ChrisGT's Black 5 door GT TDI 170

[ChrisGT]

Got the interior lights swapped for the LED's today and they look so much better!! Can't wait to see what they're like when it gets dark tonight!

I'm sure you'll have seen this all before but here's a few before and afters:

















I also did the foot well lights and the light in the boot but didn't bother getting pictures of them. Much nicer with the white light. Was tempted by the blue tint ones but pleased that I stuck with the white.

Chris

[ChrisGT]

Fitted seat adjuster badges.

Decided on red GT ones. There was a lot of choice, red, blue, black, gt, gt tdi, tdi.... but decided on the red GT ones as I think my colour theme will be black and red for the car.





Cheers,

Chris

[RBS]

Nice

[ChrisGT]

Thanks mate, still got a long way to go but for having only owned it a couple of weeks I'm happy with the progress 

Chris

[Andy]

The new bulbs make a massive difference,looks good  Chris

[ChrisGT]

Thanks Maxitrol, 

Really pleased with them, only took a few minutes to change them and they're great. Was out for a drive last night and was dark when I got home, when the interior lights came on as I was getting out the car it was just like daylight in there! haha. Such a nice white light not too intense just nice and bright.

Chris

[ChrisGT]

So had a check to see if the injector recall had been done to my car by any of the previous owners.

First thing to check the service book and nothing in there and then checked the boot of the car for the 23H9 campaign sticker, nothing there.

Phoned VW UK customer services and the very helpful lady called Laura went through all the records that she had for the car including VW dealer services the car has had etc. She said that she had a record of the car having had warranty work done in 2012 (which was around the time of the injector campaign) and also told me that there were no campaigns outstanding for the car. She then registered me on their system as the owner for any further correspondence and gave me the number for the garage where the car had gone for some work so that I could phone them to find out if they had any more information.

Very pleased with the service from Laura at VWUK CS and hopefully if I have to phone them again about anything then it'll be just as good 

Next thing was to phone the garage she had given me the number for - there was a note in the service log for 2008 of the car having had a complete new engine fitted and I wanted to know more - Amazingly the garage still had a record of this and said that it had been replaced due to a leaking engine block. The lady there also said that they had on their records of warranty work having been done to the car in 2012 but had no further info on that.

Considering there are no VW garages in Shetland and that I would have to take the car on an overnight boat trip to Aberdeen at a cost of a few hundred quid to get it physically checked I'm happy enough to assume that because there are no outstanding warranty campaigns and that they have a record of warranty work being carried out in 2012 that the injectors and loom etc have been changed and can now forget about that.

[ChrisGT]

swapped over hazard switch to the cherry red one, much nicer.

Only took a few minutes to change it too.





Chris

[ChrisGT]

Next plans!!

I would like to blank off the egr. I am planning on just putting in a blanking plate between the egr pipe and the inlet, rather than removing the egr and pipe and cooler (which is a bit harder to get to on the BMN engine apparently), therefore keeping the engine looking stock as well. I would then get the egr mapped out (more on this in a minute).

I haven't taken any of the inlet pipes/manifold apart yet so have no idea how gungy and blocked up it is in there but have been reading about replacing the plastic manifold with the alloy manifold from the BKD (140) engine. I see that darkside developments have a kit for this: http://www.darksidedevelopments.co.uk/products/ppd170-used-bkd-aluminium-inlet-manifold-conversion-kit.html
The reason being that it gets rid of the inlet flaps and the plastic manifold which is fitted to the BMN (170) engine. I am thinking that rather than trying to clean what's on the car already I might as well replace the inlet manifold at the same time as blanking off the egr and getting it remapped.

So, to the remap. There is a rep up here in Shetland for Celtic tuning who has very good reports from several people. I contacted him and spoke for a little while about the options and he was very helpful. I enquired at first just about getting the egr mapped out which he said would cost £200. He said that if I went for a stage one remap as well as the egr delete then he would charge £250. I really wasn't looking for more power than the standard 170ish as that is more than I've had in any car before and is more than enough for the roads/my driving style etc. However if I am to go ahead with the egr delete map it would be rude not to pay only an extra £50 and get it unleashed a bit more. 

Celtic tuning claims that their stage one map will take the car to just over 210bhp and just over 300lb/ft which sounds pretty good and not going to be putting too much more stress on the original parts (turbo,clutch etc). There are no rolling roads to test the car before or after on up here. Like I said I'm not that bothered about getting every last drop of power out of it so even if it's only going to get me a bit extra and smooth it out more then I'd be happy with that. https://www.celtictuning.co.uk/component/ctvc/volkswagen/golf-mk5-1k-2004-2008/diesel/2-0-tdi-pd-167-bhp-2004-2008/stage-1?year=2007#t3-content

I have heard horror stories of pretty much everything written above... celtic tuning (like most tuning companies I might add) have some bad reviews albeit mostly not recent reviews. I have read that removing the egr can in fact have a negative impact on the dpf... I have also read of people who have said that having had their car remapped had a negative effect on their dpf and that it did a lot more regens than before it was remapped. Removing the dpf is now illegal as far as the MOT is concerned and I am not wanting to remove it. Yes, you can open it up, gut it and weld it up so that it looks stock but I'm not interested in going down that road.

When I asked the celtic tuning guy about the dpf issue he assured me that their maps are made to run as clean as possible to keep emissions good and to stop their being trouble with dpf's etc. He followed this up with "lots of black reek out the exhaust isn't a good advert for the company" which is of course right. haha.

I hope at least a couple of you have managed to read this far and might offer some advice on the subject.

Thanks,

Chris

[csrigo]

Hi mate just had a wee nosey at your build thread very nice car you got btw I like your attention to detail and getting the little bits that make a big difference like your leds, seat inserts, and maintenance parts etc a good way to go about it IMHO.

On your last post im all for swaying you to the dark side and getting it mapped at the same time...definitely think you would be happy with it

Oh and your boxes of detailing products puts mine to shame...impressive lol

[ChrisGT]

Hi mate just had a wee nosey at your build thread very nice car you got btw I like your attention to detail and getting the little bits that make a big difference like your leds, seat inserts, and maintenance parts etc a good way to go about it IMHO.

On your last post im all for swaying you to the dark side and getting it mapped at the same time...definitely think you would be happy with it

Oh and your boxes of detailing products puts mine to shame...impressive lol

Thanks very much 

It's amazing how the little changes really make the car so much nicer. Going to do a full service oils filters etc in the next couple of weeks when I have some free time to do it.

I'm still trying to decide if I should get the alloy inlet manifold to replace the plastic one, because I want to do that before I get it mapped etc... Not a huge amount of info on the subject on the forum but have searched a bit on a few other forums and seems to be a good mod. Trying to decide if I should buy it from darkside or source the bits myself and clean them up as it'll probably be cheaper that way.

Pretty much decided for sure that I'm getting the stage one remap when I get the egr done and I'm definitely going to get rid of the egr sometime soon... Like I said just need to decide if I replace the inlet manifold too...

Decisions decisions!! haha

Thanks for looking and the kind words 

Chris

P.S. that is about half my detailing stuff... I have a problem... hahaha 

[ChrisGT]

Spoke to Rob at darkside developments today, he replied very quickly and was very helpful.

I decided to order the inlet manifold kit from them for a few reasons:
1) it comes with everything I'll need - a manifold I know is correct plus gaskets etc
2) it has been properly cleaned so can just go straight on.
3) I don't think it's going to have cost me much more than having sourced all the parts myself plus postage to where I live and then cleaning products etc.

I asked Rob if they did a discount for forum members and he said they didn't but very generously agreed to give me the egr delete plate and gasket FOC 

I was feeling a bit devil may care having just got home from nightshift and cheekily asked if he'd put in a tshirt too but he said he'd only put in the free tshirt if I paid for the EGR plate and gasket. I wasn't really needing the tshirt so went with his original offer. Was maybe a bit cheeky of me but you don't get if you don't ask. 

Anyway, hopefully that'll be here in the next few days and can get new manifold on, egr blanked off and then get it in for egr delete/remap.

Chris

[ChrisGT]

Lovely box of goodies from Darkside developments today.

Manifold looks good as new, new gasket, egr plate and gasket all there too. 

All very well packaged and quick delivery too. 



Chris

[ChrisGT]

Having been reading quite a few older threads over the last few nights then I'm thinking I may invest in a vibra technics sub frame mount. I do get a bit of backlash from the engine when driving it harder so will look into this. Going to get the car over a friends pit soon and just give everything a good check over. Will check the other engine mounts too but the subframe/dogbone seems to be the one recommended to upgrade first (would possibly upgrade the subframe one to the vibra technics one and just replace the others with standard ones if they're knackered.. ).
Will also replace the subframe bolts and washers while I'm at it if I decide to change it.

Currently just accumulating all the bits and pieces necessary for a good service (engine oil and filter, fuel filter, air filter, will check other fluids too.. it's already just had new coolant because of the radiator bursting and I replaced the pollen filter when I got the car.) which I should hopefully get sorted this week. Want to get it all serviced before I get the remap done to make sure it's all running as well as it can first.

Chris

[Matto]

I've never had any issues with mine but I did look into the dog bone bush upgrade. Are you looking at changing the bush itself or fitting the insert? From what I found out when reading up on them is they can transfer quite a bit more vibration into the cabin. I have never run one so cannot coment on how much mind.

Nice look car though mate with some tasteful mods. Out of interest, I see that Darkside supplied you with a cast Alu manifold. Is yours cast at the minute? Mine is plastic.