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

surfbus said:

Passenger side inner CV boot the other day, i'm still finishing it up today. Major PITA !! Hopefully we never have to do it again.

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That one always cooks because it's right under the turbo. VW sells a shield that bolts onto the engine block, over top of the boot, and protects it from the turbo heat. Search the forums for the part number, it isn't expensive, and without it, you will be replacing this boot again.

kooyajerms said:

Can't put g60 dual piston brakes with corrado steelies =(

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Are you sure about this? You tried it and didn't fit? I would like to use this combination, I'll be disappointed if it isn't possible.

I made a heat shield for my B4 out of stainless steel. I cut a piece about 5" long and to wrap half way around the exhaust down pipe. I then cut 2 slots into it and pounded it out a bit between the slots. Then I curved it to fit with a gap around the pipe. I used a stainless hose clamp and clamped it to the pipe.

Upgraded the front control arm bushings to polyurethane Energy Suspension ones. Threw on new tie rods for good measure and aligned it unbelievable as it sounds my machine said it was all green: caster, camber and toe !

Threw on some new Rainex wipers too, too bad they are noisy at 70+.

lupin..the..3rd said:

That one always cooks because it's right under the turbo. VW sells a shield that bolts onto the engine block, over top of the boot, and protects it from the turbo heat. Search the forums for the part number, it isn't expensive, and without it, you will be replacing this boot again.

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Check the junkyards for a 2.0 ABA gasser. The heat shield will bolt right on. it's a piece of curved PVC. The u-pull here just gave me one. They had no idea how to price it.

ed mocz said:

I made a heat shield for my B4 out of stainless steel. I cut a piece about 5" long and to wrap half way around the exhaust down pipe. I then cut 2 slots into it and pounded it out a bit between the slots. Then I curved it to fit with a gap around the pipe. I used a stainless hose clamp and clamped it to the pipe.

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It's around $40 from the dealer. I'm sure your stainless one looks nicer than mine but works the same. I bent mine from a section of rain gutter- aluminum type. Took about 5 minutes to make.

Changed the thermostat, while that might sound pretty easy...it was a pain in the butt. Although the replacement went smoothly and fairly quickly, the pain in the butt part was in the refilling of the coolant. It was very stubborn about purging the air. Took it for a test drive and it quickly over heated but had no cabin heat so I thought the new t-stat might have been defective and was not opening. I pulled the new t-stat back out and tested it on the stove and it was working properly so I put it back in and still had the same problem with over heating after a short drive. I finally after thinking about it for a while checked the return line to the reservoir and sure enough it was plugged. A few seconds with a drill bit and it was burping out the trapped air. A simple repair took most of the day and I did it twice before stumbling onto the solution

Installed my trailer hitch finally, and patched up some rusty sections behind the bumper (I love my MIG welder ). Hitch is made by curt, and fits my wagon very well.

Replaced my lower control arm bushings with TT's

All went smoothly until the left front bushing bolt snapped...


Took an extra hour, but I was able to persuade the control arm out, and was even able to heat up and remove the remaing thread from the hole in the subframe.

The issue is that no-one has the bolt! 12mm x 80mm x 1tpmm

Had to settle for a 100mm lower grade bolt (with a nut as a spacer), and ordered the right bolt from VW this morning.

At least the car is mobile again.

Car is still in the shop because the rear shock mount corroded away.

Windex said:

The issue is that no-one has the bolt! 12mm x 80mm x 1tpmm

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Have you tried the dealer? My local dealer actually stocked all the bolts for the control arms and engine subframe.

Tony

TonyJetta said:

Have you tried the dealer? My local dealer actually stocked all the bolts for the control arms and engine subframe.

Tony

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Yup, ordered this morning. No such luck about the bolts being stocked.

Windex said:

Yup, ordered this morning. No such luck about the bolts being stocked.

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Sorry to hear about that.

Tony

Did my Starter (major PITA) a couple weeks ago. Last week, I had Paramedick replace the top seal in my Injection Pump.. Middle Seal is next.. Still need to do suspension, will wait until the summer for that at this point I think.. Next, the J tube is leaking again.. need ta get one on order..

Adjusted my windshield washer jets today per Bentley specs, hopefully get that salt off the windshield now! Although it was fun spraying people around my car...
Must have got in and out of the car 500 times.

Fitted passanger side electric mirror to replace broken one, ebay for £8.50 delviered, cant be bad! Also ordered a reconned steering rack with new track rods, will fit over next week or so.

Fitted new battery($115.00 from stealership!) but snapped battery clamp bolt on neg terminal in the process. AAAARGH! Who knows if dealer will have that...guess I'll have to try get my mig out and see if I can weld a new stud on....

There was a thread I saw 1-2 days ago that had PN's for the pos and neg terminal...link!

Tony

Fixed my wire harness on my B4, so all my DTCs are no longer there... speedo and cruise works.
Picking up a new P/S pump and steering rack in an hour

This weeks projects completed:
Oil & filters changed
One step closer to the 'yard tug' - Hitch fab'd & installed

To be done: Passenger door handle replacedment & adjustment.

Tony

TonyJetta said:

There was a thread I saw 1-2 days ago that had PN's for the pos and neg terminal...link!

Tony

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Appreciate that, my stealership ordered just the bolt...figured out what I did wrong.. I guess I didn't press the cable down on the battery post far enough so the clamp didn't open. I was trying to clamp it down but it couldn't bite on to anything..it snapped...

Found out that there is water in my parking brake cables this morning, had to crawl under with a screwdriver to pry the passenger side brake cable back out of the housing This afternoon after things thawed out I took the cables off the calipers and tried to drain the water out by blowing compressed air thru from the console end. Got some out but this will be a problem again I'll bet. Put it all back together and found that the thoughtful engineers put self adjusters in the parking brake levers at the calipers, had to loosen up the nuts on the other ends of the cables to allow the wheels to rotate again. Is there any easy way to reset the parking brake adjusters without taking them apart or should I just live with them loosened up at the other end until I get new brake cables?

I went to the Skunk shop where he had put in a fresh clutch, fixed the rear PS brake caliper scenario, dropped the oil and filters. Went to do a little better inspection and cleaning of the engine compartment.

Whole intake system smelled like the rat's nest it had become from sitting outside, and out of driving rotation for the last year or so. Jason had some of the anti-bacterial spray to lend for a quick fog of those plastic parts-phew. Man! What have those rats been drinkin?! Need some G-11 as well.

Alternator looks to be original with a 6/96 stamp on it. Some clamps and misc. bolts needed replacing-luckily Skunk had most of this stuff floating around that fit. Overall a really great car for the price thanks to Jason and Jim-bob-Jeff for letting me borrow their trailer for the pick up.

Well today I dug back into the parking brake system, pulled the calipers and screwed the pistons back in. While I was in there the previous owner had left both rear wheel bearings way loose so I adjusted them up. Now I know why the car felt squirley turning right hand corners. Since it was such a nice day I also put in the RedLine shift and brake boots that I have been waiting for the time to put 'em in. Wish they used something instead of staples to attach the parking brake boot...what a pain to re-install all them staples! The boots do look good, I need to figure out how to put pictures on here. Gave the center console a good cleaning while it was out of the car and changed out the broken lid finally. Charged the battery since it was too discharged from the dome light s and trunk light being on all day...go figure, I hope that the battery is not on its last legs. Got a lot done today.

Not sure if I did this right but here goes:

h2oskibum said:

Found out that there is water in my parking brake cables this morning, had to crawl under with a screwdriver to pry the passenger side brake cable back out of the housing This afternoon after things thawed out I took the cables off the calipers and tried to drain the water out by blowing compressed air thru from the console end. Got some out but this will be a problem again I'll bet. Put it all back together and found that the thoughtful engineers put self adjusters in the parking brake levers at the calipers, had to loosen up the nuts on the other ends of the cables to allow the wheels to rotate again. Is there any easy way to reset the parking brake adjusters without taking them apart or should I just live with them loosened up at the other end until I get new brake cables?

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LOL!
Yes, the best way to fix that problem of the E-brake cable is to REPLACE them... If not, after some short time, the water will re-fill them cable housings and you will be on your back again.

You can always pull the cable holder at the entrance of the cable to the rear of rotor housing, still after doing that you have to pull/release the tension of the cables with a long screwdriver/prybar or a hammer, take your pick but you will have more cable length this way .

Don't actuate the E-brakes till your new ones come, that's the easy way out...

I Have Heat!

Today's activity was replacing my thermostat.

Having aqcuired the GQ Ecu that lets me use my scangauge, I know my car rarely gets over 75 deg c, and usually sits around 70.

bought the t-stat *groan* from the dealer, as I have a bit of an aversion to doing jobs like this twice, as well as the thermostat housing, just in case a 15 year old piece of plastic decided to crumble on me.

PS pump and bracket out of the way, the old stat was stuck nicely to the WP housing. Pried that off, and after Niagara-falls-o-G12 stopped, I removed the t-stat housing and elbow as an assembly, and tried to get them apart.

Getting the elbow out of the t-stat housing was the hardest part of the job. They were really stuck together. Once apart, (and knowing that the elbow would live to see another day) I put the housing, O-ring and t-stat up in position.

Not the easiest, as others have pointed out, as there is no real retaining groove for the o-ring (just a small lip) and the t-stat just sits precariously on the o-ring.

I found it easiest to get the three pieces (t-stat, o-ring, housing) close to in place, and use my pinky finger through the housing to push the t-stat up into its recess in the block (water pump housing). Holding the t-stat in place through the housing, I could then line up the housing and o-ring into position. 5 minutes and two fatigued arms later, everything was bolted up, and hoses re-attached. I filled the coolant before re-attaching the PS pump to make sure there weren't any leaks.

No leaks, and I now have real heat. The maiden test-drive saw temps up around 90c on average.

*Note* before and after, the coolant needle never moved - stuck right in the middle of the gauge.

Apart from fixing stuff that is broken, the one great improvement I did was
to braking. 'Couple of years ago I put in Corrado single piston G60
brakes--- The calipers that I purchased
and rebuilt had pagid pads of unknown quality--it was a worthwhile improvement
but nothing to cause me scrape my face off the windshield.

I just installed HAWK HPS pads..... Pricey--- but what a difference!!
'have to be careful not to lock up the brakes now.

Put in a new P/S rack and alignment

I want to mention that you don't have to remove the steering column at all. There is a 11mm nut/bolt that allows you to split the joint that connects the column to the rack. Whole thing took me about 2 hours to do, as one of the bolts broke on me that holds the rack in.

My steering column is shot thou, noticed it has a ton of radial play !

Injection timing

I completely jacked my Injection Timing. I searched like crazy and went after trying to adjust my injection timing post injection pump reseal. I was incorrectly cranking on the nut that holds the pulley on(which is not at all how your supposed to do it) and jumped two teeth on the belt/pulley. I then figured out how to correctly loosen the four bolts/nuts that hold the pump in place. Lastly I got the teeth correctly lined up to their corresponding teeth on the belt. Today was full of bummers. Tomorrow I will see if it will start and get it up to temp to see where my injection timing stands so that I can adjust it the correct way. Steep learning curve today.

Cleaned out all' the washer nozzles with a staple in a pair of vise grips and adjusted them with a very small 3 penny finish nail held by needle nose plyers. Bent the rear arm and blade a little by hand and have great contact now. Had some brownish water from two of the front ones but it cleared up with a few squirts via the stalk. Very easy and should have done it 3 1/2 years ago when I bought it.

BolaB4V said:

Bent the rear arm and blade a little by hand and have great contact now.

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The other thing I have found that helps, is the application of Rain-X. Basically, it serves as a wax, and helps the blades slide across the window.

Tony