Tag Archive for: pictures

volkswagen scan tool

Happy New Year everyone! I hope that you all had a great holiday, and New Year’s Eve. We did our standard NYE. It consisted of my wife Jenn being sick, and me just hanging out at home. I actually enjoyed it. Let’s get in to those pictures!

Bad replacement exhaust VW PassatThis goes in the “What the heck where they thinking” category. What you are looking at is the exhaust of a 2003 Passat wagon. Someone wanted to change the end pipes and tips. To be fair to the customer, they may have bought it like that. The pipes and tips are riveted on. This is a very poor way to try to attach an exhaust. The little round spots on the exhaust are the rivets, somewhere around 15 of them. Someone took a lot of time to do such a poor job. Please don’t try this at home.

Poor quality tire plug VW tire repairThis is a rare look inside a tire. You are looking at a tire that had a screw in it, and was repaired. I find it odd that part of the screw is still there. That glob of orange and black goo is from the plug. Someone attempted to repair the tire by plugging it. My guess is they plugged it twice, but I am not sure. A tire plug is a good temporary repair, but having it patched or plug/patched is the best way. I wonder if this is the reason they had to replace a tire. 🙂

Bugs in a light VW This is a first for me. You are looking at the overhead light on a Jetta. The customer was complaining that there was bugs in the light. Well, sure enough there are the bugs in the light. I have never seen that happen in a VW before. Maybe she left her sunroof open? The only way they could get in there is through the top.

volkswagen scan toolThis is a picture of a VW scan tool screen. Our scan tools are pretty good, but not even close to perfect. Sometimes a weird code will come up, or a screen that does not make sense. This is a classic example.

Control Module, watchdog timer faulty.

HAHA, what the heck does that mean? Most, if not all, modules have some type of timer in them. Maybe this one was having an issue? Usually faults like this cause no issues, and have no symptoms. I just have to laugh every time I see something like this.

Well, that does it for another volume of Shop Shots. Be sure to tune in next week for more behind the scenes pictures from a VW service department. I also want to just take one minute to thank you all for such an awesome 2012. This community has grown so much over the last year. I can’t thank you all enough for hanging with me. All of your comments, likes, and shares are excellent. Please keep it up. Let’s make 2013 even more better 😉

One last thing. As many of you know we are in the process of moving. It has been a huge pain in the butt. I think it will all work out really great, but the stress level in my house has been sky high. But, right now our current house is mostly packed, and that is a big relief. I will keep you all as up to date as I can with the progress. We, Jenn and I, will be starting a new site about it in a few weeks. The site is up, but I am still in the building stages. Once that is live, I will share it with you guys. It will be about home DIY, gardening, and other cool home related stuff.

Beetle in a Volkswagen

Hey everyone, it’s Shop Shots time. Now before you go crazy, it is not Wednesday. Yep, we are running a day late on the pictures this week. As I have mentioned before, we have been working night and day to get our house ready for sale. Well today is the day that we officially went up for sale. The good thing is, all our projects are done. It is just a matter of keeping the house spotless. On a plus note, we are looking for a place with a shop 🙂

Broken VW PassatThis goes in the “glad no one got hurt” category. A truck driver was picking this car up to ship to another dealer. From what I understand(I didn’t see it happen) the car rolled back and caught part of the truck.

The window frame is totally mangled. I was pulling a car around the building and see a guy driving a Passat with a funny looking window. I had to pull over and snap a picture for you guys. This Passat will most likely be getting a new door. Again, glad no one got hurt, other than the drivers feelings.

Bad VW sunroof drainClogging sunroof drains is an issue on many VWs. The A4(or Mk4) platform Jetta, Golf, and Beetle had recalls to clean and remove the tab on the drain. I think that the Passats of that generation had a similar recall. Or that repair was part of a recall.

This is from an old Jetta that came in with a ton of issues. I was clearing the check engine light and noticed this. There is a straw in the drain tube . Why you ask. I have no idea. I guess to keep water flowing out of the car, instead of into the car. This is one of the type of things that you have to call everyone in the shop over to look at. Who knows, maybe they are on to something.

Beetle in a VolkswagenSadly I could not get a picture of this little guy where I found him. I opened the hood of a Jetta. Hanging from the washer fluid line was a horned beetle. I am not sure exactly what type of beetle he is, but I thought he looked cool.

I grabbed my phone and tried to snap a picture of him hanging. Right about that time, he fell into the cowl pan. I had to fish him out so I could show everyone. So here he is, the little beetle chilling on top of my laptop. 🙂

That does it for this week’s Shop Shots. I hope that you guys aren’t too mad at me for missing so many posts lately. If you have every sold a house or moved you know how crazy things get. Like I said before, we are done the the major stuff. That means I will be back full throttle!

Shop Shots VW Battery Corrosion

Hey everyone, I am back and all fired up. I know that I missed a few days worth of posts, and for that I am sorry.

If you are a new reader let me give you a rundown of what Shop Shots actually is. As you might imagine, auto mechanics see some interesting things. It can be anything from a wrecked car, something that broken in a strange way, or something weird a customer had in their car. I can’t tell you how many times I have found pot in a customer’s car. This series is a way for me to share what I find in the shop. Think of it as a behind the scenes look into a VW service center.

Shop Shots VW Battery CorrosionThis is a close up shot of a VW battery. The “growth” on the terminal is corrosion. It can be caused by a leaking battery. Heat tends to aggravate the situation. This is not a good thing to have built up on your battery. It can cause issues with your vehicle. Modern cars are very very sensitive to low voltage.That means when the battery gets worn out, it will make the car do strange things. The most options a car has, the more important proper battery voltage it.

Be careful around this stuff. It is a product of battery acid. It will burn your skin, and eat holes in your clothes.

Shop Shots broken VW glassThis is a picture I put together with a really cool Iphone app called PicStitch. It lets you frame and combine pictures. This is a picture(s) of a broken rear side glass on a Jetta Sport Wagon. The picture on the lower right shows the impact point. I am not sure what hit it, but no doubt something did.

I tried really hard to get a cool shot. One that showed the entire window, but still close enough so you could see the break. No such luck. The picture on the top right is from the inside out. There is just something so cool looking about broken safety glass. Oh and that is what a $400 piece of glass looks like.

Shop Shots VW Coolant LeakThis is a perfect example of preventative maintenance. This is a picture of the crankshaft gear on a 2006 GTI. The customer was in for his 120,000 mile service. That is a pretty big service. It also happens to be the mileage that the timing belt is due. I recommended the belt to him because it was at the proper mileage.

When I took the lower timing cover off, I noticed a slight pink trail. That is a dead giveaway that the car had a coolant leak. That is a free tech tip. If you see a crusty pink trail on your VW or Audi, just follow it and you will find your coolant leak.

The leak was coming from the coolant pump. With only the intention of replacing this pump as PM(preventative maintenance) I was also able to make a repair. At some point this pump would have needed to be repaired. Glad it was before the customer was stranded with a severe leak.

Shop Shots Humble MechanicOkay today your are getting a bonus Shop Shot. I was working on this Passat yesterday. It was a 2012 and in for it’s first service. When I popped the hood, I noticed something sitting on the cowl right by the wiper blades. Well, it turned out to be a pack of playing cards. How in  the world did a deck of cards get there? The world may never know.

That will wrap up another volume of Shop Shots. I am out of the shop today doing errands and heading out to Sears to exchange some broken tools. I might even get my wife’s truck detailed. Hopefully it will be a surprise. Don’t forget that to swing by and like the Facebook page. I do post a few things over there that don’t make it to the blog. 🙂