LC5F's Graphite Blue GTI - Pilgrimage to Caffeine & Machine

[LC5F]

Decided to take advantage of the jubilee weekend to do the remaining items on the Golf: Handbrake cable and Passat alloy hubs with new wheel bearings.
Wanted to get an alignment booked before diving into the hubs, left it too late and here we are with no booking and the place I use is now shut...never mind, dive into the handbrake cables.

I knew the removing the centre console was going to be a PITA, but I had not budgeted for having to remove the drivers seat!  Months ago, I purchased 2 supposedly the same Pagid cables, unsure why the outer sleeve on one is a lot bigger.:


Got the rear axle up in the air, wheels off, undid the cables at the calipers, then moved onto the removing the cables from the guide tubes and managed to shear both tubes - Nice!:

One looks like it had been replaced - zero grease or lubricant in the tube

I have just tucked the cables into the stumps of the tube and will have to roll without a handbrake till I source replacement tubes.
Plus I was peering at the brake hardlines at the rear axle and they are looking a lot more corroded under their outer covers, so it looks like I will be dropping the tank again to fit cunifer pipes.

[LC5F]

Moved onto the Alloy passat hubs, I surprised myself by not damaging the rubber boots on track rod ends and control arm.
One of the control arm ball joints let go with such force it knocked over one of the wife potted plants... oh well!

Went to put the Mk7 R caliper/carrier on and offered up the bolt and found I had forgot to to order the 55mm bolts required for alloy hubs - £6 pound a pop for genuine 10.9 ones on ebay, found alternative ones with higher tensile at 12.9, but only £1.50 each...the rub is its a pack of 10 and £4 postage - still cheaper than the other ones and I get spares too.

[JoshB]

When you said you looked on eBay for bolts, was it that VagBolts seller or whatever the name is?
I nearly bought some from him a few years back and thought they seemed a tad expensive, wanted new caliper bolts all round, so rung my local dealer and they were a lot cheaper!

[terrier]

 These 353911791312

[SANDEGTI]

Absolutely incredible work, makes me want to go hands on with our GTI after being afraid of messing with it with little experience. Thoroughly enjoyed the read so far.

[LC5F]

When you said you looked on eBay for bolts, was it that VagBolts seller or whatever the name is?
I nearly bought some from him a few years back and thought they seemed a tad expensive, wanted new caliper bolts all round, so rung my local dealer and they were a lot cheaper!

Yes - it was Vagbolts at £6 a pop, but the other ones arrived today...if it stops raining tomorrow I may venture out.

These 353911791312

Thanks fella - but its the M14 front ones I needed -but I currently have used ones of those supporting the calipers

Absolutely incredible work, makes me want to go hands on with our GTI after being afraid of messing with it with little experience. Thoroughly enjoyed the read so far.

Thanks - decades ago after really bad experiences with mechanics overcharging and/or poor work, I started on this mechanical quest, just started doing more and more stuff, building up skills and also the tools.
Get a haines and dive in!

[pudding]

Good work!

I don't remember needing an alignment after fitting the Passat hubs, but probably worth getting it checked.

Yes, VAG-Bolts are definitely more expensive than the dealer for bolts!  I suppose it suits the folk who can't be bothered to drive to a dealer, and then go through the usual blank looks when explaining what parts you want, and then being told it'll be 3 days, or is on back order 

I can now agree with you about the 18mm bolts holding the turbo heatshield on, plus the additional 3 Torx.  What the actual??!     I can see a strange kind of irony there about how over engineered the MK5's heatshield and airbox are, but on the MK8, it's what the under engineered engine cover falls off onto, and catches fire

[LC5F]

Perfect 2 car driveway?

Front lip scraped on the way in and on the way out of the driveway.

Well it stopped raining... after work finished it only took 40 minutes to installed the new bolts and adjusted tie rods

I don't remember needing an alignment after fitting the Passat hubs, but probably worth getting it checked.

I suspect you may have changed tie rod ends to the longer passat ones - this is how mine was sitting:


11 turns of the rusty moog tie rod on each side and its now toe in a bit:

Yes, VAG-Bolts are definitely more expensive than the dealer for bolts!  I suppose it suits the folk who can't be bothered to drive to a dealer, and then go through the usual blank looks when explaining what parts you want, and then being told it'll be 3 days, or is on back order 

I like my TPS and luckily they like me, but they can be a bit awkward to get some parts such as nuts & bolts - so if I can find non-genuine ones I tend to go there - plus sometimes other solutions show up during the search
Interestingly, I did order the H brake guide tubes this week, latvian ebayer who lists a lot of genuine stuff listed the tubes at £20 a side free postage...TPS £8 each.

I can now agree with you about the 18mm bolts holding the turbo heatshield on, plus the additional 3 Torx.  What the actual??!     I can see a strange kind of irony there about how over engineered the MK5's heatshield and airbox are, but on the MK8, it's what the under engineered engine cover falls off onto, and catches fire

At least you were for-warned! - it was bloody confusing - did I read new turbo didn't solve the sluggishness in your ED30?

Booby prize:


More expense!

[pudding]

Can't see the pics at work but with the Passat hubs, it was literally just a case of swapping them over. No other changes. It drove just as straight afterwards as it did prior    Not saying that was right though as I might have overlooked something, but it's been fine for 5 odd years like that now.

The turbo did actually solve a few things in the end.  I was a bit premature with my judgement   

Can't believe it was fitted 1000 miles ago already but the oil burning smells in traffic and the little puffs of blue have gone away.  Bottom end power/response is back to how it should be.  That was another clue the turbo was tired actually.  My GFB DV+ stopped doing it's little mouse squeak thing when lifting off the gas at part throttle, but now its back to full squeak mode.  The original may not have been ultra dead, but it wasn't far off, so it was worth doing 

[RBS]

Still looking good   crap for the tyre and rim but nothing that can’t be fixed

[LC5F]

Well -
I got the tracking done over a week ago, the nearest 4 wheel alignment place is Kwik fit over the hill, I have a pre-paid alignment package in place costing £150 that I thought I had 3x 4 wheel alignments in 2 years, already used 2, this time being the last. I thought I may have gone over the time limit...
When the guy called, I nervously asked if there was a charge... he said no, asking how long I had left, he said the package runs out in September and I still had 8 alignments left(!) - I am really confused, not sure what was going on with the deal I got - shame the steering wheel is slightly out!

Any way, I have been enjoying that new front wheel bearing feeling - everything is smooth, it seems to be taking a lot less effort, hopefully a slight MPG improvement - it's a joy to be in

One oddity about the passat hubs is they seem to be shorter than the Gti cast iron ones, previously I had a good 20mm clearance tyre to arch with occasional rubbage, now its dropped at least 5 to 10mm and rubbing a lot more + catching undertray on speed bumps.
Before the alignment, I tried to lift the coilovers up but the stupid 3mm locking grub screw, that I was not too cleverly used thread-locked to seal the top of the thread... just rounded out...heat & penetrating fluid didn't do anything apart from flames -  so currently I am even more static!

[pudding]

Yeah B6 Passats are wider track than the GTI. I only got rubbage with the VWR suspension kit though, which was soft and low.

[LC5F]

Yeah B6 Passats are wider track than the GTI. I only got rubbage with the VWR suspension kit though, which was soft and low.

Oh! - are they stretching the driveshafts out? - TT r32 contr4ol arms probably are not helping - still think there is some drop with the hubs, at least my scientific finger measuring says so!
front wing offside inner lip of has been caught.

Plus after the new handbrake cables, my rear calipers are sticking - had smoke coming out of the offside rear and warm alloy...local short duties till I get them sorted - hopefully, this will be the spur to get the black powder-coated ones built up.

[pudding]

Yeah B6 Passats are wider track than the GTI. I only got rubbage with the VWR suspension kit though, which was soft and low.

Oh! - are they stretching the driveshafts out? - TT r32 contr4ol arms probably are not helping - still think there is some drop with the hubs, at least my scientific finger measuring says so!
front wing offside inner lip of has been caught.

Plus after the new handbrake cables, my rear calipers are sticking - had smoke coming out of the offside rear and warm alloy...local short duties till I get them sorted - hopefully, this will be the spur to get the black powder-coated ones built up.

I don't think so but you've got me thinking now.  I do get some wheel scrabbling on full lock, which I thought was just Ackerman hop, but hmmmmm.....   Other than that, it drives normal.....I think. It's been so long since I've driven a standard GTI.

Passat hubs seemed to all the rage some years ago, but I think a few things might have been left out of the discussion 

[LC5F]

So I finally managed to rebuild my powder coated rear calipers.
I moaned before about the what the company did - I wont be using again did by not blocking up openings/threads - the bores had been blasted and rough, so these needed honing. The threads for the brake line and bleed were also messed up - they were very close to being scrap.
The tubes in the carriers for Sliders, they managed to powder coat just inside these too, had to use a drill to clean this out - got all this shizzle out:


What I had screwed up on my previous attempt was the circlip holding the handbrake mechanism into the caliper body, they are tricky as the tool need to have both the reach and fine tips. The only ones I have - or even could find - turned out they would foul on the inner handbrake mechanism. This was  stopping the circlip getting to the groove by about 3-4mm.  The only solution was to modify them to clear by filling them down:


Plus the mechanism stands proud, so it has to pushed into the body, I came up with this G clamp arrangement amongst the mess of my bench - no wonder I cant find the sliders!:


So after all this effort, with new sliders (gave up the search), cunifer pipe & brass fittings - the reward is this:


Hopefully I will get round to swapping these out soon, but need to prioritise the rusty spots over these.

The Golf still has some parasitic drain, someone posted ignition switch was possible culprit and there was a revised part, so swapped it out for a £13 Topran one - will see if there is any change, starting is pretty lazy after a few days parked up.
Opened up the old one, looks like its had some heat damage: