Mechanic in France

[ewenmaclean]

Hello,

I'm not sure where to put this, as it's both about travelling and fixing stuff. I had my oil pump fail on me around Arcachon in France, and since it's a tdi I needed to get the gearbox and flywheel off to get at the sump. Not a big job once there, but not fun to get the box off without a trolley jack and while everything around appears to be sand!

After cycling 60m around every garage my pathetic legs could take to, and being met with refusal almost everywhere, I finally found a small place with a boat outside, who allowed me to use his lift, and said I could do it myself and hire the space. He's a general mechanic and was out dealing with other people's cars in the morning I did it, but came back to help out for bits where two hands help. Gearbox off, clutch off, flywheel off, all cvs taken off and cleaned up, all back together with new oil pump in 4 hours. I'm not going to pretend it was cheap, but I was really grateful to find somewhere that let me do this myself and was willing to help. The guy is called Patrice - he doesn't speak any English, and don't be too friendly with his dog, but he's a decent and honest bloke.

His address is

180 avenue denis papin
33260 LA TESTE DE BUCH

and the place was a tyre place called "Road Riders" but don't mix it up with a bigger kwik-fitesque place up the road which was predictably useless. Here's a google streetview of the building I'm talking about - has a few more cars in the front now.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=180+denis ... 8,,0,-3.39" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You never know this might help someone one day.

Ewen

[HarryMann]

Thanks Ewen, for that positive report (and a good outcome)...that's now in the Wiki under Non-UK Garages, General... France

[camper]

Regarding needing to remove the gearbox and flywheel off to get the sump off.Is there diffrences compared to a AAZ /1Y engine block sump bolt holes to the TDI block or access to them ?I took the sump off a 1Y engine and replaced the oil pump without needing to remove the gearbox.

[ewenmaclean]

I'm no expert, and I don't know the 1Y/AAZ, but with a tdi flywheel, which is quite thick, you can't get to two of the bolts on the bellhousing side of the sump.... If you don't use a 1z flywheel, and use the old JX then I think you're ok, but the van runs much happier with a heavier flywheel (in my opinion)....

[camper]

Thanks for the reply i understand now with the thicker flywheel getting to the rear sump bolts requires gearbox removal.Cheers and good luck with the van.

[ewenmaclean]

Thanks! Van's going great ta - I think I managed the find the one situation where having the heavier flywheel is a pain in the a*se... try explaining the inertial advantages to the missus when we're stuck camping in heavy rain without half our stuff!

[HarryMann]

Heavy flywheel on a torquey diesel definitely helps in theory... reduces the shocks going into the transmission.

With a JX flywheel my AAZ send dreadful lumps of torque shock through transmission.. centred on about 2100 rpm. Can be allevaited to some extent by altering pump timing.
Being a Syncro this is noticed easily when the prop is off, which obviuously must be damping the exciting crankshaft vibration tos some extent.

[ewenmaclean]

Hello,

Thanks for that explanation. I don't think you can completely eliminate torque shock, although with the E-tdi, it has a duty cycle on an advance solenoid, and on the turbo actuator which I think tries to effectively even out the torque curve so it doesn't peak too sharply at a particular value - having a vnt helps with this too. The more modern PDs (among others) also have dual mass flywheels, but these need to replaced with the clutch, and I suspect on a syncro with an AAZ, it would end up in bits fairly soon!

I found the biggest difference between the flywheels was in the smoothness of gear changes - the conservation of angular momentum with a heavier flywheel I think.

Ewen

[HarryMann]

SyncroDoug (and others no doubt) has a dual mass flywheel on his 150 Tdi

In theory a quicker smoother change should be made with a low mass flywheel (engine speed can be more qyuickly adjusted, up or down, and if selecting at wrong speed, less shock) - but I know what you mean - the engine doesn't drop its revs too quickly.

[ewenmaclean]

I stand corrected on DMFs - sorry about that. The tdi tuners who run silly power and torque tend to go for single mass AFAIK, and although mine's not a PD. it's got a biggish VNT and puts out pretty good torque...

I reckon if I really waited between gearchanges I wouldn't notice the difference - you're right....

[HarryMann]

Do you know the make and model of that VNT ?

Is it the standard one for that engine?

Apparently, there are mechanical means of making do it its thing, using throttle and boost, but its a bit fussy... they are necessary though IMHO, for a balance of low-down torque plus good performance and especially good economy at speed.

[ewenmaclean]

Hello,

it's a garrett GT1749VA (used on the PD130) - not the "VB" which is preferred (and used on the PD150), but good enough for what I want. I use it with PP764 (.216) nozzles, but I've done it electronically. There are ways of doing it mechanically - if you look for Andrew Libby or "libbybapa" I think on the vwdiesel.net forums you should find a good build thread, but it is, as you say fiddly.

Standard for this engine (AHU) is a wastegated GT15, and for the AFN is a GT1749V which is a bit smaller on both exhaust and compressor side to mine.

I got Russel to do the fabrication for the engine mounts I needed to squeeze everything in, and he did a predictably great job, but it's not all that simple. I have a fan on my intercooler too which is activated by heat and at WOT, which helps lower the EGTs a fair bit.

Ewen

[HarryMann]

Thanks, bet it goes nicely and gives a reasonable consumption

[ewenmaclean]

it would give better consumption if it didn't go so nicely

high-top doesn't help, but cruise control stuck on gps 65 gives about 37mpg, which is ok I reckon - depends a bit on wind direction...

[HarryMann]

37 mpg is more than OK for any T24 IMO