[05_r6]

Ok, where do i begin. My sister owns a 2002 Passat 1.8T FWD. Last year because of her negligence, the timing belt snapped. She never changed the oil and it never got serviced properly. Its had little to no preventative maintanace performed on it since my father bought it for her in 2007. It had over 105,000 miles on it when it snapped. So, she had it serviced at a local speed shop in West Chester, Pa and they replaced the water pump and timing belt and removed "some" sludge. I have been told they changed the HG on it but its debateable. The paperwork was lost (imagine that...) and a few family members say it was. Are the stockers MLS?

Anyway, the pcv system was hosed and they didnt take care of it last year. They also had cut the vacuum line to the diverter valve and various others, and ran a bunch of tees and capped them with bolts. There were like 4-5 tee fittings under the IM when i witnessed it about 5 weeks ago. I couldnt believe what i witnessed. I fixed those and set it up properly. I changed the oil and ran some seafoam throurgh the car. This was 5 weeks ago. Well she drives it for a 1.5 weeks and then starts having problems. I guess during my cleaning of the engine bay or work, i sturred up the problems to manifest themselves.

I drove down to West Chester and saw how it was driving and it was bad. It could barely drive 40 mph. Stumbles nearly 100% of the time youre driving it. Leaking oil, cj joints were also bad and those were clicking and knocking. It was bad. It threw the P0411, P0300, P0301-4. And i believe another code too. So i try changing the spark plugs and the cam angle sensor and check the coilpacks. No go. I tell it needs to come home for me to fix it. I knew it was gonna be bad. I didnt realize it was this bad.

She gets it home by some miracle. I find literally everything is wrong. LITERALLY.

Turbo-blown
PCV- clogged, coked, brittle, most importantly not working
VC- coked, black
cylinder head, some sludge, turbo turds everywhere, coked
kombi valve- clogged, would not crack open
IC- filled with oil, oil stained and thick on the temp sensor? in the IC
Cam chain tensioner- clogged i believe, not working.
Oil pan- coked with oil, turbo turds, some sludge.
Pick up tube- nasty
Oil pump- prolly bad
Oil filter housing- nasty
Leaking oil from VC
Coolant was ugly!
Suspension- 4 blown struts
Motor mounts- both bad
Trans Mounts- both bad
Cj joints- both bad
oil EVERYWHERE


So over the last 3 weeks I've literally fixed all of that. The engine bay is mint. Everything thing has been repaired. I rebuilt the turbo, took everything i could to the machine shop to clean, replaced the cam chain tensioner, replaced nearly all the gaskets in the car, cleaned every part of the car, everything. There is just too much to go over. I overhauled the car. I did even more that whats in the list above like clean the injectors and replace the o rings replace 60% of the hoses, and rebuild the pcv system...just too much to list. It was a 3 week fix! Regardless, the car looks great now. So i got it finally finished tonight. I had one minor leak with the coolant feed to the turbo while filling the coolant, but that was fixed. I havent seen another leak yet on the car. I cleared the ECU (unplugged the battery) primed the oil for over a minute with the fuel pump fuse out. Got the car running and no CEL's!!! Holy crap i was excited. Still no leaks! But, i was getting a STOP light that my coolant level was low. Forgot to plug in the sensor on the bottom of the expansion tank. Restart the car and now it is starting to stumble randomly. The SAIP was checked as well as the relay and fuse and i heard those run and it went off. Ive ran it for about 7 minutes with the heat on high and it will just stumble randomly. NO CELs. What could it be? Please someone help.

Heres a few photos from the overhaul.

 

[FWDB5]

So what your asking is why is it stumbling randomly? How long did you drive it with no CEL. Have you scanned the modules for faults with a VAG/COM?

 

[05_r6]

I do not have a VAGCOM. It has only run for 7 minutes. It will randomly stumble at idle. Very indeterminately. No CELs

 

[FWDB5]

Did you clean the TB? Check for vacuum leaks?

 

[05_r6]

TB was cleaned, new gasket, copper spray, torqued to 10Nm. Vacuum leaks are highly unlikely. I made sure everywhere was tight and couldnt move before moving on. No hissing noises. Everything has a clamp or zip tie.

 

[FWDB5]

I think a generic obd2 reader may display pending faults if there is any. Did you try adapting the throttle body?

 

[05_r6]

I was searching and some say if could be bad gas or something. The MAF is clean. Im just thinking it could be the car adjusting. Last time it ran it was running terrible. Could it just be relearning itself after the major overhaul?

Im going to put some 93 in it and see what it does.

 

[05_r6]

Put some gas in it and it stumbles quite a bit now at idle. Hold steady at 2k though. Still no wierd or odd sounds. Only thing its doing is smoking from the antiseize from the turbo bolts but it is not doing anything else abnormal. No leaks. Is nearly up to temp. I keep running it for a few minutes then turning it off and checking for any leaks. It also threw a code. Need to find a scanner tomorrow.

 

[05_r6]

Could it need a TBA? I did clean everything so it could be that correct? Would that throw a code if it needed it?

 

[05_r6]

So i found a really cool guy that drove an hour to run VCDS on the car. End result was i had one bad coil. Everything else looked good. Had a few things messed up with like the outside air temp, and a few other minor things. But all in all, i have one bad coil. Gonna pick up a cheap one temporarily and get it running and swap in a genuine later.

 

[Steve in Chicago]

Wow! Lots of work. You've got one lucky sister. With that much gone wrong and faced with repairing it at at shop rates, many people would have abandoned the car. The parts alone had to have totaled up to a hefty number.

When the timing belt failed, it would have probably bent a number of valves (interference engine). Chances are they did have to pull the head. Or, are you saying they may have re-used the original head gasket?

Nice work. :thumbup:

 

[05_r6]

Well is the stocker a MLS gasket? It looks to have some layers on it. I just swapped the coil today and it purrs like a kitten. Needs a new auto tensioner, somewhat loud but im super happy right now. So is my mom and sister. Ive taken up all of the garage for the past 3 weeks and my sister has been without a car. NO FUKKS GIVEN.

Thank you by the way. I kept telling my sister and mom that they are lucky to have me. They shouldnt be bitching. I just put in work on this car and all i get is screamed at. Ill try to get some pics in of the final product today before i drive it down to her. I got it up to temp and i didnt see any leaks just a few minutes ago. Still is smoking a bit from the antiseize but thats it. Idles like a dream right now and revs super smooth. Im proud can you tell?

 

[05_r6]

I believe the parts ran up to nearly 1500. I went with a lot of aftermarket stuff from ECS to save money but some things i couldnt get or couldnt wait so i had to buy oem. The car is is near original form less some minor clamps and hoses.