What my wife hates

I actually prefer colder weather. I would move north but my wife can't stand cold weather. We tend to have a month of 50s-60s near December, then a warm up around Christmas, then it gets cool again at the end of January. By end of March it will snap into high 80s and up until next "Winter". Our Summers are why I do a lot of wrenching at night.

 

Agree I love Midwest weather , I get all 4 seasons , and love them all. I can always keep warm , but staying cool is killer working on vehicles.

 

The car was parked for a while and I just didn't want to look at it. Something about having your wife hate a car becomes very discouraging when you don't want to tell her it needs a head gasket.

I had a free day about a month ago so I fired it up, brushed the rat crap off my battery, went around the block a few times and changed the oil. It was pretty red, my coolant is pink so that worried me. I drove it to the beach and back, to the foothills and back, into town a few times. No overheating, no visible loss of coolant. Changed the oil again and it had a bit of red to it but not nearly like the time before. I've driven the car a few times since and been watching it, the oil doesn't seem to be getting watered down like a few months ago. Unsettling but I'll take it if I don't need to pull the head after all.

I did notice a different problem though. When I need a thrill I cruise it at 3k rpm and then give it the beans. It starts off pulling hard as ever but then the rpm goes up without the speedo. I saw it happen a few times, I need to replace the clutch. Not too surprising since I'm roughly 40hp over stock and the stock clutch is who knows how old.

I'm putting a shopping list together. I'm going to use the clutch from a VR6 and the single mass flywheel. Its a pretty common upgrade for a lighter flywheel and stronger clutch without losing the stock feeling. That should be good for 275 hp/tq and I don’t plan to exceed that.

I also need to do the timing belt job and swap my motor mounts. I might get into that first and do the clutch after.

 

I realize it's been 2 months, but the oil/coolant heat exchanger above the oil filter can deteriorate internally and commingle your fluids. Great source for a head gasket failure scare, but a much easier fix.
Although a 1.8t head gasket isn't really all that bad aside from removing the turbo from the manifold. Those three bolts are nightmare fuel.

 

@chrisb Yup, I'm monitoring the oil on a fresh change and watching coolant too. Recent oil change had a tint of red to it but it isn't looking bad on the dip stick so far (+/-500 miles). Good news is I'm not driving much lately. Next month I'll find a weekend to...

• Swap the oil cooler
• Drain and refill coolant
• Replace a slow leaking plastic flange thing on the low end of the radiator
• Timing belt/water pump
• Swap the crack pipe and the one by the thermostat for aluminum
• Swap any remaining hose clamps on my cooling system for spring clamps
• Motor mounts
• Oil/filter change

Might even take a Monday off, its a lot of work. Once that is all that is done I will monitor again to see if the oil gets watery.

Really need a clutch soon too. I have to baby it for now.

 

Finally timing belt day!


Not a day too soon either. I can lift the belt with little pressure, belt is cracked and tensioner is weak.

 

Aaaaaaaarrrrrgh ever been here? If the belt could get just a bit less tension it would go on. Trying really hard not to fray the edges up.

 

Its on. Time for a celebratory beer. Slapping the shrouds on now to check timing. Fingers crossed because I don't wanna do this twice.

 

not sure how I came across this but good luck with the VW. I cut my teeth on VWs as a youngster. Its why I fancy myself an amateur mechanic and have more tools than some techs! I'm all about toyotas and Lexus now, unfortuantely I just sold my Tundra but my 02 LS430 is probably the best car I've ever owned. Every now and then I get an itch to pick up another MK3 gti or golf sport to autox but then I come back to my senses! lol

 

Don't fall back in! I keep telling myself I'll sell this car, next year, no, next year, maybe next year. Its so damn fun to drive though.

Got the timing belt on, new water pump, new pulley, timing belt tensioner, all using new bolts because VW likes making you use new bolts.


Also, finally got this really sweet motor mount on. Tomorrow I'll be finishing this job and putting another mount like this on the driver side. I'm sure it will vibrate a bit at idle but from how much this one mount firmed things up, I can love with that. Before I could grab my motor and push it back and forth about an inch. It doesn't budge now. These are a complete redesign using thick solid rubber isolators and big blocks of metal.


The trained eye will spot that I replaced the plastic crack pipe with aluminum.


The crappy stock one.


So much room for activities... I mean for movement.

 

Nice thread & car. I get it. I had a '17 BR86Z my Wife hated it, refused to go near it.

I lived in Mexico in 2002-2006, had a 2003 Audi A3 that is very similar to this car with a 1.8T. Loved it until 2004 when the warranty expired, Audi loves Mexico, they get away with a 1 year warranty. (as do all manufacturers)

Enjoy!

 

Just wrapped it up about an hour ago. Did a shakedown run in my neighborhood, just easy 1st through 3rd driving. Went through some hills and turns to get fluids shaken. Got back to my block and the low coolant light went off. Pulled over and topped off, I expected that. Topped off my power steering too. Checked oil, all good.

Went to get gas and gave it a bit more of a run on the highway. Yep, all is good and the mounts really changed the personality of the car. I expected more noise and vibration, I expected it to feel firm and planted, and all that happened. What I didn't expect was I can hear the motor now, I can hear the intake and the turbo pretty loud. Sounds sexy.

The new mounts do make the car shake a lot on idle and off a start, but they're a huge improvement after that. Shifting feels solid now, punching the gas feels way more responsive. I should have changed them years ago.

 

those 1.8ts could be torque monsters if modded a bit, and definitely needed motor mount upgrades. My VR when I sold it had BFI poly front and rear mounts and a Corrado solid rubber trans mounts. It wasn't too bad as far as noise and vibration but it made a huge difference in how the car responded to the gas pedal. The mounts on these cars are so soft its rediculous. Although I will sat most motor mounts on most cars seem to be way too soft. Especially if the car has any kind of real power.

 

@Darkness did you upgrade the dogbone as well? Or is that little guy still stock? It's probably the most important of the three engine mounts if you intend to limit engine movement.

 

Yup, I did the dog bone a few years back. It did make a big improvement but even if the lower end is stable the top end still wobbled. This "fixed" all of that. The car feels like a little angry hatch now. I love it, wife will hate it.

 

Took a quick drive last night with the wife to go grocery shopping. The noises and shaking didn't bother her much, I was surprised.

Hearing the intake more and hearing the burbles of the turbo is pretty addictive. Once our rain stops here I'm going to do a quick look over of the work I did to make sure no bolts are backing out and all of those spring clips are secured, burp the coolant once more and take it for a real rip. If its all good I'm going to order up some exhaust stuff.

I'm thinking I will order a 2.5 pipe kit for dual exhaust, it comes with a few mandrel bent 90s, a few 45s, a few other bends and a few sticks of straight pipe. I should have more than what I need and use the rest on my truck later. I believe I need 2 or 3 90s and 1 or 2 45s to do this car. Then I need to figure out what route I'll go for the pipe from muffler to tips, either a dual outlet muffler with both tips coming together (stock style) or just run a single outlet and add a y tip at the end to retain the two pipes in the bumper. I'll be using a magnaflow resonator, a Spintech muffler, and all in I believe about $300 in parts (and have left over to re-do my truck).

For the downpipe, I have a slightly larger section that is meant to go from the turbo to the stock cat. I'm going to weld that in, its about 2.36" diameter and gets rid of the stupid bend. Along with that I can cut the pipe from the end of the cat and run 2.5" back, effectively increasing the flow through. From what I've read you can actually do this up to 3" but I've yet to try it. If that fails I'll buy a downpipe with high flow cat. Just trying to save a buck and stay smog compliant.

 

I haven't been happy with the headlights on this car forever. When I bought it, it had nice Hellas but they were converted to HID with the harness all hacked up. I got rid of those the first month and went with some halogen projectors that throw light at street signs but not at the streets. They must be Australian from how they aim (upside down).

I just ordered up some e code aftermarket 20th anniversary style. Can't wait to get them in.

 

Did about a 30 mile trip today. That makes maybe 40 miles since the belt job. Car is running great, sounding better than ever, and the mounts seem to be softening a bit. I had read that the harsh vibrations settle down after a few hundred miles, that seem to be the case. Before today my steering column was slapping my dash, thats how hard it was shaking at idle. Today that went away.

 

Went to move my car from the driveway to the street. Got 3 good oil spots from last night. A quick look showed some oil leaking near the filter. I doubt its the filter. Wondering if the oil cooler is leaking after all now. I've read that when the gasket on them is weak it can let go if temps get cold enough.

Good news is I have an oil cooler in the garage. Bad news is I don't see a free day to install it anytime soon. Christmas weekend, New Years weekend, and the weekend after I'm already busy with family gatherings.

Sometimes I wish I was a single hermit. Did I say that out loud?

 

Adjusted the front shocks to be more firm. They were close to the full soft before, now I went all the way firm and backed off 1/8th turn. I've read that setting them all the way firm or soft can lead to the adjusters getting stuck.

I had a suspicious that my tires had winterism going on, where your tires lose pressure because its so damn cold. I was right. Each tire was roughly 20% lower than they should be. Pumped those up.

I went for a very spirited drive, giving it the beans through sweeping turns and flicking into a few sharp turns. The motor mounts compliment the firm setting on the shocks. This is the stability I've been craving without the bucky bounces.

Got it home and let it idle in the driveway for a few minutes. I crawled under to look for leaks, I've been seeing oil spotting right under my power steering lately. I don't see it leaking at all now. I'll check again tomorrow.

 

As many of you know, California decided to start looking for tunes on smog checks this year. My check isn't due until October but I want to plan ahead.

I learned that tuning companies store your vin if they tune your car, thats great. I picked up the phone and started calling tuners. I called APR first, hoping to be in their system since they are CARB approved. Nope, not there. I called Unitronic, I have thought that was likely who tuned my car since the boost pulls so aggressively, nope not them either.

I called GIAC, learned that they are a California based company in nearby Orange County. Yes, they tuned my car in 2014! They said I have the stage 1+ tune (which is just a more aggressive version of the discontinued stage 1). That's the good news. The bad new to my surprises is that the tune is not CARB compliant, even though it retains the function of all monitoring systems, it is not advertised for anything other than race use. Crap.

I chatted with the guy there for a bit and it sounds like I have three options. Option one is revert to stock, thats not happening. Option two is get a smog legal tune, like APR for example, which on paper is comparable. Option three is find another stock ECU and have the immobilizer defeated so I can run that and keep my tuned ECU "for race day".

Now to find out if an immobilizer defeat will fail me at the smog check. I'm going to have to ask a smog guy.

 

For what it's worth, I had an APR tune on my 99 Passat 1.8T and thought it was a pretty good tune. Slightly less aggressive than the GIAC, if I recall correctly.