That which bears me

 About this time last year Angie and I took a trip to Pennsylvania. During the return trip my 2015 VW Jetta TDI started to make a weird humming noise at about 65mph. Interestingly if you went a little faster or slower the noise went away.

I ignored it up until about a month ago when the humming turned into a grinding noise at all speeds. Sounded like a wheel bearing to me. I jacked up the car and, yup, definitely a wheel bearing gone bad in the rear passenger side. I ordered parts and then had to order tools. The wheel bearing is held in by an 18mm triple square bolt. I had a 14mm triple square socket to remove the caliper bolts but not one any larger. I was unable to find one locally so Amazon sent me a set of Capri brand. Hopefully the set will have all the bits I need..

The bearing itself is really easy to replace, jack the car up, remove the wheel, remove the brake caliper with that 14mm triple square socket, remove the torx (t30? I forget) screw that holds the brake rotor on and remove the rotor. Then pound a screwdriver into the gap that holds the cap on. Mine was really stuck, took a lot of pounding.

Then use the 18mm triple square socket to remove the axle bolt. This was REALLY tight. It just laughed at my Makita 1/2" cordless impact. I put the 30 inch breaker bar on it and added a 24" piece of jack handle. Took a lot of body weight even then.

As you can see the old one was really grungy. There are two bearings there, the inner one was okay, the outer was pretty terrible.

Installation is reverse of removal, no tricks here. I torqued the bolt to 130ft-lb and then 90 degrees. Along with the locktite on the bolt explains why they were so hard to remove. These are torque to yield fasteners, single use only. I ordered a new bolt but the bearing came with one so I've got a spare for what it's worth.

A test drive shows that the noise is gone but now I'm thinking there might be another failed bearing in the front. I didn't check those since I only had the rear of the car jacked up, I did check the passenger side, it was silent.

Oh well, in a day or two I'll jack it up again and have a look see...

Struttin'

It's been a busy time so I've neglected you dear readers. So now I'll take you back a couple months. Angie and I jumped in the 2015 VW Jetta TDI to go to dinner. As we backed out of the driveway the front end of the car made a funny sound and as we headed down the road it pulled hard to the left. Here in the US we drive on the right side of the road and the road is crowned in the middle so you generally steer a little left to fight that crown. So its a weird feeling to have to steer right to fight a left hand pull.

When I jacked the car up to look at it I found: 

What are we looking at? Well the picture is actually upside down, this is the top of the strut and that spring should be pushing down (well, up, the picture is upside down remember) into the cup.

Yeah, broken spring. I've never had that happen before. By the look of the rust the break occurred a while before I found it. The noise and weird steering were from the bearing at the top of the strut disintegrating.

This is a job I DEFINITELY should have farmed out. I'd done rear struts on the '98 Jetta and '05 Golf but the fronts turn out to be held in by a totally different mechanism. On these the strut tube is clamped at the bottom. Replacing the driver's side I ruined a big screw driver prying the clamp apart. Then I didn't have the right socket to get the axle nut off so I decided I'd remove the axle from the inside, at the transaxle.

Big mistake, I'd already disconnected the strut at the top so when I undid the last inner bolt the whole assembly fell out on my head. It gashed my forehead and rang my bell pretty good. I finished the job on pure pig headedness.

After that debacle I bought the proper tools. ID Parts sells a cam action spreader for the strut clamp. They also had the proper 24mm triple square socket for the axle nut and the triple square driver for the pinch bolt in the clamp. The passenger side has clearance issues but the correct tools made the job MUCH easier. I still need to pick up a 16mm socket, this car is plagued with 16mm bolts but the sockets don't come in most kits...

Working on the passenger side I did manage to rip the wheel sensor cable apart. 

From VW they're VERY expensive. Parts Geek had one at a much more reasonable price. You do still have to splice it into the line. I find this pretty cheezy, any cable that hangs out in space is going to get ripped off occasionally, they should be easier to replace.

Carnage, you can see how, with the bearing failure, the spring could come right out of the one strut.

Did I need to replace both struts? Technically no, the car would have been fine with only one replacement but the driver's side sat a little higher after replacement so it made sense to do both. They came as a set anyway...

STOP!

The brakes on my Jetta started to make noise, this was back in November, remember I'm still catching you up. Disk brakes are wicked easy to replace so I figured I'd do it myself.

In getting it apart I discovered 2 things, first the caliper bolts are triple square. Triple square is also called XZN, imagine a square, now put another one on top of it but rotate the new one 33.3 degrees, then add a third square and rotate it 33.3 degrees the other way, thats triple square. I didn't have any triple square tools and the set from Autozone turns out to be too small. In the end I took a torx socket and beat it into the bolt. It was terrible but good enough. Amazon sold me the proper tool but of course it arrived after the fact.

Then I discovered I couldn't push the calipers back. I've always done this with a big c-clamp but these calipers need to turn as they go in. Autozone sells you a little cube thing which is just about worthless, don't waste your money. After I broke my favorite c-clamp I went to Harbor Freight and bought the right tool.

This is one of those jobs where the right tool makes thing so much easier I wonder why I never bought one before. The way the tool pushes and the thread pitch on the tool make it very easy to push the calipers. I should have bought one of these years ago. I think the list price is $40, I had a 20% off coupon so like $32 out the door in New Hampshire with no sales tax.

Assembly is the easiest part. Should be good for a long while. I ordered the bits to do the front too but  it looks like what actually happened is one of the pads on the driver's side got stuck and ate itself. I used a generous application of slide paste so hopefully it won't happen again. I'll check them when I rotate the tires in the spring and keep an eye out for that issue.

New Car!

When last we left our hero his ride was a 1998 Volkswagen Jetta. Purchased in 2013 its been a wonderful car, I only paid $1500 and have driven it many a mile but, trust me on this one, its done...
The bad: alternator, passenger's rear door, central locking, air conditioning, daytime running lamps, lots of rust, the rocker panels fairly flap in the breeze.

Actually now that I look at the list, other than the rust most of that isn't so bad. The alternator is the straw that broke the camels back, I replaced it a couple years ago but found it difficult to source a proper 120amp unit. The less powerful 90a units were easy to get but the 120a was $450 new but not to be found in a rebuilt. In the end I got a used one out of a junkyard. It didn't look like much but it was cheap and got me through, I think two years. When that failed I couldn't see paying for another, even a $100 90a, replacement for what is probably a $100 car.

So the search was on, I've been kind of half heartedly looking all summer, I knew this time was coming but I really like that car and was hoping somehow, magically, it would get a reprieve. In the end it was not to be and I knew I needed to find a replacement when a 2015 Jetta TDI showed up on Craigslist.

TDI pricing is a funny thing, the older cars command somewhat of a premium, this car has a mere 51,000 miles and while its a base model I really don't need any of the fancy accoutrements. The seller also had a 2014 with twice as many miles for the same money, that car has a sunroof, leather interior, fancy sound system, remote start and so on. I figured the newer, lower mileage car was the better deal. We bargained around a little and the deal was struck.

The engine is VW's 2.0l "common rail" which supposedly sports 150hp, although I don't know if thats before or after the "repair". You see this is one of the "cheater diesels" from a couple years back which VW has detuned so it doesn't cheat on emissions anymore. Actually now that I check, Malone Tuning says its 140hp which I find more believable.

Anyhow the car really scoots and the 6spd manual transmission is fun to row through the gears. The instant read mileage thing says I was getting 46mpg on the run from the dealer to our house, the '98 has been getting 50-55mpg for the last few months and I feel like once I run it some more this car will probably nudge 50.

I do have thoughts on a couple upgrades, it'll want snow tires for the winter which I'll probably put on dedicated wheels. I'm also thinking in the spring we'll do a tune on it, either stage 1 or 2, I haven't decided yet. I'll talk to my TDI before I choose. In theory, while providing more power a tune also makes the engine more efficient which will lead to better fuel economy provided you can keep from squandering it by driving super fast...

Is this car as fun as the '98? Sort of, that car had personality and I'd worked on it a lot so I really knew it inside and out. This one is slightly bland and I know its not going to need much hands on which is actually why I bought it, my work schedule has been crazy busy so I wanted something I could just fuel up and go. Maybe someday I'll have space and time for a project car but that time isn't now...

A couple easy fixes

"I love it when a plan comes together." - Hannibal Smith

The other day plowing snow after sundown I noticed that the ammeter on the Cub Cadet was reading negative. A check with the multi-meter proved that the ammeter was correct and we were discharging.

A bit of google-fu found some troubleshooting instructions that mostly revolved around the voltage regulator, being the "brains" of the system that seemed a reasonable place to start.

The VR on these is real old school technology, basically unchanged from the '40s. First find the bat terminal and ensure it gets 12v even with the key off. Mine didn't... This set off a line of thinking that maybe the problem was actually just dirty contacts so I proceeded to remove each contact and scrub with a wire brush. Turned out to be the correct choice, 12v was restored to the bat terminal and charging commenced:

Not bad for a no-money job.

A few years ago I made a short video about the Jetta in the snow. Since we had a larger snowstorm this time I thought I'd make a follow-up. Then I made 2 mistakes.

#1. Behind where I had parked is a hole, the hole was bottomed with ice. I didn't use enough power to get across the ice and go the car stuck. Queue hilarity getting the car out.

#2. Some months ago the muffler fell off this car, that in itself is no big deal, the resonator is still there and does an adequate job, the car isn't too loud. However theres an aluminum heat shield above where the muffler goes which got bent down under the car by the force of the snow. A couple big sheet metal screws and large washers fixed that. I also managed to put one washer on a existing stud with a new nut:

Moving right along the snow flap on the back of the '98 Jag got bent so it drags up under the sled. It makes noise while you ride and catches when the suspension compresses. The flap is held on with 4 torx screws, I removed it and used the heat gun to get it bent the right way again. Then I secured a couple tears with zip ties and reinstalled:

Need to be careful in the summer with how I attach the tarp on this machine so I don't bend the flap again.

Not a bad day's work...

More diferenter

I've been bad at updating here, I realize I've made a couple things you haven't been notified about.
One of the parts suppliers I use has a yearly cold start contest. If you're not into diesel cars you need to realize that a diesel engine runs only on the heat of compression, if you can't get the engine warm it won't run. When its really cold out that can be an issue. So lots of YouTube space is devoted to cold start videos.
Its been really warm this winter and I was worried were weren't ever going to get any cold to make our cold start video but a sudden cold stap came along. There's price money on the line so on Valentines day we busted out the camera and made a video:

I dunno if having a ton of views and positive comments will make this video win the contest but it sure would make me feel good. :)

I need to find more video making challenges, it can be hard to come up with inspiration for what to make, its a lot easier when theres a challenge. Anyway with one cold start video down I'm already thinking about what next year's

Mileage milestone

Had to snap a picture last night on my way home from work:

Its not every day you see something like that and I figured I ought to catch it.
I've put about 28,000 miles on the Jetta now in 1 1/2 years. I've got maybe $4000 in the car total right now which includes buying the car so from a financial perspective I'm doing pretty good. My '83 240D went 25,000 miles for about $2,500 which is the gold standard for me at $.10/mi, so at under $0.20/mi with Jetta I'm doing pretty well.

I didn't win but...

I buy a lot of my VW parts from IDparts.com which is located right here in MA which makes for quick shipping for me.
Recently they had a cold start contest where folks were challenged to start their car in the cold and make a video, the prize was a $200 gift certificate so of course I entered:

and while I didn't win I had a good time making the video. It reminded me of the days spent working on the cooking challenges and made me realize that something like a cooking challenge was a really good way to get motivated to actually do something. I guess I need to spend some time researching other video challenges.

Radiatin'

A couple weeks ago I took the Jetta to the grocery store. When I came out there was a little pool of pink coolant behind the driver's front wheel. Whoops! It appeared to be leaking from the lower driver's side corner of the radiator. So I had the guy down the street replace the radiator with one I'd picked up.
I no sooner got it home (about 100 yards) and it was leaking again. So last week I got a Uhaul trailer and ran it in to my TDI guy. He pulled out the radiator and it turns out the replacement was leaking in the same dang place as the first one. Furthermore it turns out the mount holes were all rusted out and the problem was that there was really nothing to hold the radiator in place. The bottom mounts are just two holes and the top mount is just two pins. With the bottom rusted out the pins couldn't hold the radiator so it flopped around and thrashed a hole. The TDI guy drilled a couple new bottom holes which set the radiator over half an inch so while the bottom was held good the top pins now missed the radiator entirely.

We zip tied the radiator in place so it couldn't hurt itself and I hauled it home. Once home I made a couple brackets that slot into the top of the radiator and use the original pins so it can't move in any direction. This summer when the weather is warm I'll pull the front end apart again and weld up the original holes so the radiator can use its original mounts again. When we had it apart I noticed the frame horn on the driver's side is rusted out so I'll weld up that too.

No pictures of this sadly and I've missed a couple days of writing with all the excitement, now I've got to write a couple things to make it up...

Its that time of year

The day before Thanksgiving we got some snow:

About 8 inches of heavy wet stuff. Fortunately the day before (evening before even) I got snow tires for the Jetta.

On the left a summer tire, on the right the snow tire. Both are "Autogrip", the summer tires are 185 something 14 (for 14 inch rims) the right are 175 something 14. I know it looks like the left tire is wider but its the picture, in person the snow tires are noticeably wider.

The summer tires are mounted on VW "Rondo" (I've heard these called "Africa" also but the online thing I found says "Rondo") wheels. The one shown has VW center caps as does its mate on the other side. The other pair have Volvo center caps. I kind like that so I haven't bothered to look for a pair of VW centers. It occurs to me I should check if the MB centers on my 190D will fit...

The winter tires are on VW "Orlando" wheels. The center caps were missing when I got them and I can't take credit (or blame) for the paint job. Actually I kind of like the paint job and considering these are my winter wheels and the center caps are plastic and apparently fragile I'll stick with this look for now. I wasn't sure what I thought when I first got them but once I got them on the car I kind of like them.

With its winter tires the car handles MUCH better in the snow than it did before. Last year a little snow made it skate terribly, now its much more sure footed. I don't think it'll ever blast through snow like a 240D does but its not bad with the right tires.

Its been my experience that snow tires make all the difference in the world. I've got places in the snow with a snow tire equipped 240D that 4wd SUVs feared to tread and I would suggest that most people who claim "I need an SUV" really need to try snow tires. I've only ever had cheap snows, I imagine better tires would work out even better.

When it rains it pours!

When it rains it pours. After my stuck on the side of the road hassle with the shutoff solenoid I was all set to take the '98 to Syracuse last Wednesday. Got about 20 miles from home, took a freeway offramp and got a huge cloud of steam from under the hood. Turns out the upper radiator hose had spat out the coolant temp sensor when the metal clip holding it broke.

Fortunately there was a little garage nearby and the guy made me a temporary replacement clip out of wire. Unfortunately I'd lost the seal for the sensor so I couldn't get it sealed in. I tied another piece of wire around the sensor to hold it in tight and wrapped a towel around the whole thing which got me back home with only 2 gallons of water leaked out but it wasn't any fun.

IDParts provided a new sensor, clip and seal for cheap enough that I didn't think it was worth figuring out what I needed for a seal. On Friday I stopped at Harbor Freight and bought a selection of o-rings. I'll keep a couple in the car from now on. The clip in question was metal, the replacement is plastic so it won't rust but it might fatigue and break none the less. I went to a junkyard and found another metal clip. I'll keep an eye on the plastic clip and replace if I think its warranted.

The replacement part in place:

Jetta breakdown #2

Back in December the Jetta left me stranded when the oil feed from the engine to the turbo let go. Yesterday it left me again, this time the power feed to the fuel feed solenoid failed. I got towed home and hooked my laptop to the car, the computer showed the fault right away. Today after work I put a jumper on the solenoid and the car started right up. I made a mental note to put the jumper wire in the car in case this happens again.
After some searching I found:

A weatherproof butt connector fixed the problem and we're off to the races.

While I was there I found another wire which I thought was for the reverse lights. Its not but I'm glad I fixed it anyway. I also spent some time trying to figure out why the remote trunk release doesn't return. It'll pop the trunk but once popped it stays popped.until the mechanism is manually reset. The mechanism looks like it ought to manually reset itself and playing with it on the bench it will reset occasionally but not every time. I think maybe a spring would do the job, need to look at some at the hardware store.

Where you been?

Charlotte, MI. People there will tell you its Char-lotte which differentiates it from Charlotte, NC. Google says tis 770 mi from our house so last Tuesday (a week ago today) we loaded up the old Jetta and headed out. I'm pleased to say ~1500 miles later everything went pretty much perfectly. The car ran well, used about 40 gallons of diesel fuel. We spent a night each way in Niagara Falls, the first night was at the Radisson we spent our honeymoon in which was a treat.

The purpose of the trip was the 2014 Coleman Collectors Club Convention which was a hoot as always. We camped on site, my 413E made the trip as is usual:

Also as usual we camped with Ryan an Tara. A fun thing about camping with them is that we have the same tent, or rather we have the same tent model, they have a 2 person and we have a 4. Thats hilarious because both Ryan and Tara are 6 feet tall. I'm around 6 feet but Angie is significantly less...

Anyway some highlights of the convention include this beautiful hollow wire chandelier:

and a cool branding iron:

I have promised to work on a Colman rising sun brand. I'm thinking about having it printed in plastic on a 3d printer to make a mold to cast in bronze or brass.

There was more including a ride in two different Model A Fords, a horse and buggy ride and ice cream made with an old hit and miss engine. That ice cream was some of the best I've had in my whole life. The guy was making 5 gallons at a time and said he made 7 batches. 35 gallons over 2 days seems like a lot to me but it was that good, nobody had just one dose.

Of course there were a couple big light ups:

Of course I'm right in the middle of everything...

Light ups are interesting, they're a bit like herding cats. The organizers always want to lay out the lanterns in some pattern which requires everybody to pay attention. It seems like people want to just drop their lantern in the first spot they find and get out of the way...

Jetta to the doctor again

After all the excitement with the Jetta a couple weeks ago I hoped we'd be in for some quiet time. Not so. All the monkeying around with the turbo oil line apparently unsettled the three way coolant pipe that lives under it causing a pretty severe coolant leak. This had me paranoid because at first I couldn't figure out where the coolant was going, just that it disappeared. I was super relieved when I realized it was dripping from the three way pipe.

Next big problem, its way too cold and snowy for me to wrestle this one in the driveway so its back to Keith at KMH motors in Lowell which is a solid 45 miles from here. Will we make it? Actually I'm going to stack the deck on this one, I ordered a tow dolly from Uhaul, we'll tow the car to Lowell and have a day out. Angie needs to buy new sneakers so we'll go up to Nashua and shop, then have lunch in our favorite Pho restaurant. Keith says he can replace the 3 way pipe and reseal the IP in one day. The IP leaking is probably what caused the issue in the first place, it drips diesel fuel onto the 3 way pipe which ruins the rubber hose. I'm not entirely sure the IP is leaking now but I want to maximize the shop time, if theres any sign its leaking or might leak in the near future I want it fixed now. In for a penny, in for a pound...

Whew, what a week

Welcome to "Polar Vortex II" or whatever the idiot weather people are calling this latest cold snap. Of course with a cold snap come troubles, for me it took the form of car issues. First was the Jetta, Tuesday I got nearly all the way to work when the low oil pressure dinger came on. I'm so glad it made noise, I'd have never noticed the idiot light. Turns out the oil feed to the turbo had ruptured. Fortunately I got the car shut right off and towed directly to my mechanic. He pressure washed the engine (yay, clean engine!) fixed the line and the seals for the oil cooler which I guess are common leak points. I like that about this guy, he looks for other fixes for common problems which won't cost me much while he's there.

I didn't get the Jetta back until Friday so Wednesday I hopped in the 190D. It was quite cold -4F or so and I was a bit concerned when the engine was difficult to get started. I should have stopped there and let the car warm up but was in a bit of a hurry. That car has been running well and started at -6F some weeks ago when I tried to make a video of cold starts on both cars. This time I got about 400 yards from our house and it quit. Angie came with the Ranger and we towed it home and I went to work in the (fuel slurping) Ranger. That night I changed the fuel filter on the 190D and although the engine was warm to the touch owing to the block heater having been on all day the car still wouldn't start, even with the fuel filter full of Power Service. My guess is either:
A. Ice in the fuel tank causing no incoming fuel
or
B. Failed fuel pump

I'd like to think A is more likely since theres never been any problem starting this car but we'll see. Since it was still very cold out I shipped the car to my Mercedes mechanic (as opposed to the VW mechanic that got the Jetta) and we'll see what he says.

Transmission oil

The Jetta has had a persistent transmission whine since I got it. When I checked it was a little low on oil. Interestingly this car wants a GL4 gear oil. This is strange to me as every other manual transmission I've ever owned from my '88 GMC to my '78 240D wanted ATF. It also seems that everybody has an opinion about what to use in there. Everything from G70 which is what VW provides and is water thin, to 75w90 synthetic gear oil. There are 2 different complaints, thin stuff like G70 makes the trans whine, heavy stuff like gear oil makes it hard to shift when cold.

With that all in mind I decided to do the "2 quart method", a quart of Redline MT-90 which is heavier and should handle the whine and a quart of Redline MTL which is lighter and should help cold shifts.

To drain the transmission that blasted underbody panel has to come out so the car has to be jacked up. Other than that its really no big deal with a big allen socket to get the plug out. Remember on a job like this to always remove the fill plug first, that way if something goes wrong you haven't drained out all the fluid with no way to put it back.

As you can see the stuff I got out is nasty, it smells vaugely of gear oil which it should but wasn't see through, very cloudy. Thinner than I'd expected too. I wonder if nobody had ever changed it and the gear whine was yet another reason the car was donated.

With the Redline in the transmission is much quieter. I'm well pleased with this and although the Redline (I got from Amazon) is fairly expensive at this point I feel its worth it. We'll see how the shifting is when it gets colder but for now its smooth, maybe smoother than before I started but I'll need to drive some more before I go that far.

Still got quite an oil leak going on. I can see where Keith changed the oil pan gasket an the leak now appears to be above that on the back side of the engine, maybe somewhere around the turbo. Its quite a challenging place to get at without a lift. Its possible that this car wasn't using synthetic oil before and maybe by changing to good synthetic oil some seals will swell and stop the leak. I'm not real confident but I'm willing to give it a shot. Otherwise I'll feed it and watch it close for awhile and then get it back to Keith for another shot.

De-stickered and got a sticker!

I'm way out of order now but the other day I finally got down to removing the ugly bumper stickers on the Jetta. One had weathered to the point it was completely illegible, the other was for some place in Puerto Rico that I've never been to. I'm really not a fan of bumper stickers anyway, especially not political ones. Does anybody ever vote for anybody because they see a bumper sticker? Are you driving along debating Romney vs Obama and suddenly that sticker puts you over the edge?

Fortunately most stickers aren't that hard to remove. I used a hair dryer and a razor blade and it was quick work.

Now that I've been all down on bumper stickers I have an admission to make.We went to Pickety Place for our anniversary dinner and I found this little critter:

I couldn't pass it up and the best part is that its on a magnet so I can remove it with no hassle at all. Its really just a sticker on a magnet so I gave it a quick shot of clearcoat to make it last longer. We actually got 4 total of these magnets, look for the others in future posts.

Last note I got the car inspected, that is to say I "got a sticker" which means we're fully legal and on the road!

Shifter boot

The shifter boot on the Jetta was a little tatty so I ordered a replacement from Redline goods. It arrived just before the car was to go into the shop and knowing Keith was going to be working on the shifter bushings I decided to hold off on installation. The Redline product is very nice, real leather with a different color stitching at no extra cost.
Shifter installation is very easy, unscrew the shifter knob, pull the bottom of the boot off the base and slip it out, then reverse. I accidentally ordered graphite at the time not remembering the interior on my car is black but I like the contrast between the two especially with the white stitching.

I'd also ordered the parking brake boot. I probably didn't need that but wanted them to look the same. This is where things got weird, the parking brake boot is considerably harder to get out of place, theres a trim piece around the nose of the handle (where you push to release the brake) that has to be pried out, then the console has to come up, a trim ring gets removed and the boot is actually stapled to that trim ring...

I finally got it all apart and was disappointed to find that the was no way the replacement was going to fit. It'll slide about 60% of the way on to the parking brake handle but no more plus the bottom of the boot wouldn't fit the trim ring and has its tabs in the wrong places so even if it did fit the trim ring wouldn't be able to clip on. My guess is that this boot is for a mk4 Jetta while mine is a mk3.

I emailed Redline and got a response (Saturday morning no less) asking me if I would be willing to send my old boot so they could make an exact custom fit. I'm going to do that next week. We'll see how that works out.

Overall for now I'm going to rate my experience with Redline as positive, they were quick to respond and the offer seems like a good one. We'll see how getting the custom boot works out.

While I was at it

So the other day while I was doing the oil change I figured I should check the transmission oil. I already had the belly pan off and the car jacked up, and its right there. Also I'd noticed a whine in the transmission I didn't like.
The fill plug is a big head allen but its quite short. Fortunately I had one as it came in the kit I needed for the diff on the Mercedes. With the plug out the oil is supposed to be level with the hole. In my case is was well below level. Well that explains the noise...

I stopped over at Car Quest and bought some GL4 gear oil. Its surprising that VW specs gear oil for this job. Every other manual transmission I've ever had used ATF. Theres big debate on TDI Club about exactly what oil to get but this gear oil was the only thing I could get that met GL4 and not GL5.

The big debate centers on the fact that the stuff VW uses is more like ATF and the stuff they recommend is gear oil and way heavier. I'm thinking to get some Amsoil Synchromesh which is more like thick ATF than gear oil and give it a shot. Hopefully it'll be thin enough that winter time shifting won't be impaired. I haven't ordered any yet because I wanted Keith's (of KMH Motors) opinion before I tried anything.

More bodywork and a trip to a real mechanic

Sorry kids, no pics of this just trust me that it was a horror show.
If you look back you'll see that I replaced about a 1 foot portion of the rocker under the driver's feet just aft of the front wheel. Well this time I cut from the rear of that part nearly to the rear wheel (and that wasn't far enough) and over the course of two days spent four hours each day welding back in.

In the course of the work I managed to cut a hole through the rusty floor under the driver's seat which required the removal of said seat (so I wouldn't burn the carpet) and produce some of the best (and not so best) body work I've ever done.

It still needs just a couple more inches at the rear of the car but I ran out of time, with luck I'll finish that side on Saturday. Not looking forward to the fact that the other side of the car needs equal time...

Tuesday I took the car for its longest single run to date, all the way to work. It behaved perfectly other than the sloppy shift bushings that prevented me from finding 5th gear. I was real worried about the timing belt (which turned out to be a good worry) so I wanted to keep the rpms down, thus I commuted 56 miles at 65mph which is about 3,000 rpm. The car acted perfectly even in heavy traffic and drove pleasantly.
The reason for taking the car to work pre-inspection was to drop it over at KMH Motors in Lowell. On the fixing list for Keith:

• Timing belt - plus the tensioners and seals right by it
• Water pump - this is not technically required but the pump lives behind the timing belt and if the pump failed I'd essentially need to do the belt again...
• Coolant flush and fill - important since after the water distribution pipe job its mostly water
• Shifter bushings - get 5th gear back!
• Diagnose Check Engine light - I went over to Autozone and they pulled a P1550 code which is a pressure differential, could be a vacuum line, worst case could be the turbo

Today I got the call from Keith, most everything had been done, the CEL is probably the N75 valve which controls boost. They're known for crapping out and aren't too expensive. Interestingly when I dropped off the car the CEL was out, Keith said that kind of behavior was stereotypical for the N75, I said to do it. He also noticed a big oil leak from the oil pan gasket. I'd noticed a bunch of oil down there when I did an oil change (forgot to write about that, oops, next post!). I told him to go ahead and do the pan gasket too, I want to start my ownership of this car with as few problems as possible!