Official "Ask a Tech" thread.

[nitroscope8]

Go for it. Hopefully this can be a sticky. I've been nicely asked to post such a thread and here it is. Ask away and maybe I or another tech wondering around can answer. All answers will be as accurate as possible and nothing is official when it comes to your car or Volkswagen. I do not represent Volkswagen AG or its affiliates, give any legal adivce, nor will I share any private or insider information. I do not represent any repair facility or dealership. No, I will not retrive radio codes for security reasons. Any comments are for your viewing pleasure only and do not apply for any warranted or non warranted work performed. My accurate as possible answers are all incorrect and should never be used anywhere other than to yourself for your fictional reading pleasure.

Enough legal crap, any questions/comments?

[tophat]

Ok, I'll bite, but it's not about my car......

what's the weirdest issue you've had to fix at the dealership?




I've had many...most strange are electrical. Ill have to think about this one.

[gofetch06]

How easy is it to put the four door 6 disc changer into the two door?





Very easy. If you have aux jack in the glove box and 10 speaker sound with no amp, your radio coding should be 40401. As long as the radio comes from a car with same speakers and sound setup, it's a simple swap. Bolt in bolt out. Only problem is you need the radio code

[djwhiplash2001]

Awesome thread idea.

Here's one: When I open my door, I hear this whirring noise...

Only joking . But, great idea.

Will 16" wheels from a Jetta SE (Mugello) fit over brakes on a stock GTI? Trying to decide if I can go to a 312mm setup with my wheels.



Answer: You need 16" or larger wheels to fit on a GTI. All the mkv vehicles use hte same bolt pattern...except touareg and phaeton.

[kiserhd]

What oil is recommended for a GTI? Is it the same for a 2.5L or different due to the turbo's requirements?



Answer: 502.00 spec synthetic oil. If it's 502 spec, it has to be synthetic since they dont make regular 502 spec oil. Castrol 5w-40 is a good choice.

[rabbit69]

umm some guy chipped my paint(down to the metal) on the passengerside door, with his door.my question is to nitro, does vw dealerships sell touch up paint? how much, and does the procedure require clearcoat,primer, sanding and wax?
thanks



Answer: Bring your VIN with you to the dealer. They will give you two pens... one for paint and one for clear. Follow directions on pen. Make sure you sand away any rust before you repair. Give each coat a few hrs to dry and after you build up the paint, use a coat of clear. Wax away!

[grEsbunE]

Do you know what is done to make more braking force go to the rear, and if there is a way to make it stop?

I know this keeps coming up, but if i need to put brakes on every 10K mi, It's may start to get taxing.

Also, how come the fuze panel doesn't match what's in the owner's manual? Can i get one that is right from VW? (we have an 07 GTI at work that has the same problem.)

Answer: The brake force is regulated and there is no way to my knowledge to adjust it. Make sure your Ebrake is not sticking on the rear wheels and dragging causing them to wear.

The fuse boxes are vin specific...only a dealer can provide you with answers as to what each fuse goes to on your car.

[wolfen]

Stuck..............

[resolute]

I think this thread is a good idea, although it could potentially cover a million different topics. Anyway, here's my question:

Do US Rabbits come with rear license plate sockets? I’m in Canada, and my Rabbit came with nothing. It looks like there are two depressions in the rear moulding, but they are not spaced correctly for North American license plates. The dealer put my plate on with self-tapping screws. I’m not happy. You’d think VW could make sockets – my 2003 Jetta has them (threaded for metric bolts).Can you tell me, exactly what are the screws penetrating. The upper ones are into the body-colored bumper moulding and the lower ones are into the common black lower bumper moulding. I’m worried about corrosion. Do either of these screw positions penetrate metal, or is it just plastic all the way



Answer: Plastic all the way. There were small dimples in the paint where they put your screws....some don't have them at all. There are no sockets, just need to bore into plastic. Oh well lol.

[nitroscope8]

Ill just edit each persons posts with the answer included.

[djwhiplash2001]

Just to clarify, 16" wheels will fit over the brakes of the GTI? I know the bolt patterns are the same - I assume that since 16" fits, my 16" VW alloys will fit.

Just trying to clarify - I'm asking more from an aspect of big brakes on the Rabbit rather than 16" wheels on the GTI .

BTW you rule.


Answer: If your suspension/brake setup is that of a GTI and NOT an R32, then 16 inch wheels will fit. Anything larger and you are lookin 17-18 min.

[snoboybil]

OK. I'm going to re open my can of worms. That post got removed before I could come back and edit it.

This goes to reference my to sell or not to sell thread.

Just wondering "ballpark" figures at what I would be looking at to do a VR6 swap on my 97 MKIII Golf.

Also not sure what other upgrades would be needed to accomplish this task. I don't really do any work on my VW's. I do understand mechanics, having rebuilt my 69 Mustang almost solely by myself. However, I have a bit of a temper and I would win vs. the mostly plastic parts on the VW's. Against the metal of the Ford I would surely lose.

thanks

[nitroscope8]

While i've never done such a swap, I would say it is easy being i've seen many others do it. First, you have several things going for you. That body style HAD a vr6 option, so your mounts are all the same. If you stick to the 2 valve vr6, you can find a donor and swap everything over including harness, fuel pump, and ecm. There is no immobilizer, so that makes things very easy. After that, everything is pretty much plug and play! Of course you will need SLIGHTLY stiffer springs up front, but yeah. 97 is obd II, so you need to keep everything factory when you swap parts over...including engine and trans control modules..unless it's a manual trans. You also need axle shafts because they are different lengths.

[Rabbit@503]

Hi!

Have had my 2007 Rabbit since 9/06, but new to the site here!

Have been reading a lot of the posts on here and have found them very helpful.

I do have a question: I would like to disable the horn honking from when I lock the car. I took it to the dealer, they hooked up the vag-com and said that my car doesn't even have the option to disable the horn from the alarm/locking mechanism. The only option I seem to have is to disable the horn entirely, not really a safe bet. Other members seem to have luck turning off the horn but why is my car different? Is there any hope---my neighbors are not thrilled...

Thank you so much for any help/advice!!

Dealers do not use vag com, they have a 5052 dealer scantool. They can very easily change your settings for no horn sounding when locking. I'm not sure why they cannot. My guess is the tech that looked at your car does not know how to do it...request someone else.

[BlackBunny08]

I got a quick one, I'm looking into a magnaflow catback exhuast system, are there any warranty issues im dealing with, or does the warranty stay intact

You only void the warranty on parts you have replaced or modified and parts that are proven to have failed from your aftermarket parts.

[inkoso]

ive had troubles trying to convince my mom to even get me any vw let alone a rabbit because she was saying that repairs are waaaaaaaaay more expensive becuase the engines are built in a case/box thing, so repairs are more expensive because they have to get into the engine.
is it actually more expensive to get repairs?

[kiserhd]

How many o2 sensors does the 08 Rabbit have, and how many are actually necessary?

[nitroscope8]

ive had troubles trying to convince my mom to even get me any vw let alone a rabbit because she was saying that repairs are waaaaaaaaay more expensive becuase the engines are built in a case/box thing, so repairs are more expensive because they have to get into the engine.
is it actually more expensive to get repairs?

Box thing? They are assembled and put in like most any other car. Repairs are probably comparable or cheaper than other cars vs the rabbit.

How many o2 sensors does the 08 Rabbit have, and how many are actually necessary?

California PZEV with the BGQ engine have 3 02's and 3 stages of closed loop operation. NON cali vehicles with BGP engines have 2 02's. All are nessary. Only the V6 new passat early 06 has an 02 sensor that is pointless and there is a tsb to tie it back and keep it out of the exhaust if you replace the cat.

[kiserhd]

On an 06-08 GTI w/ a manual transmission is there a bell housing or does it bolt straight to the motor? Is the bolt pattern the same as a Rabbit? Flywheel?

[yarii]

Just curious, all of my cars before the rabbit have had a clearly visible spot on the dash where the passenger's airbag emerges from. Does the rabbit's airbag just explode through the dash?