What did you do to your MKIV today?

[KrashDH]

What filament type did you use? ABS?

I don't like to print ABS because of the offgassing. Anything I need for UV/high strength equal to ABS I print in PETG. it's very tricky to print with though. Slow and steady, it likes to string. Took me a long time to nail the settings. This print was 10 hr.

 

[03TDICommuter]

I don't like to print ABS because of the offgassing. Anything I need for UV/high strength equal to ABS I print in PETG. it's very tricky to print with though. Slow and steady, it likes to string. Took me a long time to nail the settings. This print was 10 hr.

I have yet to take the plunge on ABS. I have done some stuff in PETG, but like you said, it gets stringy. I want to make a phone holder for the Beetle, but I don't think PETG will hold up well with the sun beating down in it inside the car.

 

[KrashDH]

I have yet to take the plunge on ABS. I have done some stuff in PETG, but like you said, it gets stringy. I want to make a phone holder for the Beetle, but I don't think PETG will hold up well with the sun beating down in it inside the car.

Actually PETG is better than both ABS and PLA against UV. Stronger too. That's why I choose it over ABS. It is harder to initially print, but once you find the machine settings that work, you're golden. I have very little if any string. That vent gauge was 10 hours straight of printing and the only imperfections are on the start-stop locations on the ID of the gauge cylinder (zits). Those can be knocked off with a bit of sandpaper.

 

[befarrer]

Can you elaborate? I ordered a Kufatec harness and have done a ton of research, but haven't bought the heater yet. Where did you get the heater? Is yours an independent system from a wiring standpoint, or did you get it to show up in VCDS? Did you look into the wireless option for activating it with a VW-branded key fob?

I have been able to find every MK4 part except the mounting bracket. Did you find one or fabricate one?

I'm a HD mechanic, I've installed these on semi trucks. I bought a used unit, with fuel pump and harness that came off a school bus. Made a bracket to mount behind driver's side bumper. Wired in everything like on semis, they don't tie into heater motor, and I didn't. I didn't get the Webasto controller, so I ordered a timer thing from Amazon, I can set up to 32 on and off times per week to turn on.

 

[03TDICommuter]

Actually PETG is better than both ABS and PLA against UV. Stronger too. That's why I choose it over ABS. It is harder to initially print, but once you find the machine settings that work, you're golden. I have very little if any string. That vent gauge was 10 hours straight of printing and the only imperfections are on the start-stop locations on the ID of the gauge cylinder (zits). Those can be knocked off with a bit of sandpaper.

I meant cabin heat. I have yet to make stuff for the inside of a car, but I've read that PETG still gets soft inside a car. Suppose I should just give it a try.
FWIW, I've made a few rooftop antenna mast mounts for my weather cams, and for my ADSB antenna, out of PETG. Holding up fine in the sun and weather.

 

[KrashDH]

I meant cabin heat. I have yet to make stuff for the inside of a car, but I've read that PETG still gets soft inside a car. Suppose I should just give it a try.
FWIW, I've made a few rooftop antenna mast mounts for my weather cams, and for my ADSB antenna, out of PETG. Holding up fine in the sun and weather.

Ah ok. Yeah ive had a couple of brackets I made in my engine bay of my truck for a long time now. Gets pretty hot in there, no issues yet. pETG is def a bit more flexible before it breaks, bit it melts at a higher temp than say, PLA. I have some PLA+ as well, which is pretty strong. I have a hot end which can print carbon and nylon. Have yet to try nylon but that would seem like one of the superior materials to use.

 

[kennethsime]

We had pretty serious storm this past weekend, and my interior got a bit moist - it may or may not have had something to do with the fact that I was cleaning up a sewage overflow at work.

Yesterday I cleaned out the front interior with a vinegar solution, then drove around for quite awhile with the heat and fan on full blast - I I think I dried it out pretty good. Cleaned all the glass while I was at it, then took the car to the wash just for good measure.

Not bad from 10 feet!

 

[Zak99b5]

Drove it with my daughter to go look at a B5.5 Passat wagon 1.8T (she’s looking for a car). What a turd! Oil was way low, and the little drip that was there was black and gross. No coolant in the expansion tank at all, just some slime. The steering wheel and front seats had mildew on them, and the carpet was soaked (CCM is under driver's seat and all its associated wiring gets corroded on these cars when the sunroof drains leak).

 

[P2B]

You want to remove and never replace the foam so your fender doesn't rust out there. You may not have the same issues as us "rust belt" guys but its still good practice.

The TSB on this says to cut half an inch off the end of the foam so it doesn't hold moisture against the inside of the fender. I did that on our MK4s well over 10 years ago and have not had any arch rust issues.

I've never found a way to stop the crud accumulation behind the lower fender liner, I just clean it out twice a year when switching tires.

 

[Zak99b5]

Drove it again with my daughter to look at an 05 Golf (2.slow auto). This car was actually nice. Brought VCDS along, no codes at all. Only thing was one fan (big) was toast and A/C didn’t turn on. She liked it and bought it.

 

[03TDICommuter]

Dove in to do the head gasket today. What a job. The scary part is my M12 triple square tool is only 3/8" drive. . . and man those original bolts were tight tight tight.

Looking an Amazon now for something I can get overnight that is 1/2" drive,

FWIW, the original gasket, and faces on the head and block look good. I only had a slightest leak - foam in the ball, no residual pressure overnight, and had to add a cup of coolant every month or two. Not seeing anything obvious on where it was coming from.

Pistons looks good - the edges of the bowl don't look like they're overheated. Intake manifold at the EGR had 1/8" of buildup, but the intake runners on the head itself have very little. Cam and lifters look great too.

It's going to take a while to put this all back together. I want to clean the turbo vanes, and I forgot to order the o-ring for the coolant outlet at the head. Oh, also going to put another timing belt on this. This one only has 34K on it, but it's all apart anyways (almost anyways, still need to take the motor mount off).

Need to add a 19mm 12pt socket to my collection for the crankshaft center bolt.

 

[PakProtector]

Took a few more steps through the manual swap. Re-assembled the radio console after doing the blend doors. Installed new GKN inner CV's on the manual TDI axles and installed. Suspension is back together, exhaust is back on. The automatic trans is gone to its next home.

Wiring is next, then I can put in the clutch pedal. A quick notice, IFF you have the manual donor in front of you, pull the clutch line clip off its post about 6" forward of the firewall.

On applying torque to a 3/8" socket, use a drain plug tool; the 3/8 part is solid and not weakened by the ball and spring.
cheers,
Douglas

 

[Nero Morg]

Ordered a sigma 5, shift bushings, and a rear sway bar in prep for my engine replacement, super stoked.

 

[KrashDH]

Ordered a sigma 5, shift bushings, and a rear sway bar in prep for my engine replacement, super stoked.

Love my sigma 5. Such a crisp, positive feel to it

 

[Rrusse11]

Hey Nero,
Which rear sway bar didja' go for?

 

[Nero Morg]

Went with the neuspeed 28mm adjustable at ecstuning

 

[Fix_Until_Broke]

Looked at a 2002 Beetle TDI that a family member bought. Needs a bit of love, but nothing that $ and time won't fix .

Timing belt was done ~40k miles ago - mark & pray, injection timing was spot on though... I rolled the motor over via the cam pulley and the timing belt tensioner moved quite a bit, enough to have noticeable slack in the belt between the cam and injection pump. Wondering if the tensioner was tensioned backwards maybe?

I did the same thing on my car and almost zero tensioner movement and no slack between the cam/IP. If you tug/jerk on the tool, you can make the tensioner move just a little if you look for it but if the cam moves, so does the IP.

The Beetle is parked until further notice

 

[03TDICommuter]

Looked at a 2002 Beetle TDI that a family member bought. Needs a bit of love, but nothing that $ and time won't fix .

Timing belt was done ~40k miles ago - mark & pray, injection timing was spot on though... I rolled the motor over via the cam pulley and the timing belt tensioner moved quite a bit, enough to have noticeable slack in the belt between the cam and injection pump. Wondering if the tensioner was tensioned backwards maybe?

I did the same thing on my car and almost zero tensioner movement and no slack between the cam/IP. If you tug/jerk on the tool, you can make the tensioner move just a little if you look for it but if the cam moves, so does the IP.

The Beetle is parked until further notice

Rotating the cam pulley pulls on the slack side of the belt - the tensioner moving isn't a surprise. Should be rotated from the crankshaft side.

 

[PakProtector]

If you puled hard enough on the cam to move a tensioner, I would say you have that many cars awaiting service.
cheers,
Douglas

 

[sriracha]

I had a new windshield installed on my wagon. After the installation, I installed a new cowl and new low-profile R32 windshield wiper arms and blades.

Unlike the stock wiper arms, the low-profile R32 wiper arms disappear from view. I'm hoping that they reduce a bit of wind noise and bump up the MPG a touch. Regardless, it looks nicer with the hidden arms.

 

[Judson]

Sriracha - from where did you source those wiper arms?
Thanks!

 

[sriracha]

Sriracha - from where did you source those wiper arms?
Thanks!

Aero Wiper Blade & Arm Kit

The best wipers right from the OEM Volkswagen parts bin

www.ecstuning.com

 

[Andyinchville1]

I had a new windshield installed on my wagon. After the installation, I installed a new cowl and new low-profile R32 windshield wiper arms and blades.

Unlike the stock wiper arms, the low-profile R32 wiper arms disappear from view. I'm hoping that they reduce a bit of wind noise and bump up the MPG a touch. Regardless, it looks nicer with the hidden arms.

HI,

Great find .... my stock wiper arms with chunky Rain x Wiper blade asseblies seem to stick WAY up and I've wondered how that negatively affects aero.

I did watch the rain running up the windshield area one day when the wipers were off and it MAY be that the wipers are in a relatively "dead area" of airflow but my approach was rather unscientific (maybe to be scientific I would have to run with tufts in / on the area or disconnect the wiper blades for a bit ....

Can you use regular (available through Advance auto or similar stores) or are the blades special ?

Have you had a chance to test for reductions on wind noise or MPG increases yet?

Thanks

Andrew

 

[sriracha]

Great find ....

Can you use regular (available through Advance auto or similar stores) or are the blades special ?

Have you had a chance to test for reductions on wind noise or MPG increases yet?

Thanks! I'm not sure about regular blades, I just used what was supplied with the kit.
I have not had a chance to test them at speed yet. I'll have to wait a few tanks to determine if there is an improvement in fuel economy, to compare a few data points. My wagon consistently gets 40mpg for mixed driving conditions, hand calculated.

 

[RexNICO]

For the salvage yard folks, I think some B5/5.5 Passats used the same arm with slight longer blades.

And the allroad/C5 guys swapped away for these as the blades were more expensive. Not sure if the blades are still more expensive, as that’s from 5-7 years ago.

 

[benmarks]

The Aero wiper arms were the very first upgrade I ever did to my first TDI Jetta (R.I.P. black ice in West Virginia, 2000-2007.) I've always gotten replacement blades at the dealer. They attach differently from the stock wiper blades, and they don't use the standard types of wipers you'd find at an auto parts store (as far as I know.) But, there are some aftermarket brands available via places like ECS that are a bit cheaper than OEM prices. They're called "Aero" because they also remove the need to have to the air deflector that came on the original driver's side arm since they're molded and "aerodynamic."

One thing I recommend is to note the part numbers of your wiper blades. There are a number of different lengths, and if you go into a dealer and say "I need replacement Aero wiper blades," they may come back with the wrong ones. And, putting the wrong size on the driver side may not be that noticeable, but putting the wrong size on the passenger side will cause the blade to hit the rain tray.

 

[03TDICommuter]

Tried to install the head on my Beetle. Found the Victor Reinz gasket I bought doesn't work with my 2 dowel pin block/head (those positions, the holes are too small). Victor Reinz product photo shows the issue. So bummed.

 

[PakProtector]

Nothing. Work is getting in the way. Dark when I leave, dark when I get home...grrrr

And with the set the clocks back it is going to get worse. Have to finish it up this weekend... and yes, it is taking a long time to finish.
cheers,
Douglas

 

[Vwkaferman]

In between jobs for a week so took advantage of the downtime this week to get some things done around the house and finally today got some time with the wagon.

Earlier this week had the windows tinted. A requirement for living in AZ. Love it, looks so much better. The fellas at the tint shop loved this car, one of them saying how much he loved this body style. He even knew it was a bit of a unicorn, 5 speed manual TDi wagon (2003).

Today, thanks to an old thread on the forum (weakening radio signal), I replaced the base of the antenna. Over time/water/etc the circuit board gets corroded. I’ve noticed not that great reception so hopefully this fixes that. Pretty straight forward replacement: remove rear side “D” pillar (lol) covers, rear headliner cover and pretty easy to get to. 22mm (what!) nut on the antenna base.

Steering column adjuster was a floppy mess so had a new one on hand. Go to replace it and oh wow, no wonder it was floppy, the screws were M.I.A. Went ahead and used the new one and well, found screws that worked from my old Suzuki DR650 screw bin.

Finally addressed the sunfaded headlights. Used a generic Turtle Wax headlight restorer kit, wow, huge difference. I’ve got the glass cover replacements waiting to go on so until then, this will work.

I need to grab some new pics for my “build” thread. Weather has been AWFUL out here in AZ, sunny, no rain, mid 80’s so sorry about that.

James

 

[P2B]

Pre-winter service on the 03 silver sedan.

- winter wheels on, new Michelins this year
- clean leaves and dirt from behind the front fender liners
- clean and lube caliper slide pins all round, clean and lube behind e-brake levers
- silicon spray door & trunk seals
- lube door hinges
- inspect for any suspension or CV boot issues
- test glow plug continuity (harness is shorted but still manages to throw codes occasionally)
- de-ox gp harness
- top up all fluids

Seems to be good to go