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

[boost monkey 0]

Well I haven't fitted the VAG ignition switch yet. The old switch is fine for day driving, but when it gets dark I don't risk it and wire in the new one. I got a quote for getting the switch fitted of £43 so I'm definitely going to take that up. It's the same place that did the cambelt, so I trust them a bit. Also, I've heard that doing the switch on an early mk2 is a bit easier as you don't have to use a hub puller on the splined section of the column as it's not there on pre 1990 models so that's nice. Perhaps the quotes of £90 for fitting that I found whilst researching were for late model mk2s.

 

As a company is doing it, I have ordered the tiny screw (N0441155 £0.13+VAT) and spring ring (N0120032 £0.07+VAT) incase they get arsey about bodging it in there(!) I also took the chance to order the correct vacuum hose for the golf. You were right Tony, it's a 1m length and you have to order it in 5m reels. That's £18.35 +VAT for 5m (N0201391).

 

As you know my MFA stalk has always been a bit dodgy including this replacement one. Perhaps not surprising as they're both 22 years old. Anyways, I found a place that sells brand new Meyle(?) non-MFA stalks with free delivery for £12.90 (http://www.eurowagens.com - they also do brand new late spec/ C spec MFA ones for £30ish). I'm 98.2% sure that all the stalks are pretty much the same, as the ends of them can be removed and swapped so i'm hoping to swap the MFA end of mine onto the brand new stalk - after all, it's the rear wiper wash mech that I am having most trouble with and not the MFA side of things.

 

I also want to order a speedo cable and coolant pipe from VW Heritage. Seeing as the rev counter is a bit dodgy I have no way of judging speed when it decides to play dead - the speedo cable gave up about a week ago. From VW Heritage, the cable is genuine but the hose is repro. Doesn't really bother me. It'll prob still be better than a 2nd hand gen one. I looked up sunroof seals also as mine has been dripping on me this week. It's £50 ish. So I guess I will be dripped on a bit more, at least for this week.

 

And yes, spending money on the golf does divert it from the Corrado but without the Golf running properly I wouldn't be able to go to work, get paid, and have money to start with. It's a vicious Catch 22, but i'm not planning to go overboard with it.

 

---------- Post added at 01:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:21 PM ----------

 

Oh and either the alternator or one of my tappets is giving up as there's a distinct tapping sound at idle from the crank pulley end of the block. I'll get the multi on the alt and try to rule that out.

 

Also researched that the tacho signal is the red/black wire from the -ve side of coil. I'll check that out too.

[tony_ack 0]

Check your sunroof drain tubes - liek on the Corrado, the seal isn't completely water-tight, and any water that gets through should drip onto the frame and out of the drain tubes. Get a low E string from a guitar or - even better - your old speedo cable, and push it through the tubes to try and unblock them. The front ones come out in the inner wing area, and the rear ones under the rear bumper at the sides.

 

I think your dealer is having a laugh with the vac piping - they can only order it in 5m reels, but they should still sell it in whatever length you need. At my local dealer it's a stock item, so never ususally have any trouble.

 

With the steering wheel spline, I remember getting a steering wheel with the spline adaptor off an F-reg GTI, so it's not just the '90 spec ones that have it. I would bet that the small splines are only on the series 1 MK2s (pre 87), with the 4-button horns. 87-92 have the same steering wheel design (with differences to spoke location between PAS and non PAS). For a garage, it's irrelevant - it's a 30 second job to remove the spline adaptor with the right tools.

[boost monkey 0]

Cheers for the input matey. I'll deffo clear out the sunroof drain channels. Am I right I can do it without removing headliner/anything? Dunno if this matters, but it's worse when breaking (water running towards front of car then dripping into my fun zone) although sometimes drips slowly on me. Never the missus :/

 

He prob is. He's not the dealer i normally use (i.e. have spent hundreds with on Corrado resto) so he doesn't know me at all. The upside is I can fleece big bro for some after convincing him to do the vac lines on his G60 :D I will prob do the lines on my KR 16v should I put one back in the Plum.

 

Fair enough. Still it was good news in light of the £100+ labour costs I had read about! I wasn't really dreading doing it myself as I can play with the stalks / dash panel bulbs/ speedo cable whilst I'm there. It's just tricky taking time off work as I'm a contractor so have to claim holiday out of a pool. And I'm always super busy on the weekends (as the Plum is testament to).

[CazzaVR 0]

Jon, I really don't understand why you would have to remove the adaptor?! No puller required!

 

Steering wheel off, cowling off, switch out. Simple as. (Patiently!) tap the screw gently anticlockwise from the side with a small flat blade screwdriver/hammer if you can't get to it from the back.

 

Is the column adjustable? If so, put it on the lowest position.

 

Save the £43!

[tony_ack 0]

You need to swap seats with the missus then! Chivalry is outdated imo (ducks and checks for the missus behind him)

 

You should be able to open the sunroof and get to the drain tubes from there. There's one in each corner. No need to get the headlining down (thank god).

 

---------- Post added at 05:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:19 PM ----------

 

Jon, I really don't understand why you would have to remove the adaptor?! No puller required!

 

Steering wheel off, cowling off, switch out. Simple as. (Patiently!) tap the screw gently anticlockwise from the side with a small flat blade screwdriver/hammer if you can't get to it from the back.

 

Is the column adjustable? If so, put it on the lowest position.

 

Save the £43!

 

Steering wheel isn't adjustable, but that said...

 

 

I haven't done one of these on the Golf, but on the Corrado it is really easy, and I also don't know why you would need to remove the spline adaptor? Unless the Golf design is radically different? I know it's a pain to remove the barrel, but the switch should be okay?

[boost monkey 0]

To both of you, I honestly don't know and I don't have time to check :-/ I don't enjoy throwing my car at a garage but I just don't have the time or daylight these days! I'm sure we have all been here before - throwing our car at a garage to sort an issue that for whatever reason we can't do ourselves.

 

I don't really mind the odd occasion when I do it, as I've rebuilt most of the corrado chassis by myself and only go to garages to use a bearing press / MOT time etc :-)

[tony_ack 0]

Time for some vallium-laced ham I think!!

 

You can only do what you can do... The missus MK2 failed its MOT last week so I've booked it into the garage to get the brake lines and rack gaiter done. I don't have the tools (or patience) for the brake lines, and I don't fancy wrestling with the TRE for the rack gaiter.

 

I'm tacking the handbrake (cables in case you were wondering!) and ARB drop links myself.

[boost monkey 0]

I have the tools for brake lines and have done most of them on the plum, but they're by no means fun. I bent the rear axle ones a few times as they're so fiddly, and need to avoid this bracket or go through that clip. Deffo something to farm out imo. Same with the rack, I would just replace both rods and boots at the same time and be done with it for a few more years.

 

Those shouldn't be too bad. As you know the cable issues tend to be when they stick in thos galvanised pipes that run from interior to exterior.

[boost monkey 0]

I had a (not great) revelation today. One good thing was that I realized that I don’t actually need the key in the ignition switch to keep the car going! It seems so obvious now – people who nick cars don’t have the key! :lol: so instead of taping it all together (and having to undo it when I park up) I just started the car, popped the spare key in the fusebox tray bit, stuffed the switch and connecting loom up in the dash and went on my merry way.

 

The not great part was that I think I need a new ignition key (and therefore barrel). When I parked up this morning, the spare key (with lovely sharp and wide grooves cut into it) wasn’t at hand, so I popped the normal VW key out of the barrel and turned off the switch. The key just spun in the centre of the switch because it is so worn that the ‘tabs’ at the end of the key weren’t wide enough to grip the slot on the switch and turn the ignition off. Have a look at the two keys (the plain key is for the driver door):

 

 

So I’m pretty sure I’m going to cancel my ignition switch install at the local garage (Hope you’re happy now Cazza?! ;-) ) and hunt for a barrel with a decent looking key.

 

I'm actually thinking perhaps the current switch is fine and the key is just too worn to turn it anymore! Only noticed it now when the winter sets in due to using the rear demister, wipers and lights a whole lot more :-(

 

This is kind of a blessing in disguise as the metal bracket with the 3 holes on that the two stalks bolt on to is a bit ropey (the bottom bolt is cross-threaded and used to wiggle out and set the horn off at random points so I removed it!) so I’m looking to replace the lot.

 

And yes don’t worry – I’m actually looking at getting rid of the golf and getting a diesel as a daily – allowing me to concentrate on the Plum again :D

[boost monkey 0]

Well, after fannying around and worrying like I do 98.2% of the time, I did indeed let the garage do the switch. They did it so quick that they said they would have a look at the exhaust too! Seems one of the clamps I put on wasn't spot on, and it's a LOT quieter now.

 

There's a guy over there with an insane Mk2 Golf Rallye - pearl white running who knows what. Deffo charged, probs 20v I'd hazard as it seems to have to much instant pace for a G60. He does the work on my humble little 8v, so it's good to know there's someone over there who knows old Golfs. He would have done the tuning and cambelt a few weeks back too which explains why it ran so much better now.

 

Going to do gearbox mount this weekend to try and eliminate the judder when I pull away, but for now everything is working great. The ignition switch has firm movement which gives me confidence it's not gonna short out again :-)

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Getting there!

 

Where's that pic of your car cut in half?! Always loved that :D

[boost monkey 0]

wow, the fish on my daily thread! :lol:

 

Ah yeah that's lurking around somewhere! it was a knackered old moonlight blue C which I stripped for parts and then cut up the shell as no-one in Oxtown would collect it as a whole :-/ I think we still have all the ABS bits in the loft along with choice trim items and also a heater matrix. I'm not sure if i got my money back but hiring the circular saw sure was fun :D

[boost monkey 0]

I swapped the dead OSF window reg this weekend which took longer than expected. I also did the gearbox mount to try and reduce the judder i get sometimes from pulling off. AFAIK it's not the clutch thought I did get an MOT advisory for a CV joint so i guess it could be that. I can slim the Plum shafts on to check it I guess.

 

The box mount took about 6 hours. God knows why. The bolts just didn't line up properly. It was quite horrendous. So I didn't get to my vacuum lines or my new stalk (deffo looks like I can swap the MFA 'end' onto it even though it's from a base model) but they were less priority than the other two.

 

Also, secured a new job at a great company on a lot more money which starts in 3 weeks so very happy about that :D means more money into the plum fund!

[boost monkey 0]

I managed to do the leaky coolant hose this weekend. It was the little bendy ones which goes from the metal water pipe just before the pump up into the oil cooler plate. I pinched it off the Corrado so that was a good job done! For the sake of a £5 hose I must have used £10 G12 plus through little top ups here and there!

 

I also started doing the vac lines with the hard white plastic tubing, but quickly realised there's one 3 pipes which are made from this - a long coming out of the airbox and going to a T-junction by the fuel rail, a short one going between two different points on the side of the airbox, and the one for the MFA going through to the clocks (which I left). I hadn't realised but all the other stuff is the braided cotton hose (internal diameter 4mm IIRC) so I didn't get very far on that job!

 

The other success I had was fixing my dodgy wiper stalk at last. I fitted a brand spanking new early mk2 non-MFA item with the hope of swapping the ends over and keeping the MFA switches. Unfortunately, the ends of the stalks are different and the 1 > 2 MFA position notch is actually moulded into end of the stalk itself. But I'm feeling confident as it's such a basic switch. 4 pins - pos and neg for MFA 1>2 switch, and pos and neg for the sensor cycling. I'm going to build it into one of the dash blanks and mount above the headlight switch on the right hand side of the dash. I'll play with the cad and get something knocked up which looks period and fits in. tbh, I only use MFA for oil temp at the moment anyways so I've gained both the wipers back working perfectly, and also put the horn fuse back in! I epoxy'd the fillisted bolts in so they won't move as they were getting loose and shorting the ring horn circuit on the steering wheel and also making it very hard to use the push/pull functions of each stalk (i.e. full beam on left, front/rear wiper on right).

 

If I ever need to take the stalks off again, I'm going to replace the bolts with M3 x 40mm nuts and bolts. I did some research this weekend and this is deffo the right thread, but a couple of the electrical connectors butt up against the back of the bolt holes, so you might have to trim the connector back a bit.

 

Start my new job 2 weeks today, designing high end / boys toys parts for luxury vehicles. Can't wait :D

[boost monkey 0]

So, I get the leak fixed, the ignition switch is done and for a while all is well. Now the car's drinking like George Best. I've even had cyclists tell me that it's running seriously rich as they can smell it when stuck in traffic! :/

 

I'm also a bit concerned as I've read the rubjonny guide on CGTI about tuning a digi 8v, and it seems to mention that unplugging the BTS to check whether the ECU is changing timing for cold/hot running mode is a standard. But also the Bentley states that this should never be done with the car running as it will screw up the ECU. It seems that a screwed up ECU will affect fuel economy so is my poncuter dead? I also hear that bad earths will do this but AFAIK I have done every last one of them.

 

I have never ever had the car stall on me, apart from once when there was a bit of water in the dizzy but it's never happened since. The revs don't even drop off when coming back down to idle from any speed and it generally runs great. Aside from getting a CO analyser, can anyone suggest any way of looking into this?

 

I'm thinking at the very least that I'll get new plugs and leads, dizzy arm and cap, air filter and look for a good coil. At least I know I have a good base to go from. I have a new BTS that i haven't fitted yet, but then it doesn't seem to run that bad when cold.

 

If someone can point me at anything in particular I will appreciate it!

[tony_ack 0]

Never heard that this would screw up the ecu... From experience a screwed ecu would open all the injectors and flood the engine. An ecu is one of those things that either works or doesn't (well applies to simple ones like the digi), its not something that works a bit.

 

Running rich could be many things, not least the fact that you replaced your back piping and may have got rid of an airleak that had been compensated for the last time it was setup. Get is on a gas analyer and set to 1.8 and take it from there.

[Supercharged 2]

If it's suddenly started running very rich and nothing has changed then I would suspect the ECU - common fault with these blowing injector drivers if the engine bay earths are not great...

 

Maybe check the BTS is working though, timing and battery voltage good.

 

EDIT - You say it doesn't run bad from cold - maybe the BTS is not working, you just need to read the resistance across the pins and compare with the new one...

 

Might be worth you arranging to meet up with Rubjonny - he's not far from you at all and loves MK2's!

[boost monkey 0]

Very good point Ant, it may well have been adjusting for an air leak at the airbox which I have now fixed! One of the little white plastic lines did seem to have some of the rubber L joint wedged inside it so perhaps now it's overfuelling and obviously no lambda to tell the ecu otherwise. Cheers!

 

Thanks Steve, another very good idea! Saves me buying/hiring a gas analyser and a strobe :D

[tony_ack 0]

rubjohnny is a legend and I'm pretty sure he has all the equipment you need to set it up properly - you should be able to contact him via ClubGTI, GolfGTIforum or VWGolfMK2 forum. He pretty much wrote the book on Digifant, and almost everything I know has come from reading his guides and following his advice when setting up my old 8v a few years ago.

 

If you have a new BTS then I would fit it anyway - obviously checking the resistance will confirm whether the old one is working or not (and tell you whether you've found the problem, or need to keep looking), but it seems a shame to have a new part sitting in a bag which, when it goes wrong, can cause running problems.

[boost monkey 0]

Good points matey. I'm a bit reluctant to fit the new BTS as it's pattern despite believing it was OEM (bought online). I guess a pattern working one is better than a dead genuine one.

 

I'll drop jonny a PM on cgti :D

 

Edit: I was waiting to do the "unplug BTS with a timing light and see if the ignition advance changes" trick to see if it's dead or not, but I think you're right. I should just put it in. I could do it at lunch actually.

Edited December 6, 2011 by boost monkey

[tony_ack 0]

Never realised it was a pattern part... definitely beware then!!

[davidwort 0]

when I bought a new water flange it came with two sensor holes instead of the vag original one, to fill the second hole I had to use a spare sensor, so I now have two blue sensors connected and just swap over the connector if I ever think it's suspect :lol:

[boost monkey 0]

Never realised it was a pattern part... definitely beware then!!

 

Yeah :?

 

Completely unrelated but my knock sensor is really fraying now. It can't hurt to replace that too (although I think the KS is much more fundamental and when it goes the car runs like áss). I'll grab one of those too.

 

---------- Post added at 11:18 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:15 AM ----------

 

when I bought a new water flange it came with two sensor holes instead of the vag original one, to fill the second hole I had to use a spare sensor, so I now have two blue sensors connected and just swap over the connector if I ever think it's suspect :lol:

 

so you have 2 blue temp sensors? Does that mean one is running your coolant guage on the dash david?! :lol:

[Supercharged 2]

when I bought a new water flange it came with two sensor holes instead of the vag original one, to fill the second hole I had to use a spare sensor, so I now have two blue sensors connected and just swap over the connector if I ever think it's suspect :lol:

 

Yeah they've been like that for years though mate - on ETKA it says 'also use' and specs a bung with a seal plus another clip... sensor idea is a good one though for troubleshooting!

[boost monkey 0]

That makes sense I guess. they do the same with the brake m/c (4 outs iirc) and have a seperate part number for M10 bungs.

 

---------- Post added at 12:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:36 AM ----------

 

I'm going to pick up the Golf this lunch as I decided to get the rears fitted with Uniroyal Rainexperts along with the front.

 

A few weeks ago, did a nice rear end shuffle on a roundabout as the fronts gripped and the backs didn't. Seems that I don't even have matched tyres on the back :? one Conti EcoContact and one Cadac with an off-road tread pattern!

 

This is actually the first car I've kept (and driven) long enough to change the tyres on out of almost 20 :lol: