Yay! My wife's Jetta ate it's valve train!

Parts are due today.  Gotta pick up oil, filter, and coolant.

Still need to figure out where this vacuum hose goes:

I bought a factory manual online that's pretty nice, but I've not yet figured out where that goes.

Glad to see it's coming together.  To be honest, I checked the internet for a vacum line diagram, couldn't find one.  What I've done in the past is locate a similar vehicle (a buddy, car dealer, etc.), and scoped out what i was looking to put together.

Dirtydog (Forum Supporter) said:

Glad to see it's coming together.  To be honest, I checked the internet for a vacum line diagram, couldn't find one.  What I've done in the past is locate a similar vehicle (a buddy, car dealer, etc.), and scoped out what i was looking to put together.

I just found a similar one at a used car lot nearby.  I might have to make a visit!

I called the dealership parts department too.  I thought he was going to blow me off, but I sent him the above pic and he actually responded back with questions.

Went to the used car lot, and...

*drum-roll*

THERE'S NOTHING THERE!

Well that's easy.  No additional effort required.

Ta Da!!! Don't ya love when a plan comes together. 

Timing belt is in.  Tensioner is in.  When rotating the engine, everything lines up great, and the tensioner is spot on it's mark.

And the berkeleying motor mount has stretch-bolts.  Of course it does.

And the now-determined worthless auto mechanics completely stripped out the motor mount.  Go to hell, U-Hills Sinclair.  You guys used to be good.

Off to the V-dubs dealership for bolts and the LAPS for a helicoil kit.

In reply to TVR Scott :

Don't tell anyone at the dealer but I've also reused those bolts a bunch on mk4 cars. Driven them tens of thousands of miles after and never had an issue. That is the experience of only myself. It won't help you on the stripped one though. 

If the head bolts are at all difficult to thread up, they have been stretched past their yield point.  A good bolt with a little lube will just thread right in without requiring any help from a wrench until you need to tighten it down.

I was all ready to reuse the stretch bolts, and then I found the stripped out motor mount.  So I had to go out for the Helicoil kit anyway, and the dealership isn't far.  So $10 later I had the new bolts.

The car is ready for an oil change and then getting the alternator assembly back together.  I'm hoping it'll be making vroom-vroom noises by lunchtime tomorrow.

Leave it to the Germans to complicate a motor mount bolt. 

dculberson said:

Leave it to the Germans to complicate a motor mount bolt. 

So many different tools...

Seriously- WHY? I mean, every* other car made since the first model T rolled down the assembly line didn't require stretch bolts to secure the motor mounts. What is the problem that using stretch bolts solves?

The only POSSIBLE reasons I can think of -could they be designed to shear in a controlled fashion in a nasty accident?  Or somehow they make assembly easier on the production line, and berkley the guy who has to service it later?

Best I could guess is that the bolts are listed in the catalog as suspension-bolts.  Maybe they're stretched there, so they *must* be stretched everywhere.

Or, the engine does hang off the mount.  So maybe they wanted to make sure that joint was extra strong.  There's gotta be about 25 threads engaged on that mount.  Not that that kept it from stripping.

Enough pointless banter.  Time to go lay in the dirt in the cold.

Of course the nipple broke off the power steering reservoir.  Why wouldn't it?

In line at the parts counter.  At the second dealership.

TVR Scott said:

Of course the nipple broke off the power steering reservoir.  Why wouldn't it?

In line at the parts counter.  At the second dealership.

This is why I have started letting other people do some of my repair work.  Now that I read about your experience with the semi-competent repair shop.  It took me a few hours over 3 days to do the valve cover gaskets on my 4runner a few months ago.  Excellent reason to build a garage with a lift and heat/AC.      

I have a functioning Jetta again.

Started up fine.  Needed a bit more coolant after idling a few minutes.  The valve train noise was crazy - sounded like diesel - but the manual said that was normal and would go away.  I took it out for a 2nd gear test drive around the neighborhood and it runs just fine.  Power is good, though I didn't really get on it.  The lifter noise seemed to be largely gone by the time I finished - I guess the magic hydraulic lifters did their magic.

The check engine light is still on, but it is a VW after all..

In reply to TVR Scott :

Now you have the rest of the weekend to build her a custom carbon fiber sunroof plug.  Congrats.

It seems you're a code reader and beverage of your choice away from completion.  Congrats on this project.

Nope.  False alarm - it's leaking coolant.  Looks like I must have pinched the o-ring on the water pump - it was being pretty stubborn going in.  Lots of drips and pooling on that side now.

I'll tear into it tomorrow.  I need a break right now.  Time for a bike ride, I think.

In reply to TVR Scott :

A shmear of Hylomar or even grease on that O-ring should keep it from pinching or ripping when installed.

In reply to Jerry From LA :

Yeah, I'm sort of kicking myself.  I have a tube of o-ring lube, but it was in the house and the instructions said to just put some coolant on as lubricant.  Should have done it right to start with.

I did pick up the new o-ring from Napa for $4.  Didn't tear it down today.  My back arthitis flared up and I mostly was horizontal on the couch.  Ow.

Just spent a while digging out the water pump.  Not surprisingly, found this:

Yup, that'll cause a big old leak.

Took the new o-ring out and lubed the hell out of it and the housing groove both.  The housing then went into it's spot on the block smoothly and with just hand pressure.  No drawing it in with the bolts like I did last time.  Learning!

It's all buttoned up and I took it for a lap around the neighborhood.  It beeped at me once to fill the coolant more, but otherwise it ran just fine.

I shoved some cardboard under it to show me if it's leaking at all, but I think I've got it sorted this time.  Fingers-crossed...

If it still looks good tomorrow I'll put the fender liner and front under-tray back on again.

Just plugged in the code reader - it had three codes stored, all for random-misfires.  No pending codes.  I cleared the old ones and took it for a short drive.  CEL now is off.  Afterward I read the codes again and there's nothing pending.

Success!

Thanks so much Pete, Paul, and everyone else who chimed in with advice.  This is one of those jobs I've only done twice, so it's like a big deal every time.  You made it go easier.

And now I get to drive my Focus again!  Scratch that, my daughter has it today...

Nice work getting it back in service.  Now let's get the TVR running.

Glad you got it done, and seemingly without major hassle. My 15 TSI eats oil and I am happily ignoring it for now as I don't want to re-ring it.