The past week in Car repair

[84Vert]

Step Daughter - Johnny my brakes are sqeaking, will you look at them
Me - Sure will, I had replaced them in April
Me - Looking at brakes, son of a gun, backing little plate on the pad came off and they were over 1/2 worn. Bought new pads, not the extra cheap ones this time.

Fixed brakes = Happy Step Daughter

[kamzcab86]

Got some really important stuff done on the van amid a massive amount of yard work:

Installed a kitchen light so I can finally see what I'm washing in the sink...


Installed a new grille emblem (from a Jetta IV, if you can believe it; made in China... top tab broke upon installation ) and treated the grille...


Finally painted the new skylight mechanism cover and installed the new knob...
Before:


After:


Still need to change the trans fluid in the Cab and fix the leak, but she's still purring and shifting beautifully.

[Calimus]

Nice kammy, and what is it with you and Brian having such horrible luck with the Chinese parts? Not that I don't agree that they are generally junk, but I guess I've just been having good luck (and now I'm just waiting for the shoe to drop).

For me I've been busy with work and busy working on the A6 & Beetle. Almost traded the A6 in on a newer A6, but just couldn't stomach having a car payment again (not even a $140 a mo) and jumping to an automatic. So we kept the current A6 and I started fixing things. I've now put in another set of valve cover gaskets, cleaned out the spider hose (that damn thing was super nasty), replaced one timing chain tensioner gasket (the other doesn't appear to be leaking), cleaned & re-gaped the plugs and put new tires in the front. This has all been over the last 2 weeks. Then yesterday I found 2 massive pot-holes while in Marietta and knocked the hell out of the alignment. Will be getting that fixed tomorrow I hope.

Beetle spent some time in the body shop since she got tapped in the ass a second time, only this time the scraped up the rear bumper and the fender so it all got fixed. Then she decided that she liked this sudden pampering and barfed up the old battery and demanded a new one. To add insult to injury the drivers side, inside door pull completely broke off so I've been working on ghetto fixing that. Hoping to have that done tomorrow as well.

The only good news is that on Monday our daughter will be flying home for the holiday. I haven't seen her since 09' so it will be a welcomed treat. She's also bringing home the boyfriend that I haven't met which she has made sure is scared shitless of me. I think I'm going to enjoy my holidays.

[CalAltaDubber]

Nothing mutch happening up here.
I got the two bunnies appraised. That was a nice weather day, so I drove them both with the top down. Then I prepped them for the winter. The next day was just rain, and the day after I got them into the barn and all covered up.

The day following that Winter struck!

Now I am looking for something to work on.

[Briano1234]

Dang, Thought I would have a Honder to replace the fuel pump or possibly the ignitions module. But something said.... PUT SOME GAS IN IT FIRST..... Gee add gas, car fires.

[kamzcab86]

Nice kammy, and what is it with you and Brian having such horrible luck with the Chinese parts?

Eh, it was a $12 plastic emblem with a slightly tight fit inside a grille it, technically, wasn't made for and I was able to repair it enough to stay in place; irritating, yes, but my ESP told me it would happen so I wasn't too shocked. More important parts like axles, oil pumps, brakes, etc., now that would send me into a rage. For mechanical stuff, I try hard to source European-made parts and, knock on wood, I haven't had many, if any, replacement parts fail prematurely.

Today I replaced the craptacular Kenwood in the van for a Sony... much better! Now, if I could only find one like it, but with a better lighting scheme for the Cab (red won't cut it in that car). Yesterday, I installed an LED strip inside the van's kitchen cabinet, wired into a magnetic reed switch (off when closed, on when open... just like your fridge!):



Now that the minor stuff is done, time to get down and dirty with the VWs (after I get house projects done): The Jetta is making a noise up front (either a pulley or a pump; haven't pinpointed which yet); the Cab is now making a short, odd squeak every time the clutch pedal goes in (in addition to the trans leak that I still need to fix); the van has sprung an oil leak...

[Briano1234]

Revenge is sweet.........
Baby daughter called yesterday, her new YARIS was making a grinding noise as she was trying to turn, then it is constant....So she was on the side of the road....
Daddy drives up in the Green Cabby.....with wire ties, to tie the front ground effect back up... to bastardly qoute John Wayne, "Curbage and Elevation".

[Briano1234]

The only good news is that on Monday our daughter will be flying home for the holiday. I haven't seen her since 09' so it will be a welcomed treat. She's also bringing home the boyfriend that I haven't met which she has made sure is scared shitless of me. I think I'm going to enjoy my holidays.

OH-oh, do I hear the ding dong of nuptials coming.... ????????

Nothing wrong with the Scared Shitless..... Besides, 75-24-57..bang bang down town, and another mysterious death in the windy city.

[Calimus]

I don't think a wedding is in the near future, though I wouldn't be against it. Cristine has met him and highly approves of him. I'll make my mind up over the course of this next week. Something does tell me that I'll like him though. So we'll see how that goes.

Kammy, nice work and I think leaks are the new norm as of late. The magnet switch is a nice touch.

Brian - gas certainly does an engine good, does the gauge not work? Oh and you will certainly want to keep the cabby around if she's going to try and treat the yaris as a bulldozer.

Phil - Send some winter down this way. Since I've gotten the A6, all we've gotten is ice. I'd like some snow so I can really have fun with the quattro.

[Briano1234]

Finally got around to replacing what I thought was a "stuck open" t-stat, nope it was closed, I replaced it with a 195..Now I have lots of heat in the green cabby...... Took the old t-sat and boiled it, and it popped open at 165...so it was a coldie.

Remembered to Scratch 195 on the new and 165 on the old one.

[kamzcab86]

The Jetta is making a noise up front (either a pulley or a pump; haven't pinpointed which yet)

Yeah, so... definitely the tensioner pulley. I was lucky to make it back from the airport over Xmas with family in tow. The bearings were completely dry! New pulley (albeit from NAPA and unlike the OEM version) and it's running as normal again. Of course, when I popped the hood to lube the pulley (prior to replacement), the hood damn near fell from my hands... lift strut went bad, seemingly overnight. Replaced that over Xmas as well.

Vanagon: Replaced the ignition switch. How fun! Put everything back together, turned the key and <HONK!!> and the hi-beams failed to click on/off. Fixed the sloppy horn contact tab with some epoxy, and realized I failed to get the turn switch assembly put back into the proper position (tab goes into slot!). That made for a fun couple of days over Christmas.

[Calimus]

Nice Kammy, does sound like fun.

I've been working on fixing little things on the Beetle and the A6 as usual. I'm trying to knock out as much as I can so that I can get back to work on the flock of A1's I've been neglecting over the summer. The A6 is doing much better. It's no longer leaking anything, running smoother and I now trust it to make some lengthy trips.

So come spring, it's more clearing out of the garage and some serious grease monkey time. I have put the Ghia up for sale but so far, no serious nibbles. Hope everyone had a great and safe Holiday season.

[kamzcab86]

Today, in topping off fluids in the Vanagon and simply doing the usual pre-flight check, noticed a nice rubbery coating all over the engine bay. Then I noticed the A/C belt's ribs showing. Yes, the A/C belt got loose and flipped itself inside out. Even more , in cleaning up the mess, I noticed one of the bolts on the compressor had backed itself out, pressed itself up against the pulley and proceeded to get its head half sheered off! (I theorize, because the compressor is basically locked in place, that the bolt caused the pulley to wobble, forcing the belt up unto the centerline.) I'm leaving for Buses By The Bridge tomorrow, so my easy, temporary repair was to simply cut the relatively new belt off.

[Briano1234]

Today, in topping off fluids in the Vanagon and simply doing the usual pre-flight check, noticed a nice rubbery coating all over the engine bay. Then I noticed the A/C belt's ribs showing. Yes, the A/C belt got loose and flipped itself inside out. Even more , in cleaning up the mess, I noticed one of the bolts on the compressor had backed itself out, pressed itself up against the pulley and proceeded to get its head half sheered off! (I theorize, because the compressor is basically locked in place, that the bolt caused the pulley to wobble, forcing the belt up unto the centerline.) I'm leaving for Buses By The Bridge tomorrow, so my easy, temporary repair was to simply cut the relatively new belt off.

Don't feel bad I have had a compressor bolt back out twice on my cabby.. But my Caravan had a squealing new belt, so I hit it with belt dressing and it went blam broke in half and flew off the car missing my hear, and scaring the bejeezers out of me....

[Calimus]

Not much to report here. Beetle and A6 behaving nicely. Gearing up for the spring/Summer of A1-ness though. I've gotten in almost all the parts I need to convert my rocco back to CIS-E. I've decided to take the coilovers off my rocco and put them on Crabby Cabby, I want to go back to sports suspension (the A6 has spoiled me). New top should be purchased for the cabby in March and once I find a way to bribe a certain someone, then that means that the crabby cabby shall be road worthy once more.

really looking forward to wrenching on the cabby and the rocco's. It's been a very long time and I think I'm looking forward to dealing with the simplicity of them after working hard to bring the A6 to dependable levels. Man, talk about 20lbs of shit in a 5lbs bag.