Carl's TR GTI

[CarlW]

Hi all,

I decided i wanted to go a little further up the ladder in the scene of Golf's after starting with a 1.4, 1.6 and now the 2L Rita

I was looking for months and the longer I was looking, the more money I was spending out of my budget so eventually, i took the plunge on one that had came up cheap in the area. It wasn't perfect by any means but for what i'd saved on the price, i'd be spending on sorting the bad bits out.

Anyhow... This is it...





Spec as I purchased:
Tartan heated seats
Headlight washers
17" Monza's
Climate Control
Midline clocks
Armrest with 6CD Changer
RCD300
Rear armrest
Flat bottom steering wheel
Some blue silicone hoses by previous owner.. Not a fan of these at all on a red car so these will be getting swapped out for original parts.

So from when i purchased it, my first stop was the Shell garage and getting used to digging a little deeper in the pocket and filling up with V-Power Wouldn't use anything else





First thing I did after buying the car was buy a bunch of detailing gear to help keep the old girl looking good. I'd learnt from the forum that what I had been doing with my old cars was not good. So i threw the sponges away, stopped the hand polishing and spent time, learning what I should be doing.





I haven't had the use out of it so far but I've had a go with the DA on one panel. I've decided to wait until i can make some space in the garage as i've found the weather limits what you can do if your outside as it's either too warm or raining.





I've had a go at getting rid of the oxidisation on the headlights which I'm pretty pleased with so thats a start

Before


After







After some time of keeping it clean and looking at mods and this and that... The slippery slope started.

I got myself an RCD510 which I later swapped out for a DAB version.
An MDI dock
GTI seat inlays
OEM GTI Carpets
Next thing was two tyres needed replacing so I thought whilst I'm at it I may as well get rid of the budgets on the rear and have all 4 matching and decent quality tyres.











Because the new headunit lighting was different to the rest of the interior lighting, I got myself a set of R32 dials so the lighting now matches with the headunit. As well as that, I had the added bonus of the highline screen now which is a big improvement. Credit to @skard for this. Brilliant fella and knows his stuff

Before and after..





@skard helped out again and scanned the car for faults which resulted in these..







Since the scan, it's been to a trusted garage in Darlington and after inspection, an oil leak, coolant leak, coolant fan fault and the torn diverter valve were found so I got it booked in to get it all sorted.

Following this, It was M.O.T'd. One of the rear springs was cracked and a nail was found in a tyre so had that sorted and got my 'Pass' certificate

As for now, I'm due to go to London on a work placement so there won't be much happening but here's a list of mods to do in the future in no particular order..

Likely:
MK6 MFSW
Fiscon Basic + bluetooth kit
Bigger Brakes
Coilovers
Wheels
Boot lid / Full Front End / Roof resprayed
P3 Cars Boost gauge
Hella Rear lights
Interior switches
Dash & Door inserts  carbon wrapped
3" Downpipe + 100 / 200 cel sports cat
Remap
Xenon's

More Unlikely:
K04 Turbo upgrade
R32 wingback bucket seats
Colour change to something unique

[MateyGuv]

Looking great mate  Excellent result with the headlights 

[CarlW]

Thanks, chip away at it a bit at a time and bring it back to its former glory

[skard]

Glad you are getting the niggles looked at Carl, I have a non ripped C DV here if needed.

Great you still like the clocks, midline to highline is one of the best mods on a mk5 

[CarlW]

Glad you are getting the niggles looked at Carl, I have a non ripped C DV here if needed.

Great you still like the clocks, midline to highline is one of the best mods on a mk5 

Thanks buddy
I've already ordered the G revision DV due to reading all the reviews and recommendations

[DamoP]

about tome you got a thread up carl. looks like you have started well

[Andy]

lookin good Carl

[AndyBrown]

Nice mate.
Why you planning on getting it detailed? You've got pretty much all the gear there mate?

[CarlW]

Cheers lads,

As for getting it detailed, i meant it in a way of doing it myself but with the handy tips and keen eye of a detailer to help me with getting the best results etc.
Just a personal preference really rather than diving right in there. Saying that though i've had a little go already with it but i think i'd feel better, doing it under some sort of supervision to be sure.

Missed one or two things out like pictures of LED's and Door warning lights which aren't fully working at the moment but will hopefully be able to resolve this in the near future.

Will be ticking off some things on my "Things To Do" list when I get back from London and find myself a job to fill in a few months too so keep an eye out

[skard]

Buy my Eddy when you get back, comes with a Basic Plus and ED30 MFSW :)

[CarlW]

If I had more money, I'd buy it without a doubt

[Sjw_Vw]

Very nice

[CarlW]

So it's time for another update as I've laid low for a while

Here's some extra toys I got delivered around January time just before I went to London..

MK6 MFSW + Fiscon Basic Plus Kit




When I got back from London i had them fitted by @skard again





Not long after these I wanted to improve the brakes after I had a close call at a roundabout one night. So I got myself the full S3 kit.





After installing them, the discs were playing up so I got myself some replacements..





Made a massive improvement and I couldn't recommend them enough to anyone who still has the stock setup, yes you gain a bit more weight up front but it's nothing a remap won't solve if thats the way you plan to go anyway...
Appearance-wise too they just look the nuts behind the stock 17's. Only downside I find now is cleaning these wheels as you can't get behind the caliper even with brushes I struggle so I plan to replace the 17's with some 18's and lighter too.





After this, i had an issue with the dreaded oil pressure light coming on which put the sh*ts up me when the alarm went off for it.
The car was due a service too so I got everything I needed to do it all at once. After a full day on the drive, it was back to normal again, much quieter and felt healthier.







Got the odd picture so you can see what it was like. Gave the sump a real good clean up to get all the burnt crud off. This is after about 20 minutes of cleaning the worst of it off...





This is what the old oil pickup pipe looked like. For what the part cost, I replaced it rather than washing the old one out etc.





I also replaced the cam follower and really glad I did as there was no evidence of this ever being replaced by the previous owners.





After all this happened, I got my battery looked at as I had been having some trouble with starts. Found the battery was running at less than a third of what it should have been so I got this replaced with the E44 Varta as its well rated on the forum and a bit of an upgrade from the stock battery.





Since this, it's been great, just been keeping it clean and enjoying it for what it is. Still looking for things to buy which reminds me.. I got this delivered.





To finish off, I'll leave you's with my new addition to my cleaning kit... A little fella a.k.a my nephew He's a good egg.





Mods done to date:

RCD510 DAB
Boot pop via key fob
Beep upon locking the car via key fob
Seat inlays
Fission Basic + Bluetooth kit
MDI dock
MK6 MFSW
R32 Clocks with highline display
LED lights
Door Warning Lights
LED number plate lights
Full S3 Big Brake Kit
Goodyear Eagle F1 Assy 2 x4
SuperPro Poly Bushes up front + Engine mount insert
PowerFlex Black bushes at the rear
Original Engine Hoses replacing the blue hoses that came with the car.
Rev G Diverter Valve
Cam Follower replaced


I also forgot to mention that I have had the bushes replaced.
At the rear: PU Powerflex black ones have been installed, this was a bit of a mess up as I had ordered the purple ones for street use but never the less, i had them installed. Up front at a later date I got the SuperPro PU bushes, all except the ARB as later on I plan to replace the ARB's with H&R but undecided yet.

The timing chain has been done too making the car soooo much quieter. Over the moon with it.

Also, some bad news... Some clown has scrubbed my front bumper taking off some of the paint so I now have to budget to have this repaired. The bonnet is damaged anyway and the wing is bubbling but due to being resprayed by previous owner, will not qualify for warranty work by VW so now my next job is to have the full front end sprayed somewhere in the North East / Darlington area or possibly Preston area so if anyone has any recommendations, that would be great.

I think over the next year, I would like to add some lightweight 18" wheels and Michelin PS3 tyres, H&R springs, 3" downpipe with 100Cel Sports cat and a map. Will no doubt need a clutch by then too so thats to be kept in mind. I would also like an induction kit as my air intake has a broken lug at the front where its attached at the front of the bay therefore it has caused the top panel that clips on to fall off onto the road somewhere, so I'm looking into what everyone has and their reviews. Don't want something ridiculously loud but i'd like a bit of noise.

[skard]

Very good Carl, lots of small thankless jobs done that keep the car right. You are well past the 'should I map it?' stage 

Seems like I had so much time spare last time you popped by

Just put new brakes on my car and kept the 18's, it is like the S3 setup has 20x more space to the wheel, ridiculously tight in there

[CarlW]

It's the little things that count , I keep putting off the map as every time I seem to have saved money, something breaks or needs money spending on it. It's the thought of the clutch letting go that puts me off because I know I don't have the money to replace it yet.

Still haven't seen your latest car yet, sometime next year I may make a visit again to return your screwdriver as well as sort these door warning lights out properly Have you not got a thread up on here yet for the S4?