Smell inside cab

Well I spent the past 2 days researching on-line what is causing my fumes in the cabin of the car. Some forums say exhaust leak and others point toward the emissions system. I hooked up my OBD computer and it says no problems. I think I will take it into the local german autoworks and see what they have to say. Will give an update after the service.

1.8 liter Turbo

My 1999 VW Passat

This VW has approx 165,000 miles on it. It is in good shape and runs well. It does burn some oil and there is some slight noise coming from the front suspension. I think I need to replace the front control arms? Here is a link to the part. I am thinking about doing it myself so if anyone out there has ever done it before please provide comments as too how hard or easy it was and any other advice.

Computer Problem

Here is a picture of the passenger side of the engine bay in my 1999 VW Passat. This is where the air filter is. Anyways, I attached an OBD reader(a must have tool) to my car. The OBD reader said I was having a misfire on cylinders number 2 and 4 and the car was running terrible. I read on-line about how some people (especially 2002) were having problems with their coils.

Coils in general will wear out over time. This will cause a misfire condition. In engines like this with one coil per cylinder you can diagnose a coil by putting a timing light on each one to make sure it is lighting the light consistently. So I skipped the timing light test (because I do not own a tiiming light) and ordered up a couple ignition coils. I thought I had it all figured out.

Well the coils did not good. Back to the internet I go and if found somone who had the same error readings that was fixed with a new computer module.  So, I bought a used computer module from the junkyard(hey they guaranteed it) and replaced it in no time. It was an easy fix and solved my problem.