Winter is here!

 HAPPY THANKSGIVING

 No Heat!

We have an old 2002 Passat GLX 4-Motion wagon. It has a lot of miles on it. But, it has been a super dependable car - for years I used it to commute to work (thirty-five minutes one way, forty-five minutes the other - traffic!) 

When I bought a newer commuter car the Passat took on a second life as a light-duty pickup. In that role, it has pulled cars out of ditches, pulled shrubs out of gardens, hauled fuel-oil,  furniture, concrete and made weekly runs to the dump packed with only the sort of refuse that a family with kids can produce. It's gone camping as the carry-all for the family's gear and even been camped in. It's carried kayaks, fishing gear, skis and children all over New England. I can remember one time, because my wife won't let me forget it, when she drove the Passat down to Sharon to rescue me when the '89 Golf I was driving back from Concord decided to suffer sudden oil pressure loss. It's been a hard life but that old Passat just keeps chugging along.

(I told you it has a lot of miles. Yes, and the obligaotry check engine light. We'll work on that later.)

Along the way, the heater core became clogged and, as no surprise, the car no longer blows hot air when called upon during the colder parts of the year in Vermont. There's an old joke about the seasons in Vermont. See, Vermont has four seasons: Winter, winter, winter and, for two weeks in August, not winter.

So...YOU NEED HEAT.

The heater core is essentially a second small radiator that sits behind the dashboard. Hot coolant from the vehicle's water-jacket flows through the heater core and heats the air that's pulled through it before entering the cabin via the HVAC vent system. Very basic really. 

In fact, a replacement costs less than a hundred bucks. No big deal, right? WRONG! Ripping the dash apart to replace it will cost you either a day of labor or around a grand if you have someone else do the labor.

Given the Passat's milage I just can't justify the investment. There is, however, another way. 

Let's call it better living through chemicals. 

See, what's clogging the heater core is all the same sorta sediments that gunk up all plumbing systems. Heater cores get blocked by crud and corrosion (mineral accretions from using tap water) or sometimes by the sludge created when improper coolant is used during top-off. The passages in the core are just a millimeter wide so it doesn't take much.

(Remove the plastic cowl over the rain tray and you'll find the heater core pipes next to the battery. The pipe to the right is the inlet and the left one is the outlet. A compressed airhose can be seen above ready to reverse blow-out the heater core. Don't be shy about using compressed air and hose water to flush the core. In fact, I ended up flushing it with both and flushed it out from each direction just to be sure.)

Sometimes, the core can be flushed with compressed air followed by water from a garden hose. If that doesn't work it's time to reach for the CLR - this is the same CLR that homeowners use for clogged drains. 

After flushing the core and blowing as much of the water out as possible with compressed air, I filled the core up with CLR and let it set for twenty minutes and then flushed it again with water for another twenty minutes before blowing it out a final time and refilling with coolant. When refilling, you have to remember to bleed the air out of the system. 

On the Passat, the highest point in the cooling system is the heater core and there is a bleeder hole on the outlet hose. You can use this hole to bleed the air out of the water jacket.

(The homemade set-up pictured above was utilized to great effect. Note the CLR ready for action. I used the whole bottle. Child labor provided by my 13-year-old son. Pay no attention to the derelict Jetta in the background. If you've followed this blog then you know that this old hot rod is all rotted out. Fear not, its parts are being salvaged for other projects. In this way the old white Jetta lives on.) 

Long story short, after all that work, it worked. The heat is back. And, best of all, the dash did not need to be ripped out. 

P.S. - While I was at it, I changed out the old, cabin air filter for the first time...ever.

(I don't think I need to tell you which one is the new one. Yay! All set for another six-hundred-thousand miles.)

A long time ago on an old Vermont road...or so the story begins...I was stretching the legs of an Alpine White 1990 Jetta. Under the hood howled a loved-up 8-valve; its joyous melody betraying the very pedestrian aesthetic of the rest of the car. Now this engine was, for the time, a potent assemblage of performance parts scratched together during late-night sessions in a dingy, fly-infested shopbay at an all-night full-service gas station.

Those were the days – work for the man while the sun was up and spend the night turning wrenches under the light of the moon...well really, I was under flickering, bug-encrusted florescent shop lamps...but you get the point. I wish I still had that kinda spunk. Now I need a nap by midafternoon. 

A nod to Ron’s Gulf – those who remember know why.

Anyway, about those parts. The water-cooled 8-valve four-cylinder 1.8 liter engine – of which VW made millions - was by the early 2000s not known for its off-the-shelf power. But, like today’s VW engines, it was known for its tunability. Bore it 80-over, install a shaved, big-valve head with a hydro g-grind cam and what started life as an anemic 90-horse-power wonder transforms into a rev-happy, high-compression four-pot thumper. Put that into an understated four-door Jetta with its body-by-Frigidaire styling and you can surprise a lot of would-be boy-racers. Remember, this was back in the day of gold rims, cloud-stroking erector-set spoilers and gawdy Fast-and-Furious inspired vinal decaling.

Oh, what malicious joy it brought me every time I spanked one of those scrawny, zit-faced punks with a sleeper Jetta that cost less than the body-kit tarting up their fourth-hand ’95 Civic.

Those of you born too late to live this era – well – thank your lucky stars.

But, back to the road. This stretch of windy blacktop weaved its way through the pleasant valley of Underhill’s hinter land. I was hauling you know what – and it was a thrill to bend those corners – testing the limits of those Bilstein HDs wrapped in Shine Racing springs.

Behind me, in a Ginster Yellow Mark III GTi, was a friend and fellow VW hooligan attempting to prove that her 2-litter could stack up. Not so – as I was demonstrating.

And then, as I was accelerating out of a beautiful apex, I got the uncanniest feeling of dread. It was a split second of terrible lucidity – a flash of impending doom wrapped in acute mortal awareness. In short – the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and a shiver went down my spine.

Reflexively, I took my foot off the gas and as the car slowed a moose stepped into the road. I stood on that brake pedal so hard I though my foot was going to go straight through the floor and into the pavement. The car skittered to a crooked halt just a couple feet shy of the blundering monster. I checked my rearview mirror just in time to see a second moose step out behind me, eclipsing my view of the GTi.

I was surrounded...yeah...I know...there was only two of them...but with moose that’s all it takes.

With no place to go, I turned off the engine and resigned myself to wait them out. I’d heard enough stories about what happens when you blow your horn at a moose.

Later, the driver of the GTi would comment, I bet you puckered up so hard you don’t know where your under-pants are.

To which I responded with performative umbrage, “I almost died back there and that’s all you can say to me.”

“Actually,” She corrected, “I was just thinking, you only locked up three wheels, you might want to check that left, rear brake cylinder.”

Some twenty years later, surely that moose has died, that old Jetta has rusted away and that friendship faded as we all grew up and went our seperate ways.

So it goes...

Ever get that feeling like you forgot something...it's a sorta nagging kinda dread....like an existential string around your finger reminding not about what you forgot but that the forgetting is a memento of the frailty that one day will be your undoing…

Good times, right? Ah, the human experience is a sordid affair. Can anyone see what I forgot in this picture above.

NOPE. It’s not the alternator/water pump belt. I’ll put that on later. It’s this little yet crucial element below…

Yup. I forgot the motor mount...nice. I'll have to take the pullies and the timing-belt guard off to slide the mount into where it goes. Typically, you'd need a special tool...hmm...didn't see that coming...it looks like the item below and helps you hold the pullies still while you loosen or tighten the bolts holding them down.

This is a handy tool that fits most Mark II and Mark I VW Golfs, Rabbits and Jettas....but not this one. This '80 Jetta is one of the earliest Jetta's, as its Beetle style VIN attests, and has a pully set-up with a different bolt pattern...no worries...thats what these are for... 

Tada! There we go....that looks better. Next, I need to source a fresh starter...that'll be a whole 'nother story...why...cause this Jetta is a three-speed automatic...

 Just got some new toys...er...tools. EBAY is a dangerous place.

Here's the metal box they arrived in. (Note how its "beautiful" patena pairs well with the "seasoned" feel of my workbench.) Let's open the box and see what's inside!

Jeeeeezum! Look at all those shiny sockets (functional art - the best kind) 

You know, there are times when nothing works and every 20-minute job turns into a three-day ordeal. In times like that, the best thing to do is take a deep breath, crack a beer, have a seat and pick up one of these gorgeous old peices and ponder the intrinsic beauty of a fine crafted tool.

Ah...31/32nds...I'm sure I'll use this one every day.

In all seriousness, these sockets date from the early 20th century and were made in Worcester, Ma by Walden Worcester, now a forgetten name but, in its day, a pioneer of specialty autmotive tools. 

As a VW nerd, I always cringe when I hear that oft said phrase... "Oh, you're gonna need a special tool for that job..." Turns out the special tool hardships are as old as automotive history itself - maybe older - as Worcester Walden made a whole set of "special tools" for working on the Ford Model T, which I guess is kinda like America's Beetle. 

Anyway, illustrated in the photo below is a Walden Worcester socket atop a a bow-tie wrench of the same manufactor. 

Have fun and keep tinkering!