Without headlight protectors, clutter it up too much for me!

Dents have come up well.

Where did you get the new aerial gasket from? VW? i need a new one as mines split

Yeah, I know, not sure if I like them or not, BUT.. Function over form, I DO NOT wan't to pay £400 for one headlight casing!

Gasket from Ebay HERE

Just smack it in some hot water for 5 mins then it pops straight over the aerial and pushes in.. Saves removing the headlining.

Apparently VW do a gasket set, but my retard parts man couldn't find it and at £60+ for a new aerial I passed.

Brilliant, Cheers!

Cheers from me too... I need one as well :)

Nice one!

Been a long long time since I have updated, been a busy boy though... So I'll start at the top...

First up... More pictures of the photoshoot a few posts up...

I decided to give the GTi a bit attention it deserves...

First up decided to change the xenon bulbs for some Osram Cool Blue D2S ones. They are 5000k compared to the Osram 4200k supplied by VW as standard. Should be just as bright but give a bit of a blue tint to make them look a little more modern. Also fitted some matching White LED sidelight and some Osram night breaker full beam bulbs.. I have some LED fog and number plate bulbs on order but the seller is messing me about.. Don't have a photo of them fitted as yet.. But here are the parts...

Also decided to give it a full service and some love.. Genuine VW Parts only... Forgot to include Oil in the picture, but used Castrol Magnetec 10w40, it's been used it's entire life!

Managed to get my grubby mittens on my stepdads DSLR... Shhh, don't tell him! 8)

Genuine VW Clutch cable.. It was the original at 113k and was causing some sudden jumping of the clutch when first used in the morning so was probably sticking.. You can see the difference in the pic!

Mmmmm.. Fresh!

Pollen filter, original was a VW one (as is the replacement) so guessing a good few years old looking at the state of it! Surprisingly no more steamy windows after I fitted this..

Replacement HT's for Genuine VW items, one of the originals was split and electrical taped to stop it arcing..

New VW spark plugs, exactly the same as the ones fitted by the previous owner who used GSF items, just twice as expensive, I think the VW symbol gives 10bhp

Also fitted a replacement coil, all the 6n2 (petrol engine) coils are the same. My original had corroded contacts and was also missing one contact!!! My new one had mint contacts.. It's hard to see in the picture, but the contacts are mint, trust! Don't have a picture of the old one as it went straight in the bin!

New fuel filter, Judging by the service history I think the original has never been changed!! Made a school buy error and removed the old one without checking the flow direction! (It goes towards the passenger side by the way )

Fitted a new rear microswitch and boot mech due to my boot light not working.. Only wanted a microswitch but the VW guy had one of these in stock so gave me the full unit at the same price as the switch

Turned out the switch had corroded

Also fitted a new throttle cable, I know these cars use EPC (drive by wire) but they have a little cable above the pedal and a metal fixing which twists the potentiometer (the device which reads the throttle position) this part becomes slack and twists causing a low pedal (as I described a few posts above). A low pedal obviously means you can't get full throttle, according to VAGCOM mine was getting 78% throttle at the lowest pedal point!!!

Absolute pain in the F*****G A**E to fit, had to remove the drives seat, all of the dash undertrays to just get enough space for one hand to reach it.. I will do a proper DIY guide to solve the issue soon.. This is the part needed:

It's one of the parts linked to number 22 at the bottom of the picture.. In short, the hole on the above part is pushed onto to a splined shaft on the throttle potentiometer (the cylinder thing in the below picture, also part of 22) using a bolt. When the pedal is pressed, the cable is pulled thus twisting the metal section and of course the potentiometer. This metal part and cable eventually twists and wears causing a lower than normal pedal position. You can't see on the above picture, but the used item has a spline in the hole and the new item doesn't. The spline is created when you tighten the bolt up, which shows how soft the metal is so it's obvious why it eventually twists.

Basically you have to lie on you back and put your hand through where I have circled whilst looking at it all from underneath.. Holding the original cable tight from underneath whilst undoing the bolt from the circled hole. The bolt is not very tight so is relativity easy as long as you have girly small hands, which I don't. When both your hands are in place you can't see a thing so Jedi powers are a must here.

A zoom in of the position of the part to be replaced.. You can see how far back it is..

I removed the entire pedal for ease of fitting.. It's actually essential to remove this if you want to use your hand from underneath. Refitting is basically reverse of removal, although you have to hold the pedal in the position you want it to stay, but do this without actually fastening the pedal in place.. 3 hands are preferred here, or use your head/teeth to hold the pedal like I did.

As said earlier I changed the oil for Magnetec and I also fitted a ECS magnetic sump plug, I will update whether this works or not in 6,000 miles!

Car in pieces!!

Also fitted the front car mates, Official GTi ones.. Rears are on back order and should be arriving soon.

Overall, the car drives much much nicer now!! It's a lot quieter and rev's much more freely! Yay! :p

Also fitted a new clutch kit a few months ago, only just dug out the photo's

Went for the Sachs kit due to so many recommendations + it was half the price of the VW Vaelo one.

The original one went at 112,000 believe it or not, still had lif on the plate skin too!

New Vs Old, as you can see, loads of life left, just one of the springs had snapped, not bad going for 112k!

Clutch fitted:

Release bearing fitted:

Also changed a few O-rings whilst I was at it...

The clutch was much much lighter and well worth the effort!

Not long after fitting the clutch I was getting the emissions light on the dash, VAGCOM pointed to the pre-cat lambda. It was misfiring badly and runnign like crap. After changing the coil, HT leads, spark plugs still no joy.

Turned out to be a split wire on the engine loom side leading towards the pre-cat lambda..

I tried to solder the split wires but they had snapped too close to the plug

Managed to get hold of a spare section of loom from a good mate:

Soldered it all up good and proper and it's still fine a good 1000+ miles later!

Last on my update is changing the gearbox oil. This was last done 18 months ago and 14,000 miles...

Just look how dirty it was after such a short time:

Especially compared to the new stuff from VW... Lifetime oil apparently. My arse!

Expect another DIY guide on gearbox oil changes!!

Just found some nice pics from just before Leeds VW Fesitval..

Not a bad looker for 10 years old and 113k if I say so myself!

Would be rude not to throw this bad boy in.. 180-ish BHP, 175,000 miles and drives like a dream. I'd sell my bottom for this car.

Bit of an update,

My LED fog and number plate lights came.. Finally..

Original fog light:

LED fog light:

original and LED fog light:

Some pics, day and night....

The fog lights aren't as bright as the originals, but bring the car into the modern age, they are more like daytime running lights if anything... Think I'm going to get some xenon's for the fog lights at some point..

It's staying!!

As some of you will have seen my GTi was up for sale, I had crap interest, timewasters, test pilots and tyre kickers... I'm fed up with it and going to stick with the car for a while longer... Until early next year at least. Depends how my plans go...

And in hind sight I'm an idiot for trying to sell this car.. Everybody and I mean EVERYBODY comments on the car, from enthusiasts, rude boy's, chavs, grannies, middle aged people etc etc... Plus even fellow GTi owners comment how well it pulls compared to their own... It's truly a keeper..

I'm getting some cheap-ish coilovers next week (temporary until I save up for some good-uns) , some 16" wheels as soon as I find some I want... I was thinking some BBS RXII's in 16" and go for that OEM+ look, but I was helping my mate fit some motorsport wheels to his E36 328i - Compomotive MO's 8x17 with racing wet's.. 100% Genuine BTCC wheels and tyres by the way... I wouldn't mind some in 16" - But anyway, it got me thinking.....

I have always wanted to get into track days and racing cars... I practically fix everything on my cars and I love geometry, car set ups, anything engineering and getting cars performing to their optimum,, What a waste doing this to a car and not utilising it.... So.. Why not track day this GTi? It's light, nippy and a 1600 so would be good for the sub 1600 n/a class... it'll take some work and a good few thousand pounds to get it ready.. but meh... why not.. I could go out and spend it on other usless stuff, why not on something I enjoy.. The car isn't worth a great deal in hind sight and potentially I will be getting a brand new car in the next year-ish meaning the GTi can become a real track weapon/toy... Something I have dreamed about since I fell in love with cars as a young boy...

So, I'm preparing the GTi for track use early next year.. All bearing are getting replaced, brakes upgraded to 280mm, grooved and drilled (same goes for rear) including braided hoses and some good pads.. New bushes and engine mounts all around... Rebuilt gearbox is a must with upgraded diff rivets (read high-tensile bolts) and 5th gear bearing with new CV joints all around.. Maybe a Quaife diff could be in the pipeline...?

I'm already in discussion with a mate who used to work for a certain VW performance tuning company doing their CAD models for intake and exhaust manifolds and he has experience with 600+bhp 1.8t's... So a little 1.6 polo should be easy enough to play with... A fully custom 4 branch (similar to the KAM racing Lupo one) and matching exhaust system with a high-flow cat is in the pipeline.. Obviously a group buy batch will be on offer... I'm hoping for figures of 10bhp+ with this... A re-map will follow suit...

Cams + port and polished head is a must when I finally get my well deserved pay-rise... I'm hoping for figures of 170bhp+ This will be a lairy ass cam.. I love lumpy cam induced idles...

And yes.. I know 1.8t's have more power, tune-ability and stuff.. But realistically it's a £3,000 conversion for a boring 1.8t. Give me a screaming, light, 16v anyday of the week. Spend the same amount on this engine and your onto something truly special. The last rev happy 16v engine VW made in my opinion, someone needs to do something with it...

Everybody, discuss...

Got some genuine VAG front top mounts with bearings and looking fir some JOM coilovers which are in stock as everywhere are out of stock....

Coilovers arrived... Took 3 days direct from Germany.. Quickest o could get them in the uk was 3 weeks!!! What a joke..

I have these fully built up, copper greased up for the winter and will be fitted today...

Got them all fitted, copper greased up for the winter so they should hopefully last...

I have major scrubbing issues.. All down to the circled bit where the bumper meets the arch, I think I'm going to have to do some major fabrication.. Cut the section back, remove the fixing and relocate it further back..

My car isn't that low and it still scrubs due to the wheel size, if I'm doing this I'm doing it properly!!

Little teaser picture:

You've done a lot in a day

Good work man

Wow! you haven't half looked after her mate!

and sorry about the ht lead haha, it was just a temp fix lol....

You've done a lot in a day

Good work man

Haha,

Yeah, I didn't update it on here for ages so just copied and pasted.... More to come too!

Wow! you haven't half looked after her mate!

and sorry about the ht lead haha, it was just a temp fix lol....

Don't worry, it was still fine when it was removed, I just replaced it because I'm gay like that!!

Such a clean and well kept example I'm thinking, should you really mod it?? Lol

Such a clean and well kept example I'm thinking, should you really mod it?? Lol

Yes... It's happening.. It's not going to be chavy, or distasteful (much :-D )... I want to track it so it needs modifying, stiffening up etc.. Everything which is getting done will be either VW parts or better. No cheapo parts here (Ok, the JOM coilovers aren't great, but not car damaging bad and they are temporary)..

It's clean, but not that clean, needs some minor bodywork here and there..

Everything will be reversible if I ever want to sell it standard.. That is until the multi-point roll cage is fitted which will be welded to the chassis and through the dash/firewall and onto the struts -But by that point I'm hoping it'll be my 2nd car so will be a weekend/track toy.

Just bought some Eibach camber bolts so I can fine tune the front camber properly!

Also got some of these, Eibach 15mm, hubcentric with longer bolts.. I ideally want some which bolt to the hub first, but these will do..

Edited 4 November, 201015 yr by MrP

Look what just arrived..

Looking for an arch roller myself, Where and how much?

i've got alot of love for this, and well played for doing it all yourself on the parking grid! looking forward to seeing where this goes.

MrP, i love the effort and the car is sweet.

But is it just me that reads this thread and wishes you were putting this effort in to a GT or G40?

I followed your old threads religously before i ever owned my first GT.

Keep up the good work man!