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 .

dubboy2707

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 8, 2012
Location
Sheffield UK
TDI
Passat B5
Looks great. it sits really nice. What happened to the Front light brush gaurd and tailgate spare wheel idea are you still doing them????? Hope so
 

NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
What happened to the Front light brush gaurd and tailgate spare wheel idea are you still doing them?
Maybe next year, been kind of busy with my new full time job, trying to take care of the new bigger house and property and keeping the three kids out of trouble while my wife works long hours:



Once all the leaves were cleaned up I started thinking about snow, and it consumed my free time (a few hours a week) for a couple of months:



I built the plow blade out of an old home heating oil storage tank that I found on the property. The mount was made out of spare parts I had collected from at my old job. Most of these brackets used to hold networking equipment for shipping or mounting. Also used angle iron from old bed frames and a piece of iron gas pipe.



The above picture was taken after an intense shake down and one of the mounting plates is bent and pulling away from the bolts. So it had to come apart and get welded:



I wanted to make sure I wasn't just spinning my wheels during the first snow fall so I found some 16" tire chains on the side of the road, and turned them into 20" tire chains:



Finally, my research told me that extra weight in the back is sometimes needed to enhance traction. I figured instead of just hanging weight off the back I would get one of these cargo carriers from Princess Auto (on sale 50% off ofcouse): http://www.princessauto.com/pal/product/8137986/



So I had to make a 2" receiver for the back of the tractor, as a bonus when I tow using this hitch I can make much tighter turns because the pivot is moved away from the back wheels of the tractor:

So that is why I haven't made the brush guard for the Golf yet.

Edit: adding close up picture of trailer hitch, very happy with how this came out:


Added lights for short trips beyond the driveway:


Update Dec 31, 2012: Plows Snow like a boss: :cool:

Of course to be thorough I tried moving snow without the tire chains and then without weight on the back and could definitely see the difference especially when the front tires fall off the driveway into the snow bank and you need the the weight, chains, and to lean back to back up.



 
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dubboy2707

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 8, 2012
Location
Sheffield UK
TDI
Passat B5
Looks like you have been busy. Tractor looks great.
I can't talk as i have been making a brush gaurd form my B5 passat for 12 months. Keep up the good work with all your projects and keep us all posted.
 

NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
Added motivational Europlate:



I turned the legal plate holder upside down to get it up higher to fit the Europlate under it. The Europlate holder is mounted with two large self tapping screws into the plastic bumper.

Great price from www.europlates.com, got the holder and the matching key chain all are top quality and shipping was reasonable. Only notes: the Canadian plate says "CDN" not "CAN" as advertised online and on my receipt (I let the company know, just a small thing). Also, only the Canadian flag, letters CDN and blue background are reflective (which is probably a good thing as far as legality is concerned). I have read the Highway Traffic Act for Ontario and my take is that the legal front plate must be unaltered and visible up front and there should not be other plates that resemble or could be confused with the legal plate. Will post an update if I get pulled over, but unlikely I think.
 
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NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
A major learning opportunity for me:

The rear brakes were still dragging and eating thru pads even with my silly springs attached. While attempting to replace the pads on the left rear I accidentally broke the rusty hard line just ahead of the flexible hose to the caliper. I happened to have a spare set of rear calipers from an axle I had picked up from a member who was throwing it away. I probably should have done this sooner but I was afraid to mess with bleed screws and banjo bolts because I had never done it before.

Since I now had to order a brake line I also ordered a set of seals to rebuild the calipers. Turns out the the calipers from the free axle where nice and clean inside compared to the ones that were on the car that had corrosion and marks and melted rubber inside.

I replaced the left rear caliper a few days ago and I replaced the right caliper tonight with new pads and a used Zimmerman coated rotor I had saved. There is absolutely zero drag now the car will roll right out of the garage when I take the parking brake off (hasn't done that in a while). Also the brakes are a little firmer than before, and the parking brake works.

The car continues to teach me things, now I can confidently replace a brake line, rebuild a caliper and bleed brakes!



 
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bobt2382

Veteran Member - TDIClub Contributor
Joined
Aug 1, 2009
Location
NJ
TDI
2010 CW GOLF 4DR 6MT TDI
Congrats on passing 500K and brake experience. I love this thread!
 

NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
Some random bling:



Took this photo with my Blackberry 9320, thought the bling burst with the circle was pretty cool. This is one of the drawers in my bottom of the line "Job Mate" (Canadian Tire Bargain Brand?) Tool cabinet. I love this thing dearly. Feels good when all the tools are there.
 

NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
So the injection pump started leaking again (I never did replace the seals), and the bottom of my engine and top of the plastic splash guards are pretty grimy, and it has been really wet and slushy on the roads, so my car made me a special present the other day: a double rainbow.



They remind me of flames, but they are an extremely thin film of hydrocarbons floating on water. I wish I could capture these as a set of racing stripes on my car. They were even more beautiful when they were in motion, should have tried to get a video but at the time I thought that would be weird.



edit: fixed the links so you can click to enlarge (login to pics.tdiclub required)
 
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NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
Update on the oil leak: it has gotten much worse, I don't think it is related to diesel fuel from the injection pump since the pump has been dry on the outside for a few weeks now.
The oil leak is as bad as when the oil feed line to the turbo was leaking last summer (teaspoon of oil on the garage floor every time I park the car).
I took plastic cover off the bottom of the engine bay and found oil in the same places as last summer. So I wondered, could it be as simple as the new oil feed line was not tight enough? I put a 17mm wrench on it and snugged it up nearly a quarter turn today. It is possible that I did not tighten it enough in the first place, long story, if interested read on:
When removing the old oil feed line the threaded union (that you are supposed to counter hold) came out with it, here is a picture of the part:

When I put the above pictured threaded union back in last summer I over torqued it and broke off the skinny part inside the turbo. Luckily the broken threads came right out. So I had to replace this part at a cost of $67 at my local VW dealer. Tentatively I snugged the new part with its crush washer very gently into the turbo then very carefully threaded the giant 17mm nut from the oil feed line with the course threads on to the top of this little guy and just snugged it up. It didn't leak at the time so I figured it was all good.
Six months and 20,000km later I am hoping this is where the oil is coming from this time. It seems to be coming from the same place. Will post an update after a few test drives.

Update: after a test drive got a few drips from the center of the turbo area, the two bolts on the oil return line flange on the turbo were wet and there was a drip below that on the oil return line and the passenger drive shaft was all soaked. I could not budge the return line bolts with a nut driver by hand so I tried snugging the oil feed line nut another 1/8 turn and then I idled it in the air and revved it a few times with no new oil leak so will see after a few test drives. :eek:
 
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NarfBLAST

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

glow plug relay: stuck closed (glow plugs always on even when engine off/key out and doors locked) this would drain the battery. I found the problem pretty quickly because it had been throwing the glow plug code P0380 (or is it P0308?) the last four start ups before it killed the battery. Also, I was unable to jump start it until I cut all four soldered glow plug leads. It really freaked my dad out when I pulled out my multi-tool that I always keep on my belt and just started cutting wires under the hood. He asked, "will even start after you cut all those wires?" I explained they are just the glow plugs... Anyway, I was able to drive the car home and it didn't kill another battery until after I reconnected the glow plug wires using dis-connectable spade plugs (blue things in the picture). Also after opening the glow plug relay and inspecting it I found the contacts were welded together. I ordered a new relay from idparts. Still, an excellent opportunity to clean up my soldered on glow plug wire harness and make it serviceable. Here is the picture:






oil leak: still a couple of drops every time I stop. I give up for now.

heater fan: stopped working, will come on sometimes if I set it to position number four but then it makes noise and quickly grinds to a halt. AC hasn't worked for years and now the heat is gone. Not sure when I will get around to maybe taking the glove box out and having a look.
 

mrrhtuner

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2011
Location
London Ont Canada
TDI
2003 Jetta Wagon TDI, 2015 Passat TDI, 2015 Touareg TDI
Narf...I have a question to ask you. I've been following your thread and love your golf but your last Glow Plug post got me a bit concerned.

Let me do a brief piece here....
I purchased a 2000 Jetta TDI from a rough previous owner. The car battery dies when left on overnight.

I did a VCDS scan and this is one of the codes that came up:

Address 01: Engine Labels: 038-906-012-AGR.lbl
Part No: 038 906 012 BD
Component: 1,9l R4 EDC G000SG 2507
Coding: 00002
Shop #: WSC 00066
VCID: 53AEB38CA1EE691

1 Fault Found:
16764 - Glow Plug/Heater (Q6) Circuit
P0380 - 35-10 - Malfunction - Intermittent
Readiness: 1 1 0 1 1




As I was reading your post, I decided to see if the GP error is the same error that I have and it looks so.

Could this be the same problem? or could my glow plugs/harness throw the same code too?
 

NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
The car battery dies when left on overnight.
16764 - Glow Plug/Heater (Q6) Circuit
P0380 - 35-10 - Malfunction - Intermittent
As I was reading your post, I decided to see if the GP error is the same error that I have and it looks so.
Could this be the same problem? or could my glow plugs/harness throw the same code too?
That is the error, P0380, it could be the same problem, but it could be something else causing the P0380, have you read Glow plugs 101. You say the battery will drain if left connected over night? This could be completely unrelated to the glow plug error code but to be sure all you need to do is instead of disconnecting the battery one night try disconnecting the glow plug relay number 180 under the kick panel below the steering wheel overnight and see if the battery is still good in the morning... be prepared for a dead battery of course just in case. If the battery is dead then then the electrical drain is elsewhere. If the battery is good in the morning then the relay is bad. Good luck!
 
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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
Updates...

glow plug relay: stuck closed (glow plugs always on even when engine off/key out and doors locked) this would drain the battery. I found the problem pretty quickly because it had been throwing the glow plug code P0380 (or is it P0308?) the last four start ups before it killed the battery. Also, I was unable to jump start it until I cut all four soldered glow plug leads. It really freaked my dad out when I pulled out my multi-tool that I always keep on my belt and just started cutting wires under the hood. He asked, "will even start after you cut all those wires?" I explained they are just the glow plugs... Anyway, I was able to drive the car home and it didn't kill another battery until after I reconnected the glow plug wires using dis-connectable spade plugs (blue things in the picture). Also after opening the glow plug relay and inspecting it I found the contacts were welded together. I ordered a new relay from idparts. Still, an excellent opportunity to clean up my soldered on glow plug wire harness and make it serviceable. Here is the picture:
Why not just unplug the glow plugs?:confused: edit: firewall at work just started letting me see pictures. Also read further back where the wires were soldered to the glow plugs.

oil leak: still a couple of drops every time I stop. I give up for now.

heater fan: stopped working, will come on sometimes if I set it to position number four but then it makes noise and quickly grinds to a halt. AC hasn't worked for years and now the heat is gone. Not sure when I will get around to maybe taking the glove box out and having a look.
The fan is not hard to change, and the resistor likely has been burnt out for a long time. Funny how the fan goes bad and cooks the resistors, but doesn't pop the fuse.

Don't worry about the one screw under the center console. It usually breaks any way when you try to take the glove box off. Six screws and make sure to unplug the glove box light or it will fall apart. And the fan is easy to change - 5 minutes?
 
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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
Oh, and stumbled across a light bar for cars. I just need to figured out how to order from the Swedish company. QPAX Click on "Q light universal" on the left side and it brings up two bars, one for 2 lamps, one for 3 lamps. There is also a model made for B5.5 Passat that may work on the Golf.

Jason
 

NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
The fan is not hard to change, and the resistor likely has been burnt out for a long time. Funny how the fan goes bad and cooks the resistors, but doesn't pop the fuse.

Don't worry about the one screw under the center console. It usually breaks any way when you try to take the glove box off. Six screws and make sure to unplug the glove box light or it will fall apart. And the fan is easy to change - 5 minutes?
I replaced the glove box once and I thought the fan might be easy to access from there but I could not remember for sure. Thanks for the tips! I do remember a burning smell when the fan stopped working, and more burning smells the next day when I was testing it some more on different settings... I made sure to destroy all the resistors I guess.

I checked out that universal light bar but it doesn't seem to be much of a brush guard or highway patrol car pushing device which is what I was sort of leaning towards. Anyway, thanks for the link: http://translate.google.com/transla...refox-a&hs=2np&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official
 

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
There are several versions from simple light mounting bars to full brush guards. But the brush guard/police push bars are only as good as their mounting. Here is picture showing a general collection of what they make.



I was thinking of using the basic idea and building my own. They have some for the Tiguan - it clamps to the back of the bumper bar and has stand offs bolted to them that reach out through the bumper cover. I found this on HellaUSA.com - here is a link to the instructions that show how the bar is mounted. Page 32 is where the instructions start for the Tiguan.

Mind you this is good for holding lamps, probably not so good for a brush bar. For that you would have to find a solid place to have an addition mounting point.

But I have other projects for right now. I thought I would share some info I stumbled across recently.

Jason
 

Yvettes Sherpa

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 26, 2013
Location
Winchester CA
TDI
2013 Golf TDI
I have to say this is one of the best post I have read in a long time. It's great that you are not afraid to try something on your car. (within reason) You remind me of a friend that does all the same type of stuff to anything he owns.
 

NarfBLAST

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Location
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 Golf 5MT
Added motivational Europlate:



I have read the Highway Traffic Act for Ontario and my take is that the legal front plate must be unaltered and visible up front and there should not be other plates that resemble or could be confused with the legal plate. Will post an update if I get pulled over, but unlikely I think.
Europlate UPDATE: got pulled over for sporting my "500 000 KM" Europlate on the front of the car a few weeks ago.
The police officer was standing on the side of the road looking for speeders in a school zone. He specifically said, "European licence plate are not allowed" but only gave me a warning while I removed it on the spot.
I forgot to post of picture of it on the car, so here it is in its new home inside the lid of my tool box:



I stuck "BRING IT" on my utility trailer:



Also fabbed a hitch so that I can pull a second trailer behind this one behind my lawn tractor.

edit: click pictures to enlarge
 
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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
You know there is a BMW down here in Miami area that has been using a Euro rear lic plate with Florida registration sticker. From what I hear the same owner has been using the plate on his last couple cars. I saw it a Ikea in person. No other plate on the car and it has FL and state flag on it.

My car has a front Euro plate with NZ (where I'm from) and the plate number matches my legal rear plate. I used it when I lived in Montana and still use it in Florida. Police in both places leave me alone when they see the rear plate matches the front. It also helps that the factory front license plate holder is for a Euro plate.

Does BC allow a car or p/u pull more than one trailer at a time?

Jason
 

nokivasara

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2008
Location
Sweden @ Lat 61N
TDI
Tiguan 4-motion, Golf mk7
There are several versions from simple light mounting bars to full brush guards. But the brush guard/police push bars are only as good as their mounting. Here is picture showing a general collection of what they make.



I was thinking of using the basic idea and building my own. They have some for the Tiguan - it clamps to the back of the bumper bar and has stand offs bolted to them that reach out through the bumper cover. I found this on HellaUSA.com - here is a link to the instructions that show how the bar is mounted. Page 32 is where the instructions start for the Tiguan.

Mind you this is good for holding lamps, probably not so good for a brush bar. For that you would have to find a solid place to have an addition mounting point.

But I have other projects for right now. I thought I would share some info I stumbled across recently.

Jason
All light bars (at least the bigger ones that comes up from underneath and covers most of the front) sold in Europe are made to bend to protect pedestrians so they would not be ideal as brush guards. It's the mounting points that give away so they would need to be made a little tougher to make a good brush guard.

We've only had that rule a few years and at first it was written to get rid of the brush guards alltogether but it was later changed to that if it is used as a mounting point for rallye/spot lights, the bar is OK to put on a car/truck :rolleyes:
 
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