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

[Abacus]

I

I pulled the transaxle on I-red and figured out why the clutch would not disengage. I was 100% positive the fork had cracked and folded over, since I've seen that before but I was wrong...hadn't seen this before...interesting.

I’ve seen that before on a B4.

 

[BamaB4S]

A pressure plate spring broke on my original clutch at about 235,000 miles

 

[alext91]

Competed in my first TSD rally with a friend in my B4. Had fun, learned a lot and didn't come in last

 

[JordanTr]

Very cool on the rally!!

Today I glued on a mk4 passenger mirror glass on to replace the original (and already re-glued once) glass that fell off. I used windshield urethane so hopefully it’ll work better. Now both sides have mk4 glass. Drivers side was done by the PO.

 

[thechoochlyman]

Picked up a 95 or 96 Passat GLS for parts. Now I finally have everything I needed to make my interior all black - carpet included.



Gauge cluster doesn't look original. From a 2.0 car, maybe? I was thinking about doing the MFA conversion but apparently this isn't the one.

 

[Steve Addy]

Picked up a 95 or 96 Passat GLS for parts. Now I finally have everything I needed to make my interior all black - carpet included.

View attachment 132989

Gauge cluster doesn't look original. From a 2.0 car, maybe? I was thinking about doing the MFA conversion but apparently this isn't the one.

View attachment 132990

Yeah, that cluster is not MFA, unfortunately. Must have been from a 2.0 ABA powered car because all the VR cars got MFA.

Steve

 

[turbodieseldyke]

Isn't the tach different for 2.0 and 2.6?

 

[thechoochlyman]

After a full day of work I finished the black interior swap. I pressure washed the carpet for a good half hour and was shocked at how much coffee-looking water came out. It looked brand new after it dried though, MUCH better than the old tan carpet which was absolutely filthy. The worst part was having to remove the center console and all the trim pieces under the dash. I cut it in a couple of spots to make the installation easier considering those areas get covered up anyway. Now I'm just waiting for my new black floor mats to arrive and it'll be done.





Sadly I found a couple of rather large rust holes under the passenger seat area where the rubber plugs were. Going to see how possible it is to attach a piece of sheet metal from the bottom with self-tapping screws and windshield urethane. If anybody has tips for a decent fix other than an expensive body shop repair, feel free to comment.

I also swapped on the hood and front trim piece from my donor car due to how clean they were, plus the color matches each other. Much easier on the eyes than white on black.



In the next couple of days I'll be doing an oil change and looking over the front end for what's causing the loud "pop" every time I hit a bump. It still rides and drives perfectly though.

 

[ToddA1]

Sadly I found a couple of rather large rust holes under the passenger seat area where the rubber plugs were.

Sadly, I expect that…. those plugs are notorious for that.

I’d weld the patches in, but I’ve also done what you intend to do, on Rotbox. It got me a few years, but if you’re actually planning on keeping that car, I’d weld them.

-Todd

 

[starrd]

Finally installed my MkIV rear calipers and stainless steel rear brake lines. I got them from ECS tuning years ago. One of the brake line connections (banjo bolt) on the stainless steel rear brake lines would not seal. On closer inspection, the surface next to the copper sealing washer on the brake line was nicked. I had to file that out, sand and aneal the copper washers and was able to get it to seal. These brake lines have circular machined grooves to help the copper washer seal, but they don't work if there is a radial nick which is what this had. I'm not sure how I could have done that because I installed the copper washers and banjo bolt all at once. Machining on these brake lines is poor.

Picture of brake line banjo bolt area here:

https://c1552172.ssl.cf0.rackcdn.com/1039242_x800.webp

One other trick I did was to swap the hand brake cable bracket from the old calipers to the new ones. The old ones are slightly different and present the hand brake cable at a better entry angle to the hand brake lever on the caliper. Of course the allen bolt that mounts this bracket is not at the same radial distance from the lever pivot point. I just drilled out the bolt hole slightly larger to fix this.

 

[JordanTr]

I collected the other half of the 02J shifter upgrade today! $40 for the whole shebang! There were lots to pick from so I was able to find shift cables without split boots.

 

[thechoochlyman]

Oil change last night. Inspected my front driveline for loose or defective parts but it all looks good, so I'm a little stumped on what's making that popping sound. Maybe it has something to do with all the space between the front struts and the strut tower?

My transmission gets to where it doesn't shift as easily after about 20k miles. I wanted to at least check the fluid level, and I had to use an air chisel on the plug to get it out. I've always filled through the shift tower in the past so I never had a reason to remove the plug. I have a spare O2A sitting in the corner, so I salvaged a good plug from it. I ended up draining the fluid and filling it up with Royal Purple 75w-90 I had leftover from a previous project. First time using anything in it other than G070 in a while, but it's shifting nice again.

 

[alanack]

http://imgur.com/a/c82sRTf

Zoinks
Anotha one

 

[JordanTr]

@alanack, it’s like they grow on trees down south! As my dad says… Never hurts to have a spare…

 

[alanack]

@alanack, it’s like they grow on trees down south! As my dad says… Never hurts to have a spare…

Its actually from NY garaged its whole life.
Was a VR swapped to a TDI. 70k on shell 330 on motor.

Ran away on me at least twice already. Should probably look into that.

The 2 quarts of oil that came out of the intercooler might have something to do with that.

 

[thechoochlyman]

Finished off my all-black interior with new floor mats. Feels like a new car!

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

What steering wheel is that?

 

[Chungus]

What steering wheel is that?

Looks like a VR6 one

 

[thechoochlyman]

What steering wheel is that?

It came out of a '99 Cabrio. Almost anything looks better than the stock B4 steering wheel. lol

 

[TDIDaveNH]

More progress on I-red to report: New SBC Stage 2 daily clutch installed, new steering rack boots, new oil pan gasket, both front wheel bearings replaced and both tone rings media blasted & painted since they were getting a bit crusty after almost 5 years off the road. Lastly in this repair session I put on new Zimmerman front rotors & pads, changed the engine oil and filled the transaxle with Redline MTL. The car is now back together and driving, as of tonight I have 650 miles on it...feels good to daily a B4 TDI after 4 years of hauling the mail with various Scooby cars. Instruments long dormant once again register life in the machine....and a piece of my soul has returned. I have a pretty good list going with everything else it needs to be "West coast ready" which I'll be getting to very shortly, not the least of which is figuring out where all the brake fluid is going. I have about 5-6 more repair sessions planned out but the clutch was the biggest most involved one.

 

[alext91]

More progress on I-red to report: New SBC Stage 2 daily clutch installed, new steering rack boots, new oil pan gasket, both front wheel bearings replaced and both tone rings media blasted & painted since they were getting a bit crusty after almost 5 years off the road. Lastly in this repair session I put on new Zimmerman front rotors & pads, changed the engine oil and filled the transaxle with Redline MTL. The car is now back together and driving, as of tonight I have 650 miles on it...feels good to daily a B4 TDI after 4 years of hauling the mail with various Scooby cars. Instruments long dormant once again register life in the machine....and a piece of my soul has returned. I have a pretty good list going with everything else it needs to be "West coast ready" which I'll be getting to very shortly, not the least of which is figuring out where all the brake fluid is going. I have about 5-6 more repair sessions planned out but the clutch was the biggest most involved one.

This is awesome! Nice to know there are others in NH driving these cars, I've only seen a couple around. Mine is currently down due to a power steering leak that I have yet to investigate. Might get time to dig into it this weekend, but I need to replace sticky rear caliper(s) on my mk6 first.

 

[Mcgink]

More progress on I-red to report: New SBC Stage 2 daily clutch installed, new steering rack boots, new oil pan gasket, both front wheel bearings replaced and both tone rings media blasted & painted since they were getting a bit crusty after almost 5 years off the road. Lastly in this repair session I put on new Zimmerman front rotors & pads, changed the engine oil and filled the transaxle with Redline MTL. The car is now back together and driving, as of tonight I have 650 miles on it...feels good to daily a B4 TDI after 4 years of hauling the mail with various Scooby cars. Instruments long dormant once again register life in the machine....and a piece of my soul has returned. I have a pretty good list going with everything else it needs to be "West coast ready" which I'll be getting to very shortly, not the least of which is figuring out where all the brake fluid is going. I have about 5-6 more repair sessions planned out but the clutch was the biggest most involved one

Nice work Dave, it's great to hear that I-Red is back on the road. West coast will hopefully get it out of the rust belt.

 

[TDIDaveNH]

Nice work Dave, it's great to hear that I-Red is back on the road. West coast will hopefully get it out of the rust belt.

Thanks, I've got lots more to address on I-Red. My daily scooby mobile was giving me extremely low power drivability problems so I had to get the clutch done fast and could not wait on axles to show up or upgrade the turbo drain line like I wanted since I had to get I-Red rolling. It's burning through a 1/2 liter of brake fluid a day, there is a leak below the master and it's leaking all over the new steering boot on that side. It'll all be fixed soon. I'm not moving..."west coast ready" is a state of mechanical confidence. I-Red will be off the road for the winter in a couple months.

 

[ToddA1]

both tone rings media blasted & painted

Ah…. I have/had a set of hubs with those tone ring screw holes, and never knew what they were for. I never owned a B4 with ABS, so I was a bit stumped. Mystery solved….

-Todd

 

[Abacus]

I have a pretty good list going with everything else it needs to be "West coast ready" which I'll be getting to very shortly

Let me know what you need, I have some stuff here. While there aren't any B4's in the local yards, there are other avenues.

I'm also West Coast if you want to make a test trip, we always have room and you can stay as long as you'd like. You can even borrow the wagon to fetch parts so long as the 6 speed is still in it when you're done.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

All due respect, Mark, you're in the Southwest. You're some 400 miles from the coast. Which may be a good thing.

 

[Abacus]

All due respect, Mark, you're in the Southwest. You're some 400 miles from the coast. Which may be a good thing.

That won’t even register on the wagons fuel gauge, so I consider it a rounding error. Admittedly the seafood here is pretty horrible but I bought some beachfront property, along with a bridge somewhere, from a ‘trustworthy’ source a few years ago.

 

[stormb4]

Having a new issue with my 1996 B4 TDi that maybe someone here can help me diagnose. I went to roll down the drivers side rear window and all the door locks in the car locked on me. After getting out of the car I went to use the driver side central lock to see if they would still lock or unlock and no luck, only unlocks the driver door. Seems that the central locking system is out of order for now, which also means fuel door wont open. Any suggestions on where to start looking, whether it be the vacuum pump in the trunk, fuses, door wires etc.? Those seem to be the likely culprit from my initial research but just wanted to see if anyone had a similar issue at some point or another. Thanks in advance

 

[Chungus]

Having a new issue with my 1996 B4 TDi that maybe someone here can help me diagnose. I went to roll down the drivers side rear window and all the door locks in the car locked on me. After getting out of the car I went to use the driver side central lock to see if they would still lock or unlock and no luck, only unlocks the driver door. Seems that the central locking system is out of order for now, which also means fuel door wont open. Any suggestions on where to start looking, whether it be the vacuum pump in the trunk, fuses, door wires etc.? Those seem to be the likely culprit from my initial research but just wanted to see if anyone had a similar issue at some point or another. Thanks in advance

Do your interior lights still work? When I bought my B4 many moons ago none of the interior lights or central locking worked. Cluster wouldn't hold time and the trunk open light was constantly on. Turns out it was all related to the convienece fuse. If one of your door locks still works I think your vacuum pump is probably fine?

 

[stormb4]

Do your interior lights still work? When I bought my B4 many moons ago none of the interior lights or central locking worked. Cluster wouldn't hold time and the trunk open light was constantly on. Turns out it was all related to the convienece fuse. If one of your door locks still works I think your vacuum pump is probably fine?

Yes interior lights still work just fine. Cluster is also working fine. I'm just confused because I'm unsure how that window and central locks could be related. The driver door just kind of flips the lock open, and I don't hear the usual noise that it makes when unlocking or locking. I will check that fuse and report back. Thanks