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JunktionFET

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You should check out the caliper slides - if they're sticky or plain stuck you'll get uneven pad wear like that.

You likely fixed it on reassembly - but I always clean the pins and coat with anti-seize when I reassemble.

Rabin

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Sunday I was going trough my parts cars decideing what to keep,junk and what too sell. In a few days I should have it all ready. I'm surprised that I have all the things that I have and that it was all acquired in such a short period of time.

I'm trying to work out a deal with Marc whete I would trade all of my XU9J4 powder coated parts with some new and used parts and some cash on top for he's crashed 205 GTI.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Our weather forecast over night and into today was for up to 3 feet of snow combined with hurricane force winds. Having lived 5 years in New Hampshire and 5 years in Rochester NY, I know a thing or two about snow, but to your average New Jerseyite this is being called "Snowpocalypse". I did go down to where I have the 505's stored, and tighten up the tie downs and the tensioners on the shelter. I feel pretty confident about the tie downs keeping it attached to the ground and hopefully the wind will make it flap enough that it will shed the snow from the roof. Although it is still snowing, it doesn't look like we are going to get anything close to the predicted amounts. With all the drifting, it's a little hard to tell how much snow we have, but I would guess maybe a foot. The drifts are certainly waist deep, but that's just the wind piling that up.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

the compressor on my jetta's a/c died a while back, so i replaced the compressor, drier & expansion valve about a week and a half ago. i also took the opportunity to replace the serpentine belt and tensioner while i was at it. btw, that's my neighbor's c-class (w203) in the background...she inherited it from her dad who got too old to drive, he hardly ever drove it anyway so it's pretty clean.

yesterday, i evacuated and recharged the system with r134a. here's my setup:

IMG_0192_zpsodfj5x9a.jpg

i have an air-powered vacuum pump that i got from harbor freight. all of the online reviews i saw said that it was cheap and cheerful (about US$20), and suitable for once-a-year use but not rugged enough for more frequent use, which i can confirm. i also got my manifold/gauge set there:

IMG_0193_zpssporfczo.jpg

i have a 30-lb cylinder of r134a that i got a while back after i got tired of buying the little cans. i really should get a scale for it but i've recharged the jetta enough to know that it runs about 35-40 psi with a full charge. so here's the vacuum reading after evacuation:

IMG_0195_zpsbcpnzgan.jpg

and here's the system after recharging:

IMG_0196_zpseilmlmef.jpg

it's nice to have cool air again. of course, after i finished this, a cool front moved in and cooled the weather down.....

andré

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've been on family vacation in Davenport Fl the last week or so doing the whole Disney thing. This week we fly to the Cayman islands for a week visit with a good friend that just moved there.

Schedule has been too tight to get away to see any other Peugeot people (sorry George!), and I haven't been able to find anything car related that I could attend like a Cars & Coffee.

No cool cars yet aside from an old Toyota wagon I posted on VISIT, but the rental is modestly cool as I was able to snag a 2015 Passat TSI Wolfsburg edition. Like Disney though - I had much higher expectations. :) I was hoping it would have a DSG but it appears to be a regular 6sp auto. It's nice, but it can still get a little flakey and from a shifting perspective, and its not at all better than the 6sp auto in my Volvo. (Shift quality in my '00 5sp auto is even better)

Ride quality also seems good initially with it being firm and controlled, but bumpy on/off ramps expose poor damping in the suspension and it loses composure.

It's likely head and shoulders above the Focus and Corolla options I had, but what it did do is make me appreciate my Volvo wagons - and funny enough - neither Volvo touches my Peugeot's.

Rabin

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Ride quality also seems good initially with it being firm and controlled, but bumpy on/off ramps expose poor damping in the suspension and it loses composure.

that is an exact description of my jetta wagon. it must be a family trait. now that the wagon has 120k or so miles on it, i'm going to be replacing the shocks...i've already got a pair of bilsteins (the standard HD, not the sport) for the front, need to get a matching pair for the back...

i'm sure the kids enjoyed disney more than you did. :) hope the caymans are nice...

andré

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Standard Bilstein's would be a good choice. I went with Koni Sport/yellow's on my '00R's front simply so that I could adjust the rebound until they were a nice match for the new Nivo's I also installed.

As for Disney - the kids were not into it. They'd much rather stay at the house and play in the pool. I'm quite proud that at ages 4 & 7 they're already immune to the marketing machine that is Disney - but spending time here is like pulling teeth. It being hot, humid, and LOTS of walking doesn't help things.

Rabin

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spent the afternoon assembling another ceiling-mounted storage shelf in my garage; this took all afternoon because 1) i'm not as young as i used to be, and 2) everything had to be done on a ladder. i was pretty tired and my daughter cooked an awesome dinner for us (chicken fajitas with tortillas made from scratch), so the decking will have to wait for another day -- maybe later this week.

Photo%20Apr%2019%207%2000%2009%20PM_zpsl

andré

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Last day in Grand Cayman. Weather has been superb as has been the visit with my buddy and his family...

Lots of cool cars here since they drive on the left, there's all sorts of euro and Asian RHD cars around. Pretty decent tuner seen as well as some exotics.

Toured most of the island in my buddy's 1990 911 cabriolet. Nice little car that he picked up cheap and is thinking of restoring. (I'll upload pics when I get back home)

Rabin

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Toured most of the island in my buddy's 1990 911 cabriolet. Nice little car that he picked up cheap and is thinking of restoring. (I'll upload pics when I get back home)

perfect car for it. either he's had that car for a while, or porsche 911 price inflation hasn't hit the caymans yet. those things are crazy expensive here!

have you seen any porsche caymans in the Caymans? :)

andré

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He just picked it up for $16k. It's likely a 6/10 car that needs a fair bit of TLC to be perfect, but it's an excellent base to start with.

It's currently lowered on coil overs, and running TSW 18" rims. Nice looking car (5 footer), that handles great and sounds even better with a stainless performance exhaust.

And no - I've only seen Boxter's, not one Cayman.

Rabin

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i had hoped to work on my 405 this weekend, but no such luck. last week was brutal for me, work-wise, and i ended up a bit under the weather this weekend. i had just enough energy today to do a couple of hours of car work and the jetta desperately needed new front brake pads so i did that.

the hardest part was getting the wheel bolts off -- i had the tires replaced a few months ago (michelin, naturellement) and the tire place torqued the bolts way past spec with their air wrench. once i got that taken care of, the job went quickly (less than an hour). i had been thinking that these brake pads lasted less than a year but i did a quick search on this thread just now and found out that it was two years, one month since the pads have been changed so i suppose that's okay; the jetta has an automatic and this car sees lots of stop-and-go freeway traffic. the previous pads were no-names from the local auto parts store but this time i used OEM vw pads so hopefully i'll get a bit more mileage out of these.

andré

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

last thursday evening i went to see savo (since he was in town picking up his engine) at marc m.'s place. on the way, my jetta's temp gauge went into the red for the first time in 13 years so i pulled over and had it towed to ukit's. it turned out to be a bad water pump, which ukit fixed quickly and at reasonable cost.

but it got us thinking, we have liked the jetta a lot but it's too small, especially now that my kids are older; also, the engine is not what you'd call a powerhouse, especially when hauling four people and their luggage up a freeway through a mountain pass with a 7% grade. so we got a 2004 passat wagon. it's blue with a dark gray (anthracite) interior, 1.8T engine with the 5-speed automatic transmission. it has less than 70k miles/110k km on it and it's in pretty good shape. it's got leather seats, power everything and a sunroof; we got a pretty good deal on it.

passat%201_zps8jpa0q8b.jpg

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the car came with only a mechanic's key so the first thing will be to get a proper set of remote key fobs; also, the spare is messed up and there is no jack so i've got to address that. also, i want to get a set of mats for the car since it doesn't have any.

plan is to sell the jetta privately or donate it and take a tax write off; what with owning my own business and owning a house in california, we itemize extensively on our taxes so the donation might be more beneficial since selling a car is such a PITA. :)

andré

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Very nice ride Andre! Love the colour.

I actually looked at Passat wagons, but I really wanted the unicorn W8 4 motion wagon... :) 3.6 would have sufficed, but the V70R Volvo was the best fit in the end.

Rabin

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  • 2 weeks later...

the color is "blue graphite," it's one of the things that attracted me to the car. blue is my favorite color and this is the first blue car i've owned my whole life. :)

here's some passat owner humor:

shouldibuythatpassat_zpsiyarjz1j.png

after the initial euphoria of the "new" car, i've begun sorting it out. the idle is a bit rough on this car, so i ran the vag-com and got a couple of error codes:

vagcom_zpscgppfb9w.jpg

the second code (O2 sensor) doesn't affect drivability, but does affect emissions so it's something i'll have to address before i get this car smog checked in the future. the first code, though typically means that the throttle body is dirty or in need of replacement; it's also a common cause of rough idling. as a first step, i decided to clean the throttle body (using a spray cleaner intended for this purpose).

here's the throttle body:

IMG_0287_zpselfattkx.jpg

it's held on by four hex screws; after disconnecting the air hose and the electrical connection, i removed it. i was careful to preserve the gasket; because i had bought another just in case, the gasket came out fine (if i didn't have a new gasket, the old one would have gotten damaged of course :) ). here's the dirty throttle body:

IMG_0288_zpshaksesve.jpg

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a lot of spraying and scrubbing (with an old toothbrush) later, here's what i had:

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IMG_0291_zpsi8b6egbx.jpg

i put it back in

IMG_0292_zps0q1gfbih.jpg

the engine idled much smoother, but it still wasn't as nice as i would have liked. most likely, there is still some gunk in the spring mechanism that i wasn't able to remove. so i'll probably be replacing this part in the not-too-distant future.

andré

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