[Svtrit]

New guy here and my first post. I have a 2002 New Beetle (looks like the one in the website window) that is my daughters car. She turns 16 this month.
As luck would have it, she punctured the oil pan, so I am doing a bottom end rebuild since it ruined the main bearings. I’ll replace the rod bearings and oil pump as well. If I can find balance shaft bearings, I’ll do them too. I can’t find a local engine with the right engine code to just do a swap.

I already did the timing belt, less than 100 miles before the pan puncture. Speaking of that, any solutions for a pan guard? My sons GTI had pan damage with no oil loss once as well. It’s a major weakness in my opinion.

My plan is to pull the engine out of the front. Any suggestions from anyone that has done this before?

Local shops recommended I junk the car, but used cars are too valuable. It has only 106,000 miles on it.
I already snapped off a fuel rail nipple….

 

[Thejarhead]

Pull the engine out the front. Remove the bumper and two front fenders as one unit. While you can separate them while removing you will not be able to put them back on one at a time you will have to reinstall the fenders and bumper cover as a unit.

Remove it as a unit take the radiator and condenser off kinda like the picture in my avatar. At the point of the picture I was unaware that the fenders and bumpers had to be reinstalled as a unit.

Get a cherry picker (engine hoist) lift the engine about an inch or so to take the weight off the motor mounts take them loose with the weight off those mounts or you will strip the aluminum threads out and be buying new ones. Do the same when you reinstall, line up the mounts and put the bolts almost all the way in with your fingers then torque to yield and then remove the engine hoist. Make sure you get new motor mount bolts they are TTY (torque to yield) one time use bolts.

Once the engine is suspended about 2 inches higher than it normally sets and everything is loose you can lower the engine with the transmission still attached right down on the legs of the hoist and slide it right out the front. Actually it is quite easy compared to other engines I have done with the engine 5-6 feet in the air hoping it doesn’t fall on me or even the car.

 

[Svtrit]

Thanks for the guidance. I pulled the front cover off already, and after doing the top bolts I wondered how I was going to get them back in. I’ll pull the fenders next.
I am hoping to leave the transmission in when I pull the engine. There is no need to remove it for what I am doing.
Thanks again.

 

[Thejarhead]

Its easier to remove the engine and transmission together rather than separate them in the engine bay and have to fiddle lining every thing up as you take them out and then putting them back in.

 

[Djaylulu]

in 2000, I bought the 2000 New Beetle in Massachusetts to be shipped to the UK, because the new shaped beetle wasn't available there until 2004. For those that don't know much about the UK, city and local government constantly put in these traffic calming measures in the form of hump shaped hills in residential roads that are used as rat runs or cut throughs on major routes. Unlike American traffic humps the British ones span the entire street across and are about 4' width as you drive over them as well as gradually rising to almost 12" high. Unsurprisingly the American VW beetle got caught on the road humps and the oil pan cracked... No engine rebuild as I was sensible enough not to drive it when broken. VW came up with a fix that included a shallower specially designed pan made of a lighter metal to avoid this problem happening again. It was interesting to talk to the German design engineers who explained the difference between European and American driving conditions in this regard. Fast forward to 2008 and I was living full time in America. My VW sat unused in the UK and with the market crash creating a boom in government subsidized auto deals and Left Hand drive cars being less popular in Britain, it made sense to ship it back to America because that was cheaper for me than buying a used car. One day when VW performed oil change service something went wrong with the nut that screws in to seal the oil pan. Either the head was damaged or the crush washer was not sealing. The technician could not replace it because he couldn't find a new nut that fitted the screw thread. They gave me a loan car while they waited for their expert to arrive from Chattanooga to work out what to do next. The expert was amazed to see a European model oil pan on a US model manufactured in Mexico, but produced a metric sized oil nut from his pocket and told the dealership to waive the servicing and charges. He actually drove my car and took a good look at everything else that had been serviced overseas. I have in the past had to pay $120 for a gasket to be shipped from Germany because of this oil pan. Right now I am trying to get replacement plastic under-shields but they won't fit correctly and had to be returned. The fixings for the European under-shields that do fit correctly have the fastenings in different places. The one that I had on there came apart in two pieces that joined together, but it seems that the American market makes only a single piece shield with two side shields.

 

[Thejarhead]

I’m surprised after your mishap with the speed bumps you didn’t try lifting your car as some have done and get something like this. Throw those overpriced plastic under car dust covers in the trash and get real protection for your oil pan.

Heavy Duty Aluminum Skid Plate Kit w/ Oil Drain Port & Cover (A4)

Volkswagen's oil pans are made of a paper-thin cast aluminum that is easily cracked by many objects such as road debris, manhole covers and speed bumps. While your car may be at stock height, there...

www.idparts.com

 

[Svtrit]

I’ve been considering adding some metal to the plastic cover in the area of the oil pan.

 

[Thurbs]

Here is a YouTube that I followed when removing my 2004 2.0L

that I did Spring 2021. It really helped a lot in the process.

I am finally putting the whole thing back together this weekend after it had been sitting in a body shop getting the bumpers and fenders painted from a teenage accident.

The convertible has a thin metal skid plate. I don't know if non-convert's have this too.

 

[mott101]

New guy here and my first post. I have a 2002 New Beetle (looks like the one in the website window) that is my daughters car. She turns 16 this month.
As luck would have it, she punctured the oil pan, so I am doing a bottom end rebuild since it ruined the main bearings. I’ll replace the rod bearings and oil pump as well. If I can find balance shaft bearings, I’ll do them too. I can’t find a local engine with the right engine code to just do a swap.

I already did the timing belt, less than 100 miles before the pan puncture. Speaking of that, any solutions for a pan guard? My sons GTI had pan damage with no oil loss once as well. It’s a major weakness in my opinion.

My plan is to pull the engine out of the front. Any suggestions from anyone that has done this before?

Local shops recommended I junk the car, but used cars are too valuable. It has only 106,000 miles on it.
I already snapped off a fuel rail nipple….

I purchased a 2007 and a 1998 VW beetle for each of my two daughters. One of them lived in Wyoming and was pretty sure her Beetle was a 4WD vehicle. She dented the heck out of the oil pan and transmission housing but luckily did not destroy either. I found, ordered and installed a "Panzer Plate" from Diesel Geek dot com. The plate is bomber! It is a pain that you have to take it off to do an oil change but really no different than any new car with an under skirt. The car came back for its next oil change with lots of scratches on the plate but the pan/housing protected. I highly recommend for your "4 wheel drive Beetle daughters"!

Thanks,
Mott.

 

[Svtrit]

This is the big weekend! We pull it Saturday and hope to have the garage bottom end rebuild done by Sunday, with the engine back in the car. I’m fortunate to have a father who has built performance engines for years, and he has a lift. Fingers crossed.

 

[Svtrit]

All done and running, but chasing oil leaks….

 

[billymade]

The bad valve cover and oil cooler gasket; are common leak points and stripped out threads for the drain plug, missing gaskets, can cause oil leaks as well.

 

[Svtrit]

I ordered the oil cooler gasket. The new valve cover gasket really slowed down the engine oil leak. I need a new trans pan anyway, so I ordered that along with a filter and dipstick tube/cap assembly.

im hoping that’s the end of it all. The first snow hit, so warm days are few and far between now. Working on cars loses its fun in a hurry!

 

[billymade]

Did you add the silicone sealer; to the corners and other areas, shown in the service manual?

I found, when I replaced my oil cooler seal; my oil dip stick levels, stopped going down so much and constant topping off.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Svtrit]

Did you add the silicone sealer; to the corners and other areas, shown in the service manual?

I found, when I replaced my oil cooler seal; my oil dip stick levels, stopped going down so much and constant topping off.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I did. Prior to doing the engine removal, I bought a Haynes manual, which has been priceless. Also, the leak from the back of the engine stopped after the new valve cover gasket. Now the oil is dripping from the oil pan bolt at the transmission. Since the oil cooler gasket is a known issue, and it’s really wet in that area, I will give that a shot.
Thanks for checking.

 

[billymade]

Good work! The valve cover gasket, is a typical oil leak issue and the others, like the oil cooler rubber seal. When i removed my oil cooler seal, the heat over the years and over 100k; made it really hard and it was unable to seal anymore, same with my valve cover gasket.