Higher mileage GTI, common faults and remap?

[steve_barrow]

Afternoon folks,

I’ve just joined the forum, looks all good, nice and busy! I’m possibly after a Golf GTI Mk5 at the moment after selling my E46 M3 at the weekend. I have found one on eBay which I think is pretty cheap for what it is at £5250, red 5 door with one mature lady owner for all of its life (I know, seems too good to be true for a hot hatch!), full service history with all done at VW apart from the last 2, disks and pads all round for its MOT last week, 4 new tyres in November and a cambelt when it was due 2 years ago. It has 92k miles on but is immaculate apparently, the mileage is the only thing that slightly puts me off; but my train of thought is I would rather have a car with a few more miles than I ideally wanted at the right price which has been owned by the same person since new and probably never seen the redline!

Would you guys agree in the case of the Golf? Are there any major common faults or potential issues to look out for when viewing it?

My budget is fairly low as since selling the M3 I have taken some of the cash to put into my house, hence the reason for looking within very much the bottom end of the market.
I looked at one recently yesterday and must admit I was not hugely impressed with the performance; I am coming from a much more powerful car so it is difficult to come to the realism that the Golf is going to feel underwhelming! So, I plan on remapping whatever I buy almost straight away to release a few more bhp, do these respond well to a simple remap and what sort of gains am I likely to get? Any recommended garages/tuners that would remap it safely and well, within Cumbria/Lancashire? I want to feel a good shove in the back of mid-range torque really; in standard form it felt quite naturally aspirated!
Also, at the mileage it is at, would you say getting a remap may potentially be a problem? I guess if it still on the original clutch (yet to ask her this) it may be that the increased torque may see this off I guess..

Thanks in advance, apologies for the essay of a first post! :)

[GrayMK5GTI]

Hello & welcome 

Diverter valves fail, these recirculate the turbo boost. If it's never been replaced, the car will feel down on power, as it's likely it will have a few holes at that mileage. Only £35 to fix.

The mileage is nothing for a well looked after car. Plenty of 120,000 mile examples around - even seen a GTI with 218,000 miles 

Now have a look round the forum, particularly the FAQ & performance mods section. Nothing wrong with remapping at that mileage providing your DV and PCV are healthy 

[steve_barrow]

Thanks mate 

Yeah I've seen these mentioned, if one did start to fail would it flash an ECU code?

Yeah that was my thinking, the lady sounds very legit down the phone, she has basically just handed it to her local VW any time anything has needed doing so it's probably had a fair whack spend on it over the years!

Good stuff, will do. Sorry for my ignorance - PCV?

[homesqueeze]

If the dv is torn it can show a boost error code when scanned, but there won't be any warnings on the dash display.

[GrayMK5GTI]

If the dv is torn it can show a boost error code when scanned, but there won't be any warnings on the dash display.

That's right. Your best replacing it anyway if / when you buy the car.

@steve_barrow read this: http://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,44709.0.html

Also, if you go stage 1 budget for a new clutch. Have a look in the " group buy" section to gauge prices

[Matthewsimone]

If the dv is torn it can show a boost error code when scanned, but there won't be any warnings on the dash display.

Mine was torn to bits when bought the car last year and never brought up any faults on my mates full vagcom set-up so not always the case matey, was like a different car after we changed the Dv though 
Also something else that can zap boost and power that ive come across is faulty mab/boost sensor or wiring to that sensor 

To the op they are great cars mate but obviously you are coming from a E46 M3 so its going to be a step in wrong direction for performance unless you heavily modify the Gti 
Once gave my mate a little shock in his e46 M3 when i used to have my modified mk1 focus Rs 

Lots of threads on this forum about buying and common issues etc just have a look a around using search function