Recent content by turbocharged798

I went 14 years on my last BEW timing belt change. Not saying its a good thing to do but it held up. I think the waterpump was starting to fail because there was quite a bit of dried coolant around it. It was around 90,000 miles on the belt.

Yes it is because these cars have no perportioning valve so the rear wheels will lock up in a panic stop. If you can add a valve somewhere then an ABS delete could be a option...

You can put an immo3 cluster in a 99.5 car, just takes a bit of work but has been done. IMO an LSD is one of the best upgrades you can make to one of these cars. Yes, its expensive and laborious but the end result is a massive upgrade to the one tire hopper that they do stock.

The main connector solder joints crack too, had that problem with mine where it would constantly throw sensor codes. Cut the module open and a bunch of connector pins has cracked solder joints on the PCB. Reflowed the joints and problem has been fixed. Mine was a MK20 unit with ASR so its a...

Problems to look out for: Balance shaft drive worn camshaft torque converter failures transmission failures B5s are nice cars but can be heavy in the maintenance department. Personally I would look for a 1999-2003 Jetta/Golf/ New beetle with the ALH engine with a manual transmission.

I can confirm the 2.0 uses the same piece. Not sure about the 1.8t though.

Good amount of zinc, should be fine!

I would not bolt ANY 2.slo transmission to a TDI, they are geared super short, like 3500RPM at 60MPH short. Imagine your engine spinning at 3000+ at 55MPH. No thank you. 1.8t transmissions are better but still not optimal.

You have to get under the car and see what is worn out, outer tie rods and rear control arm bushings are the most common failure points. Inner tie rods and ball joints can fail too. I recommend TRW for suspension bits and lemsforder for the rear control arm bushings. There is a LOT of garbage...

You can take that large nut off with no ill effects, oring for it comes in the bosch kit. Problem is you need the tool to take it off. I've mixed success with hammering a 12 point socket on it and getting it off that way. Absolutely no reason to pull the pump.

Your lovely VW spec oil single handily has killed more cams than any other oil. Rotella is still loaded with zinc which is good. IMHO the VW 505.01 spec is trash, especially the 5w-30 flavors.

I firmly disagree with overfilling the transmission is a good thing, I find the fluid is overworked and starts to burn/degrade and then shift quality goes down. Just put it at the proper level and you won't have any problems. Oiling is only a problem if you let the fluid run low.

The problem is if the whole trans is either worn out or suffered some catastrophic failure they are usually not worth rebuilding. The parts are extremely expensive from VW. Depending what is wrong you can steal stuff from a gasser trans and fix it. I suspect most "rebuilt" units you find are...

Where in Mass are you? Kinda interested if not too far away.

I have grown fond of just fixing the OE exhaust and it simply fits the best. A lot of aftermarket downpipes out there just plain suck, flex pipes are too short and end up they hitting something around them. The flex pipe and the section of pipe between the cat and the clamp are the two things...