What did you do to your MKIV today?

Washed the Golf inside and out as well as the engine; mostly all dust. The birds don't seem to target my car as much as they used to.

Today I reconditioned the dogbone mount (aka pendulum mount) on the Jetta. The rubber on the big end was starting to deteriorate. But the bushing on the small end was perfectly fine. So I cleaned up the dogbone, and replaced the bushing material on the big end. It seems to have helped, because the engine doesn't wiggle as much.

Edit to add: here's where I got the bushing material ----> http://store.blackforestindustries.com/mk4oedore.html

Rrusse11 said:

Disabled the "Auto Lock" function, so now I don't have the car locking
at 10mph.

Enabled the "Auto Unlock" function so that all doors unlock on pulling
the key from the ignition.

I'd love it if this would also disable the rear hatch lock as well. Having
to press the fob button or hitting the switch on the driver's door everytime you want to get in the back I find annoying.

Cheers,
R*2

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Votblindub said:

I think that's doable. It may be driver side door + hatch or all doors + hatch. I dont recall atm, but i remember somebody telling me to do that when i was considering a wagon.

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If there's a solution for the rear hatch, let us all know. It's my understanding the car is designed that way, which is profoundly annoying having to use the fob or switch on the driver's side door to open up the rear. It seems pretty common on cars from that era and prior; both Saabs also have the same problem as my Mk4's (except there's no key fob button for them).

Deleted my EGR and Cooler today. Relatively simple job that hopefully cures my coolant loss problem!

Some maintenance, and other stuff

Haven't posted in quite a while. My recent work (at ~240k miles):
- oil/filter change, air and cabin filter changes (CAT fuel filter is fine for now)
- glow plug replacement - they lasted quite a while so no complaints
- N75 and N18 valves replaced - N75 failed a vacuum test, did both while I was there. Drivability has improved significantly, but something still seems off. Will investigate sometime soon.
The eBay drivers door latch I installed in February was already toast, so I repaired and installed one of the two OEM latches I had lying around. I am getting really good at taking that door apart.
Also, the stock Monsoon tape deck (remember those?) failed, giving me a reason to install an Apple CarPlay-compatible JVC head unit. Only complaint is that its hard to see when a cup is in the cupholder, but I have been able to work around that.
Coming soon:
- tire rotation, tomorrow
- new windshield, it really got beat up over the past year. Next week.
- investigating turbo replacement - no signs of doom at this point but would like to head off any potential issues.
- miscellaneous interior and exterior trim replacement
On the back burner: reversing camera, finding/installing steering wheel w/radio controls & connecting to new head unit, new trailer wiring.

I spent some time today touching up rust spots and paint chips on my old Golf. I tried POR-15 in a couple spots, but the stuff is so runny it's difficult to apply on vertical surfaces. Otherwise, I've just been using gloss black rust paint and a couple small size hobby paint brushes. It's surprising how well the gloss black rust paint matches up with my 14 year old dull factory paint.

I'm hoping to get the spots all touched up and finished with a second coat tomorrow, and then in the next couple weekends I'm going to hit it with compound/polish/wax.

The Golf is basically sitting idle until sometime this fall, so it gives me a chance to give it some TLC and not be in a rush.

https://postimage.io/

Finally - I pulled the front seats out of the Desert Jetta. I'm replacing the bottom seat cushions and washing the grey seat covers, because they're nasty. I will vacuum and steam clean the carpets and rear seats.

When I removed the the drivers seat a huge spring fell out of the left side. Bently manual states there are 2 such springs for the seat height adjuster. Mine only had the one and none for the passenger seat.

I'll post in the A4 section to see what others know.

JohnTso said:

...
When I removed the the drivers seat a huge spring fell out of the left side. Bently manual states there are 2 such springs for the seat height adjuster. Mine only had the one and none for the passenger seat.

I'll post in the A4 section to see what others know.

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I was going to say, height adjuster springs. Wouldn't surprise me if the others had fallen out years ago and been tossed by a previous owner.

Does anyone know a good location other than the dealer to have struts and springs replaced on 03 Jetta?

grahamtdi said:

Does anyone know a good location other than the dealer to have struts and springs replaced on 03 Jetta?

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I replaced mine on my '03 in my garage. You *can* get them out (and in) without dropping the control arm and thus tampering with the alignment. It takes a bit of creativity with the compressor, but it can be done and I'm proof of it. Half-day job for both sides.

Finished my front seat cushion replacement - grey cloth manual. My tushie likey.

I hand washed the seat bottoms with Tide and every else got treated with Totally Awesome (5 - 1) and sucked out with a Bissel upholstery cleaner.

Interior looks great! Now it's on to refreshing door cards.

I put blue tinted aspherical mirrors on my wagon and on my audi

I retitled Knurren as a NC car today. Introduced Knurren to Orville and swept off his parking spot. Glad to be able to expand my TDI family.

JohnTso said:

Finished my front seat cushion replacement - grey cloth manual. My tushie likey.

I hand washed the seat bottoms with Tide and every else got treated with Totally Awesome (5 - 1) and sucked out with a Bissel upholstery cleaner.

Interior looks great! Now it's on to refreshing door cards.

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Can you take some pictures or show me the link you use to refresh the door cards. I am having the worst luck finding a thread. Maybe I'm searching the wrong phrase. Anyway, I would love to see specifics of how/what you do with the door cards.

JB05 said:

Washed the Golf inside and out as well as the engine; mostly all dust. The birds don't seem to target my car as much as they used to.

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Do you use clay bar? Wax?

Also, how do you clean the engine? simple wash and silicone (or something) spray after? any places that need covering or maybe simply avoiding direct spray of water?

Mine is very dusty/dirty and could use a nice little rinse.

Avoid the ECU under the tray.

benIV said:

Can you take some pictures or show me the link you use to refresh the door cards. I am having the worst luck finding a thread. Maybe I'm searching the wrong phrase. Anyway, I would love to see specifics of how/what you do with the door cards.

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Ben, I won't be doing the door cards just yet. I've ordered all new fasteners and clips. I'm also going through door lock problem determination.

A few days ago, whilst driving over a bump in the road, I briefly noticed a warning light flicker on the dash then go away. It turned out to be the "trunk open" warning light.
Even though the trunk was "locked" I could open it, and when closing the trunk the latch would not engage. Wonder how long it's been like that
A quick search here, and then a few youtube videos before investigating.
Sure enough the tiny spring that keeps the locking latch engaged had fallen off one side.
All fixed now... I thought the hardest part of the job would be getting to and attaching the spring, but it was actually trickier re-attaching the cable end to the "locked-inside-the-trunk" emergency release lever.

Replaced the original double din Monsoon stereo with a like new one I got from a Vortex member. The CD player in the original was becoming problematic. Replacement was just fine.

Fiddled with what I thought was a blown bulb, ended up being a loose or open circuit. Then went for a drive.

noticed some condensation inside the lens. the whole assembly seemed a little loose. wonder if the long trip down rattled it free or something. will be investigating how to fix...

nice little evening drive in an even more awesome Knurren...

I did this:

Rembrant said:

I just installed a new set of the Conti PureContacts Eco Plus tires (16") on my 06 Jetta and have been very happy with them so far. My $65 rebate just arrived on Friday, so even happier with that.
That's a nice clean wagon, and the rims are nice as well.

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I put about 1200 miles on them this week.

I really like these tires. Nice ride, stick well in cornering/braking, and got better than 45 mpg doing 65-75mph, and then more than 42 mpg pushing harder 70-85mph with lots of passing (had to get home!)... I think it would get closer to 50 if I take it easy.

I say better than/more than because there is now a ~5% odometer error. 100 miles on the odometer is actually about 105 miles by mile markers. The tires are 27" tall, and the OEM were a bit less than 26" tall.

But the fact that they are larger doesn't hurt acceleration much. Easy passing.

Finally finished my multiple week project today.

New brakes all around.

Full suspension refresh, rear axle bushings, control arm bushings, ball joints, inner and outer tie rods, sway bar bushings, all new shocks, struts and springs. Good for another 300k, I hope.

And since I was in there I did an ESP retrofit.

All in all, well worth the effort, car drives amazing and esp should be handy come winter .

One of my tdi's had a runaway yesterday, and blew a hole in the block.

bajan

bajan, sorry to hear.

red16vdub said:

One of my tdi's had a runaway yesterday, and blew a hole in the block.

bajan

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A moment of silence!

I bought a rebuilt VNT15 from XSBoost and the stop screw was not set properly:

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=411071

It looked great, but if the stop screw isn't set right, who knows what else was done improperly? I sent it back and got a refund then bought a brand new unit from one of the trusted vendors here.

Gluckmysock said:

A moment of silence!

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Yes sir a moment of silence indeed lol.


Bajan