
Actually the pressure plate failed. One of the flat srings somehow sheared:)eek:?) and machined a nice hole through the case of my hard won DRW. Now I can inspect the diff without takng the transmission apart. I dont even need a light. Very odd as it made no sound or any indication that the evil aluminum machining gnomes were at work. At any rate. I have to decide if I am going to weld it shut, (lots of welding) buy a new bell housing (ouch!) or perhaps a used one. Or.......perhaps find an american 6 speed and swap internals (what a drag!). This however would be a good time for an LSD. If I could afford it. Oy!

The supplier who sold me the clutch just sent me another one. With any luck, this one is good. BUt my transmission......what to do what to do.......

By the way, thanks guys for towing me back. That would have been REALLY pricey and would have taken much longer had you not helped me out. Driving from Mtl to Ottawa and back, only t drive south of Boston was wayyyyyyy out of your way. MUCH appreciated.

I'm glad the car stopped running. Otherwise there would be no hope of saving the trans at all. By the by, what happened was I was driving around aimlessly and decided to go back to the hotel about 2:00 a.m. monday. I stopped at a fuel station to pick up a drink my wife asked for and came out. The car went "clunk" when starting. It drove in fine. No noise, no drama. I got it to turn over a couple of time after I removed the injectors(more on that later). I then put it together and 'clunk"! ?????? That was around 3:30 a.m.. I then called Lai who called Tom who came with tools. (how did I get the injectors out without tools? MUahahahahahahah!)

I then took off the cam cover to inspect what I thought may be carnage. Nope. Just fine. fortunately the engine was near tdc. I line up the marks and all was well. Hmmmmmmm. Then I turned the engine by hand again (it only goes 90 degrees). I heard scraping in the bell housing. I decided that I could not fix it propery in Mtl and still get back before tuesday, so I elected to tow it home. Fortunately, a couple of extremely kind club members lent me aid in that respect.

Now, why did I remove the injectors? For three weeks, it has been intermittently starting as if it were running on pooled diesel or engine oil. It would start and run rough and uncontrolled for several seconds and smooth out. Once a day or 5 times a day. Never know. I didnt have time to deal with it as I was under the gun already so I ignored it till later. Later came when I went to my Bosch shop for some parts and the car was smokey (whitish) at idle and puffed heavy on takeoff but was fine driving. It never did this before and as I almost never drive in daylight for long (no vampire jokes), I wouldnt have noticed anyway. I reasoned that the injectors could be streaming.

I ran some diesel purge through it and by the end of the can, the car smoked very little. I drove it and it was much better. In fact, I got black smoke now. I suspect it was lean for a long time. This is why I removed the injectors. The weird startup came back in Mtl. 3 times (different). The last time was when I started at the fuel station. It did the weird startup ( way longer than it ever did (2 minutes))and I decided this time to press the accelerator to clear it. It stalled and would not restart. I thought it was fuel lock.

After the original fuel system clean, I then installed the 6 speed. Except for a few parts snafus, it went ok.....till that fateful monday morning........

Stay tooned.........
 
Last edited:

mr.mindless

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2006
Location
Rochester, NY
TDI
2002 Galactic Blue Jetta GLS
amazing that it could be wearing away like that with little enough noise to go unnoticed.

Personally if everything is still in alignment (not having yet had my transmission off I'm not sure where this hole would have been worn and if there are any bearings or seals that would have been disconnected from the main housing) I'd patch it up and run it if there is clearance to do so, and you have a TiG or at least an aluminum welding hookup.

Thanks for the details, and good luck in the repairs.

by the way....
Now, why did I remove the injectors?
nonono, *how* you removed the injectors "without tools" is the question... you use wingnuts on the holdowns or what? :)
 

Justler

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2003
You should be able to get an 02m case cheap. I'm somehow doubt your case is in any shape to be aluminum welded... it sounds pretty torn apart. You've got the important parts of the DRW (R&P+Gears), just get a new case =)

At least you got home ok! Having to stay with the car in mtl to get it fixed, or leaving the car in mtl could have been even more expensive!
 

mr.mindless

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2006
Location
Rochester, NY
TDI
2002 Galactic Blue Jetta GLS
with links:








if the case did not get too thin where it wore aside from where it holed, I'd weld that up and call it a day. Maybe add some material back in where the gussets were damaged if it was bad. Tough to see that evel of detail from the pics.
 
Last edited:

mrchill

TDIClub Enthusiast, Super Secret Diesel Ninja Vend
Joined
Sep 16, 2003
Location
MASS! home of THE WORLD SERIES CHAMPION RED SOX! x
TDI
96 B4v red \ 98 Mk3 green\98 Mk3 Jetta black\ 99 Mk4 Jetta green x2\ 99 Mk4 Golf silver x2\ 99 Mk4 Jetta black\ 97 B4 sedan green\04 JSW gold\03 JSW silver
Planning on a trip to Dentsport for welding. I still havent replaced my tig.
 
Last edited:

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
Alex will fix you up. Too bad about this, and just when I was finally thinking about a six speed.
 

mr.mindless

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2006
Location
Rochester, NY
TDI
2002 Galactic Blue Jetta GLS
Aw, c'mon Peter... I'm already jealous of your wagon, you can't go throwing a 6 speed in there yet! :)
 

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
Actually I was thinking of the A5. I want to make it a GLI/TDI. I'm picking up the wheels tomorrow. Valences next. A 6 speed would be the icing on the cake.
 

BrianCT

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Feb 11, 2006
Location
USA
TDI
TDI
mrchill said:
Planning on a trip to Dentsport for welding. I still havent replaced my tig.
Durafix aluminum welding with a propane torch. The case is not critical to either sustaining heat or needed strength with that size hole. Couple hours and you're back on the road.

Sorry about the bad luck. WHen you had it in sixth, did you hear less engine noise and more wind around the windows with a lower rpm? Nothing like 1,780 rpms at 70 mph. Quiet. Smooth. Way it should be.

BrianCT
 

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
Aren't they already in Europe? Talk to me about your six-speed tomorrow. I may be interested.
 

mr.mindless

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2006
Location
Rochester, NY
TDI
2002 Galactic Blue Jetta GLS
if it was for race day I'd definitely stay with the 5sp and save the 70+ pounds... I don't think the A5 is a race car though (?)
 

VWTDIBeetle

BANNED, Frank M alias
Joined
Aug 14, 2007
Location
USA
TDI
Beetle
BrianCT said:
Durafix aluminum welding with a propane torch. The case is not critical to either sustaining heat or needed strength with that size hole. Couple hours and you're back on the road.BrianCT
I agree, that stuff works great.
He will have to take the trans apart to get any metal debris out.
 

ittrad

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2000
Location
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2000 Golf GLS Silver
Yowch! Well, looks like you made the right decision to tow it back... that wouldn't have been something that could have been fixed in a day.

Passed along the thanks to my cousin (who owns the Vista Cruiser) as well. It was truly our pleasure.... any excuse for a road trip!

Jamie
 
Top