How to change the Kidney Grilles in your E46

The easiest DIY you ever did see. I’ve done this on my own e46 but I am turning you over to Mitch, say hi to Mitch!

Hey everybody, Mitch here, with the FitFrens youtube channel! You’re getting a sneak peak of what’s to come on the channel, being I haven’t officially unveiled my new purchase. However, we can go over something generic enough to still leave some suspense on the table. Make sure you head over to the youtube channel and subscribe for all that’s in store with this new project! FitFrens /FitFrensOfficial

So, to start, there’s a few ways that you can go about needing to replace the kidney grilles in your BMW. They could be old and brittle, faded, or you could just want to change the color of them. I, personally, went with none of those. The route I chose was: buy a car that had been sitting for an unknown amount of time in the very recent past, neglect that the hood latches could be sticky, take the car on the first drive since I purchased it, and have a startling reminder that the hood latches didn’t really seem to hang on the best when my hood high fived the windshield at 40mph. Make sure to turn around and grab your grilles out of the road after beating your hood back somewhat flat with a roadside rock and RKOing it shut. Doesn’t seem like the most effective segway into replacing your BMW’s kidney grilles? I didn’t think so either.

Now, here we are, screwed up hood and grilles hanging on by sheer air pressure on the front of the car alone. We’ll skip over the hood part for now since we’re focusing on the grilles. Hop right on the internet, find a set of OEM quality replacements, look at the price – die a little on the inside, and then head right to Amazon. I clicked the first result, picked a color, didn’t read the reviews, and ordered those bad boys.

Tools you’ll need:

  • At least one hand
  • New grilles to replace current ones
  • (Possible addition) Flathead screwdriver or some sort of pry tool

In an ideal world, there are tabs in each place they’re supposed to be around the perimeter of the grilles themselves. If yours are intact, start by pushing those tabs toward the center of the grilles. After enough of the tabs are depressed (or more than likely snapped off) the grille should start loosening. Keep pushing the tabs one by one in a circular pattern until you end up with a grille that is no longer attached to your car and repeat to the other side. Inward pressure on the outside of the grille could give the stubborn clips the relief they need.

In my case, the tabs on my grilles were already broken – this is common. This also made the removal portion of this replacement incredibly easy, being that the grilles were already on the knife’s edge of removing themselves at any given time. A YouTube short is only 60 seconds long, so I went with the expedited removal process. If your kidney grilles are broken in a similar fashion to mine, this should work for you too, however, if you value your paint, you should probably take a more cautious approach to avoid scratches. Take your pick of an open palm or a fist and give one, firm hit to the center of the backside of the grille and that should be enough to pop the grille out. To take the “paint saver” route, I would wiggle the grille side to side until a portion of it begins to loosen, at which point it should pretty much fall out in your hands. Repeat your chosen strategy for the other side as well.

YEETUS DELETEEUS

The installation process is the easy part. Take your Amazon junk out of the box, admire the quality, (Honestly. Could’ve been worse) confirm the correct orientation, and snap them right in! Mine didn’t fit, but hopefully you don’t share the same fate. Pro tip: Since mine didn’t fit, I grabbed a long zip tie and attached the center most portions of the two grilles together until I find a grille style that I’m more fond of to live with permanently.

If this helped you at all, be sure to leave us some feedback! This video was super fun to make, and there will be plenty more in the near future! Even though it was a cold, rainy, December day, that didn’t stop us. Be sure to watch the video, check out our other content on Youtube, and be sure to like and subscribe!!

  • Mitch

(A note from Vince: Wow you plug your YouTube channel more than I do lol.)

The Beginning of FitFrens

I don’t have a hand in this except for being along for the ride and sugar daddying Noah here and there ❤ (we need to do another interview buddy) – I’ll be posting more of their stuff here as well! I do make some appearances and hopefully will be making more in the future.

If you haven’t Read ‘Let’s Go Racing‘ yet, this is directly related!

Noah managed to con our friend Mitch into buying a Honda fit as well. A lot less rusty (I think?) and with a LOT more bumper stickers which is hilarious to see going around a track. This also inspired Noah to put all sorts of bumper stickers on his own fit – the collection is growing as more road trips happen.

Now, I say “con” because cheap cars always come with problems. (Noah’s fit, Mitch’s fit, my first GTI, my Rabbit, my BMW, Matt’s Audi, and….. well you get the point. We make terrible decisions. Yikes I need to make a post about my BMW.) BACK TO MITCH’S FIT. As per the usual, there’s tons of back and forth about car’s on marketplace. He finally found this 2010 Fit in Maine for $1200 with 226 THOUSAND miles from an old dude who thought the transmission was in need of replacement. His trip to get it took 14 hours because the brake drums on the trailer he borrowed fell apart, he also only had three wheels on the the trailer with an hour and a half left in his trip because one decided it wanted to take a trip on its own. RIP wheel, RIP an easy trip for Mitch.

The three of us think the clutch was had never been replaced in the cars life, because well, just take a look!

Mitch and Noah put a few videos together to get the Fit road and track ready, it needed some suspension, the headlights were terrible, and they had a great time working on it.

Finally to the actual track days, what FitFrens is about, as you know Noah has done a few, but Mitch has done none up to this point. Hello New York Safety Track and Highline’s Track Day. The Video is aptly named ‘2 Fits 1 Track‘. (Noah, you disgust me <3) I did not go because my BMW wasn’t ready and I’m glad I didn’t because I would’ve been fined for coolant on the track as my radiator left the chat like the EXACT day after they were there.

From an outside perspective it’s fun to see a more experienced driver (Noah) against a driver who is just learning their car on a track (Mitch). It’s also really fun to see people get utterly demolished by a Honda Fit with 114 horsepower and less torque than a child. I’m looking at you Corvette in the video.

Noah nearly sends himself and Mitch’s girlfriend to the shadow realm.

Their second track day together: Watkins Glen. In the rain. (Again.) which made Noah sad but he was also sad because the store was closed.

Mitch, you killed it! Wild that you’re able to function on such little sleep. Here’s his video! (Also PLEASE sleep more.)

Noah, you MONSTER. This is our second time here, and our second time in the rain. You knew the wet line, and you know how to huck this car. Here’s the video. This is the beginning of Noah and I’s road trip to Laguna (Which will be another post. Haha more clicks! All part of my devious plan for dopamine.)

Both of you also love to get these cars sideways. I felt like I was going to die at Noah’s hands at Watkins Glen but that’s all part of the fun. Have some Youtube Shorts.

So funny thing is, DIRECTLY after the first race day Mitch messages me saying he want’s a 3 series and I was like “A 3 series you say?!?!?” That’s a death sentence because I proceeded to ask him his budget and send him every 3 series I found in the range of that. Whoops, I like shopping for people and helping them spend their money. The search and car is another story altogether.

Mitch sold the fit and you’ll see the 328i he bought in the upcoming videos! (Our group chat is now named 1 Fit, No Fit, BMW Coupe, BMW sedan.)

They’ll be posting video’s through the winter and having other projects posted on there. You might even see some posts on here from them. (Wink Wink)

Please be sure to take a look at their Youtube Channel and give them a Sub! FitFrensOfficial

  • Vince

Lets Go Racing

Just to preface this- I have not been the one racing. I’ve enjoyed our jaunts out to said racing events and had a great time at them.

Noah is the one driving at the events, “What is Noah driving?” You may ask, a Honda Fit. Or a Jazz as those who love all things JDM might want to refer to it. Seems underwhelming I know, but wow is he having the time of his life. – He’s Jazzed. (Ha-ha. Terrible set up for this I know.)

Let’s back up a little bit to start, if you’ve read any other posts on this website, or know me in person, you’ve probably seen that we’ve gone to Gridlife in the past (multiple times) and Hyperfest (also multiple times). I need to ask him exactly when it was but I think it was right around after we got back from Gridlife Colorado Noah was all about wanting to get on the track himself. – I could be blatantly lying here but all the same. –

His brother has a racing sim at home so naturally that was his first step into “getting behind the wheel” which is a first step that many people take. I mean look, we’ve got a Gran Truismo Movie coming out soon that’s about how someone won a competition and went to drive actual race cars which is a dream come true.

Oh meanwhile all of this his 5XXwhp STI blew up for the second time – love Subarus.

The next step was figuring out the car he was going to take on track because one his Subaru was dead and two it’s apparently hell to learn to race in a high horsepower car. What’s the next step?

A Miata.

Wrong.

Well, I mean you could, they’re just super expensive. What’s the next option after that?

The Honda Fit. Yayyyyyy.

It’s honestly not much easier to get Honda fit’s anymore. They are also very expensive and that was the problem Noah was dealing with. I was helping him search Facebook marketplace in the surrounding area and we both still came up with nothing that would work. If it was cheap it was an automatic, broken, and or rusty.

Oh right, Copart is a thing that exists. That’s where he went to look for his trackable fit and he was also looking at C6 Z06’s. Perhaps one day my friend, perhaps one day. Right now you’re poor. ❤

He was also so committed to racing this year that he bought the Gridlife gold pass for HPDE before he even owned a car. A round of applause for commitment.

He was also in the middle of working night shifts so he was unable to bid on it himself, he handed off his login and password for the broker bidding site to me. I was in control of his bank account, me, I had the control, and the bidding was going to go off in a few days.

While Noah was fast asleep the bidding started, I had to spend an extra $69 dollars (nice) to be able to do live bidding for him, he understood, and I won the car at $1,150. The thrill of bidding using someone else’s money, but also knowing you couldn’t go higher than 2,000 was pretty interesting. With the car won it was a waiting game because as it turned out, the reserve hadn’t been met. They called him the following day and asked him to come up to $1900. Noah texted me saying how he possibly would’ve done $1,500 but he stood his ground. They came down to his bidding price and after all the taxes and fee’s it ended up being around $2000 anyways.

Noah drives up to Copart in New Hampshire to get this car sight unseen and oh wow was it rusty. What we couldn’t see in the pictures was that under the side skirts the rockers were ROTTEN. Really rotten, even the frame rails were affected. Cut to Noah cutting the rockers out and perhaps some of the frame rails. Home-Depot metal came to the rescue. A friend welded it all in for him and the Fit had a new lease on life.

Now we get to the fun part, the actual racing. Well, HPDE. Hello Watkins Glenn and hello downpour. We had a great time even though it was unbelievably miserable. Gridlife at Watkins Glenn brought a big GLTC crowd but not so many spectators because it wasn’t a festival event. We had a good time watching the wheel to wheel racing, time attack, and drifting. Not as many drifters came out which was expected. Noah had the time of his life and ended up with a very inflated ego after his instructor said that he was ‘One of, if not the fastest person on on track’ in his beginners session. (Sorry buddy, gotta keep you humble.) I missed getting a ride along in an e46 M3 because the conditions were so bad with the rain. A mustang had hit the wall in what I remember to be the first session.

The entire time Noah has been watching the Sundae Cup racers times and trying to get his times close to theirs. Their Honda fits are a bit more modified than his when it comes to power and suspension. So he’s got a challenge ahead of him and he’s ready to take it on as he wants to compete in sundae cup next year.

Now we come to our most recent event at Gingerman Raceway in Michigan, 12ish hours away from us. Gridelife Midwest Fest to be exact. Sold out event, huge lines, loud music, lots of cars, and LOTS of people. The racer paddock, which we got to be a part of was so much more organized than normal camping, it was cool being close to the GLTC guys and our neighbors ended up being super cool.

TJ hunt’s new livery got revealed, I got some sick shots of some drifters and my favorite GLTC drivers, and then it was Sunday. Most of the GLTC racers and drifters had packed up, the paddock was emptying out and all of the festival goers had left too.

I sat in at the drivers meeting this time around which was cool, all sorts of information about the flags and the track itself. I really appreciate how fun the Gridlife crew is.

Apparently one of the HPDE drivers blew up their Subaru, shocker, one of the people in Noah’s group overheated in is RHD 300zx, and the other person who was driving what seemed to be his grandparents Buick regal(?) from like 2009 got black flagged. He wasn’t allowed back on track either.

Our neighbor’s M3 did well until it spat oil out of a vanos bolt. Noah also did great, his fasted time was around a 2:01 which actually made it so he would’ve been in the back of the Sundae Cup pack but NOT last. The only bad part was that he must’ve ran over a rail or something in the paddock camping area because during a run he noticed that it felt like a tire had lost all sorts of air and that he was pushing around on it. It was in fact flat and it did in fact have a hole in it. We put a plug on it and drove with it in the 12 hours back home.

The next should be Mid Ohio, let’s hope I can make it to that one. Eventually I’ll race myself.

  • Vince
addition 1/6/24 – Noah and I in the pouring rain at Watkins Glen

The Mk7 Jetta facelift is a disappointment.

Honestly I didn’t like the MK7 Jetta very much to start with, after having the MK6 Jetta from 2011- 2018, the 2015 GLI being my favorite out of the generation with only having the rear end facelifted to have better tail lights, a seven year run with a car mostly unchanged kind of gets you used to seeing it. The GLI is really what won me over to enjoying the MK7 Jetta.

The 2019 Jetta update was very unfamiliar and many people said it looked like a Civic, I didn’t quite agree with that. (If anything the brand new civics look a little like Jetta’s now.) The base model was decent looking to say the least, it was like the Jetta had started working out, it was just a bit bigger at 3,228 LB’s rather than the previous generation at 3,158 LB’s, it adopted more angular bodylines, and more of a wedge shape. The grille got bigger, we lost the single exit exhaust (Which I personally like), the tail lights gained a much more characterized look, and they added a little badge to the fender like on the MK7 GTI!

The Interior brought an update to theMK7 GTI steering wheel, the customizable mood lighting in the interior was an interesting but cool feature, and they changed the dash to be a bit more driver orientated.

They upped the horsepower by another 10 to put it at 228hp. The car is definitely a GTI with a trunk as it used to be called. The MQB platform that Volkswagen is utilizing works wonders. Overall the change from MK6 to MK7 was a big improvement.

Here are a few photos from the pre-facelifted car.

Photos used from MotorTrend along with Car And Driver. All Credit goes to the respective owners.

Now that I’ve covered a bit about the MK7 pre-facelift, I would to move onto the facelift that was just revealed for 2022, only three years after the MK7 Jetta’s release. And wow, has it left me with a very bad taste in my mouth.

The Following photos are all from Car And Driver and they are of the facelift coming in 2022

The interior hasn’t changed much, the cars get updated shifters and standard digital displays to match the new golf/GTI and R.

The grille is now surrounded by a large chrome strip with a large chrome piece through the middle of the grille which is honestly very garish. The lower grille sadly follows the new design que from the mk8 golf but worse which is more rounded and has made the front end much less aggressive. The GLI has suffered from this the most and now has weird red oval accents in the lower grilles where fog lights would be and it just looks weird while the upper grille has a HUGE chrome piece going through its center.

The rear end hasn’t changed much except the bumper, the new base Jetta has weirdly designed chrome trim while the GLI gets a black lower valance with honeycomb design to it which honestly doesn’t look bad, I’d say it’s an improvement the more I look at it!

I feel like the biggest disappointment for me is the new GLI badge. It’s so much more curvy and skinny.

The engine and the transmission remain unchanged from the beginning of the Mk7 generation in the GLI while the new base model gets a bit of an upgrade.

I know I haven’t gotten my hands on this car in real life and photos may not do it justice but these are my opinions of the facelift that is coming in 2022!

To GridLife Colorado and Back!

So what’s your idea of a fun road trip? Driving 7-10 hours per day for three days, then not showering for nearly 3 days, being woken up to the sound of race cars for two days and then driving for three days again? 

If I hit the nail on the head then you my friend will be quite jealous of me! My best friend, his sister, his cousin and I loaded up into his 2004 Subaru Outback and drove from The Capital Region of New York state to Pikes Peak Colorado for the Gridlife Alpine Horizon Festival. (which was in fact sold out!)

We left early on July 19th, around 9am, with the car packed to the brim. A useless rearview mirror, a cooler strapped to the top, an extra tire, and a bunch of tools. I had to SNEAK food into the back which would later become breakfast. I had a bunch of my own items in front with me so I couldn’t really stretch out but hey, It was stuff I needed so it was a needed sacrifice that my legs definitely felt later.

At 5:44pm in Ohio we saw a Fiesta St. with a license plate that read “STINKY” and it got a good rise out of the car.

We camped near Dayton the first night, it was quite nice and there was a gorgeous Audi R8 on drag slicks with bead locks which I didn’t get a picture of sadly.

You can almost see the R8 in the back there, between the two RV’s on the right!

To start off the day on July 20th we figured out that Noah’s Outback was indeed having Head Gasket problems and that we would need to take it decently easy for the remainder of the trip. On top of that issue, Collin’s Trailblazer was having an issue with its front caliper on the driver side. It was changed in about thirty minutes and we were back on the road at about 10:50am or so!

At about 4pm we got our first sighting of the St. Louis arch! We got turned around with parking as a few roads were closed which sucked but it was very cool to see up close. We did not go up it as we were pressed for time.

Noah and Daegan raced up the steps in front of the arch, Noah lost.

0:00-0:38 are the section of the race!

Camping that night wasn’t anything special as none of us slept well at all. 

On the 21st I tried my first “Most stuff Oreo” which was an experience to say the least. I tried to convince my friend back home to buy style 95’s for his 7 series BMW over text, it didn’t work sadly.

On our way through Colorado it was raining and Daegan put his head out the window like a dog and it was quite funny.

At 7:33pm our friends sent a video that showed that the right rear strut on Noah’s Outback was TOAST. The wheel was bouncing quite a bit and we could feel it over bumps quite well.

We arrived at our campsite for that night and the next around 8pm, we set up and then looked for food, Colorado Springs was too far away and all but one restaurant in Cripple Creek was closed. Once in cripple creek we found out that the restaurant we meant to go to was also closed. Luckily there were two(?) casinos just down the street. Noah and I went in and ordered food for the four of us.

July 22nd was VERY eventful, we went up Pikes Peak in the Subaru which made it surprisingly well, we met Ship.A90 which his GORGEOUS supra that was not babied in the slightest. Apparently I got my photo taken of me taking a photo by the sales manager of JEGS as I was wearing a JEGS hat?? Wild.

We had some AMAZING Malaysian food from The Asian Cookery in Colorado Springs, I can’t recommend it enough.

After Pikes peak we went into Colorado springs to pick up a new rear strut for Noah’s car, which we changed in a parking lot, and Noah may have broken one of his pinkies. I came up with the idea to use the spare tire and two rocks to make it so we could get the strut to line up with the hole on the knuckle!

At the same time as we were changing the strut, Collin and his group were changing the fuel filter in the Trailblazer which required them dropping the fuel tank.

July 23rd, the first day of gridlife:

We waited in line for about an hour, we set up our tent and the best weekend of the summer commenced. 

We went over to the RallyCross portion which was quite cool, we got rained on there and hid with the drivers for a short time.

Those of you who have never been to Colorado, its WINDY, our tent broke once on the 23rd and again on the next day. Other people’s tents nearly flew away. It was wild.

The best way to see the cars racing seemed to be from the infield, I would later find that was slightly incorrect. From the camping areas and around the track the majority of the immediate spots were well very “Meh”. Especially for seeing the drifters. You had to walk a decent ways to a spot between turns three and four where there was a “photo hole” that was broken. The fencing around it had been pulled up into a loose roll and tied up with tie wire. A person definitely could have fit through it if they had wanted to. (This is relevant later!) Being at this spot was FANTASTIC, videos and photos were easy to grab without much obstruction, and due to a crowd gathering it seemed as though the pro’s thought it was a good idea to get close to the wall, which was amazing. 

After that drift session ended I hung around and made some new friends, while talking some security guards rolled up on the track in a golf cart and asked us what was up as they gestured at the rolled up fence. We quickly made it clear that it had been like that since before we even got there, helped them roll down the fence, and we were told that no one was allowed to be there. Which sucked, rip the good spot, and with that we were banished to really only watching in the infield area. 

Night drifting was awesome! The drifters really put on a show, the music line up for the music festival portion on the first night was pretty cool, I was really only interested in the Headliner Flosstradmus and I was not disappointed!

The 24th was another rough day for the tent, as I said earlier, it broke again and we got rained on pretty hard. There was a lot more racing and drifting that went quite the same as the day before. It was awesome, this time the night drifting was even more wild. 

Yung Gravy performed and he was higher than Pikes Peak to say the least, so that was interesting. $uicideboys performed after and they rocked it. 

We left around noon on the 25th as we didn’t want to be on the road unbelievably late. 

The 26th was also pretty uneventful except for when we set up our tent we met a cat at our campsite for the night and it quickly became friends with everyone!

We got back on the 27th pretty late and I got to ride in my friend’s Turbo swapped 2.0 Cabby which was sweet. (there’s gonna be a video about this car along with a post! So you’ll have to wait for that!!!)

Helene Rother

The 60’s were a time of change but they were nothing without those who pioneered in the decades prior so it would be a crime to not mention Helene Rother, a single mother, and refugee that made waves in the automotive design world.

Helene Rother, 1908-1999, was the first woman automotive designer. She was born in Germany and then moved to Paris after she had made a name for herself designing jewelry, furniture and many other things in between. She was a single mother, she and her daughter ended up in Casablanca after running from the Nazi’s who marched into Paris. She was stuck in North African refugee camp with her daughter for two to four months while waiting for their papers to finalize. She then made her way to New York and chased the American Dream. Landing in new york in 1941 she instantly started looking for work and she found it as an illustrator at Marvel Comics. She drew the character Jimmy Jupiter for a time before she moved west in 1942.

She landed in Detroit, interviewed for the job that she had seen in The New York Times, General Motors needed a new designer, and she got the job. Rother started  working for their interior design staff which she had experience in due to her past. She was in charge of the upholstery, fabric, lighting and hardware that went into vehicles at that time. She worked there until 1947 making $600 a month which was almost unheard of even for a man but General Motors downplayed her role because a woman working for that much and in the automotive field was a radical idea at the time.

She moved onto Nash under an independent contract in 1947 and had her own design studio. She made key interior components and completely reinvigorated the interiors of the Nash brand. She wanted to make interiors for women that they didn’t feel funny getting in and out of them, something stylish, clean and comfortable. She worked from home to be with her daughter. Her daughter recalled that when she first started working at Nash, Helene bought a Nash and promptly totaled it. She was a very busy woman and always drove fast so she accumulated many speeding tickets. She opened the door for women to get into the automotive industry, she showed that they could succeed. In her time after Nash she worked for Miller-Meteor, helping to design ambulances and hearses. Later she designed stained glass windows for churches across the united states and her reputation as one of the best stained-glass artists remains to this day. She still did other automotive work from time to time. At the age of 91 she passed away, her number of speeding tickets were probably comparable to the impact she had on the industry.

4 German Cars That Are Hard To Find And Will Hurt Your Wallet (One Way Or Another)

Old German cars, we all love them, or hate that we love them, and or we love to hate them. The old and rare ones are hard to come by. If they’re “cheap” expect to be replacing a lot of things or that it needs an engine. Something along those lines. (Also click on the photos to be brought to where they’re from!)

BMW 8 Series

How To OEM+ Restore A BMW 850Ci - Speedhunters

The 1990-1999 BMW 8 series (E31). We’re talking specifically about the V12 version so the 850i/ci/csi. You could get a 4 speed auto/ 5 speed auto (depending on the year) or a 6 speed manual and the 850CSI only came in 6 speed manual. There’s also the Alpina models, the B12 5.0 and the B12 5.7

These cars are rare now, and the oldest one you can get is now 31 years old while the youngest one you can get is 22 years old. Any of the maintenance that comes with a BMW that old is included along with the price tags. The cheapest ones I can find are around $10,000-$15,000 and the rest go up from there while the most expensive seem to top out at nearly $200,000. 

Larry_Chen_Speedhunters_bmw_850ci_11N

Back when they were new that had a 0-60 in 5.9 seconds, the V12 is decently simple in comparison to others from my research and it mostly just seems to be the regular BMW maintenance costs that affect them asides from that the throttle bodies could be an issue and the seemingly “normal” BMW oil leaks. The pop up headlights may cause a headache because it’s just one more thing to break. Electrical gremlins could very well rear their ugly heads and you do NOT want to buy one that’s been sitting. Only about 30,000 of them were sold!

Audi S4: B6 

My words of advice: Don’t even think of getting one. The German V8 sounds nothing short of amazing and that can fool you into wanting one. But this is during the time of VAG auto group not knowing how to make a timing chain system if their life depended on it. Plastic guides just don’t last. These are hard to find in good shape!

No Reserve: Modified 2004 Audi S4 6-Speed

The B6 S4 was made for less than two years while the B7 S4 was made for three years. They use basically the same engine (both just as bad). Being that they’re a nearly twenty year old car something you’ll also have to deal with is the electrical gremlins. But as I said earlier the timing chains are the big issue and the worst part is that they’re on the rear of the engine. In making sure your car runs for a long time you’ll need to keep your ears sharp for timing chain noise and if you need to replace it you need to pull the whole engine out. You may want to do the clutch, engine mounts, and whatever else you see fit. Depending on the age of the engine you may want to di valves, seats and guides!

Never let one of these sit. On the forums I’ve seen that people like to let them warm up 15-20 minutes to make sure that the engine is fully lubricated. The timing chain job can run up to about $8,000 dollars. All the ones I seem to be able to find for sale are those that need that service done, need an engine, and or just lots of work for about $3,000 still. You’ll also need to pull the front end apart to do almost any work on the car!

Volkswagen Phaeton 

Volkswagen - This Stupidly Rare W12 Phaeton LWB Is Peak Volkswagen - Used Cars

The Volkswagen Phaeton W12, The Volkswagen that was more Bentley than it was a Volkswagen. North America only got it from 2003-2006. Nearly no shops know how to work on it here and I wish you the best of luck finding a specialized shop to work on it that won’t cost you a crazy amount either.

Land vehicle, Vehicle, Car, Engine, Auto part, Hood, Audi,

This is a car that many of the design team quit on. Only 2,253 of them were bought new so it’s no wonder we stopped getting them in 2006. The W12’s came with 420 horsepower which was silent and very smooth. According to research all of the launch editions arrived with defective sunroofs. This is where the electrical gremlins really reared their heads for Volkswagen, along with the Toureg. Heated steering wheel, massaging seats, five ECU’s, and everything else in the car seems to be subject to having some sort of issue.

Having a Volkswagen with all the same things as a Bently at a much cheaper price point might excite you and I do not blame you at all.

Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG Wagon 

These were only available in 2004-2006, with 469 horsepower and room for the family. There were only 193 of them brought to the United States. They only came in automatic, the supercharged engine is actually quite reliable.

This car’s wallet hurting ability mainly comes from not being able to find one with so few of them being brought over the pond. I wish you the best of luck finding one of these rare beasts! The supercharger makes easy work of getting more power out of of the engine, throw on a smaller pulley, do some exhaust work and you’re on your way to making even more power!

2005 Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG Wagon

The pricey repairs center around the brakes (SBC braking system) and the AirMatic struts. Otherwise these cars are relatively bulletproof engine wise because they’re hand built! Fuel pumps can get leaky and go bad. Make sure you get the transmission serviced/ make sure it’s been done because if not you’re in for a hell of a time! Sometimes the electronic controls for the seats can go bad.

If you want something that will sound good, look good, get you and your kids somewhere fast. This is the car!

Mk4 1.8T Coilpack “Conversion”

Alright everybody, I bought yet ANOTHER Volkswagen – My self hatred knows no bounds.

This is an unbelievably quick install. Twenty minutes tops for the most part!

Tools that are needed for the job!

  • Ten millimeter socket (and a socket wrench)
  • Five millimeter Allen key/Allen socket
  • Flat head Screwdriver

There are many different ways you can go about this install, I’ve seen some people do it by literally just throwing the 2.0t coilpacks which isn’t the best idea because the 2.0t coilpacks are taller than the stock 1.8t coilpacks and the rubber seal doesn’t connect with the engine. So if you don’t want to risk anything falling down into the hole with your sparkplug you’re going to need something!

I personally went with Integrated Engineering and their adapter set!

Integrated Engineering’s adapter set!

Now you could easily go with ECS or any other brand that’s out there. I’ve even seen some plastic ones that just sit in the bolt holes and do the same thing for way cheaper! I don’t know where to find those though!!

The reason for doing this is that Volkswagens original design is just kind of garbage for the 1.8T’s coilpacks. Here is a resource that I found useful while trying to hunt down my idle fluctuation useful! I decided that the upgrade to the 2.0t coilpacks were in my best interest because they’re an updated design and make the engine run smoother. They also offer a smoother delivery of power and the car felt younger after the install.

Actually starting the job: (I’ve added the photos in after completing the job on my own car)

Take the tools that are needed, keep them at the ready and open whatever packaging that your parts came in!

First you’ll take the engine cover off and you’ll be greeted by your possibly very stock engine bay (You can skip this step if you don’t have an engine cover anymore!)

Kindly yeet the engine cover away

Second you will want to take a look at the vacuum reservoir that is bolted above the right most Coilpack and take the nut off with your ten millimeter socket.

Red circle is where the ten millimeter bolt is!!!

Once the reservoir is out of your way you’ll be able to progress to the third step! Taking off the five Allen bolts from the vacuum reservoir mount! There are three of them on the mount, two on the left and one on the right. The back left bolt is slightly hidden.

Red Circles are where the 3 5 millimeter Allen bolts are!

The fourth step is to pop the connectors off of each of your coilpacks. You may need a screwdriver to make it work depending on the condition of your connectors!

Coilpack Connectors!

For the fifth step (This was needed for my install) was to unbolt the ground(?) wire for the coilpack connector harness from the valve cover. It’s the ten millimeter bolt between and behind the left two coilpacks.

After that you will take your adapter plates, put them in place and screw them into the bolt holes that are diagonal from one another while making sure that the lines that the coilpack gasket seats in are matching the ones on the valve cover for the sixth step!

The seventh step is just putting your new 2.0t coilpacks in, making sure they’re seated well! (In my video you can see me putting them in place starting at about 14 minutes)

For the eighth step you can tackle two things at once, plugging the coilpacks back into the harness and then putting the harness ground bolt back in and tightening it with the ten millimeter!

Step Nein is to enjoy the fruits of your labor and drive your Volkswagen with smoother throttle response and to have peace of mind!

Here’s my install video!

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

-Vince