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

[Deano45]

Great build thread and you are making some great progress....if you don’t mind me asking how are you finding the AP Coilovers? Thinking about a set myself ,,

Thanks fella - 
I previously had Bilstein B14 on my old Mk4, I was looking into B14 for the Mk5 but I couldn't justify the price for what is a daily.  Also my other VW came with a set of AP's, I was happy to give them a go to see how they feel new.

I haven't done much mileage on them or pushed them hard, but the AP's on the Mk5 are good, they seem to be an uprated OEM feel - as described in many reviews.
Put it another way, the wife hasn't even noticed, commented or complained - I think that's a win!

BTW I got a really good deal on ebay that is still available: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VW-Golf-5-AP-coilovers-Adjustable-suspensions-%C3%9855/371633207372?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

Thanks Again ,, that seems perfect as I daily mine too I have herd great stuff about them it’s just nice to get a review from someone Who has recently fitted Them Ap,s are now on the shopping list ,,

[Kebab Spider]

Great build thread and you are making some great progress....if you don’t mind me asking how are you finding the AP Coilovers? Thinking about a set myself ,,

Thanks fella - 
I previously had Bilstein B14 on my old Mk4, I was looking into B14 for the Mk5 but I couldn't justify the price for what is a daily.  Also my other VW came with a set of AP's, I was happy to give them a go to see how they feel new.

I haven't done much mileage on them or pushed them hard, but the AP's on the Mk5 are good, they seem to be an uprated OEM feel - as described in many reviews.
Put it another way, the wife hasn't even noticed, commented or complained - I think that's a win!

BTW I got a really good deal on ebay that is still available: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VW-Golf-5-AP-coilovers-Adjustable-suspensions-%C3%9855/371633207372?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

Thanks for posting the link to the coilovers mate, £100 cheaper than any UK retailer so I've just bought a set 

[Kebab Spider]

Still waiting on Drives side subframe, I swapped out the rusty steel T20 arch liner bolts for Audi stainless ones

Also meant to ask you where you picked up these bolts from?

[LC5F]

@Kebab Spider Yes - the AP's at that price seems too good a deal to say no - glad it helped!

Still waiting on Drives side subframe, I swapped out the rusty steel T20 arch liner bolts for Audi stainless ones

Also meant to ask you where you picked up these bolts from?

You can source them new - all black - for a price or just go to scrap yard and get them, usually get waved through if thats all you have.
The black covering tends to be wear off revealing the stainless.
A4's seem to have the most clips/screws I usually get a handful each trip.

[Kebab Spider]

Cool, thanks mate. How long did your coilovers take to arrive from Italy btw?

[LC5F]

How long did your coilovers take to arrive from Italy btw?

Considering what was going on in Italy at the time - delivery was really quick
I ordered on 8th of March & it arrived on 17th
Seems they aren't dropshippers, it was a stock item shipped from Palma.
Tracking was good, they got it from Palma to Milan in a day or 2, then sat a few days, suddenly it was at my door in Scotland - its a great deal

[LC5F]

Finally got round to sorting out my off side flexi pipe holder, the old one sheared off with rust -I submitting the temporary fix below as part of my cable-tio-logy:


Doing an engine bay check topping up fluids, oil was yet again off the dip stick -I still cant understand why my Mk4 would tell me its low and the Mk5 doesn't? - I spotted these:


Seems a rodent found some pistachios and decided to carry them all the way up to the valve cover to dine, hope they didn't try cable insulation for desert:

[terrier]

"P" clips are ideal for the brake lines

[LC5F]

"P" clips are ideal for the brake lines

good suggestion - even more annoying is there are about 6 of those sat in my bit pile... I was just thinking temporary fix, and find a replacement bracket, forgot to look for one for 2 scrap yard trips.

Bit of an odd day, 2 bits for the Golf showed up at the same time, but they both have problems-
I spotted a Wagner clone intercooler on Aliexpress for a very cheap price, took 3 months to get to me only for it to be damaged in transit:



I have gone back to the seller asking for some money back, don't want to wait another 3 months for replacement, it seems to be Wagner end tanks with divider on the inlet, the only departure is a thicker core size.

And to recapturing my youth - my stealth sub enclosure arrived, to fit a 10" sub - I have had the sub and amp for about 4 years, never got round to installing it in my old Mk4, so kind-of keen to get into the Mk5.
I trial fitted it and it didn't seem to sit right, but ploughed on regardless.
Fitting it highlighted something has gone wrong during the build - maybe warped from heat:


Too much space under the parcel shelf and it wobbles, I have gone back to the seller and see what he says.

Weather was good, so to cheer myself and keep the amp install rolling, I built my 0 awg power and earth cables:
for big cables a soldering iron wont cut it - blow torch for the win

The terminals had hole in the end, the foil blocks that off and the solder got cut into short lengths - the terminal ends up being a crucible

Once the solder is melted you just shove the cable in


Previously I had added the signal and RCA, installed the earth to day, all that's left to get the amp up and running is to run the power from the battery and I missed a detail in the instructions, I need a 1 to 2 RCA to allow the amp to be bridged... I already ran a 1 to 1 and cut my hands to ribbons, not looking forward to doing that all again!

[LC5F]

Got busy with the Amp power cable from the battery, battery out, no wire coat hanger to hand - so used brake pipe and it threaded through the big cable gland:

I used OEM busbar/fuse, the width of opening was 6mm narrower than the terminal, so I filed it down to fit.

Earth in the boot, I located it under the middle hinge, just Dremmelled the paint off and used a self tapper -if it comes loose I know I can replace this with a nut and bolt:

Till I get the new RCA, I have changed the speaker cable to non-bridged - after adjusting the sensitivity to get rid of the doof-doofs it sounds good with 110 watts - 360 bridged will be interesting.

[LC5F]

Well its good news on the sub enclosure, it was all down to my own ineptitude!
I wasn't sliding it into position properly - top in first under the parcel shelf and then the bottom rotates into the space and it slots home as it should:


Intercooler - Claim for damage was accepted and got some money back.
It must have had a really hard knock as hammering the dented inlet and outlet took some effort.
End result on the inlet is still slightly out of round - wondering if I should knife edge the internal divider:

[Octoparrot]

I wouldn't want to risk getting metal shavings into the intercooler.

[LC5F]

I wouldn't want to risk getting metal shavings into the intercooler.

I would agree - but the hammering and some strategic filling to smooth out the lip has already created chunks of alloy, damage or not I was going to rinse it out several times any way, and I could lean it upwards so all the fillings fall straight out.

Yesterday I installed the 2 to 1 RCA, as this is it I tidied the cabling, cable ties and gaff tape, trigger cable got shortened and everything re-sorted to reduce crossovers:

So the finalised Amp install:

Quite pleased with the RCA cable management down the side of the amp, strategic cable ties used to hold it in place and keeps it away from the power leads.

Today I connected up the new RCA to the head, all the cabling was getting to be a nightmare as when I installed it it was in a hurry and wasn't sure what I needed.
Now that I am pretty certain I am done with cabling, I sat down and organised the loom. Should have taken a before picture, it was an explosion of wires...
Decided it need to be grouped into 3 looms, Golf OEM, antenna/signal & a group of USB leads.
Cable ties were used to group each loom, the larger of these got trimmed off as I added Tesa fabric loom tape.
The issue with Android heads is they tend to have items that are USB dongles, if anything goes wrong its head out to get at the dongle - I have already had DAB radio go wrong twice, antenna came loose and USB worked itself loose - since then I taped up the USB so they stay put, but also decided these need to be more accessible:

Looped around the shifter are the 3 USB leads - these are going under the centre console, DAB radio will be under the ash tray - accessible once lower side panel is removed (one plastic cover and T20 and I'm in!). The other 2 will go to where the arm rest CD changer is currently.
Head unit connected up:


Last thing to do in the boot is take out the Sub, remove the awful T-nuts and fit screwed inserts in their place.

[LC5F]

Frustrating week -
About a month ago the CEL came on, VCDS reported an intermittent issue with charging, this fault has not re-occurred since then. Started looking for a good used alternator, thought I found one on ebay, received it and fitted it... only for it not charge.
Seller was decent, sent me another, unfortunately the packaging was no good and the 2 pin connector on the regulator was smashed off on the replacement.
I swapped the temperamental one for faulty one last weekend, at the same time I caught a few items in the same area -
Temperature sensor in thermostat - if I had known back in October when I did the thermostat, I would have replaced the sensor at the same time - hopefully this fixes my fans being on all the time
Yellow dipstick tube - pure vanity item, my orange dipstick started to fall apart, new replacement stick and tube sourced from TPS months ago. I tried to swap it out before but struggled to get the plastic flange off the stud in the intake manifold... I didn't get anywhere until I worked out the stud the has to come out entirely with a 4mm socket.
New drive belt - the only regular maintenance item I had not done in the engine bay... but fuel filter is still sat patiently waiting


After 5 days not being able to use the Golf I got the chance to swap back to my original alternator today.
Not too bad a job, but for people who don't have child sized hands that 8mm nut on the P-clip is the worst part.

Going forward I will monitor the charge situation -
I looked at the 2 alternators I was sent, 1st one looked good, but slip ring badly worn.
Second one, apart from smashed regulator, was covered in oil, the slip ring in really good condition.
When I find a genuine Valeo regulator at a good price I will de-grease and rebuild the second alternator and have it as spare.

[LC5F]

MOT looming in a just over a months time, need to start fixing known issues, the plan was to fit all this over this weekend:

In order:
Rebuild nearside driveshaft
Add front galvanised brake shields
Dog bone bush insert
Fuel filter
Rear wheel bearings - not looking forward to the caliper carrier bolts

I opted to take the messy option of rebuilding the OEM shaft as aftermarket shafts tend to be really heavy.

Met office app promised the weather was to be overcast all day, but no rain - started removing the drive shaft only for it to start raining heavily, then later during the one promised sunny hour it started to sleet!

Ducking in and out I finally got the driveshaft out...then comparing the inner CV's the new one is different to the on the Golf:

Even if this does fit my current bolts are too long, and the outer bolt was different too.
Pretty much stopping all the front axle work and it has disabled the Golf till I know what is going on

The only work I did continue with was the slash guard on the nearside - my MOT tester has a real hard-on for these, adding observations if they are not present, we all love these faults being added to the MOT record, its simpler to just install them - I managed to find some galvanised ones,  strangely for this car the only issue was the bolts have rusted so much the torx just let go, same for bigger allen head and torx...
Ended up getting all 3 out with a combination of blow torch, penetrant, Dremeled out a slot in the head and then impact driver:


And temporary fit of guard with stainless bolts:


By this time I was pretty pee-peed off, so I have now downed tools and come inside... and I am about to crack open a beer.
I may have a go at some other bits tomorrow...the met office promised it will be lovely!!