[Christ]

I got my silicone vacuum lines in the other day, and I've had the headlight I needed to replace for some time now, but since it got fairly warm out today [37F], I decided to get off my duff and work on the car some.

It's had a fairly obvious oil spray under the hood for awhile now, to the tune of about a quart lost every 2-3 days, which has literally turned EVERYTHING under the hood a very shiny shade of black lately. At first I assumed it was coming from the dipstick, since it seemed to accumulate most there, but I was wrong. Anyway, dipstick tends to tell you that you have either excessive blowby, not enough ventilation [plugged PCV/CCV], or in the case of the TDi, a very bad vacuum leak.

Figured I'd check the CCV filter first, since it's easy to get to. As I'm removing the lower block vent pipe from the filter on top of the engine, I notice LOTS of excessive movement... take a quick look down there and realize that... umm.. the flange is broken in about 18 places. FOUND THE OIL... LEAK.

Apparently the VR6 engine uses the same part [maybe] so I'm gonna check that out tomorrow [Sunday, my birthday] and if not, I'll be ordering a $23 piece of friggin' plastic.

In addition, I changed the headlight and got the front looking... less broken.

But now [dun dun dunnnnnnn] the battery light's been on for about 2 days. Started out intermittent, now it's on steady, but here's the kicker - the battery hasn't died yet, including several cold starts in that time. The lights are significantly more dim while the alt light is on, but the alt is clearly still charging to some extent.

Anyway, the VR's alternator is 130A, which is an upgrade to the existing one, and it's not like I have any other use for it than a spare, so I'll toss it on and rebuild my existing one as a spare in the mean time. While I'm in there, I'll more than likely remove the AC components, too, for some weight savings and less belt drag, since I'll never use it.

Next up, complete vac line swap... all 35 feet of them.