WK2 145k Service
Re: WK2 145k Service
I guess the lack of corrosion and my guesses about used-car-dealer prep is what made me think the rotors were new. I don't think they are/were low mileage, but they are unbelievable rust-free and relatively clean. I sanded everything down and I'll drive it for a week or two or more to see if the vibration is better before I order either pads and rotors or just pads.
Re: WK2 145k Service
To my eye that looks like 50% wear or so.
Re: WK2 145k Service
Wear is uneven (outboard pad is thinner than inboard) also.
Re: WK2 145k Service
Yes I did see that. You can just rotate your pads (just kidding, I hope).
Re: WK2 145k Service
Ok - finally did the motor mounts and oil pan gasket last night. The oil pan gasket oil leak was no longer actively dripping on the ground when I parked since I had tightened all of the accessible pan bolts, but I went for it anyway since I had to lift the motor to do the motor mounts. The only difference labor-wise, other than than the pan bolts/access was that I had to remove and reinstall the radiator fan.
Kind of a pain in the rear all around. The passenger fender liner had to be mostly removed to get access to the motor mount heat shield bolts and upper motor mount nut. The driver's one wasn't too awful, other than access restricted for the two heat shield bolts on it. Took roughly 5 hours total for all of it. Probably would've been 3-4 hours if I was less tired - approaching midnight I definitely slowed down a ton.
Maneuvering the oil pan in and out was a little challenging since there's kinda only one sequence that gets it in between the radiator and front diff without dragging across the radiator fins. Pulling and reinstalling the radiator fan was also kind of a fight with the AC, trans cooler lines, and radiator hoses interfering with the fan mounting tabs about every 2" on the way down.
Oil pan gasket was kinda no longer rubber, felt mostly plastic and very brittle down both long-sides. Even though the leak was temporarily stemmed by tightening, I think I'm better off having changed it. There appears to be relatively little sludge buildup from any of the internal engine surfaces I could see, and cylinder walls appear to still show cross hatching, so at least there don't appear to be any problems there. I tried to take a couple pics but they came out like crap.
The passenger side motor mount, even though showing no evidence of over-travel in reverse, was clearly degraded and needed to be changed.
I haven't started it yet as I wanted to give the RTV applied at each of the block corners overnight to fully cure - I'm still debating if I'll pull the fuel pump fuse before cranking until I get oil pressure or not bother.
Kind of a pain in the rear all around. The passenger fender liner had to be mostly removed to get access to the motor mount heat shield bolts and upper motor mount nut. The driver's one wasn't too awful, other than access restricted for the two heat shield bolts on it. Took roughly 5 hours total for all of it. Probably would've been 3-4 hours if I was less tired - approaching midnight I definitely slowed down a ton.
Maneuvering the oil pan in and out was a little challenging since there's kinda only one sequence that gets it in between the radiator and front diff without dragging across the radiator fins. Pulling and reinstalling the radiator fan was also kind of a fight with the AC, trans cooler lines, and radiator hoses interfering with the fan mounting tabs about every 2" on the way down.
Oil pan gasket was kinda no longer rubber, felt mostly plastic and very brittle down both long-sides. Even though the leak was temporarily stemmed by tightening, I think I'm better off having changed it. There appears to be relatively little sludge buildup from any of the internal engine surfaces I could see, and cylinder walls appear to still show cross hatching, so at least there don't appear to be any problems there. I tried to take a couple pics but they came out like crap.
The passenger side motor mount, even though showing no evidence of over-travel in reverse, was clearly degraded and needed to be changed.
I haven't started it yet as I wanted to give the RTV applied at each of the block corners overnight to fully cure - I'm still debating if I'll pull the fuel pump fuse before cranking until I get oil pressure or not bother.
Re: WK2 145k Service
I guess I am relieved that it was arduous. I guess if you convince yourself it is hard that could lead to procrastination.
Re: WK2 145k Service
I did pull the fuel pump fuse. It ran a little with the residual fuel pressure, but two 15 second or so cranking cycles and I had oil pressure (The reason I wanted to crank and not run was because the oil pan built in suction sump line was completely empty from me removing and cleaning it, and I was worried the oil pump might take a while to prime, including filling the new oil filter).
Put the fuse back and it's OK. No massive pulsing with load anymore, but it isn't quite new-car refined yet. I wonder if I still have something minor that I should check out in the driveline.
Put the fuse back and it's OK. No massive pulsing with load anymore, but it isn't quite new-car refined yet. I wonder if I still have something minor that I should check out in the driveline.
Re: WK2 145k Service
I guess I don't quite get it - glad it was arduous?
Re: WK2 145k Service
I had mentioned that engine mount jobs scare me, especially without a lift, and I used that logic to also insist that you should do both at the same time, and not one at a time. You tried to reassure me that it would be easy to go back in there and do the pass side one or something. Turns out it was kind of a pain, as I expected it to be.
Re: WK2 145k Service
Ah - yeah, I think motor-mounts-only wouldn't have been bad. The late evening and oil-pan combo made it kinda suck. Especially just the passenger one wouldn't have been too bad. But it was failing anyhow, so well worth the extra $100 to have on hand and swap while I was in there.