[srs]

Timing belt, coolant flush, water pump. It is way easier to do this work with the radiator off rather than in "service position".

 

[keithwbloom]

Spent the second late night in my neighbor's garage getting Betty properly suited up for Tail of the Dragon Rally this weekend. Ticked off my punch list:

1. I removed the Porsche Cup II wheels and spacer adapters and restored the refinished and remounted RH AD Cup wheels on new 30mm H&R DRA spacers up front, put the old 30mm spacers (same type) on rears. Figured out what was causing a wobble on one wheel, and remedied it. Th RH Cups have tabs that fit RH offset adapters and they were just a hair too small for 30mm spacer to fit clean and flush, so I used grinder and a cutting wheel to remove just about .5mm of material from the inside of each tab
2. Installed fresh Zimmerman 312mmx23mm coated rotors up front to replace the ones I had to sacrifice to cut the seized spacer studs on the Porsche whee adapters. The new discs were $165 for the pair, but a new set of spacers (I could have cut lugs through either) would have been a hundred dollar more than that, if I could find them in 25mm width. Such is life.
   
   
   
   
   
3. After letting the RTV in the new cam cover gaskets cure overnight, I wrestled the G1 back into position, hooked up all the intercooler plumbing and double and triple checked all the sensor connections. Fired it up and listened to Betty's whine once again. She dropped to idle in about 20 seconds, and then I turned her off because it was after midnight, and firing up a side-mounted supercharger-equipped 30V in an enclosed space (garage door was open) WILL wake the neighbors. Woke up this morning and realized I had forgotten to put MAF and filter on, so good thing I didn't run it too long.
   
   What Betty's goodie bin looks like when she's in service position:
   
4. Torqued and re-torqued all the spacer lugs and wheel lugs on all four corners. Will drive it to office tomorrow and Thursday and then torque everything (spacer lugs and wheel lugs) again. Will drive again Friday and then torque the wheels lugs once more time. Will be taking torque wrench in tool kit on road trip.
   
   
   
   
   
5. Topped off the G12 level. Running a bit low. Don't seem to have a leak anywhere, so I am wondering where it might be going. Will keep the extra fluid with me in my road kit and watch it over the next 1,000 miles or so over the weekend.
6. This morning I reinstalled the rain tray, and engine compartment perimeter seal. Cleaned up and organized my tools and discarded all the shop trash, cut lugs, spent discs, and miscellaneous packaging for all of the above.

Tonight's list:

1. Install Philips DayLite8 Daytime Running lights in lower non-fog light grilles (supercharger intercooler plumbing leaves no room for OE passenger fog projector housing.
2. Polish headlamps and reinstall front bumper cover and belly pan (may replace belly pan if dealer can get one for me tomorrow or has one in stock, mine is trashed.)
3. Re-install lower center grille stainless steel frame. Purely cosmetic, but part of Betty's groove nonetheless. Touch up passenger caliper paint where too narrow spacer made wheel spoke scrape the caliper body.
4. Swap out Monster mats front and rear for Mojo mats (more comfy for barefoot driving.)
5. Check all running and brake lights, adjust aim on headlights so when driving behind James and everyone with HID low beams on, I am not dazzling them in their mirrors.
6. If I have energy after all that, I may try to get MFD Navi connection to volume and track/program selection buttons on B5 S-Line Tiptronic MFSW sorted.

As an homage to Sabine, I am leaving the retro red metallic wing mirror caps on in addition to the matching retro red shifter knob inside. With Betty's wheels, the red mirror caps really pop. I'll post pictures after I have her detailed Friday morning. No pics other than shop photos above until she is all shiny inside and out.

:wrench:

 

[shaggy1071]

Cracked another oil pan yet again tonight leaving work. I just started a new job, and I have to park in the lower level garage. Coming out tonight, I scrapped the front end in a dip, (which there was no warning posted about), and I made it home to find my car bleeding all of the precious oil I just paid to get put in on Saturday. I am hoping that the pan is still under warranty. FML

 

[ytqm]

Woooow. Original turbo?

Yes, but me thinks its the beginning of then end of the turbo. Starting to burn some oil. Oh BTW, original clutch also..

 

[dbrick]

This morning, a new moderately-loud "thonk" appeared in the right door of my '01 B5 78K, more-or-less sensitive to body jiggling: bad road, more noise. The window operated properly, and wasn't loose. I wondered if I'd have to remove the right-side door card. I had my wife drive the car while I sat in the passenger seat; she agreed that the noise seemed to come from the right door, but from my POV on the right the noise came from around the instrument cluster. I pulled both dash end caps, all the bolts were tight. Nothing under the hood was loose or misplaced.

I used the board search for "dash AND noise." On the second results page was someone's report of a similar noise, caused by the passenger-side sun visor not being clipped in place at its inside end, with the sound (from the visor bouncing off the nylon clip on the headliner) apparently being distributed dash-wide by reflection from the windscreen. I looked at the passenger-side visor...and it was unclipped. Ahem. Easy fix, noise now absent.

 

[shaggy1071]

Dropped the oil pan on the Passat today with the help of my beautiful wife. How many other guys can say that their wifes help them work on their cars? lol.

 

[Bryanmg]

Snapped one of the three bolts on the exhaust manifold to turbo, then stripped out a head bolt... Today was not my day lol

 

[Steve in Chicago]

Cracked another oil pan yet again tonight leaving work.

I am hoping that the pan is still under warranty.

Is yours a V6 or 1.8t? I wouldn't put too much hope in a warranty claim on a pan damaged by a ground strike.

 

[ZachB5.5]

Sent some oil from my last change into blackstone. Finally got the results back today. The sample was from oil right after installing my external oil cooler. Put almost 4k miles on the sample.

Details on my car:
172k miles
Orig turbo, engine
External front mounted oil cooler
1.8T AWM, driven daily. My daily commute is about 10 miles highway at ~80-90mph and 4 miles residential.

 

[hikererk]

Drove it to the mailbox to pick up my new Bentley manual - that'll be some good bathroom reading!
This weekend it gets a new thermostat to address low engine temp issues.
Plus I have to get rid of that orange coolant in there.
I hope it's not Tang!

Eric

 

[borislav98]

Reports

Spent the second late night in my neighbor's garage getting Betty properly suited up for Tail of the Dragon Rally this weekend. Ticked off my punch list:

1. I removed the Porsche Cup II wheels and spacer adapters and restored the refinished and remounted RH AD Cup wheels on new 30mm H&R DRA spacers up front, put the old 30mm spacers (same type) on rears. Figured out what was causing a wobble on one wheel, and remedied it. Th RH Cups have tabs that fit RH offset adapters and they were just a hair too small for 30mm spacer to fit clean and flush, so I used grinder and a cutting wheel to remove just about .5mm of material from the inside of each tab
2. Installed fresh Zimmerman 312mmx23mm coated rotors up front to replace the ones I had to sacrifice to cut the seized spacer studs on the Porsche whee adapters. The new discs were $165 for the pair, but a new set of spacers (I could have cut lugs through either) would have been a hundred dollar more than that, if I could find them in 25mm width. Such is life.
   
   
   
   
   
3. After letting the RTV in the new cam cover gaskets cure overnight, I wrestled the G1 back into position, hooked up all the intercooler plumbing and double and triple checked all the sensor connections. Fired it up and listened to Betty's whine once again. She dropped to idle in about 20 seconds, and then I turned her off because it was after midnight, and firing up a side-mounted supercharger-equipped 30V in an enclosed space (garage door was open) WILL wake the neighbors. Woke up this morning and realized I had forgotten to put MAF and filter on, so good thing I didn't run it too long.
   
   What Betty's goodie bin looks like when she's in service position:
   
4. Torqued and re-torqued all the spacer lugs and wheel lugs on all four corners. Will drive it to office tomorrow and Thursday and then torque everything (spacer lugs and wheel lugs) again. Will drive again Friday and then torque the wheels lugs once more time. Will be taking torque wrench in tool kit on road trip.
   
   
   
   
   
5. Topped off the G12 level. Running a bit low. Don't seem to have a leak anywhere, so I am wondering where it might be going. Will keep the extra fluid with me in my road kit and watch it over the next 1,000 miles or so over the weekend.
6. This morning I reinstalled the rain tray, and engine compartment perimeter seal. Cleaned up and organized my tools and discarded all the shop trash, cut lugs, spent discs, and miscellaneous packaging for all of the above.

Tonight's list:

1. Install Philips DayLite8 Daytime Running lights in lower non-fog light grilles (supercharger intercooler plumbing leaves no room for OE passenger fog projector housing.
2. Polish headlamps and reinstall front bumper cover and belly pan (may replace belly pan if dealer can get one for me tomorrow or has one in stock, mine is trashed.)
3. Re-install lower center grille stainless steel frame. Purely cosmetic, but part of Betty's groove nonetheless. Touch up passenger caliper paint where too narrow spacer made wheel spoke scrape the caliper body.
4. Swap out Monster mats front and rear for Mojo mats (more comfy for barefoot driving.)
5. Check all running and brake lights, adjust aim on headlights so when driving behind James and everyone with HID low beams on, I am not dazzling them in their mirrors.
6. If I have energy after all that, I may try to get MFD Navi connection to volume and track/program selection buttons on B5 S-Line Tiptronic MFSW sorted.

As an homage to Sabine, I am leaving the retro red metallic wing mirror caps on in addition to the matching retro red shifter knob inside. With Betty's wheels, the red mirror caps really pop. I'll post pictures after I have her detailed Friday morning. No pics other than shop photos above until she is all shiny inside and out.

:wrench:

Love your reports and info. Can we please see a picture of Sabine/Betty?

 

[mrbutterz]

topped off the coolant with a little bit of water... an hour later I found my new/full coolant bottle... joy.

topped off the oil

changed the heat shield (what else is new)

managed to "fix" one of the LED strips in the headlights (Ok fine, I just smacked it and it turned on)
We'll see how long that lasts.

Said I should wash it, sat down inside instead.

re-brushed the chrome mirror covers

Cleaned out the catch can

 

[nolesfan]

How bad is that catch can looking? I know where you can find a 42DD stealth can.

 

[Steve in Chicago]

I replaced the expansion tank and turbo coolant hose (runs across the front of the timing belt cover 1.8t) to eliminate two small leaks that have existed for a while.

Also, for some unknown reason, my drivers side inner CV boot came off the flange. These are new Raxles rebuilds with very little mileage. I think I caught this shortly after it happened so the joint didn't get a chance to see any dirt or water. Marty at Raxles shipped me some new grease and replacement clamp. UPS delivered the box to some random unknown address! After more than a week of "investigation", UPS concluded the package was unrecoverable and Marty sent me a second shipment. Yesterday the second package arrived along with... the first package! :banghead:

From underneath I was able to pack the inner joint with grease, slip the boot back on, put the clamp around the axle, connect the ends of the clamp, slide the clamp into position and crimp it down. I didn't need to take anything apart. :thumbup:

Marty, thanks for the prompt supplies.
UPS, ...WTF?!

 

[keithwbloom]

Stopped by James' garage for final prep. Reinstalled the belly pan and re-torqued the wheels. Tried to swap out the left rear caliper once again and failed. Wrong part number... AGAIN.

Maybe there will be a pickin' yard along the way I can grab one off an '04-'05 B5.5 FWD. Clearly my attempts at saving money while buying quality parts online are failing.

I am packed, Passat trunk organized with everything I might need to service Betty in the garage once we're there, including a caliper swap.

I am thinking before we set out tomorrow, I may swap in the R32 wheel for the weekend. I will lose my horn and cruise control because I haven't finished MFSW adaptation project, but it feels more meaty and I think I would like the interface with the car better through the R32 on the Tail.

:wrench:

 

[Steve in Chicago]

Washed it, filled the gas tank, checked the fluids, cleared the back seat and the trunk. Tomorrow is the last (fifth) Audi Car Club Chicago Chapter autox event of this summer. I missed the fourth autox recuperating my back. This event is out in South Bend Indiana at The Tire Rack test track. I've been there several times and it's always a good time. I need to be there by 8:30 AM which means I need to wake up before the birds. (I hate that part)

 

[Steve in Chicago]

8:30 in South Bend is 7:30 Chicago time. The trip is roughly an hour and a half (or less depending on traffic).

The track there is awesome. It's pristine pavement with no bumps, dips, gravel, holes, waves... anything. The track is surrounded by grass and they have a built-in sprinkler system. They like their sprinkler system. So much so that if you touch the grass with a single tire you get a DNF for that run. Did I mention they like their sprinkler system?

I need to see if ECS offers a lawn mowing attachment for the B5 chassis. The way I see it is if I'm going to put all four tires in the grass I should at least be doing something beneficial. :banghead:

On one run I entered a corner way too fast and couldn't hold my line through it. Turned hard, standing on the brake, tires screaming, the car slid towards the grass and all I was thinking was "Don't give The Tire Rack a major lawn-job and kill a sprinkler!" (they like their sprinklers) So I let off the brake and steered the direction the car was going and entered the grass with all 4 rolling. Nothing damaged but my ego.

 

[Bdubskii]

^ Looks like an awesome time Steve!

 

[Volk14]

I got my car running today after a heater core replacement. I still haven't filled up the coolant system and the heat already works

Funny thing is that this car has been my daily for over 3 years with a bad/clogged heater core. I fixed it so I could sell it this winter

 

[shaggy1071]

Fixed a broken window clip on the drivers side window. It tool longer than I really wanted it to.