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1985 Jetta GLI Mk2

12K views 30 replies 6 participants last post by  CafeRacer 
#1 ·
I just bought this car and I want to buy a couple things, if anyone has any parts for this car they want to sell please let me know, I want them ASAP!

I need -motor mounts
-Lowering springs
-Alternator
-Catalyc Converter
-Spoiler

...and if you have anything else let me know, thanks guys! Im really excited about my new car!
 
#3 ·
Go buy yourself a Bentley for the car. Best investment you'll make. With an 85 its not so much what goes wrong its more like whats worn out, same as any other car of that age. Id say the most common thing to go wrong tho is poor shifting as a result of worn out shift linkage and worn motor mounts. Unless you know its newer just go ahead and oder youself a completly new Factory set. Super easy and cheap. Motor mounts are fairly in expensive, I just did a set last night, bit of a pain in the ass to be honest. Lots of things to undo to get at the tranny mount. The next most overlooked items would be the timing belt and tensioner. I couldnt tell you how many ive seen that only the belt was changed. After that its just general engine upkeep and maintanance.

Mk2 Engines like heavy oils, dont use synthetic either. In winter 15w40 works well, and 20w50 in summer. Get in the habbit of asking for an oil filter for a 1.6 T Diesel at your parts shop aswell and buying a 5L / 1 Gallon jug of oil. You will use almost the entire jug.

Id give it a solid tune up and away you go.
 
#9 ·
Thats the Trans mount yes. Bit of a pain in the ass to change but if you're going to install new shift linkage the painfull part is half way done.

Pull that top 17mm bolt out and then take the shift linkage off. There are too bolts further up the mount arm towards the front of the car you will have to remove. To do them you need to remove the front mount completly and then lower the engine/tranny with a jack. On the oppsite side of the differantial are 3 13mm bolts you have to loosen right off to to take the bracket of the top of the mount. Once its off its 2 13mm bolts and the moun will slide right out.

There are many styles of mounts but buy for what you need. I use and recomend buying the OE hydrolic tranny mount, the OE rubber rear mount and then a hydrolic front mount instead of the rubber style. That makes a huge differance. Solid mounts are nice in a race car but in a daylie mk2 youd rattle your car to bits and have to change the sub frame mounts also.

Once you get it all back in and mounted install a full shift linkage and bushing set. Including the in put shaft's bushings from the **** lever iself. Once you get done it will feel brand new. When you get all that report back for how to adjust it. With OE stuff its really easy to adjust. If you spend for a USRT or Missing Linkz set its a fair bit harder to adjust.
 
#10 ·
You'll have to excuse my second post to this as last night I had a bit of Christmas drink and left a few bits of advice out :)

Clutch: If you know its slipping change it, if its slipping it wont be long before its done. If its not slipping dont bother yet. What I would recomend 100% is throwing that automatic adjusting clutch cable in the garbage and buying a manual adjust cable. Before you install it hang it on a hook or in a vise over night with a good dose of any good silicone spray lube poured thru it. Hanging it lets the extra drip out. Swap over the rubber foot that sits on the transmission and then re use the grommit that seals into the firewall. It litterally takes less time to install it than it took to write this paragraph. Adjust it so you have about 1 - 1.5" of free. play in the clutch pedal. The feel of a nicley lubed cable is 500% than even a brand new auto adjusting cable.

Front Motor mount, you may find you have to remove the oil filter to get the front one out and new one in.

Linkage: The reason you want to get a full set with new bushings and the rods is so that everything is nice and tight. You can still order them with VW part numbers from any good VW parts store because they still make them. While your there try and buy either new or used a weighted shift rod from a Mk3. It makes the shift feel like silk. Before you install all of the linkage bits to the input shaft un bolt the shifter lever itself out of the box and pack it full of grease. Every part of it. This helps tighten up any rattle in the lever itself and also helps it shift way smoother like when it was new.

If you use a factory set of linkage the adjustment is easy. You can buy an alignment tool that sits on the reverse lock out hook and the first/2nd slide on the shift box essentially locking the lever in place, then all you have to do is undo the bolt at the end of the input shaft under the car, watch the linkage spring back to where it wants to be and and then tighten it up. You can use the fat end of a cassette tape for the gap between the reverse finger and side, then the shift knob itself to lock the fore and aft and a bungee cord wrapped to one of the driver seat controls to do the same but I like using the tool. Lube the bushings with a good high heat grease. If you live where its pouring wet all the time like Vancouver I like to take the linkage out and re lube it once a year just so it continues to feel super smooth. If you go with one of the fancier upgraded shift sets youre in for more work. I have a Missing linkz set that is really slick. Moves nice, great manufacturing for a cheap price, heim joints instead of bushings, really tough stuff but was an absolute pain to set up, and even then Im still making small adjustments to it. I found that the upgraded stuff is not forgiving to small mis alignments or adjustment issues. Where as the stock stuff you just have to adjust the position of the shift leaver to get it bang on.If I had to do it again I would just buy a factory set and not worry about a throw reduction.

Just looking at the picture of your engine bay I have some more sudgestions for you.
1-Take the hour out of your life and clean the hell out of the air box and potencimeter. Undoo the intake boot at both ends. Undo the bolts holding the fuel distributer to the air box and then remove the lid. Blast and wipe it untill all the metal bit shine like a mirror. They have a nasty habbit of getting black and dirty since the PCV vents right there. You can use very light drops of a mineral oil or tri flow on the pivots if you like. Do not mess with the spring or the height of the sensor plate at all. If it works leave it. Its just one of those things. Too many people mess with the height and the car never runs the same again. Pour a good sized bottle of injector cleaner into the tank and it will clean out the fuel distributer just fine. Im a fan of Liqui-moly Jectron. Their valve clean also actually works really well. I like to run a bottle of cleaner thru every other oil change since the gas where I am isnt particularly clean but the valve stuff you really only need to do once unless you have some serious pcv mess contaminating the intake.

The other thing I sudgest when you get around to doing an ignition tune up is to stay away from cheap jobber replacement bits. The engine will revolt I can promis you that. In the past I have always recomended using Bosch stuff as thats what the car came with from the factory. In recent years tho Bosch's quality has deminished with most of its production being moved to Brazil. Some of it may still be German made but not all. I started using stuff buy Bremi and Beru. Its German made, stands up to the OE spec very well and works just as good if you mix and match it. As far as plugs and wires go just buy what the car needs. An OE set of wires will last you a few years no issue, and the OE Bosch copper single prong plugs are all it likes. To prove a point once I installed a brand new set of NGK platinum plugs into a car that was getting a tune up. It ran better with the old Bosch copper plugs that had nearly 75000km on them and the gaps were all off. Test the coil!

In the bentley it lists the resistance values for every Bosch coil ever used. Its very detailed aswell - impossible to mix it up. Usually with age the primary goes out of spec. If its even slightly out of spec just replace it as it will only give you a better combustion witch helps everything. Just keep in mind when you test it put your multimeter on the posts themselves, not the tangs nutted to them. The coil is often the most overlooked bit under the hood, usually its only changed when it gets really bad or you have a no spark / no start. My opioion, if it looks old and you really want make that engine sing change the coil.

One cheap way to get a good chunk of power is to ditch the AC. It was the first thing I got rid of in my car in favor of 4 windows and a sun roof. Its rediculous how much HP is sapped by the AC aswell as a deminished fuel milage. On a really hot summer, or if your a wimp to the heat you can have worse fuel milage in the summer than winter. You'll end up changing the belts for non AC equiped engine belts, and then removing the system from under the hood, and the H-Vac. Its a bit of work yes, but It yeilds a noticable improvment. The only other thing youd need to buy is a used face plate from a non AC car, and then remove the electrics from the car aswell. The easy way is to just remove the AC fuse.
 
#11 ·
I really appreciate your post! It's exactly what I needed, now I have zero free time.

The clutch is really hard to get into 1st gear and sometime reverse. Do I buy just something like this to replace the shift linkage?

http://www.carpartsdiscount.com/aut...age/shift_linkage_bushing_kit.html?3593=69012

or something more like this?

http://www.parts4vws.com/catalog/product_detail.asp?PartNumber=A2798211B

and are these brands any good? I know you mentioned about using Bosch but I'm on a tight budget, but
for now I want to fix the small things that don't require too much money, pretty much everything you mention is exactly what I'll be doing and I have to
replace the front and transmission mounts and I hope I have enough money to fix the shift linkage because I really don't like how hard
it is to shift into 1st gear.
And I don't think my A/C works at all...

and I was thinking of buying these mounts...

http://www.mjmautohaus.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=2_7_21_48_331_3814
 
#12 ·
The second kit looks to be more complete in the picture. The first one to me is just the input shaft bushings.

The reason you cant get into 1st or reverse could be as simple as adjustment, could be as simple as the bushings are toast. Pop the hood and wiggle the linkage around a bit. You'll know movment that should be there and movment that shouldnt. Inside the car if the lever has more play than it should its usually the relay ball.

MJM had some of the right mounts but either the pictures or wrong or they dont have the propper Trans mount. Unless you're building a full on race car or already have a G60 I wouldnt use solid mounts. I found these on the Canadian side of this site but Im sure the American one does have them. They are the same mounts Mayle sells, propper OW Hydrolic ones. And they're wicked cheap for what they retail at:

Trans mount:
http://www.autopartsway.ca/PartList...n_Components/Manual_Trans_Mount/pagenum1/tabS

Both Engine Mounts:
http://www.autopartsway.ca/PartList.cfm?Volkswagen/1985/Jetta/GLI/1.8L_L4/allB/Engine/Cylinder_Block_Components/Engine_Mount/pagenum1/tabS
 
#13 ·
This is awesome. I just picked up a 85 Gli too last weekend. Hoping for it to be my daily. Mine has 207XXX miles. Not perfect but gets me around town.

Stuff I briefly learned.

Shift linkage issue i guess is a right a passage in first picking up a old school jetta. Mine had the same issue in that it would slip in reverse because the shifter stick would slip under the "stop" plate. I guess the ball housing needs to be replaced. However as a band aid to the problem. I shifted into first and went under the car to loosen the bracket that holds the shift bar. Then got back into the car and moved the shifter where I wanted 1st gear to be then had a friend hold the stick while i went under and re tight the nut. Now 1st and Reverse arent so close together when shifting. Hope this helps a little until you decide to pull the shift link age box out.



Step:1 Buy Bentley Manual (check)
Step:2 Then find out why my car slowly cuts out during extended idling.
 
#15 ·
Alot of people will tell you its because you can fit it. The reason I like using them is because they will add quite a bit of oil volume to the system. More volume means it lasts longer. In the same breath Diesel filters are bigger because they have to strain soot out of oil also. The added filtration surface means that It will take far longer to fill up.

Either the stock or the Diesel one work just fine as long as you stay the hell away from Fram or other cheap jobber filters. Track down and find a sorce for VW / MANN filters. Beck and Arnley filters for that car are made by MANN and even stamped.

If you really wanna show your engine some love pour in a bottle of Liquimoly Engine oil saver after. That **** is gold.
 
#16 ·
I need HELP!

So my mk2 had the problem of not idling when I would turn it on. I'd turn it on and if I didn't step on the gas it would turn off. I had to turn the car on and step on the gas for about 10 seconds and then it would stay on without having to step on the gas.

A week ago I changed the motor mounts, well only 2 of them, the front and transmission. When I was done and I turned the car on it would not idle again except this time even though I would step on the gas for even longer than 10 seconds it would just turn off. I turned on the car again and kept stepping on the gas for a while to see if it would idle, after a couple minutes of having the car on by giving it gas it started smoking. I looked under the car and the smoke seems to be running all along the exhaust pipe and catalytic converter.

Now, the car stays on after a while of having it on. like a good 5 minutes, usually I have to drive a little until it will actually stay on without having to give it gas. Yesterday when i was coming home from work I pulled over because I could smell a lot of smoke. I looked under the car and my catalytic converter was glowing orange! I mean completely orange and glowing.

any ideas what this is? what needs to be replaced? is it really bad?
Thanks for helping me keep my baby alive!
 
#17 ·
Un burnt fuel burning off in the hot cat. Thus making it hotter. Sounds like either your timing is retard too much, or the fueling is way off. Have you checked the O2 ? When they die they do some funnythings those engines.

Also you will want to replace the rear mount as soon as you can. 3 bolts on the top of it, 1 thru the center, 4 bolts holding a bracket to the block. Same routein, put a jack under the oil pan with a block of wood on it. Espessialy now that you have 2 new onest that one will be flopping around badly. I pulled mine out and discovered it to be the first rear mount Ive ever seen broken. You may find when you go to take the brakct off the block you have a stainless heat sheild covering the bracket. Just remove it and throw it out.
 
#20 ·
So I changed the oil to 20w 50 and used the larger MANN filter for 1.6. Lately I've been noticing a tapping at startup. It goes vroom then tacka tacka tacka then settles into a nice idle. It's a strange sound like the lifters are knocking or hydraulic tippet? I'm not sure. Anyway, ran some liquimoly oil system cleaner through last change, but still this tacking. Have you guys had this noise before? If so what to do?

Thanks
 
#21 ·
That's lifter tick. Sometimes you can prolong their life by using the cleaner and a good additive but if they're still ticking like that at start up they're worn. Do they do it at a hot start or cold start only?

Regardless lifters make noise when they're wearing out. Not too bad of a job to do. Its more of a pain to set the timing after, and its a good plan to get a new timing belt, tensioner, and valve cover gasket at the same time unless they're new too.

If you do end up changing them soak them in a tub of oil for a day or so. Helps fill them with oil for that initial start up. The first start up with new lifters will be a noisy one. Raise the rpm to raise oil pressure and usually it shuts them up quickly.
 
#22 ·
That makes sense. Thanks for that. At the moment she's ticking only at start up in the morning. Was thinking about getting a new cam shaft at same time. What's that like to change out? I'm guessing it'll be out anyway so should be straight forward. Ok so I'm getting:

Valve cover gasket
Timing belt tensioner
Cam seal
Lifters
Maybe a camshaft

Am I missing anything?

PS saw your car on a post the other day. She looks good! I like the steelies!
 
#23 ·
Thursday I was in White Rock cruising around. Ahh the smell of the old sea side town.

Cam seal, lifters, valve cover gasket, T belt kit. You don't have to change the cam. Lots of people swap em out for more lift for more bottom end torque but to really maximise that youd wanna chip it too.

The cam comes out to do the lifters anways. Just make sure you make good marks of where the cam timing pully goes and intermediet shaft so you don't loose the timing. Out of habbit I set #1 cylinder to TDC, make some marks with yellow pen and then do the work.
 
#25 ·
The smell of the salty air eh!? Cruising the strip!

I agree with the cam, I think I'll pass on that for now. But its def on the list of things to do. Thanks for the TDC tip. See if I get enough time this weekend to do it.
Set it with the valve cover off that way you can see the valves are closed. The crank spins twice for every time the cam spins. If you do a T belt it adds a lot of time to the job as the V belt pullys have to come off to get the T belt lower cover off. I usually mark the block with the crank pully. Mark the intermediet shaft with the block and then mark where the cam pully lines up with the valve cover mating surface on the head. If you look closely its actually marked with a dot on that side, and usually a line or dot on the opposite where it points to the top. The inner bit of the timing belt cover has a timing mark on it that can be usefull.

If you're just doing the lifters and not the belt it takes a third the time. Same deal mark everything once its at TDC and use the port on the bell housing to see the crank is TDC also. The couple lifter jobs Ive done I did them while I needed an oil change anyways. Soak the new lifters as long as you can in oil, install them, then pour oil across everything before you install the cam into the bearings then fill it up. Once you start it as soon as the rpm settles down raise it to get the lifters to shut up. They are gonna be NOISEY!
 
#26 ·
I got to this the other day and ended up spending too much time removing the power steering v belt so I had to put it back together and admit defeat. Will try again soon. Now that I've done it, the v belts are easy, but the initial discovery was lengthy. At any rate the timing belt is in pretty good shape so ill shoot for replacing the lifters only, some day soon. Thanks again for your reply on this.

You ever had this problem of heat soak? I think I just had it the other day. Drive for an hour, stop for gas, then it won't start. A half hour later starts fine.
 
#27 ·
I got to this the other day and ended up spending too much time removing the power steering v belt so I had to put it back together and admit defeat. Will try again soon. Now that I've done it, the v belts are easy, but the initial discovery was lengthy. At any rate the timing belt is in pretty good shape so ill shoot for replacing the lifters only, some day soon. Thanks again for your reply on this.

You ever had this problem of heat soak? I think I just had it the other day. Drive for an hour, stop for gas, then it won't start. A half hour later starts fine.
Heat soak is an issue in old CIS systems. Usually fixed with new fuel lines. But in a Digi 2 its never usually a heat soak issue since the fuel rail and fuel pressure regulator are not in the hottest part of the engine. The switched off fan temp sensor is right by the rail for that reason too. If it was hot enough in that area and the car is off the fan will run and prevent the fuel heating up too much in the rail.

Id be looking at 2 separate things. 1- Id check the fuel pressures. Prime should be 44ish, at idle 44ish or more and then it should stay close to that for 20 min or so before it bleeds pressure back into the tank. The system is designed to hold pressure for fast hot starts. If the check valve in the main pump is letting go it could be pushing all your pressure back into the tank.

Related to the pump is the relay. Relays get warm when the car is on. I have seen relays that don't work when they're hot. Next time it wont start pull the relay and give it a couple good taps on the ground. Then try. You should also feel a click when you key the ignition on, at the same time you should hear the pump prime. Listening for the pump really should be step #1 with any no start. Key to on, it should growl under the passanger side rear seat for a second.

The other thing I would check is the coil. Old coils in particular do not like heat. If they sit long enough to soak in heat you could loose spark all together. Next time it no starts I could pull a plug wire and check for spark first since its easiest.

Do you have any funky symptoms while driving?

As for the V belt experience. The power steering pump is retarded. Major oversight into that one. A good bit of advice is that there is a "hidden" bolt that goes into the pump from the backside right beside the thermostat housing. Once its loose the rest is easy. Rather than try to just loosen the tensioner I undo everything to do with the tensioner only leaving in the hidden bolt loosly. 13mm socket on a 6" extention works perfect.

The 4 bolts holding the V belt pullys on the crank are 6mm hex heads. Make sure you have a nice sharp hex socket and tap it in with a hammer. You'll wanna remove the inner splash guard attached to the fender cover for access. To be nicer to yourself or who ever has to remove them again later on just go buy new bolts and use a little bit of blue Loctite on them. Most bicycle shops have bolts that size. With the timing belt on and still tight the crank wont spin. If it does just use a screw driver or pry bar to lock the cam pulley so it wont move. Once the V pulleys are off the lower timing belt cover comes off very easily with a couple of nuts and another hex bolt. It should dam near fall off. If its stuck go look for bolts you missed. At that age the plastic is brittle. Be gentle! If you do crack it I have a spare in my garage I think. Once the cover is off make sure you TDC the engine and then use a paint pen so its easy to see while you wrap the new belt around. The more attention to detail you pay here the less time after you'll spend having to have the ignition adjusted and there is no chance you will listen to your engine smash the valves.
 
#28 ·
I had thought right away that it was the starter as it seems to be an issue with the automatics (I know I wish it was a manual) and there was no crank at all. Just the usual prime of the fuel pump and nothing. I didn't check for spark so it really could be the coil as well.

Driving is pretty good actually, the only issue and this is nitpicking, is when I accelerate then quickly let off the pedal the revs drop and bounce down near 500 and nearly stall, but then come back up to sit near the 900 mark. I cleaned and repaired a few grounds (the ones on the back of the engine) and this seemed to clear up that problem, but every once in a while it does this and threatens to stall. As you suggested in the past, I flushed the PCV and ISV, cleaned the throttle body (it was in ok condition and I don't believe it was done before, a well maintained car with really low km's for its age). The vacuum lines were done as well. Other than that, though there really are no issues with the car.

The power steering pump was a bit of a trial and error. Everyone saying "loosen the bolts and the belt comes off" well thats not entirely true. Anyway, I ended up doing exactly what you said above, coincidentally, and it worked pretty well. Stripped the toothed bolt that tightens the alternator belt so had to use a pry bar to get it tensioned enough.

As for the timing belt thanks for the tips. I'll do it in the next month or so. I got stumped on the v pulleys because I didn't have the right 6 mm hex (I need one thats a bit longer as its quite a hole to get into). At any rate the next time I can park the car for a week or so I'll do that and the exhaust manifold.

Hows your car running?
 
#29 ·
Ah forgive me. I may have read your post too fast and didn't see that it was a no crank issue. Yes, on automatics the starter does get cooked a bit. Do you just get a click or nothing at all? Rule out the ignition of relay side of it by touching the main pole to the solenoid. You don't need the key in to do it. If the starter works it will crank but not start that way. You will get some spark but you wont get electrocuted unless your standing barefoot in a puddle and your using a screw driver with no handle.

If all you get is a click or thud and you know the positive connection is good, and the negative is good try smacking the starter with a hammer hard a few times. If it fires up after that its the starter.

They aren't cheap but not too expensive compared to other ones. I bought a reman Bosch unit from PG. I decided Id rather one with a warranty rather than trying to use a used one.

My car is a happy little camper. Picked up a set of green top injectors from a G60 Corrado/Passat 1.8 engine. Waiting on new O rings before I pop them in along with the updated and much easier to work with injector harness I made. Even my engine will never be a high performance race engine but the idea is that the high flow rate at full pop and the finer/wider spray pattern made add some extra balls. Who knows. Other than that Its super shiney, under the hood is clean enough to eat off.
 
#30 ·
Ah forgive me. I may have read your post too fast and didn't see that it was a no crank issue. Yes, on automatics the starter does get cooked a bit. Do you just get a click or nothing at all? Rule out the ignition of relay side of it by touching the main pole to the solenoid. You don't need the key in to do it. If the starter works it will crank but not start that way. You will get some spark but you wont get electrocuted unless your standing barefoot in a puddle and your using a screw driver with no handle.

If all you get is a click or thud and you know the positive connection is good, and the negative is good try smacking the starter with a hammer hard a few times. If it fires up after that its the starter.

They aren't cheap but not too expensive compared to other ones. I bought a reman Bosch unit from PG. I decided Id rather one with a warranty rather than trying to use a used one.

My car is a happy little camper. Picked up a set of green top injectors from a G60 Corrado/Passat 1.8 engine. Waiting on new O rings before I pop them in along with the updated and much easier to work with injector harness I made. Even my engine will never be a high performance race engine but the idea is that the high flow rate at full pop and the finer/wider spray pattern made add some extra balls. Who knows. Other than that Its super shiney, under the hood is clean enough to eat off.

is there a thread with pics of your car?
 
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