go back a page or two, its one of the first posts on the page.
First day home, started tinkering again.
Put on my new ebay maf this morning, no change. Pulling IAT and MAF codes this time. Cleaned it, same. Decided to rip apart the neo, quickly found 2 wiring issues (from around 2 years ago). A wire for the quick-disconnect plug coming out of neo had slipped out. Replaced it, same issue. Moved down to where I extended the neo harness 2 years ago, found a wire slipped out of the connecter. Ditched connecter, soldered both white and yellow neo wires (maf in & out) to harness extension, still no change. Decided to test start with maf wires bypassing the neo (this was easy due to the quick-disconnects) worked flawlessly. Joy has come.
Happy it started and ran out of limp mode, not so happy its an safc issue. Due to the diagnosis, I am leaning towards the fact that issue must be in the neo maf wires. My worry is, both the yellow and white harness extensions are soldered nicely, the quick-disconnects coming FROM the maf and TO the ecu are obviously fine because it runs right when they are connected to each other, the quick-disconnects coming FROM the neo is new, and the one going TO the neo (only one I didn’t change) seems solid. So if the wiring is all good, which is seems to be, then it could possibly be a hardware problem, which would suck. Although it worked fine before…
Anyway, the ecu/neo connections should be fairly accessible with the dash on and most things intact. So I am going to continue bypassing it now, and come back to deal with it later (I’m not too worried about the 6 ponies it was giving me anyways ). Some day this summer I’ll grab some beers and re-do the wiring on the entire neo harness. If it still fails, I’ll call apexi or I guess pick up another one.
My current plan of action consists of pulling the whole mani to finish routing some wires, creating an air diversion plate for the lower heater core panel so I can have heat, need to slap the springs on, pull the lower oil pan and replace, install the sangwich adapter, fresh oil change, wire up all gauges, switches, rpm/wot switch, put together all vents and inside pieces (airbag, etc), and throw the dash on. Im thinking I can do all that in about a week, so by next Monday (hopefully) and, for the first time in OVER 9 MONTHS, I’m gonna drop that baby on the pavement.
so here’s some stuff i’ve been doing lately.
as you can see here, the wiper motor clip was too short for the way I wanted to route it.
so yet again, back to extending lol
ahh thats better
now here’s my ghetto and ugly but hopefully and theoretically functional rusty spring fix.
this is how they came.
and here they are after some heavy sanding which took way too long
then i used a flexible fabric/vinyl paint and gave them a good coating. Im aware that springs should only be powdercoated, but i dont have any hookups, so this was my next available option. worst case scenario, the paint flakes and im back where i started.
finally, I cut and taped plastic tubing around the springs to prevent grit and grime from attaching to them and to prevent the loss of paint if it does eventually start to crack or flake. Aesthetically funny, yes. Functional, also yes.
my next project was to basically turn the lower heater core panel into a flat plate. this would give me extra room to store the ecu as well as make it possible for me to have heat!
i bought a sheet of aluminum and started working away
i also had to cut these tabs off the bottom of the upper heater core
this is essentially what I ended up with (before cleaning up some edges). plate with 4 stock bolt holes and a slight curve at the end (using heat and a pipe) so it can sit above the evaporator inlet and not interfere with my harness wiring.
bolted up. So much extra room!
shortly after i took those pictures i silicone sealed the edges so air will not be able to escape.
other boring little things:
remounted alarm siren
artsy solder shot
and threw the whole wiper assembly, blades, cover, etc back on.
Thats all for now. Hoping to get a test drive in this week if my class doesnt get too hectic
boring pictures of boring things that have happened the past two days. enjoy.
slippery oil filter was giving me a hard time. even with hella room and even with a filter wrench. so i took care of it the old fashioned way. 
ripped the oil pan off
made a little bit of a mess in the process
so fresh so clean
fresh pan on. then threw on the new adapter
wired up oil pres/temp and put the filter on
like i said, boring. ive been getting sick of how lazy ive been in the garage lately, which was mainly attributed from taking big breaks to think about what to do next. so i made/printed a list and taped it to the wall, its actually helping things go by much smoother. when im done with one thing, check it off, move on to the next.
lots to do left, but the end is in sight, and that makes me very happy.
Man, that’s such a good idea about the list thing. I neeeed to do that.
Great progress btw.
what in the fuck is going on with the wires going around the filter?
would you rather them run along the axle so they can get tangled up and ripped out?
check em out in person next time you’re over, they’re secure as fuck.
I was assuming that was temporary. Looks ghetto as fuck, dude.
There we’re 2 options. Next to the axle, or not next to the axle.
Ghetto as fuck “looking” and out of site > not working and out of sight.
i just hope that the first time you step on the gas and the motor starts moving around that you don’t rip them out, that’s all.
You noob
You can’t see it in the picture but there’s a good amount of slack. Plus the motor doesn’t really move around anymore, which is nice.
---------- Post added at 11:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:16 AM ----------
Why would I do that when I have access to so many zipties!!!
cleaner and you could run the wires up the side of the motor till you branch them off so its not ghetto looking…
The first place I’d be able to hook that would be the bottom of inner fender well, so there would still be the 4-5 inches where they must sit on either side of the filter.
Maybe people aren’t seeing it; two of the wires are coming from the bottom left side of the filter, they can either run right next to the axle (super close) or run around the filter. Even if I used those along the fenderwell, my decision by the filter would be the same.
---------- Post added at 11:27 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:24 AM ----------
Up close:
Look where the wires are coming from on the bottom left. They start over half the diameter in under the axle. Theres NO way they could be run on the left side of the filter or else they’d get caught up for sure.
It is an akward area.
As long as the axle doesnt hit it.
Look above.
I’ll admit I was bothered and took a second look at it, but around the filter is the best option out of the ones I had. The wires sit more tucked than the filter and in perfect parallel with the power steering lines which have plenty of clearance from the tire, liner and anything else.
This is what it would look like if I placed the wire on the opposite side of the filter. Bad.
I also tried running it under the axle and over the k-member, but when you do that not only am I risking the k-member rubbing or pinching, you can see the wires very clearly when looking down from up in the engine bay. They’ll also be mostly encased by the fender liner and side/bottom deflector.
The way it’s gonna stay.
Minimal visible wiring from above.
looks better after being wrapped
it was always going to be loomed and wrapped just like everything else.
patience padawan!
Probably my best update yet. I’m inches away from putting this thing on the ground (literally and figuratively).
I was basically done with most of the exterior stuff required for a test drive when I finished the oil temp/pressure gauges. Still need to loom the accessory harness, but for the last day and a half I’ve been working on the interior. Also a big thanks to Preston and Josh for helping me out with a power steering issue.
Incase you dont remember, this is what it looked like when I first took everything off a few months ago.
I started by wiring up everything that wasn’t going to a physical switch. Such as grounds and power for the dynotune window/wot switch, cutout, bottle heater, oil press/temp gauges, etc.
threw the center console in
after most of the pre-wiring was done…the dash goes in, wahoo!
wiring for switches has begun to be run
power distributer by the drivers side left kick panel
almost all of my grounds were consolidated on the steering support bar
anything that needed to come to the drivers side of the dash from the evaporator area was run up the side of and behind the accelerator pedal
everything layed out. MUCH cleaner and WAY more organized than before. Very happy with the results.
wanna get to the ecu/safc?
oh there it is!
all the springs are also now on
i decided to vacuum the interior as well after all was said an done. so here’s some glamour shots of whats goin’ on in there.
all thats really left before the tires see pavement is to loom and secure everything on the accessory harness. the car is now insured, ill be swapping plates from the jetta at the dmv tomorrow. then hopefully a test drive. after that the bumper/fender/headlights should be cake.
stoked that things are closing out. also kind of sad though, i’m not sure i’m going to know what to do with myself when this project is over.