[DSL HED]

Hello,

I'm trying to remove the drivers' side lower control arm on my wife's 2000 Jetta (with an 01M). However, the ATF pan is blocking access to the front bolt. I searched on the TDI forums and people were talking about disconnecting the dog bone mount, and then rotating the engine with the VW jack. Unfortunately none of the posts said where to actually put the jack. I removed the two 13mm dog bone bolts and I tried using my floor jack and a block of wood against the side of the oil pan and the bottom of the block, but it didn't go up enough. Then I tried jacking up the metal shield below the ATF pan. The engine moved some, but after a bit of jacking, the car started to lift off the jack stands so I lowered it back down. I was able to loosen the front bolt so it spins freely and wants to come out, but with the pan in the way it's not going to be coming out. Should I just drain the fluid and drop the pan? Looks like NAPA carries a Meyle kit and Pentosin fluid and they're both in stock so I can easily do that if needed. I really don't want to play with the sub frame bolts if I can help it. Thanks for any assistance or insight.

 

[Seatman]

It sounds like maybe you're supposed to put something above the dogbone mount in order to twist rather than lift the engine, I don't know what it looks like down there on the auto though, have you been through the faq on here about doing the suspension?

welcometomyturbodies


Just had a quick look in the faq, is it the front bolt you can't remove? If so then I think you could maybe put something between the top of the dogbone mount and the underside of the car where it bolts on then pry it so the engine twists back the way which should lift the front maybe allowing the bolt to come out.

Sorry no, you want to completely remove the dogbone mount and twist the engine forward it says, maybe you put the jack between the fire wall and the rear of the engine. Lol I'm sure we'll figure this out yet.

 

[chittychittybangbang]

Not sure but I believe they mean to put it where the dogbone mount is and use it to twist the engine out of the way. without the dogbone it's hanging by 2 mounts. the dogbone is just there to prevent it from twisting.

 

[DSL HED]

Yeah, I'm really not sure. I forgot to write that when I first started wrestling with it, I did put the jack under one of the 16mm dog bone bolts (under the small black bracket) but that didn't do much of anything either. I'll play with it some more this morning and hopefully I'll have some success. But I'm prepared to drop the transmission pan and do a fluid/filter change. Stupid automatic!

Thanks for the help so far.

 

[DSL HED]

Figured it out this morning. On the TDI forums, people were talking about using the VW jack, and someone mentioned putting it against the lip near the swaybar. Once I got underneath this morning I looked around and realized what they were talking about. Basically the factory jack goes in between the subframe and the back of the engine. The top portion of the jack goes up against the subframe and the bottom goes against the back of the engine. With the two 13mm dog bone bolts removed, it will move forward enough to allow the front LCA bolt to come out. So mystery solved. I didn't get a picture, but hopefully this explanation helps someone else.

 

[chittychittybangbang]

Like this? It's from the mk4 transmission removal article

 

[DSL HED]

That's pretty close to what I did. Except I had the bottom of the jack pushed up against the back of the engine block. The jack shown in this picture is a different design. So for me, it worked well doing it against the subframe lip and the back of the block. Plus the block is cast iron, so I wasn't too concerned about damaging the engine with it there.

Either way, it looks like that's the way to rotate the engine. I just couldn't wrap my head around it since there were no pictures in any of the threads I was looking at. This should help someone else in the future, so good job finding the picture. Got the suspension completely replaced on my wife's car, and it feels much better now. Even dropped the trailing arm and did the axle bushings. That's a fun job.

Next on the list is to head to the dealer today to have pictures taken of its rusted-through fenders. The girl at the dealership seemed pretty confident they'd be fixed as long as it was within the 12 year range.