What did you do to your MKIV today?

[Bradm]

Is there a scaled profile available to make those keys? Thanks.

Theres some you tube videos also, when i did them i just brought the cards and a scissors in the car to cut them as i went. Was fast and easy. I didnt cut the notches in there to “grab” it i just cut tapered pieces to unlock the tabs and then gently pry/wiggled the stereo out using a small flat screwdriver on the sides

 

[Nuje]

Ordered radio keys to pull my stock double din NON-monsoon HU. Going to replace it with the RCN210, and am planning on getting the adapter from Clusters by Litke. so I need to know what connector is back there for sure before I order. Should be the quadlock, but no steering wheel controls, no cd changer in the trunk, and no Monsoon amp/crossover—it’s an 03 GL. So it just might have the older two-plug connection. We shall see in a few days.

I'd be shocked if it was *not* the quad-lock connector on a 2003. I haven't come across a 2002-2003 that didn't have it; and I definitely have never seen a 2DIN unit that had those old-tyme ISO connectors.

Not sure what Matt's (Litke) adapter does (I eagerly await him getting hardware to do get ColorMFAs back in production), but a while ago I grabbed a few connector/adapters off Aliexpress that allows / keeps the CANBUS control of the power on/off of the stereo head unit; that is, the radio stays on if you turn the ignition to OFF but leave the key in, but once you remove the key, the radio powers off.
(Granted, that adapter is primarily aimed at Android head units and for my case, it indeed worked perfectly - no speaker or power wire splicing; totally plug and play.)

 

[KrashDH]

I'd be shocked if it was *not* the quad-lock connector on a 2003. I haven't come across a 2002-2003 that didn't have it

I have an 02 Golf, has a monsoon system with the amp and cd changer (which I removed and repurposed the wiring). Single din with the cubby. It had the standard connection, not the quad lock.

 

[PakProtector]

I have the single DIN and the cubby in my '02 and am going to go to the RCN210 at some point soon. I miss not having the CD player. I have not looked at the issue, so I have the question: can the cradle for the single with cubby be 'adjusted' for the double, or do I need to put in the cage/cradle for a double?

Douglas

 

[Zak99b5]

I believe you just need to remove both the single din and the cubby & viola, you can slide a double din right in.

The RCN210 comes with an adapter for the older two-plug connection. You need to buy the one for the quad lock separately. In a few threads I found, I heard of people having some issues with that harness where it wasn't really plug n play. It has a can emulator in it; maybe that's the source. But anyone who has tried Litke's harness has said it's worked flawlessly.

 

[Rob Mayercik]

Wasn't today, but was this past Saturday...

A couple years ago I replaced the "arm rest insert" on my driver's door card because the leather (leather-like substance?) started cracking where my elbow sits. Wasn't too hard overall, but those silly little "melt tabs" were a pain and the ones at the upper rear corner all broke off too short to reuse. I ended up fixing it by inserting a piece of 1/2 copper pipe through the thing the middle push-clip on the rear of the panel sits in, up across the corner of the insert and into the top one, then using a small sheet metal screw into the pipe as a "lock" to keep it from moving. Think I posted a couple pics back in April of 2018 when I did it (either this thread or another one, not sure which), but here's a link to one of the pics anyway just in case: Door card insert brace.

Anyhow, a couple weeks back I noticed that if I pressed down on the armrest the bottom rear edge would sink into the door; when I pulled the card off on Saturday I found that the tabs in that area had sheared off in a way that I couldn't do anything with them.

Stared at it for a while trying to work out what to do (was debating driving screws through the panel to add a brace, then realized I could do the "pipe brace" trick again. Same size (1/2" diameter) as before; one end is set into the cavity in the "boss" for bottom-most push-clip on the rear of the door, the other end is wedged into the spot between two ribs on the back of that black plastic bracket thingy that the window control panel clips into (and has the three machine screws going into the door itself). Don't know what length I cut, but it's a snug-enough fit into those two places that I had to flex the door a touch to get the upper (armrest end) into place. The brace is holding the insert tightly into the main card, there's no play when I rest my arm on it, and no sign of interference when reassembling.

Probably should have taken a picture before reassembling, but I was just pleased at the time that I got it together without drilling through the front of the main card to install a brace and it was getting on to dinner time. Should be simple enough to visualize though.

 

[Nuje]

User @sriracha did a superb video a while back on how to re-attach the door card with zip-ties.
If nothing else, watch the video and wish that all how-to videos were as well-shot and edited as this one is. No words, but you know exactly what's being done.

 

[dieseldonato]

Well, 20* this morning, and the old fuel gelled. Whatever, hoped in the truck and ran it to work. Got home and it fired right up. Added some pds winter additive to it and ran it around to circulate it. Figured I had no idea when the filter was changed so i stopped off at the parts store and grabbed one. 5 minute job and new filter was in and primed. See what she does tomorrow morning, although it's supposed to warm up significantly over the rest of the week and stay warm so idk if it will act up again or not.

 

[P2B]

Well, 20* this morning, and the old fuel gelled. Whatever, hoped in the truck and ran it to work. Got home and it fired right up. Added some pds winter additive to it and ran it around to circulate it. Figured I had no idea when the filter was changed so i stopped off at the parts store and grabbed one. 5 minute job and new filter was in and primed. See what she does tomorrow morning, although it's supposed to warm up significantly over the rest of the week and stay warm so idk if it will act up again or not.

#2 diesel doesn't gell above 15F, icing maybe?

 

[dieseldonato]

#2 diesel doesn't gell above 15F, icing maybe?

Beets me, I changed out the filter to try and eliminate the possibility. The filter was dated 2017, so I'm sure it didn't help. Well find out tomorrow morning.

 

[Rob Mayercik]

User @sriracha did a superb video a while back on how to re-attach the door card with zip-ties.
If nothing else, watch the video and wish that all how-to videos were as well-shot and edited as this one is. No words, but you know exactly what's being done.

Yes, that was a well-executed how-to video. Clever implementation to be sure. Appreciate the link.

Unfortunately for me, the "uprights" that broke on my door card recently did so in a way that left no real spot to melt through for the zipties (not enough material left to them), and when I did the original job I used some sort of epoxy that filled the slots in the current insert which may not have been removable anyway without destroying the insert.

Still, were I just starting the original replacement job now, I'd probably follow his lead.

 

[Nuje]

Not my car, but....

Came upon this BEW car while out for a bike ride yesterday late afternoon.
Middle-aged woman had bought the car for her daughter (for $500 ) - some guy just needed to offload it quickly because of expanding family or something. She'd ordered new wheels but they wouldn't fit because....big brakes upgrade on the front so the 15" spare wouldn't fit.
(Car also had OEM Hella projector headlights - someone put some time and money into this car at some point, but obviously, didn't pay attention to tire pressure.)

Extra added bonus: no "key" for the aftermarket lug bolts.
(Thanks for nothing, tire shop which shall remain nameless.)

Luckily, it was a nice evening, so I rode home, threw some tools and a 16" spare off a NB that I had kicking around (because I mean, who doesn't?), and the one aftermarket lug key that I had around was a fit for her lug bolts.

I thought of moving the rear up front so she could go home with her spare on the rear and move that wheel up front, but...
Tertiary bonus: previous owner had put some 20mm spacers on the back that had the BBS 70mm bore.

So, my 16" spare went home with her (she lives ~250km away and had to get home last night); she's gonna bring it back in the next couple of days, though.
I was sure to give her some notes on what to tell the tire shop she went to because they really left her out to rot.

 

[Zak99b5]

Yikes!

Tire story is great and all, but I can't get over the $500 price.

 

[Nuje]

I know, right? "No papers" parts cars go for more than that around here.

 

[braddies]

"500 for the wheels, unable to separate from car"

 

[dieseldonato]

So the fuel filter fixed the cold starting issue. Fired right up the other morning no problem. Dexided ro cut the fikter apart. Didnt look very reasuring, pretty mucky like it had some algae growing in it. I'll be installing a in tank loft pump from a pd engine so I'll check out how the tank looks and proceed from there, but i think it was more neglect from before I had it then anything.
Got the driver side door module replaced today. Figured it would be my test dummy for replacing switches. That was fun. Glad I had the bently manuals for the car. Made what could have been a real pain fairly easy. Also did the key fob range extender wire trick. It helped, but not as much as I would have liked. Still have to be pretty close to the car to unlock it, but it unlocks, locks, and opens the trunk with the fob so that's a plus, and the alarm diest go off every other time I start it. Parts are still trickling in for mods and fixes. Have to take the rear drivers door apart, the window won't go up without assistance. Want to see if it's a motor issue or if something is broken.

 

[PakProtector]

Did some digging on the RCN210 install. Seems the single DIN has no adapter ready off the rack that will allow use of the steering wheel controls. There are three of the small ones, stacked up on top of each other...and it appears the middle one from the car goes direct to the 210, and the adapter with a 'CAN emulator' is used for the bottom. Fortunately there is a MFSW-to-stalk kit to do away with the SW controls of cruise control...so a flat-bottom GLI wheel can be applied( the car is a swap, and I have not done the ECU wiring to enable cruise yet ). Car is an '02, no Monsoon, no CD player affair.

Douglas

 

[deejaaa]

had a timing belt, water pump and coolant res replaced. LCA’s replaced as well as rear air shock hats. oil change and coolant replaced.

 

[deejaaa]

I'd be shocked if it was *not* the quad-lock connector on a 2003. I haven't come across a 2002-2003 that didn't have it; and I definitely have never seen a 2DIN unit that had those old-tyme ISO connectors.

Not sure what Matt's (Litke) adapter does (I eagerly await him getting hardware to do get ColorMFAs back in production), but a while ago I grabbed a few connector/adapters off Aliexpress that allows / keeps the CANBUS control of the power on/off of the stereo head unit; that is, the radio stays on if you turn the ignition to OFF but leave the key in, but once you remove the key, the radio powers off.
(Granted, that adapter is primarily aimed at Android head units and for my case, it indeed worked perfectly - no speaker or power wire splicing; totally plug and play.)

why does your link say it’s for “Golf 5/6/Polo/Passat/Jetta/“ and not MK4?

 

[Zak99b5]

Found out I DO have the quadlock connector, as expected. Maybe I’ll start an RCN210 thread when I get the radio and harness.

 

[Zak99b5]

Did some digging on the RCN210 install. Seems the single DIN has no adapter ready off the rack that will allow use of the steering wheel controls. There are three of the small ones, stacked up on top of each other...and it appears the middle one from the car goes direct to the 210, and the adapter with a 'CAN emulator' is used for the bottom. Fortunately there is a MFSW-to-stalk kit to do away with the SW controls of cruise control...so a flat-bottom GLI wheel can be applied( the car is a swap, and I have not done the ECU wiring to enable cruise yet ). Car is an '02, no Monsoon, no CD player affair.

Douglas

Shoot Matt Litke a message on the Facebook. I’d bet he can whip you up a harness.

 

[PakProtector]

How much Zak? $2 perhaps... Or do you want to go all the to a Grant?

Douglas

 

[Nuje]

why does your link say it’s for “Golf 5/6/Polo/Passat/Jetta/“ and not MK4?

You'd have to ask Mr. AliX on that one; all I know is that I bought three of 'em, installed two in Mk4 cars, and they do the job.
(My guess would be that they simply didn't make a change to the electronics once they went to CANBUS control; and many Mk4 cars did *not* have CANBUS control, so why confuse the matter and risk "didn't fit; didn't work" negative reviews.)

 

[ts888]

Today, I put the oil pan back on. I cleaned it really well, and cleaned the block really well, and applied a nice bead of ThreeBond, and got it up into place and threaded in a couple of middle side bolts to hold everything while I got the three bolts from the transmission started, and got the 4 bolts up in the cave started, and then got all the other bolts started, and then worked my way around and tightened all the bolts and was very pleased with myself and then turned around and there on the bench was...

...the windage tray.

So I had to do it all again.

WE INTERRUPT THIS POST FOR A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT -- The torque spec for the 4 little hex head bolts that hold on the bottom pulley is NOT "Hey, now that I have these bathed in Loctite, hand me that impact gun!"

Fortunately I have an acetylene torch and some very high quality hex bits, so the offending bolts came out. New ones will be required for assembly.

Of course, the crank seal refused all removal efforts that were short of damaging the crank, so I ended up taking off the front cover, further disrupting my oil pan reseal. And somehow among all the parts I ordered, I did not get a crank seal. And in the shop stash of VW parts, there were several cam seals, but no crank seal. By this time the dog was getting tired of being at the shop anyway, so I called it a day.

Tomorrow, I will attempt to replace the broken back timing cover, then get the new head installed. I could probably find a crank seal locally, but I'm not going to finish tomorrow anyway, so getting the head on will be enough progress for this weekend.

The amount of hackery encountered has been fairly low. Other than the stupid tight pulley bolts, the serp belt tensioner was missing a bolt, and the top bolt on the alternator was loose.

 

[csstevej]

Son called the other day and said his 2000 TDI golf died on the highway and got it towed to his house.
Asked him to check the basics , tb belt , glow plug lights , fuel in the tank.
Had him check for air in fuel line and he said it was over 2” of air in the clear tube.
Told him try putting oil on the thermostatic tee , to see if air would stop . Replaced output tube with a clear tube from filter to IP. Had him buy a mity vac and pull vacuum from return line from IP.
After two days of on and off trying he gave up , he was throughly frustrated , he has a second car so it wasn’t that critical , he just needed it fixed so he could get it inspected by state .
He was tempted to bring it to a mechanic that works on TDI’s I sad to wait till today.

Wife and I took the 2 hour trip out to his house , packed up all my implements of destruction and off we went.
She dropped me off at his house with all my tools and she went off to her favorite knitting store not far away.
Son let me in remotely into the garage , he was still at work for another hour.

Hooked up battery charger to car and attempted to start car no dice.
Cracked all fuel lines and cranked engine , also hooked up a large vacuum source to return line to filter and crank the car a couple of times then tightened fuel lines . After second time it fired off and let it run.

Just then my son came home and saw car running , he asked what was the issue ….. I said nothing car fired right up with no issues…the look on his face was priceless…..then I started laughing ……lol he wasn’t laughing…more like cursing.
Sorry I digress.

I had a huge stream of air in the clear tube he installed , no amount of tightening stopped it .
I though the clear tube was part of the problem so reinstalled original fuel line with the small section of clear tube…still had the large stream of air. When I flexed the output nipple of the fuel filter to the IP the entire tube filled with air , flexed it down it half filled with fuel.
We went out and got a new fuel filter and that took care of 90% of the air intrusion, thermostatic tee was goofed up with Vaseline.
I recommended to him to pick up a new fuel pickup sender just in case there’s a crack in the pickup line .
His tank is about half full too.
Sorry for the long winded story.

 

[dieseldonato]

Son called the other day and said his 2000 TDI golf died on the highway and got it towed to his house.
Asked him to check the basics , tb belt , glow plug lights , fuel in the tank.
Had him check for air in fuel line and he said it was over 2” of air in the clear tube.
Told him try putting oil on the thermostatic tee , to see if air would stop . Replaced output tube with a clear tube from filter to IP. Had him buy a mity vac and pull vacuum from return line from IP.
After two days of on and off trying he gave up , he was throughly frustrated , he has a second car so it wasn’t that critical , he just needed it fixed so he could get it inspected by state .
He was tempted to bring it to a mechanic that works on TDI’s I sad to wait till today.

Wife and I took the 2 hour trip out to his house , packed up all my implements of destruction and off we went.
She dropped me off at his house with all my tools and she went off to her favorite knitting store not far away.
Son let me in remotely into the garage , he was still at work for another hour.

Hooked up battery charger to car and attempted to start car no dice.
Cracked all fuel lines and cranked engine , also hooked up a large vacuum source to return line to filter and crank the car a couple of times then tightened fuel lines . After second time it fired off and let it run.

Just then my son came home and saw car running , he asked what was the issue ….. I said nothing car fired right up with no issues…the look on his face was priceless…..then I started laughing ……lol he wasn’t laughing…more like cursing.
Sorry I digress.

I had a huge stream of air in the clear tube he installed , no amount of tightening stopped it .
I though the clear tube was part of the problem so reinstalled original fuel line with the small section of clear tube…still had the large stream of air. When I flexed the output nipple of the fuel filter to the IP the entire tube filled with air , flexed it down it half filled with fuel.
We went out and got a new fuel filter and that took care of 90% of the air intrusion, thermostatic tee was goofed up with Vaseline.
I recommended to him to pick up a new fuel pickup sender just in case there’s a crack in the pickup line .
His tank is about half full too.
Sorry for the long winded story.

I really think this is one of the big flaws with these cars not having lift pumps amd relying on the little internal pump vane pump but into the injection pum. That air intrusion is hard on the injection pump, it relies on the fuel for lubrication of the internal moving parts. The higher the speed of the pump the harder it is for it to pull fuel through the long run of small sized fuel lines and having the fuel tank below the pump level does it no favors. Besides all that, with a lift pump that would have (should have) been an obvious leak at the fuel filter.
At any rate glad you got it figured out quickly.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

Although I have lift pumps in both of my ALHs, my son doesn't have one in his and has never had a fuel starvation problem. And his pump is original at 475K miles. Maintain and repair it properly and the lift pump really isn't needed. But I do like how it provides instant starting, more of an ability to lug the engine, and the drama-free fuel filter swaps.

 

[ts888]

I did some searching on the forum and didn't find an answer, so I'll ask -- anyone install an inline pump as a lift pump on an ALH? Seems like a small low pressure inline pump would be a beneficial addition, without the complication of retrofitting a BEW pump. The fuel filter has a return circuit, yes?

 

[burpod]

Very hard to find a decent inline pump that runs at the ideal pressure. The bew lift pump is about as simple as it gets for a lift pump and it's perfect. The IP creates a huge amount of suction, if there is the slightest leak it will find it and suck air in. Lift pump eliminates this. If you have any leaks you'll see fuel leaking out rather than have a potentially hidden problem

 

[Fix_Until_Broke]

I did some searching on the forum and didn't find an answer, so I'll ask -- anyone install an inline pump as a lift pump on an ALH? Seems like a small low pressure inline pump would be a beneficial addition, without the complication of retrofitting a BEW pump. The fuel filter has a return circuit, yes?

Not sure what complication there is with installing a BEW pump? In fact, couldn't be much easier - Drop it in place of the ALH sending unit, run two wires to a relay = done.