Project Family Truckster

[Colombian Gringo]

With a third daughter on the way I knew my daily driver, a Merc C230K sedan, wasn't going to cut it anymore with all the baby gear I'll have to haul around. So I recently acquired a 2002 1.8t Passat Wagon from a friend of a friend. The car had been sitting for about a year due to the PO having a company car as a daily. It now has just under 117K miles on it and a far as I can tell from receipts found in the car it's been driven about 200 miles since August of 2010.

The tires on it were dry rotted and the rear calipers were dragging when I first drove it. I picked up a set of tires on steelies in the classifieds and threw them on to get it home. The trip home was a nail biting experience as we found that the brake pads were virtually nonexistent at all four corners and the pedal almost went to the floor. With the help of a friend and me driving like a grandma we were able to get it home without incident.



I placed an order with GAP and soon had new brake rotors, pads, fluids and filters. A friend of mine had a set of Audi RS6 wheels he was selling and I picked up some fresh rubber from Discount Tire Direct.

Here's a pic after the brake and wheel install...


Does anyone know where I can find a "VW" centercap that will fit these Audi wheels?

Next on the list is to change the ATF and filter.
I also picked up a set of Koni coilovers in the classifieds that I'll put on when I have some time.

[20th#2870]

let me know if you find those caps I want some!!

[Jesstzn]

Do you have the Audi center caps and if so are they flat or convex?

[Colombian Gringo]

Unfortunately they didn't come with any center caps when I bought them from my buddy.

[Jesstzn]

Thats too bad .. I do have a source for quality VW emblems that stick on over the other.

[007rabbit]

are you putting 3 car seats in the back? im running into the problem of if i should look at a bigger car or squeez my 2 kids in the back and a 3rd in on the way.

just wondering if 3 car seats fit or not.

[Colombian Gringo]

No, my other two daughters are 11 and 8 so they're no longer in car seats. I did find this thread on PassatWorld so it looks like fitting two booster seats and a car seat is possible.

http://www.passatworld.com/forums/76...ily-wagon.html

[Colombian Gringo]

The car passed NJ State inspection with no issues. In the next few weeks I'll be installing a set of Koni coilovers, replacing quite a few components of the PCV system and replacing what's left of the belly pan.

I had an opportunity to take the car on a 2 trip last Saturday and drove it at highway speeds. I was wondering how you can tell if control arm bushings need to be replaced? The car felt a little squirmy at times when hitting I hit a couple of bumps. No noises coming from the suspension whatsoever just an unsettled feeling.

[Colombian Gringo]

Passat is now on duty as the Family Truckster. I surprised my wife with it by picking her up from the hospital with our newborn daughter. First stop, Babies R Us for supplies.


I installed 034 Motorsports breather hose kit and changed the suction pump. Hopefully I'll have some time to install the Koni coilovers over the next few weeks once things slow down a bit.

[Harold]

Try to measure the size of the hole.

http://www.ecstuning.com/News/VW_Cen...FQjf4AodrxugDw

http://www.ecstuning.com/Audi-RS6--4...r_Caps/ES8942/

So it looks like RS6 is 57mm and closest VW one is 56mm , try getting one and seeing how it fits.

I know my VW center caps are a little loose on my RS4 reps, but they haven't fallen out.

[Colombian Gringo]

Thanks for the info. I actually bought a set of Audi centercaps off eBay. I think I'll eventually pick up a set of the "VW" decals that go over the Audi centercaps.

[Colombian Gringo]

Last weekend I had the flex joint replaced on the exhaust which took care of the exhaust leak. Much quieter now.

My friend and I attempted to replace the front upper control arms and install the Koni coilovers. The install went horribly wrong from the start. Despite applying liberal amounts of PB Blaster to the pinch bolts for an entire week beforehand the bolts wouldn't budge. They were fused to the knuckle and wouldn't even turn. We followed the procedure on PassatWorld which instructs you to cut the bolt.
http://www.passatworld.com/forums/61...easy-pics.html

The head of the bolt came out fine but the bolt snapped when we tried to extract the other end of it, leaving the center portion of the bolt stuck in the knuckle. Four hours later, after using a variety of different air tools and curse words, as well as breaking two drill bits (which also had to be extracted), the bolt was out.

We replaced the upper control arms and pinch bolt on the right side. Seeing as my back was shot by this point and I could hardly move, we decided to leave the other side for another day.

Once we do the other side then we'll install the coilovers.

[bryanvr6]

[buster09841]

Last weekend I had the flex joint replaced on the exhaust which took care of the exhaust leak. Much quieter now.

My friend and I attempted to replace the front upper control arms and install the Koni coilovers. The install went horribly wrong from the start. Despite applying liberal amounts of PB Blaster to the pinch bolts for an entire week beforehand the bolts wouldn't budge. They were fused to the knuckle and wouldn't even turn. We followed the procedure on PassatWorld which instructs you to cut the bolt.
http://www.passatworld.com/forums/61...easy-pics.html

The head of the bolt came out fine but the bolt snapped when we tried to extract the other end of it, leaving the center portion of the bolt stuck in the knuckle. Four hours later, after using a variety of different air tools and curse words, as well as breaking two drill bits (which also had to be extracted), the bolt was out.

We replaced the upper control arms and pinch bolt on the right side. Seeing as my back was shot by this point and I could hardly move, we decided to leave the other side for another day.

Once we do the other side then we'll install the coilovers.

if you do it again, here's a little hint. you don't need to remove the upper control are mounting plate and pinch bolt. you can actually drop the suspension in the front with that still on the car.

take the 1 bolt off each side of the sway bar on each side, then unbolt the 1 both on each shock holding it to the lower control arm. they go to you engine bay and take the rain tray out, and in the middle of the triangle that is formed by the 3 bolts (on each side) for the uppper control arm mounting plate you will see 2 color match rubber body plugs. pop those out (might take a bit but they come right out) and you will have access to to the 2 bolt/nuts for the upper strut mounting plate. take the 2 nuts off and the thing will drop right out. then just push down on caliper so you can clear the lower control arm with the bottom fork of the shocks (this is why you unbolted the sway bar in the begining to give downward travel)

hope this helps

[Colombian Gringo]

thanks for the info. seems like a much easier way to do it although I don't remember seeing the rubber body plugs you mentioned. I'll have to take a close look.

Unfortunately the plan was to replace the upper control arms anyway which requires removing the pinch bolt.

I'm hoping I'll have some time this week to give it another shot. Picked up a set of cobalt drill bits.