Somebody has to do it, and nobody else volunteers: the fixing saga

[skyking1]

Trico 71-280 refils and cut them to length. That’s what I did last time.

This outfit has them at the right length and cheap, but for the shipping.
https://acetrucksales.com/?syclid=a9c2e5a4-87ce-4cce-99fe-9af5ddbf2007

 

[skyking1]

The TDI beetle went metal on metal up front. It has 181K on original parts and has been weaving and bobbing for a while now, so I ordered up front end parts too. These MKIV are super easy on the wallet when buying parts.
New strut assemblies with springs, rear shocks, A-arms loaded with bushings and new ball joints, new pads and rotors. $305 plus tax and shipping from RockAuto.
AutoZone wanted 80 and 50 for the rotors alone!

 

[oarwhat]

Watch rock auto brake parts. I bought a higher grade was supposed to be OEM . Rotors were coated. I think the rotors were made from scrap cars. All discolored and wearing weird.

 

[stinky64]

Have used probably 30 sets of coated rotor/pad sets from RockAuto, both PowerStop and Raybestos. All have performed great. Only twice have I encountered bad wear/discoloration from calipers hanging ang getting hot. First time '11 GMC p/u for customer 2nd time my '14 Chevy p/u both times front brake hoses deteriorated wouldn't allow calipers to retract right. Back to RockAuto for oem front brake hoses for about $30 a set delivered. Autozones price for duralast junk $30 apiece. Auto zone in town is emergency only, parts rats don't know schit and have actually argued with me about wrong parts. I don't deal with stupid too well so avoid that joint.

 

[skyking1]

The car is coming apart easily for 21 years on the road.

 

[oarwhat]

I just checked. I used dynamic friction. I don't think I could get Raybestos at the time.

 

[stinky64]

Best part about Raybestos, well at least for you and me is they ship from Syracuse 2 days most times. Just ordered an oem Ford ABS sensor on friday, delivered from Syr. saturday USPS, holy crap. Sometimes when doing a 4 wheel brake swap the 4 wheel kit isn't available but you can order rotors and pads separately and they're available ??? Little tip for next time, trial and error.

 

[stinky64]

The car is coming apart easily for 21 years on the road.

Lucky if we can get 21 yrs. out of a vehicle around these parts unless it's stored for the winter. DOT's dump enough salt and other crap on the roads to melt fenders and frames.

 

[skyking1]

I threw some PB blaster on everything and retreated. No hurry I have all weekend.
I ordered the 1000 series airlift bags for the rear coils. This car gets used as a truck. I thought it was worth it to do the air bag mod. Unfortunately I went with the cheapest price and they have not shipped yet


Example: G56 transmission out of my 3500 Ram. Fish on, baby!

I cut some custom OSB to protect the spare tire cover. It has a full size spare under there to take the weight.
Right now this one has the back seat in it, but when I get serious I pull all that.
The seat anchors serve as tie downs for things like the transmission.

I have a class 1 hitch rated at 200 pounds tongue and 2000 trailer weight and a 4 wire kit.
I won't mess with trailer brakes, and only tow trailers around 1000 pounds or about a third of the car's weight. I suppose I could build a little surge brake trailer for it, but I can haul a lot of kit @1000 pounds.

 

[colson04]

I threw some PB blaster on everything and retreated. No hurry I have all weekend.
I ordered the 1000 series airlift bags for the rear coils. This car gets used as a truck. I thought it was worth it to do the air bag mod. Unfortunately I went with the cheapest price and they have not shipped yet
View attachment 313237

Example: G56 transmission out of my 3500 Ram. Fish on, baby!

I cut some custom OSB to protect the spare tire cover. It has a full size spare under there to take the weight.
Right now this one has the back seat in it, but when I get serious I pull all that.
The seat anchors serve as tie downs for things like the transmission.

I have a class 1 hitch rated at 200 pounds tongue and 2000 trailer weight and a 4 wire kit.
I won't mess with trailer brakes, and only tow trailers around 1000 pounds or about a third of the car's weight. I suppose I could build a little surge brake trailer for it, but I can haul a lot of kit @1000 pounds.

Is it all stock under the hood yet? I worked with a Driller up in NorDak that had a TDI Beetle with some upgrades under the hood. That car would flat fly, and if he kept out of the throttle, still get crazy good fuel mileage. One of the diesel performance centers in Indiana or Illinois pushed one years ago to see how far they could push the stock internals. At 550hp, they bent the rods. No crank damage, no head related failures.

 

[skyking1]

Yeah I call bull on 550 HP. Hang out on the TDI forums to see the real deals.

The black had stage 4 tune, 17/22 VNT and all the parts and pieces. It is gone now due to a wreck. stock they are 90/152 HP/TQ
It was 180/355, and was a blast to drive. Before I changed to the southbend endurance clutch, you could feel out the peak torque band.
Wood it, and it held till 2200, then slipped up to 2800 in one smooth moment. Then the car caught up and it held that to redline. There was your peak torque demonstrated.
This one is stock as far as I can tell. I have no plans to tune it.

 

[stinky64]

Is it all stock under the hood yet? I worked with a Driller up in NorDak that had a TDI Beetle with some upgrades under the hood. That car would flat fly, and if he kept out of the throttle, still get crazy good fuel mileage. One of the diesel performance centers in Indiana or Illinois pushed one years ago to see how far they could push the stock internals. At 550hp, they bent the rods. No crank damage, no head related failures.

Too much power Cap'n.

 

[skyking1]

my 180 HP car could not sustain the power very long. I never hitched it to a trailer but my experience watching gauges is, the cooling would run out on a long hill if you stayed in the boost.
As a bare car it would get you into serious trouble with that much sustained power, so it was self-limiting.
That's the thing about turning up diesels. Everything down the line has to be up to it if you really use the power. Acting like an idiot light-to-light is not what I am talking about.
I can lean on my ram/Cummins until the EGT gets too much and never run out of cooling. It is a happy place.

 

[colson04]

Is it all stock under the hood yet? I worked with a Driller up in NorDak that had a TDI Beetle with some upgrades under the hood. That car would flat fly, and if he kept out of the throttle, still get crazy good fuel mileage. One of the diesel performance centers in Indiana or Illinois pushed one years ago to see how far they could push the stock internals. At 550hp, they bent the rods. No crank damage, no head related failures.

https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/0801dp-2002-vw-jetta/

I know this isn't the article I had read way back, but it might be the same car. He mentions at the end of the article that they bent the rods with a high boost, propane assist tune.

I'll keep digging for the article I remember reading. I can certainly be off on whatever the peak number was as I was into VWs back in late 2000's/early 2010's. I never had the coin to play with them much though. I always wanted to keep up with my buddies tuned 1.8T Jetta. That was a peppy car for its day.

 

[skyking1]

https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/0801dp-2002-vw-jetta/

I know this isn't the article I had read way back, but it might be the same car. He mentions at the end of the article that they bent the rods with a high boost, propane assist tune.

I'll keep digging for the article I remember reading. I can certainly be off on whatever the peak number was as I was into VWs back in late 2000's/early 2010's. I never had the coin to play with them much though. I always wanted to keep up with my buddies tuned 1.8T Jetta. That was a peppy car for its day.

318 HP is the top of reliability. Nice car!
here is a derail, 16 valve 2.0 Golf 1 with 4 motion and a dog box. 1000 HP

Here is the street version with a 5 speed.