[Airkewld38]

Well, I've had some time to mess with the W8 wagon I picked up. I've driven it for one day so far, and I'm happy with it, but some things need to be done. This has a rebuilt title, and when we hooked the scanner up it has 57 codes. 🤔 The airbag light is on, and check engine light, as well as a battery light coming on at times but then going away. I was told it will die overnight but left it hooked up for a few days since I picked it up and it hadn't killed the battery yet. Some of the cables to the battery were loose, and the cover to the ecu was not secured. The ecu does get hot while the car is on and running. I also found a hole in the a/c line, have yet to test the heater.
I am not a fan of this beige interior, so it's about on the first thing to go. Are the door panels the same between a wagon and a sedan? What about the side skirt, cause this one's is trashed on the right side. And the carpet and lower portion of the rear seat I'm hoping are the same as a sedan.
The exhaust is pretty much straight piped, which gives it a great sound while driving.
The tint needs replaced, and it needs tires and probably brakes. All in all though I'm pretty okay with it. No major damage that I can see. Probably a great candidate for that supercharger though. 🤔

 

[PZ]

Only 57 codes? I wonder if that's a record.
The door panels on the front can swap over, but the rears do not. The carpet and lower portion of the rear seat should be the same if the sedan is a 4Mo. I would worry about the ECU cover being left loose and electrical damage under the dash and carpet (CCM).

 

[AndreasPassat]

Subscribed to this thread. Curious to see how this transforms.

 

[Airkewld38]

Airbag only had one code after looking at it. It's about the seat belt switch driver side.
Glad to know the carpet and seat will swap over, it'll be from another W8 car. It's either going to be changed to the black or the grey depending on which one I find first. The codes are all over the place though, so I'll figure it out.
It also has a coolant leak behind the engine I learned, as I say waiting for a train to pass. I believe it's a heater hose but I couldn't see right off. The saip has a broken line to one of the combi valves, right cylinder head, so that's why it's got that code.
More work on it tomorrow I guess.

 

[Airkewld38]

Well I found my extra set of hoses for the combi valves and I'll get them installed later. I'm going to try and swap the wiring harness from the battery down to the alternator. As I was driving into the school this morning, yes I know it's Saturday, the battery light flickered and then gave me an alternator workshop warning. The battery itself is okay, and when it's charging it's about 13.8 but this time I checked and it was only 9.7 while running. I have a few extra parts luckily so it won't be so bad. I've also been watching a lot of videos on this little M90 and learning more about it. So many people just go for it and install one, I don't see a reason it should be so difficult. Only thing I'm worried about is tuning it.

 

[AndreasPassat]

I've also been watching a lot of videos on this little M90 and learning more about it. So many people just go for it and install one, I don't see a reason it should be so difficult. Only thing I'm worried about is tuning it.

I agree with that. It'll take a bit of fab-ing to get it all together but finding a good tuner I think would be the most difficult part of the project.

 

[Airkewld38]

So, I worked on the wagon today. Pulled the entire front off to get a look at what the total damage was. The alternator was definitely screwed.

The plug was broken on the alternator, it's a pretty new unit, so it has to have broken on installation. The A/C compressor was seized as well. So I removed the compressor to change the lines anyways and installed another I got from a member here a while ago. Got it all installed, fixed some wiring, installed a different alternator and buttoned it up. Also replaced the siap feed tubes from the blower, as one was broken. Also found a ground that wasn't tight. Started it up and checked, and it was charging the battery, and no more leaks, so far. So tomorrow I'll add oil to the compressor and charge the A/C and see if it works. I also am going to clear all the codes to see what sets again.

 

[Airkewld38]

So I went through each and every damn module and cleared every code. Only one that keeps coming back was the seat belt code. I imagine there's something wrong with it as a hard fault. Otherwise it's been running pretty well after replacing a few things. I noticed some strange smoke where the heater hoses go into the dash thought it was leaking, but couldn't find anything. Then I had it running and saw that the smoke was actually coming from the positive battery cable that attaches to a fuse and goes down to the alternator. It has jb weld on the box, so I replaced it and cleaned it up and had new heat shrink on. No more issues with that now. I'm going Saturday to look at a wagon so I can change the interior color. More to come later.

 

[FamousDan]

I admire your dedication to the project. This will be a fun car for you!

I had a persistent seat belt code on a new-to-me wagon. It turned out that the 2 wires going up the stalk into the seat belt latch were cleanly broken or cut through adjacent to the latch during the car's life with a previous owner. I was able to break open the plastic cover on the latch and tug enough of the slack in the wires to allow soldering/heat shrinking the wires together again. The plastic cover is now held together with tie-wrap (a classic custom feature!) and the code is gone.

Good luck to you on this project, and fun times with the many many happy miles ahead with that excellent vehicle.

 

[Airkewld38]

I hope to have a lot of fun with it. Now that I pilfered the entire interior from a black wagon, I can swap out this beige tan.

Same picture in the other thread, but stuffed it in my wagon and now the process will begin to change out the parts. The dash and center console are on the list.
Also, the carpet is different from a wagon to the sedan, there's a couple cutouts for the bottom of the rear seat to be able to tilt forward. I imagine I could just cut the parts out, but meh.
What do you think the likelihood of anyone wanting this tan interior would be?

 

[PZ]

I would have wanted it last year. 😭

 

[Airkewld38]

Well I went back today, grabbed the dash, center console, and the carpet. It was all in pretty great shape so I figure why not. Needs cleaned it was kinda gross. Pulling the dash without all the sports was a mess, I'll have to be a bit more nicer to remove the rest of it.

 

[AndreasPassat]

When I gutted my 1998 GLS I steamed cleaned my carpet.
It was absolutely disgusting beforehand. The end result was pretty darn good.

 

[Airkewld38]

It looks like I have to pull the dash anyways to change it, but I've noticed a few differences so far installing some things. The rear cargo area doesn't seem to be the same length, as the carpet I removed doesn't fit this wagon. Guess we'll know for sure soon.

 

[Airkewld38]

So apparently there is a large difference between the wagons. The rear parts are not the same, they are just vastly different in the way they attach. So I don't think I can swap the rear parts yet. The black carpet is in, and some of the trim is ready, but before I can put the dash back in, there's the a-piliar covers that needs to go on. This is making me agitated because it's taking so long.

 

[AndreasPassat]

Are you talking about the plastic trim parts that go on the pillars and along the upper door areas?
They made two different version of all that plastic trim stuff. The way they attach is completely different also.
The difference being that the B5.5 had changes in the air bag restraint system. The newer plastic panels attach in a way that is one time use. They're also affixed with a lanyard to keep from flying around in the cabin in the event of a collision.
The older B5 panels snap in and out without issue.

 

[Airkewld38]

I was able to pull them out with no issues. The rear cargo area sides are the different parts. The new black pieces are taller, so I'm debating about just cutting them down to fit.

 

[Airkewld38]

So here is what I have. The bottom piece is the black set from the donor wagon. The top that is easier seen is the tan from my W8. They are just too different to even make work.

This shows them being lined up at the anchor pin but the hole to the left of the picture would be where the seat would be.

This is the rear section, still lined up. The two holes are not the same size.
I'm guessing I'll be looking for one from San AWD car, as the donor might have only been fwd.

 

[bateson.steven]

Well, I've had some time to mess with the W8 wagon I picked up. I've driven it for one day so far, and I'm happy with it, but some things need to be done. This has a rebuilt title, and when we hooked the scanner up it has 57 codes. 🤔 The airbag light is on, and check engine light, as well as a battery light coming on at times but then going away. I was told it will die overnight but left it hooked up for a few days since I picked it up and it hadn't killed the battery yet. Some of the cables to the battery were loose, and the cover to the ecu was not secured. The ecu does get hot while the car is on and running. I also found a hole in the a/c line, have yet to test the heater.
I am not a fan of this beige interior, so it's about on the first thing to go. Are the door panels the same between a wagon and a sedan? What about the side skirt, cause this one's is trashed on the right side. And the carpet and lower portion of the rear seat I'm hoping are the same as a sedan.
The exhaust is pretty much straight piped, which gives it a great sound while driving.
The tint needs replaced, and it needs tires and probably brakes. All in all though I'm pretty okay with it. No major damage that I can see. Probably a great candidate for that supercharger though. 🤔

super charger on W8??? so many wet dreams

 

[Airkewld38]

It's something I'm working on, but currently the manifold I have is literally wooden until I can make a casting.