I replaced a radiator on a New Beattle. Kind of a P.I. the A. but not so bad after all. Its to bad the whole damn fronts gotta come off to do it.
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I used to hate the new Beetle but I've grown to not mind it. It would make a great commuter and could be made into a great handling performance tdi with it's smaller body.
Yeah. I've done that job too. I too used to hate working on Beetles. Still not my favorite thing, but since I get paid by the hour, I don't care if it takes 15-25% longer to do a job on Beetle than it does to do the same job on a Golf or Jetta.
I'm actually getting faster at it. The last 2.0 timing belt job I did took 4.5 hours. The time before that took 7. They're not bad once you get used to the retarded engineering.
4.5 hours. Isn't that what it books out to be?
I can do those including the WP, T-stat and T-stat cover in probably 2.5 hours. Now I'm flat rate, maybe thats why I'm faster at it.
Now on a Beattle, thats a whole different story.
the real trick is doing a b6 1.8t cooling flange, or a thermostat on a 1.8t nb. sometimes I have no idea how I am going to do it, I just start shoving my hands down there.
My crowning new beetle achievement was 6 hours for assembly on a 1.8t cylinder head, head gasket, cooling flange, cam seals, tensioner seals, spark plugs, timing belt, water pump, air filter breather, and no cels, the late 1.8ts have 2x the vacuum lines in a-chasis cars
That cooling flange sucks
. I definitely end up with zip tie cuts and bloody scrapes at the end of that job. Of cource, the Cat is still hot and the customer is waiting.
The T-stat covers: I've found that unbolting the Alt. gives me enough access to get in there. Its a little bit of an extra step but I'm sure that its sealed.
Good going on your 1.8t rebuild. Its nice to not have any codes after a repair like that.
Tomorrow I get to do a Alt. on an AllRoad.
, then MK4 X-flow T-belt job and then an Audi TT 1.8t cylinder head gasket.