High mileage GTI's

[Neimad]

Hi all,

I was just thinking the other day, since my car now has 85k miles on the clock and is about three and a half years old is there anything I should start to look out for -- components that will start nearing the end of their life, etc.?  The car is a standard Golf GTI with a DSG gearbox -- no mods (yet) other than an RNS-510.


Cheers

[bacillus]

Just make sure it's serviced regularly using longlife oil.

It's a good idea to have your HPFP cam follower visually checked for wear as it's not a service schedule item. It's failure can mean a very expensive repair.

Have you had your cam belt changed and dsg service every 40k miles?

[Murray86]

I would like to think the dealer will keep you right when the car is serviced. They want to get the most money out of you so I would imagine they will give plenty of 'advice' on what needs done! 

[RedRobin]

Hi Neimad,

I'm at 82k miles in nearly 5 years. I service every 10k miles and plugs every 20k miles plus DSG servicing etc.

The up side of having modded my car so much is that many of it's components are new!

Some bushes might need renewing at some stage.

[KRL]

At 85k miles I would also be wondering what the carbon build up on my intake valves looks like.

[Garth]

Mine's done 70k in 5 years and it is started to show it's age a little I think despite It having a full VW service history (longlife).

The steering rack is a common complaint as is the subframe clunk. My steering rack is noisy as hell at low speeds (before the engine and road noise drown it out!) but I'm not sure if anything can be done about it other than a very expensive replacement.

As mentioned, the ride would benefit from replacement bushes as these can wear quite a bit leading to play in the steering and suspension.

[tony_danza]

Did yours have a new turbo at some point, Robin?

Personally I'd avoid anything that's been on Longlife servicing, I don't like it. Budget for a full set of bushes, possibly dampers and brakes too.

Look at the consumables fitted to the car too, cheap tyres for example smacks of the type of person who fixes things when they finally give up the ghost and does it the cheapest way possible.

[Garth]

Look at the consumables fitted to the car too, cheap tyres for example smacks of the type of person who fixes things when they finally give up the ghost and does it the cheapest way possible.

Not always!
I spend silly amounts of money on my car and replace anything that doesn't look/feel perfect. I have replaced most of the interior plastic trim due to scratches and replaced hoses/clips etc in the engine bay when they looked worn and rusty. I'd say I'm pretty obsessive when it comes ot keeping the car running well but my tyres are the cheapest known to man.

I put the cheapo tyres on as an experiment to trace a vibration on the car (which cured it) but I haven't got round to changing them yet. To be honest due to the nature of my driving (stuck on the motorway), they're not bothering me as I don't get the chance for any 'spirited' driving.

[tony_danza]

Garth, I wasn't talking about your car chap. Although I'll be willing to bet your tyre deformation was caused by bad geo from the factory, same on mine and many others I know of... in particuar the camber/toe on the rears.

I mean cheapo tyres as in people who think it's perfectly ok to hoon around on £40 a corner Nanking Ditchfinder XLs.  

[Aldo]

Personally I think that tyres are a very dubious area to cut corners on (no pun intended) . Whilst some people may not regularly enjoy spirited driving, we are all at the same risk of ending up in an emergergency stop situation, and that is the reason I won't use budget tyres any more - especially in UK which, let's face it, gets more than it's fair share of wet weather.

Just my 2p, sorry for thread hijack

[Garth]

Garth, I wasn't talking about your car chap. Although I'll be willing to bet your tyre deformation was caused by bad geo from the factory, same on mine and many others I know of... in particuar the camber/toe on the rears.

I mean cheapo tyres as in people who think it's perfectly ok to hoon around on £40 a corner Nanking Ditchfinder XLs.  

I thought you were talking about cheap tyres? Those fancy £40 Nanking sound awesome compared to my £25 Sunews  

Personally I think that tyres are a very dubious area to cut corners on (no pun intended) . Whilst some people may not regularly enjoy spirited driving, we are all at the same risk of ending up in an emergergency stop situation, and that is the reason I won't use budget tyres any more - especially in UK which, let's face it, gets more than it's fair share of wet weather.

Just my 2p, sorry for thread hijack

I agree with you both though 

[Neimad]

I would like to think the dealer will keep you right when the car is serviced. They want to get the most money out of you so I would imagine they will give plenty of 'advice' on what needs done! 

You would think wouldn't you, but after my last service I asked the service advisor if there was anything I should look out for given the age of the car and the mileage I do and his answer was no, just keep it serviced and it will be fine...

[Neimad]

Mine's done 70k in 5 years and it is started to show it's age a little I think despite It having a full VW service history (longlife).

The steering rack is a common complaint as is the subframe clunk. My steering rack is noisy as hell at low speeds (before the engine and road noise drown it out!) but I'm not sure if anything can be done about it other than a very expensive replacement.

As mentioned, the ride would benefit from replacement bushes as these can wear quite a bit leading to play in the steering and suspension.

My steering rack has always been fairly noisy -- I've asked the dealer about it a few times as I seem to recall steering racks being replaced under warranty at one point but they said there were no recalls for it and that it didn't seem to be a problem.

I had the rear bushes checked last week when I had new rear brake pads installed -- first new brake component on the car since new -- and they said they didn't need changing.  Not sure about the front ones.

[RedRobin]

Did yours have a new turbo at some point, Robin?

....Yes. The manifold, wastegate, and turbo are all one assembly and I developed a small crack in the wastegate which caused a minor reduction of boost.

It's all here: http://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,493.0.html