Friday, August 2, 2024

2000 EVW headlight upgrade ver. 2.0 and frt fog lights / OEM switch and wiring install



The new lights came from a euro supplier and have slick curved LED running lights under the headlights as well as high powered bulbs (110w IIRC). While in there I turbo charged the whole system with bigger gauge wiring and 2 relays / fuses one for low beams and one for high so now the factory wiring in the eng bay functions solely as the trigger for the relays optimizing and mainlining amperage to the lights. They absolutely flood the zone now especially when the brights are on. Great upgrade!!





My van didn’t come with factory foglights and therefore wasn’t cut out for the OE fog lights so that was task #1. I used a 120v rotozip tool which is like a mix between a dremel tool and a die grinder on steroids. The business end fits 1/4” shank bits with an optional reducer for 1/8” bits and goes up to 30,000 rpm. It’s a bit overkill for this task and too easy to overcut and mess things up. 

                                                       

The OE fog light wiring I sourced years ago and don’t recall where, the dealer probably or a UK vendor. The OE mounting brackets came NOS from the dealer and the OE foglight switch used from eBay. The nice thing about this upgrade is even though the van did not have factory fog lights the wiring from switch to fuse block is already in place and with the OE wiring from fuse block to lights it’s a very simple plug and play operation, if you’re familiar with VW fuse blocks. Simply plug the + wire of the foglight harness into the empty pin socket #8 plug (A2 yellow) on the back, connect the ground somewhere, plug in your lights and you’re good to go. I thought I took more pics of this project but so far this is all I can find. 

All told for me the foglight job was more of a vanity/cosmetic upgrade as I’ve always coveted fogs on other EVs 🙈and Ive always had a great penchant for the yellow fog lamp look on older VWs including my fave rabbit of all time (1979 that I put a 1.6TD and FF 5-spd trans—this thing was a zippy freeway flier!!), so i used some tinted yellow film to cover these and give that unique look I was after.




Monday, June 3, 2024

2000 Eurovan Speedo / Odometer erratic and inop—-> VSS alternative solution

 This is copied from a post I made on the samba tracking down a pesky speedo inop problem  


https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=10233257#10233257


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Friday, May 31, 2024

2000 Syncro Eurovan T4 02D trans service

Trying to keep this chronological but that’s proving too tedious…. This service was done Mar. 2023 and prompted by a small leak at the propshaft output flange on the 02D trans. Of course the actual VW oring is unobtainium here in the US so I had to matchy match the best I could with a Napa oring which was very close, but not exact… and 1yr out and it appears to be seaping again. Uggh.



Bottom of propshaft output flange 

Close up

This is that flange/drive pinion gear removed and the oring visible 






Propshaft connective tissue. This dampener disc interface connects the propshaft to the drive output


Installing new alternator brush pack 150a to 90a swap—> 2000 Eurovan EVW 1.9l TDI Syncro

This alternator service/swap 150a to 90a was done as and experiment since I decided I didn’t needed the big bad 150a for my needs and could possibly achieve some very small MPG gains w a 90a. Now 3 years later I can say there’s no noticeable difference... 


FYI the alternator on my 4-cyl AHU TDI engine is the same as the ones on the VR6 engines and IIRC the 93-95 5-cyl models as well.  The two are a direct swap physically. Later 2001-2003 models might have a different two pin plug style (oval vs. square) but this is something easily remedied by sourcing the correct plug (ubiquitous and STD on a basically all VW models (Jetta, Passat, Golf, Etc) in a variety of places on the wiring harness pre 2000) and replacing yours with that—slickly by re-pinning but functionally the same via shadetree methods by cutting the OE plug and installing the correct one to match the alt via your preferred method, soldering or quick butt to butt wire coupler

 
150a alternator on the top, 90a on the bottom 

Brushes still functional with normal wear but down to the last 25%

New brush pack on the L. Brushes still functional with normal wear. The Bentley wear limit is 0.10mm iirc so technically within limits but as they say, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure…”

New brushes installed 


Part number for reference 


Saturday, February 18, 2023

Tesla wheel refurb



 This heavily curbed set of OE 19” Tesla wheels was gifted to me by the local Firestone last fall. My cost $0. Once time and shop space permitted I set up a simple grind&sand/prime/paint station and gave these a new life as my snow tire wheel set. My cost in supplies maybe $50.  Cost of new Michelin Ice-X snow tires + installation around $1k. 


















Friday, February 17, 2023

Rear hatch spare tire carrier

490k miles

 This was the final salvo of the Syncro conversion I completed 7 or 8 yrs ago. What a relief. Finally, my orphaned spare tire has a home and doesn’t have to float around under my bed taking up way too much space. And both my bike racks still fit and function unimpeded. Sweet. Fight the man. Always. don’t give an inch and take your time. Take good notes and be persistent. You got this ;-)