My B5.5 TDI diary.

[Col]

I named my A6 Avant "The old hector".

I have just named the Passat, no more than a few seconds ago "The Vicars leather elbow patch".

Wadya reckon, I think it is well in keeping.

[Col]

Start of April 2016 update,

Some of the posts below are old but the sum of them will bring things up to date.

Picking up the storey with the Audi A6 that got written of in 2009, then burning around in a Focus for a year then getting this Passat in 2011....


Nothing like waking up an almost 5 year old thread is there. :hyst

I've been on here since early 2007 and started with my 1st 5.5 which I px'd for an Audi A6 in early 2009. I loved the A6 but sadly it got smashed up. Audi 1, Merc 0 No glass or lights broke on the Audi quite strangely but it was banana shaped and the car was about 4" shorter than it should have been. Got a good pay out and burned about in this nice Jag for a while until I got the beast of a car, a 1999 Focus TDDI which the Wife now drives.

A6 as was. (notice the wheels...)
















A6 write off.









And the Merc that did it...


The nice Jag...


The beast Focus...




My current car is a 2004 (53 plate) Highline Estate with an AWX TDI engine which I bought in late July 2011.

I've never intended to do a build thread as I never intended to do that much to the car. I have however done loads of stuff to it including cambelt, waterpump, full suspension re-build. The only things that could be classed as modifications are the installation of a comprehensive set of red ambient lighting inside and the three gauges.

Anyway, had a good post winter clean and polish of the current car today and fitted the wheels I've just refurbed.

[Col]

Front suspension build






Knackered CV joint







Winter steelies in all their 195 wide glory.







Heated seat re-build (burn through replacement.)





Some really bad blurred ambient lighting pics. Ambient lighting is a bugger to photograph as if flash on you cannot see it, flash off and it looks too bright.

[Col]

Well, the car has sat out in the rain since Friday evening when I got out of it and parked up having got home from work. I say sat out as I've been working in the ManCave / Garage doing other things. Have not even washed the car this weekend :0

My trailer had a bit of tlc.

I built it in 2010 and now was the time to fettle with it in preparation for the camping season which is coming up fast. Wheel bearing check and re-grease etc.

I can take everything camping ! Passat Estate + Massive trailer = still not enough room :hyst

[Col]

It has been a long time since the last update.

The Febi suspension arm kit shat itself, two of the upper arm balljoints so I bit the bullet and went through it all over again but this time fittted a Meyle HD kit. This was for the MOT back in March 15.

Meyle HD kit




Pinchbolts came out easily as expected


Crappy old but not that old Febi arms


Setting the design height


Problem again getting the lowers out. Nightmare. The taper inserts came out still attached to the balljoint


Stub cut down so my splitter would fit, then it was off.




'S' / 'toe' curve height measured




Current shots taken in Feb16 with the winters on




Got some new carriers


Painting the carriers, the bolts are so I can pick them up whilst painting


And now the biggy......

I noticed last year when doing the arms, the front springs were starting to corrode. I thought I'd do something as at 140k miles things were probably a bit tired anyway...

Bilstein B4's


Eichbachs, didn't really want to but it was cheaper to buy the B4's and Eibachsthan it was to get replacement OE kit. Looks like I'm modding the car just a little bit after owning it for five years afterall !

[Col]

Had some shenanigans with the cambelt on my Wifes Golf, also a 1.9 TDI but with an ASZ engine, similar to the AVF in the Passat.

The Golf is a 2001 with the earlier type dampered cambelt tensioner so I thought it would be a good idea to see if it was possible to convert it to the later friction type tensioner as fitted to my Passat.

It is a big nope. The engine block is not tapped in the correct location. Pictures say more than words;

Dampered and Friction type setups side by side. The red dot shows where the stud for the later idler / deflection should be.


Another pic showing the backplate differences




Not a lot of room to work in on the Golf, this is with the engine mounting out the way, which isn't when you are building things up, you have to work round the engine mounting


Green dot shows where the later type idler / deflection pulley stud is located. This earlier block was not tapped for it. On the earlier type the idler bolts to the damper.


For reference, these are the tools you need to remove the camshaft inner pullet / hub (which you need to do if you want to remove the backplate.

[Col]

The new rear calipers arrived today. Nice and bright and shiny but they wouldn't stay that way for long, so I painted them. Got a new set of banjo bolts and washers also as you never know...

New


1st coat. The paint is still wet so they look shiny black. It is a satin paint so when they dry they'll calm down a bit.

[Col]

Back to the Passat.

By the standards of some on here I've done very little to mine despite having had this one since July 2011. But I'm starting.

Finally got all the bits together for the suspension.

Rears comprising of the shock, topmount, bumpstop and cover.


It may be obvious to many of you who have done this many times but there will always be those who have never done it and are wondering how to build up a front McPherson strut. Note that I use DIY grade spring compressors.

Building up a strut is much easier if you can hold it in a vice.

Strut in vice with lower mount cup and lower mount rubber in position. The Bilstein's use a different diameter cup to the stock one but the rubber is the same. As I'm doing a straight swap and the purpose of this exercise is to freshen up the car, there would be no point using the old rubbers, but you could...


Spring on and compressed. Be careful doing this, I'd hate to imagine how much energy is stored in the springs and if the compressors slipped off what injury you would sustain. For me personally it is one of those jobs I hate doing when working on a car. Make sure the compressors are straight and tighten them down bit by bit swapping sides as you go.


Top plate on, again with a new rubber. All that needs to go on now is the top-top mount and then the washer and finally the nut. 19mm ring spanner on the nut with the shock piston counter held with a 5mm (or could have been a 6mm) allen key


Some measurage....

Front


680mm with the car sitting on its 195 x 15 steelies


Rear


About 685mm


I'm also going to fit a pair of new CV joints. Whilst it all apart and for the price it'd be silly not to. The boots are not 'gone' but are showing signs of going soon so whilst it is all apart it'd be silly not to. A joint with all the clips, a new bolt, a boot and grease from J&R is very reasonable cost wise.


And the rear calipers got another coat and have dried nicely...

[Col]

A busy day....

This morning off to my Dads, he is 82, to remove the old and fit a new shower. Late this afternoon I decided to drop the rear beam...

The rear beam removal process is would be the same for front wheel drive B5 /B5.5 Passats and Audi A4 & A6's.

To remove the beam, unlike many cars, the rear hydraulic brake lines do not have to be opened requiring the braking system to be bled, which is nice. Doing this is a fairly full-on and assumes you can already do basics like brake disc and changes etc.

1, Loosen wheel bolts
2, Jack the car up, both sides at the back and support with axle stands.
3, Remove wheels
4, Undo rear brake calipers and pads
5, Remove brake disc

Now the fun starts...

6, Remove the 5nr hub housing bolts, these are allen key bolts and mine didn't look like they were going to play the game, thankfully they did.

7, The hub flange has holes that you can pass through a 3/8 allen key socket





They were quite crusty rusty and I thought I would have problems..


Why VW are so obsessed with allen key fixings I don't know. They are ok when things are new but when they get old and rusty fun and games can be had




8, Brake cailper carrier bracket off, same size allen key


9, Wiggle and tap the hub off the axle


10, You can see the hub dangling on the ABS sensor cable. Not ideal but the cable is quite chunky


11, This is the bit that took me far longer than anything else and that was removing the ABS sensors. This can be a nightmare but I very slowly and carefully prized them out of the hubs. They have little plastic clips that first need to be removed. You can see the damaged I caused to the outer lip which is the leverage point. Start with a small screwdriver and work up to bigger ones. Again, slowly gently catchy monkey.


12, The hub off, discshield and the abs sensor clip in the foreground.


13, The naked beam end


14, On each side you will note that there are 3nr brackets held onto the beam with 10mm nuts onto studs, ondo them and them pull the brake line and abs sensor cable out of the green clips. Once done, tie the caliper up out the way.




15, Same process on the other side, another pic of me undoing a hub bolt


16, Undo the "massive" pivot bolts for the beam. These are 21mm so you know as not many tool kits have this size and you will need a good ring spanner to counter hold the nuts as a socket will not fit the outer end. Not pictured but there is a plastic cover that is secured with x4 10mm nuts and one screw, remove it.


17, Support the beam in the center with your jack and remove the bush consoles, x3 18mm bolts. Mark or be aware of their position ready for re-fitting, you don't want to loose the alignment.


Supported on jack, one side done..






18, And lower it down. Job done. Note the brake calipers and the like tied up out the way with the beam removed.


I'm going to re-use the 'big' bolts and inconsequential fixings but i'll be buying x10 new hub allen bolts and x4 new caliper carrier allen bolts.

[Col]

Some people go out on a Saturday night...

Beam looks good, certainly better than the one I last did on a Golf. Inteerstingly the fixing studs for the passenger side sheared. I'll have to weld some news ones on.

Drivers side, the studs are there


Passenger side they are not


Not that grotty


The Lemforder bush / cassettes are as good as new, just a bit grubby


A proper wire brush


Cleaned


Grotty hub / wheel bearing.


Cleaner








These are the big pivot bolts, I dread to think how much they cost...


Painting tomorrow.