Well, not my B4, but I worked on Snoopy Smiles' other B4 yesterday. This was after a week of working 2 jobs due to starting a new one and not wanting my old job as laboratory manager to fail due to my departure. Needless to say, I was pretty beat. She lives in Tucson which is about 3.5 hours away and doesn't like driving at night due, so I had a limited window to get work done.
The first thing was diagnosing why the interior lights stayed on all the time and drained the battery, and a previous garage 'solved' the issue by removing the interior light bulbs.
I checked both sides and figured out there is a wiring issue on the drivers rear side, which was caused by a rear end collision years ago. Not having the time to remove the interior and gut the trunk, I left the bulb out on that side but the interior lights now work in the rest of the car. I'll tackle that on another day.
Next was checking the time and overall engine. I was pleasantly surprised to see the timing belt tensioner in the correct orientation and of a newer date.
But I was not happy to see Mark-N-Pray paint on the gears.
But the timing was right where it should be so I didn't have to adjust it.
However, she complained about smoke, so I checked the IQ, which was 4.0 but cranked all the way down with a Vag-Com. When I returned it to base it was actually 2.8 mg/str.
Time for a Hammer Mod!
That's better. I hammered it to 4.2 and then adjusted it to 4.8. She's going to report back with smoke/power and I'll adjust from there.
I replaced a valve cover grommet due to it being overtightened and squished, creating an oil leak. This engine is the cleanest I've ever seen and in amazing shape. The intake ERG weep hole is also wet with oil, so next time I'll tap it, insert a nipple, and route a hose so it doesn't drip, probably to the puck or under the car.
The rear door handles weren't working correctly so I swapped them with some used original German ones in good condition with new gaskets. I hate those Chinese ones.
Continued...
So I loosened everything back up and twisted it clockwise just enough to read where it should be. Probably less than 2 degrees. Now I'm waiting again to see how empty it'll show. Regardless, I'm filling up at 800 miles just to be safe!
