I buy the cheapest MOT'd Mk5 golf in the UK. Bonus FTP update inside.

[DaveDorson]

7 minutes ago, Shirley Knott said:

I drive (amongs other things) a Mk4 SDi Golf with 190k and 68ps....

Drops mic.

 

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.

[Shirley Knott]

12 hours ago, DaveDorson said:

 

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.

^Probably my favourite AS quote of the year so far!

That's my experience too FWIW.

 

[Bazfr69]

13 hours ago, DaveDorson said:

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.

I love these and it was the first Golf I was interested in since my Mk2.
I actually liked the interior too, the best seats of any car I’ve owned although I must admit I didn’t spend much time caressing the dash. 

[SiC]

I personally think the mk5 interior is far nicer than the Mk4. I certainly wouldn't call the Mk4 a quality built, durable car either and has plenty of other bits that fall off especially inside. Whether it's glove box catches failing, arm rests going floppy and soft touch plastics rubbing off. Then the inevitable MK4 window regulators, door lock modules and wiring. 

[GrumpiusMaximus]

6 hours ago, SiC said:

I personally think the mk5 interior is far nicer than the Mk4. I certainly wouldn't call the Mk4 a quality built, durable car either and has plenty of other bits that fall off especially inside. Whether it's glove box catches failing, arm rests going floppy and soft touch plastics rubbing off. Then the inevitable MK4 window regulators, door lock modules and wiring. 

I must have the best MK4 on the planet... 178K on the clock and I have none of these issues and it's not like I take exemplary care of it...

[Shirley Knott]

On 6/16/2023 at 12:30 PM, SiC said:

 I certainly wouldn't call the Mk4 a quality built, durable car either and has plenty of other bits that fall off especially inside. Whether it's glove box catches failing, arm rests going floppy and soft touch plastics rubbing off. Then the inevitable MK4 window regulators, door lock modules and wiring. 

It's a tricky one isn't it... Its easy to be critical of them but the small issues you've mentioned are well known (and easy/cheap to fix).

The Mk5s I see for sale locally are riddled with problems, and my MOT tester will moan for as long as you're prepared to listen about the number of Mk5s he's having to weld up for the second, third and fourth time. He recons the later they are, the worse they get.

Meanwhile, the youngest Mk4's are now pretty much 20 years old and yet there seem to be vast numbers of them still on the road, many more than equivalent aged fiestas/corsas I suspect - But I'm pulling figures out of my arse admittedly.

Personal experience,  mines now done 190k and is on original injectors/fuel pump as far as I know, and my younger brother has a Mk1 octavia (Same car essentialy) that he's owned from a year old, it's now on 220k and still on its original turbo/injectors/pump and the original exhaust was only replaced last year... Both 20 years old, neither have ever been welded,  both daily drivers still covering circa 500 miles a week with no real drama.... If that's not a measure of a durable car, I don't know what is.

 

[Matty]

1 hour ago, Shirley Knott said:

It's a tricky one isn't it... Its easy to be critical of them but the small issues you've mentioned are well known (and easy/cheap to fix).

The Mk5s I see for sale locally are riddled with problems, and my MOT tester will moan for as long as you're prepared to listen about the number of Mk5s he's having to weld up for the second, third and fourth time. He recons the later they are, the worse they get.

Meanwhile, the youngest Mk4's are now pretty much 20 years old and yet there seem to be vast numbers of them still on the road, many more than equivalent aged fiestas/corsas I suspect - But I'm pulling figures out of my arse admittedly.

Personal experience,  mines now done 190k and is on original injectors/fuel pump as far as I know, and my younger brother has a Mk1 octavia (Same car essentialy) that he's owned from a year old, it's now on 220k and still on its original turbo/injectors/pump and the original exhaust was only replaced last year... Both 20 years old, neither have ever been welded,  both daily drivers still covering circa 500 miles a week with no real drama.... If that's not a measure of a durable car, I don't know what is.

 

I'll second that. T727ABV. Van, everyday transport, Nurburgring, it did it all. Cheap vac pipes, a caliper and a few drop links is all it went through really as it worked its way through the extended family.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Yep.  Original engine, turbo, body has never been welded, original exhaust, gearbox, suspension and had its first clutch at 113K and is now on 179K.  Never had the aircon regassed, either and it still blows ice cold.  There's a whine from the gearbox if I coast in 5th gear but it's done that for years and I don't use it much anyway.  I think it helps that mine is a very late on (April '05) and they had long since ironed out any systemic issues with production.  It's all been wear-and-tear issues and it's not like I baby it.  It's currently doing commuting duties for my other half 40 miles every day and get thrashed at the weekends whilst being comfortable, practical and surprisingly entertaining to drive and feeling substantial.  I like MK4s a lot.

[stuboy]

mate had a nearly new mk5 GTD it was very rapid

[DaveDorson]

So, much like the l322 of great liability, this has been being used with very little in the way of needing to be fed and watered other than fuel.  It's been living at the unit but I want to put something else in so I asked other Dave to bring it home tonight.

He's just messaged me to say it won't start outside his house..turns the key, dash lights up but nothing.

 

I suspect because of the starter being at the front of the engine the wiring to it is in a mess.  

 

Power to relay is good, relay is relaying fine, so either the starter is fucked or the solenoid has given up.  

 

Suppose I'd better go over to his with the spanners after work.

[DaveDorson]

Right..

Power to starter is OK so, wiring is corroded that I can see, so let's get this fucker off and have a look to see if it's repair, refurbish or replace for this starter motor shall we.

 

 

Ram air filter means easy strip and access, so starter off in less than 5 mins.

 

 

If this was the only damage I'd just repair it but ..

 

 

Two of the four brushes have been arcing out and this one is dead.. arse..

[DaveDorson]

I took the armature to a friend who repairs alternators and starter motors today, after wasting my time in Corby going to see a "brand new in box" starter advertised for £40, which turned out to be for the wrong car, and clearly used, (it did have a box for the one I need though 🙄) .

 

Anyway he reckons it'll clean up alright and I'd get away with a new brush pack, he hasn't got any in at the moment but told me you can get good packs on Amazon for less than £20 and they arrive the next day, a new starter motor is £100.

So yeah.. I've bought both.. just incase a rebuild doesn't work..

[Zelandeth]

So long as nothing is shorted or open you should be fine.  If it was a motor that was running for hours and hours at a time (like the circulator pumps Jag decided it would be smart to fit to the later XJ6), yeah I'd probably be calling that at least mostly dead.  However for the second or two of use a starter gets a couple of times a day it's probably still got a useful amount of life left in it with a good clean up and a fresh set of brushes.

[DaveDorson]

50 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

So long as nothing is shorted or open you should be fine.  If it was a motor that was running for hours and hours at a time (like the circulator pumps Jag decided it would be smart to fit to the later XJ6), yeah I'd probably be calling that at least mostly dead.  However for the second or two of use a starter gets a couple of times a day it's probably still got a useful amount of life left in it with a good clean up and a fresh set of brushes.

It was working fine until it suddenly wasn't, and when you moved the braided cables about a bit it did spin so I've for some hope.

[DaveDorson]

Waiting for parts show up is tedious.

Gave me a chance to clean up the armature, it needs a bit of work to be perfect, there as signs of it pitting on the brush contact area, which would have lead to the overheat and failure.

 

I've removed as much contamination as I could with wooden toothpicks and given it a quick once over with plastic bristle brush and a rinse off, which as you'll see has revealed the worst of the pitting.

I'm going to see if I can dress it down a bit, clean the body of the motor off a bit and wait for the brush pack to arrive.   Brushes were well past their best too, very small, two looked like they've broken up, which might explain the pitting😄

 

 

I've edited this post four times now and it keeps inserting an erroneous armature picture at the end.. I give up!

 

Anyway back at it

[DaveDorson]

For fucks sake.. this forum software is a dick at times.

[RoverFolkUs]

Props to you for actually rebuilding it!

[DaveDorson]

13 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Props to you for actually rebuilding it!

I try and rebuild everything where possible as I think we're hugely wasteful in this country and it absolutely pisses me off.

The main reason is because workshop labour rates are SO high it's often cheaper to chuck a new slave labour built part on that's been shipped half way across the world rather than just the parts you need and a bit of time.

[Tepper]

3 minutes ago, DaveDorson said:

I try and rebuild everything where possible as I think we're hugely wasteful in this country and it absolutely pisses me off.

Amen! The amount of stuff e.g. washing machines that get binned for needing a set of brushes or something else simple is outrageous.

[DaveDorson]

Anyway, global supply chain and morally corrupt economics aside.

 

Here's the bits you've not seen yet 

[Rustybullethole]

6 minutes ago, Tepper said:

Amen! The amount of stuff e.g. washing machines that get binned for needing a set of brushes or something else simple is outrageous.

I agree. Though many said washing machines are still rolling around as repair patches on various vehicles I have owned. 

@DaveDorson so you have access to a lathe for dressing up the motor? 

[DaveDorson]

43 minutes ago, Rustybullethole said:

I agree. Though many said washing machines are still rolling around as repair patches on various vehicles I have owned. 

@DaveDorson so you have access to a lathe for dressing up the motor? 

No, but I do have a pillar drill and a steady hand 😂

[DaveDorson]

Results of a pillar drill press and a few grades of abrasive.

 

 

As you can see the worst of the pitting is still there however it's smoother now so I don't see it causing any issues, if not ideal.

 

[DaveDorson]

The part eventually showed up and as is often the way it didn't fit.. they sent the wrong part.

 

At this point I've got fucked off with it all so I've chopped then bushes out and soldered them into the old frame with new springs, of course the carbon brushes didn't quite fit the holders either so I ended up filing them back too. 

Parts suppliers are so shit these days.  What the fuck happened to actually doing your job properly?

 

 

[RoverFolkUs]

8 hours ago, DaveDorson said:

Results of a pillar drill press and a few grades of abrasive.

 

 

As you can see the worst of the pitting is still there however it's smoother now so I don't see it causing any issues, if not ideal.

 

Still about ten times better than the standards required for a ECP special "Lucas" reman unit I reckon....!

11 hours ago, DaveDorson said:

I try and rebuild everything where possible as I think we're hugely wasteful in this country and it absolutely pisses me off.

The main reason is because workshop labour rates are SO high it's often cheaper to chuck a new slave labour built part on that's been shipped half way across the world rather than just the parts you need and a bit of time.

From a garage/commercial point of view, unless its a really obscure vehicle, the only option these days is to chuck an exchange unit on when its a customer's car. Both due to labour rates but also because there's not one supplier I can think of we'd be able to reliably get the parts from to rebuild them without waiting days each time. Its a shame, but thats the way of the world now!

I happily rebuilt the alternator on my old Rover 45, because it was my own car that was only going to be scrapped if I didn't bother fixing it, I thought I could wait a few days to get the bits and do it in my spare time. Cost £15 in the end, the car appeared to live for another year or so and I sold it for more than double its scrap value. Thought that was a bit of a win

[DaveDorson]

I am exhausted.

 

So I got the starter rebuilt, after digging out my soldering kit and getting fucked off last night about being sent the wrong parts.. still we adapt and overcome don't we.

I didn't want to test it on the range rover battery as they're temperamental at the best of times and I don't want to poke the JLR god's, so I decided to chuck an 096 battery that's meant to be for Sarah's new beetle driveway ornament and charge that up so I have something off a car to test it on.

That was late last night.. early this morning my co2 alarms are going off and I'm running around in my boxers getting a bubbling battery into my garden away from anything that night combust, in the rain and frantically trying to turn the alarms off and vent the gas out the house.  Excessive hydrogen gas discharge will set off your co2 alarms folks.. never leave them charging over night or unattended.. lesson learned.

 

Anyway I went to the battery this morning and it's not melted or anything so I got the jumper cables out the car and a jumper wire and made the motor turn, great success.

[yes oui si]

Eek, but also yay.