Hi all, as it's too hot outside to do anything I thought I'd post up about my first foray into the world of VAG cars. For the last 5 years I've been tooling around in a Peugeot 306 estate 2.0 HDI Meridian, I bought it from a collegue in 2010 with 181,000 on the clock! It now has 237,000 on it, great little car that served me really well and apart from replacing the clutch gave me no major expenditures or problems but it's time was drawing to a close so I started to think about what to replace it with.
I don't really do enough miles to justify a diesel, and heard more than a few horror stories about DPF and stuff so I decided to go back to petrol. I like quite obscure cars, my fun car until recently was a Vauxhall Carlton GSI3000 24v but I sold it as I wasn't using it enough and parts were becoming hard to find, (Goodwood track day 2013)
this was also there on the day, though he did have a bit of an off (notice the mud)
I was considering a Subaru Legacy spec. B 3.0 but the fuel economy was just too much for a daily driver and I didn't want anything that specialized so my initial favourite was a Ford Focus 2.0 zetec as they'd always seemed to get good press, I'd always liked the look of the Golf GTI which also got really good reviews, but assumed they'd be out of my price range so I was delighted to discover that I could get a decent one within my budget. One thing I was wary of was the complication of them so I joined this forum to get insider knowledge on what to look out for etc.
I'd decided on the spec of car I wanted as thus;
Met Grey 5 door
17" wheels
Leather
No sunroof
Cruise control
Manual
Centre armrest.
And this is what I ended up buying;
As you can see I didn't quite meet
ALL of my criteria
I got;
Met black 3 door
Cloth seats
No sunroof
Manual
18" wheels
No cruise
Centre armrest
Car was advertised on ebay near Bognor Regis, 3 previous owners, 114k miles, full VW history + 1 specialist, clean HPI check and wasn't too far away so I thought it was worth a look as the price was very keen. I was very impressed with to overall condition of the car and if anything the seller under described it. The car had nearly new Michelin Pilot sport 3's all round, new disc and pads all round and a milltek cat back exhaust, the interior was really clean & it was obvious the previous owners really cared for it, one of the other things I liked was the fact that the stereo had been replaced by a single DIN Kenwood unit as I like to have all my music on a USB stick so it would save me messing around changing it (or so I thought! this would actually open a can of worms that I'll document in the ICE section).
So I test drove it and straight away was really impressed with the torque spread of the engine having never driven one before. So I made an offer which the seller accepted and as a bonus he delivered it the next day as he was travelling up my way to pick up another car in Guildford. As it was the end of October and the cambelt was due for renewal, I decided to garage it and let winter batter the Peugeot once more until the insurance expired in March.
Whilst it was hibernating I gave it a full service (plugs, oil, all the filters) with help from the how to guides on here, I'm always nervous about working on a new car as you're never sure if things previously have been over tightened or threads have been stripped etc, I also fitted one of these,
It's a drain valve that replaces the sump plug, I had one on the Carlton as that had an alloy sump and stripped threads were a common problem on them, but with the valve it's fitted once and then that's it! It also make draining the oil a doddle as you attach the drain key and the oil flows down the tube straight into an empty 5 litre container so there's no dribbles!
Thankfully all went smoothly & then I learnt about the HPFP cam follower issue so I thought I'd better replace it which I managed despite the usual banjo bolt access problems, only to find that the one fitted looked virtually brand new which was slightly annoying considering the struggle I'd gone to removing it but further proof that the car had caring ownership in the past but I replaced it anyway seing I'd bought a new one already. In a moment of idle curiosity I thought I'd check that the locking wheel nut key was the correct one and sure enough it wasn't! So I got the correct one off ebay, good job I checked before I got the car on the road
I was also in the market for a new Sat Nav and after browsing the forum (Damn this forum!
) I decided I wanted an integrated unit so I settled on a Kenwood DNX521DAB which I managed to source locally on ebay and fitted but that threw up eye opening wiring "solutions"
carried out previously that'll document properly in the ICE section but ultimately all got fitted and working before I had to get the car on the road. Looking back it was quite fortunate that I chose to do all this whilst the car wasn't being used as it meant that I could leave the car in pieces whilst waiting for parts etc.
Once the car was on the road the first thing I did was get the cambelt changed. I entrusted this to LMK Service my local VAG specialist despite living a 5 minute walk from a VW dealer (they wanted £470, LMK charged £390 inc. water pump) as they have a good reputation and then it was time to fully enjoy the GTI
Other stuff I've added since is:
Fitted Rainbow speaker kit (nightmare!)
Fitted cruise control,
GTI seat handle badges
Genuine VW boot floor mat
VW oil top up kit
VW safety kit
And now I'm loving the GTI !
