So tweaking the idle took all of about 1 day, a couple hoses and a new gasket and that was it really, idles nicely now.
The only other major mechanical work I need to do is to replace the alternator wiring - it's nearly totally frayed off and doesn't exude confidence. I'll tackle it when the weather is better. Also bought a windscreen which is now sitting in the car, will also arrange for that to be fitted in probably a month from now once bubs has arrived and settled down a bit (due any day now!!).
Largely been busy with cleaning up the interior, which is usually my favourite way to acquaint with a new car purchase. Stripped out the carpets and seats, peeled off the seat fabrics and ran them through a couple of wash cycles. Jet washed the carpet and soaked in detergent in the bathtub a few times. Took about 3 cycles to get all the dirt and grime out and scrubbed myself to death but it's almost good as new now!
The factory original radio is still present in the car which is great - which motivated me to find a way to add bluetooth connectivity without the usual aftermarket radio solution. Many years ago I replaced the cassette wiring in my first car with an aux cable so I thought I could probably come up with a similar solution but with bluetooth.
(Yes I know FM transmitters and cassette to aux things exist - but I wanted a near-invisible solution and tinkering is always more fun!!)
So I bought a bluetooth to aux + microphone module off ebay and pulled the radio apart and started probing things with a multimeter to work out what goes where. Wasn't too hard in the end, the cassette deck is plugged into the main board with a dedicated plug so simply pulled that out and wired the module in place of it.
Red - positive to cassette module
Brown - trigger wire to switch radio into cassette mode (normally by way of a spring switch activated by inserting a cassette). Normally live and is cut off when cassette is inserted
Orange/yellow/green - aux +/-/gnd
Blue - Reverse cassette indicator light trigger
To allow the ability to switch between radio and 'cassette' mode without inserting a cassette I wired in a switch that cuts off the brown wire and cable tied it to the cassette flap. Tucked in the bluetooth module which sat very nicely:
Covered the now exposed cassette slot around the switch with some tape to keep the dust out and reassembled the head unit. Unless you look straight on you can't see the switch, but this is what the end result looks like:
Works beautifully and is completely reversible simply by pulling the module out!
Still sounds like a 40yo car audio system (tinny and flat) but there's a certain charm about it that I really like in an old car as its part of the whole driving experience. If I want a good sound system I'll just take the Passat.
