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Explain the title you nerd You remember the “fahrvergnugen” VW ads, right? It translates to “driving pleasure.” “Fahrverweiflung” is a word I’ve made up based on the words “fahren” (to drive) and “verweiflung” (desperation). The term “bench racing,” for those unfamiliar, is  THAT doesn’t look particularly exciting. That’s because it’s boring. Widely regarded as the blandest of all the marks, the mark 4 line of Golfs lacks all the punch and pleasure that one might derive from a 2-door hatchback with a 5-speed manual. Even the GTI version is without the embellishments of the other marks, left with a measly “GTI” emblem on the boot lid. No lipstick, no badge that indicates the number of valves within the engine, no fun at all. VW’s attempt at elevating the GTI to a higher shelf left it with a moaning fan base and the character of a saltine cracker. But this specimen is no GTI. No, friends, this is worse. Much, much worse. In my garage sits a Golf with the GL trim, meaning it’s as plain-jane as was available. The only power things besides steering are the locks, and those are all broken. Being the base trim, this is a Golf with the beleaguered 8 valve 2.0 liter engine that tops out at 114 ponies, 63 fewer than the turbo-equipped GTI. It has a power to weight ratio, roughly, of a watermelon on a speed bump. What’s the plan, stan? Bop on over to my Trello board and peruse. I’m planning on doing everything I can to the vehicle in order to  . We’ll see. The biggest problem? Oil consumption. This motherfucker burns near a quart every 300 miles, give or take. It’s burning and not leaking out of the engine because every 1,200 miles or so I have to remove and clean the spark plugs, which are coated in oil and carbon build up:  If I don’t go through this regular cleaning, it starts misfiring. The post-cat O2 sensor is grumpy because, according to it, the cat is operating below performance threshold. It’s very likely that all this oil is junking the cat and I’ll have to replace that AND the O2 sensor. After the oil’s fixed the next on the list is the A/C. It’s completely shot, but doesn’t leak at all, leading me to believe that the compressor has disintegrated from the inside, so I’m going to replace everything, preferably from a junker/donor car. What’s been done so far? I overhauled the entire suspension, front and back, chasing a steering wheel jerk problem. Everything strut or shock related, it got refreshed with brand new parts. The springs are much stiffer than their predecessors, and a fair deal higher; the car is sitting 1.5” higher than it had been. The jerk, turns out, was due to junk control arm bushings. Apart from replacing the valve cover gasket and the brake pads, she’s pretty much as I bought her. Oh, right, and then there’s this:   Hey, whoa, what’s that? THAT, friends, is a Volkswagen Passat W8 wagon, and here’s its wack-a-do, far-too-in-depth history: Pops has been a car nut since I was small and he’s bounced around with manufacturers for as long as I can remember. Growing up, we had nothing but Mopars, but in high school he sold them all away for GM vehicles. Over the course of a couple years we had a couple Oldsmobiles, Saturns, and an S10 or two. Once all us rugrats had vanished from the house, he sold all of THOSE away (save a GMC 1500) and bought Volkswagens. Lots of Volkswagens. He has two-and-a-half Jettas at his house, plus a mark  She bought it and showed up at Christmas and pops laughed while shaking his head. “What?” she asked. “VWs are reliable and you all own ‘em so I thought I’d break my bad car luck streak with something dependable!” One year and $2,500 worth of maintenance and repairs later, pops took the Passat under his wing and she bought a Chrysler Concorde (which is another exciting tale). She was involved in a hit-and-run while the car was parked and the front drivers side was smooshed kinda good, but none of the internals were affected (I don’t believe that, either). Dad did a lot of work, replaced the thermostat, replaced and painted some body panels, and it’s about as mint as it can get. Exceeeeeeeeeeeeeept for the CEL, which is lit. And the heater, which isn’t running so hot (  ). There are likely other things wrong with it, but I haven't gotten my mitts on it as of yet but I'll be diving in for sure. If anyone has any Carfax runs they'd like to donate to the cause, playes halp.Good, no more of that, what’s so special about this thing? Aside from being a monument to German engineering, it’s awful. Will at Jalopnik daily-drivered one of these bad boys for 2 years and he came up with this handy flowchart to determine whether you’re a good fit for a Passat W8:  From what my pops tells me, it’s 100% accurate. He’s also told me that it’s one of the best cars he’s ever driven and if it weren’t for most of the parts being NLA, he’d drive it into the ground. Instead, he’s going back to restoring his mk2 1.6L EcoDiesel Jetta. Step-sister should definitely have went with the Toyota branch of the chart. Moving on… What’re YOU doing with it? I’m fixing it. Stop laughing. I’m fixing it and then I’m selling it to the next masochist who thinks a W8 is a good idea. A few VW enthusiasts that I know tell me that there are a lot of VW enthusiasts in the area and they have meet-ups every year, so that’s my deadline: get this thing sale-ready by the next big ol’ meet-up in the summer. On the outside chance that I decide owning this is a better idea than my other long term idea (building my Golf’s 2.0L into something useful and putting it in a Caddy then converting it to RWD), I’ll keep the drat thing. It's still at dad's and I'll be picking it up this weekend along with his ODBII reader, since it's apparent that I'll need that at some point. Oh, since pops owns the car and I’m only working on it, he’s paying for all the parts that are needed for repairs. Good for me, since I’m trying to save money. I’ll be getting paid to do all of this nonsense, also. Scoff, good luck, you dipshit.  I am fearless and naive when it comes to car repair. “Sure, I can do it!” is my motto, regardless of whether I can. Update links! When I post updates, I’ll link ‘em here. Updates might be sparse for now since it won’t be above freezing in my garage for a week or so. Update 1: the W8 has landed. Bonus CEL ODBII codes! Update 2: put it on a slip, jim, it's not goin anywhere scuz fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Jan 28, 2016 |
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Jan 18, 2016 23:42
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LloydDobler posted:I thought bench racing was talking/bragging about how fast your car is and inflating how much horsepower it has, while never ever showing real numbers by racing it or putting it on a dyno. gently caress, you're right about the bench racing definition. You're also right with the apropos pun, not to mention it's simply a better pun. It also fits cuz I'm ultimately trying to get rid of the thing. Mods, plz halp!! kastein posted:Please V10 TDI swap this, and put the W8 in your Golf.  Yeah, there's some kind of climate control shenanigans that're going on that thankfully don't have anything to do with the engine. It has the VW Climatronic system, which is over-engineered to hell and back. The Googles are telling me that I might have to re-run some likely corroded wires to the control module for the thing (WHICH IS LOCATED UNDER THE DRIVERS SEAT).
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Jan 19, 2016 03:59
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Bibendum posted:edit: I totally replied to the wrong thread Raluek posted:Isn't the mk3 tdi a 1.9L?
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Jan 20, 2016 05:14
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Raluek posted:Oh, huh, I didn't know about those. Is it as slow as I'm imagining? Content! Here's a photo of all the suspension equipment I put into the Golf:  I wish I would have taken photos of the progress since there was quite a bit of drama involved. I didn't have the right size socket to remove the axle so I had to use spring compressors to remove/install the struts. Took loving forever and I hated everything. There's a full set of gaskets in there, too, along with piston rings. I'm still kicking around the idea of a full rebuild on the engine and probably will if my valve stem seals don't stop the oil problems.   Driving around with that on its roof wasn't as white-knuckle as I anticipated, but it wasn't a walk in the park. Looks like it'll be warm enough to spend some time in the garage today so I'm gonna take measurements for my new hatch bed 
scuz fucked around with this message at 16:13 on Jan 20, 2016 |
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Jan 20, 2016 16:07
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my brain posted:When people are calling you a "loving maniac" and a "dumb bastard" while wishing you luck, you're on the right track. extreme_accordion posted:CEL wouldn't be for the door sensors and wiring on the side that got hit would it?... no wait. Check Engine Light. 1500quidporsche posted:Nothing is more VW then setting light to a pile of cash and putting nothing but the best suspension stuff in. I think when I worked it out I put close to $3k into my Scirocco's suspension. Thing is laughably stable on gravel snow and ice now but its probably worth exactly the same as what I paid for it.
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Jan 20, 2016 16:46
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Thanks to IOC for the new thread title  1500quidporsche posted:Yeah I did get top of the pile stuff and I also had to pay a shitload sourcing the lower spring perches that I threw out when I went to coilovers. To top it all off I did the alignment myself so the cornering is less then exceptional but holy poo poo does my car feel like its on rails while going over snowed out gravel roads, which is fairly impressive considering I'm pretty sure the chassis is bent at this point.
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Jan 20, 2016 17:22
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Wrar posted:I must have something wrong with me because the concept of a W8 with a less weird engine really appeals Found out that my client is firing my company and I'm being relocated. Wouldn't bother me at all except I won't be able to bus in to work so any/all car repairs need to happen like right away so I don't strand myself during the week. Blergh.
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Jan 20, 2016 21:13
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kastein posted:Totally worth it. I spent $250 on the new rear struts for the Justy and the difference was mindblowing, it was actually driveable afterwards without terrible butt puckering moments skipping sideways around a gentle corner because I dared to take a 50mph posted corner at 50 (it wasn't even really a corner...), on dry warm pavement, and there happened to be some mild washboarding. I didn't even expect that, it scared the poo poo out of me.  There's still an insane amount of travel and wobble noises coming from the front struts, which I'm hoping will be rectified by these, since the video on the product page is exactly what my strut mounts look like at the moment. Loud "BANG" noises coming from the shocks in the back whenever I go over bumps, but those noises go away if I have ~150 pounds or so in the back. VW wiring being VW is what I'm counting on; those wires are prone to corrosion and will likely need to be replaced. On a side note, ugh, USRT's website is very much a wallet trap. Ever since seeing this Escort engine in the latest Ken Block monstrosity I decided that ITBs and NA were totally for me, as much as I wanna slap turbos on everything. I know I can have both at some point, but I can't get over how awesome that bay looks.
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Jan 20, 2016 22:38
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Larrymer posted:Looks like you're well past listening to the voice of reason but you should sell your car and get a real GTI and probably just clear the CEL on the W8 (depending on what code it is and how terrible it is to fix) and try to sell it. To the tune of "Got My Mind Set On You."
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Jan 21, 2016 15:29
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Can't outrun the dark horse 
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Jan 21, 2016 16:01
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buttcrackmenace posted:seconding the Bilstein love Will @ Jalopnik posted:There are 4 different types of valve. Long and short versions for both intake and exhaust. The engine has 2 balance shafts, 2 belts, and 3 timing chains. The dimensions are the same as a Ford 289, but sideways - the W8 is as wide as the 289 is long, and shorter than the 289 is wide. To account for the extra vibration induced by moving away from a 90 degree V, VW used a split pin crank, balance shafts, and variable stiffness vacuum actuated hydraulic motor mounts. And they didn’t stop there - because of various package restrictions, combustion inefficiencies from the engine layout, and the brilliance of German engineering, you will find the following under the hood:
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Jan 21, 2016 17:53
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Gorson posted:Never said by a VW engineer: "maybe this engine design isn't worth the hassle of all the extra poo poo we have to tack on to get it to work".
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Jan 21, 2016 18:05
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The W8. It is in the garage. The W8 is pretty         This was a bit of a bummer. This is the wheel that had been on the side of the collision and it appears to have a bit of a bimp. I took the wagon up to ~85 on the freeway and there was a slight rumble, it might be this, it might not.  REVEAL YOUR SECRETS  mmhmm.  okay.  ohhhhhkayyyyyyyyy. Bit of work to do. Seems the heater doesn't work when it gets REALLY COLD outside and these codes may provide me with a bit of insight. Regarding the rest of the car, I've never driven a high-performance automobile, and the last 8-cylinder vehicle I drove was the 301 in my 1981 Oldsmobile 98. This station wagon hauls. rear end. Never before and possibly never again will I be so confident of putting the hammer down and passing every dumb rear end in a top hat on the road in something so understated you wouldn't believe it if you weren't there. Full-time 4-wheel drive, sticks to the road, goes real quick. This thing is awesome. It ticks the practicality, comfort, and excitement boxes. I am mounting a strong case on both sides of the "should I keep it" argument. Pops did a knock-out job on the body panel work and it looks brand new. After a few months of tracking down electrical gremlins, there'd be no surprise that I couldn't wait to get rid of this thing. Honeymoon's still on, though. We'll see how she manages. I have a free evening tomorrow so research is a-go.
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Jan 25, 2016 04:21
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Seat Safety Switch posted:Those latter two codes refer to the heater circuits in the O2 sensor(s), which have nothing to do with climate control. LloydDobler posted:Well then don't ever listen to youtube videos of straight pipe W8 motors....  In all honesty, there's no way I'd be able to keep this thing, much as I'd like to. I'm trying to get a carfax report on the thing to see what's been done to it, but that's gonna be a stretch. I know what pops has done, but I'm thinking things like tie rod ends and those sorts of things haven't been done on this car in well forever.stump posted:That o2 sensor info is handy SSS, I just passed my wife's Vauxhall corsa on to my mum and it's giving that code. kastein posted:SSS is right... I knew the "check engine light on because of hvac system" thing seemed a little weird/fishy/too bad to be true/too good to be true.  kastein posted:So I went looking on the internet for info on W8 O2 sensor changing and found this gem of a thread. I can't look away. The OP is an insufferable oval office AND a retard, and has no idea what he is doing. Some of the other posters are no better, some are smart though. scuz fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Jan 25, 2016 |
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Jan 25, 2016 17:20
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Seat Safety Switch posted:Did VW build this car to see just how far they could go before their fanboys would abandon them?
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Jan 25, 2016 17:28
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I noticed on the drive home (~40 or so highway miles) that the steering is a bit clunky, much like the steering was on the Golf before I replaced the tie rod ends and the suspension etc. A small victory: that poo poo isn't any more expensive than the Golf's! Unless I want it to be! I might! bennyfactor posted:Oh man, the W8 wagon! The coolest, most ridiculous wagon since the Colony Park went out of production.
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Jan 25, 2016 17:34
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kastein posted:I'm hoping the same, for your sake, but remember he lives in florida ( Something else pops told me: he suspects that the POs didn't use premium fuel in the W8 so he's been running his own brand on homemade SeaFoam through it ever other fill-up. It's got like marvel mystery oil, fuel injector cleaner, and like three other weird things that he mixes up in half-gallon mason jars. I'd love to be able to get this thing back to running as tip-top as it could, but it might be out of my benefactor's pay range. Or he might just not care, who knows.
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Jan 25, 2016 17:44
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) and you're in minnesota as I recall. Rustbelt may kick your rear end on this one, I dunno.
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Yep  If I pull the sensors and they're all gunked-up, is there a way to clean them that isn't completely asinine? It'd be temporary in any case. If I clean them and check them after like three thousand miles or something and they're still clean, awesome, I'll just get new ones and call it a day. If they get re-gunked, I'll be up a motherfuckin creek.
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Jan 25, 2016 17:50
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Yeeeeeeeeeeah, I'm not gonna ask him for any of the special recipe whatever-the-fucks. I like the idea of an Italian tune-up so I'm gonna run the high-octane stuff and make sure to drive it like a maniac over extended periods of time. Love my pops, but he's a bit more of a mad tinkerer than scientist.
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Jan 25, 2016 18:42
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This Italian Tune-Up, how long until I should give up on burning all the junk out? I drove it ~65mph for a half hour or so last night on its way home, but it'd been sitting for at least a few weeks beforehand.
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Jan 25, 2016 22:40
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literally a fish posted:Road speed isn't what matters, engine RPM is. You need to be doing 65mph in like... third. For maybe 20 minutes. Or longer.
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Jan 25, 2016 23:07
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SITREP:
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Jan 26, 2016 16:09
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You've gotta be making GBS threads me. The W8 drive train just popped up on craigslist, with engine accessories. $400?! You loving betcha. Time to call
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Jan 26, 2016 20:14
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Alarbus posted:That would be an appropriately German engine swap for 1500's RX7. 
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Jan 26, 2016 20:25
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I've been pining over that fucker for months. No idea how to make it happen; I've got exactly $3,538.65 left to pay off on the Golf  I emailed the guy about a month ago asking whether he'd consider a trade, but haven't heard anything.Just remembered it's tax season and we're first-time homebuyers. ???
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Jan 26, 2016 20:31
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Oh, there's this blue one, this cream/brown number, and this mysterious beast alllll on my local craigslist. If I don't get that one (I WANT THAT ONE), there will likely be others when it's time to buy since everyone in Minnesota looks at small pickups as if they were toys and just go buy an F150 instead.
scuz fucked around with this message at 20:40 on Jan 26, 2016 |
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Jan 26, 2016 20:37
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:You have a BFC thread where you're unable to manage your cash flow to cover your monthly liabilities. Don't spend any money on any cars. bennyfactor posted:Here's the listing page for the W8 engine wiring diagrams, are 9 & 10 what you're looking for? It's the wiring to the sensors rather than the sensors themselves. 
scuz fucked around with this message at 21:32 on Jan 26, 2016 |
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Jan 26, 2016 21:29
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bennyfactor posted:full-res scans at http://imgur.com/a/1T8N9 for ya. Let me know if you need anything else. edit: a wire color is loving lilac?? edit again: I miiiiiiight need the scan of the page that shows where all the O2 sensors are so I know what's in my way when I'm trying to get at them. I'm sure I'd be able to figure it out but holy crap having a map would rule. scuz fucked around with this message at 04:31 on Jan 27, 2016 |
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Jan 27, 2016 03:50
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Hah. Hahahahahahahaha. HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA.  pictured: me irl SITREP: Commuted in the Asspat today and noticed some clunking as I was going over bumps and through potholes and over children. Got it home, jacked 'er up real good, aaaaaaaaand:   ^both of those photos are upside down, loving imgur... My favorite quote came to mind. "It's totally loving hosed, mate," I said to my empty garage. "Big time." This fucker's on the block for a while. I pulled the positive terminal off the battery and decided to see whether I could get at the O2 sensors.  I. There's. WHAT WAS THE DOOFY FUCKER SMOKING there's no way I can get to anything through that. I checked under the vehicle. Nothing. I couldn't even get the car far enough off the ground to remove the under body nonsense shielding and whatever. Whatever. Let's just move on. The other code that it threw was the thermostat. LET'S GO THERE. Through a zillion tubes and connecting whatevers and hoses and and and here we're here thank god  Jesus that's grimy, and not even in an orderly way. Two of the intakes are in decent shape, the rest are poo-coated.   Second one is a fun photo of the valves on side-by-side cylinders so you can see how off-set they are. ENGINEERING. Got the intake runner (?!?! idk) off:  Found the thermostat!  Right? Maybe? Ugh. Got cold out and I'm tired and trying to get info from pops on whether he used the correct-but-no-longer-available thermostat. A tug on the wires let me know that they're tuggable and an inspection of the contacts brought no answers. Until next time.
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Jan 28, 2016 04:27
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There's a reason that getting only as far as that took like an hour and a half. The reason is "NLA."
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Jan 28, 2016 06:49
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Pops put the kibosh on buying the drive train. It's fine. That's fine. If this project were My Project it would be a no-brainer. But it isn't. So we move on. A minor salve is that the suspension parts on that motor + drive train are likely just as worn and borderline useless as the junk that's on the Passat already. Move on, darn it Good news is that that CV joint, if it's even completely gakked, is not very expensive and is widely available. Same with that tie rod. Small victories. Still up a creek with that thermostat since I'm not even sure what I'm looking for once/if I extract it. Other good news is that I've heard a few other folks getting at those O2 sensors without dropping the engine considering I'm hoist-less at the moment. Bad news is that the serpentine belt looks like beef jerky. That Bentley manual is looking tastier by the moment.
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Jan 28, 2016 17:15
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charliemonster42 posted:This will likely be one of the slowest vehicles you will ever experience in your entire life.
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Jan 28, 2016 18:01
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BrokenKnucklez posted:How about a V8... like the rest of us losers Speaking of the Golf, the Passat honeymoon is officially over. Puttering around in the Golf on the way to work reminded me that simple = better.
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Jan 28, 2016 18:14
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Please Buy The Caddys. All of em. I blame my sanity on someone telling me to watch Project Binky.
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Jan 28, 2016 18:52
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BrokenKnucklez posted:With a welder, grinder, plasma cutter, and a torch, anything can be RWD 
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Jan 28, 2016 19:09
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Thought about it. "Running 10s" would be nice but occupying the bed of the truck with the engine would just kill me since I like hauling things around too much.
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Jan 28, 2016 19:17
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I only have the ODBII scanner telling me that it's bank 2 sensor 2, which all of my resources are telling me that it's driver's side, post-cat. What's GTP? My google-fu is weak. And that still wouldn't make the thermostat code go away.
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Jan 28, 2016 19:52
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I found a thing.kastein posted:True, this was assuming the thermostat gets fixed somehow. 1500quidporsche posted:Did they reinforce the rear end of the caddy's? I'm struggling to think how you could even mount a diff back since there's no structural support from side to side on most Mk1s.
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Jan 28, 2016 20:14
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It could have been more that he didn't wanna store it at his house. I'm not convinced that I would have the room to store it AS WELL AS work on the Passat. I'm rationalizing it. move on, move on
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Jan 28, 2016 20:19
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Frunks: cool. Fly-n-Drive: also cool. The offer to shack up any goons in the area that need a place to crash/wrench on cars stands. Something struck me just now: if pops replaced just a PART of the thermostat (absolutely possible since I know my dad), and not the whole assembly, would that be producing these codes? More to come after he tells me just what the crap he replaced the thermostat with when he had it all out.
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Jan 28, 2016 21:55
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