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What did you do to your Passat today?

1348804 Views 11598 Replies 1401 Participants Last post by  lreven2, 
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I've seen this on many forums and it's always been a winner. Post up what you did to your car today. Add a picture or two that show what your did.


With that, I give you my addition, I polished my headlights.

Automotive parking light Car Vehicle Vehicle registration plate Grille
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That is some crazy low miles. My '02, I bought about a month ago, with 175k on it. Amazingly few issues with it.... :)

Lessee, what's been done over the last four weeks?
New spark plugs.
New air, cabin, and fuel filters.
New MAF sensor (it pooped itself about 2 weeks into my ownership.)
New coils (random misfiring under heavy load.)
New snow tires, on new steel wheels (a must around here.)
Fixed (mostly) Tiptronic control (was missing the side-slidy bit on the shifter rubber.... :screwy: )
Replace radio (installed a Kenwood KDC-X996 that I had laying around.) Yay, features!!!
Installed Komfortblinker relay (had a kit laying around.)
Replace broken radio trim.
Install new-to-me rear ashtray assembly (was missing.)
Install used good airbag controller (again, was missing.... :screwy: )
All new keys (came with just a valet key. Where do peoples keys go?)

And, a fun bit: picked up an APR Stage 1-tuned ECU for it. Installed that Monday. That made the car more fun..... :D


Still on the to-do list:
RF CV boots
Timing belt / water pump
New summer tires (and, centering rings for the aftermarket alloys that came on it.)
And, should do oil & brake fluid changes soon.
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So, one thing that I just didn't like was 'forward: up; rearward: down' on a Tiptronic. It's just backwards.
So, this happened yesterday......

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Hobbit1066 said:
Ok so how did you manage this to is there a write up somewhere as , I bugs me and I've only had the car 2wks !
Click to expand...
Sorry, I didn't do photos as I went.
But, here's what I posted at the Vortex:
Wiring is easy: just swap pins 4 & 5 at the selector plate.
Swapping the + and -:
Remove selector plate, unclip circuit board from it. Gently work the number plate off of the cover (might need to warm it up a little to soften the tape. Mine, well, the tape was *just* holding it, barely.)
Cut out the + and - with a Dremel. A little epoxy to hold the number plate to the cover (and, clamp it in place while it cures!), and a little more epoxy to glue the + and - down. Edges only here: don't want to cover the exposed backside of the characters that you moved, lest the light not shine thru them anymore.

Total time: about 90 minutes. Best spread out with an overnight in between glue work and reassembly, so that the epoxy can fully cure.

And, a walk-thru on taking the console & shifter apart:
http://www.passatworld.com/forums/v...onic-working-again-w-pics-vw-passat-audi.html
(note that photos 2 and 3 are incorrect. The shifter MUST be in D3 (or lower) to take the console out. Also, the ashtray will stay with the console (if it isn't already broken, of course. )
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Yesterday: Re-coded transmission for 'sport' mode. IMHO, this is the shift program that should be the default. No longer is it in a hurry to get into 5th on light-to-moderate acceleration. Definitely easier to get it to drop a gear on its own.
This mod gets a :thumbup: from me. :)
http://www.passatworld.com/forums/v...tronic-sports-mode-enabling-instructions.html
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Slow week at work here. So, timing belt (and water pump, and the TB tensioners) done today.
And, not a day too soon, I'd say - found (after I had it off) that it was starting to delaminate. :eek:
And, it looks like the old belt was made in 2008...... :rolleyes:
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Bath. Because, even with little snow, there's a crap-ton of salt on the roads around here.
New floor mats. New VW rubber mats in the car now; a new set of Schwaben carpet mats are in the back, pending nature's washing of the roads.
And, replaced the VW emblem on the engine cover - because having it missing drive me nuts every time I opened the hood.
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Mikey:
The chrome bar that you'd put a key ring thru? $20 from Mark1Service:
Sidewinderkey.com
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Not that I've seen on their site.
But, you do realize that DE AutoKey does have complete empty shells, right? (I hadn't seen that until after I posted last night.)
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Over the last couple of weeks:

Summer mode!

The Moda wheels were already on the car when I bought it; however, the PO had elected to not install the correct centering rings (or taper-seat bolts, for that matter) with them.
Fixed those issues when the snows came off, as well as mounting a fresh set of Conti Extreme DWS 06 tires (225/45R17.)
Also snagged a set of VW wheel emblems off of fleabay for $13.

(sorry about the lighting. Yesterday morning was the first time I had a chance to take a photo of a clean wagon.)

Pulled the antenna, replace the gaskets. Inner seal was still OK (it didn't leak); but, the outer gasket was entirely missing.

Yesterday: replaced battery, because it's been randomly slow-cranking over the last couple of weeks; and, had to jump it to leave work Saturday.
It's entirely normal to need to remove the wiper arms from a car to replace the battery, right? :screwy: :laugh:
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Not a 'what did I do' - rather, a 'what was said.'

Random isht that kids say.
So, Isaac (my son) is ~21 months old.
Last Tuesday, Isaac and I go out for a walk after dinner (so, you know, he can burn some Go.)
Isaac stops in front of our house. Points at the Passat (wagon.)
Isaac: "da car."
Me: "It is the car."
Isaac: "Da daddy car!"
Me: "It is daddy's car."
Isaac: (looks up at me, big isht-eating grin on his face) "Da bwick!"
Me: :laugh:
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Over the weekend, just a few little things:
- Installed new airbox trim cover (was missing when I bought the car.)
- Installed a "1.8 T" badge on the back.
- Replaced the anchors in my carpet floor mats (had 'oval anchor' mats; car has round anchors.)
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Picked up an older (but not too old) laptop - with a serial port - on fleabay, so I can start playing around with CCM coding (with EasyCCM, and/or VDS-Pro.)

Made a working bootable USB drive (because the laptop is, at least, new enough to support that :thumbup: ); can't get the software to communicate with anything in the car. :thumbdown
Possible that the serial-OBD II cable I picked up is the issue (maybe has no K-line connection?)
Will experiment with something we have at work tomorrow.
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Changed the tailgate logic for my B5.5 wagon to "ROW" sanity. :thumbup:
link: http://www.passatworld.com/forums/v...74-rear-hatch-lock-operation.html#post4202057

And, while I was in the CCM, enabled window roll-down via remote.
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Kelly tires suck. No two ways about it. They're cheap - and, you get what you pay for.

My recommendation: ContiExtremeContact DWS 06. Tire Rack shows your size for $106 each.
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Yesterday:
Started tearing it apart for replacement of the heater & evaporator cores. Fun.....

And, while it's apart:
Instrument cluster shipped to LCD Auto Tech today, for LCD replacement.
Also while it's apart, I'll be doing my MFSW retrofit (only had those parts since last winter), and installing a new-to-me, undamaged dashboard. :thumbup:
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Yesterday:
Heater box back in, and dash support bolted back down.

Today:
Sorted out my MFSW retrofit harness (because, well, Kufatec's instructions are as clear as mud, a couple wires were mis-labelled, and one wire was in the wrong spot.) Finding correct pins for T15a connector now.
Started to sort out the Axxess steering wheel control adapter that I have for my (aftermarket) radio; realized that it isn't "older" VW compatible (only CAN-bus cars, it seems.) Research done; looks like a PAC adapter will work. Ordering tonight.

Now stuck on those projects, so started pulling more interior apart, to do a CCM antenna mod.
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You have it on Trip 2, not Trip 1. ;)
Tap the bottom (reset) button on the stalk to toggle between the two.


Me:
Yesterday: Mostly completed my extended antenna for the CCM. Before: range ~15' (from directly in front of the car), to as low as <6' (directly from rear.)
Car in the garage, backed in, and I can lock & unlock it from the middle of the street now. :)
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Sorted out a wiring boo-boo on my MFSW retrofit. Function-check the steering wheel, all is good there. :thumbup:
Tomorrow, I can (finally) start putting the dash back in the car. Yays!
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More post-heater-core reassembly - dash mostly reassembled, and all of the left-side trim bits that were removed for my "extended CCM antenna install" are back in.
Still need to program my PAC SWI-RC to the car, reinstall the radio, and then the glovebox. Then I can (finally) pick up the random garbage bits, and vacuum out all of the sand that my 2yo son has tracked into the car over the last couple weeks (because, you know, he's helpful! :lol: )
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Got the SWI-RC programmed, radio back in, and dash buttoned up (Friday.)
First thing I do with the car after that? Load ~500lbs of rocks in the back to go dispose of them.... :laugh:

A couple of goodies showed up today, from a PW user: Euro Bi-Xenon headlights (woot!), and a TT 3.2 shift knob. :thumbup:
Those will be going in sometime soon.
Also ordered a rear parking sensor kit. Will be sending the sensors over to our body shop for paint, before they go in (next weekend, perhaps?)
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