The "What did you do to your B4 today" thread...

[ToddA1]

It's the same... this is a Jetta, but B4 is the same.

I did use Channel Locks and one of the tabs broke off.. the tab will climb a locking ramp, then drops into a lock recess. The tab doesn't look like it's designed to come out of the recess.

Some quick searching seems like once it's on, it's on. May need to buy a new one.

-Todd

 

[iluvmydiesels]

its been at least a few years, but, iirc, it comes off just like a cap, in the same direction, quite a bit tighter tho, how do i know? the cap just fits there. its a little short of a fit but it fits.

 

[ToddA1]

It'll definitely twist off, but there are 2 lock tabs the will break off. If you can get both tabs pushed outwards as your turning CCW, it'd be fine.

I looked at the broken one, and technically the tabs aren't needed. They're just to prevent the tube from going past where it's designed to stop. The piece of spring steel(?) is actually doing the clamping and will/should stop when it reaches the top of the ramp.

-Todd

 

[thechoochlyman]

Dropped off my starter at the rebuild shop today. On Saturday it started up once just fine, then I tapped it with a crowbar - then tapped it next time - then I had to roll start the car.

 

[ToddA1]

It'll definitely twist off, but there are 2 lock tabs the will break off. If you can get both tabs pushed outwards as your turning CCW, it'd be fine.

I did this to the rot box, yesterday. Shoved 2 picks in there and it twisted off cleanly.

As much as the tube was wobbling, I was expecting the gasket to be missing, but it was in there. The oil cap fits the VC perfectly. I left it "tubeless".

The vacuum lines also got replaced. The colored lines at the N75 and turbo looked to be original and had the factory clamps on them.

The TIP was the best I've ever seen and still had all 3 metal inserts.

I'm guessing the rear mount may have been changed. The heat shield was still there, although torn out of the way.

Pulled the rain tray covers, cleaned out the leaves, pulled the ECU for the vacuum line, tested the alarm horn, etc. Reassembled everything and started the car.

Pulled the falling material off the sunroof panel. A lot of solvent and a plastic scraper was used to get that nasty, sticky foam off. Not sure if I'll do anything to the rest of the headliner. It's not falling and I don't want to create a problem.

The interior still has a musty junkyard car smell. Not sure if it's residual from the moisture in the seats or not. Yesterday was pretty warm, so I loaded the seats back inside and let them bake out. I'm going to hose everything down with Lysol, before reinstalling the carpet and rest of the interior.

-Todd

 

[Stromaluski]

Is there a way to remove the goofy oil fill tube without breaking it? I'm missing the rubber seal between it and the valve cover. I already broke one and it doesn't look like it's designed to be removed...

-Todd

What oil fill tube are we talking about?

 

[Windex]

What oil fill tube are we talking about?

The little short piece that the oil fill cap sits in, about 1 1/2" tall on top of the valve cover.

It's there to raise the oil fill high enough so that you can add oil while the plastic engine cover is in place -otherwise the fill hole on the valve cover is too low.

 

[iluvmydiesels]

actually that fill extension is useful and works, with out it its much more difficult to fill with oil. and forget that stupid plastic engine cover. no use for them around me. just cosmetic, i suppose its said it has *some sound deadening qualities.

 

[ketchupshirt88]

replaced the lower radiator hose, same as before though. an elbow on each end with an 8'' metal tube in the center to bridge the gap. Been that way since i bought it but one of the rubber elbows had sprung a leak.

Everytime i work on cooling system stuff i have to wonder how the heck they thought it was a good idea to put the rad inlet/outlet on the driver side. i walk over to the jetta gasser also in my shop and say to myself that its just a much cleaner looking hose routing.

replaced the trans mount, hydraulic one failed. I picked up a bonded rubber one on amazon for the princely sum of $5. (Amazon warehouse deals, it was a returned but new condition item)

discovered that i need to take the time to do some suspension work. at least 1 control arm bushing, both ball joints, both outer tie rod ends. Ive been so swamped with work, hard to turn down overtime ya know... that ive just been ignoring the telltale signs of all this wore out stuff.

hopefully i'll get to it next week.

 

[Stromaluski]

The little short piece that the oil fill cap sits in, about 1 1/2" tall on top of the valve cover.

It's there to raise the oil fill high enough so that you can add oil while the plastic engine cover is in place -otherwise the fill hole on the valve cover is too low.

I must admit that I never even noticed that piece wasn't part of the valve cover.

 

[97B4TDi]

Had my left front wheel bearing replaced due to a loud drone/humming. Now I can hear that lovely diesel clatter again.

Now its time to clean up the block to track down a few oil leaks!

 

[vanbcguy]

Replaced my turbo... New one appears to be functioning properly. Had a bit of a crappy experience with Darkside getting it, not very pleased with them right now.

My old turbo absolutely failed due to ingesting part of my air cleaner. Ugh.

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[iluvmydiesels]

small, fuzzy, cloggy, formerly rubber-y
sounds like you thought you had a big enough air box, you must have a restriction there, quite a restriction to suck your rubber piece in.
i wonder if you can use an air filter, seems you have so much air flow. (jk,still may be the case). run 'er open, your a race car vroom

 

[vanbcguy]

small, fuzzy, cloggy, formerly rubber-y
sounds like you thought you had a big enough air box, you must have a restriction there, quite a restriction to suck your rubber piece in.
i wonder if you can use an air filter, seems you have so much air flow. (jk,still may be the case). run 'er open, your a race car vroom

It was a rubber spacer that squeezed out of place when I was installing the filter - it was probably sitting loose inside the housing for a couple of days. I feel stupid for not noticing.

It was a spacer ring like the ones in that picture...

The actual damage happened at nearly 5K RPM at 29ish PSI, that's a LOT of airflow.

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[iluvmydiesels]

sucks in and look at the fuzz. haha. oh yea it made good work if those blades on that side. yup after a few days or more at med and higher rpms it ll just get sucked down.
ruined you nice new intercooler? did any of that stuff get inside the cylinders?

 

[ToddA1]

More cleaning of the rot box. The interior smelled horrible, after sitting overnight. The seats may have neen a little damp, but it was atrocious. Went through 2.5 cans of Lysol spraying down the seats and carpet.

Pulled the door panels and scrubbed them down.

Scrubbed the rear deck, dash, headliner, A, B and C pillars, using the 2 bucket method. First bucket was black, the 2nd gray. Had to be gentle with the headliner... it was starting to come down. Sprayed everything down with Lysol after drying overnight.

The car smelled normal this am, but the seats and carpet were in the garage.

Fixed some pretty nice sized holes in the floors. Took the easy way out and shaped the sheet metal, screwed it down, hammered to shape, then seam sealed. Doors have some nice cavities and the left rocker is in need of help, which it's not getting.

Tossed the seats and carpet back in and sealed the car up. If it stinks tomorrow am, I'll know the seats need further treatment.

I expected to have the clutch swapped by now and all I've done is clean...

I did get a gas cluster from the JY. Has silver faces and orange needles, which looks pretty good. I'll need to install it and see if the steppers are good.

-Todd

 

[vanbcguy]

sucks in and look at the fuzz. haha. oh yea it made good work if those blades on that side. yup after a few days or more at med and higher rpms it ll just get sucked down.
ruined you nice new intercooler? did any of that stuff get inside the cylinders?

There was a decent coating of powdered rubber in the outlet pipe of the turbo. By the time it got to the IC there wasn't so much. I vacuumed out the IC as best I could, I won't really be able to clean it completely. I cleaned the pipes out well, the pre IC pipe was definitely the worst as some of the rubber had sort of melted together at the turbo end. Simple Green plus a rag on a piece of coat hanger seemed to take it out ok.

Yes, some definitely made it through the engine. Found bits in the intake. At least powdered rubber will burn and is softer than aluminum / iron.

She's running totally normally at the moment, drove around today with the new turbo. Sounds exactly the same, performing normally.

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[powerstrokeless]

Since my "Trusted Mech" (about 1 1/2 years ago) told me he hated all VW's in particular B4's. Last year had a condensation leak after the said mech. did a blend door repair, and he was not willing to help figure out the source. This past Spring, I decided to blow air up the condensation line and there has not been a leak since! have kept the lower coverings off to make sure.


In my Search for a Mech.--I had a several options of who to use and went with mountain-valleymotors, they performed - timing belt, installed new headlamps, inspection, and tires - all at a very reasonable cost, + they like VW's!

 

[Steve Addy]

Since my "Trusted Mech" (about 1 1/2 years ago) told me he hated all VW's in particular B4's. Last year had a condensation leak after the said mech. did a blend door repair, and he was not willing to help figure out the source. This past Spring, I decided to blow air up the condensation line and there has not been a leak since! have kept the lower coverings off to make sure.


In my Search for a Mech.--I had a several options of who to use and went with mountain-valleymotors, they performed - timing belt, installed new headlamps, inspection, and tires - all at a very reasonable cost, + they like VW's!

Nothing worse than having a mechanic / shop that you thought you could trust finally up and tell you that they hate the car you own and hate working on it. Unfortunate really, the newer cars are far more complicated than what you brought it to terrorize him with.

I wouldn't want to be around a new Sonata or Optima when they get to be as old as our Mk3 / B4 cars...oh wait, they'll never make it that far so never mind.

Steve

 

[Windex]

I don't get that attitude.

A car is a car - sure German cars can be annoying and over-engineered, but I would work on anything back in the day. I'll just quote you an appropriate amount of time and dive in.

Snowflake mechanics these days...

 

[vanbcguy]

Today was "what happened to my instrument cluster lights" day! On my last road trip I blew fuse #3 which does the license plate lights plus all the dash lighting.

After much deducing and pulling things apart I isolated the short to the supply for the central console lighting (the cigarette lighter "ring", the heat controls, the ashtray light and the radio light). Cut the factory splice apart and it turned out to be the radio line! I have an aftermarket radio but it is installed with a conversion harness and has been there for about 3 years, no reason for it to be acting up now. Since I don't actually do anything with the illumination line to the radio I redid the splice without it.

Also have had some burning oil smell since I swapped my turbo - was pretty sure it was from the copious amount of PB Blaster I sprayed on everything to loosen up the bolts. Doused the back of the engine with degreaser this morning and washed it down - no more burning oil smell.

Going to take the car in for rear wheel bearings and brakes on Thursday - I've had enough wrenching for this week.

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[thechoochlyman]

Over the last week:

Had my starter rebuilt by a local shop for $170 out the door. Works great now! Had to replace basically everything replaceable.

During that job the wires on the reverse light plug broke off, so I soldered some new wires on the stub and wrapped it in lots of heat-shrink to keep them steady.

And changed the $24 Napa brake pads I'd had on the front since I bought the car 2 years and 70k miles ago. I heard it start to make a scaping noise and I changed them the next day.

 

[ToddA1]

Reinstalled the interior in the rotbox. I can't tell if it's still got a musty/moldy smell or if the 3 cans of Lysol I sprayed needs more time to dissipate. It's a lot better, at least. I may try some Zep odor eliminator.

Installed the JY cluster and it's also bad, but only the tach needle is shuddering.

Drove it around the block twice. First time I've driven it, since buying it. Still need to drop the tranny and see what's happening inside.

The rockers are in pretty sad shape, so I'm unsure if I'll be able to lift it with the QuickJack.

-Todd

 

[Mrg-images]

Seats

Installed leather seats!

Have cloth for sale. Good condition. blue in color. Anyone in florida need b4 seats?

 

[ToddA1]

Sprayed down the interior of the rotbox 3x with some Zep odor eliminator, and I think it worked...

Started investigation the clutch disengagement issue. Slave looked good, so I started disconnecting stuff from the top, to drop the trans. I ended up just jacking the front of the car the conventional way and using jack stands. Rockers are toast.

Moving under the car, I discovered the car still has the belly pan and oil pan cover. PS side driveshaft still has the OE sticker. Everything is covered with a nice juicy layer of grease.

I'm seeing Bilstein TCs and the new brakes the PO said he put on. Trans fluid looks decent, without any metal.

I got as far as pulling the driveshafts. I'll hopefully get the trans dropped tomorrow night and it'll get pressure washed again, this weekend.

I've got a used TDI clutch from the Rabbit's donor engine, so that'll go in. I'm unsure how long the body on this car will last...

-Todd

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

Got it Back!

After some time at the body shop and Kraftwerke, my B4 (formerly owned by BRUSSELS BELGIUM) is back in my garage.

I had some rust repaired on the driver side rear rocker, which resulted in having to find a satisfactory replacement for the inner fender and having the body shop modify it to fit. And of course we had to replace the pin stripes!

At Kraftwerke it got new rear pads and rotors, Chris chased down and fixed a wiring issue in the left rear door, and a new A/C condenser and, as long as we were in the neighborhood, radiator.

Driving home I couldn't help but think how nicely these cars drive. Responsive, stable, good torque. Even after 20 years they hold up well.

 

[tdidieselbobny]

Your B4 looks really nice Peter. It's nice to see one that isn't all rusted. There is a grey one I see at a local business, it's got a 3" or 4" straight pipe sticking up from the rear w/ a raincap on it, a little more over the top than mine was on my B4 it's last few months.

 

[ToddA1]

Car looks good! Glad to see you're willing to toss some money into cosmetics.

My B4V is showing rust bubbling on the left fender. Just noticed it last week. I need to blast it and get it into the body shop. I want to get an area of clear corrected, too. I had it resprayed, but accidentally damaged it when reinstalling the roof rails.

Back to the rotbox. Dropped the trans... stupid subframe held me up a bit. Need to remember to pull the oil filter next time.

I'm thinking this may be the original clutch. I never saw a PP so rusty. TO bearing spins fine, but looks sketchy. PO put about 95K on the car in the 5 years that he owned it. Car currently has about 240K on the odometer.

Anywho, one of the disc springs was broken and I found a piece of spring in the PP. Clutch disengagement issue found.

I'm leaving the flywheel bolted to the block. I'll clean it up and bolt spare stuff back on.

-Todd

 

[ToddA1]

Last night, I cleaned the hardware and brackets in gas.

Today, I pressure washed the trans, then resealed it. Scrap guy wanted to take the trans, because I left it in the street, lol. He got the old PP and disc.

Cleaned an inner CV and replaced the torn boot, scuffed up the flywheel and PP with a Roloc, and bolted the used clutch on.

-Todd

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

New front brakes on the Passat. They weren't entirely worn out, but I have new rear brakes, one of the front rotors was slightly warped, and I wanted to get matching ceramic pads on the front to keep the dust off my wheels. Job went easily, car stops better.