Damaged Vw threads

Happy Thursday boys and girls. I can’t believe that today is the last day of July. It is crazy when you realize how fast the year has gone by. Okay, enough reminiscing, it is time for Shop Shots!

VW engine failureThis may not look like something out of the ordinary, but it is. This engine was delivered to us a few days ago. When they took it off the truck I was shocked. Shocked because I had no idea what the heck type of engine it was. I have seen plenty of VW engines, and this didn’t look anything like that. That is because it is NOT a VW engine. It is for a dang Routan.

I got some of the story on why we are replacing a Routan engine with a junkyard engine. It seems that a customer drove through water high enough to pull water into the engine. I don’t know why people do that. It should be interesting to see this Routan get an engine replacement. I will keep everyone updated when the repair is done. Maybe there will be some cool pictures of the damage.

Volkswagen wiring problem engineThis is a much less rare thing. You are looking at a B7 Passat VR6. This car had some type fault for a Knock sensor. There is a Tech Tip, or a TSB for this issue. The repair is replacing the engine room harness. There are probably about 30 connectors on that harness. Replacing an engine harness can be a big task depending on the engine. I talked to the tech working on this car, he said it was one of the easier ones.

Damaged Vw threadsThis last one is a good one. This is a steering knuckle from a Touareg. The holes are where the brake caliper bolts on. One of the techs in the shop was replacing the brakes on this Touareg. When he put the bolts back in, the threads got damaged. We retapped the hole, and cleaned up the bolts. Even after that the job went sideways and ruined the treads.

Replacing the knuckle is expensive, and the machine shop didn’t have a heli-coil that size. The solution for this comes in the form of a Time Sert. These things are amazing. You basically drill a bigger hole, and thread a sleeve into the hole. The picture on the left is the repaired bolt hole, the one on the right is the good one. It is a great solution for a job that goes bad.

That does it for another volume of Shop Shots. As always I hope you have enjoyed the pictures and little stories behind them.

VW transmission problem

Happy Wednesday everyone. Sadly this time it is actually Wednesday. But hey, it is still Shop Shots day. We are as busy as can be at the shop. That means I am busy busy busy fixed and maintaining VWs. But enough about that, let’s talk Shop Shots!

Bad Volkswagen MechanicThe first picture come to us by way of a complete hack mechanic. You are looking at the the cowl panel of a VW Beetle. That is the trim right at the bottom of the windshield. You will notice that someone has drilled a hole in the trim. Talk about a hack move.

I can only assume why some tool would drill this hole. My guess is to replace the bushings at the top of the strut. The right way to do this job is to remove the wiper arms, and remove the trim. If you do it right, it takes about 10 minutes max. But if you are a hack mechanic, you aint got time fo dat!

VW transmission problemThis type of picture makes me feel a bit like a curios kid. When ever I see an engine or a transmission taken apart, I get excited. Especially when I am not the one taking it apart. 😉 Not that I mind doing this type of work, it just doesn’t pay that well.

This is the the top view of a manual transmission. One of the boys had this apart to replace a syncro. After a few times taking the transmission out and putting it back in, he ended up having to replace the entire transmission. There was some noise issues. I don’t have much to add, I just love taking pictures of this type of thing.

Volkswagen Wiring ProblemI feel like this is the things that mechanics have nightmares about. You are looking at a wiring harness in a 2014 Tiguan. The customer had about 400 miles on their car. They brought it in because the 12v outlet wouldn’t work. When I got the car the fuse was blown. Each time a new fuse was installed, it would pop. That could mean the power wire was shorted to ground(which is the brown wire in the picture).

I got a great tip for finding a shorted wire with your multi-meter

  1. Set the meter to continuity check. Most meters have an audible tone when continuity is achieved.
  2. Place one of each lead at each wire If they are shorted, the meter will beep.
  3. Start moving the harness in various places
  4. When the meter stops beeping, you have found the source of the issue.

After messing around with the front console for a while, it was time to move on to the rear console. I set the meter up and was getting nowhere. When I moved to the back, I took one of the screws out of the trim panel. As soon as I started taking the screw out, the meter stopped beeping. With the panel off, this is what I found. When the panel was installed the harness got smashed, and the screw driven through the wires. A quick wiring repair, and the car was good to go.

Well that does it for another round of Shop Shots. I hope you all have a great week. Also, feel free to share this post. I tried to make it really easy to share. You can use either the buttons on the top, or the buttons under the “You may also like” links.

MK1 VR6 VW Cabriolet

Hey everyone,

I posted a video of the Cabby a few weeks ago. It was pretty weak. So I thought I would post another test drive video. This one really gives a better feel of what it is like to drive this car. Plus the exhaust note is freaking awesome. Oh and be sure to watch until the end 😉

I am working on a guide for this sway. Some of the things that I ran into during the build. The ways that I tackled a few issues. It is still in the early stages but be on the look out for that soon.

Don’t miss Shop Shots tomorrow!

Failed Vw starter

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Okay, don’t panic, it is actually Thursday. I am still trying to catch up from bring in Houston for a week. I have been putting together a lot of good info about oil and fuel for you guys. Plus some cool round table interviews. Alright, let’s get cracking on the Shop Shots!

Failed Vw starterThe story behind this picture could be a post all by itself. It is the typical “You messed up my car” story, that is just a matter of a problem showing itself at a bad time.

The customer brought his car in for a simple service and an alignment. We did the service and the alignment with no problems. When our alignment guy went to pull the car off the alignment rack, it would not start. The advisor tried to sell the customer a battery. The customer declined, so I offered to jump start the car and pull it around.

When I jumped the car, it still would not start. No crank, no click, nothing. I took a quick look and found that the starter had corrosion on it. I could only see a small section of the starter. We told the customer we needed a little time to find out exactly what was happening. The customer kept asking over and over “So this is just a fluke thing?” I can see from his point of view. The car started fine before the service. Heck it started 4 times of us.

Once I got a better view of the starter I could see just how corroded it was. I tried to wiggle the wire while someone tried to start the car. All that did was make the starter smoke. I finally could see what had happened. It looked like the last battery leaked down on the the starter. That is what caused the wire to be corroded. Hey, at least he broke down at the shop.

Failed VW ClutchNext up in the “this is a total bummer” series, a failed clutch. Well it was not really the clutch that failed, it was the release bearing. The bearing is the part that pushes on the pressure plate when you push the clutch pedal.

If you are not 100% sure what I mean, that is okay. Basically a part broke, and caused the clutch to be 1/2 engaged. This caused some severe hot spoting on the flywheel. If you look you can see a lot of blue spots on the surface of the flywheel. That is where the metal got really hot. A new clutch, flywheel, pressure plate and release bearing and she is all good.

VW oil SludgeI feel like this is a picture that I have to post way too much. The story is about the same. Car comes in with the oil light on. We check it out and find that the pickup tube is clogged. We spend a few hours cleaning the crud from the bottom of the oil pan.

The crud comes from the break down of engine oil. It is either lack of oil changes, running the engine with too little oil, or using the wrong oil. Obviously they did not use Pennzoil Platinum with Pure Plus Technology. 😉 That is what happens when you spend a week learning about engine oil and fuel.

The moral of this story is change your oil. Check the level regularly, and use the right stuff!!! My “sludge box” 1.8t has 128,000 miles on it, and no sign of carbon/sludge build up.

That brings another volume of Shop Shots to a close. I am currently uploading a driving video of the Cabby. I will be doing a post about where the Cabby sits on Friday.

One last thing
I am thinking about doing some more live type events on Google + or You Tube. Is that something you guys would be into? I need a few people to help me test drive 1 event. If you are interested please post it in the comments, and I will get up with you.

Juan Pablo Montya

While at the Grand Prix of Houston, I was able to sit in on a round table chat with race car driver Juan Pablo Montoya. He has been all around the racing world including Indy, F1 and Nascar. We get to her him talk about cars, both racing and personal, driving, and some amazingly awesome life advice.

Oh, and 2 of the guys asking questions are none other than Eric the Car Guy, and Jason from Engineering Explained!

Some really great stuff from Juan. It is great to see someone open up and drop some unexpected live advice on you.

Also Thanks to the folks at Shell. This trip to Houston was sponsored and hosted by Shell.