DaveD's Black 5 Door GTi with Factory Cloth Recaros

[DaveD]

Hi all,

I'm coming over from the world of BMW's (last 4 cars have been a BMW) and this is my first VW. It's a 2006 GTi. I'd been looking for one for a few weeks and test drove quite a few DSG's, in the end i decided a DSG wasn't for me and found this manual. It's in excellent condition with a fairly decent spec; digital climate control, cruise control, black headlining, auto lights and wipers, 18' Monza alloys & Highline computer.

I collected it last Saturday, parked it in the driveway and took out the seats (see below why!), so haven't really driven it much!








The wheels are in need of a refurb and i need 2 tyres....




Also bought some Recaro GTi cloth seats from the for sale section here. I had to give the original seats as part of the deal so i'm looking forward to driving the car again. They only arrived today so hope to have them in tomorrow.

[JoeDarKa]

Nice seats!

[DaveD]

So got the Recaros in today, very straight forward. Just need to sort the airbag light. The original seats have airbags in them, the Recaro's don't so need to wire in a resistor and reset the light with Vag Com.

They're very comfy 

[rowza]

Looks good. i just got a SE 1.9 TDI lol Wanting to put the GTI kit on it and maby look into buying some of them seats!

[DaveD]

The GTi hasn't felt as quick as i thought it should be. A tear or leak in the diverter valve seems to be a common issue with the main cause being a power loss.

So decided to replace the DV, VW have a revised part for this now so set about taking the old DV off. This should have been fairly straight forward, but someone must have been at the bolts before and the heads were in a mess, so took a bit longer than it should. Anyhoo, this also meant i needed some new bolts to put the new one on, a big thanks to Richie @ Pro-Parts who happened to have the exact bolts i needed in stock    The old DV seemed to be the original one on the car, at least the part number was the old version anyway.

The car feels alot more responsive now, next up is an oil change.

The new DV....

[JoeDarKa]

Have you done the airbag resistors yet? Make sure you pull the little repair wires really far into the plug otherwise it wont click in place 

[DaveD]

Time for an update .....

The GTI has been off the road since March. I was coming home from work one day when the engine started to make a worrying noise and the engine management lights came on. I pulled in immediately and got it towed home. Had a mate run a diagnostics on it which i sent off to George Dalton, and the possible causes were not good. I was in the middle of changing jobs, and didn't need the car on the road so put it on the long finger.

So at the end of May i got the car up to George Dalton. He diagnosed that the intake camshaft had broken between cylinder 4 and the end of the cylinder head and damaged the head. A replacement head was needed which i managed to get off paulmk5gti (Thanks Paul  ). Got it delivered to Ireland thanks to deliver-it.ie. George removed the valves on the new head and cleaned them along with the intake ports. The valves were then reseated and the valve stem seals were replaced. As well as this, the engine got a full service including new oil, air & fuel filters, oil pick-up pipe, spark plugs, timing chain, coolant, head gasket set and new cam follower.

Just picked it up last week and its running better than it ever was! The service and communication from George was top notch and i would highly recommend him. He has no idea exactly how the damage happened, has never seen it before. He reckons it was a faulty camshaft from factory.

Pic of the damage .....

[DaveD]

With the nice weather upon us, i spent the last few evenings giving the car a good clean. Sorted the interior first, and then washed, clayed, polished with Lime Prime and then 2 coats of FK1000P. Delighted with how the car now looks, it still needs a good detail with a machine polisher but that will wait for the Pros to do.

The wheels are really letting the car down so i'm hoping to get them refurbed over the next few weeks. I'd love to get the OEM finish done but it seems that the dreaded whiteworm look will eventually come back so will probably just get them sprayed/powdercoated one colour.

Then the plans are:

Respray front wing to sort rust and maybe get bumpers and sideskirts colour coded
Suspension, either Eibach or H&R
OEM Xenons
Wheels - BBS CH or CH-R's
RCD510 + upgrade speakers

A quick pic of how it looks after my mini-detail. Must get some better ones over the coming days.

[SooperD]

Looks nice with the good clean and sun :) .. Wheels first for this one tho Dave 

[Jas Lad]

RS4 Seats are lovely, where they big bucks out of interest?

[Biano44]

Looking Good!!!!

[woahnowboys]

Those seats.

[horice]

like those seats too, good choice!

[DaveD]

Looks nice with the good clean and sun :) .. Wheels first for this one tho Dave 

Thanks, wheels were dropped off for a refurb last Thursday, collect them tomorrow  The standard wheels will probably be my winters and i'll sort some new wheels next year.

RS4 Seats are lovely, where they big bucks out of interest?

GTI seats    lol 

IIRC i paid £750 plus my own standard seats

[SooperD]

Sweet! And yes those seat are the dogs dangly bits! Never seen them before. Are they Mk6 GTI items? or optional extra's?

Keep up the good work Dave.