Andy's £60 B5 1.9 TDi

Funny story, a guy in work owned it before, sold it to someone unknown to us in the middle of nowhere in Wales, who then advertised it a few months later, my boss was looking for a cheap hack to use while he was renovating his house, and found this. He turned up at the guys house, and couldn't believe it was the car once owned by the other guy in work.

Anyway he used it for a few months until the mot ran out and half jokingly said did I want it for £90. I thought bargain. But alas I already had a few cars and not too much space so I didn't say yes. Anyway a few days went past and the price dropped to £60 and he literally said either I had it or he was going to weigh it in. What I really wanted was a MK4 Golf GT TDI but funds not allowing I thought if nothing else I could get some experience of the vw 1.9 TDI engine for when funds do allow. So I thought well why not.

Well onto the car. It was a state to say the least. But after a few hours of hard work it looked a lot better.





It's a 1.9 TDI (red i) I think this means it's a 110bhp model, and has been fitted with a little tuning box from TDI tuning. Not normally a fan of cheap tuning boxes, but to be fair it goes like stink (noticeably quicker than my old 306 dturbo) It's done 190k and the paint work isn't the best in a few areas, and it's red. But hey ho, worse things happen!

Having looked over it over, all the tyres were tired. I could get cheap tyres but paying £12.50 a wheel to swap the tyres over, suddenly they weren't so cheap. Thinking all 5 stud VW/ Audi's were interchange I bought a set of cheap (£20) Seat steel wheels, alas they didn't fit. Then a set of Passat wheels came up for £80 with decent tyres. Happy days.



Took it for mot in June 16 and it failed on the four top suspension arms, a few bulbs, track rod end and gaitor,and front brake pads low.

Well I got all the bits and did it all, but when I came to fit the pads I found the calliper was seized. I slightly blindly ordered a new calliper and thought bargain at £29. Well it would have been if it had of fitted.


Again the car got put on a back burner until a couple of weeks ago when I moved the car over the road so I had to walk past it everyday. To cut a long story short I didn't know there were two types of calliper that could be fitted (ATE or Lucas) to the B5, but with some friendly advice on here I sussed it and ordered the correct calliper. Well just for good measure the off side was also siezed solid so I ordered another new one.

The (wrong) Lucas calliper:





The discs had also gone past the minimum thickness, so I ordered a new set while I was it it. Having heard not so positive things about Pagid parts not being genuine from a well known supplier I opted for Brembo discs.





Having fitted the new front brakes I asked the other half to help me bleed them out. Well after not much happening after trying 5 -10 mins and I can hear the peddle being pushed up and down, I'm thinking surely the master cylinder can't be shot now as well, I go round to find she's pumping the clutch pedal.

Anyway got it all bleed out and changed a wiper blade and got it in for mot on Friday. Happily it is now mot'd



My plans for the car are to keep it fairly standard as a cheap back up car.

Next on the list to do are:

Cam belt and tensioner
While I'm there I'll do the water pump, thermostat and Polly V belts and check the engine mounts. While the guy was doing the mot, he lifted the front of the car and while the front of the car lifted, the front of the engine didn't lift. Not sure how that occurred.

Oil and filter (wanted to do before, but no oil filter so just dropped the oil, and will do the oil and filter and in a thousand miles or so)
And then every 3000 miles after that.

Diesel filter
Air filter

Also need to do the air pump for the central locking (and windows?) Which I've ordered today.

Will also change the gearbox oil when I can.

Once the cam belt is done it will be nice to actually drive it lol.

Thanks mate, couldn't have done it without your help, although did manage to do this yesterday afternoon:



So this will be the next goal. I'm wondering if I can buy a housing, either eBay or the dealer and swap the electronics over myself or if it's something I need to get done.

Well it's been a busy few weeks Mot done, some servicing was high on the agenda, but before I got to that I needed to get the key fixed.



I got a couple of good keys off a very helpful forum member and swapped the blade and chip(?) Over. Happy days

Knowing the car had had little to no servicing for the last 18 months or so and not knowing any recent history I started with doing:

Cam belt and tensioners
Water pump
Thermostat
Polly V belts
Coolant change
Air filter
Oil and filter





And while I was there I saw the radiator had seen far better days so ordered one up.





Doing the cam belt the marks on the cam and pump lined up with a previous owner's tippex marks, but I couldn't find anything that remotely lined up on the flywheel or front crank pulley. So after much trying locked up the pump and cam belt and then marked the front crank pulley and went for it. Success. It worked






One issue I did have was with the plate to lock the cam up with. The plate was thicker than the slot in the end of the cam. The plate is 5mm thickness and the slot is about 4mm. A quick session with the grinder soon solved that issue.


I also fitted the new air pump for the central locking, and it works like a dream.



The temp gauge had never worked since I got the car over a year ago(not that I'd driven it far at all lol)



The wire had a blue plug and a blue temp sender (square end) The gauge never moved at all. So I ordered a replacement from ECP and expected a blue one to arrive, but no it was a green one. (They checked it on the computer against the registration apparently) Not being to confident in them, but wanting to drive the car that day half way up the country I decided to try the green one they had supplied. Hey presto it works Once warmed up the gauge sits a fraction under 90 C. Happy days.

While there I also replaced the leak off pipes as they were very mouldy and when I removed them they literally fell apart.




With all that done I was hoping to use it for work for a week or so (4.5 miles each way) before driving it up country, but with time not on my side it was a quick couple of drives around the block to make sure nothing was loose and to make sure it was bleed properly.

Happy to say it did the 271 miles without an issue and returned 53 Mpg, which was made up of motorway, town driving and getting lost a couple of times. Happy days



Next on the agenda are to:

Replace the gearbox oil
power steering fluid
Diesel filter
and check the suspension over as something on the rear appears to be bent. Hmmmm...

Thanks dude, last owner couldn't believe the amount of work I'd put into it, but I think she's worth it

Rear axle is bent, so that will be the next major job on the agenda

Yep that's very true, I bought it as a cheap backup car and to learn about the 1.9's but the more I drive it the more I love it If I look after it hopefully it will become a good diesel classic

Andy

Thanks Dan, yep love it I had that issue a few times with my E30, never touched the radiator, just left dents in the bonnet lol

Small update, fitted a new battery, and new wiper blades, it's great to be able to see where your going when it rains lol.

Thanks dude, yep they seem to be well built and well designed, and unlike E30s and E36s they seem very rust free Yep I do love it, just wish the paint work was a bit more tidy and it wasn't red lol, but for £60 I'm not complaining

A little update, I found a replacement axle on eBay for £85 and it had Poweflex bushes fitted about 1k miles ago (he'd broken the car as the clutch went and he then just cut his losses)

So after taking the Berlingo on a road trip (you can imagine the fun in a 1.9 Diesel (no turbo), but can't complain as it's a great work horse) to collect it, I set about removing the old one. All came apart with little drama.

While I was there I also fitted new hand brake cables, all the flexi brake hoses and metal pipes and swapped over the calipers from my original axle, as they are the slightly later type.

All pretty straight forward, apart from the brake caliper bracket having a siezed slider. Checked the other one on the other axle, also the same slider siezed solid on that axle. Bummer. Put it back together for now, but will change asap. Also the NSR wheel bearing was noisy on the replacement axle so I swapped over the disc and bearing from my original axle.

Also did a bit of cleaning and waxoyling while it was apart.





Today I went to a BMW meet in Portsmouth so after road testing at 10pm last night, it did 290 miles today. Happy days.

Thanks dude your a star

Andy avant b5 said:

Lovin it mate mod it lol

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Well the idea was to keep it standard, but I think it will get a few mods. It now has Poweflex bushes in the rear, and as I've always said, modifying is a slippery slope lol. I actually thought about doing a track day with it the other day lol

It's fair to say it drives a LOT better with a straight axle in the rear now lol. These should also help improve things too

They are 235/45/17", I have been looking for a set of OEM's I liked for a while, but kept coming across 18" which are too big for the car imho, while 17" allow me to go for a decent size brake setup down the line. Going to replace all 4 tyres before I get them on, but I think they certainly look a lot better than the current VW wheels while hopefully still keeping it looking stock. Shame it will still be red lol.

Thanks Kev, are the wheels off of a B6?

Gazwould said:

I like 235 45 17 .

What J width are the new wheels and what size tyre are you coming from ?

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Currently it's on Passat wheels 205/??/15" and the new wheels are 7.5J

Thanks mate, I'll test fit the 235s before I get new tyres and if needs be I can go to the 225s, either will be a good improvement over the 205's