Hi all I have been a long time lurker on the site. I finally got the finger out and did a build thread.
I bought the car about 3 years ago. Now I think about it, it was 3 years yesterday
I found the car on this site. It was a gem. A real credit to the first owner!
Optional extras as follows:
• DSG
• Xenons
• Electric Folding Mirrors and Puddle Lights
• Armrest
• Ipod Prep in Armrest
• RCD500 with 10 speakers
• Rear tinted windows
The first owner fitted Eibach springs, aluminium dead pedals and chrome rings around the heater controls. (I removed the rings)
Here are the pics from the ad:
The first few bits I got were:
• S3 jacking point rubbers
• Genuine boot protector
• enuine first aid kit and warning triangle
• Genuine oil top up kit.
The sills on my old mk4 were ruined from jacking the car up with trolly jacks. The rubber jacking points are inboard of the sills. The car had quite a thirst for oil up to about 18k miles then it just stopped drinking oil. I havn’t had to add oil in the last 8 months which is lucky as the TFSI’s are known for consuming oil:
The first proper mod was MFSW. As my car is a DSG with paddles, I had the correct steering wheel, slip ring and steering wheel controller so all I had to do was change the blanks for buttons on the wheel and a bit of coding:
Next I put in highline clocks and highline ccm. The highline ccm gave me the convenience menu. I also fitted the skoda 729B Bluetooth module and cruise control. The main reason I went for this is that it has voice dialing at the touch of a button on the steering wheel. The fiscon system is also meant to be less reliable for dropping connection.
It was time then time for a dyno run and a possible remap. The car had been mapped by Hyper Chips for the first owner but I had my doubts about the map. It was only slightly faster than a regular GTI and it was very heavy on fuel. I had the run and mapping done by Joe Power.
Joe did a few runs and it only produced 233bhp! It was also running way way too rich. The AFR was as low as 10.2, which explains its savage thirst.
To rule out a mechanical problem, Joe flashed on the most recent factory map and it did 222.5bhp (This dyno is know to be tough). The AFR was spot on where it should be so a big sigh of relief...it wasnt a mechanical problem...just a sh*t map.
I couldnt get over how bad: the factory map spooled earlier and produced 40 ft lbs more at 3000rpm.
I then let Joe do his thing and the result was 272.6bhp.
Here is a graph showing the 3 different maps: See how the factory map(green) spools earlier and has more low-down torque than the bad map(red). With Joe's map(pink) the car pulls all the way to the limiter.
In case people are wondering about the low torque figure on the graph, the dsg was holding it back on the dyno because the rear wheels weren't turning.
Next I fitted a RNS510.
And a Forge Catch Can. It stops that white gunge building up on the oil cap. You can see it through the sight glass.
Brushed Aluminium Ash tray cover. It was fitted as standard to early gti's but vw dropped it due to cost cutting:
Door exit/warning lights and oem led number plate lights. Really lights up the ground. Just had a reflector there before. More vw cost cutting.
Next was a S3 intercooler:
I didn’t take a picture of the install but the whole front of the car had to come off. The S3 intercooler is bigger with aluminium end tanks rather than the plastic ones the GTI intercooler has. Here is a comparison shot I robbed from SCN:
I got a spare downpipe and gutted the cats. It makes a huge difference. There is noticeably less lag and mpg has improved too. The exhaust is a bit louder especially when cold but it's worth it.
I then made a trip to Joe to stop the exhaust light coming on because of the de-cat and to change the torque limiter on the dsg. Some software versions have a 350Nm limiter in them. Joe changed mine to 500Nm. The car has way more torque with no extra changes to the ecu map. It is still limiting torque on the dyno when the rear wheels aren't turning.
I came across the Polar FIS+. It gives an extra display that shows oil temp, coolant temp, intake temp, battery voltage, boost pressure and fuel in the tank. It uses the telematics menu so works with oem bluetooth (unlike the kufatec one).
I fitted the undertray fitted to the mk6 bluemotion. It closes off the underside of the engine bay from the front bumper to the subframe:
I replaced the cam follower as a precaution. There was minimal wear on the outside but the coating had worn off on the inside. This is after 22k miles:
Next was a mk6 RVC. Thanks to Stan .:R32 for building the loom for me:
Installed:
The picture quality is excellent even in poor light. This picture was taken with only the reverse light on (No rear lights or number plate lights):
And this is with the car in neutral so no reverse light. It was properly dark behind the car. I couldnt take a clear picture of behind the car with the iphone:
I wanted to replace the beesting aerial with the sharkfin fitted to Sciroccos but VW don’t do a sharkfin with a radio antenna in it. My solution was to convert to the dual rear window antenna used in the mk6 and Scirocco. The mk5 rear window actually has two antennas in it with the connectors but one is unused. I fitted the amplifier to suit and ran an antenna wire to it:
I set out to fit this lot:
-345mm S3 set up. I chose this over R32 calipers as they have a bigger bodied caliper so look bigger. They were low mileage but I gave them a small refurb. I replaced the piston seal and dust boot. There was zero scoring on the piston so no polishing required. I gave the guide pins a quick polish and fitted new guide pin sleeves. Powder-coated red and fitted with Ferodo DS2500 pads. New oem guards to suit the larger discs. Oem discs with outer edge and bell coated in high temp matt black paint to prevent corrosion. Golf/Scirocco R brake pad retaining springs.
-310mm rear R32/S3. Refurbed by Dave Brown. New oem pads and discs with bells coated in high temp paint. The 310 dust guards only fit 4wd hubs so I had to bend the gti ones back a few mm for clearance.
-Whiteline Anti Lift Kit (WALK)
-S3/Leon Cupra aluminium hubs. Sandblasted and fitted with new oem bearings. I could not use the existing bearings as there is a specicific part numbr for alu hubs. The weight saving helps off set the bigger brakes.
-S3/Leon Cupra aluminium wishbones. Again a big weight saving over cast GTI ones.
-And new genuine nolts+bolts for any ones removed. This is important as most bolts are stretch bolts and should not be re-used. I also used the proper genuine lithium grease for refurbing the calipers and around the new bearings.
In the end I didnt use the alu wishbones. After I had fitted the drivers side, I realised the only way to remove one of the bolts holding the passenger side wishbone is to drop the subframe. This is due to the size of the DSG box so doesn't affect manual cars. I refitted the gti wishbone to the drivers side.
The new brakes are immense. Great stoppig power. The Ds2500's have started to squeel a litlle so I'll have to take them out to put a chamfer on them and copper grease the back of them. Pics below of the brakes installed. As you can see the ED30 Pescaras don't allow for bug brake clearance:
That's how she stands now. I have a few more small bits to do over the summer. Here are a few random pics of the car:
