GTI gets pwnd by SmokinDav - MKV inside

Fixed the vacuum leak with some genuine heater hose (Made in USA!) and a couple hose clamps. Car idles smoothly now. I should probably inspect the rest of the vacuum system for leaks.

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Yes that would be a big ten four on checking the rest of the hoses. You will probably find a few more that are just starting to crack and others about to fall off.

How have you addressed the rear fender well liner? Is it like mine and have a fussy texture to it like a fleece jacket. About the best success I've had is to pressure wash the bajueses out of it after spraying it with a good soapy mixture of dawn dish washing soap. Little cheaper than using up the good purple power for the job.

I'm a firm believer in details. They are what make a good piece of steak into a great meal. You still need baked potato. For the baked potato you need sour cream and butter. Green onion, bacon bits and shredded/grated cheese. Details.

Same for cars. In this case, it's a license plate frame. I ordered this one on Amazon for $7.99. I assumed it was just injection molded plastic. I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived at the house and I found out it was actual steel with actual powder coating on it. And the sticker is reflective instead of just a plain sticker - which is cool.

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You make a good point - I do need a pressure washer!

brad131a4 wrote: Yes that would be a big ten four on checking the rest of the hoses. You will probably find a few more that are just starting to crack and others about to fall off. How have you addressed the rear fender well liner? Is it like mine and have a fussy texture to it like a fleece jacket. About the best success I've had is to pressure wash the bajueses out of it after spraying it with a good soapy mixture of dawn dish washing soap. Little cheaper than using up the good purple power for the job.

smokindav wrote: I'm a firm believer in details.

Then you need these:

https://www.amazon.com/Rupse-2PCS-Seat-Wrench-Insert/dp/B0094A6UUQ

should have come with them from the factory IMO.

Some more GTI items were delivered today.

Bentley shop manual on CD. Should come in handy.

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If you've ever had a car with wheel bolts and then you don't have a car with them for awhile, and then you get another car with them - you forget and then remember how much you hate them. Got that?!

Studs & Nuts - much better.

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A phatbox is a nice addition for music. They should be cheap nowadays.

How come you downsized the shank size?

I debated it in my head and decided to go with the smaller shank as I wasn't sure that a lug nut would fit into the wheel on the bigger 14x1.5 stud. Do you think the smaller 12x1.5 might pose a safety risk?

brad131a4 wrote: How come you downsized the shank size?

Snowflakes please don't trigger :)

This GTI repeatedly continues to delight and amaze! Did you know that the storage space under the center arm rest was perfectly designed to hold a Keltec/Ruger P3AT/LCP pistol?

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When I bough the car the lumbar adjustment on the driver's seat (passenger gets nada) was not working. This afternoon I decided to dig in and see if I could figure out what was wrong.

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With the cloth seats you have to access the innards by separating the seam on the cover.

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Once inside the problem revealed it's self. A white plastic (vee don't need schteel!) piece that is supposed to be riveted to the seat frame to hold the lumbar support and the cable was broken.

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Now, I don't know if this part is available from VW and I don't car - I'm going to figure out a way to fix it, and make it better. Only problem is that the lumbar bracket is know only held in place by the tension of the adjuster and the seat innards. But, I think zis vill not be a problem as I like my lumbar adjusted to full firm.

So, I figured I could drill a hole in the steel seat bracket and run the cable holder through it and it would be better than new.

First, a center punch and a pilot hole.

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All better!

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I then drilled out the rivet (why Germany why) that holds the plastic (oy vey) part to the seat frame.

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Then I cleaned off the floor mats and went for a celebratory drive.

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Earlier, I mentioned some cobbled together intercooler hose piping. Since the P0171 code came back and lit up the check engine light I decided to fully inspect the rest of the vacuum hose system, AND dig into the boost hoses.

After pulling the engine cover off last night and poking around all the vacuum hoses and not finding anything I thought I might discover my leak elsewhere.

This was wrapped around the intercooler outlet hose:

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It was hiding (because it certainly was holding any boosts or vacuums in the hose):

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Which, upon additional and further inspection revealed this mess:

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Interestingly, the Golf R intercooler (if that is what this really is) does not use the fancy pipe, o-ring and retaining clip fastening system. It uses plain old hose clamps (or fancy constant tension clamps).

The hose needed to be modified to fit, so I cut off the metal connector:

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The hose needed a little "shaping" to get it to fit over the intercooler outlet. A brake pad spreader works well in these situaitons.

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Installed!

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I also lowered the front of the car back down about 1/2" since it was pushing like mad since I raised everything up last week. Current suspension plan for January is Bilstein B8 shocks and H&R sport springs. I can't justify the $2,000 Bilstein PSS10 on this car at this time.

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Excellent thread and great work bring this car back.

Of all the cars I have owned my MK2 16v GTI is the one I miss the most.

Boost Leak Whack-A-Mole

I had looked at the hose connection at the turbo outlet tube earlier today. But I didn't look close enough (I was in a hurry as lunch was calling). During the test drive from earlier this morning I heard a hose blow off under boost. My son, who was on the VAGCOM laptop monitoring short term and long term fuel trim (helps to determine if there's a vacuum or boost leak) and I limped the car back to the house. I took a quick look under the car assuming it was the hose I was working on that blew off. WRONG! It was the intercooler inlet hose! I then had lunch and a nap.

I looked back through some old pictures and realized that the previous sinner than owned this car didn't attach that hose properly. The blue arrow is where the end of the retaining clip was, and the orange parallel lines are the gap where it should be so that the hose can't pop off. I like this system of attaching boost hoses as you get a very positive lock on the hose.

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I suspect what the previous sinner did was try to install the spring retainer clip after inserting the male hose end into the female.... The proper way is to install the retainer clip first then simply insert the male into the female until the retainer clip locks the two pieces together.

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Also, all the dirt and grime needs to be cleaned away around the mating surfaces so that the hose can be inserted to the proper depth.

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The female and male joined in holy union:

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Don't think it will be a safety issue. Just thought you might have gotten some mercedes wheels as they use 12mm shanks on there studs.

Not to sure what the B8 Bilsteins are? Sport or H/D. The H/R cup kit on my car is very nice at lower speeds under 80 after that if feels like it needs a little bit more dampening. Good for the once and a while track day and street combo that it's for.

I've seemed to lean more to the Koni's than the Bilsteins. I just like the adjustable dampening on a non-coilover than none with the Bilstein. The Bilsteins seem too abrupt with initial dampening and worse when it gets cold.

Oh the fun of chasing down the mishaps of p.o of the car.

The Bilstein B8 struts come in Sport (shortened shaft length for lowered cars) or HD (stock shaft length for stock ride height). Dampening is virtually identical.

brad131a4 wrote: Don't think it will be a safety issue. Just thought you might have gotten some mercedes wheels as they use 12mm shanks on there studs. Not to sure what the B8 Bilsteins are? Sport or H/D. The H/R cup kit on my car is very nice at lower speeds under 80 after that if feels like it needs a little bit more dampening. Good for the once and a while track day and street combo that it's for. I've seemed to lean more to the Koni's than the Bilsteins. I just like the adjustable dampening on a non-coilover than none with the Bilstein. The Bilsteins seem too abrupt with initial dampening and worse when it gets cold. Oh the fun of chasing down the mishaps of p.o of the car.

I've never done much with paint other than sand and paint steel and aluminum wheels. On this GTI I am going to learn to do small paint repairs to dings and scratches.

I checked out a book from the library which seems pretty good as a place to start.

I am working on the little scratch that you could see earlier in the thread when I was buffing out a scrape in the paint. This little scratch is through the clear, color and down into the primer but not all the way to the bare metal.

I have put three little coats of touch up paint on it so far with a paint pen but the scratch is taking a long time to fill in.

I am going to order some touch up paint in a bottle and see if I can get the scratch to fill in by dabbing the paint in with a brush. The pen doesn't seem like the right tool for this particular job.

If that doesn't work I will try some Bondo glaze/putty.

Anyone have any pointers on how do proceed?

Just keep at it with the paint stick it will fill in. Doing the putty will bring a whole lot more to the game than just keeping on with the paint stick. Is it possible to hold the point down and let more paint drain into the scratch?

Learned a trick long ago where you use a hole punch and punch out some sandpaper and then glue the little dots onto the end of a pencil eraser. It makes sanding the little area very easy and you aren't sanding a really big area that needs to be painted as well.

With those you can feather the clearcoat edges and build up the clearcoat as well until it levels out with the rest. Then a cut and polish and you're in business.

Thousands of dollars worth of things have just been ordered. Look for a big update next week! :)

Check engine light again (extra Whack-A-Mole)! P2181 which all VW fan bois (fan jungen??) say is the thermostat. Or it could be a sensor. Vagcom to the rescue....to be continued

The King, baby! And clean air! And more rubber products Made in USA! And TUPELO!

A minor update about clean air and The King

ECS Tuning delivered a box today. What's in it? [URL=http://s7.photobucket.com/user/smokindav/media/gti/08EAA9A8-D0EF-4E3C-A4A6-3E71E9D7F48B_zps10wmovsk.jpg.html][/URL]

A new brake booster hose kit to replace the cracked Hungarian hoses. These hoses say made in Germany. This will replace my jury rigged repair that was made with heater hose. There's also a fuel filter in there and a cabin air filter. [URL=http://s7.photobucket.com/user/smokindav/media/gti/5A83A3F2-460D-431C-B68A-748903D59546_zpsaiokur1h.jpg.html][/URL]

But first, I will replace the cabin air filter. Remove the under dash cover. [URL=http://s7.photobucket.com/user/smokindav/media/gti/97306AFA-8935-465F-9A33-8F13BD269283_zps2avqdua6.jpg.html][/URL]

Big surprise - the previous sinner did not install the filter correctly as the cover is not fastened nor seated properly. The filter is not doing much. [URL=http://s7.photobucket.com/user/smokindav/media/gti/E9A24056-2E00-4370-8ECE-7E5D3A0CFA89_zpslwu5fv8v.jpg.html][/URL]

The old filter is dirty and needs to be replaced. [URL=http://s7.photobucket.com/user/smokindav/media/gti/B561AE28-64F1-45FD-B361-B7077A41FFEB_zpsfup81dte.jpg.html][/URL]

New filter installed properly: [URL=http://s7.photobucket.com/user/smokindav/media/gti/5FB354D2-204A-4014-8ECF-5655FB7909F3_zpsgbic78d5.jpg.html][/URL]

All is not fun and GTI games at the Dave's house. My wife's CR-V was in need of new tires so I had to drop $6-hunny on a set today.

Believe it or not you can still buy tires made in U.S.A. Made in Tupelo, to be precise. Home of another great thing..... [URL=http://s7.photobucket.com/user/smokindav/media/gti/A8D648E4-637C-4EE2-959F-3942A47F09A9_zpssghyvw1t.jpg.html][/URL]

I went big on the replacement tires - Cooper C5S Ultra Touring in 235/55/17. Big improvement over the narrow and taller dry-rotted Michelins. [URL=http://s7.photobucket.com/user/smokindav/media/gti/73E6A05C-0A4A-4976-8219-BC528893E934_zpsktidxzyn.jpg.html][/URL]

The King - also made in Tupelo! We bought this cook book in Graceland a few years ago and have decided that 2017 is the year of eating like The King, baby! [URL=http://s7.photobucket.com/user/smokindav/media/gti/6DCC070F-DD85-406B-9870-F58C8F5A5770_zps8gddwhz0.jpg.html][/URL]

My wife's idea and I am in full support - make a few recipes from Elvis's cookbook every week. So far we have done biscuits and red eye gravy, brownies and last night Spaghetti with homemade sauce and meatballs. Next will be Donuts! [URL=http://s7.photobucket.com/user/smokindav/media/gti/3CB6E52E-32F8-48B1-8663-73C823F4EBED_zpsatdqjdim.jpg.html][/URL]

Too Cold to GTI, so we made Pi

Too cold to work on the GTI today in Houston (although I did get 9 holes of golf in before being frozen to death - shot 44).

So my wife and I made Elvis's Lemon Meringue Pie from scratch. It is amazing. Soon I'll be shopping for a 1950's car!

I heart UPS

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I bolt some Made In USA, Italy and Germany Stuff On my GTI

The UPS man, God bless him, showed up at the house again today. He brought some grips...

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17x8 OZ Ultraleggera wheels, offset 48mm, made in Italy. BF Goodrich g-force Rival S tires in 245/40/17, made in USA. These replace the stock 18" wheels with 225/40/18 tires.

The new stuff weighs in at 41.8 pounds.

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The stock stuff weighs in at 48 pounds even.

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While I had the back wheels off I bolted on some made in Germany stuff. Out with the old:

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In with the new Bilstein B8 sport shocks and H&R sport springs.

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The wheels studs and lug nuts that I installed earlier in the thread didn't work with the new wheels as the studs were too short and the lug nuts couldn't get enough thread engagement for safety. Tirerack was kind enough to send a set of new, longer lug bolts.

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Dirty car, clean wheels.

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I have the front struts and springs but I'm still waiting for Vorshlag to ship me the caster/camber plates then I can install the fronts.

A cabin air filter that's easy to access?!?!?!

Who knew!

UPS man for the Win!

Another update coming soon.....

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