B6 Passat conversion?

[Steve Addy]

Hey all
Just wondering if anyone on here has done the B6 yet? Considering this since B6 Passat is the last wagon you can get here in the US.

Steve A

 

[d24tdi]

I have wondered about this too. They seem like pretty nice cars and seems like both of the gas engines they could have (2.0t and VR6) are likely to be dead long before the rest of the car is worn out. I have seen a couple really nice ones for sale cheap with engine failures.

IIRC from when they were introduced, the platform shares a lot with the A6 Jetta. I'm not familiar with the architecture of those cars but if people have done successful swaps into complex vehicles like Tiguans, I have to think swapping something like a BRM in place of a 2.0t gasser in a B6 Passat would not be that difficult.

Seems like someone must have done it. The B6 cars, especially the wagons, are a sharp looking design too and a nice size.

I guess the counter-argument is, why would you go to the effort with a B6 wagon when you can get a factory diesel in a B5 wagon, which is (arguably) on an even nicer platform. Swapping a manual trans into a nice B5.5V with a blown up automatic would be easier than swapping a BRM into a B6 for sure, and the B5.5 might be the better all around vehicle at the end of the day.

 

[Steve Addy]

I have wondered about this too. They seem like pretty nice cars and seems like both of the gas engines they could have (2.0t and VR6) are likely to be dead long before the rest of the car is worn out. I have seen a couple really nice ones for sale cheap with engine failures.

IIRC from when they were introduced, the platform shares a lot with the A6 Jetta. I'm not familiar with the architecture of those cars but if people have done successful swaps into complex vehicles like Tiguans, I have to think swapping something like a BRM in place of a 2.0t gasser in a B6 Passat would not be that difficult.

Seems like someone must have done it. The B6 cars, especially the wagons, are a sharp looking design too and a nice size.

I guess the counter-argument is, why would you go to the effort with a B6 wagon when you can get a factory diesel in a B5 wagon, which is (arguably) on an even nicer platform. Swapping a manual trans into a nice B5.5V with a blown up automatic would be easier than swapping a BRM into a B6 for sure, and the B5.5 might be the better all around vehicle at the end of the day.

The B5.5 is a nice car, admittedly, it's more Audi than VW, but it's also more complicated and higher maintenance. The B6 is a return to the transverse setup of the smaller cars and I believe it would be less complicated to maintain and convert...however it appears they rust more quickly, especially in the front fenders, due to that foam pack damper pad VW decided to install in there.

The B6 is almost identical to the Mk5 under the hood...and they shared the same 2.0T engine in some models. They also share drive axles for MT cars so the dimensions up front lead me to believe that the relationship is much the same as the B3/4 was to the Mk2; a stretched version of the same platform. In fact Mk3 4 cyl MT cars share the same drive axles (dimensions) as B3/4 4 cyl MT cars so it's all about the same family stuff.

The attraction for me is that it's probably the last wagon we're going to see from VW in the states...at least for quite a while, and at present they seem to be available for not much coin because the 2.0T proved to be not good. I would not be interested in converting a 4mo car to tdi though, so my searches have been specifically for dead 2.0T B6 wagon cars. I had found a dead B6 MT wagon in MO but he owner junked it before I was able to go look at it. I'm not restricting it to MT wagons though, I have the parts to convert to MT...it's just that a wagon already MT will be easier, there won't be all that TCM wiring and garbage to rip out.

Thanks for the response.

Still curious as to whether anyone has done one?

Steve

 

[oilhammer]

The B5 is a better car.

The B6 is essentially an A5 with an obesity problem, in the same way the B4 was to the A3, and the B3 was to the A2.

However, the transverse arrangement does allow for a little more interior room, despite being no bigger of a car. The B6 wagon actually has more interior volume than the T'reg.

The B6 engines were not good for us.

Early 4 cyl: BPY engine, good sturdy engine, with its overhead cams driven by a proper belt, BUT, were prone to rampant oil consumption, most of these have blown up (however, if you keep them full of the correct oil, they'll run forever.

Late 4 cyl: CCTA engine, the first (and worst) of the EA888 family of turdbombs. I could type for an hour on the problems with those. The Pope himself could fart pixie dust into the intake at every service, it isn't going to make one of those last.

VR6: pump sucking chain chuckers, strong engine, but not that great, and by then those were all the more fragile 24v versions.

So yeah, lots of them could have been gotten on the cheap needing engines. Gosh knows I've seen boatloads of them. But now that the newest one is over a decade old, you may not find a really nice specimen that is in need of an engine.

The platform continued on a few more years under the CC, if you like that "four door hardtop coupe" kinda look... I am not a huge fan, and the CC is a pain to get in and out of.

 

[d24tdi]

Haha, sounds like those EA888 engines are truly terrible. Strange that for all its engineering brilliance and so many robust and clever and elegant designs, VAG also has the tendency to make such brutal mistakes on a regular basis. One would think they have to know better.

I think I said A6 in my post mistakenly instead of A5.... I thought the cars were similar but didn't realize A5 and B6 were that close. Makes sense as it probably resulted in a lot of money saved for VW. Interesting that the A5 and its derivatives had much better engine options than the higher market B6. From what I am aware of, the 2.5L 5cyl gasser is not a bad motor, I gather many folks get decent life from them. Seems like someone should have started up a cottage industry saving nice B6 cars from the scrapper by doing engine retrofits with those 2.5Ls or TDIs. Even a later CR TDI motor presumably could drop in.

Something similar existed in the '80s and '90s with Volvo cars that had "problem child" engines -- the 260 series with the French PRV/Delorean aluminum V6 that would eat its cams if oil was neglected, and (sadly) also the diesel 200 and 700 series cars that Volvo owners would ignorantly blow up by following Volvo's insane 15k mile OCI recommendation (on cheap dino 15W40 LOL) and/or by not changing timing belts since they were used to owning Volvo's gasser non-interference motors. Unfortunately Volvo marketed the diesels as being extra low maintenance engines, and Volvo owners who were already cheapskates and not inclined to go the extra mile, so the diesels were kind of doomed to negligent care. Or in cases where the owners did want to take care of them, they were sabotaged by Volvo dealers/shops botching timing belt replacement attempts on the VAG engine with improper tools or methods, nothing new there. Anyway, a lot of the indie Volvo shops back then were doing a profitable business when a customer had a car in good condition with low miles that had blown up a V6 or diesel -- they would swap in a junkyard gasser 4-cylinder for less than the cost of overhauling the ruined original engine, and the car would be ready for another 200k miles. Sometimes the shop would be making money swapping a 4cyl in place of a diesel that they had already previously made money doing a botched TB job on, resulting in its failure, that they then blamed on those damn VW engineers and their crap German engine! Almost a scam.

I knew an old-timer who worked in a Seattle Volvo garage in the '90s and would do dozens of these swaps every year for a while, got to where he could do it in his sleep. Much like what was done also with the GM diesels swapping to Olds gassers during the same era. Would have to think it would have been a good industry and saved a lot of B6 owners from having their otherwise fine cars become worthless junk if someone could have figured something else out, considering the stock engines represented only choices between bad and worse.

Back to the topic at hand though -- I guess the other thought that occurs to me is that with how much space is in an A5 or A6 JSW/GSW, maybe those cars are another reason a B6 swap doesn't make a lot of sense, unless the perfect B6 were to fall into one's lap in very nice shape and needed to be saved, or you just wanted something different. Otherwise with factory TDI options in both the B5.5 and A plaform wagons, maybe a TDI-swapped B6 wagon doesn't really have anything unique to offer for all the effort of doing it.

Unless you could get one put together with 4motion I suppose, which the A-cars didn't get and isn't easy to achieve with the B5.5.

 

[Steve Addy]

Lots of fun commentary about a plethora of different blunders! Those are the best conversations I think.

At any rate I'm interested in the B6 because I'm long legged and the A5 has seats that are insufficient in support. And I already have a set of front buckets from an A6 Avant S-Line that I intend to use in the B6 wagon.

I have contemplated a CR conversion on a late B6 wagon but the easiest one to accomplish I think is a BRM into 06 or 07, depending on what I can find for a donor carcass.

There was, a while back, a particularly nice wagon here locally that I stumbled upon on CL. It ended up that someone else bought it for some reason, why I don't know, it was a 2008 IIRC and had the early engine.

I will continue to move ahead with this one, there's another wagon in MO that's inop but the seller claims that it has no title, which is typically code for 'title loan' so while I'm going to have a look at it I'm not inclined to buy it, but we'll see. As OH said, there were at one time bunches of these out there dead in the back yard, but a lot of those have now been flushed through the system and we're done to probably the last of them.

I'm probably not interested in this project if it's a sedan although I will admit that I thought about possibly using CC, but I'm pretty much set on it being a wagon at this point.

I have the engine / wiring and electronic controls but I'll need to get a few more bits since the B6 donor was supposed to be MT and now it likely won't be. We will see how this proceeds in the near term, but it'll probably not go very this summer....

Thanks

Steve

 

[d24tdi]

Seems like maybe it could make sense for your case then. It would be cool to see it done. A B6 wagon with a BRM would be a much more desirable vehicle than a Mk5 or Mk6 A-platform wagon with a CR engine, IMO, just in terms of the larger size and nicer looks with probably not much penalty in MPG. And presumably the cars are close enough that the factory BRM plumbing solutions for cooling system and the like would plug in pretty well without too much fabrication.

I wonder about power steering. Does the B6 use the electric rack that the Mk5 TDI cars had? No PS pump on a BRM, so if the B6 car has a hydraulic rack, that could involve some head scratching.

If you have a B3 TDI wagon in your stable already then a B6 TDI wagon swap would be a nice companion, same basic idea.

 

[Steve Addy]

Seems like maybe it could make sense for your case then. It would be cool to see it done. A B6 wagon with a BRM would be a much more desirable vehicle than a Mk5 or Mk6 A-platform wagon with a CR engine, IMO, just in terms of the larger size and nicer looks with probably not much penalty in MPG. And presumably the cars are close enough that the factory BRM plumbing solutions for cooling system and the like would plug in pretty well without too much fabrication.

I wonder about power steering. Does the B6 use the electric rack that the Mk5 TDI cars had? No PS pump on a BRM, so if the B6 car has a hydraulic rack, that could involve some head scratching.

If you have a B3 TDI wagon in your stable already then a B6 TDI wagon swap would be a nice companion, same basic idea.

There's going to be a few things that need to be worked out, the connections to the charge air cooler for instance, but the two cars (B6 and A5) are so similar in the front that I just can't see it as being a problem to resolve, and they did produce a 1.9 PD powered B6 in Europe so the factory parts do exist if I need to get something from across the water, although that might be tough to get from here on out.

As for cooling system, I haven't dug deep into it yet but I do know that they do share the same radiator for the 2.0T cars (for some years), but the 05/06 BRM rad is different...but my assumption here is that it will fit into the same space if I can't use the existing radiator from the 2.0T car. I just haven't measured the core size yet to know how that will work out. And there's also the clearance with the charge air cooler ports too. This is still one of those unknown areas.

I do have a B3 TDI that I converted between 2014 and 2016 and am still driving it today. It has accumulated over 50k miles now post-conversion and is a joy to drive. It actually uses the harness of the Mk3 instead of the B4 because it was more readily available and because the Mk3 cars seemed to be less problematic with electrical issues. It took a while to trace and reconstruct the harness in a manner suited to fitting the B3 but in the end it was worth it, the car has been completely trouble free. It also has the eurotuning.cz 6 speed conversion kit changing 5th to .74 and adds the .59 6th gear and RC 2 tune. Makes freeway cruising at 75/80 really nice while keeping engine rpms low. The thread for the car's creation was on here with photos but it never got added to the list of conversions AFAIK and when photobucket went to crap I didn't bother to move the photos to another platform.

Steve

 

[02NBTDI]

Nice B3 Wagon!! Wouldn't mind owning that!

 

[d24tdi]

Yeah that B3 is cool for sure. I have always liked the look, very unique. A decade or more ago I saw a dark green VR6 5-speed wagon in nice shape for sale cheap on a used car lot and had to take it for a test drive.... Lots of fun. If it weren't for the early (or I guess any year) VR engine headaches (and the motorized seatbelts, LOL) it would have been hard to resist.

I guess probably the biggest challenge with B3s now must be parts availability, as with B4 platform but maybe even more so? VW's N America sales were not strong in the early '90s and it seems like both VW and the aftermarket have all but given up on support for some of the models from those tough years. I don't think I have seen a single B3 car on the road in a long time so the market has to be almost zero.

 

[Steve Addy]

Yeah that B3 is cool for sure. I have always liked the look, very unique. A decade or more ago I saw a dark green VR6 5-speed wagon in nice shape for sale cheap on a used car lot and had to take it for a test drive.... Lots of fun. If it weren't for the early (or I guess any year) VR engine headaches (and the motorized seatbelts, LOL) it would have been hard to resist.

I guess probably the biggest challenge with B3s now must be parts availability, as with B4 platform but maybe even more so? VW's N America sales were not strong in the early '90s and it seems like both VW and the aftermarket have all but given up on support for some of the models from those tough years. I don't think I have seen a single B3 car on the road in a long time so the market has to be almost zero.

I assume my car is the only one 'moving' in the Des Moines metro area although I could be wrong.

Since so many parts are shared with Mk2 and especially Mk3 it's not really that big of an issue honestly. I suppose interior trims are the biggest things to find, but I abandoned the automatic belt system when I rebuilt the car so I don't have to deal with that crap at all. At any rate I have some spare parts that I acquired when there were a few around here in the local JY's and so at this point I'm not too worried about it.

Another five years and the story might be different, but who knows.

The B6 project is kind of a response to the fact that there might be some future issues with parts, but all in all it's really been an awesome daily driver though.

Steve

 

[d24tdi]

I know what you mean. My long distance travel rig for years was a 1986 Volvo 740 Turbodiesel wagon. 10 years ago there were still a ton of the cars (gassers at least) on the road in use by the general public, especially in the western US states, and lots in yards too, and very strong parts support both aftermarket and from Volvo itself. Even little interior plastic pieces, you could swing by a Volvo dealer anywhere and they would have it right there on the shelf, or a junkyard in any western town would have a car available for picking. Getting parts for the VAG diesel engine in my particular car was not quite as easy as fewer diesels had been sold and many were sabotaged and destroyed early in life (as mentioned) but I have some spare engines so that was no problem for me, plus many of the consumable parts were shared with old Rabbit diesels so easy to get. It was and even still is a great car to drive so it made for the perfect choice when I had to cover 4 or 5 big states to visit family, etc.

In the last few years though the cars have really dried up, both on the street and in parts yards, and new parts supply has become much more limited. Combined with the fact that my car itself also has gotten old, 350k miles and almost 40 years, it became a losing proposition to rely on it for going far from home.

Hence the '01 Allroad TDI swap I'm working on, and the junker '96 Passat TDI wagon I'm driving in the meantime -- trying to move 15 years newer, same idea.

I have to imagine sales figures for B6 wagons were not big in the US though, at least compared to Mk4 and Mk5/6 wagons (and maybe B5.5 also). So I wonder how much easier a B6 will really be versus an old B3 in 5 years. Maybe if enough Mk5 parts cross over that will make it easier.

 

[oilhammer]

I think the B6 would have sold better had it gotten a diesel engine option here. However, a PD100 like the BRM may have not gone over too well. Remember, the VE90 in the B5 was pulled at the last minute for US sales because some VoA brass thought it was "too slow".

Of course, to say Volkswagen is out of touch with this market is an understatement.

 

[d24tdi]

Maybe so. And yeah maybe a PD100 would have been a little lame in a bigger B6 wagon, but why couldn't they do a PD130? They had everything on the shelf and EPA cert already for all the components and calibrations needed to do it, with the BHW from the B5. Just turn the setup sideways and put the BRM adaptations on it as needed.

Wonder if a big part of the reason they skipped it is that at best it would have been a one-year deal. I guess they would have only gotten that 2006 B6 model year for a PD engine as by '07 they would have already been facing new emissions regs. Maybe not worth all the effort to market and certify and then provide aftersales support for something that had such a limited market opening and only appealed to a certain kind of customer anyway. Although that raises the question of why they did exactly that with the BRM Jetta sedans.

 

[d24tdi]

The CR TDI Mk5/6 wagons were pretty strong sellers when they first came out anyway -- don't I remember right that the take for TDI option was almost 50% in the wagons? So obviously there was reasonably high demand from US customers for a nice-driving high MPG wagon. The bigger question might be why didn't they drop the CR engines into the B6 for 2009-10. Those would have had plenty of power for the US market and would have required very little extra work for VW, not many extra parts to stock, no additional regulatory work. Seems like it would have been free money for them, their margin gotta be higher on a high trim Passat than on a Jetta, so even if such a car stole sales mainly from their own Jetta TDI wagons it would have been worth it.

 

[greengeeker]

I don't remember the last time I saw a B6 which didn't have serious rust issues here in MN. Not all that different from the A5s. Sadly, I expect the NMS and NCS to share the same fate.

 

[oilhammer]

Man you guys have some serious salty roads.

 

[Steve Addy]

I think the B6 would have sold better had it gotten a diesel engine option here. However, a PD100 like the BRM may have not gone over too well. Remember, the VE90 in the B5 was pulled at the last minute for US sales because some VoA brass thought it was "too slow".

Of course, to say Volkswagen is out of touch with this market is an understatement.

Yes...'out of touch' is an understatement, and that can be traced back to the 90's even with the failure to bring the Golf TDI in 1996 and then not bringing it at all until Mk4. Then bumbling with the Passat TDI in 1998 B5 and last second withdrawal just added to embarrassingly bad decisions. It's a wonder that VWOA was even allowed to remain after all the idiocy...like B5.5 TDI with ONLY an AT....Good Lord who decided that one????

Maybe so. And yeah maybe a PD100 would have been a little lame in a bigger B6 wagon, but why couldn't they do a PD130? They had everything on the shelf and EPA cert already for all the components and calibrations needed to do it, with the BHW from the B5. Just turn the setup sideways and put the BRM adaptations on it as needed.

Wonder if a big part of the reason they skipped it is that at best it would have been a one-year deal. I guess they would have only gotten that 2006 B6 model year for a PD engine as by '07 they would have already been facing new emissions regs. Maybe not worth all the effort to market and certify and then provide aftersales support for something that had such a limited market opening and only appealed to a certain kind of customer anyway. Although that raises the question of why they did exactly that with the BRM Jetta sedans.

The BRM powered B6 cars in Europe and sure, it might have been too underpowered for US market at the time, but I think it had more to do with coming EPA emissions regulations that would have made the B6 TDI a one year event and to have that happen in the B6 and the A5 cars at the same time would not be a good thing. I think VW was already working on getting the CR engines here and they didn't want to expend any further effort to make the PD options work for the US...especially with much stricter emissions requirements.

I think their efforts before CR to bring a diesel to the US were half-hearted honestly...although the uptake of Mk4 TDI cars probably surprised them a bit and was a big reason for what came later. IMO they should have made a much more serious effort in the mid-00's when fuel prices were elevated to such an extent...

The CR TDI Mk5/6 wagons were pretty strong sellers when they first came out anyway -- don't I remember right that the take for TDI option was almost 50% in the wagons? So obviously there was reasonably high demand from US customers for a nice-driving high MPG wagon. The bigger question might be why didn't they drop the CR engines into the B6 for 2009-10. Those would have had plenty of power for the US market and would have required very little extra work for VW, not many extra parts to stock, no additional regulatory work. Seems like it would have been free money for them, their margin gotta be higher on a high trim Passat than on a Jetta, so even if such a car stole sales mainly from their own Jetta TDI wagons it would have been worth it.

TDI Mk5/6 wagons were very strong sellers but also very expensive relative to what diesel had cost in the past as an optional power plant. Some owners who wanted the diesel couldn't make the numbers work on paper given the number of miles they were driving in a year.

And yes....the B6 cars exposed to salt and brine spray tend to not fare well...everything I see here has the dreaded front fender rust.

I have excluded anything north of MO for providing a candidate, especially IL and Iowa cars unless a rust free car pops up for some reason.

There are still cars out there but not as many as there used to be like OH said they were stacking up pretty fast with the early 2.0T engine especially.

As for 4motion I just don't need it and don't need the weight or complication of having it and trying to make it work with the TDI. I know some really want to do that and that's their choice, but for me I prefer to build it and then not mess with it if I don't have to.

Steve

 

[greengeeker]

The coup de grace is that in rural areas we also spray calcium chloride onto gravel roads to help control dust.

 

[Steve Addy]

Man you guys have some serious salty roads.

The brine spray they use now, which I guess is also radioactive to some degree, is really destroying vehicles, it's just horrible, but the 'authorities' won't hear any complaints about it.

You know how that goes...they don't want any opposition to what they do...like DOT responding to road repair failures and arguing about whether they fixed it or not...lol.

Steve

 

[d24tdi]

Far from you, but just happened across this, looks like the kind of recipient you are looking for. 2.0T wagon from a non-rust region with engine trouble but otherwise seems pretty clean and nice color combo IMO.

2009 Volkswagen Passat Wagon Heated Seats, Sun Roof 169k - cars &...

2009 Volkswagen Passat Wagon, 169k Heated Seats, Power Sun Roof, Automatic, Power Mirrors, Cruise Control, Cold Air Conditioning, Keyless Entry with Alarm, Ski rack snow board etc. Has a misfire...

portland.craigslist.org

If it just needs a coil or something to address the miss, almost sounds like it could be driven home.

 

[Steve Addy]

Far from you, but just happened across this, looks like the kind of recipient you are looking for. 2.0T wagon from a non-rust region with engine trouble but otherwise seems pretty clean and nice color combo IMO.

2009 Volkswagen Passat Wagon Heated Seats, Sun Roof 169k - cars &...

2009 Volkswagen Passat Wagon, 169k Heated Seats, Power Sun Roof, Automatic, Power Mirrors, Cruise Control, Cold Air Conditioning, Keyless Entry with Alarm, Ski rack snow board etc. Has a misfire...

portland.craigslist.org

If it just needs a coil or something to address the miss, almost sounds like it could be driven home.

Thanks for the heads up! And of course it's gone already...lol

I'm still panning for a good candidate, there's a nice 2006 wagon in Elkhart IN, allegedly needs a HPFP for the 2.0T engine to make it drive, but showing up with a new pump and making it all better was never something I liked to gamble on...it's 500 miles for that one. It is however very nice condition but not as far south as I would like. It's also more than I wanted to spend but I would pay the $2k if the body was in perfect shape.

I would like to find a wagon that is better optioned but being picky isn't going to probably work in my favor with this.

Still looking, and I still need to gather some more parts for it too.

Steve

 

[d24tdi]

I would like to find a wagon that is better optioned but being picky isn't going to probably work in my favor with this.

Who knows, they seem to still be out there. I was driving west of Bozeman on I-90 yesterday getting back for the weekend and passed a clean looking silver 2.0T B6 wagon parked on the shoulder headed the opposite direction with the 4-way flashers on.... looked like it had died on the road. If it had been on my side of the highway I would have stopped and told the guy to contact you.

 

[Steve Addy]

Yes, they're out there, you just have to hunt them down or be in the right place at the right time.

Steve

 

[d24tdi]

Now that I have been thinking about them I seem to be seeing more than I would have expected, for a car that I didn't think was ever that big of a seller.

Just here near me there are two that came up for sale on FB Market in the last few days, both 2.0T wagons with broken timing belts, both asking $2k, imagine that's above market for a car with a FUBAR engine. There's a black 2010 in Billings with 98k and a silver 2008 "Komfort" in Bozeman with 160k. That one looks pretty plush on the inside. Nice cars, I can see why you are considering one.

 

[Steve Addy]

Now that I have been thinking about them I seem to be seeing more than I would have expected, for a car that I didn't think was ever that big of a seller.

Just here near me there are two that came up for sale on FB Market in the last few days, both 2.0T wagons with broken timing belts, both asking $2k, imagine that's above market for a car with a FUBAR engine. There's a black 2010 in Billings with 98k and a silver 2008 "Komfort" in Bozeman with 160k. That one looks pretty plush on the inside. Nice cars, I can see why you are considering one.

Yeah...for some reason now even a seriously broken car is a $2k proposition....amazing. And used engines for that generation are still very exepensive.

I looked at one in Sedalia Mo yesterday on my way back to Des Moines....it was only 99k miles but the junky cream yellow interior. The odo displays when the door opens but the ignition key won't come out nor will the car run.

Besides...it was originally from IL (rust bucket central) and the car did have rust on it. The left rear door had been replaced, it was same color but it had the window blind and the other side did not. Rust on both front fenders where the foam pad is located and also rust on the passenger rear wheel opening.

This was a base wagon....there are better candidates out there. The Komfort wagon would be nice, that would have some nice equipment. I'd actually prefer to find one without a sunroof but on the higher optioned cars that's unlikely.

I am still looking at this point!

Steve

 

[JordanTr]

Steve, any updates? How’s the hunt going?

 

[Steve Addy]

Steve, any updates? How’s the hunt going?

Hey Jordan, you know already since we've been PMing back and forth.

A carcass has been found...I'm hoping it will work, I believe that most of the components have been acquired if I stick with 02J 5 speed, however, if I want to go with a 6 speed from the NMS I'll have to spend some more money, which is ok, I enjoy being able to travel at 80mph in the B3V and I would like to replicate that in this project.

This wagon has the Lux package (W32) and probably a few other individual options as well, I haven't found a build decal yet but it has Dynaudio which was expensive when built. What else IDK yet, I spent very little time other than dragging it on to the trailer and heading back to Iowa with it. It was 9 hours away so I was more interested in getting back, especially since the weather forecast was for ice / snow to come shortly after I got back. Fortunately I beat the bad weather and it was dry roads all the way, so the car didn't get hosed down with salt / brine on the way back. And it got a bath in some town on highway 30 in Ohio too, which was nice to find.

The story I got is that is hasn't moved under its own power since 2018 and the odometer says 97k miles.

Now that I've got this watch all the donor cars at the JY to disappear...it needs a hood (some bruises) and I'd like to find one in reflex.

It's not without its bruises and bumps...but it's ok, the wheels are a bit rough and of course the tires are trash. I'm already thinking about getting a set of the 18" Interlagos wheels from the CC, but I'll probably be tempering my acquisition stuff until the car is actually moving....

Steve

 

[Steve Addy]

I forgot, it has Climatronic also.

Steve

 

[Steve Addy]

Update: it's winter...not much going on but I do have some history I've managed to piece together.

The car was originally sold out of NJ. It was purchased from a used car dealer in Columbus OH on July 17, 2017. At some point it had a HPFP issue that was addressed at Taylor VW in Findlay and the CPS allegedly replaced by a mechanic local to where they lived south of Findlay. There's a service receipt copy that I can't fully read from 12/9/2017 that talks about discharged battery and failure to start and someone using vag-com to check on fault codes, which there were some....crank position sensor implausible signal and probably some others, as I said it's a very faded copy and mostly just word salad about what the garage did (charged battery and tried to start) but nothing more, it would not start. The miles recorded that day were 96143, which is the same mileage now, so the car hasn't moved under its own power since 12/9/2017.

And not only that but for the roughly $6000 paid the owner got only six months of service from it and 3483 miles traveled.

I'm not sure what brought this car down but looking at it now it appears that it was a giant snack for rodents. There isn't even one pigtail off the main harness that has wiring anymore, all the wires have been eaten away, and there's massive damage to the harness down by the starter and transmission, so much so that a lot of it is just gone. I'm not sure when it started but sitting on a farm since 12/2017 obviously hasn't helped anything.

The rodents didn't get into the intake but they did manage to consume a portion of the filter. I'll patch the wiring back together using a partial harness and a bunch of pigtails I picked up yesterday before the snows came, the replacement harness is intact down where all the devastation by the starter happened so it shouldn't be too hard to piece it back together. If the BPY can be made to run then I'd like to know about that before pulling it out of the car and moving forward with the BRM install etc. I pulled the intercooler pipe off to see if any oil came out and there was two drops only....so who knows, I expected there to be a lot more.

Used vag-com to do a full fault scan...there's a lot, but I expected it. I'll replace all the wiring and then clear and see if the car will run and go from there.

Still debating on the trans for the BRM project, go NGB 6 speed and what that will require or go with 02J 5 speed and use the one eurotuning 6 speed kit I have sitting around here.

I've also started working on the ECU pinouts for the BRM but I don't have access to a B6 Bentley for the ECU stuff, so I'm going to assume that the Mk5 with BPY is close enough for this and I'll do some spot checking on the B6 to verify. This is uncharted territory for me, I'm not all that sure how this swap is going to work out.....so anyone else who's done a BRM have any pointers I'm interested!

Steve