mckpat's 2008 R32 Turbo and other adventures

[Foolinaround]

3,075 is the loaded MKVII weight so that checks.

[mckpat03]

Drove 4 hours in the R32 yesterday over to Atlantic City to measure some asphalt equipment for work.
AE plant by Pat, on Flickr

[PAdutch]

I hope you didnt leave it unattended while you fueled

[mckpat03]

Got the timing belt, water pump, thermostat, valve cover gaskets, oil change finished up, finally. I had a lot of work trips and general lack of motivation so this process took way longer than intended. I also fought with getting it back into time because I wanted to be stubborn and try to do it without the specialty tools. Turns out, the specialty tools are more than worth the money because they made the timing job a frickin breeze.

Now I've gotta do the exhaust and I'm REALLY not looking forward to that.

Tbelt done by Pat, on Flickr
Tbelt done by Pat, on Flickr
Tbelt done by Pat, on Flickr

[PAdutch]

Sweet. I thank the previous owners for changing mine so I don't have to for a while. Mine is for sale if you know anyone interested BTW.

[mckpat03]

Originally Posted by PAdutch

Sweet. I thank the previous owners for changing mine so I don't have to for a while. Mine is for sale if you know anyone interested BTW.

Yeah, when I originally bought this it had already been done which was awesome. I think it was done at 75k, I bought it at 90k roughly, and now it's at 136k. So it was due soon-ish, and since I was already in there doing stuff, I figured I'd just knock it out. Also, the water pump was leaking really bad.

Oh cool, are you on Club Touareg at all? The classifieds have stayed pretty active over there. I can definitely spread the word with some local folks. What are some of the details on yours, or if you have a link I could share?

[PAdutch]

Originally Posted by mckpat03

Yeah, when I originally bought this it had already been done which was awesome. I think it was done at 75k, I bought it at 90k roughly, and now it's at 136k. So it was due soon-ish, and since I was already in there doing stuff, I figured I'd just knock it out. Also, the water pump was leaking really bad.

Oh cool, are you on Club Touareg at all? The classifieds have stayed pretty active over there. I can definitely spread the word with some local folks. What are some of the details on yours, or if you have a link I could share?

I am on club touareg but hardly ever go on it. I have someone who is trying to finance it atm. Well see how that goes.

Here is the CL add

[mckpat03]

Received and installed Tyrolsport caliper bushings this weekend. They replace rubber bushings and provide better initial bite as well as preventing the caliper from racking both ways and making noise when you go reverse to drive and vice-versa. Also got adjustable endlinks for the front, but I didn't get them installed this weekend.

IMG_1946 by Pat, on Flickr

[mckpat03]

Welp, I've been working on the Touareg this whole week. I'm taking tomorrow off to enjoy our town's First Friday festivities. However, I think I've gotten a fair amount of work done for how much of a pain in the ass this job is. I didn't take many pictures or anything because I was just ripping and tearing as much as I could.

As of tonight, I've gotten both downstream cats off and got the passenger side downpipe off. All of the hardware downstream of the manifold is extremely rusty. The driver side secondary cat pipe needed the post-cat band clamp cut off and I had to cut the flex pipe with a sawzall and then once I had the secondary cat pipe down, I took the rusted nuts off with a cutoff wheel. The passenger side post-cat band clamp came off just by hammering a screwdriver in the clamp and the bolts were so rusty that they just split in half. After that, on the passenger side, I found that the flex pipe was completely broken off from the primary cat, meaning the downpipe was essentially broken into two pieces, so that made it kind of easy to get the passenger secondary cat pipe out. Again had to cut the nuts off between the two sections with a cutoff wheel. Just tonight I got the primary cat off of the passenger side manifold, so the passenger side is more or less ready for reassembly. But holy crap are those three nuts on the manifold a major pain in the ass to get to. Dang. But at least the manifold nuts aren't rusty at all, so that's good.

Both of my secondary cats are with a friend/shop to be welded back closed (I cut them open to do some off road modifications). Both of the new primary cats had similar off-road modifications made, as well, but I didn't have to cut them open. Needless to say, this thing is probably going to be regretfully loud. I'm hoping to maybe have the passenger side fully back together this weekend, but who knows. I need to change the oil in the R32 this weekend, too, so we'll see how motivated I'm feeling. I'd like to get the driver side downpipe off this weekend, too, but again, who knows. Oh, and I found there is a coolant leak from one of the hoses for the rear seat/four-zone climate control heat, underneath the driverside splash shield about halfway back the car. Here's some random pictures.

IMG_4603 by Pat, on Flickr
IMG_4139 by Pat, on Flickr
IMG_4788 by Pat, on Flickr
IMG_4810 by Pat, on Flickr
IMG_4808 by Pat, on Flickr
IMG_4803 by Pat, on Flickr
IMG_4791 by Pat, on Flickr
IMG_4790 by Pat, on Flickr
IMG_1971 by Pat, on Flickr
IMG_1992 by Pat, on Flickr
IMG_1949 by Pat, on Flickr

[PAdutch]

I had that same coolant leak. I just cut the end off of the metal tube (that was where the hole was) and put a long rubber hose on with a few clamps. Worked fine and was much cheaper/easier than replacing the whole metal hose. Never understood who had the the bright idea to put coolant lines in the wheel well.

[mckpat03]

Yeah, I still need to fix that line, lol. It's not actively dripping or anything, so I'm not too concerned for the time being. Actually, I was really wanting to try to fit 33s on this thing before winter, but those lines at the wheel well have me concerned. Oh well, just something else to **** around with and see how much trouble I can cause for myself.

My friend got my cats welded back up last night and got them back to me today. Hopefully I can make some progress on it this weekend. I'm excited to hear it.

IMG_4812 by Pat, on Flickr
IMG_4811 by Pat, on Flickr

[PAdutch]

Originally Posted by mckpat03

Yeah, I still need to fix that line, lol. It's not actively dripping or anything, so I'm not too concerned for the time being. Actually, I was really wanting to try to fit 33s on this thing before winter, but those lines at the wheel well have me concerned. Oh well, just something else to **** around with and see how much trouble I can cause for myself.

My friend got my cats welded back up last night and got them back to me today. Hopefully I can make some progress on it this weekend. I'm excited to hear it.

I like how these things sounded stock. I am interested what it will sound like without cats, I'm guessing quite good if not a little loud. I sold mine a couple weeks ago.

[mckpat03]

Oh nice, congrats on the sale! The sound actually didn't change as drastically as I had hoped. Part of me was hoping it would be stupid loud, because I'm a huge idiot, but it actually worked out great. Just a tiny bit louder, and sounds throatier or more raw or something. I don't know, it's still really similar to catted, but just a little bit better, IMO, from inside the cabin, anyway. From outside it sounds kind of tinny. The only video I have right now doesn't really do it justice because the mic on my phone is messed up. It doesn't really reflect the real sound at all, actually. I'll try to get a better video this week with my external mic setup on the good camera.

Oh, and I found my trans mount in the R32 was looking a little screwy. Not sure whats up with that.

More random pics and a video link.
https://youtu.be/0zN4tJcTg5o

IMG_4835 by Pat, on Flickr
IMG_4834 by Pat, on Flickr
IMG_4818 by Pat, on Flickr
IMG_4816 by Pat, on Flickr

[PAdutch]

Originally Posted by mckpat03

Oh nice, congrats on the sale! The sound actually didn't change as drastically as I had hoped. Part of me was hoping it would be stupid loud, because I'm a huge idiot, but it actually worked out great. Just a tiny bit louder, and sounds throatier or more raw or something. I don't know, it's still really similar to catted, but just a little bit better, IMO, from inside the cabin, anyway. From outside it sounds kind of tinny. The only video I have right now doesn't really do it justice because the mic on my phone is messed up. It doesn't really reflect the real sound at all, actually. I'll try to get a better video this week with my external mic setup on the good camera.

I was hoping for stupid loud too

I'm curious. Are those the downpipes I recommended? If so, did they fit without grinding the flange?

[mckpat03]

I don't know if they're exactly the same but they were still $120 units from eBay. Based on your recommendation, I put a little chamfer on the inside of the flange just in case. I don't know if I needed it or not, but they ended up installing pretty easily as far as getting the nuts on the studs went.

Also, forgot to post. I've been having a CEL and P0174 code pop up lately that I've just been clearing because I don't want to deal with it right now lol. It's "system too lean - bank 2."

[mckpat03]

Ended up getting a new PCV valve from Rock Auto because it was cheap enough and is a common failure on the Touaregs; the CEL hasn't been back and I've put quite a bit of miles on since, so that seems to be fixed.

The Touareg is just destroying my bank account, though, lol; it has rapidly become way more of a project than I was bargaining for.

The AC finally **** the bed in some capacity last week, but I'm not sure what failed, so that really sucks; fortunately, we're rapidly approaching fall and winter, so I probably won't address that anytime soon. It does suck that it's probably a pretty big knock to the value if I were to try to sell it.

Also, still trying to figure out what I want to do for tires. Rationality says I should just do all-terrains that are no bigger than what I have now which would probably make selling the thing easier. However, I really just want to see it on mud-terrains in honor of my Touareg/Cayenne idol, @offroadcayenne on Instagram. I'm pretty set on doing 275/70/18s, which Tire Rack says measures roughly 33.4" for most tires (I'm currently on 275/65/18 which measures roughly 32.1"). I'm definitely gonna have to hammer and possibly cut some stuff, which isn't a huge deal.

Before I do tires, though, I really need to refresh the front end. I'm sure the bushings and ball joints on all four of the front control arms are destroyed as it drives like crap anymore. So, that's probably going to be the next thing I do before I buy tires in the fall.

And finally, I ordered some parts to have my friend/fab shop fix/change my exhaust setup on the R32. It might be getting louder.

I really gotta get a good reliable car that isn't a constant project lol.

[Foolinaround]

I find I can only keep things not a project if they're brand new.

[DaveSTi]

So much VW goodness in here!

How do you like the Tyrolsport pieces?

[mckpat03]

So, the brake caliper bushings are awesome; they legitimately provided a notable difference in brake feel. That was money that I'm ecstatic to have spent.

The subframe bushings are a really nice piece of kit, but I'm not completely sold on them. I should explain why I say I'm not sold. I am fully aware of the benefits from the design and engineering side and from all of the stories, but I can't speak to feeling a notable difference. Furthermore, the subframe bushings were WAY more difficult for me to install than everything I've read on the forums. It definitely locks the subframe in place just by design. Lastly, I just don't feel like the listed torque values were enough. The bolts were practically loose still and I wasn't convinced the subframe was even fully tight to the unibody. To be fair, I've just got a cheap craftsman torque wrench, so who knows what values they actually got. Anyway, I ended up going back and tightening them by feel. In retrospect, I don't think the subframe bushings are worth the money and I wish I would have bought one of the cheap versions that are anywhere from 100 to 150 dollars less.

The clunking and noise that I was hoping to eliminate with the subframe bushings ended up persisting, so I've got other issues going on. I suspect maybe it's swaybar/endlink related, but I haven't wrenched on the car in quite some time, so whatever.

[mckpat03]

Welp. I got the lower control arms done on the Touareg. The ball joints were shot. The bushings, while not completely wasted, were closer to being shot than to being good. Also replaced the driver side axle. I also beat the piss out of the front of the rockers with a 3lb sledge hammer in hopes of not having to cut them out to fit the bigger tires. I beat on the coolant pipes on the driver side as well, to hopefully make some room. I have a feeling I may have to remove those coolant lines that feed the rear heater/climate control crap. Theres a lot going on in that wheel well - AC lines and coolant lines for the rear climate control, as well as air lines for the air suspension.

It's getting an alignment Wednesday and will have 33s on it Friday. The tires are 275/70/18 Nitto Ridge Grapplers. I decided to go with a hybrid tire to get some of the mud terrain look/characteristics while still retaining most of the all-terrain wear and noise characteristics. The tire, according to the manufacturer specs, comes out to a 33.2" diameter, which is roughly 1.1" taller than the 275/65/18s (32.1") that I've got now. Oh yeah, I ordered bigger spacers, too. Jeep life, ya know... or something like that.

The old girl really isn't as rusty as some of these pictures show, but dang, the sway bar and axles and some other parts just seemed to suck up and hold moisture under the paint or whatever.

IMG_2159 by Pat, on Flickr
IMG_2162 by Pat, on Flickr
IMG_2089 by Pat, on Flickr
IMG_2166 by Pat, on Flickr
IMG_2152 by Pat, on Flickr
IMG_2091 by Pat, on Flickr