Lufbramatt

pm a guy called rubjonny on clubgti he rebuilds the looms so has all the diagrams etc

Hi, If you're still doing these I'm interested in a set of the 4 rear lines (the two on the beam arms between the flexis and the two that link to the compensator valve) as I'm refurbing my rear axle and can't beleive I'm going to get it all to bits without breaking anything so may as well replace the lot. If you could PM me a price for the set including postage that would be great. I won't need them straight away, more likea month or so's time but can send over a deposit to cover the cost of materials etc if that's any help? Cheers Matt

"Sleeper16", good seller, good communication and ARB turned up exactly when expected, knocked a fiver off the postage to keep it to a round number. Top service, cheers fella :)

Just seen your other thread, didn't realise you're in australia! oops. might be a bit far to go to strip a passat!

90% of a B4 is the same as a B3 :) mine is basically a B4 in a B3 shell!

The passat beam is actually narrower than a corrado beam. Strange but true. although converting the rear to 5 stud is just a case of changing the discs. Wishbones and track rods are wider on a passat AFIAK. If you do find a VR6 passat to break (good luck, there's only about 5 left in the UK :-( ) Can I come and scavenge the carcass? There's a few bits I need for my B3.

when i did mine I got the steering lock housing and ignition barrel+key off the donor car, then swapped that in too, so I use the ignition key from the donor car to start the car. So as well as the ECU, you need the transponder coil, key, immobiliser box and some of the loom from the fusebox to the column. Easiest way to bypass them is to remove the chip from the key, superglue it to the transponder coil and hide it up behind the dash, so it will be permanently un-immobilised. I think you can get them coded out but it involves taking the ecu to someone that can do ecu voodoo.

I ended up setting the front konis on mine pretty soft, made it feel more confident. Supple is good on a road car.

Check tyre pressures too!

just rebuilt the dizzy on my ABF. The vr6 one looks pretty similar. Once you get the drive "cog" off the end its pretty simple. replace the oil seal when you're in there too. I'm not sure how you get the cog off a vr6 dizzy but on the abf one you have to knock a roll pin out from the middle which is the hardest bit as it involves a fair amount of force and you have to be careful not to crack the alloy casing. Perfectly do-able though if you're mechanically minded.

yes I'm pretty sure they're all the same casting. I have an exhaust manifold off a KR corrado on my 2.0 16v ABF head, looked identical to the one I took off and bolted up fine on both sides.

One annoying thing with a mk3 golf sourced ABF is the lighting loom is bunched in with the engine loom so you'll need to separate that out. Lightened flywheel is a good mod makes it rev much more happily (equivalent to loosing 120+kg off the weight of the car in low gears).Tried a golf that had one in, makes it feel like a revvy 1.4 in a small lightweight car if you see what I mean, much more responsive. Got mine from hotgolf on clubgti ready for when I swap out my dieing gearbox in the summer. Yep agree with Roger the passat boxes has silly short 1st-3rd, probably to help with towing? means that 2nd is only good for about 50mph and you have to change up before you get to 60. Although it does mean that 3rd is epic for b-road overtaking, puts you right in the powerband at 50-70mph.

Yep it's a good lump the ABF. Mine's not quite standard though- P+P'ed head, decat, optimised airbox (see the "how to make your ABF breath on a budget" thread on clubgti) and a few other bits and bobs. Mine's up on 238000 miles now and still pulls really well, doesn't burn any oil and will see over 40mpg easy on a run. When I did the swap about 4 years ago it would edge in front of a mini cooper S up to silly speeds no problem and would hang on to a 2.5 boxster up to about 70. However, the lumps are getting old now (think the last ones were 98/99 in seat ibiza cupras) and can suffer from dieing sensors and niggly oil leaks- the classic one is the dizzy oil seal. If any of the sensors is a giving a duff reading it will put the ECU into batch fire mode and you'll lose about 5-10mpg and a bit of performance. When you do the swap I'd advise to replace at least the crank position sensor, coolant temp sensor and check and repair all the wiring loom as they get brittle with age.

I'm in rochester, kent so darlington is a bit of a trek from me! postage would be good. drop me a pm with the total cost and your paypal address and I'll send the money over. I've found somewhere to get the clamps so no probs there.

Very interested in the rear ARB. couple of questions- where are you located, can you post? what bits are needed to fit it (looks like the bands that go round the torsion beam?) and what thickness is it? cheers Matt edit: done a bit of research and I'll defo have this subject to being able to arrange collection/delivery

x2 for furniture clinic. did my US spec dished leather steering wheel with the furniture clinic stuff and it came up like new, i seriously couldnt believe how good it looks. one thing is though is you have to make sure the surface is totally degreased and any chemicals on it are removed else it wont adhere properly, so get the kit with the leather prep and alcohol cleaner stuff in ans youll be good to go. also make sure you get the matte finish laquer to go over the dye, makes it look like the leather trim you get on new cars and adds another layer of protection to the colour ;)

or the ATE ones from ECP, which are the same as the VW AFAIK. defo have the same grey coating on.

lol^ what mod edited my post rather than quoted it then? :lol:

Apart from the compression though you have to remember that fueling in based on sensors that are set up for forced induction so will not run properly at all like this... a G60 without a G60 kind of defeats the point!

nah the passat beam looks like a golf beam on steriods, the bushes are bigger diamter and theres 2 each side (pressed in from opposite side of the axle) not sure where the "corrado uses a passat rear beam" myth came from, cos it doesnt . . although ive just checked the rear track figures for the passat and corrado and theyre the same, but neuspeed etc list different part numbers for the rear anti roll bars for each car. maybe the only difference is the brackets due to the fatter axle?

good work! excellent pictures. got a feeling im gonna need to this to the passat in the next year or two, dreading it, everything on the pissrate is that bit bigger and heavier to make it seem so much more effort lol not to mention they have 4 bushes to wrestle in place not the 2 that you guys get!

do you mean between the oil cooler and the bracket that bolts to the block? for that you have to take the oil filter off which reveals a thin 24mm (?) nut on a threaded tube. undo the nut and the oil cooler can be slid off the end, youll probably have to take the coolant hoses off too. the gasket is a fat rubber o-ring with "ears" that slot into the oil cooler. mine is doing the same, need to change it when i do the next oil change . . . mmmmmm messyness

i dont think the springs settle as such- just the internal seals etc inside the dampers free up slightly so theres less "sticktion" inside the damper tube, so the weight of the car will be held up to an extent by the extra friction of the damper. Over a few days/weeks the seals bed in,friction reduces so the car will sit lower over the shocks. its just like piston rings etc bedding in i guess, engines get "freer" over time

ive recently done my whole leather interior in the passat with the furniture clinic stuff (PU dye and PU matte leather finish) and im really impressed with it too. one thing thats pretty critical though is to use the right alcohol prep stuff to clean the leather first- any conditioners etc that remain on the leather will make the colour peel off like dead skin- had this happen on one of my doorcards and had to strip it all off (celly thinners works well) and do it again. Have also done my leather steering wheel and it came up perfectly. Gave it a coat of the furniture clinic protection cream which prevents the leather from absorbing grease and protects from UV so should hold up well. One other thing to be careful off is dont go near the stitching with the sandpaper as its easy to damage and goes all spikey when you spray the dye on. to do a whole interior i needed 500ml of dye (250ml annoyingly isnt quite enough) and 500ml of the leather finish (leather finish is like a transparent flexible laquer that adds a protective barrier layer to the colour). Top quality stuff though and if you have an airbrush+compressor it really easy to apply.

yep its easy- 20 mins work drive the car round the block for a bit to warm the gearbox oil up so it flows out easier use a 17mm hex key/socket to loosen the filler plug (on front of gearbox about half way up) then undo the drain plug (under diff housing) and drain the oil into a suitable container, leave it and go have a cup of tea/beer/gin+tonic etc come back and put the drain plug back in, and using a funnel with an extension tube (so you can poke the end in the filler hole) put 2 litres of oil in and do the plug back up, easy peesy :D just make sure you dont make the noob mistake of filling it up via the flywheel timing inspection hole, cos that means new clutch time!