Back on the Road

I have put 31K miles on the new tires, 26K on the new suspension and the .658 5thgear. Now I am at 266k miles and the jetta has been running really well. I installed new front powerstop pads and rotors. They seem to do the job especially since most of my stops are from highway speeds. It looks like I will have to be replacing the turbo in order to resolve my intermitant boost deviation that I have been fighting with since I purchased the vehicle. It is getting to be a problem because I do so much interstate driving, a thousand miles in two days every week. I have gone thru the limp mode diagnoses over the last year and half with my VagCom. I am now trying to decide vnt-15 vs something else I.e. vnt-17. I forgot to add that I added a CAT Filter around 233k miles.

man you drive a lot for work! I thought I drove a lot for work (24k a year).

Good work on all the work you've done, impressive!

Curious what you do that you have to drive a 1k every week.

Also, I would go with the VNT-17 if you do a turbo. Also since you already have the larger fuel pump have you stepped up your injector nozzles and tuned it?

Power plus 520s, larger 11mm pump, VNT-17 and tuned appropriately is a fun 52 MPG car to drive.

I have everything done except the VNT-17

i used to drive 600 miles each week. now it gets driven once or twice a week with only 30 miles each trip. drive the truck mostly.

My wife and daughter moved 500 miles away from where I work so I drive to work on Monday morning and back to them on Friday.
No I haven't gotten a tune or nozzles yet. The only reason I have the 11mm pump is because my 10mm stopped working. I have been trying to fix my boost deviation before I do those other items but it looks like I will b changing the turbo sooner rather than later.

scha0786 said:

man you drive a lot for work! I thought I drove a lot for work (24k a year).

Good work on all the work you've done, impressive!

Curious what you do that you have to drive a 1k every week.

Also, I would go with the VNT-17 if you do a turbo. Also since you already have the larger fuel pump have you stepped up your injector nozzles and tuned it?

Power plus 520s, larger 11mm pump, VNT-17 and tuned appropriately is a fun 52 MPG car to drive.

I have everything done except the VNT-17

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10-4.

I would go with this setup.

http://www.fixmyvw.com/alh-vnt17-garrett-turbo/

You will need to replace the MAP sensor with a 3 bar and get it tuned.

I now have 289k miles on the jetta. I started hearing a rubbing sound whenever I would start the car after it sat over night, turned out my tensioner pulley was leaking a little grease, everything else in the belt path looked good. The camshaft still looked pretty good. I only found it because I installed a new timing belt today, 86k into the 100k interval. I guess it would probably make it all the way to 100k but I am on the road in the middle of nowhere to much to chance it. On a side note I completed the timing belt in 11 hrs.

I now have 289k miles on the jetta. I started hearing a rubbing sound whenever I would start the car after it sat over night, turned out my tensioner pulley was leaking a little grease, everything else in the belt path looked good. The camshaft still looked pretty good.

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That "grease" was PROBABLY oil coming from the camshaft seal. Very common place for it to show up and it looks like it's coming from the tensioner bearing -- but it almost never actually is. Did you change the seal?

I didnt change the seal, i guess in hindsight i should have.

New update in December I purchased a used set of 205 nozzles that were built by Giles performance in Canada. They provide more power than my stockers but it doesn't seem to affect my MPG but I think I am leaving some fuel economy on the table because it puffs some smoke when I am driving around but not at idle. Maybe I will get a tune one day when I replace the clutch.

This weekend I installed a new vnt-17 and recleaned my intake to hopefully resolve my overboost limp mode that I have been fighting since I am now at 317k miles. I still have the same problem as before with the overboost then limp mode but it seems worse. Additionally I disconnect all the vaccum lines except the turbo, N75, and brake booster. That didn't help the problem. I will check the actuator adjustment. If that doesn't fix the issue the only thing that will be remaining is the ECU, and MAP sensor. Hopefully the adjustment was just off.

cbman18j said:

New update in December I purchased a used set of 205 nozzles that were built by Giles performance in Canada. They provide more power than my stockers but it doesn't seem to affect my MPG but I think I am leaving some fuel economy on the table because it puffs some smoke when I am driving around but not at idle. Maybe I will get a tune one day when I replace the clutch.

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If you're getting a bit of black smoke under heavy throttle then that's to be expected. You can reduce this somewhat by bumping up the IQ (decreasing fueling) a bit.

Generally any FE hit from a small bump in nozzle size gets offset by the fact that they are new nozzles (and likely improved over earlier nozzles) and that the old ones were tired (and jut not as efficient). Having the nozzles+injectors balanced out also has a positive impact on FE/performance.

Thanks Uh oh on a side note my turbo actuator was way to short once I adjusted it, everything works now as expected. I my request vs actual boost tracks a lot better than my stock vnt-15. I guess with 300k the vnt-15 had a little wear.

Great write up; thank you for all the details. I was going to suggest the actuator arm was too short, but you already fixed it.

Bad news my neighbor sideswiped the Jetta while avoiding getting hit head on. Unfortunately it bent the rear axle and got every panel on the driver's side. My neighbor's insurance is going to total it. It made it to 326475 miles before this unfortunate situation. I will try to post some pics.

I gotta do a timing belt too. Last guy had no clue when it was done last. Visual inspection of the belt indicates it's in very good condition and on there tight. Part of me wants to put it off taking into consideration the visual inspection because I've done quite a bit of work on this thing already and I just want to drive it for a bit now.

cbman18j said:

Bad news my neighbor sideswiped the Jetta while avoiding getting hit head on. Unfortunately it bent the rear axle and got every panel on the driver's side. My neighbor's insurance is going to total it. It made it to 326475 miles on it. I will try to post some pics.

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Damn that sucks.

cbman18j said:

Bad news my neighbor sideswiped the Jetta while avoiding getting hit head on. Unfortunately it bent the rear axle and got every panel on the driver's side. My neighbor's insurance is going to total it. It made it to 326475 miles on it. I will try to post some pics.

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That sucks That's one of my biggest fears because I've spent a good amount on getting my jetta wagon into tip top shape. If a car plows into it and totals it, insurance would probably only give me $1500... I wonder if you can at least take out all the parts you put in..

There isn't anything stopping me from taking parts off since it isn't really "driveable" right now.

in some cases the insurance company is willing to give you the car back and $$$.

I was able to buy the car back but they didn't take my title. Does this mean I still have a clean title?

cbman18j said:

I was able to buy the car back but they didn't take my title. Does this mean I still have a clean title?

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No.. they could still report it and it would show on DMV or reports like Carfax.

A clean title is simply a clean title. If it's the legal title to the car and doesn't say salvage or whatever, it's clean. Might or might not show up on Carfax or other reports.

As a update the car lives on, I replaced rear axle and wheels. It is being driven by my younger sister.