R we alowed to have bad car puns in our thread titles??

Hey all, I have been a member (although mostly inactive) for a few years. My brother is lurking around here working on various projects (Garage rebuild, Subie swapped beetle, lots of two wheeled projects).

I have been a mostly VW guy since I could drive. Have always liked VW/Audi (mostly just VAG products. wink wink) and I have owned 4. My first was a 2002 VW GTI that I bought in college. It was Rave Green 1.8t.

I liked the color but overall that car was more of a project than anything. It had exhaust, intake, and apparently a tune, although it sure didn't drive like it. Whenever I would get into boost it would miss and stutter something terrible, something I and my friends lovingly came to call it, "Herpa-derp-derp". After about a year of trying to change various things to get it to run better, I installed a wideband AFR gauge. It was at that point that I found that under boost it was leaning out to about 18 to one AFR. I  bought a tuning package from Eurodyne. This allowed me to hook a laptop to my ecu through the OBD port and access all of the blocks. I had a freind in college who did lots of tuning to LS engines with GMTuner give me a crash course and we richened the fuling blocks up under boost to be running 10-12. This solved the herpa-derping and made it much better to drive. So I sold it of course.

For the next year or so I drove a Passat Wagon that was in the family. It was the V6. It was wrecked in the front. It was boring and hella high mileage. That didn't last long.

My next VW was a 2003 VW GTI with the 24v VR6.

When I had had the 1.8t, I always heard that the VR6 was so much better, but I would argue about the turbo being cooler etc etc. When I got this car I found out how wrong I was. The note of that narrow V engine was great, and the power and torque being right there at any engine rev or gear was great. This car was a lot of fun to drive, and I enjoyed it for a couple years, and sold it in fall of 2016 because I thought I wanted a truck. The only thing I didn't like about both was the front wheel drive.

During the summer of 2018 I was planning my wedding (September 1st of 2018), and money was tight. We had just bought a house in Topeka, Kansas, but I still perused the for sale forums on VWVortex, even though I figured I wouldn't find anything that I could get. I came across an R32 listed in Kansas City that had a salvage title, but also had a freshly rebuilt engine from a spun bearing in a previous life. The car had 145,000 miles or something and had been rebuilt top to bottom at 138k. I communicated with the owner and the salvage was from a minor rear end accident that didn't fudge the frame, and had been properly rebuilt so it didn't show. It wasn't overly clean, like many R's are, but the guy in KC said he liked to drive it, not have a garage parked show car. For this reason he had removed the silly stancy coil overs that a previous owner had on it and installed factory suspension all around it. The fenders had been banged up from being so low before, but the factory suspension made the car drive like VW intended. My wife new that I was looking for something fun to drive and work on, so I went to buy it three days into our marriage. I was able to get it for less than $7000, and with new engine and suspension, that was a great deal to me. It drove great, and the all wheel drive certainly made the car feel better. Here are some pictures I took within the first month of owning it:

So within a couple weeks of buying it, of course I had to fully test out the AWD. So I entered into a local Rally Cross event put on by SCCA down in Carbondale. I discovered that the AWD worked well and is really a dream to drive. I love how intuitive the haldex is. You can just get the back end sidways after a turn in and then control where it goes with the gas pedal! John (JohnInKansas) even entered the mini to play!

I was involved with 3 Rally Cross events and 1 Auto Cross before the season was up. This being a high mileage car meant things were going to give sooner than later, and towards the end I started breaking stuff. First downfall was losing power steering. I was running fluid out faster than I could keep it in. Found out that the manifold was resting on the hardlines located on the power steering rack: 

So I looked around on le interwebz and found a company that does a hardline to stainless braided lines swap. I was able to work with them to get most of what I needed (I also needed one additional 90 fitting that I sourced from a local hydraulic store so I didn't have to wait on shipping):

While it was parked waiting on those parts and for me to get that repair done, I had a buddy from a vinyl shop wrap my roof in flat white. I also relocated the battery to the boot to clear up some engine space and help my weight spread. I also installed a MAF relocate pipe fabricated by Swoops Built. He is a mostly VW/AUDI/Porsched fabricator guy based out of new york I have seen his stuff before, and the builds he is involved with always look quality. The intake pipe came with the car when I bought it, so I wrapped it with some gold foil I had laying around and love the final look:

My next big break was the clutch slave cylinder (which is conveniently located IN the bellhousing and BEHIND the clutch and flywheel). I was out on this one, because I don't have the space, tools, time, or experience to pull a transmission. I would love to learn, but not this time. so I had to get it flat hauled to a shop and rebuilt. Cha ching cha chang. As soon as I got it back, I took it out for a zesty drive to make sure all was good. And ate an accessory belt. I limped it to my In-laws house (closest driveway I knew of) and got it replaced that night. And two days later I ate another one. I looked over the pulleys, and had a friend who used to work at a shop take a look as well. We decided that the pulley that looked the weakest was the water pump. Everything could rotate, but based off the belt, rubber all over everything, and how it seemed to be the most difficult to spin, we decided that it needed replaced. So I shelled out another couple hundred dollars for a new water pump (and new idler). 

At this point my wife is starting to be kind of annoyed with me having to fix another other thing.

I got the water pump swapped out for the new one. I drove it to work. And I popped the belt again. 

By now, the Air Conditioner pulley had completely froze up. Time to remove the AC because racecar. So I tore into the front end again. And pulled out the compressor.  And while I was in there I decided I better replace the clutched alternator pulley. And installed a shorter belt. And started up and drove it to work for two days. On the way home my rear end started making nasty noise. *&&*@*^#)! (*&$)(@&(! &)(! &#$()@*&)! *&^%#!!!!!!

So I get it home. Jack it up. Spin the passenger wheel. Nasty noise coming from inside the wheel near the outboard joint. So when the wife gets home from work I tell her I need Raxles for 600 dollars. To which she says "You better fix the truck first!!!!" (front end was way out of alignment because bad ball joints, tie rods, shocks, front brakes (I know brakes don't affect alingment)). So the car got parked for a few weeks and the truck got fixed. A couple weeks later I had saved the money and made my wife happy enough to get the Raxles. I took a personal day from work and nocked it out quick! The job was easier than I assumed it would be, and I am beyond impressed with Marty's customer service at Raxle. He even sent a printed mapquest map to get from my house to the closest UPS store to mail the cores back (in his prepaid box). I will use them again and suggest them to anyone in the need of axles now! At this point the car has been driving for a week and a half and probably about 800 miles and nothing has gone wrong. (Knock on wood!) I was hoping to open my autocross season off this past weekend (23-24) in Topeka, but it didn't work out. Probably for the better, as my rear brake pads are CASHED OUT and I need an oil change. Those two things will be happening this week.

I will continue to drive her as long as she (my car AND my wife) will let me. It really is a lot of fun to drive, and listening to that VR6 growl reminds me of why they call them Wookies. Picture dump from the last few months:

And now I'm shopping for an R32...  Love the sound of those things!

In reply to Brotus7 :

Do eeeet. The sound is addicting and the torque curve is great. Being able to roll on throttle in any gear to pass someone is so nice. Make sure you keep up with maintenance though! I had a bad 3 months because it was high mileage and although the engine was rebuilt, all the accessories sh!t out on me all at once it seemed. But going for two weeks now with no weird new noises or anything obviously breaking to a hard stop.

Today I replaced my rear brake pads.

Replaced with yellow stuff because I think that is what is on the front (they are yellow and they stop pretty good?)

Pretty easy project overall and I am happy with the results. I did some minor bedding kn (5-10 easy/moderate stop or slow rolls from 50 ish miles an hour, followed by 4 pop the eyes out stops from 60 miles an hour). It will stop. So a job well done I guess? 

Seriously tho, it does stop well, and it makes me want to throw up doing stops like that....

Also changed my oil. 

Woot woot

If you don't throw up at the end of the autocross run, you're leaving time on the track.

So this weekend I dug into the intermittent/slow power steering leak I have had going on. Had a slow drip where one of my braided lines goes into the rack here:

Pulled off that 90 and found that the nipple has a bend that I dont remember on installation. 

So I went to a local hydraulic shop to pick his brain and see if he could help. He got me a new Oring even tho that one didnt look bad, and told me more than likely I had a hairline crack in the 90 and would need a new one. Upon reassembly the leak seems to be worse. No longer a drop, more of a stream on full extension. 

Cue sad horn. 

I have done some things in the last year and a half...

But still lots to do

The last two pics......made my morning.  God bless you sir.

Thank you bony. I have some other evil ideas for the winter planned out but we will see if I get them done. Have a few more for good measure:

What wheels are those? I like 'em.

Matt, they are Kansei Corsa 18x10.5 +12

20mm spacer in the rear (just to square up the narrow ass. The rear looks narrower than the front if you dont run 20) and 8mm spacer in the front to get it off the struts. Lowered on BC coilovers with many supporting suspension mods. 

Kansei is pretty new to the scene but they are big in jdm/drift car scene I feel. They are a good price for a quality wide track wheel. No incredibly light, but I couldn't find RPF1s in the stance I wanted and I didnt have 3000 to get some baller three piece wheels haha. 

Ah, gotcha.  Funny that I've actually been considering the Kansei KNP for our WRX, but the Corsa has me second guessing that. 

Their Roku model is also a looker but that came out right after I ordered these lol

Reminding myself to keep this thread going.... haha

I was able to get some of the big stuff ready for Wookies In The Woods at Tail of the Dragon and trailer it over from Kansas. Great time, great people. I didnt get enough of a chance to talk to most people.

I blew my freshly rebuilt PS lines (went to a -6 AN conversion because of slow leaks on my hardlines). The "high pressure" lines that a shop had built were not high enough so I blew the pump to cooler and cooler to rack lines separately which required two trips down to Robbinsville to have hydraulic strength lines built. I doubt I ever see 6000+ psi here....

I finished the flares shortly before loading the car on the trailer so had not test driven at all. I did a slow lap around Fontana and sure enough, the front piece scrubbed pretty hard. I have a couple ideas about how I can modify them to continue running the meaty stance I have.

Also I was able to fit my foglights before the trip. I super like this style look, and I have some ideas about how to incorporate them into a boser hood I hope to be working up this year before next WITW.