Schnurren, Growlers Purring 2001 Golf GL TDI

[Growler]

Oh boy, I did it again. Bought myself another TDI with an ALH motor.
About a week and a half ago on Monday I was browsing the forums and a thread popped up with a 2001 Golf GL for sale about an hour or so west of my work location.
The price was right and Amanda & I had already had a conversation or two about getting another TDI so she could have one for her daily use. so I went for a look see.
Later that evening after giving it a once over and taking it for a spin, we came to an agreement on price and shook hands on it.
Friday morning my wife Amanda & I head out to Dayton for a trip to pick up the new golf.

It was all stock, including:

• 162k miles of College car (ab)use, Golf hit 200k imles on 12/5/14 been a great 38k ,miles
  
• Rusty front drivers fender (replaced with new EDM Coated black fender 04/12/14)
• broken and sagging front bumper (replaced with Non Sagging Silver Golf nose 04/12/14)
• bent under rear bumper from some slow speed mishap
• mismatched rear taillights, (replaced with GTI tails 10/6/12)
• clogged intake,
• 80k mile old timing belt and water pump (Replaced all ORIGINAL rollers & tensioner and belt system 1/12/13 at 166550 miles)
• clunking suspension over every bump in the road. (fixed with new rear socks and axle beam bushings 10/5/12)
• and overboosting on the freeway while accelerating. (fixed with new silicone vacuum lines and new turbo actuator 10/6/12)
• foggy headlights. (fixed with replacement front Golf Headlights 10/6/12)

Other than those things, the engine purrs like a kitten
(Schnurren is German for to purr BTW)
the Transmission shifts smooth as butter.
the tires are fairly new.
the interior is the same as my old 2001 GL Golf Matrix so its like moving back home again.

MOD List:

• DRL Delete (Bent down the tfl pin)
• NewBeetle cloth Donut Headrests
• Ventectomy performed. (yay no more holding the vent open with the nozzle!)
• Oilhammer Raffle Winning Malone Stage 1 with Dynamic EGR Chiptune. (3/5/13 168750 miles)
• 1.5" lift installed. coilover rear spring perches, and 3/4" black pipe couplers.(5/14/14 1936550 miles)
• 16" newbeetle alloys with 225 60 16 tires with a 99 load rating installed.(11/05/14 198750 miles)

ya ya, i know pics.. here you go. from the trip home.

and some of the cosmetics to fix.

 

[GTiTDi]

Nice score! You should be able to clean that up easy enough!
I am passively looking for a TDI for my GF, Her 850 Volvo Wagon is getting long in the tooth and has an incredible thirst for gasoline!

 

[Growler]

Monday after I pick up the car, I headed to see another somewhat local guy Mechanicalbrew up in Mansfield, OH who was parting out a 1999.5 Golf GL TDI.

he had quite a few things I needed for this car at great prices so it was def worth the trip.

list of things I was able to get:
Pair of clear shiny golf Headlights.
Pair of GTI Taillights with bulb holders and "5 BRAKELIGHT MOD!"
(wheres tooef singing that christmas song again.. here it is. An Oldie but goodie!)

10 k mile old front struts, mounts & springs.
New in Box rear shocks, and mounts and hardware.
1999.5 4 spot relay box cover
fuel filter mount bracket & clamp bolt for the wagon
drivers front fender liner (non existant on the new golf)
interior ashtray and sliding door.
and a whole drivers door GL mirror assembly.

picked all that up for $300. Good times.

 

[bhtooefr]

Oh god, why did you have to link that?!?!?

Looks like a fun little project.

Chris: You know what you should do, right? 2.5 TDI. (Volvo even sold 850s with the VAG 2.5 5-cyl TDI, and there's a Volvo manual trans with the Audi pattern for it.)

 

[Growler]

So now its time to start cataloging everything i have done to it so far.

Disabled the DRLs in the parking lot at the bank when we got the title on pickup day. (Bent the TFL pin down, done)

installed the ultragage on the roadtrip home so I can start the recalibration process.

cleared the Glow plug and overboost codes. neither have come back, but the car is still overboosting on the freeway in 5th gear. will be fiddling with that some tomorrow I think.

Today, I decided that I needed to figure out the rear suspension clunking.
Replaced the rear shocks, and mounts, and hardware first, then got a good look at the rear axle mount bushings. they were GONE. which i pretty much knew before i started.

did some research yesterday on how to replace them. came up with this tool which worked awesomely. everything from my local hardware store. cost about $15-20

it was a bit fiddly to get the new bushings started into the holes straight, but once they got started, they went in quite easily. getting the old ones out involved judicious use of my air hammer/chisel but once they popped out of there, the new ones went in no problemo no freezing, no heating required.

best part is, I now have another homemade tool in my arsenal and I know how to do the rear beam bushings with the beam still attached to the car.

oh ya, and NO MORE CLUNKY CLUNKY! YAYs!!

 

[Growler]

have just ordered a couple of these as well..

 

[GTiTDi]

Oh god, why did you have to link that?!?!?

I just laughed so hard! Very creative!

Chris: You know what you should do, right? 2.5 TDI. (Volvo even sold 850s with the VAG 2.5 5-cyl TDI, and there's a Volvo manual trans with the Audi pattern for it.)

OH man don't tempt me! If her Volvo was in better shape I would totally do that swap! I just have to find the right shell and donor.....

the car is still overboosting on the freeway in 5th gear. will be fiddling with that some tomorrow I think.

I'm sure you already know but if the vanes are sticky try a bit of sea-foam down the EGR hole...that seemed to work great last time I tried it! The guy said he hadn't had boost in years!

came up with this tool which worked awesomely. everything from my local hardware store. cost about $15-20

Nice job! That is a total win right there!

 

[vdubdezl]

Nice looking golf Growler! It is the same color and spec as mine. I also had bad rear axle beam bushings! Gotta clean my foggy headlights too and replace headliner. I just wish mine had your 5-speed! I make it a rule to not buy an auto, but this one only had 25,000mi on a VW replacement and got a killer deal on the car. I'm trying to score some "reasonably" priced wheels for it also.

 

[oliveone]

I would check with the dealer to see if they will fix the fender under te 12 year rust through. Had doth done on our 2002 last year.

 

[Growler]

Today the golf got new silicone Vacuum lines and a new properly adjusted Turbo Actuator.

Yay no more overboosting and limp mode. Thanks Bhtooefr! Appreciated your help and Efforts in getting this golf up to snuff.

Tooef also replaced the foggy headlights. talk about a BIG difference. its like Daylight in the dark now in front of the Golf.

Good times. pics tomorrow.

 

[DCdesign]

Will this one be getting the famous pickle caps?

 

[Growler]

It is in the works, yes. Gotta tell the kids to Eat moar picklez

 

[Growler]

some pics of the fun so far.

Here is what an airhammer can do to the rear axle bushings.. this was lots of fun.

Also got a good visual on what the banging the suspension was doing to the rear bushings.
here is what the metal looks like normally, (surrounded by rubber of course)

And here is what many MANY miles of banging and clanging over every bump looks like..
Sure glad I replaced those..

Here is the engine compartment with its shiny new red silicone vacuum lines. mcmaster-carr FTW.

and the headlights with the shiny new hellas installed. much gooder!

 

[popester00]

Dude, this thread makes me smile.

 

[Joe_Meehan]

Have fun with the new toy.

 

[deegingerkid]

It really does look slick. Especially with the new eyeballs. I was there as the vacuum lines and headlights were done.

Great snag on that one, Aaron.

 

[Growler]

Dude, this thread makes me smile.

I was hoping you would approve.

 

[McDillon86]

do you have a link for the vacuume lines you ordered

 

[Growler]

Put a new timing belt system on the car today. 166550 miles.

Notes. belt and water pump only were replaced whenever the car had been touched previously. paintmarks and stripped motor mount bracket threads proved that much at least. I looked at all of the old rollers, tensioner from the year 2000. large roller was the 60k style and had a VW stamp, and the other small rollers and tensioner also had VW stamps.

yeah, been driving since I got the car on ORIGINAL timing belt Rollers & tensioner... water pump had been replaced and the Belt had been replaced, but nothing else.. ugh.

had to tap out the motor mount bracket to 1/2-13 and crossed my fingers when I tightened it down. it clicked good at 65 ft-lbs. Ill take the risk there.

Also replaced the thermostat and coolant temp sensor today. hopefully now ill have better heat on the freeway ride in to work and see the temp gage actually point at 190 for the first time since november. My Ultragage was saying it never got over 160 before.

Good times.

 

[popester00]

Put a new timing belt system on the car today. 166550 miles.

Notes. belt and water pump only were replaced whenever the car had been touched previously. paintmarks and stripped motor mount bracket threads proved that much at least. I looked at all of the old rollers, tensioner from the year 2000. large roller was the 60k style and had a VW stamp, and the other small rollers and tensioner also had VW stamps.

yeah, been driving since I got the car on ORIGINAL timing belt Rollers & tensioner... water pump had been replaced and the Belt had been replaced, but nothing else.. ugh.

had to tap out the motor mount bracket to 1/2-13 and crossed my fingers when I tightened it down. it clicked good at 65 ft-lbs. Ill take the risk there.

Also replaced the thermostat and coolant temp sensor today. hopefully now ill have better heat on the freeway ride in to work and see the temp gage actually point at 190 for the first time since november. My Ultragage was saying it never got over 160 before.

Good times.

No kidding? Geeze! I guess I'll have to be switching mechanics if the guy(s) who did the change didn't take the time to do the job right. Glad this car ended up in good hands.

 

[Growler]

On the drive in this morning, my Ultragage said the coolant got up to 200 degrees as expected.. and I had some nice heat coming out at my feet, and on the dash so the new thermostat is doing its job. YAY! lets hope my mileage comes back some.. its done nothing but go down since I got the car..

 

[popester00]

I hope so! Of course, I had a 10 minute commute, so the car didn't really warm up by the time I got to work.

 

[Bob_Fout]

On the drive in this morning, my Ultragage said the coolant got up to 200 degrees as expected.. and I had some nice heat coming out at my feet, and on the dash so the new thermostat is doing its job. YAY! lets hope my mileage comes back some.. its done nothing but go down since I got the car..

Why higher than normal?

 

[Growler]

put in a high temperature thermostat to try to eek out a few more mpgs. there's a whole thread about modifying thermostats to go even higher than this one but you cannot buy those at any auto parts store for cheap. the modified ones arent going to be easy to do or get, so I found this one that fits (high temperature thermostat for a 1987 1.8L golf/jetta gasser) and raises the coolant temp a few degrees higher than stock. have had one in my wagon for a while with no ill effects, so I put the same one in this golf as well.

 

[Growler]

new stickers!~!

 

[Sbeghan]

Enlighten me on the fishbowl sticker?

 

[bhtooefr]

It has to do with not having tinted windows. So the car is like a fishbowl, you can see through it.

 

[Growler]

Installed my Oilhammer Raffle winning Malone Stage 1 with Dynamic EGR Chiptune. 168750 miles.

OMG I missed having the ability to pass people at will and the feeling of OMG TORQUE!! when you accelerate from a 2nd gear roll.. so much fun. This was JUST what this commuter car needed.

 

[Growler]

so ya, after 3 days, Guess what decided to start slipping with a Stage 1 tune...

Yeah.. The Stock Clutch... sigh...

until I have the cash for a new clutch.. Tune has been removed.. one benefit of having my own flash loader. It was a good 3 days..

 

[Bob_Fout]