Happy Wednesday everyone! I hope your week is rocking right along. I am back in the shop today. You may have seen that I spent Monday visiting the fellas over at Deutsche Auto Parts. They are a great place to buy VW parts. We did some fun video “How To” stuff, so be on the look out for that.
Also before we get into this weeks Shop Shots, I want to remind you about the discount the folks at Hayden Ind have just for readers of the blog. Head over to HaydenHasIt.Com and use the code “humble-hayden” for 10% off $25 or more.
Alright, now that we have that wrapped up, let’s get into this weeks behind the scenes pictures. Remember, I am still a full time VW tech. So these shots come directly from my shop, unless otherwise noted.
First up we have more critters living in an engine compartment. I removed the engine cover to do a service on the Jetta TDI, and this is what I found. After I vacuumed out all the nesting, I did find a little damage. It seems that what ever little creature made the nest, also liked the taste of wires and connectors. Lucky for this customer the damage was minimal. Just some crew marks on 2 injector connectors, and 1 wire exposed. I guess that nice warm engine bay is a good place to build a nest.
I guess it makes sense to keep with the animal theme. Last week one of the tech called me over to see what was in the back of this Touareg. Much to my surprise, he had a dear head and some other animal head in the back. The bad part was the smell. It was awful. It smelled like an old dead animal. My guess is he just picked this stuff up from the taxidermist. The tech working on it was not very happy. Mostly because he had to move them to fill the Ad-Blue tank. YIKES!
Last week I showed you guys a picture of a Routan engine waiting to be replaced. Well this is the job in mid-replacement. I have to say, the guy working on this worked pretty clean. When I replace engines, it usually looks like a bomb has went off.
But even working clean, there is a lot of parts involved. Notice the pile of parts on the bottom left of the picture. The bottom center is the subframe. There is an engine on a tire in the top right, and the engine going back in the car on the table.
Sadly this job didn’t go great for the tech. When he was finished with the job, there was a severe noise, and what felt like a high drag on the engine. It also had a slow start. I walked over to give him a hand. I was trying to start the car, and the wire for the starter began to smoke. I have not heard what the final issue was. I will be sure to update when I find out.
That does it for another volume of Shop Shots! I really do enjoy sharing a little bit of the behind the scenes things that happen in the shop. Don’t forget to sign up for email updates. It is the best way to be sure you get all the blog updates.
We have heard that all VWs have electrical problems or wiring problems. This one was a good one. This Jetta came from one of the rental car companies. I think the original concern was rear lights not working. The tech went round and round with chasing wires, and he even replaced the main electrics module(Body control module). The car was blowing 1 certain fuse in a strange way.
This might be one of my all time favorite Shop Shot picture of all time. This customer brought their car in for a minor service. On this service we add a fuel treatment. I was working on something else when I hear the tech next to me laughing. I walked over to see what was up, and this is what he found.
I didn’t realize that it has been over 3 months since the last volume of Shop Shots! That is just insane. Well let me tell you guys about what has been going on around the Humble Mechanic garage lately.
I always love a great DIY repair. There are times when you can hodgepodge parts together to fix a problem. I am a big fan of that. I did plenty of that type of thing on the Cabby. This is the exact opposite of a good DIY. This is a nightmare.
This is one of those things you see happen to a car and think “how in the world did that happen?” This is a small hole in a transmission. You would not see this hole with the transmission installed in the car. Something on the inside of the transmission broke. That break caused inside parts of the transmission to become outside parts.
Last week’s snow storm reeked havoc on so many cars. We have had 15+ cars come in with bent suspension parts over the last week. This VW is one of the worst I have seen. The solid steel arm of the lower suspension bent. It is bent at a crazy angle. The impact it takes to bend this lower control arm is severe. Replacing the control arm was just the beginning. We also had to replace the axle, wheel bearing, ball joint, and tie rod. All of these are vital parts of the suspension.
I feel like I post a lot of transmission pictures. There is something so cool about the guts of a transmission. This is the gears of a Passat manual transmission. The customer was concerned about a grinding going into 3rd gear. That is generally an issue with the synchro. This transmission had a good amount of metal in the fluid.
Next up is something that seems to be a plague these days, bent wheels. It seems to be worse this time of year. My guess is the increase in potholes and bad driving that winter brings. I tried to shoot a video of this wheel spinning on the balancer. It came out terrible. 🙂 It is strange to me that someone could not feel they had a bent wheel. Many times a small bent in a wheel will be fine. This is a major bend. If you find out you have a bent wheel, most of the time they can be repaired. From what I have seen, the cost is around $120 or so. That is not cheap, but it’s better than $350 for a new wheel
It is always a fun time to see car repairs with Duct Tape. This is the back side of a Passat head light. Someone attempted to install non factory HID headlights. I am generally a fan of HID headlights. I have them installed in my Passat. But these type of kits usually require some modification. Lucky for the customer I was able to get the light seated and installed properly. The bad part is, the adjuster for the headlight was broken. That means the inside of the light just bounces around. The fix? A simple zip tie.
Last up is another picture of my buddies engine. I have posted pictures of his car a few times before. He is coming dangerously close to finishing the engine rebuild. He is really taking care to build an engine that near factory. He is doing something similar to what I did with the VR swap. Paint every part, and take the time to get it done right. Also, I am in love with those black valve covers.
The story behind this picture is one of those “you have to be kidding me” moments. A customer stopped by the dealer. He was driving through and the check engine light came on in his 2012 Passat. We worked him in because he was just passing through. When I pulled the car in the shop, it sounded a little funny. I started scanning the car for faults. While the scan tool was doing it’s thing, I popped the hook to have a look.
Next up is a common issue that is taken to a level I have never seen. This is a shot of a coolant bottle on a 2003 Passat. I have seen quite a few 1998-2005 Passats have issues with cooling systems getting clogged up. It usually comes in with a “My heat does not work” complaint. Over time coolant breaks down and starts to block up the system. This prevents coolant from properly flowing in the system.
Last up we have a VW wiring problem. This one was a good one. The customer complained about the seat moving while driving. He said that sometimes the seat would move forward or back all by itself. It car has power seats. The car had been in 2 other times for the same issue. We were never able to duplicate the issue. But the car had a fault stored in the computer that controls the seat. We had replaced the seat memory buttons, and the module. I pulled the seat out to inspect the wiring. Hidden in the seat rail was a wire that had a been grounding against the frame. Basically the car was seeing the button being pushed. Kind of funny really. I guess this is one of the electrical demons everyone talks about.