What did you do to your MKIV today?

[jmodge]

Cutting a slot in a board cross grain with a tablesaw works well also

 

[03TDICommuter]

Cutting a slot in a board cross grain with a tablesaw works well also

That's what I've been doing, but I should make an insert for the saddle cup on my floor jacks as a 2x4 doesn't fit across it well. Meanwhile, my beetle has its running boards bent as tire shops have been jacking it up in the wrong spot. . .

 

[Nuje]

Cutting a slot in a board cross grain with a tablesaw works well also

If you're in Canada, you use a hockey puck; by law, every household has to have at least three of them kicking around.

 

[Nuje]

I have a set of these that I use to jackstand the pinch welds: https://safejacks.com/

After being reasonably pleased with the Jackpoint jack stands, but frustrated by their fixed (and relatively low) height, I bought a set of these this past summer as well. Could not be more impressed with them - easy to use, rock-freakin' solid, look good, well-made. Big !

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

All new engine/transmission mounts on IBW. It's had a nasty resonance for a few weeks now, I couldn't isolate it. I drove it to NYC and back last Friday and it seemed to get worse, so I took it to Kraftwerke this morning. All three mounts were shot: fluid gone from the engine mount, transmission mount soft and compressed, and the dogbone was twisted because the engine was sitting lower than it should. I don't recall when they were last replaced, but I think the engine mount has about 150K on it, and the transmission mount probably has 200K or more on it.

Much better now.

 

[Rrusse11]

My guru had to put a helicoil in one of my engine mounts when he did the TB. From IBW's description of progressive failure,
it appears that if one mount fails, the others are subject to destructive forces fairly quickly.

 

[03TDICommuter]

All new engine/transmission mounts on IBW. It's had a nasty resonance for a few weeks now, I couldn't isolate it. I drove it to NYC and back last Friday and it seemed to get worse, so I took it to Kraftwerke this morning. All three mounts were shot:
Much better now.

What brand replacements did you put in?

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

Rein/CRP. They seem to make a good product, and they're a fraction of the cost of the OE, which, for all I know, could also be made by CRP.

 

[Mozambiquer]

Not my Mk4, but had a guy break down locally on his way though (not sure if he's on here or not) Frank put him in touch with me and I took a look at the car.

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• Mozambiquer
• Dec 10, 2021

The timing belt tensioner failed, which caused it to jump time and pistons hit valves. It was installed correctly, and had APPX 35k miles on it, but it was from a Gates kit (second Gates kit I've seen fail like that!)
I pulled the head off last night and checked it out, sure enough, the valves were smacked and the lifters were spiderwebbed, but the worst part was the cylinders on two and three. Cylinder two had a bent rod, which made the piston wear badly, and left aluminum on the cylinder wall, and cylinder three had some nice wear on it as well.

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• Mozambiquer
• Dec 10, 2021

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• Mozambiquer
• Dec 10, 2021

Not what you want to see when you pull a head!

 

[PakProtector]

Man, that indeed bites.

Got after the rear beam bushings. Man, that big, 7X rivet gun makes short work of removal... Back in with Cupra-R after lunches.
cheers,
Douglas

 

[red16vdub]

Not my Mk4, but had a guy break down locally on his way though (not sure if he's on here or not) Frank put him in touch with me and I took a look at the car.

337.jpeg

• Mozambiquer
• Dec 10, 2021

The timing belt tensioner failed, which caused it to jump time and pistons hit valves. It was installed correctly, and had APPX 35k miles on it, but it was from a Gates kit (second Gates kit I've seen fail like that!)
Cylinder two had a bent rod,
Not what you want to see when you pull a head!

I wonder what originally caused the bent rod.

 

[Boostlee]

replaced the hatch struts, antenna base and whip on the wagon

 

[03TDICommuter]

replaced the hatch struts, antenna base and whip on the wagon

I like your handle!

 

[Mozambiquer]

I wonder what originally caused the bent rod.

Not sure. It had been like that for a while.

 

[Rrusse11]

So shortly after my TB job, a CEL lit up. Awww crap, now what,,,,,,,,,,,. And I knew that the timing was probably
different, car's running great!

Lol, ooookayyyyyyyy, find the cable, plug it in to my flaky OBD port, it's got a broken mount, dust off the laptop,,,,,,,,.
Well dang, as figgered more than likely, a glow plug. And timing is actually a little reduced, was at 58, now at 53, now
just a touch advanced. IQ still at the upper limits at 8.6, FE sucks at 32mpg, but what a hoot to drive around town,
winter fuel has reduced the economy around town by 10%. Pulling like a train but!

After 4yrs of doing my major mods, I've had a couple repair items like hoses here and there, an alternator pulley.
But in the overall scheme of things, ridiculously reliable and trouble free. I've got a new cam
and lifters waiting, first sign of minor pitting on the original when I reset the valve cover to deal with a leak.
Right on schedule as the car is approaching 200k.
Tires are getting close to the wear bars, I'll put the new set on before the snow arrives.

Long live the ALH!

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

32 MPG? What's up with that? Last fill I was somewhat disappointed to get 46. But I had driven the car hard for some of it, and sat in NYC traffic for another part of that fill.

 

[Rrusse11]

IBW,

I have no idea, other than a heavy foot and lots of short trips. Yeah, I know it's lousy by most standards, but damn the car's quick with no smoke. I'll have to have a good look for fuel leaks next time I get her on a lift. Tempted to spend some money
on some 216s and get Franko6 to set them up. Also got a bigger airbox from Mr Chill, don't know if more air would help
with FE. Neglibile smoke at WOT, so it's not going out the exhaust pipe. I hear through the local grapevine that Jeff of RC
had a fire at his place, so I'm not sure if he's even available for any work at the moment.

Haven't been driving it much, but like I said above, man is she running hard and quick. Can't complain about the
performance. Though it did just cost me $50 to fillerup. I'm loathe to mess with it too much, "if it ain't broke,,,,,,,,,".

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

Other than track days I don't think I've logged less than 40 MPG on a tank more than 2 or 3 times, mostly driving fast into strong headwinds during the winter. And then it was 38. If you're getting 32, I think something is broke. Although I suppose if you drive it on short enough trips that could happen. I know Chill has seen 25 MPG on his '13 Passat.

 

[Rrusse11]

Peter,

Thanks for the input. One injector is pushing a bit more than the others, but still withing the spec of less than 2mg overall
spread. The high IQ # is another potential problem, mebbe with the pump? Dunno'. Hasn't been driven much last 2 years
or so. She's due for an oil change, and I'll run a can of Diesel Purge through the filter. In terms of bang for the buck,
the old girl's haulin' a$$. Roof racks, fat sticky tires, drivin' like a cabby, possibly a combination of factors.
Catch can is working fine, I know the turbo is clean, very responsive. She spools quick and clean.

This is where I haven't driven any similarly modded MkIVs, I don't have any experience to compare how it's
running/performing to others. The spike in fuel prices has made it more painful, but still not the end of the
world. Lol, and while I'm getting older, I haven't slowed down yet.

A drop in nozzle size and possibly swap out the pump, dial the tune back a bit, would probably all help the FE.
A data point I've missed, my oversize tires fixed the speedo, but back of the envelope calculations mean that
the odometer is out by 6-7%. So not quite as bad FE.

On the plus side, my solar panels are working! Not enough data yet, but it looks like I won't be paying any
more electricity bills.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

That's a good sized array. I'd be surprised if you have bills, unless you switch to electric heat.

 

[Rrusse11]

High south facing 35 degree roof, very unlikely to ever be built out. Got commercial grade
steel (26ga zincalume) roof ~8yrs old. It's ideal for an array, for a number of years I've been trying
to find a company that would deal with steel. Now there's a clip that screws to the sides
of the rib that takes a rail system for panel mounting. Panels should last as long as the roof.

Natural gas with on demand hot water, heat, dryer and stove.
Now I need a bio/methane converter. A big local dairy farm has the setup.
Making money on dumping fees for waste from others, and then running
a coupla' big ass generators feeding back into the grid. Win win on both ends of the system.
The leftovers from the processing goes back on the fields.

 

[csstevej]

Installed the missing mounting bolt on my A/C compressor , just came in the mail from IDPARTS ……God knows where it went and he’s not saying , tightened the other mounting bolt as it was loose……no idea why it was loose .

Russe 11 nice on the solar panel setup! How big is your system?
I installed one myself on our roof as town was giving me grief for a ground mounted array…. Was only able to put up 38 panels on my roof for a 15 mega watt system….wife didn’t want to see them on front of house.
I have mine running for about 3 1/2 years…..it’s been nice system is paid off between the government rebate , what I saved on my bill and the Srecs that I’m able to sell , averaging $212.00 per 1 mega watt production.

 

[Rrusse11]

steve,
18 panels at 400W @, after a couple days it's looking like I'll end up with no more electric bills. That's a nice win, our local utility
company, PPL (Pennsylvania Power and Light), just bumped their rates by 26%. I'll get a much better idea over the course of a
full year how it all balances out, but even a very short sunny day appears to mean net zero usage over a 24hr period.
What's an "Srec"?

 

[turbodieseldyke]

local utility
company just bumped their rates by 26%

lol. "Get an electric car", they said. "It will run free forever", they said.

 

[csstevej]

That’s nice ! SREC is in NJ….. for every mega watts I produce whether I use it or goes back out to the grid I get a certificate. Every month I input my meter reading and it keeps a tab , once a mega watt is produced it goes into my account. Then a month later they sell it like stocks to energy company’s that have to meet a quota of green energy produced . After they sell , it gets deposited into my bank account , no tax on it and isn’t qualified for income either.

Depending on you system , you can get an app and keep track of what your producing and if any issues pop up you can see which panels aren’t producing.
It helped me on mine as I was having issues with the inverters I installed….one failed after about a year and the other was having soft ware issues…..the company sent me two new ones and newer styled ones and they’ve been problem free.
I just wish I could’ve installed the 50 panels I wanted to do originally at 400 watts apiece for a 23 mega watt system……then when the kids moved out the electric company would be paying me as all my high demand issues would have moved out.

But really can’t complain……in the summer my electric bills are about 120-150 after the solar panels….. before it would run 350-400 per month……. The A/C and the pool drive up the summer cost.
We have electric water heater and electric dryer and we’ll pump.


editied to fix terminology of power

 

[tdidieselbobny]

fixed up the custom tailpipe again. Connection closest to rear of axle beam broke. Got it patched for now...

 

[Another]

Reassembled my old KKK turbo of my BEW after a VNT cleaning. I left few days the vanes to soak in brakecleaner. A bit dissapointed cause when i was separating the turbo a small rusted piece jumped of the cartridge flange. Now i have a small hole there.

How do you think guys, will an exaust cement work there to fill this hole?

 

[Rrusse11]

Back on topic,,,,,,, ordered a set of glow plugs for the Golf, and an oil change kit for the CRD.
Walmart doesn't seem to be carrying the Rotella T6 anymore. Idparts for the parts of course.

I did have a similar error when I first got the car, about 6yrs ago now. Had no problems
replacing one plug, though after reading the horror stories on the boards here about them
breaking off, I'll be a bit nervous now lol. Should still have the long series 10mm socket lurking
somewhere. Lots of Marvel around the plugs for a couple of days to lube 'em.

@csstevej,

Wow, you need a lot of panels. I've got gas on demand hot water, stove, furnace, and drier.
The SREC deal looks interesting! My average consumption is on the order of 30kw hrs a day,
lol, I think. Making head or tail of the PPL bill is bit like trying to figger the cell phone bill.
Whatever, I asked for a big enough system to basically cover all costs and let the Solar people
crunch the numbers.

My meter shows total usage and amount fed back into the grid. During an albeit short,
but sunny day, my system shows 16kw into the grid, and overnight, ~ the same amount
used, net zero. Of course I pay retail for what I use and they only pay me a wholesale rate.
Still, the general idea appears to be working, it's only been running now <a week.
I'll really only know at the end of a whole year cycle of generation/use. Still have
to have a "final inspection" from the powers that be, and the installer will be turning
over the software kind of package you recommend. Each panel with its own inverter, and
should be able to trouble shoot and map the system. The crew installing the
array, and warrantying the whole system, said it makes any repairs ez to track, and I should be
able to see how much power @ panel outputs. Time will tell.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

No Shell oil anywhere right now. No Mobil 1 either. Domestic refiners are struggling to get additives.

And I don't know if this is typical or not, but my array has had zero problems or repairs in 8 years. Nothing.

 

[PakProtector]

Awe nuts...now instead of TP, I am going to have to start hunting M1 to keep the TDI's in lube... Will start today I guess.

Douglas