2003 MK4 Jetta TDI - Daily Driver

[Mikewire]

Love the work going on here!

[kevin286]

Got the headliner out today.
No real surprises. Those stupid "bitch clips" are pain in the backside. Why-oh-why VW?

Lets start this off with some before shots. Lots of sagginess going on.





Even some lovely discoloration from when someone tried to re-glue this back up.


Leaves? really leaves? where the heck did you come from?





Now I'm ready to go to the store and see if I can find some matching.

What's your thoughts on the rear parcel tray. It's black. Leave black or go same color as headliner?

[Mikewire]

Hmm joys of having a sunroof I'd personally match the parcel tray to the headliner.

[kevin286]

Radio doesn't like to pick up stations far away. Toyota man, picks up phoenix practically all the way from tucson. The jetta, man just driving to the other side of town and a station will get static-y. Internet says water can get into the base and mess things up.

Took the base off. Easy to do with the headliner out.


This metal spring pushes up against the antenna deal inside the plastic housing for connection. There's some corrosion / tarnishing going on so that could be something.


This white stuff inside... could be signs of water? Could be something.


The antenna is "amplified" so there's this circuitry inside to do this.


The board is grounded to the base by crimping the base directly to the board. It was a little tiny bit loose/movement so I will try and crimp a little more or get some silver solder to stick to it. Poor ground might be something.


This here inductor looks like it's got some boils. Not sure what would cause that. Heat but... there can't be much current in there so I'm not sure what's going on. I did a mouser search and I think I have located a replacement component. 102J should be a 1mH 5% inductor. If it really is a bad inductor (no signal generator to test) then that could be something.


Cut up an old CC to make the special tools to get the radio out. I thought perhaps the antenna might not have been hooked up or something. Nope, it was. Looked fine.


So nothing super conclusive. Likely the base I think. For a 2$ inductor I can try a fix. If that doesn't help I suspect I'd need the 56$ replacement base. Whatever. I'm out.

[kevin286]

Small update. Went to the automotive upholstery store yesterday to look at my fabric options.

Comparing. It's hard to tell but lt graphite seems to be the closest match


Closeup


Removing the left over foam backing from the old headliner



Makes a real mess. Do not attempt in your house!

[benno3231]

can't wait to see how it turns out!

[kevin286]

FedEx delivered me a few boxes today. Thought I'd throw this on real quick.
Replacing the radiator support really didn't turn out to be as bad as I thought it would be. VW mounts the radiator to the support pretty slick I think. Ya'll know what I mean with those blocks on the radiator that slide into receptacles on the support.
All in all, with the small mod I had to do it took less than an hour.
Old one on the car. New one on the floor.


Off


Swapping over the hood latch and the sensor wire


On reinstallation, this 1 hole on the support was slightly off. Darnit!


A few swipes with a round file got the whole oblonged


And there we go, all back together.


I did learn that with the two bolts that go through the fender holding in the top two corners you can adjust a little bit which is helpful I think for when I come to aligning up the new bumper cover and fender.

[benno3231]

What was wrong with the old one?

[kevin286]

What was wrong with the old one?

Cracked.

[kevin286]

Found a place Antenna Masts-r-us that sells replacement antenna with amplifier? PCB inside for $14.50.
Still have inductor coming for the OE one so... I guess I'll have a spare?
Taking it apart it looks like very similar circuitry even has the same inductor that appears toast on my OE one.
Only downside to the aftermarket one is the base is slightly different sized so if you've got a heavy mark from where the old one was, this one won't cover that area exactly.




Marring from the old antenna. hit that biatch with some product




Added a little RTV to the o-ring because I'm paranoid



Random. Saw this driving back from the headliner place. I think this is a FMR TG500 Based on the more known 3 wheeled Messerschmitt KR200 the FMR had 4 wheels and bigger engine. Wikipedia says only 320 made. Pretty cool.


Here's wikipedia's picture of one on the Nürburgring


Also fender came so played with that. Checking fit etc. Seems fine. Called one place to get an idea what paint for the fender and bumper cover would be. Guy quoted me 722$ That seems pretty steep to me. For that, I'll buy the paint and gun and do it myself.




What I like about Arizona cars.. well this one's mostly been Texas actually, but check this out. No rust yo!