Jetta fun, part 3

I kept procrastinating yesterday, trying to do other chores before trying to tackle installing the parts to the Jetta. I did taxes, laundry, walked the dog, some other stuff, and then, it was time to try. I started with the pipe/tube I broke the other day.

I had to use my new hose clamp tool to remove the hoses from the old part. There were 3, after the one I broke. Of course, the first one I took off (on the bottom) resulted in 10-12oz of coolant coming out of the hose. I had doggie diapers there and that took the brunt of it, as well as the oil pan I had under the car. Still, it was pretty messy.

So much coolant

I was able to get the other two hoses off fairly easily and then I had to get the remnants of the broken tip out of the hose. I tried turning a screw into it and pulling it out, but the piece was so brittle, it just started breaking. After consulting with my friend's dad, he suggested using pliers to break the piece so it would just fall out. Which is what I did and what happened. I then snugged the hose onto the new part and started clamping everything back together. I poured in some coolant and saw no leaks (which there were none to begin with), so that was good.

Then it was onto the fuel pump. I started removing the connectors and, as I thought, I could not get the hose clamp tool onto the clamp I had to remove. There simply wasn't enough clearance. I pivoted and looked for a 17mm socket wrench, which I didn't have. But then I heard Steve whistling next door and hit him up. Thankfully, he had a nice Husky socket wrench kit, so I grabbed that and was able to get that connector off.

Once that was removed, I used pliers to slide that clamp down. The attached hose was on a ribbed copper connector and that was really tough to move. I thought I needed a pick tool, so I headed to O'Reilly's to grab a kit. As it turns out, once I got home, I used a screwdriver and some twisting of the fuel pump and was able to get the hose off. Now, do I return the tools? I feel like I need pick tools every once in a while...

With the pump removed, I was able to slowly put the new pump back on. Everything went pretty well, except the socket on the top of the pump, where a wire harness connects, was turned farther counter-clockwise than the original. Which meant I had to get some slack in the wiring as it was pretty tight. I was able to get it connected, but I hope there's no stress to it.

Original on the right, new installed on the left

I put the engine cover on and that f-er wouldn't go on on the left grommet, the one that gave me all the issues a few days ago. Whatever. I just put it close and let it be. I cleaned up the crap from under the car, primed the pump and started it up.

Finally, something went right! The engine fired up and seemed to be OK. No leaks, so I shut it down, cleared the engine codes, and took it for a drive. Went around the neighborhood, drove fast on Coal Creek, saw an Ioniq 5N (same one, twice; saw it earlier too), white with vanity plate (so hot), no issues, got home for dinner.

Today, Marci and I took it out to go see Mom. Initially, I got the low coolant sound, so checked it out. Yup, it was empty, so I topped it off, and off we went. Driving around town, downtown Bellevue, back home, BECU, then Mom's, no problems. Drove great, no codes or bucking. It has done that before and then thrown errors, but after 20 miles, not an issue. I hope that is it, that would be great.

Cross your fingers!

Jetta fun, part 2

Ok, I ordered that fuel pump and it came in. On Tuesday night, I took the car apart, thinking it should take maybe 30 minutes.

Oh, how wrong I was.

I remember the last time I went under the hood a few weeks ago, I had a hard time taking off the engine cover. Funny enough, you just pull it, it has a couple grommets under it, and it pops off. No mattter what I did, I could not get the left side to disengage. I uncoupled the cable and hose in back corner, but that MF would not come loose. I tried to stuff my arm under from the right side, I tried using a screwdriver to pry, I tried using a wrench to loosen up the male part of the grommet system, no dice.

Finally, I checked YT again and some dude said to simply grab it and pull. Keep in mind, this is like 40 minutes later. I was so aggravated. So I grabbed it and pulled. It felt like I used all my might and, finally, pop, off it came. So dumb.

I then removed some little hose above the fuel pump, bled the fuel from the pump, removed the plugs, and then tried to remove the last hose from the pump itself. And, of course, I couldn't remove it. There was a clip clamp holding the hose to the nipple and I could not get leverage or space to undo it. After trying for a bit more, I finally called it. After all that, the whole garage and house smelled like gasoline. We went to bed smelling it.

I threw in the towel after this.

The next day at work, after talking to Austin's dad, Mike, who has worked on cars for years, he recommended a hose clamp tool, which I ordered on Amazon. In the meantime, I kept driving the Jetta and it seems like it's getting worse.

Anyway, that tool arrived yesterday and I got to work last night. I popped off the engine cover in 2 minutes. I removed the little hose. I tried to unscrew the nut on one of the tubes... and then a hose in front broke and coolant started spraying everywhere. I tried to catch it with my oil catcher and a bunch of paper towels. I ended up breaking a tiny plastic nipple that went into a hose.

Needless to say, I was done after this.

I found the replacement part on Amazon for about $8 or so and was supposed to get it today, but it won't show up until tomorrow. And that's if I can undo the bolts on the pump; one of them stripped when I put it back on the other day. But I did order 3 more and those should arrive early next week. Marci is off next week, so I can take the AT to work if I need to.

This is a major pain in the ass and I think the FP won't fix it, and if not, I will call a shop. But for now, a couple more things to try.

Jetta fun

A few weeks ago, the ol Jetta started doing weird things with power. It threw a CEL and I got codes P2293 and P0087 from it. It seemed like at about 1500RPMs, the engine would lose power or buck a little. The codes seem to indicate something about the fuel system or fuel pressure.

Youtube research showed a handful of potential causes, all having to do with the fuel system. After studying some more, last week I bought a cam follower, which I remember reading about way back in the early VW days. I don't know much about them other than they were the cheapest of the potential solutions, costing about $25 or so, and easy enough to verify.

After getting the part, I used a video, took the engine cover off, then the fuel pump and then fished out the cam follower. Sure enough, it was shot. Like literally.

That giant hole isn't supposed to be there

I replaced the new one and put the car back together. I took it for a drive and it seemed great! If that fixed it, it was cheap and easy! The next morning, I drove to work and about a mile away, the bucking started again. Luckily I was right at work, so I pulled in and got to work.

The ride home was a little janky. I've taken to moving to manual shift when it pops up; that seems to help holding it at a certain RPM. It also seems better when not driving uphill, which around here, can be an issue.

YouTube research showed the next cheapest and quickest option was the fuel filter. It is located right in front of the rear right wheel and looked to be an easy replacement. I don't think the fuel filter has ever been replaced since I've had the GLI going on almost 7 years now. I broke my Amazon boycott for price and quickness and got the part here on Saturday. I put it off yesterday as I wasn't feeling great, and even though I felt lousy today (and stayed home with pink eye), I tried to swap out the part.

Videos showed it was easy enough. Jack up the car, remove the wheel (optional, but I did it), undo 3 tubes, swap out the filter. There would be some fuel dribbling out, but shouldn't take more than 10 minutes or so, and most of that time would be taking off and reinstalling the wheel.

For me, of course, it took maybe an hour or more. I probably spent 45 minutes trying to remove the third tube that sends the fuel from the back of the car to the engine. That MF tube had a clamp that was so tight to get to, laying on my back, threading my hands and fingers between tubes and wires, and with no room to get any leverage. I went back and forth. I had to call Mom and her doctor's office. I had to keep wiping my eye (pink eye goop). It was super frustrating.

Finally, I used a flathead screwdriver between the base of the tube and the filter, used another finger to press the clip, then cranked with the flathead. Poof, off it came. Had I done that first, I would've had that thing off in seconds. Then I struggled a bit with getting the frickin filter out of its clamp. Once I did that, it took all of 3 minutes to put it all back together, and then the wheel and we were good to go.

I reset the CEL and took it for a drive and it surged and bucked a little, but I took that to be the air in the line, like when I change the drinking filter in the fridge. Tonight after dinner, I took it to get my Rx and yup, more error codes. I'm going to order a fuel pump now and replace that. That should be pretty easy, since I had to remove the old one anyway to get to the cam follower. I don't know if I can see what's wrong with this one; maybe bits of the cam follower are stuck in it? No idea.

If this doesn't work, it's shop time. I wish I could just pull the f'n trigger and get an Ioniq 5, but man, it's just not the right time right now. Though I think it would be one of those things that would work itself out and 6 months from now, I'll wonder why I didn't get one sooner.

But for now, it's more DIY stuff with the GLI and, though I like doing it, it's sort of a pain. I sure would love a new/newer car right about now. I just gotta be patient.

03/07/2025, PITO at Darrell's Tavern

Only the second gig of the year, and wish there were more, but it is what it is. For this show, though, I also got to play with Sherri and Michael from Del Vox, who I sat in with last year. Aimee was gonna be on drums, but she had to bail last minute, so my old friend, Perry Morgan, sat in on drums. He and I played together briefly in Shake Some Action! like 15 years ago or so? I can't remember specifically.

Perry was also in one of Robb's previous bands, Glass Notes or something. And then he had a shot with Stereo Embers, I think, before Cass got the gig. I don't think Perry had played with Del Vox before, so we all met last Monday for a quick rehearsal at Sherri's house. It was great; Perry had done his homework and my week or so of running the tunes really helped as well.

Robb had put this gig together a bit ago, with Planets, Del Vox, and a band called Guardian Alien. I didn't know anything about them, other than hearing that the band had a banjo player and a bit of a cult following.

Better than an AI poster, I suppose

For this show, I was finally able to get PITO to play one of our first songs, one we recorded in the summer of 2020 via file sharing. It was COVID days and Robb sent over some tracks to Cass and I, and we built a song called "Take a Knee," that Cass wrote the lyrics to. We put it on Bandcamp and that was it. That song and another one, "Hold On," are really cool and I would love to dust that one off as well. But for this gig, we rehearsed "Take a Knee."

Come showtime, I provided backline, with the Orange Terror Bass and my Avatar 212. I brought the Hog with the Butter bass as backup. After getting set up, I took the stage with Del Vox. The set went pretty well, way better than last year's go-round. Sherri's songs are pretty straightforward, but with subtle twists, like throwing in a 3rd verse before a chorus, or maybe a single bar turnaround instead of a double (as was done earlier in the song). Having rehearsed it a bunch on my own certainly helped, imagine that!

my toys

I stayed pretty chill on the performance side of things; I was the hired gun so I didn't want to step on any toes. With last year's gig, I was more energetic and it seemed weird; DV isn't that type of band. I felt like what I did fit the vibe better.

We finished and I got some flowers from some folks in the crowd (small, but appreciative). Got multiple comments about my tone and my playing. I always like the tone comments; on stage, it sounded a bit nasally for whatever reason. I tried bringing down the mids and boosting the bass a little, but it didn't really help.

With PITO, I stretched my legs a bit. It was cool to play with DV, but PITO is my band and it was time to do what we do. Cass wrote up the set list and we started with Dust Cloud, which I have wanted to open with as well. As we played and I sang, I realized the sound guy didn't have my mic turned on, which was a bit of a bummer.

After that song, it turns out he had the wrong XLR cable plugged in. Once he fixed that, my vox were in the mix, but stage volume was rough. Robb's guitar cab was on the other side of the stage, but elevated and aimed right at him and I. In fact, I think it was so loud, that there were times he couldn't hear himself sing. Either that, or he forgot his lyrics, I'm not sure. I recorded audio, so I'll have to listen back.

Tom M. with the pic

We ripped through the set and afterward, more positive comments. A couple dudes admired the Hog, one couple commented that I was less energetic during band 1, at which time I told them I was a hired gun. Kim came and gushed at how we should be playing bigger stages. That's high praise coming from her. She will tell us when we stink, so when we don't stink, it's great feedback from her.

Guardian Alien rushed the stage when we were still tearing down. It sort of annoyed me; there is some unspoken band etiquette, but I guess they thought it was running late. One guy grabbed my cab and rolled it to the other side of the stage. I was about to tell him to not touch my stuff, but it was OK, I guess, I didn't want to be that guy.

They got set up eventually and started with some boring drone stuff, I don't know if it was for soundcheck or just a vibe set. Well, they undersold themselves. They started playing, a four-piece with drums, bass, sax and banjo/vox, and they were solid, tight, imaginative, and thought-provoking. My vantage point wasn't best for all audio, but I could see fine and what I saw and heard was actually really cool. As annoyed as I wanted to be with them for bum-rushing the stage, I was actually really impressed and entertained by them.

Guardian Alien

Overall, a nice night. I got $65 from Sherri, which was down from last year, but we didn't discuss payment and I'll take the cash. $130 for Planets, but that's gonna go in the mixing fund. For now, no more Planets gigs until late-May, so I hope we get something in the meantime.

Next up, Sunset Grooves in April.

Latest obsession, car related

I forgot when or why, but I am obsessed with the Hyundai Ioniq 5 EV. Maybe it's because it looks like a hot hatch? Maybe because I'm tired of paying $60 or so for gas? Maybe because I've been in the GLI for 8 years and it's starting to show its age?

Not sure, but for whatever reason, I have been doing deep dives on it. I've been watching YT videos, and reading Reddit, trying to learn as much as I can about this car. Even the Ioniq 6 is appealing to me. But I think I'd prefer a hatchback style again, despite the higher price.

And then, there's the Ioniq 5N, which is so badass, but about $6-8k more than the standard Limited version of the I5. It's a little racery for me, but man, if I could afford it, I'd do it. Light blue, please!

But the Limited version, even a 2024 one, is about $53-55k, and with a lease with no $$ down, still about $4-500/month. No issue staying under the 10-12k mileage if leased. Got to keep insurance in mind as well. We are currently paying $550 or so for 4 cars. If I add another car, a new EV at that, I'm guessing we'd be close to $600 or more? No idea.

The good news is, Haley's car is about to be paid off; that should be done in the next month. That will save us about $200/month. However, that doesn't mean I can spend $200 more a month on something. I want to pay down our credit card. I want to pay off Riley's car.

Looking at the math, if I $200 from Haley's car to Riley's payment, we can pay his car off by October. Then we'll have $350 freed up. If I roll that into Marci's car payment, we can own our cars outright by early next year, maybe January.

That's pretty cool! And then that frees up $700/month to put towards a car?

Maybe? But what about investing in windows for the house? Every winter, we complain about how drafty the front room is. All those windows need replacing. Oh yeah, can't forget about the mini-splits, where we're paying the least amount possible, while it is our biggest loan. And how about Marci's master's program? Another big chunk of debt. :(

And we can't forget about my job status. Our building is closing in August and there are currently no guarantees as to continuing with our roles. It is trending positive and we have people advocating for us, but until something is in my inbox, I'm not holding my breath.

All that to say, as much as I want to buy a brand new 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5/5N, it may not be the most financially responsible thing to do at the moment. And I haven't even brought up the fucking president(s) and their raping of our government, society and financial systems.

I also forgot to mention that the old GLI is throwing some errors, having problems with the fuel pump (per my code reader) and possibly on the road. I have practice tonight and I'll take Marci's car to be safe (which is also fucked up; see my previous post).

It feels like I *might be able to pull off a car. I'm trying to save up some money to put down or for first few payments. Last month, we finished with $800 that I could still allocate; I ended up putting it towards CC and future use, I think. But that's good news. If we can keep that up, that's a good thing.

We have a tax refund of $1500 or so as well, but that won't all go towards a car fund. But it's good to think about these things. It puts things in perspective for sure. And it helps me get my priorities straight, and none of those point to getting a new car...

for now.

So damn hot