This morning I finished refreshing all the FI hoses and seals. Kinda a ***** to find all the right parts; I had to special-order the seals from an independent, since MB would only sell them as part of an injector repair kit at $35 apiece! The seals (116 078 04 73) were $1.70 ea. from a local independent. Yeah, I could have gotten them cheaper online, but it would have taken longer.

I did order the protective caps from MB, though. These are the bits listed in the Engine Workshop Manual as "protective sleeves", and now called "locking caps" by MB. Part 000 987 53 45. One thing to note for future reference is that the new caps are designed for the new-style injector tip (with the thin groove near the tip, rather than the wide one a little further down.) I had one of each to recap. It snapped right in on the new-style, but took some persuasion on the old-style, and bulged out slightly. Not a problem with brand new seals.

The new-style and old-style injectors have the same embossed part number, btw, so it's impossible to tell until the cap comes off which one you're looking at. (All of mine had dual barbs.)

Grand total of about $24 in parts (4 caps, 8 seals, 4' of FI hose, and a couple clamps), and about three hours of work over several days. I'm a careful guy, what can I say?

On to the chassis.

psfred, you say "three or four squirts" -- are there any seals I need to worry about blowing when I do this? I accidentally blew a couple grease seals on my Jeep early on, and it's been a real hassle since then, having to lube up about every 1500 miles. Don't want that to happen! On the VW, the MO is "keep pumping until you see new grease oozing out" -- is that more like it?