Hey all
Proud to be part of the GTI owners club now... despite having an non-running one at the moment.
2008 GTI 4-door, manual
276k (ouch) - prev owner had it since 100k miles, did highway commuting due to work. Grandpa has (no joke) full shop with lift/equipment etc that I toured when I got the car where the maintenance was done.
Why was this going to scrap? One intake partition became dislodged and had an intake valve stuck partially open. So they did a head removal to see how bad the damage was... By a miracle there were no bent valves, it was not hitting the piston. It was all cleaned, all new parts (I'll list below) were ordered and the guy bought a WRX in the meantime. Naturally lost focus as the new car took the time and he was just going to dump this car and move on.
So here I come along, only wanted seats but I paid $1,000(I'm in the US Midwest) and got:
The shell
Engine head/turbo/exhaust in boxes
Newly installed:
Suspension bushings
Raceland classics coil overs (80 miles on them - drove for 3 days before issue happened)
CTS cold air intake
3in downpipe to high-flow cat
MSW rims (oddly 6 of them, they bought 2 "scratch and dent" when they purchased to keep as spares.
New CV joints
New E brake cables
Freshly rebuilt calipers
Short shifter
Smoked mirror indicators
Smoked front bumper side lights
Maint parts in boxes:
Timing belt kit
Cam follower
Cam chain
Misc. gaskets/ stuff bought for putting back together
Red top ignition coils/ Plugs
HP fuel pump
Battery (2021)
Cam chain/follower
DOES NOT HAVE:
-Catback exhaust - I plan on putting stock on as I do NOT want a loud car as its downpiped and nearly straight piped...
-Outer rear brake lights are very worn
CAUTIONS:
Will it run? Is it really undamaged? Maybe.... But I figured at $1,000 I paid, worst case is I'll have a lot of stuff to either put into the Rabbit or just part out.
I plan on taking my time reassembling, my biggest fears are just reinstalling things I did not take apart... so the where does this go and what is this.... will be interesting. I have a lot of experience with a wrench in the early 00's with Hondas and motor swapping, but lately has been recently light... looking forward to getting back into it.
This would be a daily - commute car as I only like 2.5 miles from work. And honestly a "dream" mini project as I love 4door hatches, I really want to just get it running and make it as close to mint as possible.
Pic of me taking it home and in the the garage..... and my daughter (4yo) keeps grabbing that dang air fresher and putting it back in the car. I'm a no stickers/ no hanging anything type of guy...
