The NARFmobile, My 2001 Golf TDI

Which words in raised white letter for my tire sidewalls? See post #220 for pictures

  • NARFATOMIC BLASTOMIC

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • NARFATOMIC BLASTOMATIC

    Votes: 4 23.5%
  • NARFOMATIC ATOMIC BLAST

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • NARF ATOMIC BLAST

    Votes: 1 5.9%
  • NARF BLAST

    Votes: 5 29.4%
  • NARFBLAST ATOMIC

    Votes: 1 5.9%
  • NARFOMATIC ATOMIC BLAST

    Votes: 1 5.9%
  • NARFATOMIC ATOMICBLAST

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • NARF ATOMIC BLASTOMATIC

    Votes: 2 11.8%
  • EPIC FACEPALM

    Votes: 3 17.6%

  • Total voters
    17
  • Poll closed .

Growler

Got Soot Vendor
Joined
Nov 24, 2003
Location
Millersport, Ohio
TDI
Schmutz, 2015 Golf Sportwagen DSG & Schnurren, 2001 Golf GL 2 door 5M
Congratulations.Its good to see you are still having fun after all its been through.
 

NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
Congratulations.Its good to see you are still having fun after all its been through.
Thanks!

This morning I was cleaning up the packaging from the commemorative plate and I found the invoice, and noticed the total was more than I thought it should be. Then I found the little plastic bag with a special surprise inside:



I had totally forgotten that I had ordered the key-tag option! I had placed the order shortly after 550,000 km, and it when it arrived I had tucked the whole thing, still in bubble wrap, in the trunk. Anyway, I was surprised and delighted to find that I had treated myself to a little extra something.

Now that this mileage goal is complete, my mindset changes from simply:

"Have to make it 600,000 with no unnecessary repairs or maintenance."

to a more complicated: "What now?"

Here are some options:

A) Spend a little money and a bunch of time replacing only the timing belt (last done at 400,000 km). This may open several cans of worms when I take the valve cover off and look at the cam and lifters, realize the engine mount bracket is stripped, the vacuum pump is leaking, etc, etc, etc...

B) Plan to spend a whole bunch of money and time fixing all of worn out parts surrounding the timing belt, and re-install a turbo.

C) Change only filters and oil and just keep driving with no turbo and no worries, laughing all the way - until the next thing goes bang.

Considering the age of the car, and my lack of concern for its longevity, I'm leaning heavily towards "option C".
 

SilverGhost

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2005
Location
Back in So Flo - St Lucie
TDI
'05 Golf - totaled :(, wife's '13 Beetle - buy back, TDIless
My personal opinion is keep up the maintenance until the end. No need to neglect it just because...

But I do see your point about it unraveling (one thing leading to another).

Jason
 

jayb79

Top Post Dawg
Joined
May 20, 2000
Location
Exeter,NH
I hate to mention your overheating trouble but would suspect a possible head gasket as well. Maybe a compression check would be a good place to start before any money is spent.
 

SilverGhost

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2005
Location
Back in So Flo - St Lucie
TDI
'05 Golf - totaled :(, wife's '13 Beetle - buy back, TDIless
I see more overheating problems in that engine from water pump slippage and blocked radiators than any other source. But then again I also don't get to see many with that many miles/kilometers either.

Jason
 

NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
Thanks Jayb and Jason, I always appreciate the advice. Head gaskets, clogged radiator, water pump problems. Now you've got me thinking. Sometimes when the engine got hot I would turn on the interior heater and fans to try to cool it off and sometimes they would go from hot to cold then back to hot again, seemingly based on RPMs. I wasn't touching the controls so I don't think it was the blend door. Oh well, its no longer an issue!
 

NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
Megameter Tanks and Mathematical Targets

I'm loving life without boost; I have less problems and use less fuel!

I usually fill up when the tank gets around half way, but lately I have been getting over 700km out of the first half of the tank so I decided to take it to the "low fuel" light and see what happened:



700 mile (1126.5 km) club membership renewed!

The fuel light came on right around 1100 km. When the light comes on I can be pretty sure I have used 55L and have 9L in reserve. This was confirmed at the pump:



55.022 L / 1129.4 km x 100 = 4.96 L/100km (47.4 mpg)

I'm happy to beat 5L / 1000 km but next tank I want to beat 50 mpg (4.7 L/100). Working backwards from 55L I would need to extract 1170 km before the fuel light comes on to do this safely.

Looking forward to more megameter (1000 km) tanks!

edit: previously I was consistently getting 5.8 L / 100 km (40 mpg) for many years
 
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NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
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3L3M3NT

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2008
Location
Sturgeon Bay, WI
TDI
04 Jetta GLS TDI, 04 RTDI
It's phenomenal that you're keeping this car going and it's great to see that you get to keep driving it for another 2 years.

How much does the big *$$ magnet affect fuel economy?
 

NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
It's phenomenal that you're keeping this car going and it's great to see that you get to keep driving it for another 2 years.
How much does the big *$$ magnet affect fuel economy?
The magnet was really bad for fuel economy and top speed, and it was a little bit sketchy all that weight up there. I couldn't wait to take it off when I got home from Lemons Rally.
 

NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
Bricked ECU, first Bench Flash

I have been playing around with mappings using ECD suite and a cheap Galleto cable. I have been posting updates in my "sweet turbo delete" thread. I also posted a glowing review of the Galleto cable and software on Amazon, which I have just now deleted.

Anyway, one night I bricked my ECU.

So I did some research and turns out the Bosch EDC15 has a recovery mode that can be accessed by combination of grounding a pin on the eeprom chip while powering up and then flashing using a "slow baud rate recovery mode".

The Galleto cable does not have these options and simply reported a communication failure. As did VAG-COM.

The MPPS V16 cable and software is much better! (Amazon.ca review posted, awaiting review)

Here is my bench flashing rig, running off a cheap old booster pack (with build in "ignition" switch):



Here is a close up of the adapter I build using a old OBDII extension cable female end, some custom sized clips, and lots of heat shrink tubing. I thought that colour coding the grounds, hots, and single K-line would increase my chances of success:



While still on the bench, I went ahead and hooked up my VAG-COM cable:



There were about five different faults, sensors not reporting in. Logically, I re-installed the ECU in the car and cleared codes.

This is where things get weird, yet start to make sense, all at once...

There is a weird cyclical clacking noise for a few seconds after turning the ignition on and before starting. This is the same noise I heard the night a bricked my ECU. That night it only happened once, during the code load, and I assumed it was a low battery power glitch type thing but this time it happened consistently on power up, and there were no other power symptoms.

I was able to connect VCDS and found two re-occuring faults:

"quantity adjuster lower limit reached" and "quantity adjuster upper limit reached".

After clearing the codes, I would get the clacking noise, and they would come back. At this point my memory is fuzzy, did I load the same code file from the night I bricked my ECU or a previous one. At this point I think I went ahead and loaded a previous version, which allowed me to clear the codes, and start the engine.

So maybe it was a bad file after all.

Either way, I unlocked a new skill: ECU Bench Flash

And the Volkswagen is running the best it has ever run without a turbo! Details here: sweet turbo delete

No regrets!
 
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BakoTDI

Veteran Member
Joined
May 5, 2005
Location
Bakersfield, CA
TDI
Jetta, MK7
Now I can control the coolant glow plugs manually!

As I bonus I can see when the fuel shutoff solenoid is energized by a LED on the dashboard.

Theory of Operation:

A latching relay is operated by a push button and powered by the signal to the fuel shutoff solenoid. When the latching relay closes it powers a set of three change-over relays which cut the coolant glow plugs over from automatic operation to manual operation. When power is removed from the fuel solenoid or the arming switch is flipped off the laching relay is de-energized and will not re-energize until the push button is pushed. In this way the coolant glow plugs will only run after the engine is is started and a button is pushed and will automatically shut off when the engine is stopped. There is a second switch which is wired to simulate the button being held down in which case the coolant glow plugs will stay on as long as the fuel solenoid is receiving power - in which case the coolant glow-plugs would come on the next time engine is started without intervention.
I absolutely love this idea!! However, could you dumb it down for me a bit? I am limited in electrical connections. I noticed you had a small diagram. Could you share that? I am not in freezing temp area but this is handy for when I have to drive 10 mins to work and I can't even get my windshield to defrost properly and I think it's worth exploring haha

thanks for the info!
 

NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
I absolutely love this idea!! However, could you dumb it down for me a bit? I am limited in electrical connections. I noticed you had a small diagram. Could you share that? I am not in freezing temp area but this is handy for when I have to drive 10 mins to work and I can't even get my windshield to defrost properly and I think it's worth exploring haha

thanks for the info!

I'm not sure if I have a diagram for the coolant glow plugs. I wouldn't modify this kind of wiring if you don't know what you are doing as it could quickly burn your car to the ground, along with your house, and your neighbors house.

If you want to do it safely, all you need to do is connect a 30amp fuse, some 14 guage wire, and relay to power up each individual glow plug. Power the relays with a switch that is run through the firewall to the cabin. Use a trailer wiring tester in parallel with the glowplug to indicate if the glow plug is on. Don't forget to turn the glow plugs off, or use a circuit that is only on when the relay is on to power the relay.

Or follow the instruction in the thread jayb79 posted...
 
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BakoTDI

Veteran Member
Joined
May 5, 2005
Location
Bakersfield, CA
TDI
Jetta, MK7
I'm not sure if I have a diagram for the coolant glow plugs. I wouldn't modify this kind of wiring if you don't know what you are doing as it could quickly burn your car to the ground, along with your house, and your neighbors house.

If you want to do it safely, all you need to do is connect a 30amp fuse, some 14 guage wire, and relay to power up each individual glow plug. Power the relays with a switch that is run through the firewall to the cabin. Use a trailer wiring tester in parallel with the glowplug to indicate if the glow plug is on. Don't forget to turn the glow plugs off, or use a circuit that is only on when the relay is on to power the relay.

Or follow the instruction in the thread jayb79 posted...


That mental picture was epic! I totally understand what you mean. I’ve been trying to draw it out myself in order to make it work on paper. I definitely will be careful! I will look for that post for sure. Thank you!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

REDNECKDZL

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2006
Location
Omemee
TDI
2001 Jetta, 2015 Jetta, 1984 Wabbit TD, 1986 RX7 waiting on AHU swap
Hey Paul, did you do the escape from Moscow Lemons rally in your wife's Kia

My buddy was running the planes trains and automobile tribute car

He mentioned someone from down Saint Catherine's way ran the rally too but had a suspension failure at the last minute, told him I figured I knew who it was ;)
 

NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
Hey Paul, did you do the escape from Moscow Lemons rally in your wife's Kia

My buddy was running the planes trains and automobile tribute car

He mentioned someone from down Saint Catherine's way ran the rally too but had a suspension failure at the last minute, told him I figured I knew who it was ;)
Yes! That was me! I didn't want my Barf costume, which had taken me months to patch together, to go to waste.



Those guys were the most hard core of all the entries, they drove through a polar vortex for three days with top down on a fire damaged convertible!!!

They happened to arrive in Paris just after I did, and they still had the spare tire on from the flat that happened on the way to the start of the rally! (they're not idiots tho, they had repaired the flat, and put it in the trunk, but posted, "what the heck, we might as well see how far it will go...")

Anyway, I captured this picture in front of the Eiffel Tower:



All the photos taken by the "official photographer" for the rally are here: https://24hoursoflemons.smugmug.com/Race/Retreat-From-Moscow-Lemons-Rally-January-2019/

Good Times!

I should probably post an update about the NarfMOBILE... maybe when the weather warms up.
 
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hskrdu

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 17, 2003
Location
Maryland and New England
TDI
2003 Golf GLS 4D 5M, 2015 GSW SE 6M
The fire damaged convertible looks like they are trying to replicate the rental car from Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. The traveling trunk in back mimics Del Griffith's.

1987. Steve Martin & John Candy.
 

loganbmx4gt

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2011
Location
Jackson, TN
TDI
97' Passat (1Z), 02' Golf
Yes! That was me! I didn't want my Barf costume, which had taken me months to patch together, to go to waste.



Those guys were the most hard core of all the entries, they drove through a polar vortex for three days with top down on a fire damaged convertible!!!

They happened to arrive in Paris just after I did, and they still had the spare tire on from the flat that happened on the way to the start of the rally! (they're not idiots tho, they had repaired the flat, and put it in the trunk, but posted, "what the heck, we might as well see how far it will go...")

Anyway, I captured this picture in front of the Eiffel Tower:



All the photos taken by the "official photographer" for the rally are here: https://24hoursoflemons.smugmug.com/Race/Retreat-From-Moscow-Lemons-Rally-January-2019/

Good Times!

I should probably post an update about the NarfMOBILE... maybe when the weather warms up.


I’m my backyard!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

REDNECKDZL

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2006
Location
Omemee
TDI
2001 Jetta, 2015 Jetta, 1984 Wabbit TD, 1986 RX7 waiting on AHU swap
Yeap, that is exactly what they were up to

Did a pretty good job of it, Jack is still driving the car around in ptbo, looking to paint it black this summer

Small world

The fire damaged convertible looks like they are trying to replicate the rental car from Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. The traveling trunk in back mimics Del Griffith's.

1987. Steve Martin & John Candy.
 

hskrdu

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 17, 2003
Location
Maryland and New England
TDI
2003 Golf GLS 4D 5M, 2015 GSW SE 6M
Yeap, that is exactly what they were up to

Did a pretty good job of it, Jack is still driving the car around in ptbo, looking to paint it black this summer

Small world



I like that some people will recognize it right away, while it still maintains some level of obscurity. It looks great from the photo.
 

NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
2019 Update: Is This The End? Part 1 of 2

It got very cold in January, but the car was still running great:


2001 TDI Cold Start 2019







I was inspired to replace the thermostat in preparation for Lemons Rally.


I was also inspired to try a new kind of video format for my channel:

Thunder Bay and Thermostats:
VW Story Time Episode 1




Soon after replacing the thermostat, the oil cooler seals started leaking oil, so I took the opportunity to make a YouTube feature length video:


How to Replace VW Oil Cooler Seals





Just when I thought I was ready for the 2019 Retreat from Moscow Lemons Rally at the end of January, I noticed the steering wheel needs to be pointed slightly to left in order to drive straight.


The next day the steering wheel needs to be pointed further left, so I suspect the right rear brake caliper, and yes it was dragging, but my steering wheel was still pointed left even after freeing up the right rear caliper?


So I drove up and down the road a few times grabbing the hand brake hard trying to figure out what was dragging. That is when the rear axle broke loose from the left side:




Surprisingly, It would drive like this, with nothing but the flexible brake line holding the left rear tire somewhat in place:





In case you can't tell from those pictures, I stole a photo from an ebay seller to illustrate what broke:





I parked it, and took my wife's car to Lemons Rally two days later. It was sad not driving the Volkswagen, but, I had a great time playing Barf all week. I was flattered that they used shots of Barf twice in this beautiful recap video done by Regular Car Reviews:


Lemons Rally Retreat From Moscow Narrative 2019



edit: I just watched that video again and realized that in the final fade to black you can see Pinky's silhouette and the Canadian flag on top of my Kia:




It wasn't till a few weeks after I got back that the snow and ice had melted enough to pull the Volkswagen out of storage and have another look at the rear axle...


[CONTINUED IN PART 2 of 2]




 
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NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
2019 Update: Is This The End? Part 2 of 2

In order to get the car safely into the garage without ripping the brake line off I used a ratchet strap:




...and was inspired to make a short video:

Pulling the Volkswagen out of Storage




I decided not to pick up a used axle right away. Welding up the old axle seemed like a project that would be more fun at the moment:










I thought it came out pretty nice, and if I had welded the rear axle perfectly straight I might have even decided to fully box it in and put the insurance back on, but the steering was still a bit off telling me that the job was not perfect. Probably best to get a good used part if I decide to put it back on the road anyway.

For now it does make a great portable diesel electric generator when combined with a 3000 Watt inverter. This weekend I used it to run a shop vac 300 feet from the house. Also, since the weather was nice and I was working outside I really enjoyed turning up the stereo and opening the doors. After running the shop vac for about an hour on diesel power I am ran the radio for three hours with the engine off with no issues.


I am glad I invested the extra money for an AGM (quasi-deep cycle) battery a few years ago!


Diesel powered shop vac. LOL. That is what inspired me to post these updates I guess. I really should have taken a picture of that but you will have to use your imagination.

I still have no intention of changing the timing belt, but I did wax it recently (the timing belt that is):

Stop Squeaks by Waxing Your Timing Belt



Good times!
 
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