Just trying to do a couple of little projects on my old 79 240D this weekend. Initially I was going to work on figuring out why my dome light and light buzzer wasn't working when I opened the drivers door.

I suspected it was the switch, but alas, I was wrong. Came in and searched the forum, which led me to pull out the seatbelt warning relay. Sure enough, some of the metal on the board had curled up and broken. I soldered a wire and that fixed it.

I also wanted to pull my console and check the bulbs (it was real dim and the rheostat wasn't dimming or brightening it). I was gonna jumper it, but pulled it and found that it had already been done. My bulbs were pretty bad looking though (smoky). Replaced the bulbs, painted the reflectors white and painted my gauge needles orange. It's much brighter now.

I was going to put everything back together but decided at the last minute to pull the cruise control amp off again and give it a shot. I had previously re-soldered the points on the connector, but that wasn't the problem. This time I went ahead and resoldered the entire thing (well, melted all of the points), which fixed it.

Those long drives at night will be much better now, being able to see my gauges and resting my feet.

Next weekend I guess I'll be tracking down that vacuum leak that keeps my doors from unlocking. (After the car sits for a couple of minutes there's no vacuum left). Also, I found out that I can open the trunk when the doors are locked - I apparently was not turning the lock correctly before. That was becoming a real pain in the rain.

I love this car. I wasn't sure when I bought it if I would feel comfortable enough with it to sell my Jetta - I mean, this car is older than me, but it's so easy to work on. About the only thing I could do myself on the Jetta was change the oil.

after removing how many pieces of lower skidplates, sound deadeding material, and those stupid plastic snaps..

my buddy with his 05 TDI wont change his oil because of that procedure.. he will do the oil on his caddy(rabbit pikcup) and his wifes saab

None. My plastic oil pan cover had been beaten off a couple of years ago. But I went to using a Pela pump instead. I would totally recommend one for a small engine. Just stick the tube in the dipstick, pump a few times and watch it fill up.

ive been meaning to invest in a topsider (what we call the thing you have)

Yeah, mine is too small for the 240, and I'm probably not going to bother getting a bigger one since I can at least get under this car to change it. It was a must for the TDI though. It's apparently real easy to strip the oil plug on them.