What did you do to your car today?

New brakes

Well, last week my pad wear light came on. So, like any sensible person I figured I'd better get em replaced.

Well, pulled off the old parts and found that yes, the wear sensor was exposed, BUT that there was WELL over 50% of the pad left? Oh well, I threw on the new parts since I already had them, but I'm AMAZED at the amount of wear on these pads, the time they'd been on, and that they kicked the light on at such a point.

I should point out, mine's an '05 (early) with 147K on it, and these were the ORIGINAL front brakes. I couldn't believe it...147K, original parts, and over half the pad left, yet the light's on...

Any comment? Either way, got new brakes now...which if they're like the originals, may outlast the car.

If those are highway miles, that makes sense. I hardly use my brakes as a result as well.

i have to replace my original pads too, and at 180k miles, mine too is mostly highway miles. that will happen next week...

mrvermin said:

New High Bolster TDI Sport Edition seats with Silver inserts and arm rest installed and looking good
MrVermin

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Nice. Very jealous. Seats from a junkyard or?

LA_VW said:

Nice. Very jealous. Seats from a junkyard or?

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Bought them off a member on the board here in the Ontario section (actually he is down the street from me ). He is installing Recaro's instead, so I bought his (5 minutes after he posted them for sale )

The TDI Sport Edition was a Canadian Only version of the 2004 Jetta TDI with 16" Buggati's, GLI Suspension and these seats, as well as special badging. They only sold about 200 of them, so these seats are Rare...

Heat works and everything

MrVermin

BrianCT said:

What's your feed back? Could this actually be a "suspension - handling" mod too?

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You know, I didn't have a section that I do over and over to test handling under extreme loads...

But my swaybar end links make noise normally. Seems to be less noise from the front. I suppose, it's all getting tied together with those mounting locations.

my TDI is suffering from seized rear sliders... i think the previous owner did a brake job and didn't put in a single drop of grease...

the passenger side had 1 free slider, i drilled and tried tapping out the slider and just no go... ended up breaking a brake line in my frustrations of trying to keep the caliper out of the way... then decided to move onto the other side and both sliders are seized, and the piston boot is all tore up.

so tomorrow is new calipers pads and rotors on both sides aswell as a new brake line so long as the right brake line comes in...

nothing like putting in all new parts.

Ricin'

Penned by a million monkeys.

sudseh said:

Ricin'

Penned by a million monkeys.

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How poisonous!

I took her to work....

CrazyWJ242 said:

so tomorrow is new calipers pads and rotors on both sides aswell as a new brake line so long as the right brake line comes in...

nothing like putting in all new parts.

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If you can ...take some pics for me. I wanna know if it's a huge deal to replace the calipers and "more exclusively" the e-brake lines.

Are you going to paint your calipers prior to installation?

SD26 said:

You know, I didn't have a section that I do over and over to test handling under extreme loads...

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I felt the front end improvement just driving out of the driveway after the installation. The entire front end felt reinforced. I could feel it as the car rolled along slowly or fast on any surface. There was notably less suspension noise too.

New leather shifter boot and swapped on/off defrost switch for timed switch. Both for the 2005 Jetta Wagon.

Andrew

Took her for a much needed bath then cleaned off the excess grease around all the hinges that was very messily sprayed on during the service 2 weeks ago. Is it really that hard to spend an extra 3-4 mins and do a neat job!?

Went to the Stealership to get some licence plate bolts...and they gave me 2 sets for FREE!?! Going to install a TDIClub Frame later today.

BrianCT said:

If you can ...take some pics for me. I wanna know if it's a huge deal to replace the calipers and "more exclusively" the e-brake lines.

Are you going to paint your calipers prior to installation?

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calipers are a easy/moderate job for most people to do... the e-brake cables are one of the easiest i've worked with to disconnect, with the caliper off and pads out, you can use a screwdriver to move the e-brake lever, and slip the cable off, then remove the tab and wiggle it out... the brake line itself is simple to disconnect, and re installing the new is easy (always use new washers) but open up the bleeder and give it a few moments to see if the fluid will flow out then close it... it'll make bleeding it go by much faster... just keep a eye on the reservoir and keep it topped up with new fluid

Its also a good time to look at flushing the brakelines and putting in new brake fluid...

And i do plan on painting the calipers black, just because i cant stand the colour of rust lol

Today i also took advantage of the beautiful weather cleaned out the interior and took care of some surface rust that's been accumulating on my TDI, grinded down to bare metal, prime and paint, i've got a large hole to repair on the drivers side rocker panel... as well as more spots to sand down...

neat seat inserts

What is a TGI? Why is the G backwards?

There are so many comedians here.....

CrazyWJ242 said:

the e-brake cables are one of the easiest i've worked with to disconnect, with the caliper off and pads out, you can use a screwdriver to move the e-brake lever, and slip the cable off, then remove the tab and wiggle it out... the brake line itself is simple to disconnect, and re installing the new is easy (always use new washers)

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I really meant the e-brake cable and housing, the entire assembly from the emergency brake inside the car all the way to the rear caliper. I have to replace the entire ebrake housing and cable. Is it hard to remove the housing that's attached to the chassis fed up through to the handle?

In other words, I'm replacing the entire emergency brake line and black plastic exterior housing. I already know how to release the e-brake from the caliper itself having just replaced the rotors this past week.

Appreciate it, and sorry for the confusion.

tomo366 said:

There are so many comedians here.....

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It looks nice in RED tomo. I won't ask why you ordered it in red.

I didnt order them in red double sided tape and a red sharpie....

BrianCT said:

I really meant the e-brake cable and housing, the entire assembly from the emergency brake inside the car all the way to the rear caliper. I have to replace the entire ebrake housing and cable. Is it hard to remove the housing that's attached to the chassis fed up through to the handle?

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Replacing the p-brake cable is one of the simpler tasks. Once you've released the cable from the caliper as well as the little saddle it sits in by the p-brake lever in the car, it's just a matter of pulling on the cable housing underneath the car. It's almost a tool-less procedure (you probably will want/need to use a pair of pliers to grab the cable housing and yank on it).
Pull out the old one, push in the new one. Done.

tomo366 said:

I didnt order them in red double sided tape and a red sharpie....

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You're like MacGyver, but MacGyver would have used white-out ™ and corrected that backward G first.


j/k

Nuje said:

.... It's almost a tool-less procedure (you probably will want/need to use a pair of pliers to grab the cable housing and yank on it).
Pull out the old one, push in the new one. Done.

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Thank you Nuje!

Today's mods:

1. Removed EGR cooler to EGR line and installed Dieselgeek supplied blank off plates, de-gunked EGR and first 4 inches of intake manifold.

2. Installed Dieselgeek Sigma Short-shifter in place of worn stock unit.

3. Replaced exhaust downpipe and Cat assembly and narrowed my turbo whine down to the turbo itself, no intake or exhaust leaks.. @#&#&$%^!~!!!!!!!

Didn't need to discover that I now have to buy a replacement turbo too! Anybody got a VNT-15 or VNT-17 to sell?

Replaced the driver's side drive shaft with a new unit from Marty at Raxles. Getting ready for a test drive and to drop the core off at UPS.

Did some test fitting:




Kinda tight lol

Looks familiar, hope your front passenger has short legs!

Did an IQ adjustment on the 2-dr. It was originally at 2.2, and so I moved it to 2.8 to remove the slow down shudder. I looked and found that the intake manifold is decently occluded, but found it late enough that I will take care of that problem on another Saturday, probably about 5 weeks from now after I move.

Also adjusted the 4-dr's IQ to 2.8 from 1.2. Its slowdown shudder was worse than the 2-dr's, and is gone now. Also replaced the right side mirror cover which was cracked and held together with an emergency repair about 6 years ago. Finally fixed that.

It will be interesting to see if the change in IQ affects the mileage.

dieselpower04 said:

Did some test fitting:

Kinda tight lol

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Congratulations! I have put three kids thru the Golf and I found those baby buckets fit best in the center, just have to reach further to drop-snap it in. Currently I have a rear facing booster in the center and two low profile 40lbs+ booster seats on either side in my Golf.