What did you do to your Passat today?

1348804 Views 11598 Replies 1401 Participants Last post by lreven2, 4 d ago

Twelvizm

Discussion Starter · Mar 4, 2010 (Edited by Moderator)

2

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.

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Wahobbert

· #11,441 · 4 mo ago (Edited)

2

I replaced these (in yellow boxes), not today but yesterday. I also replaced the high beam bulbs and fog bulbs with higher wattage ones. Damn did that make a huge difference.
As usual, getting deeper into the car I find so much damage done by people who didn't have as much mechanical aptitude as they believed they did.
Both headlight housings are pretty much junk. One of the bevel gears for adjustment on both lights is missing, and the latch on the high beam access cover is pried completely off. I can probably find the bevel gears somewhere in a pile at a junk yard, but why replace something with the same thing that already failed once?. I tend to use something alternative to the original that failed so it won't just do the same thing again. I have a 2004 Audi Allroad outside with a failed timing chain that has Xenons on it and the design of the housings is very similar to the Passat. A little bit of Dremel work might result in an blindingly awesome cobble job...No no no, that car is worth $1000 if I scrap it at LKQ, and I really like the car and would love to get that high rpm V8 roaring again.
I'm wandering off topic as usual.

Looks a little better.

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Rob.Achmann

· #11,442 · 3 mo ago (Edited)

2

PZ said:
You say that like it's a bad thing 😛

Admittedly, in my mind, it started out that way. Away from family, home, and my dogs… But I decided to make the best of it and explore Portland, ME. I gotta say, beyond the people bending over backwards to help, the scenery, ocean breeze on excellent park walks, and incredibly good food (breakfast at Becky’s, or the brisket at Elsmere BBQ & Grill in SO Portland with cornbread is amazing!!), that my opinion is a complete 180. If I had to move to the US, and could move to Portland, I’d be here in a heartbeat. The city, in my mind, is beautiful with its twisty roads, and old architecture houses… I’m in love

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George & Whistling Death

· #11,443 · 3 mo ago

Well, I took Whistling Death over to what would be either a proper medical diagnosis, or Hospice... after a full round of advanced VagCom screenings, the only codes that came up were for a defective PRNDL/multifunction sensor. Don't know the specific numbers it read out, but when he said it was showing the wrong gear positions on the scanner from where the shifter actually was, I knew that a solution to pernicious Limp Mode had been found. Mechanic was able to source an actual VW part, and the vendor sold it to him for quite a discount, saying that he was happy to break even and get the dust collector off his inventory.

In other words, I'm stuck with this car for another 100,000 miles, I guess. 😆

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diesel1024

· #11,444 · 3 mo ago

George & Whistling Death said:
Mechanic was able to source an actual VW part, and the vendor sold it to him for quite a discount, saying that he was happy to break even and get the dust collector off his inventory.

In other words, I'm stuck with this car for another 100,000 miles, I guess. 😆

Glad you got it fixed! I had a really good feeling that sensor was the case. Now you're stuck here with the rest of us for a lot longer

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diesel1024

· #11,445 · 3 mo ago

Got my W8 headlights fully installed and the DRL resistor bypassed, so now I have DRL HIDs, very happy, it works exactly like I would have wanted it. Unfortunately I have more bulbs and parts for it arriving in a week so I'll have to take the front end off again, but so far it looks good. Excited to see how good it can be. I have a nearly 5k mile drive this week to Vancouver, keeps getting delayed, but hoping to leave tonight!

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AndreasPassat

· #11,446 · 3 mo ago

Better check your weather forecast. Family members from the upper portion of the nation are telling me about pretty messy weather.

One of the forecasters from down here quoted "this current storm is an appetizer for what's coming this weekend."

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diesel1024

· #11,447 · 3 mo ago

AndreasPassat said:
Better check your weather forecast. Family members from the upper portion of the nation are telling me about pretty messy weather.

One of the forecasters from down here quoted "this current storm is an appetizer for what's coming this weekend."

It's pretty nasty out there, went for a 15 minute test drive early this morning and by the time I got home, my car came back white from the snow. Few inches of snow on the road, hopefully the plows will have a better handle on it later today, if I can get past Montana, I think I'll have a pretty good shot. Aiming to get to Vancouver on Saturday

AndreasPassat

· #11,448 · 3 mo ago

diesel1024 said:
It's pretty nasty out there, went for a 15 minute test drive early this morning and by the time I got home, my car came back white from the snow. Few inches of snow on the road, hopefully the plows will have a better handle on it later today, if I can get past Montana, I think I'll have a pretty good shot. Aiming to get to Vancouver on Saturday

I've done many, many trips from Milwaukee to Los Angles and back over the years and I've been through a few real doozers.
I look back on some of those trips and I should've just either not gone in the first place or hunkered down in a hotel until it was over.
The worst one was in 2004 when my daughter was just turning 5 years old. Just her and me going cross country. Took us 7 days going back to Milwaukee from LA.
All I'm saying is, just be careful out there.

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Rob.Achmann

· #11,449 · 3 mo ago

I ordered both LH & RH headlight assemblies… aaaand I got two LH ones… it was sold together as a left and right pair, but they sent the wrong one…

grrrr…

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AndreasPassat

· #11,450 · 3 mo ago

That's a major bummer.

George & Whistling Death

· #11,451 · 3 mo ago

diesel1024 said:
Glad you got it fixed! I had a really good feeling that sensor was the case. Now you're stuck here with the rest of us for a lot longer

If nothing else, now I can finish all the little fix-it projects I have for the car... and boy, do I have a LOT of those. Plus, the annual springtime rituals of new air, cabin filters, cleaning the throttle body, gently rinsing out the sunroof drain lines,... Besides, I bought replacement pins for my rear power windows, I'd hate to have that $6 go to waste

And to be honest, I'd have missed the cold morning squeeks of my interior dash parts. It sounds like migrating sandhill cranes, I kid you not!

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diesel1024

· #11,452 · 3 mo ago

My Passat and I made it to Livingston, Montana today, nearly 14 hours of straight driving! Handled really well, the W8 headlights are working great, the passenger side xenon bulb isn't that bright, but it'll be replaced with some brand new ones soon. Brights work so much better than my old ones, I don't think I ever checked what bulbs were in it when I got it, but they work well. 13 hours of driving tomorrow to get to Vancouver, BC, hopefully all goes well, I'm excited to get some rest.

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Rob.Achmann

· #11,453 · 3 mo ago

AndreasPassat said:
That's a major bummer.

After the eBay seller asked for pics of the original box, it showed the Hella (or someone) put the left side headlight in a right side labelled box. So who knows when that happened. The box itself looked a little sketchy with damage and there’s lint inside the headlight assembly? Kinda odd.

AndreasPassat

· #11,454 · 3 mo ago

Rob.Achmann said:
After the eBay seller asked for pics of the original box, it showed the Hella (or someone) put the left side headlight in a right side labelled box. So who knows when that happened. The box itself looked a little sketchy with damage and there’s lint inside the headlight assembly? Kinda odd.

Sounds like some shamokery to me.

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George & Whistling Death

· #11,455 · 3 mo ago

George & Whistling Death said:
And to be honest, I'd have missed the cold morning squeeks of my interior dash parts. It sounds like migrating sandhill cranes, I kid you not!

SON OF A... well, after having the switch replaced, it was low on tranny fluid, so they had it refilled to spec.

And it refused to shift more than from 1st to 2nd. My transmission was apparently down so far that it roached the thing. No leaks, sealed system, "lifetime fluid"... and yet it was several quarts low on fluid.

So, anyone want to buy a 2001 Passat Variant 1.8t wagon, with a relatively good engine but shot transmission? location, Indianapolis.

Wahobbert

· #11,456 · 3 mo ago (Edited)

Looks like you learned about the lifetime fluid lie the hard way. After I bought my Audi, I learned the same lesson, remembered it and did a transmission service on my Passat first thing after I bought it.

It was so low that it made "hydraulic pump sucking a dry tank sounds" on a steep hill. I had it flat bedded home after I bought it and it's been working fine for about two years after a transmission service where I literally used the fluid out of my Audi with the same transmission as the Passat.

I recently had my transmission mess up and go into limp mode a couple of weeks ago after I got it stuck in a snow bank during a blizzard where it seems to have made a mysterious recovery because after I turned the car off to go to the appointment I had it was no longer in limp mode and worked perfect through the 70 mile drive home. It was pretty scary. I have the fluid and filter in a box across the room for the next service to be done soon.

These transmissions are a bit more durable than we are led to believe because we are just supposed to freak out and throw money at a transmission shop instead of work on them ourselves.

I have a 2004 Audi Allroad 4.2L V8 with a new tranny in it that worked perfect and was replaced only about a year before the engine threw a timing chain...I'm in south central Wisconsin.

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khnitz

· #11,457 · 3 mo ago (Edited)

3

Put our Passat up on the lift today to get a look at the engine mounts, as I noticed it was rocking way too much during gear changes. I had already ordered a new snub nose mount (figured it couldn't hurt), but once I got a look underneath I found that at least the left one of the 034 Density Line (Street Density) motor mounts that I installed 60k miles ago (now at 132k miles) had broken. Oh, and yeah, the snub nose mount was worn, too, but not disintegrated.

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BTW, this is an image of the 8D0199339P mount that I had installed at the same time as the 034 mounts.

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I also discovered why the BRAKE warning would pop up every now and then and I had to add fluid...the RF brake caliper has a slight leak. This was another one of the set from a complete brake refresh kit from Powerstop I installed ~2-3/4 years ago in July 2020, but our Passat has only been driven about 12k miles since then! Given that I have replaced both rear calipers since then, as well, I am very disappointed in the durability of these Powerstop rebuilt calipers and won't be using them again.

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Wahobbert

· #11,458 · 3 mo ago

khnitz said:
Put our Passat up on the lift today to get a look at the engine mounts, as I noticed it was rocking way too much during gear changes. I had already ordered a new snub nose mount (figured it couldn't hurt), but once I got a look underneath I found that at least the left one of the 032 motor mounts that I installed 60k miles ago (now at 132k miles) had broken. Oh, and yeah, the snub nose mount was worn, too.

I also discovered why the BRAKE warning would pop up every now and then and I had to add fluid...the RF brake caliper has a slight leak. This was another one of the set from a complete brake refresh kit from Powerstop I installed a couple of years back. Given that I have replaced both rear calipers again since then, I am very disappointed in the durability of these Powerstop rebuilt calipers and won't be using them again.

I'll add pics a little later (or in the morning).

Rebuild calipers yourself. I eat the core charge for calipers on the first replacement, then I rebuild them for the next time something goes wrong and have them all ready to go on the car on a shelf in the garage. The rebuild parts only cost about $10.00 per caliper unless you have a corroded piston. You can even smooth out a corroded piston with files and emory cloth and use it for a long time before it really needs to be replaced. I can help to locate the replacement parts because I know where to look. More like how to look, because you will never find the itty bitty bits if you search using your car brand and model. Find the specific part number for the part on your car, you'll find that there are all kinds of brands and models that use the exact same parts.

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khnitz

· #11,459 · 3 mo ago

Wahobbert said:
<snip> I can help to locate the replacement parts because I know where to look. More like how to look, because you will never find the itty bitty bits if you search using your car brand and model. Find the specific part number for the part on your car, you'll find that there are all kinds of brands and models that use the exact same parts.

I will likely go that route for my project car - a 1973 Fiat 850 Spider.
I guess it's just something I haven't done before (rebuild a brake caliper), but it certainly isn't outside of my capabilities.

Wahobbert

· #11,460 · 3 mo ago

It's crazy easy once you get past the fear of sending the piston into orbit forcing it out with compressed air. You can do it with water too, and grease. Air is faster, just keep your fingers outta there and lay a towel or blanket over it in case it tries to take off. If it's really stuck, you can fab a grease fitting into a brake line fitting and pump grease in until it's free.
The hard to find parts you can get from>>> Brake part distributor

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