Why I Never Throw VW Parts Away
This is the brace I installed from Euro-wise. I HIGHLY recommend this!
Happy Monday everyone! I hope that you all had a great weekend. One quick thing before we get into why I never throw away parts. I have been having email issues lately. Not sure what the deal is, but the folks at HostGator are working on it. If you have emailed me in the last few days, and not heard back, please resend it. I forwarded my email to another email. Sorry for any troubles.
Alright, like the title says, I never throw away parts. Even things that I don’t think I will ever need. Something happened Saturday that validated my crazy hording of VW parts. I sometimes think that I will clean house and get rid of things. Sadly I don’t think it will ever happen. On that note, if you need any VW parts let me know 😉
On Saturday I drove the Cabby Luv-A-Dub to work. My plan was to install a front brace, and remove the convertible top. The shop was pretty busy all day, so got a late start. The install of the brace was a little more work than I wanted to do. I had to remove the front engine mount and move some wiring out of the way. It was one of those jobs you think will be quick, but doesn’t really work out that way.
The excitement didn’t really start until I was finishing up the job. With the brace installed, I wanted to start the Cabby up to let it warm up a little. I hit the key and got crank crank crank crank crank, but no start. Dang, let’s try it again, crank crank crank crank, no start. It was clear at this point that something was not right. When ever this type of thing happens, step 1 is recheck your work.
I did a quick visual inspection of the brace and the area I was working in. Nothing stood out as an issue. I did have the power junction disconnected, but that could not be the issue. I could also hear the fuel pump running when I was trying to start the car. At this point I am starting to get annoyed. I just wanted to go drive!
I grabbed my laptop to check for fault codes. I have to say, having OBD2 in the Cabby is pretty awesome. Sadly, it was no help. I had fault codes stored, but that was due to several sensors that I didn’t use with the swap. In diagnosing a no start concern, this is the time to pick a path and go. You only NEED 3 things for a engine to run
- Compression new this was good. I drove the car in the shop. Plus you can usually hear when an engine has really low/no compression
- Fuel
I knew the pump was running, but not sure about the engine getting fuel. This would have been a good next step. - Spark
This would have also been a good check. - ECMI know I said you only need 3 things, but the ECM is vital. It controls spark and fuel, and it wont give you that if it doesn’t see what it wants to see.
Before I started taking fuel lines off, and checking for spark, I decided to go back over my work one more time. I raised the car up and did another visual inspection. DANG IT, didn’t see anything. After seeing nothing again, I did one of my top secret diagnostic techniques.
Mess with stuff until you find something.
I started giving all the wiring harnesses a tug. I barely touched the harness for the crankshaft position sensor when I heard a beeping and buzzing. YES, now we are on the right path, it was also lucky that I left the ignition on 😉 Now that I had something to go on, it was time to fix it.
I disconnected the sensor, checked the pins and connection. They were all good. I found that if I touched the harness on the sensor side, that beeping and buzzing would start again. I tweaked the harness so that the beep was constant.Side note, I am still not sure what was beeping. With the harness tweaked, the car would start.
I LOVE how the cabby looks with the top removed
The harness for the crankshaft sensor is sealed. That means it should not be repaired, but replaced. I dug through a box of parts I set a side to bring home. Wouldn’t ya know, there was a replacement crankshaft sensor! I replaced the sensor, and BOOM she fired right up.
So the moral of the story is, cars break. It is never a bad idea to have a few extra parts laying around. I am that guy in the shop that everyone comes to when they need a part. Having this sensor saved me over $100 and my wife from having to come pick me up at work. I am happy to be a lucky auto mechanic.
Great to hear about old parts coming in handy. I like how you save all the parts. I would encourage anyone who has the space, to save parts. You never know when they will come in handy.
Isn’t that what the big drawer at the bottom of the tool box for?
That is EXACTLY what I use my bottom drawer for. I’ve also got a boatload of extra tow hooks from PDIs in mine.
When in doubt tug on it works a good portion of the time
never any point in throwing away something that can be used again. lucky find.
VW parts are expensive, often hard to find, and broken when you get them. So it’s totally worth it to keep spare parts around.
Since Hostgator moved a lot of hosting accounts to the Provo datacenter it’s been pretty a pretty terrible web hosting experience. Wish Endurance International didn’t buy them out.
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With a car with that kind of mileage, it is going to take constant TLC. Start with oil changes every 3000 miles. Synthetic is better then conventional, but many will argue weather or not it is worth the expense.
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I ran into a similar issue this weekend. I was Walnut Blasting my TT Intake (CETA EA888.2) and found the CTS connector was pre-broken. As I was getting ready to pull the bracket off from underneath, I was gently feeling around to get a braille map of what I was dealing with. Then, I heard that familiar suction sound of a connector being unplugged and removed. After I pulled the manifold, I found that the clip on the housing was, indeed, broken. I had recently done a brake job, and being the type that doesn’t throw things away, I chucked the brake pads but cut off the wiring harness. Well, just because… Lucky me, the harness on the brake pads is exactly the same as the one on the CTS. I cleaned it up and swapped the pins into the housing. Good to go! It worked perfectly, and I found a few missing horses in the process! 😉