WA: Back doors 'Boring'

[Back Door Shenanigans.]

Luke, i recommend seeing if you can order the plates without drilled holes. they come with a mass of holes that look crap.

I've got mine fixed to the car with double sided tape

Fair point, Which one would suit the best? Still looking for opinions

[leighaus]

SHNANIGNS

imo.

[Back Door Shenanigans.]

SHNANIGNS

imo.

Cool, Cheers for that

BTW nik if your looking i have the haldex wrench now if you need to borrow it.

[balkanac]

BTW nik if your looking i have the haldex wrench now if you need to borrow it.

i'll keep that in mind, haldex service was done at 90k (3 years ago) and now i have 112k on the clock, so its gonna take awhile before i'll need it

[Back Door Shenanigans.]

Sooo.... Big plans and big costs with the car lately (Not the turbo big....yet)

It was at the mechanics for the last week having the weird rev limiter issue looked at (rev limiter comes on at 5.5k instead of 6.7k) and the cruise control fixed. The speed sensor has been replaced many times with that being the fault code. Mech replaced it and that sorted the problem....for a little bit. Checked all the brake sensor and clutch sensors for the cruise control problem but they weren't it. So he locked himself away with my wiring diagram and pulled half the interior apart and.....found no broken wires. Great! So he did some Oscilloscope work and other stuff and it looks like its the cluster that's screwing the single up. So either replace that myself or he will really lock himself in a room with the wiring diagram and get to the bottom of it. All though that ends up quite expensive. So not really sure where to go now sigh.Edit: Oh and forgot about the leaking air compressor with a missing bolt. Thanks vw stealership! bastards

Anyway. Got a lot to do over this week off work.

• Timing chain
• Water pump
• thermostat
• thermostat housing
• crack pipe
• billet hood pull
• billet oil dip stick
• rotary intake shifter bushings
• Rear diff oil change
• Haldex oil and filter change
• Manual trans oil change
• Engine oil and filter change
• Coolant change
• Brake fluid blead
• Fix brake line
• Rear main seal
• Front crankshaft seal
• Subframe bushings
• Shifter mount bushings
• Indicator change
• Antenna gasket
• Few dozen other bits and pieces

Going to be fun

[work]

Yikes, that's a huge list! Good luck with it all.

Regarding the antenna gasket, mines coming in the post this week I should think. I have read that they stretch enough that you can just slip them over the top, and you dont need to undo the roof liner to unbolt the base etc. Maybe dunking it it hot water first might help with the stretching. That's what I'll be trying first anyway.

[balkanac]

man you are gonna have fun with the rear main seal!! migt as well change the clutch while you are there, it needs to come off anyway. Why are you changing it? Is it leaking?

[Back Door Shenanigans.]

Officialy **** you tranny, and **** you drivers side drive shaft!. Also **** you VW some of your crap is so stupid, lets make removing 1 bolt turn into removing 7 things.

Yikes, that's a huge list! Good luck with it all.

Regarding the antenna gasket, mines coming in the post this week I should think. I have read that they stretch enough that you can just slip them over the top, and you dont need to undo the roof liner to unbolt the base etc. Maybe dunking it it hot water first might help with the stretching. That's what I'll be trying first anyway.

Yeah i've heard that as well. But im going to do it properly and inspect the antenna for corrosion aswell

man you are gonna have fun with the rear main seal!! migt as well change the clutch while you are there, it needs to come off anyway. Why are you changing it? Is it leaking?

Rear main seal looks easy. Front might be messy. The tranny and all thats gotta come out for the timing chain anyway so hey may aswell do the seals. Would have loved to done the clutch with it (as it has to come out) but funds are too limited and i will need to change it with the turbo as well.

[geoff_gti]

Yikes, that's a huge list! Good luck with it all.

Regarding the antenna gasket, mines coming in the post this week I should think. I have read that they stretch enough that you can just slip them over the top, and you dont need to undo the roof liner to unbolt the base etc. Maybe dunking it it hot water first might help with the stretching. That's what I'll be trying first anyway.

Yep that worked for me, I let mine soak for a few minutes which made it easier to fit around the base as you have to push it in a bit to seal in between the plastic base and the roof.

Good luck Luke! Doing a clutch might feel like a walk in the park after reading that list...

[Back Door Shenanigans.]

Sooo. The write up after my little "challenge"

The Time:
It took almost 2 weeks to finish this due to frustration, a pain in the ass tranny box and a lost bolt that was found once the new bolt came in....as always. This was 9-5 work (excluding lunch) wouldn't have been able to do it without having work off due to exams. The longest factors was removing the tranny (6 hrs) and putting it back on (12 hrs) I chock most of that up to not having done it before on this car and thus not knowing the tricks and traps and waiting on an intake bolt that had dropped down into a place i thought it had . I think i could do this job again in 2 days now that i know what to do and what tools i will need to have on hand (Had to borrow an engine crane for the tranny to suspend it which made it soooooo much easier.

Pros?
Ill start with the pro's first as its a short list haha! Main pro and the cause of all this crap was to inspect the timing chain as its making a marble like noise which indicated a broken guide. Thing is there was nothing wrong with any of the guides, In fact they all look brand new! Well at least i know now its nothing to worry about (yes the noise is still there sigh) along with not having to worry about the thermostat, crack pipe, rear main seal and some other things. Other pro is a bit o knowledge and we all know knowledge is power! (wish it was engine power)

Cons?
And now for the long ass list.
Tranny
My god! I have no idea why i struggled so much due to this pain in the ass but the main cause of it all is the transfer box, These two together just caused a huge amount of alignment and fitting issues and just really didn't want to play ball with each other, Factor in the weight and the size of the tranny and it just frustrates you to all hell.

Chains
As soon as i took the rocker cover off i was about to cry. For some messed up reason there is a model between the 12v and the 24v they get in america. Its my model. It has three chains and almost every guide is different. There's a good waste of $250. I was frightened one of the guides was broken and this was going to add another week onto the job. Luckily nothing was broken so it was all ok in the end.

Vw stupid design
Kinda related to above is the weird model between with coil pack and all the other weird things. Why? i have no idea. Vw also seem to have the innate ability to put bolts so obscure or badly placed with one bolt turning into removing something else which involves removing something else. I really do wonder why they do some of the things they do. Then i remember they just make a tool to do the job... Bastards.

Frustration and time
This really worked my patience and sanity. I think the most part of it was having a sorta deadline as i need my car for work and other things. This is a real bad idea and makes everything worse. The time it took was also frighting with most of the day into it and sweat and tears as well. Quite exhausted at the end and just wanted the car back.

Would i do it again? What would i do differently
Well, Not for fun. But I'm going to have to do it eventually to either upgrade the clutch for the turbo or to replace the clutch when it dies. I think for next time I'm going to have a second car handy so I don't have to rush and can take my sweet ass time and not fret. It got me thinking that it was a bit much for me but that was mainly due to the frustration and exhaustion levels at the time. As i said with a spare car and not in the garage taking peoples parking spots it wouldn't have been a problem and it would have remained fun.

So Just a small write up for those who are interested. Could go on for days about the cons haha but i learnt things so its all good. Will post up some choice photos when i get a chance.

Just a little video for those who want to see what's involved.
Little notes:

• I'm not responsible for the level of ass crack shown but i am sorry. (I had my mechanics pants on)
• Some parts are missing, Mainly due to frustration. Now that i think about it i wish i had got the end but it wasn't driven out so it didn't make much difference.
• The Camera dropped off the roof half way through so that's what's with the change in perspective.
• I really did want to post the 11minute one but i can't waste that much of your time
• Try and pick out what jobs took the longest.
• Mute the music if you want to i just put it there to try and entertain but peoples music tastes are different.
• Don't ask why the address is in there just noticed and cbf re uploading