I'm doing work.

[motoo344]

$40 bucks isn't much at all, getting them powder coated would have cost you more. I am going to look into this if I ever get some extra cash, would the kit be enough for 8 calipers? I have two cars that need the calipers redone.

[JettaGetUpandGo]

$40 bucks isn't much at all, getting them powder coated would have cost you more. I am going to look into this if I ever get some extra cash, would the kit be enough for 8 calipers? I have two cars that need the calipers redone.

I would say that you could probably do 6 complete calipers easily, or all 8 if you just do the visible portions. I kind of regret spending so much time on them because only about half of what I painted is visible. If you paint them on the car, mask off everything that you can, then paint everything that you see. You will need a minimum of 2 coats and in some spots I even did 3 or 4. Try to get all of the brake dust that you can off. The paint will turn an orangeish brownish color for the first coat, but once you wait an hour or so you can paint over it again and it'll be fine.

I had a pretty productive night. I installed the Verdict Motorsports shift bracket bushings, shortened the SAI hose and added a breather filter, relocated the relay box, and changed the oil.

The Verdict Motorsports bushings are a bit of a pain in the ass on the O2M. Two of the bushings are flat and the third is vertical. On the O2J all of the bushings are flat so the bracket is easy to line up. The key was to tighten the vertical bushing first, then the two flat ones lined up pretty easily. I struggled with this for a while as it's a tight workspace. I obviously can't drive the car at the moment, but sitting in the car and moving through the gears I did feel an improvement. There is less play when the car is in gear (still a lot of play though) and the movement into gear is more definitive. I tried to take a picture that shows the location of all three bushings:



42 Draft Designs endlink bushings and Neuspeed SS for reference:



Next, I cut off most of the SAI hose and installed a breather filter. I got the idea from the cheap mods thread in the MKIV forum (http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...1#post65224555). I have a BMC CDA intake coming Tuesday and it does not have a provision for the SAI hose. Instead of putting the filter up by the intake, I bought a cheap breather filter ($10 from the local auto parts store), a brass 3/8" barb to 1/2" male threaded fitting and a PVC 1/2" female threaded to 3/4" flange bushing (~$3 from Home Depot). There are other ways to do it, but this was the cheapest and most simple way I could come up with. In the cheap mods thread the guy wrapped tape around the base of the filter till it fit snuggly in the hose. I didn't want to risk the tape loosening and being sucked into the SAI.

There is a 10mm nut underneath the intake manifold that hold the SAI line in place. Remove that nut to loosen the hose then remove it from the clip attached a little further down towards the SAI unit. Cut the SAI hose with a sharp blade (don't saw as crap will fall into the SAI unit) just above the bracket on the smooth portion of the hose. The barb fitting goes into the breather filter and is secured with a hose clamp. The other end gets threaded into the flange bushing and the whole unit drops right into the hole that you just cut. You can secure it with a hose clamp or tape is fine too since it stays in place pretty well on its own. I chose to use black tape to hide the brass and PVC fitting and it gave it a little bit cleaner look.

Brass barb for reference:



PVC flange bushing for reference (except the outside on mine was smooth instead of threaded):



Finished product:



When I was done with that, I relocated the relay box so I had a spot to install a catch can in the future. This was also pretty straightforward. Open the lit the relay box, pull it off the bracket, remove the relays from the housing, and tuck them into the wire tray just to the right of the box. I should have taken a picture or two in progress to make it clearer, but it's pretty easy.

Remaining bracket behind the relay box:



Tray that the relays are buried in (on the right):



After that I changed the oil and called it a night.

Before I forget, proof that an Optima Group 35 battery is a direct fit. I don't know exactly why I haven't reconnected the negative terminal yet. I'm not working on anything electrical.

Without the cover:



With the cover:

[ornithology]

Your photography and your "werk" is flawless. Keep it up

[JettaGetUpandGo]

Thanks! Except for the pictures taken last night, most of them we taken with a D60 with the stock 18-55mm lens in the auto mode (I haven't taken the time to figure out how to actually use it yet. ) Last nights pictures were with a 50mm lens because it was dark and that lens does better in low light.

I wasn't all that productive today. I mounted the rear calipers and did one of the rear stainless lines. USP offers rear lines that eliminate both of the rear soft lines instead of just one like most of the companies that manufacture them. It doesn't make sense to eliminate just one since all of the pressure will cause the remaining soft line to take all of the force and balloon more than it originally did. The passenger side line was awful to replace. The instructions state that an 11mm flare nut wrench is needed, but it's too long to be able to get to the nut closest to the front of the car. Luckily I had some small and thin ignition wrenches from Sears that came free with one of their big multi-piece socket sets. The 11mm wrench was just barely short enough to get in there. The driver's side should be a little easier as there is more room to work. I'll tackle that tomorrow.

I also need to get a hold of ECS. It's been 14 days since I placed the order for brake fluid and a bunch of other things for a friend and I (all stated either in stock or ships in 1-3 days). The order has yet to ship and it's starting to make me pretty angry. They're usually slow, but this is ridiculous.

[ornithology]

Yeah I thought your photo's were done with an SLR. I'd try shooting with AV and use a higher aperture to help keep more things in focus. Shoot from further away and zoom in, it helps bring the picture on an even plane rather than fishbowling the main object. Regardless, your pics are a lot better than most on the tex, even with auto mode only haha.

Your retrofits are inspirational though man. I'm really thinking about doing it for my golf headlights. Do you think it would've been possible to get larger projectors? Or were yours the largest you could fit?

[Sovietaced]

i just came to those pics on pg 3. Good work

[JettaGetUpandGo]

It was pretty dark out and I didn't want to grab the tripod, which is why I cheated with the 50mm and low aperture. Thanks for the tips!

With the retrofits, the FX-R is a 2.5" projector. I've seen some people fit 3" projectors (from a TL), but most stick with 2.5". Lenghthwise, the FX-R is the absolute longest projector that will fit. I don't even have an extra 1/8th of an inch on the driver's side behind the battery. I even had to trim the corner of the battery cover off so I could still fit it. If I had to do it again I'd be really tempted to try the mini Morimoto projector from The Retrofit Source. It came out just after I finished my lights, but it looks to be a lot shorter with a very minor decrease in output.

Check out HIDPlanet.com. There are a lot of helpful threads there and you should be able to get a better feel for what people have been able to fit in the GTI housings.

[JettaGetUpandGo]

ECS order is finally supposed to ship tomorrow, so it should be here by Friday. That makes me excited as I'll be able to drive the car by the end of the weekend (work all day / night Friday and Saturday). I asked if they could send everything but the one part they're waiting for if the last part doesn't come in tomorrow since it's been 14 days from when I placed the order and the car is not drivable. They told me they would, but then would charge me extra shipping for the last part. **** that.

If the website says "ships in 1-3 days" then it better ****ing ship in 1-3 days or an email should go out with an update explaining why it won't. I would have been mad, but would have understood if they sent me an email or called on the 3rd day and said "it's going to be a week for the last part to come in, would you like us to ship what we have so far for a minimal extra charge?" They never sent anything and kept me waiting until I grew fed up enough to get a hold of them and then wanted to charge me extra to get the stuff I paid for half a month ago. Ridiculous. I will not order from ECS again. Period.

[JettaGetUpandGo]

Last night I was able to do the other rear stainless brake line and the clutch line. Those were fun. All of the hydraulic rubber lines in the system have been replaced now. The BMC CDA intake also arrived yesterday. I came up with a simple way to mount it and found a velocity stack to put on the end of the included hose at a local auto parts store (just have to go pick it up). I may put that in tonight as it should be a piece of cake.

The last part on my ECS order (lock cylinders for the roof rack) still haven't come in to ECS yet (16 days with no ETA). I canceled them from the order because I need the rest of it in order to make the car drivable. The OEM rack is a Thule rack and I can get the lock cores on eBay for a reasonable price, but there's a small piece that attaches to the lock cylinder that acts as a swinging arm to latch that I need as well. That's not included with the lock cores. Maybe I can use a friend's for reference and fabricate something.

The alternator is also on its way out. I've been in contact with Nate at Excessive Amperage. He can build a direct bolt-on 200 amp alternator (OEM is 120 amp) for $380 (about the price of a new OEM) and powedercoat it black for a total of $420 and a two week build time. It expensive, but I'm certain I'm near the limits of the OEM alternator with the extra electrical items added (amps, hardwiring, HIDs) and 200 amps will give me enough cushion to add an amp for rear door speakers (none currently) and possibly a car PC in the future. There's a car audio place locally that I can get 0 gauge wire from in whatever lengths I want with ring terminals crimped on the ends reasonably cheap to handle the extra amperage.

[JettaGetUpandGo]

I have some new pictures to share. I bought the BMC CDA intake kit from a guy on eBay for $300 shipped instead of $350 + $50 for shipping directly from BMC and the few retailers that sell it. I was looking for an aftermarket intake because working around the OEM airbox with the Eurojet intercooler piping is a pain in the butt. Also, the retrofitted headlights required removing the piece behind the headlight that routes air from the grill to the air box. I decided on the BMC because the filter is enclosed. With the enclosed filter I hope it's quieter than a typical CAI or filter on the MAF. I hate the toilet flushing sound of the filter on a stick. The other option was to cutup a mini keg and put a 3" cone filter inside of it (same concept), but I don't drink beer and wouldn't want to waste it.

The kit included the filter canister which has proper holes like the OEM airbox to mount the MAF. It also came with predrilled bar stock to fabricate a mounting bracket and a 3ish inch hose that I always assumed was plastic, but is actually aluminum. Leaving the bare hose end as the inlet didn't seem like a good idea for airflow. I found a velocity stack at the local O'Reiley's for $10.50 on sale (usually $15) to hopefully provide smooth airflow into the filter. The packaging for the velocity stack showed it mounted on the exterior of the front bumper on a couple of different vehicles. I laughed, hard. I checked on eBay for a velocity stack and most places were selling them for $40-50ish which seemed a little unreasonable. There is no provision on this intake for the SAI hose, which was the main reason for modifying the SAI system to accept a breather filter last week.

Installing the intake wasn't much different than installing any CAI. The battery needed to be removed to move a couple of wires out of the way for the tube to pass through to behind the bumper. I also trimmed some of the plastic away from the piece the lower headlight screws attach to, trimmed off the stud that supported the first tube coming out of the OEM airbox, and hammered the other bracket tight against the fender. The aluminum hose wasn't very flexible and I needed all the room I could get to maneuver it in place.

The stickers on the intake made it look a little busy, so I rotated the intake to hide the stickers as well as rotated the MAF to hide the sensor and connector. The intake doesn't look OEM, but it doesn't look out of place either.

The .:R32 pedals and dead pedal that I bought a while back from the blowout sales finally went in today too. The dead pedal and brake pedal were easy, but the clutch and accelerator pedals were considerably more difficult. A lot of colorful words were spoken. I didn't take pictures. Everyone knows what they look like.

I've run out of things to do until the brake fluid arrives Monday and I can finally drive the car again.

The contents of the BMC kit and the velocity stack:



The bracket that was bent back and the stud that was removed (painted over with touch up paint after the picture was taken):



Filter canister:



Velocity stack behind the bumper hidden from view:

[schkyl01]

pretty impressive.

[JettaGetUpandGo]

Thanks! Ti Know I said I was done till the fluid was here, but I got bored and decided I'd try to fix an annoying rattle in the hand brake button. When I pulled the console off to remove the e-brake I noticed the e-brake cables weren't pulling evenly. After further inspection I found a hole in one of the cables and rust had caused the hose to bloat. When replacing one cable, the other must be replaced as well due to stretching and such over time. They're not that expensive and they're easy enough to do both at the same time. I really didn't want to have to wait for the cables to ship and luckily the dealership had them in stock. They ended up being $60 at the dealer for both sides instead of $45-50 shipped online, but not having to wait made the extra cost worth it.

The replacement process was pretty simple.
-remove the console over the e-brake
-loosen the nut holding tension on the e-brake cables
-pull the cable ends out of the e-brake bracket
-pull the cables out of the clips from under the car and from the caliper
-install new cables and reassemble the console

The total time for both cables was ~35 minutes including removal of the console.

A friend is coming over tomorrow evening to help me bleed the brakes. I bought a Motive Power Bleeder and read a couple of guides. The process looks simple enough, but I don't trust myself to do it alone the first time, especially when any mistake could be disastrous on the road.

[DiverDan182]

so i came a little bit but anyways

what touchscreen did you get? i've been looking for one and yours is sexy :3
also what is your steering wheel?


oh and can anyone post the tutorial for this?? i can't find it but remeber seeing it

[JettaGetUpandGo]

The head unit is a Pioneer AVIC-D3 and the steering wheel is an OEM R32. All of the mods are listed out on the front page too.

The guide for the button mounted radar detector display is on this page:
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...-Thread/page16

[DiverDan182]

WELL YOU JUST KNOW IT ALL DON'T YOU
jk thanks brah <3

[JettaGetUpandGo]

Haha. I try. It makes it easier to remember stuff! The brake fluid finally arrived today, but plans with my friend fell through. He will be over tomorrow night and I hope to be driving the car 18 hours from now!

[HxC_KID]

Read the thread to this point and IM...

Speechless



Do Work Son!

-Matt

[filthyillness]

this has got to be one of the cleanest thread builds i've, so far, read into.

great work and craftsmanship on the retros... and everything else.

[furr]

this has got to be one of the cleanest thread builds i've, so far, read into.

great work and craftsmanship on the retros... and everything else.

yes sir

[filthyillness]

If I may ask, why this?

[JettaGetUpandGo]

A friend came over to help bleed the clutch and brakes so I could finally get the car back on the road. We used a Motive Power Bleeder and ATE Super Blue fluid. The clutch went ok. We had to do it a couple of times to get it perfect. The brakes we only did once and they feel a little squishy. The first third or so of the pedal travel is soft, then they get pretty firm pretty quick. I'm not sure if it's normal or not, but I may try rebleeding the brakes on my own in another day or two now that I've seen how its done. The car is definitely drivable again, which makes me really happy.

The intake is a little louder than I was expecting, but is definitely quieter and maybe a little throatier than a filter on the MAF. My only other idea was using a mini keg with a filter inside of it. I have a feeling that it would sound very similar.

I'll take some pictures within the next couple of days. I'm working 8-1ish and then 3-11 so I definitely won't have time until Thursday at the earliest. The front calipers and rotors fill up the wheels pretty well.

If I may ask, why this?

I'm not sure why the picture didn't show up, but from the email notification I assume you were talking about this:



I mentioned it above, but I'm wordy, so I wouldn't blame you if you missed it. I did it because the new intake doesn't have a direct-fit hole for the SAI hose, so I had to do something with it. Cutting the SAI hose off where I did was a lot easier than trying to adapt a filter to the hose and having it dangle by the airbox and look out of place.

[.:Ryan99:.]

Glad to hear you have the car back on the road. You might have a little air bubble in your brake lines. And you're right, the motive power bleeder is super easy to use so you should be able to redo it yourself with out much trouble.

[JettaGetUpandGo]

So... the car is back off the road. I did the test drive the night we finished and drove it to work the next morning without an issues. On the way home from work I heard a really loud clanking. I got it home, pulled the wheels off, and noticed one of the rear perches for the coilovers was out of wack and figured that had to be the issue, but thought it was odd that it got that bad that quickly because the coils were never touched. There weren't many threads left, but I cranked the coils down the rest of the way in the rear and I'll bring the front down a little bit to match.

While I had everything apart I bumped the driver's side rear caliper and noticed it was loose. Upon further inspection, one the two bolts holding the carrier to the axle was missing and the other was loose... The bolts were brand new OEM and torqued to spec, so I don't know what happened there. Luckily I saved the old bolts as well so I had a spare. I'll pull them and put threadlocker on them before I put the wheels back on. I'll check the fronts too. My car has a tendency to lose critical bolts frequently and it doesn't make me happy. Luckily I caught it in time before it became a major issue.

[filthyillness]

Oh, okay. Yeah, now that makes perfect sense lol. I'll more than likely copy the idea cause i have a breather hose on the end of mine but it's non-cut and not really dangling, just tucked inbetween the battery and the headlight.

Good stuff mang, thanks!

[motoo344]

Once you think its done, something else needs to be fixed lol.

[ornithology]

I got the same air filter as you. Make sure you clean it before it gets real dirty as the inverted cone design makes it difficult to clean. I got it with my car when I bought it and it was hella dirty. Took me a good hour to get all the dirt/grime out and to reoil it (you'll understand what I mean when you try). Anyhow, your car looks super clean.

As for the brake bleeding, it's really simple. If you have the bleeder even simpler. But what I did was sit in the car and pump while my friend watched for bubbles. I used ATE super blue as well. The peace of mind of a safe car is worth it for all the work you're doing. Keep it up bud!

[JettaGetUpandGo]

Everything is back together again as of Sunday and I've been driving the car the past couple of days. The brakes are phenomenal even with the off brand pads and rotors. There is still just a little bit of play in the pedal, but it may be normal. When the alternator comes in I'll have the guy putting that in check out the brakes.

In other news, I have in my had a set of locks for the Votex rack, finally! A week and a half ago I stopped in at the dealer and the parts guy said he would call VW on the following Monday since the part number I gave him showed NLA. I didn't have a chance to get back there until today, but he found them and expected me to come back, so he ordered a set and they were ready for me to pick up!

The part number that I had for the locks was 7M0 071 134. There are circlips and small mounting tabs that come with this lock set as shown on ECS (which now shows in stock. **** you ECS.)



I believe Thule redesigned their locks within the last few years because when I searched online for replacement lock sets for Thule products, the locks looked different and didn't include the circlips or tabs. It turns out the new locks are direct replacements and eliminate the extra pieces! You should be able to get them from anywhere Thule products are sold, although, brace your self, they were $12 cheaper at the dealership.

For anyone needing end caps for the Votex rack, here is what you need:

Caps: 3B0 071 738 $29.87 (4 caps and 4 retaining clips)



Retaining clips: 3B0 071 701 $6.74 (4 retaining clips only. these are the same as what come with the caps, but can be ordered on their own as well)



Locks: 3B0 071 734 $35.65 (4 lock cylinders and 4 keys)

[Davis.]

watching this for a couple of reasons.

1 of them being the Thule lock set part number

[ornithology]

This thread rocks. as usual

[JettaGetUpandGo]

watching this for a couple of reasons.

1 of them being the Thule lock set part number

The part number for the locks is at the bottom of my post. Any Thule locks from any Thule dealer should work too and would be a better option since the ones from the dealer doesn't come with the master key for removing the old locks if you need to.

I've been out of town all week, but I found a full FIS R32 cluster in Europe that should be in the mail on Monday. I started looking for a full FIS cluster with Passat faces and ran across this instead. I'm a little excited about that.

Right before I left I mounted some white LED strips in the trunk for extra light at night. they're completely hidden, but provide ample light. I mounted a switch onto a brushed aluminum plate and riveted it in place of the OEM trunk light.

I also bought some gray thread and various needles to try wrapping the thread around the existing black stitching in the door cards and seats. I miss the gray stitching from the GLI seats and still have it on the steering wheel, shift, and e-brake boots. I've seen it done before and it looks pretty good. I'm expecting it to take an entire day.

That's all that I have at the moment. I don't have much money, and broke my phone on my trip, so modding may be sparse for a little while. I'll definitely take some pictures of the things done recently when I get back in town.

[KA045GLI]

42 Draft Designs endlink bushings and Neuspeed SS for reference:

did you notice a difference in the stability/body roll with the NS upper front strut bar? what exactly does the 42 DD end links help with and did you notice a hugh shifter throw decrease w/ the NS SS? I have a stock R32 gear lever which helps the throw, but not as short as I would like.

[JettaGetUpandGo]

did you notice a difference in the stability/body roll with the NS upper front strut bar? what exactly does the 42 DD end links help with and did you notice a hugh shifter throw decrease w/ the NS SS? I have a stock R32 gear lever which helps the throw, but not as short as I would like.

With or without the front strut bar, I noticed no difference. Because I already had the holes drilled I left it in. It does look nice, but is nothing more than eye candy. The strut towers are tied into the rain tray and firewall, so there is ample structure keeping them where they should be under hard cornering.

It's hard to explain what the 42DD endlinks did, but they made the shifting feel a little crisper. For the price, I would high recommend them, as well as the bushings from Verdict Motorsports for the cable bracket.

The Neuspeed short shifter gives a pretty substantial decrease in throw. I would say it reduces the throw about double what the R32 shifter does. With the Neuspeed short shifter, 42DD bushings, Verdict Motorsports bushings, and VF motor mounts, the shift knob drops right into gear.

[KA045GLI]

Thanks for the info

[JettaGetUpandGo]

Thanks for the info

No problem. Glad I could help out!

The toilet flushing from the intake is driving me nuts. The stock intake can't go back in because the headlight gets in the way of the OEM ducting. Relocating the diverter valve to the throttle body hose may help, but the extra tubing would look pretty messy. Putting the OEM airbox back in with my own ducting may work, but I don't see how that would sound much different than what I have now. Blah.

[KA045GLI]

where did you get that VW wallpaper on the headunit?