1990 GTI MK2/ABF/5dr/Alpine White - Au - Mission Complete 1/7/2016

Leaky Rear Doors - 4DR pics.

I needed something productive to do after having a bad day. I'd pulled the door car off before Christmas to see if rain got in, well it didn't rain, so I put it back on and now it's raining. Yes, it's clearly evident the rain is seeping onto door card and then into cabin.

So I followed Beetie's guide - http://www.clubgti.com/showthread.php?182265-mk2-door-membrane-leak-fixing

Took door card off, couldn't get the screw mounts off like beetie did, so I cut around with a knife and cleaned up the door. Looked clean inside and gave the runners and winder a lube. I also noticed that the window seal isn't touching the glass and I think it's the trim, so leave that for a panel session another time. I lined up some garden plastic and trimmed roughly to fit.


As Beetie demonstrated, I got my hand in behind the plastic and used Gaffa tape to adhere ensuring I'd sleeved the plastic into the door. Then I used tabs of gaffa to stretch up the plastic, ran a strip across the top and finished with alu tape for good measure.


This 3M double sided is brilliant, we used the wider version in film and TV for microphones and this is the domestic version you get from office supplies.


I used the old RC tyre gluing trick leaving a tail and then pulling it out as I pressed down


Thanks to Beetie for his post and will let you all know the outcome.

 

CV were all replaced, right bearing was shagged. The bearings I bought that I suspected were too small ARE too small, so one last visit to Slacks Creek to get my money back! Lucky AADi had a pair of bearings too, we only used one. The mech said one of the CV's was a little floppy, Im happy it's rebuilt with new parts and the boots are now strapped and not cable tied.


SHOUT OUT TO:
Vanessa, Jeremy and the crew at AADi... Awesome customer service and great technical support.

http://www.aadiaustralia.com.au/

 

You see, all that worry over nothing. Glad to hear it`s sorted

 

That's not an accident.

This is an accident!



I've got a twin lamp grill tucked away somewhere if you don't find one locally. Top mounting clips are broken but the rest is ok. Cheap.

Just sold my spare ABF manifold but Matt at Camden GTI had a couple. He's also got a couple of MK2's for spares so might have a grill in good condition. I know he's trying to get rid of the MK2 Jetta front end if you like rectangular headlights.

Cheers

Paul

PS. I'm picking up another Seat Cupra 16v next week. This one will be my daily so I'll hit you up with lots of questions on how to get the best out of the ABF.

 

Give them enough air, good fuel, a good spark and a nice pipe to sing it's song and the ABF does the rest!

Thanks for the offer and pointers to Matt, I soon need to send DHL to pick up a dash from Mike, I'm confident there'd be a dual headlight grill out there somewhere.

You're probably right with the manifold, there's more chance finding one here and Matt is a good call... Ill let you know how I go.


PS: The dip in the roof in picture is heart breaking.

 

The dip in the roof happened a year ago when the bonnet flew open at 120 ks. The real heart braking bit is the slight warp in the rain tray caused by the right suspension tower being half an inch closer to the left tower. It could probably be pulled out and I would have tried to fix it if I didn't have the MK1 2 door to swap parts into (and spend my money on).

 

Yeah, having parts for the Mk1 is a good place to be.

 

Going back in... Water pump and Cam belt.

So I made it to the water pump, have a bad back and the humid weather has slowed things down, but I've made it to the pump. The bearing's flogged out, that's twice now. Needed a 3/8 socket set to get the front flange bolts out, the 1/2" wont fit without removing the intake. Also had to tighten the top cap on the upright, keeps coming loose. Have a new Three way oil cooler hose to fit, the radiator to have another look at, maybe epoxy the captive nut and replace the flange, but I'll have one more look to see if I can come up with something creative and fit the new radiator. Not sure if my patience with the extreme humidity will last to fit the heater matrix, so far so good!

So I took a look at the front support that was dinged in the bingle with the towbar ahead. I've pulled out the center bracket by hand while on the car and I think a little more persuasion and it'll be fine.



My coveted GENUINE front flange and a relief to have. I need to source a 5mm ball hex before I put the new one back on. It was a drama getting it off, I wanted to preserve the hose too and it was stuck stead fast, so gentle persuasion using a chisel loosened the top screw and it was off. I purchased a 3/8 socket set and even that didn't fit. Rather than mess around with a pivoting joint, a 5mm ball head will do fine with new hex bolts, I'll torque the top a little more first then do the two lower sides.


Top oil cooler hose.


Existing Cam Belt.



Water Pump pulley, Thermostat housing, transferred. New o-rings, thermostat (85c) pulley bolts and I had to shim the pulley as he bolts were touching. I'm going to have a better eyeball of the pulley alignment, maybe that's causing the pump bearing issue.
Also removed the seal from the Alternator tensioner, flushed it out and repacked with grease, it's much happier now and not so gritty.



...

THE RADIATOR.
I''d searched the globe looking for a left side 675mm radiator with no luck. It took my son to point out there was a serial number underneath... DOH


Since day one, this flange was leaking through a tiny pinhole, it was a small part of a bigger problem, another loose end tidied up!


CHASSIS Flex
I noticed the chassis stresses a lot when on stands, so I'm supporting the K frame with the jack as well.



TIMING BELT.

It wasn't too much drama, I used the method I have before and marked several marks on belt and pulleys and transferred them to the new belt. The tensioner was dead easy, used multigrips without much fiuss at all and lined up the pointer and it sprung to life. I may give it another run like the guide mentions but it moved and returned. (We run many a belt tensioner in RC) Took the plugs out and will give them a clean, they didn't look too bad and cycled the crank a couple of times to be sure nothing's head butting above. The old tensioner seemed fine, it was changed when we first put the engine it. Never hurts having a spare to learn from as much as its handy as a spare.




See here for Nige and Eddie's guide : http://www.clubgti.com/showthread.p...-in-MK2-golf&p=2423460&viewfull=1#post2423460

NOTE: The crank had been rotated several times prior to the picture being taken.

Memo
Need a long shafted Ball Hex to get the top flange in, sending Luke shopping while I tend to cleaning up. Was there ever an under car shroud?


Repairs.

The top shroud mount was cracked, luckily it never fouled the belt, so some araldite and wall plasterers mesh tape might hold it together. I first glued it together then laid the mesh and ran more araldite over it, ensuring I strengthened the corner where it cracked apart.


A stale tube of shoe goo, but it's there just to hold down any loose ends, nothing special but it's holding strong!



Spark plugs all cleaned up and ready to fire


I keep two Air filters, one cleaned and oiled in the cupboard and the other on the car. It takes me a week to clean and oil an air filter, I give it two days to dry out. I've bought the K&N cleaning kit and it seems it's no different to the alkaline parts washing liquid I have. So I give it a good soak, gentle brush and a good rinse, let it dry for a few days and give it a couple of coats of oil

 

As mentioned earlier, I'd replaced the bolts on the old water pump and they spoiled on the housing on the new waterpump. I'd shimmed it out in and temporarily mounted it onto the block to align the main, PAS and water pump.
When I mounted the pump and pushed the PAS upward it was evident that the shims had moved the water pump pulley too far toward the chassis, but is seemed nicely aligned with the main pulley. So decided to take the average and swapped the shorter screws on the PAS with those on the water pump.



This is before I fixed the pump and PAS in place, it seems happily aligned with the SKF pump. we'll see how it goes this time!

So it's all back together and purring as usual, it breaths as though it was on life support and I have two vids uploading, one in the engine bay near the charcoal cannister, where you hear all the wonderful emissions and air systems at work, the other at the rear was to hear the purr, the hanging idle (AC perhaps) and a little flutter with the throttle but it's late and the neighbours heard enough of an ABF when it only had one muffler.



I didn't fill her to the top with coolant, I've been through the warmup process that many times, I knew to expect a long fan run once I shut her down. My hypothesis is that if you don't backfill and top up the coolant system, the thermoswitch never gets hot enough. As expected (see pic) I was running hot, my oil temp was good and the moment I shut down, the fan kicked in and ran for longer than usual, I like it when it's predictable!




[video=youtube;Ql8J5HE0oJE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql8J5HE0oJE[/video]
[video=youtube;Vn712rtkgig]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn712rtkgig[/video]


A tip I learned along the way, when expanding the VAG hose clamps grab them at 90 degress, they don't slip out as much! And after a painful weekend with a bad back that couldn't wait any longer, it's all good news downunder... '

Even better, my son bought me the most AWESOME set of ball head HEX tools, it made the front flange install a dream!

In summary

• Replaced the Radiator flange
• Replaced the front flange (new)
• Replaced the top oil cooler hose (new)
• Replaced Timing belt & Tensioner
• Repaired Timing Belt Cover
• Replaced Water Pump and Thermostat
• Replaced worn fixings on pulleys and TB cover
• Serviced the Altenator Tensioner and spark plugs

 

Where did you get the ABF from?

 

It was from a SEAT Toledo, a Bavarian mech started the build, I inherited this car from my son.

 

Summary of Timing belt, water pump and coolant system

The day started with asking the boys to fit the bumper, I've got a slip disc lower back and I'm struggling. After 30 minutes of trying to get the stupid bumper in I told them to give up and took the bumper back off. 40 minutes wondering why the bolt wouldn't thread on and I realise the captive nut was missing, the washers came loose... Juuuuust great..bah..

I'd also had more than my fair share frustration from these bumper mounts so it was time to do something about it. To add to the frustration, my joy was short lived with the radiator as the new flange was leaking.



A friend of Lukes and long time family friend donate us his 100A Gasless Mig, his friend stole his face shield and used up all his wire and he'd had enough of lending it out to them, so this is the new shared home. He told us to buy more wire, I bought a helmet, gloves and gasless wire.... It was our first time welding, we solder a lot and Luke was dead keen on having a go. We'd watched vids and cleaned all the surfaces, Luke looked at the wire and said it was the same as we'd bought, why waste it.

I'd salvage some flared nuts that were larger than the existing bolts and decided to see if the thicker bolts would fit in the mounting holes, and they did, the bolts I had we 20mm too short, so we headed out to Lukes favourite the nut and bolt shop and discussed the various metric thread, the bolts fit and we headed home and stopped by the hardware shop for some high temp silicon sealant to seal off the radiator fan. Arrived home, gooped up the flange, mounted it and left it to dry.

We'd removed the brackets from the bumper frame and it was time to weld, we'd set everything up, vice, grinders, glove, pliers to pick up hot things, clamp to hot thing etc etc... we looked like real pros!! Then we tried welding... Eeek that didn't stick... We cleaned again, tried again, still wont stick... We cleaned, lowered the wire rate, welded hotter... Ooh and managed to get a tack weld! We kept trying, failed a lot, won a few, failed more and more.. Then the washer was hanging off... WTF!!!! I blew a couple of temperament fuses and shorted the patience relay and lost it!



Opened up the mid welder, removed the spool at it was a Argon/C02 gassed wire... Slap to the forehead, a few I told you so and a newbie mistake letting the spool release and Luke and I were recoiling 30 metres of wire up and down our driveway. Things started improving from there, it took us a few goes to realise how you work the feed and you must take the head off before feeding wire, simple newbie fails. Then banged off all the oxidised welds and started again.

We checked one side to see if the bracket and the captive nuts aligned and if we could get thru. That little nudge onthe bumper the other day may have shifted things so after trying to make it easier to get the bumper on, it was more difficult than before... That was until I resorted to my least like options, use a rattle gun, in they went and one of the poor welds let go on that back nut, I think we can get to it... later....



Things are looking up!

So the last 10 percent felt like it took 100 percent of the effort and it was done. My luck was improving, the hi temp adhesive silicon I used to seal off the flange held and all leaks we gone, it was the first time I connected my cooling system without any leaks either. (other than the top radiator flange) I'd also been coaxing the left wing, it shifted in the rear nudge and did some beating on the corner to get it bad where it should be.

Engine was purring better than ever, all bearings and rattles gone, confidence in the cooling systems, I shut the hood, hopped in with Luke and my mate Stuart and headed up the mountain for a test drive.
Previously Oil temps - 92-102c and Water temps 1/4 - just over 1/2 on the dial up to 102c in VAG com - yes HOT it's always been that way, but NOW....

• Oil temps were 10 degrees better at 82-84 max under load at 90c
• Water temp remained 1/4 and sits between 1/4 and never reach 1/2 in traffic (Ambient temp 32c today)
• Engine note is sweet, not a miss to be heard
• Fuel economy open road is 6.1
• Now I can hear my PAS pump whine (all other noise gone)

It's never in all the time I've owned it run so cool, I thought thats what they meant by hot hatch, obviously not that hot. The head, intake is also cooler and stays cool now. So it seems that either a TEENY pinhole in the flange OR the SKF Water pump is responsible. Considering the two previous water pumps were the same REPCO brand with a cast metal impeller, the SKF must be moving more water. The thermostat is an 85c not 89c but there's way more than 4 degrees change and the water temps dont fluctuate. Unless the pinhole pressure drop caused it, but I think it's the improved flow of the SKF pump and not a pressure issue.

Accidently slipped off the ECU hose from the intake and the engine began oscillating in revs, no other major issues and I almost hit the jackpot when the VW spare parts went out back to check if he had a MK2 GTI grill... Sadly he'd sold it.

Highly recommended




PS: I also stopped by the exhaust shop to confirm that my exhaust system was reduced to 2" before the tailing muffler and check it's not knocking, Im getting a gurgly creeking sound, it might be exhaust rumble, we'll see.

 

Repairing the grill

It took me a while to get the lower metal strip off, it was buckled and hard to tell where the fracture was. The strip actually held the bottom plastic together and there was a split at the VW emblem, the tow bar must have deflected through it and left the outer of the grill in tact. Luck fell my way this time. The lower strip had me puzzled for a while until I found the clips at the far ends, I managed to pry it off without breaking any of the clips and I'll attack it with a hammer and dolly and spray it alpine white like it should be and put it back on another time.





Usual deal, this time with 1 hour araldite (I prefer 5min) some plasterers mesh and finished off with aluminium tape.. LOVE COMPOSITES!!!!

I'm sticking to 5 minute araldite for the first coat from now on, the hi strength cures too slowly for this kind of job.

More gluing...



The black spot light inserts seem to be worn so I glued one in place, one was stuck there, so I left it and one is on the TO GLUE list.

With Summer bearing down on us the front speakers are very exposed to sunlight. The sound quality isn't great so covering them won't make a difference.



The air vent was broken on one, a dribble of araldite solved that and spray adhesive and speaker material for the shade.

Later, there's the wing corner and this to beat, bog and paint

 

Heater Matrix and wiring tidy.

RJ's method from 2010 - (There are so many posts to sift through )

Here's where I'm at now. ( I wanted the surround removed to give it a clean and organise loose wiring)

View attachment 2015

I've removed the two nuts either side of the air distributor, I've disconnected the heater controls electrical, all the vac lines are still connected as is the heater duct cable. It's a bit of an ask to get into the engine bay just yet and taking my time because it's like a steam bath outside and there's only so much I can handle before losing my cool, what little there's left!

I've got plenty of things to do, the IMMOB and VAG port is a must to sort out, I'm going to see if I can find the spot John mounted and get it out of the way once and for all.



Also wondering what this wire was for, I'll get a better pic of it. It's on the light switch, I don't have an LED on my dash, just a little hole.

 

What am I missing

I'm bent like a question mark with a bad back and the thought of taking out the dash and heating system as a whole unit is no more daunting than doing it from beneath in bits. I've read through as much material as I can and Im still confused. I think I've managed to free up all the harness from the dash. My ground to the immob is too short so I'm lengthening it to give me somewhere to call home, it's been dangling at my feet for years!!



Red arrows - Exterior fixings - two top dash nuts and the firewall bolts holding the heating system in place
White Arrows - Interior fixings, I assume there's more.
Need to remove wheel and disconnect heater flap cable.
Fusebox is down and I want to find a good home for immob and vag port.

 

From memory there's a sneaky bolt you need to undo from inside the engine bay.

 

I took out the heater matrix in my car summer before last. I've linked to the guides I used in my thread if that helps. It's a pig of a job and there's some springy clips around the back of the ducting that need to come off, too. I had to do it with my legs over the head restraint and my head in the footwell. Not fun.

 

Thanks guys, after much deliberation Im going to defer this until I have a new dash to put on. I sorted the immob and vag port, tidied a whole lot of wires (again) and moved closer to removing the whole lot in one go and seeing how I fair. Pulling apart the heater with those clips ISNT GOING TO HAPPEN this time anyway!

 

Im gonna give Matt a call at CAMDEN tomorrow and see what he has in store for me.

 

Positioning the Immob and VAG port.

CAMDEN GTI had a lot of things I needed. Gave Matt a call and have a pile of parts and NEW radiator... Toledo/Corrado version 1L0 121 253G and he's harvested the NOS and lots of other goodies.. Now to get Mike's dash!

With the bad back, steamy weather taking it's toll I called an end to the removal and continued with the tidy of the remaining wiring. Note that I've been tidying the wiring since I got the car, it was excessive and it's taken several rounds to get to all the spots I need. Again I wiggled the drivers air vent duct out, you might want to call it a clean and jerk or more to the point, come here you stupid bas.....d and ripped it out. It was that one duct that Ive done before that shy's me well clear of the WIGGLE OUT method.

IMMOB

So with most the wiring tidied I began re-routing the immob to the other side of the fuse box. I took RJ lead and looked for a place to mount it, while there were plenty I could have, it seemed it would protrude and foul on the panels later so ontop of the steering wheel housing and double sided tape it was., I'd saved a piece of carpet coated wire ducting to channel the precious wiring.

There was an anomaly that I encountered that I was questioning from the start. Prior to the relocation and the main problem was I'd cut back the grounds and mounted them to the ground point on the pillar near the fuse box. It was too short and the other wires were too long and it dangled there for years. So I splice the ground back together knowing I'd gone crazy grounding everything in the past. After I'd routed them I wanted to check to see if the existing grounds had continuity and they did, Luke was there when we checked to chassis. Once I'd sorted out where to put it I plugged in and tried to start the car, the distinctive start, ignition and die was 100% the immob, it's handy to know when it is, it's happened a couple of times to me. So I splice in the ground to my favourite ground point which is also common with the pillar above the steering column and it started.

Why was there ground with continuity yet the IMMOB shutdown ... Is there a switch/relay in ECU that lifted the ground?



SWEATY... HUMID and HOT... Even the car looks like its balmy and sweating. (EWW PEDALS) See I don't mind RED, no I didn't order them that colour, they feel good under foot and a little quirky is fine by me as long as it's functional. They have a rigid back with a nice grip to the synthetic tread, not "rolly polly" feel you get with fat rubber.


Time to chat to Mike and get that dash so I can wire up the stereo with the factory wiring.


VAG Port

I moved the VAGCOM signal closer to the cig lighter feed and light circuit and bought a LED cheap to light up the cavity in the centre console and I'll park the VAG port behind, it's easy to get to and out of the way.


NOTE: First time since owning the car, the FUSE box white clip slipped in and clicked happily.

Gear shaft bushing.

I've also been messing round with the bushing for the gear stick shaft and I think I buggered it up more than I had. One good thing that came out of this saga was I found if you split an old ORANGE bushing from the engine bay it sits perfectly in the cup. So out came a can of brake cleaner, blood everywhere cleaning it up and then attacked with silicon adhesive... will go and check now... Wish me luck...

It's holding for now, I'll let it cure another day and greasy it up! I used an old heater cooling hose, slice length wise and sleeved over the shaft to mask it from glue and keep the orange grommet in place. Lots of brake cleaner to clean it and I think it's going to hold.



And time to have a look at the left side, yet another rogue connector...