My 97 B4V

[FordGuy100]

Just going to start a running thread of my new car. Bought it from the original owner, who claims the cluster failed around 180K miles, and drove it for a few more years, he thinks it has somewhere around 210K miles. The VIN does decode out to a 97 build.
Here it was when I went to look at it in San Antonio.

The side marker lights where loose, hence the remenents of duct tape holding them down.


Guess I was drivers side picture happy


VCDS lists it as an AHU, but it does have a Garrett turbo (so I guess GT-15) so its probably a 1Z

Interior is extremely stained. I'm planning on taking seats out, and renting one of those high pressure steam/vacuums and going to town with soap and degreaser



And what it will be replacing. My wife and I just had our first, and she wont be going back to work in the near future. Gotta drop our monthly expenses, so the Excursions gotta go.

 

[FordGuy100]

Replacement cluster in, I would like to send it out to someplace that will go through and make sure everything is up to par and/or upgrade the internals so it doesnt fail...along with adjusting the miles back.

Looks like he gave me a full tank of fuel! Check engine light was something simple, I forget what it was.


Stock cluster




Power steering didnt work. I just replaced the steering rack, and all is well now.

Ordered new tie rod ends, motor mounts, belts and tensioners, control arm bushings, ball joints, and some other stuff. That is my weekend project.

 

[FordGuy100]

Started tackling the lower control arms today. The only problem I had was putting the Audi TT LCA bushing in, what a PITA. Only had time to do the drivers side. Tommorow I should be able to get the passenger side done.








6/13
Here is one of the passenger side bushings

Safe to assume thats its done

 

[turbocharged798]

Nice rust free B4V, they are extremely rare to find in that good of condition here in the north.Looks like with a bit of cleaning and maintenance it will be a really nice car and it will be worth some coin too.

If its a 97 I would say its most definitely a 1Z unless somebody swapped the engine in the past.

 

[FordGuy100]

Decided to tackle the interior. It was extremely dirty.

The seats are cleaning up nicely with a combination of degreaser and a carpet cleaner (using the wand attachment) along with high strength carpet cleaning solution, and a scrub brush. The carpet in the interior is almost to far gone, but tight now I'm in budget mode so I'm going to give it the same treatment, but use full strength degreaser and scrub like a wild man. It will still have stains but hopefully I can get it fairly clean.

 

[FordGuy100]

Still cleaning up the seats. Man o man, this thing sure is dirty.

Cushion on the passenger seat, probably the worst seat as far as visible dirtiness is concerned.

Halfway through the bottom half of the seat.

 

[FordGuy100]

Went and tried to clean the carpet as good as possible, but it was so far gone that it will need to be replaced sooner or later.







Although it still stained, its a million times better than what it was. Since I happened to do this in a non-airconditioned single car garage in Houston...with temperatures in the 95-100* range, and high humidity, I had to suck the humidity out somehow so....Yup, ac unit!



I dont have any pictures of it back together, but it looks great to what it once was. Next we shined up the headlights


After its first real drive (250 miles no doubt!). Wife spent a couple hours cleaning it, should have seen all the dirt coming off the thing!


Still has that darn duct tape residue by the side marker lights




And lastly, my little helper hanging out on some freshly cleaned seats

 

[agxster]

A bit of wd40 will remove the duct tape residue. Then wash and wax to protect.

Nice work, car looks as new as your baby now. Congrats.

 

[Jayg]

Cute kid!

That is a very clean wagon you have now. Keeping it cleaned and maintained will prove to be a pretty nice investment it looks like with those things.

 

[cmarcho]

Wow! That thing looks great! A lot of hard work, but seems worth it. Keep us posted on anything else you do, that's a great looking wagon.

 

[Windex]

For the carpet, I pulled my seats too, but went one further and yanked the carpet out entirely. I took a pressure washer to it for an hour and it came up real nice.

Might want to try something similar do get the stains out - those carpet/stain cleaners are good, but pressure washers work a treat on carpet

EDIT - and look up redlinegoods.com for new shifter and ebrake boots - you could even do yours in beige.

 

[FordGuy100]

Thanks for the compliments. It has a long ways to go, but at this point its driveable so I can take my time with it.

Little Man is about 5 1/2 months old now, he is our first, and part of the reason I wanted a wagon (we also have a black lab, and I'm 6'6", so the MKIV is way to small for all of us, and the Ex will be leaving us soon).

Next time the carpet comes out, I might spend some time to see if it will clean up better, it would be better than doing all new carpets.

 

[FordGuy100]

Well we upped and moved to the PNW, bye bye Houston weather! I was planning on selling the excursion in Texas, because a 2wd rig will be a much harder sell up here, but I didnt have time to get the B4V up to good enough specs to replace it.

After getting stuck in Houston traffic for two hours, at a speed slower than idle in 1st gear (so lots of slipping the clutch), the clutch began to slip. It now has a silent clutch kit (MKIII clutch + VR6 pressure plate), and while I was in there I installed the front motor mount, and rear transmission mount. It also got some new axles, yes they are chinese, and they are only there to tide us over till I get raxles to rebuild mine.

After the clutch, I tackled the blend door foam, or lack thereof. A few hours of work later, and it now has heat, and it can actually direct it to where I want it! Heat up here is a good thing. Hopefully it will last 16-17 years till it needs done again.

The last major thing (well not to bad) that I have done up here so far, is replace the glow plugs/glow plug wiring harness. I was throwing a glow plug fault code. Unfortunately, it did not really cure my cold start rough idle. Its not super rough, but at 25*F, a cold start should be fairly smooth. I guess I'm saying its not bad, but it could be better. I'm thinking its in need of some new injectors, as for a few minutes while cold it puts out a little -diesel- white smoke, till it has some heat in it.

I have an EGR deleted intake that is cleaned up and ready to go on. The stock intake manifold has never been cleaned per the previous owner, and the car is pretty anemic. I think we will just live with the CEL until we can get a tune for it.

Now that we are in the PNwet, its apparent I have a water problem. Upon investigation, the carpet is the wetest at the front foot wells towards the sides, and the rear footwells towards the sides...which I believe is where the drain tubes for the sunroof exit (not inside obviously). So the headliner needs to come down. My wife likes the plaid fabric look that some GTI's have, so she might go ahead and do that. If the liner gets plaid, she is going to do the door panels fabric as well (and also recolor the vinyl/leather to black), it will get black carpet, and then we will tackle the seats. She has never done upholstery, but she is very good at that sort of thing, so she is going to try (probably on a used seat first). It would get black fabric, and then plaid centers in the seats.

I noticed some rust at the top of the windshield, right in the middle. The windshield itself has the lower passenger side cracked all the way across (cant see it due to it being were the black dash is), so it will get a new one, and rust will be fixed as well. After that, its time to refresh the shocks/struts/springs.

The fun never stops with these things! Someone who has the signiture "VW, making mechanics out of owners since 19xx," so true!

What is this white stuff? We never saw it in Houston

 

[Abacus]

That's not snow.

This is snow.

 

[FordGuy100]

No it was ice after a day of rain. I'm from here but my wife isn't. This year has been extremely dry, hardly any snow.

 

[79TA7.6]

Where at in the PNW? I am in the Spokane area. A few years ago my car looked like Abacus' picture.

 

[FordGuy100]

Way south, about 30 miles east of Salem, Or

 

[FordGuy100]

I believe this is the first real snow this B4V has ever seen. It was a San Antonio car its whole life, purchased in Houston.

Headliner pulled today to find the source of the water leak.

 

[EricGee]

Hey how did you interior turn out after the steam cleaning? And what did you use for it? I have the same interior and issue lol

 

[FordGuy100]

It got me by until I ripped it out and installed factory black carpet (pressure washed and carpet shampooed, along with new DIY padding). The carpet was just to far gone.

 

[mrrhtuner]

Thanks for posting this thread...please keep it up. I love reading the updates on the B4