torga's Daily Build - black, 6mt, two-door shenanigans

[torga]

I've been a bit busy with life, so I just got around to checking out the fluid leak after my pump/cooler repair today. Good news is that since the couple days after the repair, I haven't seen a single drop of anything under the car. I cleaned up the belly pan today to be double sure. I also adjusted my exhaust at the clamps to fine tune how much the tips stick out of the rear valence.

However.... I think I may have had two different leaks. Thankfully fixed the first one, and it was exactly what I thought.
The oil I saw hanging on the IC pipe must've been from something else because it was totally bone dry today. Checking around, and I'm thinking that perhaps this axle seal might be leaking. Has anyone had this spring a leak on them?
I'm thinking #1 might be the origination of this second leak, because #2 had some oil clinging to it, and I've got oil clinging at #3 and almost the rest of my oil pan. This leak seems to be very, very slow.

 

[torga]

Yup, I think I'm right. Pretty sure I had two separate leaks. I fixed the more serious leak, as those spots are bone dry now, but I'm still getting a teeny spot on my garage floor. Before, it was mostly underneath the alternator, compressor, oil cooler area. Now it's localized around the RMS area. And I actually really hope it's the RMS, since I plan on doing my clutch in the next few months. But I also think it's time I check the axle area from the photo I posted last week, to see if it's any wetter.

 

[KollinWithaK]

Grab the billet RMS.

 

[torga]

Grab the billet RMS.

Already have it, ready in a drawer ?

 

[Tony48]

Yup, I think I'm right. Pretty sure I had two separate leaks. I fixed the more serious leak, as those spots are bone dry now, but I'm still getting a teeny spot on my garage floor. Before, it was mostly underneath the alternator, compressor, oil cooler area. Now it's localized around the RMS area. And I actually really hope it's the RMS, since I plan on doing my clutch in the next few months. But I also think it's time I check the axle area from the photo I posted last week, to see if it's any wetter.

If you're pulling the trans to replace the clutch then you should also replace those axle seals. It will be easy with the trans removed. Most people remove the axle flanges anyways to make it easier to drop the trans with subframe in place.

 

[torga]

If you're pulling the trans to replace the clutch then you should also replace those axle seals. It will be easy with the trans removed. Most people remove the axle flanges anyways to make it easier to drop the trans with subframe in place.

Good idea. Are they symmetric on the Mk6 O2Q? For other Golfs, I was finding separate L & R seals, each with a different design.

This is what I've found for the Mk6.

 

[Tony48]

Good idea. Are they symmetric on the Mk6 O2Q? For other Golfs, I was finding separate L & R seals, each with a different design.

This is what I've found for the Mk6.

Not sure, I tried looking through ETKA but couldn't come up with anything conclusive. Maybe worth a call to a VW parts department or your online retailer of choice?

 

[torga]

Good call. Thanks for the input!

 

[Tony48]

Let us know what you find out!

 

[torga]

Finally got around to installing my ARM FMIC today! I'm moving soon and losing my garage at the end of the month, so it was now or annoyingly figure out how to do it later. The install went pretty smoothly. Before install, I hit it with two, thin coats of Eastwood satin black high temp radiator paint. It's supposed to conduct more heat in order to let heat exchangers work optimally, instead of most paints which just form a layer. Haven't seen any empirical evidence on this, just what the company says. As always, I'm awful at taking photos until everything is done, so enjoy a bumperless FMIC shot.

While I was installing the intercooler, I realized that my radiator stack was not secured to the structural part of the bumper - the screws that go into the intercooler isolators were just gone. For the year and a half I've had this car, and who knows how much longer, that rad stack has just been leaning back against the throttle pipe! Jeez. I had some extra screws laying around, so I secured the radiator stack and everything is sound. The pics are after I fastened it to where it needs to be - those isolators were about 1.5" leaned back!

Also found some strange adhesive on the driver side bumper clips. No idea why it was there because the bumper clips are totally intact when I removed all the adhesive. That's a mystery. Speaking of the bumper, my goodness, what a gigantic pain in the ass those clips were. Basically had to hump my bumper back into place. I'm gonna have to come clean with my girlfriend about this.

In between all this, I swapped all of my standard lug bolts for Gorilla spline bolts and one Gorilla Guard Lock per corner. The Gorilla splines are conical, so I used the ball seat washer adapters, which worked out pretty well!
Between the four wheels, I had three different lug bolts... some cheap looking hex bolts, some better looking grade 10.9 bolts, and exactly two triple square security bolts. Very strange choice from the previous owner. Now I've got all matching lug bolts.

 

[smanierre]

Speaking of the bumper, my goodness, what a gigantic pain in the ass those clips were. Basically had to hump my bumper back into place. I'm gonna have to come clean with my girlfriend about this.

Did you ask for consent first?

 

[torga]

Did you ask for consent first?

Sabine and I have a certain... understanding.

 

[torga]

Quick rundown of some troubleshooting. After FMIC install, I was getting a fairly loud screeching sound once I hit boost. It's actually very close to that goofy "slowly letting air out a balloon" sound. Thanks to user 2012TP, we found out that the noise was exactly the same as detailed in post #1 in this thread.
So I took off the bumper again swapped the turbo-out o-ring with a fresh one (for good measure), made sure that the connections up near the turbo muffler were nice and tight, then made sure the clamps on the oblong FMIC inlet/outlet were absolutely caveman tight.
Went out again, did 4 hard pulls and no screeching. Air was just finding a fraction of a mm gap to squeeze out from.

 

[torga]

Ordered my brand new Sachs DMFW this morning and will order the TT-RS pressure plate tomorrow. I tried to order it today, but my card issuer thought it was weird that I bought two separate expensive things within minutes of each other, so it got declined today.
Go ahead and knock off the two mega big ticket items for the RSR clutch.
I've been planning this purchase for a few months already, just funny that it coincided with the distribution of all our Donnie Dollars. I'm actually not using the stimulus check for car parts at all.
Just the A4 Quattro clutch disk and TOB left.

 

[smanierre]

Ordered my brand new Sachs DMFW this morning and will order the TT-RS pressure plate tomorrow. I tried to order it today, but my card issuer thought it was weird that I bought two separate expensive things within minutes of each other, so it got declined today.
Go ahead and knock off the two mega big ticket items for the RSR clutch.
I've been planning this purchase for a few months already, just funny that it coincided with the distribution of all our Donnie Dollars. I'm actually not using the stimulus check for car parts at all.
Just the A4 Quattro clutch disk and TOB left.

I kinda wish I went with the RSR instead of my SB stage 2 endurance. If I had known i'd be stock turbo for this long I woulda but I thought I was going BT much sooner. From what i've read it's a good setup