The Monkey's Daily - Mk2 Golf GTi 8v [straight through MOT]

[boost monkey 0]

Well, I had the car up in the air again at the weekend. I had a look at the brakes and they have at least 6mm of pad left in them so i'll be ok for now.

 

I did the thermostat too. It's an easy job I know, the most time was spent wrestling with PAS pump bolts. After that was done I refilled with the little amountof G12++ I had left (thanks Prodigal!) and refilled mainly with water. I think it's a 1:6 G12 to water so quite under the spec on the bottle, but hey i'm not gonna need protection to -24C in the next couple of weeks.

 

I've just been to the local dealership and picked up 3L of G12++, and have ordered the exhaust rubber hangers and clamps associated with centre and rear box on the Golf. All in all about £42. Looking forward to having the exhaust done. I'm wondering if it's causing the lack of response when I feather the throttle, as it seems to be on/off at lot speeds still.

 

To confirm what others have said, I can safely say that within 4mins on the trip computer I now have warm air in the cabin, so the engine is warming up much better! I'm not sure if it will have a huge affect of fuel economy (dunno how the ECU runs the warm-up mode) but perhaps emissions will be reduced.

 

I still have a clutch to fit, the centre box (need to order a rear) and the steering column surround thingy.

[tony_ack 0]

May make a difference to the ecu if the water is up to temp but I would suspect warm up mode stops a lot sooner than most people think.

 

I always thought g12 was a 50-50 mix??

[boost monkey 0]

Bought VAG clamps and rubbers this week for mounting my new centre box. I'm quite hoping I can find a new rear box ASAP and swap them out on monday, but here's hoping!

[boost monkey 0]

I'm wondering if it would be epically pikey and boyracerish if I fitted the oval powerflow backbox from my early C onto the Golf tomorrow. It would save me buying a replacement, but would mean I would have a large oval exhaust instead of the two standard pipes.

 

AFAIK it will fit ok as it's an early style hanger setup, but it may sit too low or high against the bumper/valance.

[tony_ack 0]

16v is a different bore size to the 8v. If you've got a standard system on the 8v you'll prob need an adaptor somewhere. I'm not too sure how different the golf and corrado systems are, but the 16v system on the golf is routed differently to the 8v system.

[boost monkey 0]

Fair enough. Cheers tony. I gave it a miss and worked on the corrado a bit instead! I know, shock!

 

I did give it a wash though and it came up really nice.

 

Oh and the Drivers window reg packed up (manual) when the window was down just before a torrential downpour! The window is back up but wobbly. I thought the teeth had sheared on the plastic handle, but it's the metal spindle itself which is spinning free. I'm guessing a new reg? Shouldn't be too hard to fit.

 

---------- Post added at 07:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:56 PM ----------

 

with regards to the 50-50 on G12, the back of the bottle gives 3 different concentrations for different anti-freeze performance levels, down to something like -52 deg C!

[boost monkey 0]

I now have all the parts I need to replace my exhaust! All rubbers and clamps from VW, then a centre box from online and a rear box from local place.

 

Looking forward to doing that this weekend, see if I can get rid of the raspy noise - garage told me both boxes are peppered with lots of little holes.

 

Also OSF window reg has given up the ghost so looking for another one of those so I can use the window again!

[boost monkey 0]

I did the 2 rear boxes today. Used all VAG clamps and rubbers, so it's nice and tight now. I got a shock though...

 

IT'S SO BLOOMIN LOUD! I drove about a bit, so that the assembly paste could expand and bake to make an airtight fit, but the boxes still sound so boomy. I thought maybe they have a leak but I have confirmed that neither of the 2 joins I did are leaking. When I cover one of the 2 tailpipes it gets a LOT quieter, so i'm wondering whether the backbox (made by Euroflo - anyone had experience?) is just very boomy and the exhaust is resonating inside the cavity.

 

I found some consolation in that driving with the window down it is clear that it is louder in the cabin than it is outside, so it's not too boyracerish. Perhaps it's the cabin/interior enclosure thats making it sound like that.

 

I'm just wondering if it will bed down as the rear box (only new part, other box was 2nd hand) gets coked up inside. Thoughts appreciated!

 

p.s. I'm still impressed by the sheer force of the air being expelled out of the rear box. That's some serious compression! I wonder if al the 8v's are like this...

 

---------- Post added at 06:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:47 PM ----------

 

The exhaust swap gave the normal hassle. The backbox even had a jubilee clip on which seemed to be trying to hold the hanging bracket onto the box itself! Ah, ebay cars.... I didn't bother wasting time and used Erwins on both of the clamps. With those off, I cut the old rubbers from the backbox, and began to twist it in an effort to break the putty holding the two parts together.

 

The backbox sheared where the adjoining pipe goes into the box! Then it swung down and hit my shin :@ stupid thing. Then the part of the backbox that stayed on the other box acted as a hook and made it really hard to get it off the rear axle!!! omg, I thought the Corrado was hard work!

 

Anyways, it's all done now. The rear box came with black paint / rustproofing on the tail pipes. I'm not sure if I like it. I wonder if it will burn off.

[boost monkey 0]

Yeah she's not quietening down! I guess it's just a cheapo backbox with less insulation / chambers inside of it. Never mind. It's not *too* pikey...!

[Alex_G60_Fanatic 0]

get a horn and attach it to the back.... :D

[KipVR 1]

I had a nightmare trying to quieten my Mk2 exhaust down, in the end I managed to get hold of an Ernst system which gave good results initially, but after 30k on the motorway it's sounding a little bit raspy again, but nowhere near as bad as it was.

 

The worst sounding bit for me was the downpipe, the likes of bosal make them so thin that although they don't leak, they sound like they are leaking badly.

[boost monkey 0]

Yeah, I'm having the same problems Kip. Also, the compression out of the tailpipes is really high - never had an 8v before so i don't know if this is normal. I guess it shows the rings are sealing well after 170k! It still has plenty of get up and go through all gears so maybe like the 16v engines they loosen and get a bit more pokey with age.

 

I have an Ernst thin front silencer, then an unknown middle box and a Euroflo back. The downpipe is looking pretty bad, perhaps I should swap it sometime and then all the parts shall be new. I'm half tempted by a 4-branch to be honest although I don't want to rob torque from the 8v as it has nothing above 5500rpm anyways.

 

My setup now booms/bellows around 3000rpm so about 60mph in top. I wish my window reg worked properly so I could drive with my drivers window down and find out just how loud it is. I think it resonates in the cabin and sounds louder inside than it does out - but no way to check at this stage.

 

Is yours an 8 or 16v?

[tony_ack 0]

I had a spare (used) genuine downpipe until last Saturday! I got no buyers at £10 collected, so I got rid of it in a job lot.

 

The exhaust gas does have a lot of force behind it when it leaves the tailpipes - when I had mine and was setting up the CO, I blanked off one of the tailpipes with some pretty strong duck tape... but it usually ended up forcing the tape off! Compression ratio on an 8v is 10:1 iirc

 

As for the exhaust sound, when I first got mine it had a nasty DTM upswept tailpipe effort on it which droned out absolutely everything. I swapped to a genuine system (one of the last new ones in the country at the time!)and although it improved a lot, there was still a (nice) rasp at about 3000 rpm

 

I've always found that a genuine system sounds better than a pattern one, it's just a shame there aren't many about. The same went for my MK2 16v, and the VR6.

 

If you want to spend some money, then I hear a Jetex stainless system is pretty good and the tailpipes aren't overly fussy either.

[boost monkey 0]

Cheers for the info about Jetex Tony, I might see how much they're going for.

[boost monkey 0]

Using the missus to help me diagnose the exhaust, we drove around a bit today with her (n/s) window down so that I could hear the echo of the exhaust off walls and other structures.

 

For whatever reason, the exhaust seems to be louder inside than it is out. I can only conclude that it is resonating on the rubber mounts and therefore sounding louder in the cabin than outside.

 

So I am feeling less pikey. Result! :D

[boost monkey 0]

Today I had uneven/misfiring runnning issues when I started the car. I've had it before (symptoms are poor running/ hesitattion between idle and 2000rpm) but today it cut out when pulling away and then took a few seconds to restart. I had a look under the bonnet whilst it was running and got a shock off the rubber booted ends of the HT leads at the dizzy cap. Surely that's not normal? I avoided the bare metal ends of the leads at the head for exactly that reason!

 

I've never had any problems with any VW with water in the ignition before. Is this a common thing about the 8v engine? Also, could it be something else like a dodgy coil or a split dizzy cap? I'll check the cap later when I go home.

 

If anyone (probs Tony_ack!) could help me diagnose that would be great. It happened a little bit over the last 2 weeks or so, but never cut out. I put it down to cheap petrol (ASDA - £1.30 a litre!) and then filled up at somewhere more reputable but now i'm thinking it's the ignition system.

 

If I can swap out parts with a KR engine and test on the 8v digi (PB) such as coil etc etc please let me know as I have some new parts on the Corrado. I may try to swap over the dizzy cap and leads too (although car had a service before I bought it in April so shouldn't really be necessary!)

 

Cheers :D

 

p.s. I have twixes and/or ham. maybe even ham flavoured twixes, but we'll see.

 

---------- Post added at 01:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:31 PM ----------

 

From some very superficial research done this lunchtime, it seems it could be the MAF also.

Edited September 12, 2011 by boost monkey
i'm a bit special.

[tony_ack 0]

Never had this problem myself (unless jet washing the engine bay - whoops!), but for a sake of a few pence it'd be worth swapping the dizzy cap. Have the HT leads been changed? You definitely shouldn't be getting shocked if the cap and leads are healthy! Poor insulation of the cap and leads could be causing spark problems, which would explain the stuttering at lower revs. The 8v is quite fussy about the leads being good - arcing is common if they're damaged.

 

'Service' is quite a generic term - it may just have meant oil and filters - particularly if the guy was about to sell the car! Not everyone will have checked the ignition system in detail during a service.

 

Not too sure about the 'swappability' of the coils - they're both transistored so may be okay.

 

The MAF can cause running problems (there's also a 'trick' to tweak it to overfuel like the WUR trick on the 16v but it can mess up your setup tbh), but I'd look into the dizzy cap and leads first. There's a test you can do on the MAF - I think the resistance across the potentiometer has to be about 22-27 ohms? The exact figures are in the Haynes.

[boost monkey 0]

The leads look new, but I guess they may not be. I don't have the car advert anymore else I would chesk what was done as I'm pretty sure that it was mentioned on there.

 

I sprayed the leads and cap with silicone spray last night, and it started fine this morning.....but i wasn't raining! ha ha. It's just rained this lunchtime, so we'll see how the drive back goes.

 

I'll see if any of the leads are damaged/broken and test them out, and will read up about the MAF in the haynes. Cheers Tony.

[coullstar 0]

Sound like lead and dizzy to me. Had the same problem many moons ago when I went through a massive puddle. Took the cap of and dried it out properly and it worked fine after that.

[boost monkey 0]

Anyone (probably tony_ack, let's be honest) who knows about old cable clutches (i.e. non hydraulic) can give me a hand with this one?

 

When I bought the golf, the clutch bite was reasonably high so I bought a clutch and it's been in the boot ever since.

 

The bite point has been progressively working its way to the top of the pedal, so the pedal needs less and less travel to disengage the clutch.

 

Does this mean the clutch is on its way out or that the cable needs adjusting? I think the car has a manual adjust cable on - white plastic ring with threaded sleeve and a locknut on it. If so, it's got about 30mm thread visible above the nut.

 

IIRC the auto adjust cables don't have this and look like a thin black plastic tube but i could be wrong as i'm thinking back about 5 years to my Jetta days!

 

It would be great to know whether the cable just needs adjusting (it is looking a little old, white oxide on the threads) or even whether I can just buy a new cable or if indeed the clutch is going.... but I would have thought the bite point would get lower and lower if the clutch was going?

 

If anyone can help this would be great. The drive in this morning was a little hairy, I'm not sure if the clutch is slowly getting thinner (more than normal!) or whether I just put the seat in the wrong locater hole after my short wife was driving it at the weekend! :lol:

[tony_ack 0]

Hmmm... you seem to know what times I'm going to be browsing the forum... are you stalking me?!

 

Cable clutch pedals get high over time for the same reason that your handbrake does - the cable stretches. You should try adjusting your cable first - iirc the clutch release arm should be horizontal at rest when correctly adjusted. If there's no more adjustment in your cable, get yourself a new one - to be honest if it has got significanlty worse over a short period of time, it's usually a sign that the cable has stretched almost to failure point. I've heard bad things about the auto-adjusting cables but to be honest I've never had any issues with them.

 

Clutches on MK2s can last anything between 70k and 150k depending on how the car has been treated (so probably similar reliability rate to the gearbox!)

 

As for your clutch, it may or may not be on the way out, though you'd usually feel it slipping if it was.

[boost monkey 0]

LOL. Yeah I'm stalking you on my lunch hour every day :D

 

Yeah, completely makes sense. I will look at the cable tonight. Unfortunately I don't even have basic tools with me in the car anymore.

 

Perhaps the cable is on the way out then. I'll see if I can pick one up. IIRC I have no paperwork to tell me the clutch has been done, and the odo has just passed 171k.... i'm hoping the box isn't going to let go too! :lol:

 

I'll be making a trip to VW to order the 6 pressure plate bolts for the clutch assembly, and I'll ask them about clutch cables also then I think I have all I need. Being a daily I may farm this out: wrestling with rusty LBJs isn't something i'm looking forward to, let alone trying to squeeze the box out past the chassis rails!

 

In previous experience, i've had clutches just go before actually slipping. My mk2 16v was testament to that, but then again the linkages were SO bad that I once got 3rd instead of 1st, floored it and must have taken a few thousand miles of material off...!

 

I don't mind limping around in the golf until I actually get the clutch done. IMO it still has enough torque at part throttle to get around reasonably well.

 

I will deffo adjust the clutch cable tonight, and also try and get a new one this afternoon perhaps (my office is on an auto industrial estate so lots of factors).

 

Cheers TONY_ACK!!11!!!1oneone

 

---------- Post added at 01:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:22 PM ----------

 

Yeah i've got a factor round the corner with a manual one for just under £20 so I'll pick that up tonight and possibly fit it later if the current one doesn't seem to have much left in it.

 

Cheers for the help again. I have ham for you?

[boost monkey 0]

SO I adjusted the cable today. I think. I had to use plusgas and molegrips on the thread to get the locknut unlocked, and then I held the hex black sheath and turned the white disc. The visible thread length didn't shorten or lengthen, which gave me a small migraine until I realised that it was probably sleeving itself up into the cable body. After a few trips around the block I realised that the bite had dropped back nearer the middle of the pedal so I felt like it was a job well done. And I can save my new cable for when I do the clutch.

 

But..... riding the clutch up to bite point made me realise that perhaps the old bite point being at the top meant that he clutch wasn't gully engaging? I mean letting th car idle in 1st and running forward at 6pmh (or however fast it is) got me to thinking maybe the clutch was staying on. I mean I'm sure that if the cable was adjusted incorrectly then the clutch may never have been fully engaged or disengaged which I guess could leas to premature wear.

 

Or am I talking tosh...?

 

Also, I noticed that the front tyres are down to the wear indicators so i'm looking for some good wets in a 14! :D

[tony_ack 0]

I think I know what you're saying about the clutch, though if it's working and seemingly healthy now, what's the problem? Whether it wore quicker because of the cable or not, since you were expecting to replace the clutch anyway, any improvement is a bonus??

 

The missus runs toyo proxes on the golf though that has 15" bbs ras on it. I personally find them average on the golf - a good solid tyre but no world beaters. I did run them through the winter on my old 8v golf with no dramas.

[boost monkey 0]

Very true, any improvement definitely is a bonus! The Mrs is definitely happy now I'm not doing clutch (although she now moans that we have a clutch kit doing nothing!)

 

I'm looking around £100 for both front tyres inc fitting. I think that will get me some reasonable ones. The olds handled well today even in the wet, but I don't like leaving something like tyres once I notice that they are going down. I don't have a tyre guage to measure them, but they don't feel far off the markers despite still having some tread left....but then they'd be bald if they didn't!

 

Cheers tony. I was contemplaying putting the Sebrings off the Corrado on, but actually those tyres aren't great either and also one of the arches rubs on the 14s with people in and on full lock so i doubt putting bigger wheels on will help anything!