Big Sky Euro

Got tags and insurance, changed her oil, did a timing belt inspection and got a chance to see what the deal really is here. Freek'n sweet! I love this little thing. Its spunky Spoke with the previous owner and found he bought it and drove it with no reverse however long ago. He let it go when the front end shake started. Going to swap out driver side axle today maybe to see if thats the issue. Its kinda intermittent.





Went for a spirited drive on one of my favorite local loops.



Thats a 28oz drink and an arm rest. Ate a couple tacos and burgers in traffic too. Oh! And a DQ Double Fudge Blizzard. It was awesome!!!

Well then..... suspicions were correct. Inside CV toast.





Took about an hour to swap out with one I had on the shelf. Gonna test drive after I clean up a little.

I can't believe how great that thing looks...If you had told me 10 years ago you were going to the car wash I would have laughed my ass off in disbelief.

Sometimes that wall 'o parts can come in handy eh? Hope that fixed the issue.

Made it 200 mi to great falls today without an issue. Took the frontage road through the canyon

BigSkyGLI wrote:I can't believe how great that thing looks...If you had told me 10 years ago you were going to the car wash I would have laughed my ass off in disbelief.

10 years sure goes by fast these days..... All grown up and washing my car now

EDIT:
Made it home too! A joy to drive, even with the automatic. MPGs from Bozeman to Great Falls were a little less than I expected. Cruise set at a few ticks over eighty (GPS shows its 4mph fast) only got 23 mpg. Still yet to calculate return trip. The last 1.8T auto I had sucked the fuel too, but I think it may have been off a tooth.

Nice ride Trevor! It's kind of cool that you don't really have to look for these cars in need, they always seem to find you! What a perfect road tripper for two!

FWIW my 187000 mile passat tippy, got 30 on our great falls trip this last weekend. And thats a heavy passat with 4 peeps in the car. i would change the coolant temp switch, they do fail with no symptoms, causing rich running, or log it with vag to see what its up to.

Good idea! I might get one of them sensors.

So I finally get around to doing the CTS because my last tank was worse for MPGs and I had a hard time starting it when we had some low temperature the other day. Forgot to mention that I had been smelling something fumey at stops. Found out what that was. Someone did some quality repairs on the PCV crap.




Merely glancing at it turned into this really fast:




This has been repaired. The thing that bothers me about it is that someone probably got a bill for that crap. Going to do a fuel filter next and check over some more basic and low cost stuff.

A reel pain in the ass when factoring in a learning curve, but........ I got reverse and the other shifting problems fixed!!!!!!

9 New shift solenoids installed. Was a gamble, and I won.







You need this



Next time you back out of a parking spot or your drive way, be thankful.

Nice job! I love it when gambles work out. You gonna sell it now?