My Search for a Clean VR6!

[jono0309]

Ah and more to add!

Sourcing new door handles for drivers side as its rooted and just crumbled, very flimsy from factory even just looking at the tolerances in the handle!
Trying to find new rear ash tray unit as the hinge it moves on it just plastic and its just crushed and snapped on the hooks.
Thanks

[jono0309]

Today I found a bit of a problem, it has been raining quite badly in the coastal areas of Sydney, so I went to drive my VR and noticed the passenger side carpet was soaking wet, dripping, and when I press on it, the water rises out of it, really heavily drenched...but I only noticed it now, when its starting to rain..

Whats the cause of this? I tried googling but couldnt find much on this issue.
Thanks.

EDIT: Found one or two american forums, and they think its the holes in the doors behind the door trims. surely this cannot be the issue here, its almost a puddle FFS!

[VR28LT]

i would dare say if its on the passenger side you may be leaking water in via where the cabin filter sits ???

pull the rain tray off , remove the cabin filter and have a look

[jono0309]

I have to apologize but I do not know what a rain tray or a cabin filter is?

I found a thread on here, which says its basically your heater core/matrix, a door seal or something in the firewall blocking the water flow.
It is on the passenger side and i have only noticed it since its been chucking it down the last day.

[VR28LT]

Have a look where your wipers sit, below that is the rain tray and if you remove it you will find the cabin filter located on the passenger side

My old grey VR was involved in a small crash on the drivers side fender and after the crash it developed a leak through the cabin filter area, the new owner fixed it up by sealing the whole area and it never leaked again.

Yes it may also be a heater core issue but im sure if it was drenched as you describe your expansion tank will be very low on coolant and not only that your cabin would stink like G12 .

Good luck with it all because finding the cause of a leak can be a real mofo

[jono0309]

Ah! I get it now, i know what part your talking about.
I will have a look today, Ill report back when I know whats happened. Thanks for the help.

[ffoff]

the rain tray is the plastic cowl thing that sits between the windscreen and bonnet. remove it (be carfeul with the screws, they like the break) and the cabin filter sits right under it on the passenger side.

Good to see youre doing all the maintenance first up!

[VR28LT]

i noticed some pics from the car wash, did the carpet get wet then ?

have you also been using the a/c ? the drainage pipes may be blocked, the ones on the firewall under those little flaps .

[dark]

So today...

I went to give the old girl a good clean and just made me angry at how tired the paint job is! Ah well, life goes on, but things I do want to give attention to is...

That bloody horrid inside of the gear shift, it feels notchy and just terrible, I opened inside and it looked very sorry for itself, I will try to get a new unit soon for it and give it a good clean, I also think a change of gearbox fluid will help the notchy feel...and yes I have ordered a new gear knob, the carbon fibre ****ter on it now drives me crazy (sorry for the pun) so I have ordered a Mk4 Gearknob which is to arrive soon!





I have been thinking of also painting my calipers, they have a bit of surface rust and just look terrible, would it be easier to just buy new calipers rather than disc and wet sand them and just can spray them?



The car came with a cracked rear tailight, so I got a hold of two rear smoked VR6 lights for $80, soon to be picked up and installed!



Also due to smoke the front bumper lights, they just look tacky! Should I smoke them grey or just completely black them out?



A bit of chipped and terribly repaired paint...jesus christ what were the previous owners thinking!



Thanks guys, I hope some one actually reads this?! haha

I feel for you on the paint thing - I dont know what the previous owner was thinking with mine either!

[jono0309]

Okay guys...more crap to deal with!

I have pulled apart the carpet and the bottom plastic rails, passenger seat is out and all the surrounding parts are out too...
I was disgusted by the insulation, it was soaked, dripping infact. The wool style insulation had a hard kind of coating which was shattered into a thousand pieces, needed the vacuum to get it all up and also disposed of the insulation...



...



Cleaned up a bit...

So I started to look around and I noticed rubber grommets in the floor pan, I thought it could of been that, but then I noticed there were four grommets and so I knew it wouldn't have been...

After that I knew it would have been in the firewall somewhere...I took off the rain tray and was again, disgusted by the lack of care in the maintenance, I looked at the filter for the cabin and this is what was there...



I then proceeded to try and see what was going on, the filter was so tight in the plastic housing because each 1mm gap between the 200 folds in the filter were jam packed with dirt and leaves, the filter was once white and it was black, it took me 15minutes to vacuum it so there was no debris and could have patted it down for hours, THAT much dirt!

I didnt get past this, I saw damp areas around the cabin filter...
It is not my aircon/heater/coolant, I am sure because my coolant level is fine, car doesn't stink, and the car runs at normal temp.
The aircon and the heater work fine...

I was reading some advice on here before, people said there is a plug or something in the firewall to unclog the blocked water?
Only problems thus far! Any help is once again appreciated!
Cheers

[jono0309]

Today...

I went to VW parts, ordered new rubber grommets for the floor pan, new clips for the rain tray as they are all buggered and got a new pollen filter/cabin filter.

I went to supercheap to buy some cleaning stuff then went to clark rubber, bought some of the recycled foamy insulation stuff for the carpet, bought enough for the whole car's floor pan so I will go and replace that.

Yet another problem, the VR is idle hunting a bit, from 500-600 and back down again and keeps doing it...oil temp is normal, coolant temp is normal, fan runs more now too. It also has a shake to it now, kind of like a cammed car, it gets a jerk and went taking off it can be jerky. Clutch has a rattle too after I have select a gear and released the clutch, it makes a tinny noise, only when clutch is released though.

[jono0309]

Clutch is doughy, unresponsive, and isn't working well.
Camden GTI want $850 for a OEM replacement. Great.

[Defaultuser0520]

Is that fitted? I'm sure I seen Exedy clutches for cheaper, although honestly dont know what they are like.....

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/EXEDY-CLUTCH-VOLKSWAGEN-GOLF-2-8L-VR6-TYPE-3-1992-98-/160637189710?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2566b8fe4e

Like I said, I have never used them, maybe someone else has??

[jono0309]

Sorry, that is fitted, pretty good price I thought, Just an expensive exercise all together. A local big brake and clutch place said the cheapest they could do was $1200...
Those exedy ones look the business.

[Ben J]

Its a pretty big job to swap the clutch, 850 fitted by one of Australias best vw mechanics is a very good price.