DaveDorson

I'm waiting for some wax to arrive so I can do the rust proofing that it's never apparently had and sort out any corrosion before it's a problem. I've actually been using this thing daily now as it's cheaper to run (seriously) than my Mk5 GTi is in terms of fuel as the golf is mapped and needs expensive go go juice, whereas this runs on Morrisons finest own brand diesel without any drama, and since sorting the box out seems to do similar mpg as the box is shifting without any flares (thus increased revs). If anyone reading this is thinking to themselves that they want to buy a certain car but the Internet is telling them not do because of all the issues reported, I just want to reiterate something. When you enjoy your car, if cars are your thing at least, you won't care as much when stuff does break. Don't let the horror stories put you off owning anything. Buy the car you want, enjoy using it, fix it if and when it breaks, and keep enjoying it.

So far so good, did some motorway miles today and managed record MPGs even giving it a bit of long shoe. 31mpg for a 100 mile or so mixed drive today with me mostly at *ahem* 70 officer except where Gestapo cameras on the A1 dictated otherwise or around the odd housing estate. Saw an absolute lovely MK3 cavalier near Lower Stondon earlier too, 2.0 GLS I thing with a tow bar, in gold. Was great! No pictures as I was on a mission.

Lack of updates due to lazy and it just working for the most part. Finally did the gearbox service, and did the mechatronics seals and sleeve seals while it was apart so hopefully it'll stay dry under it now. Already noted an improvement in shifts so it was worth doing. I took two photos One of the old oil and some old oil from my mates A6 CVT in a bucket with the filter and pan on the floor, the magnets had a bit of debris but it wasn't horrific. The other Of the diagnostics. The fill to level procedure on these is basically fill when cold until it dribbles and then get the oil to the right temp (45-60c) and fill until it dribbles out the fill hole with the engine running, hence the diag being plugged in while filling to check the box temp. The whole job was done on the floor, with the car at full height and stands under to make sure it didn't drop, there's enough access to get under and do it for the home mechanic and my ramp had a paid job on it. The only special tool I used was a compressed air fluid filler and adaptor to fill the box, but it could be done with a large fluid syringe it would just take more time and be a bit more of a faff. The only real access issue is the exhaust having the cats right near the fill plug area and the mechatronics sleeve being a bit of a pain to apply enough pressure to in order to compress the scroll seal enough to re clip it place.

VW spent all the budget on making that a nice place to sit though, even if the soft touch plastics didn't stand he test of time that well.. The fast ones were as good as the slow ones, and although the 1.8T is one of my favourite VW group engines of all time and can be made to make some obscene power, the golf was never really a hot hatch in that era, but was absolutely acceptable transport. The mk5 dashboard is a cheap sea of elephants arse coloured and textured plastic, the car is a cheaper place to be and the QC of this era of golf sucked the balls off a rancid donkey compared to the generation before it.

Depends on the car.. some I can live with the issues, others I can't do it. The Aircon on the golf isn't working at the moment and it's pissed me off, but that's probably due to the heat and my want to rag it about now I've done the big caliper conversion. It also needs loads of paint stuff doing and I will likely let it slide. The range rover I've not done the mechatronics seal on, it's stopped leaking oil and when I cleaned it it was clean oil so I suspect someone just made a mess when doing it so I've not dropped the box oil yet to do that seal and change the filter and sump. The Mondeo I got rid of had loads of silly issues that I was happy to just live with but if I'd done them I'd have kept it. The SLK I sold I did the important stuff and although it wanted some bodywork was happy to let the new owner make that call and just polished it up, but was very honest about. My Dad's C5 needs loads doing, service, belts, probably tyres and radius arms as well as a few cosmetic issues and may well end up on here for spares or repairs as it's now at the point of fix it or frag it in my book and has a short MOT.

Not sure about that, but they're horrible slow and low powered turds of an engine in a car that I'd have absolutely no interest in if it wasn't 200bhp+ and fun to drive. I can't fathom why anyone would enjoy driving a poverty spec faux premium (let's be honest, VW are no more a premium car than a ford of the same age) car without a fruity engine.

I'm in Rutland/Lincolnshire so not a million miles but it's still a bit of a drive. Panels and GTI specific bits I could be keen on even in the wrong colour as I can paint stuff in the unit. I could use a spare turbo from a k03 engine petrol car so I can refurbish one off the car if you have one spare, I could so use an engine under tray and better arch liners as well as some side skirts and a boot spoiler.. mine are fine but I'd like to make some carbon ones and having some off the car makes that easier.

I did.. He does well but that's KGF pricing on a turd of a car. That 1.4 engine can barely get out of it's own way. Proper mingebag buying a mk5 with that engine.

I'm a big fan of them, I still think the mk2 16v is one of, if not the best daily driver ever made, but sensible ones are no longer sensible money. When VW designed this car they poached the guy responsible for the mk1 focus control blade suspension, and the back end of these are very much like those found in the focus which is why these things drive so well on the roads we have in the UK. When I had my ST170 I used to say it was like a grown up mk2 golf GTI, this mk5 sort of takes that to the next level. It puts a grin on my face in a very different way to the manner in which the Range Rover does.

The chucked a sponge between the wing and arch liner that soaks up water and makes rot, you'll also start seeing them going under wing near the sill in years to come as it's a detritus trap that you can only get to by removing the arch liners.

I quite fancy getting a TT mk1 for a bit. The Audis do tend to fly under the radar a bit.

Probably. Every modern engine has it's faults, these use oil when driving hard, suffer failures if you don't do the cam follower for the high pressure fuel pump and if the chain between the cams, and/or guides have worn out. Also because they fire fuel into the combustion chamber rather than the inlet manifold they tend to gum up ports with carbon due to oil breathing into the inlet. But that does also mean they can make more power than the previous generation 1.8 20vT engines too, however tuning beyond a map and some bolt on bits can get expensive. The later cars had many of the issues resolved and can take a lot more of a beating than earlier ones that's for sure. However, as I keep saying, just buy a car, fix it when it breaks, keep it serviced and enjoy it. If you believed the Internet you'd never own a car. They all have faults.

I tend to drive mine my hair is on fire so that's normal.. 🤣

So as I mentioned this car has been tuned and it's quite quick. It's got 312mm brakes from the edition 30 cars that came with 240ish bhp rather than the 200 that the golf of this age has from the factory. They are "adequate" but it needed new discs and I saw that as a reason to improve. Porsche Boxster calipers from a 2.5 or 2.7 car run a similar size disc, and you can buy adaptors and conversion hoses to make them all marry up. The benefit of the upgrade is a better modulation due to 4 pot calipers, a lighter caliper and cheaper pads.. honestly. Bought some calipers from HPI matrix or this parish, swapped the link pipe and bleed nipples from side to side as the porsche caliper is mounted on the other side of the disc on a porsche so the larger leading piston is in the wrong place for front of wheel mounting, took a tiny bit of material away from the pads mounts on the caliper as the golf disc is 1mm wider than the porsche one (doesn't impact the integrity of the caliper, just stops it kissing the disc face if you wear your pads too low and will damage the disc) and fitted it all up. Looks made for it right! Unfortunately the caliper has some very feint witness marks where the wheel is just kissing the caliper but only on one side, which is also the side where the wheel has had paint, it's that close.. so I'll have to add some 5mm spacers. I confess I didn't notice this until I'd driven it home with absolutely no issues, but if it's they close it's only going to take a stone to make a mess between the two. Spacer's and longer bolts currently on their way to me.

While Hollii had the car she noticed the rear wiper wasn't contacting the screen. Anyone who's had a VW of this era knows what's coming. The wiper arm was shagged.. it'd corroded to the spindle and cracked the plastic composite arm it's sat on.. TADTS. Tenner off eBay and 2 seconds with the power file saw the old arm off and the new one on. Wing arrived, gave it some tornado red and chucked it on. Not an awful match but as I said it'll never be right without a full paint. It's a pattern wing and I was quite happy with the fit.

I lent the car to a mate for an evening as she wanted to take some pictures, the agreement was she jet washed the car and stuck some petrol in it, as this one is mapped and because it's an early car they need to be fed on expensive 98/99 Ron fuel. I fitted some carbon look mirror caps that were sat around from a car we broke a while ago while I paint the stock ones as they had really bad laquer peel, and waited for a wing to arrive to sort out the rusty arch on the driver's side.

Gotta love a click bait title eh? So yeah there's no way of actually knowing if it was the cheapest one when I bought it, but I offered less than WBAC were offering so I suspect I'm not far off. The story for those that don't know. After selling my SLK to mr R Welfare of this parish I decided what I needed to do in order to focus and consolidate my expanding shitter collection was to purchase another red car with some improvement needed. And here it, as I purchased it. It was my friend and neighbour Sallys eldests first car, yes, a GTI was his first car.. He's a good lad and wanted a Mk5 GTi and after years of skimping and saving bought this, a manual gearbox AXX engined car. Fitted with a 3" sports cat and downpipe, with a RAM air filter cold air induction filter, polyurethane suspension bushes on the front, stage 1 map with paperwork to prove it's about 270bhp and feels it. It's had everything done meticulously by previous owners including regular correct oil and filter changes, timing belt, chain between cams and tensioner, clutch and flywheel, new gas shocks, Eibach Sportline lowering springs, high pressure fuel pump and regular follower changes, all documented until he owned it, and then it's been owner serviced since (I've helped with this so know it's done right). It's got matching michellin pilot sport 4 tyres too and it's still on the 17" Monza wheels. Basically if I was going to get a Mk5, it's in this sort of spec.. so naturally when he bought his second car, a Mk5 5 door DSG Pirelli edition I told him that I'd be keen to have this off him. Unfortunately he wanted way more than I was willing to pay, cars like this tend to go around £2.5-3k and I saw it at closer to £1500. Yes it's a good one but it's got the standard VW laquer peel, the oil leak is likely near the turbo and is a knob to get to, and its got scabby wings. There's loads of these about still and for what he wanted people had the pick of the litter, so it's been sat for 6 months. Even with a painted wing you'll never get it mint without painting the whole car, so you'd have to want one that was essentially good but not perfect and for what he wanted there just wasn't enough in it to make a trader a profit of appease a fussy golf wanting owner. It had an advisory on an an oil leak (minor) and bushes showing wear at the back for the last MOT, as well as a noisy exhaust as he'd added a stainless system from eBay that had little to nothing in terms of baffles in. He swapped this for a standard back box on my advice as it'd make selling it easier and now it's not too in your face. So with the proceeds of the Merc in my bank I dropped him a line and said look, your mum wants her drive back and I'll offer you £x paid in today to your account. He dropped the keys off and I taxed it, jump started it, did the oil and filters and have been using it since.

Yep, and what's to lose other than £250 and possible domestic upheaval by getting involved.

It's a £250 car that no one on here seems to want to save. Sometimes if you want a job doing you've got to do it yourself.

I think the Body control module/seat ECU is fucked, but like anything that's been sat you'll find more problems as you go through. That £250 will quickly become three times that, especially if you're trying to hunt down unobtainium parts

As Drew said the inner wings are mega crispy and very thin at the ends. I can fabricate and repair these but if a good pair appears that haven't been bent it'd make my life easier, they came out easy enough though. I'll probably get the rear wings and the doors off at next week depending how much time I can find so I can get them dug apart and any new metal in if needed. Rear cross member aside the main body is really good as @Stinkwheelsaid in his advert, so if I can avoid taking it off fully to sort it out then I will, I'm hoping I can make enough space to repair and reconstruct the bit at the back once the tank is dropped and out. Of course while I'm doing that I'll replace the fuel lines, the fuel filter and the brake line clips as they are missing down the side of the chassis and stuff is sort of flapping about which makes me uneasy.

He's the sort to have a "friendly tester" I suspect

It's a shame Dyane stuff isn't the same as I know where there are a mint pair of inner wings.

The car sneezed and if face fell off. So I had a bit of time to kill this evening and I need to get the brakes done on the car and go over the calipers I also have some not fucked panels to make the front end of of, so it made sense to take the front end off. Inner wings are not anything like as bad as they could be, but they do need some attention. These will also unbolt, so it's easy enough to take them off to repair them.

So went and saw a bloke called Pete today and got some wings, but because the phone camera is absolutely nailed you'll have to wait for progress shots as they happen. The rears are GRP and need some love, the front on one side could use a repair but crucially it's not bent about and creased, so I'll sort that out and get the front end on and about straight and work out the rears a bit.