TDI Wonder 4.0

[mr.mindless]

Damage limited to hood fender and light. Put a spare light in it, straightened hood and fender enough to clear light. The hood is kinked in a couple spots, to repair it, I’d need to split the skin from supports. So existing fender and hood are going to ride for a bit. There’s a cheap golf on marketplace with a good silver frontend on it, hope to hear back from him and get a car for the price of a hood.

I smelled some coolant a day ago when we drove this, found upper radiator hose swollen like a ballon and weeping. Didn’t have new on the shelf but had a used from another vw model that I trimmed to fit, so that and an overdue oil change and this is ready to go. Didn’t put the snows on it yet.

Has been starting hard. Will check timing next time it’s up to temp.

161,116

[mr.mindless]

[mr.mindless]

Battery gave up midday yesterday after like 4 good starts only a couple miles apart, then a 20 minute drive to work.

Jumped and made it home. No charge light. Didn’t look at it again yet.

I’m tired of cars.

[mr.mindless]

Hard start comes and goes. Sometimes it’ll start instantly after sitting for days. Sometimes it’ll damn near kill the battery restarting at lunch time. Very strange.

I want to just add a lift pump to it as a bandaid.

[mr.mindless]

Hard start intermittency getting worse.

Throwing a bandaid at it this weekend with an in-tank pump along with new fuel filter and thermo tee.

[mr.mindless]

In tank fuel pump doesn’t seem to have helped much.

Engine oil and filter
Fuel filter and thermo tee
Rear brake pads
162,647

[M4wdFab]

3.5 cans of starting fluid, 2 gallons of new oil, and a zip tie on the glow plug harness

did you check the zip tie?

[mr.mindless]

Checking glow plugs and harness is on the Real Short List. More glow cycles help but I do wonder if not all 4 are lighting up. It’s a warm restart issue sometimes too, and ambient temp doesn’t fully correlate. I also need to check intake. It should still be clean, but need to verify that as well as that the shutdown flap isn’t sticking shut or something like that, choking it.

I’d forgotten about that zip tie, wherever it is.

Test drive after brakes failed so it’s back in the shop. May need rear calipers, which I remember being like $20 and they now are 75+

Hopefully I just need to work the ebrakes to get them to adjust and take up slack. Had to WORK to get them backed off but they freed up once they started moving but now rear brakes come on the second pump even after a few stops.

[M4wdFab]

 

[mr.mindless]

Manually closed up that caliper a bit and then the ebrake adjustment started working, maybe not as aggressively as intended but stops great now. All set

[mr.mindless]

In Henrietta to pick this unit up right now. Hopefully it’s a failed starter and not something seized. Ran fine when shut down so hopefully I just get to teach Sarah how to change starters when they now fail every sixty days

[mr.mindless]

used spare starter on the shelf that came with the car cranks and starts it, but is slow. Old starter comes out but doesn't even try to spin.
Bosch reman on the way from FCP Euro. New is backordered. Automatic trans is different from manual. So I guess I don't get to drive the caddy that I spent last week working on. Rustwagen for me I guess, with its new overboost issue instead of the old underboost problem.

[etk300ex]

Jeez.  I feel like mine is getting extra loud again.

[mr.mindless]

Bosch reman starter in. Much, much, much quicker start, but runs real rough for a minute. I still need to check GPs & harness, and pull injectors and see if they're leaking down. I think fuel is more likely, a cold hole with healthy fuel would clean up much quicker if it were a glowplug thing.

[mr.mindless]

Door switches failed again and driver door thinks its closed and locked at all times. No headlight buzzer or interior lights or means to disable the security system BECAUSE the remote also died. Related somehow? I don't know. The alarm triggers at hood open or ignition actuation and probably trunk or other door too. Someone didn't change a remote battery as suggested when range was decreasing and the remote isn't working at all right now with a new battery. I haven't gone through that one before. Also sprung an underhood fuel leak somewhere, IDK if it's low or high pressure side, probably low because it was running fine.

Excellent all around.

Someone is very fed up with this. Possibly understandably.