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3 minute(s) of a 9 minute read
1-10-2021
As of today, all the cooling system parts I'm replacing have been removed! The original plan for this winter was to do the oil pan, pickup tube, turbo return line, and starter. The return line is rusty and the pan has leaked from the drain plug from the day I bought the car. I bought all the parts to do the oil components and planned on having the starter rebuilt locally. All was good until I got under the car to do the oil stuff, and noticed coolant that was dripping down.
The only coolant related items I've touched are a small line under the coolant temp sensor, and the coolant temp sensor itself. The thermostat has been fine along with all the 'problematic' coolant flanges, so I never touched it. Since I couldn't tell if the leak was coming from the thermostat housing or the hard pipe I decided to replace both, and any lines that connect to them. As of right now I'm leaving the upper and lower hoses, radiator, and lines from the overflow and turbo alone. While I'm a proponent of doing things all at once, and definitely taking care of something "while you're in there" I don't want to fix what isn't broken. The hoses aren't really soft, and those components are easy to replace with a car that's assembled. The rest of this stuff would be pretty difficult to do without being where I already am. I'm currently waiting on all the coolant parts I need with the exception of the hose clamps. The spring clamps on there now are pretty tired, and I'd like to keep the OEM look of spring clamps. I even found a supplier of them, so once I figure out all the sizes, I can order them for a good price. Provided you have the nifty spring clamp pliers, they're honestly easier than the worm clamps.
Also, today marks 9 years with the car, so happy anniversary Martina!
That hard pipe is a real pain. Theres even an extra bolt on it that the Bentley manual fails to mention! I'll have a video up about that... eventually. I'm trying to decide between making all separate videos to disassemble the cooling system as opposed to one long one, not sure what is best. If you have an opinion about it, let me know!
Comments
It's crazy! Forge even responded and said they've sold the pan for years without issue and that they were 'looking into it'. I can't find anyone on the internet that says they've installed it, or had a problem with it, so I'm wondering if something is off with a batch of them or something? Hoping the inlet pipe is as good as people say it is, otherwise it wasn't worth the trouble.
Posted by Steves Garage on 3/11/21 @ 4:07:27 PM
Great it will be fun to see updates!
Posted by Diggymart on 1/6/21 @ 12:54:27 PM
Thank you! It's apart in the garage now, so there will be updates soon.
Posted by Steves Garage on 1/6/21 @ 1:17:20 PM
Take a “before” picture so the “after” will be wow look at that! Here’s a bunch of parts. Here’s a car! ?
Posted by Diggymart on 1/6/21 @ 9:15:32 PM
Tons of pics and videos being taken!
Posted by Steves Garage on 1/7/21 @ 2:27:29 PM
Love a fast wagon. I’ve driven a modded 1.8t so I’m sure that thing scoots! Sounds like a great daily.
Posted by stevegolf on 1/6/21 @ 1:39:29 AM
Thank you! It has been a great daily. Really fun to drive, and extremely reliable despite the reputation of mk4s. I'm not really sure what my plan is for it going forward now that it's not a daily, but it'll be fun either way!
Posted by Steves Garage on 1/6/21 @ 1:18:33 PM
Been following your posts, can't believe that pan was off so much, same with the inlet pipe!
Posted by diyauto on 3/11/21 @ 2:42:06 PM