My 02 Jetta Wagon Build

[V6MustangFTW]

Sorry guys, been pretty busy lately. I work too much lol. I promise the jetta is still on the to do list, just not the top priority at the moment. Original plan to swap the trans fell through, gonna get back to it after I finish up some more important projects.

[V6MustangFTW]

Merry Christmas! Thought I'd post a quick update on a few things I've done to the car:
New catalytic converter assembly installed.
Power steering pump removed, replaced with hose.
A/C compressor unbolted, need the system drained so I can remove it (don't want to pollute and waste good refrigerant if I can avoid it)
Found and installed a shorter belt now that the power steering and A/C are out of the way.
Removed broken sunroof sunshade that was preventing proper sunroof operation, so like 1lb of weight reduction Sunroof assembly is HEAVY, considering deleting it but I do love a sunroof.
Removed curtain airbags while the headliner is out, probably a couple pounds of weight removed total along with some other random brackets and NVH bits. (Front airbags are staying so please spare me the safety lecture )
Air injection system deleted.
Rear wiper deleted.
New battery, previous was several years old and kicked the bucket while the car's been sitting.

I think that's everything, hoping to get it back to daily duty and getting mpg numbers soon.

[Nissandriver]

Kudos young man!

Originally Posted by V6MustangFTW

(Front airbags are staying so please spare me the safety lecture )

Eff you! If you want the ultimate in safety get a 3 or 5 point harness.

Is that humorous too?

[ECO-AKJ]

Originally Posted by V6MustangFTW

Removed curtain airbags while the headliner is out, probably a couple pounds of weight removed total along with some other random brackets and NVH bits. (Front airbags are staying so please spare me the safety lecture )

I don't know how Nissan or VW are, but in Fords, if you remove one airbag from the system, it will set a light and the airbags won't deploy in the event of an accident.

[V6MustangFTW]

Originally Posted by ECO-AKJ

I don't know how Nissan or VW are, but in Fords, if you remove one airbag from the system, it will set a light and the airbags won't deploy in the event of an accident.

Never heard of that before, good to know. I'm going to put resistors in their place so the car thinks they're still there and the airbag light goes away. Last I checked an airbag light is an instant state inspection fail here in Virginia, otherwise I wouldn't really care about the light.

[COcyclist]

Your Jetta is gas and mine is a diesel but you can look at some of the photos of my car for some of the aero mods I did. You may not want to cover the exhaust pipe because the gasoline version runs much hotter than the diesel.

PS- I stuffed pipe insulation in between the grill bars. It is easily removed if you are running warm.

[V6MustangFTW]

Ok, trying to remember everyhting I've done recently. A/C is deleted entirely (don't think I posted that yet). Got the trans sorta working again, basically force cleared the code which coincidentally took it out of limp mode. Didn't even know that was doable with a scangauge but I'm an ex painter not a mechanic, forgive me for my ignorance. Its worked fine for one tank so far, we'll see how long that lasts. And I threw in a new thermostat. Thought maybe the old one was stuck open (or nonexistent) and that's why this car takes so long to warm up, but the old one looks fine? Think I attached a pic. Lastly my tank average was 24.76, so better than last but still pretty abysmal. I've done better in my truck on a few rare occasions lol. Anyway hopefully soon I'll get to some interesting stuff, grill blocks, mirror delete, etc.

[Andyinchville1]

Originally Posted by V6MustangFTW

Never heard of that before, good to know. I'm going to put resistors in their place so the car thinks they're still there and the airbag light goes away. Last I checked an airbag light is an instant state inspection fail here in Virginia, otherwise I wouldn't really care about the light.

Yes ... In VA the airbag light would cause a fail for state inspection .... other than resistors maybe a simple way would be to simply remove the ABS bulb? I was going to get "fancy" once and wire the airbag light into a circuit that lights when started but goes away after a few seconds (some inspectors are or may be savvy enough to actually look for the light to light up BUT I imagine most would not really pay attention to things unless they are still lit up after the engine is up and running .....

[Piotrsko]

Sure that the airbag light doesn't cause a not ready computer condition? Some do. That'll fail smog check like removing the check engine bulb.

Put the thermostat into a clear cup of boiling water. Should see the parts move

[Andyinchville1]

Originally Posted by V6MustangFTW

Hello all. Ive been a longtime lurker on the site but never really posted. Decided I'd try starting a thread on my most recent purchase. Its an 02 Volkswagen Jetta wagon with an auto transmission, 210,000 miles on the body and supposedly around 135,000 on the 2.0 engine. At the moment the only mod it has is lowering springs from the previous owner. Goal is to get as much MPG as possible as its going to be my new daily as well as being used for delivering. I'll try to update when I have time as I get some tank numbers and work on mods.

Cool ... I have a 2003 Wagon so I'll be watching this ...

FWIW - I do deliveries too and to get more space I took out the rear seats (lower and backs) , removed the retractable cargo cover, and removed the rear
cover for the spare ..... got a fair amount of extra room with that AND also a fairly substantial weight savings .... the car feels more nimble to boot ...

I would like to remove the side panels in the cargo area to see if I can just get a couple more inches width wise because with the panels in it may not fit large flat screen TVs that are sometimes needing to be delivered ( needs 40" width) .... I also want to remove the rear hatch plastics because I read that that is worth about 4 inches (the same big TVs need 66" length load area)....

If you remove the panels please document since I would like to do that too (i'm going to sound deaden too since my car runs about 95 DB at 68 MPH .... a little too loud for long drives so I loosley wear earplugs now).

Looking forward to your thread!
Andrew