My current daily - almost a VR6!

[Purple Tom 0]

Hey,

 

It’s been almost a year since I sold the Corrado TDi so I thought I’d keep you guys up to date with my latest daily driver and the complicated story about how I ended up in it…

 

I sold the TDi in May 2012 then purchased a 2004 BMW 330Cd. A complete change from anything I'd owned before but I liked the idea of diesel economy coupled with RWD handling and the creature comforts of a modern car. It was lovely, in Imola Red however it wasn't without its share of problems and I ended up putting a turbo on it and doing some other mechanical work in order to keep it happy. It looked good though J

 

 

In August 2012 I got offered a new job and got told that I was going to have to work in the city centre where car parking wasn't great. I decided to sell the BMW on as it was so tidy in the bodywork department that I didn't want it to deteriorate in my ownership.

 

In mid-august I was simultaneously getting a new job and changing the turbo on the BMW. It was a saturday afternoon and I got a text on my phone from a number I didn't recognise. It said..."would you still be interested in buying my Golf?". I didn't have a clue what it was about so I rang it back and realised it related to a rather sad looking Golf V5 that I'd left a note on back at the start of the year. It had been parked under some trees for a little while and I'd driven past it every day for a few weeks. I decided to be cheeky, put a note on it saying I’d be interested if they decided to sell and then promptly forgot all about it.

 

It was a 2001 '51' V5 170, in metallic black and I ended up buying it. No tax or MOT but in running order and with 165k on the clock. The reason for the purchase was twofold. Firstly, I wanted a project and secondly I wanted a bit of a nail that I could drive to work in and not really worry too much about - this car fitted the bill perfectly and I decided that with a bit of work it'd probably come up pretty nicely. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a minter, but I paid a very reasonable price for the car so I wasn't complaining. It was so cheap in fact that I wasn't bothered by the increase in fuel consumption from the 40mpg that I got from the BMW to the 30mpg that I reckoned I'd get from the Golf.

 

I think it's picture time, so here is the Golf as I picked it up:

 

 

 

As you can see, it wasn't great, but wasn't awful either. Luckily I know a few people who have plenty of mk4 parts lying around so I was able to get it straight into the garage and lay into it:

 

 

After a few hours in the garage I came up with a list of things that it needed, chief amongst which was a good wash and general tidy up. It also needed a fair bit of mechanical work but I thought I'd give it a gentle spruce up and the minimum of work and then take it for an MOT and see what happened. So, I spent most of the night in the garage working on it, gave it a clean in the morning and then took it for an MOT:

 

 

It came up rather well, the bodywork was pretty straight with no corrosion and everything seemed to work on it, even the A/C. And it passed the MOT with flying colours.......on everything except the emissions. I was partly expecting this because it had flagged up a lambda sensor fault on Vagcom when I plugged it in however I'd cleared it and hoped it wouldn't come back. Unfortunately it did and the emissions were a bit all over the place. Then, to make matters worse, I dipped the oil at the garage and found it to be very creamy. I had noticed that before but hoped it was just moisture and condensation but I suspected a head gasket problem. "Never mind" I thought, it's still a cheap car, lets find another engine, get it changed and then go from there.

 

Excitedly I went off to eBay and happened to find a 75k V5 engine in Derby, about 10 miles away, at a good price from someone that I happened to know. Result! I bought it, picked it up then set about stripping the Golf down:

 

 

 

I made a list of all of the parts that I needed in order to get the car back up to 100% working order again and I set myself a budget of £1000 to get the car back on the road. I should mention that that budget included the purchase price of the car, the engine, all of the parts necessary to get it sorted and 6 months RFL - you get some idea of how little I paid for the car now ;-) Amongst the parts I bought were new front wheel bearings, discs and pads all round, R32 wishbone bushes, new ARB bushes and drop links, new front top mounts, new lower ball-joints, new trackrod ends, a new pre-cat lambda sensor and all the bits needed for a service - fluids, filters etc. They all duly arrived from the supplier and that’s where things get a bit more complicated.

 

I was still driving the BMW, it was now September 2012 and I was getting ready to start my new job. I was in training for it and putting lots of hours in to get up to speed before starting properly. As a result my time in the garage was becoming more limited. I also quite suddenly had to move house due to some landlord issues and three weeks passed without me so much as touching the Golf. I quickly realised that I just wasn't going to have time to get it on the road before starting my new job. So, I put the BMW up for sale within a week it had gone, leaving me with quite a bit of cash burning a hole in my pocket. I paid some debts off, sorted a few things out with the house and ended up with about £2k surplus to play with. I had a little Polo TDi (another long story) so I wasn't in a massive hurry to get another car but I decided that if I wasn't going to get the black V5 on the road for a bit then I might as well see what this V5 thing is all about and buy another one. Bear in mind that I'd only driven the black one to the MOT station and back, about half a mile, and it wasn't exactly in the best of health.

 

I kept an eye on Autotrader and within a week one popped up that caught my eye. It wasn't far away, in Lincoln, so I headed up to look at it. I was immediately taken with it - it was a 52 plate manual 170 with full VW service history, just over 100k on the clock, 2 owners from new, had only been used in the summer for the past 5 years and was in great condition. It had a decent spec (cruise, sunroof etc) and was in my new favourite colour - red. It was advertised at £2400 but I somehow managed to haggle the seller down to a much better figure. Cash exchanged hands and I drove the new purchase home on its 10th birthday to the day:

 

 

I liked it straight away. Having owned a couple of VR6's and then made the move to diesel I had always missed the howl of the VR. The V5 makes a similar but at the same time different noise. I think because the Corrado was quite a basic 12V and the V5 is multi-valve with the variable camshaft timing etc it results in a different sound but the end result is the same - smiles behind the steering wheel :-) I have to admit that the handling was bit wooly but the brakes were excellent and overall the car felt good.

 

I then had to make a decision about the black one. Was it ever going to see the road again or not?! I decided in the end that in all likelihood it probably wasn't. It had plenty going against it - the mileage, the HG issues, the amount of work to get it fully up and running again coupled with the lack of financial return if I were to sell it as a runner as I'd have to MOT it, tax it, etc etc. I decided in the end to leave it in the garage for a bit and just enjoy the red one for the time being. Of course, I had a load of parts lying around that I'd bought for the black one so I decided to do a bit of a refresh of the red one anyway. I fitted the majority of the parts that I had bought for the black one and basically gave it a good going over. Thanks to Laser Mark, Daves16V and their powdercoating skills I also managed to fit a couple of freshly powdercoated front end parts while I was at it. Not many pictures but here goes:

 

 

(You can see the black one in the background)

 

 

 

 

I got it all sorted and then proceeded to run about in it for a bit. Incidentally, the new job turned out to have a great car park around the back of the building so my worries there were unfounded! I'm glad because the bodywork on the red one is really good!

[Purple Tom 0]

Onto the third and final V5. This belonged to a friend of mine who bought it as a cheap daily runaround. It had lots of history and had had plenty spent on it but it was an auto. It did however have the benefit of a full heated black leather Recaro interior....when he came to sell it about 2 months ago he only wanted cheap money for the car so I made him an offer and ended up buying it. I only really wanted it for the interior but it also came with a set of Montreal II's with good winter tyres on. I got the car home and set about removing the interior and loom for the heated seats. All I'll say is if you ever think about removing the heated seat loom from a mk4 Golf - DON'T! I'm used to Corrado's where the loom is a completely seperate item that comes out relatively easily. On a Mk4 its not, its fully integrated with the main loom for the car and took almost a day to remove. At several points I nearly gave up but I finally managed to get it out. What a job though, at one point the car looked like this:

 

 

 

Anyway, I finally got the loom out and got the interior refitted. I fitted the wheels and tyres off the black V5 to the blue one (all with good tread and the wheels in great condition). I also fitted the cloth interior from the black V5, including the door cards so I ended up with a full Recaro leather interior with loom and some 16" winter wheels sat on the garage floor waiting to go into my car. I then gave the blue one a good clean and got it some pictures taken ready to advertise it for sale as I had no use for it. It's a really nice car and had been looked after by my mate, all it needed was a new home:

 

 

This was all just before Christmas and over the holiday I set about fitting the interior to my car. That was all done but I decided to get a new seat base fitted to the drivers seat as it was a bit saggy. No pictures of the completed interior yet although I'm sure you all know what one looks like, here's the seat base anyway:

 

 

I got all of that fitted and done, including customising the heated seat wiring loom to make it a lot easier to remove and refit should the need ever arise! As you can imagine, I got it all done just in time for the cold weather to come. When the snow arrived I had much fun playing with my winter tyres and a nice warm bum :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a picture of the red one next to the blue one which had been stood for a couple of weeks and covered in snow - barely recognisable!

 

 

I then sold the blue one and broke the black one for parts. I managed to sell a lot of parts to a lad doing a V5 conversion on a 1.4 mk4 Golf – I was lucky to find him as he ended up having lots of parts that I never dreamed of getting off the car! Incidentally the head gasket on the black one was fine, I sold the head to the lad mentioned above so I suspect that the oil cooler may well have gone porous.

 

I carried on driving the Golf and generally had lots of fun with the winter tyres on. Then about a month ago I noticed a bit of coolant dripping on the floor.

 

I'm fairly used to coolant leaks but up until then the car had been leak free so I couldn't be doing with anything dropping out of it...some peering under the bonnet later and I had eliminated the crack pipe, coolant hoses and radiator as the culprit which left only really the thermostat housing as the potential leaky item.

 

So, off it came:

 

The source of the leak. This is the where the thermostat housing bolts onto the block and you can see how the housing has deteriorated and disintegrated over time in this picture:

 

 

If you can't see what I mean, here's a picture of the new replacement from VW:

 

 

While I was at it I decided to do the themostat as well, so the following bits got fitted. About £60 from VW all in so not too bad really. Thought about replacing the green temperature sensor but decided not to, its not too hard to get at should it start being an arse:

 

 

Following getting it back together it stopped leaking and all was good. Then it snowed. And snowed. And snowed a bit more and I had lots of fun with it up in the Peak District on the winter tyres. However I didn't wash it for about a month as the weather just wasn't conducive for it. But yesterday the sun finally came out and I decided that winter had pretty much ended.

 

So, out came the cleaning stuff and on went the 'summer wheels'. I'm still not sure about them and would like some opinions please. They're 17x7 BBS VZ, fully refurbed and I got them at a good price a couple of months ago. I wasn't sure about them when I bought them and photoshop didn't really help, but I *think* I like them now they're on the car.

 

It definitely needs to go down 20mm or so - I'm not into big lowering as it needs to be a practical daily with plenty of potholed and rutted roads round here but I think 20mm would just see it about right.

 

Here's some pics:

 

 

 

 

Also, just for the record...a shiny clean engine bay and a gratuitous shot of the Recaros :-)

 

 

 

 

The seats really make the car a nice place to be and I’ve done a couple of other upgrades in the form of Bora/R32 vents and a Passat W8 interior light which just help to make it a bit better.

 

In terms of driving dyamics the mk4 in standard form is never going to set the world on fire. It doesn’t turn in like a Corrado and it wallows about quite a bit but its still fun and the engine is a peach. It doesn’t feel like 170bhp and doesn’t set any records in terms of performance but it sounds lovely and does give you a decent enough shove in the back when you hit the go pedal. It’s also getting a consistent 30mpg which is pretty good for a 2.3 5 cylinder lump (in a heavy, not very aerodynamic car).

 

Thanks for reading...if you’ve made it this far! It seems nothing is simple when it comes to me and car ownership! Incidentally, I’m keeping my eye out for another Corrado VR6, if I can afford to run a mk4 V5 then a VR6 shouldn’t be an issue, in fact I think I got better economy from my Corrado!

 

Tom

Edited April 9, 2013 by Purple Tom

[clumpy1 11]

You have done a great job there Tom car look's very nice and i bet it is very comfortable with the heated recaro's :salute:

 

keep it up.

[Jon_vr6 1]

Good read mate, get a drop on the alloys as you said and i think it'll look perfect

[axcel01uk 0]

Your V5 looks great, love the red and recaros, great to see someone else appreciating them, no what you mean about the handling, it is pretty poor but the sound of the engine is great and the performance is nice enough, I have had mine for 10 years now and its been really good to me so comfortable to cruise around in and I have never bothered to change the ride height, have thought about it loads of times but don't want to ruin the ride quality and I have the VR6 for the great handling. If you do find a set up that lowers it by around 20mm and retains the comfort I would be interested to hear about it.

Here is a pic of mine

[Jim 1]

Great read - always in admiration for those amongst us who can get stuck in and do these sorts of jobs! The V5 is a nice engine but I was always a little confused by it.. a friend had one in a MK4 Golf too and it sounded great but the fuel economy was pretty poor and it didn't have the performance of the VR6.. I can only guess it's because the MK4 is so much heavier?

[maff 10]

You sure do like v5's Tom! Gotta say after owning a mk4 150gti diesel which was remapped I do quite miss the old mk4, mine had heated leather too, fully loaded, lovely car but I sold that a bought a 330d sport saloon which I use daily and to be honest it wipes the floor with my old mk4 for steering feel and general all round ability.

 

Trying to think why you sold your 2004 330cd which had the cracking later 204bhp engine in over the mk4?

 

I do secretly like the v5's though, must be the relation to the vr6 and the fact they are cheap compared to a gt tdi!

 

Still got my corrado vr6 for a proper drive out though;-)

[Purple Tom 0]

Jim - Yeah, the mk4 is a pretty heavy car and its not particularly aerodynamic either. I think the V5 was built to satisfy foreign markets more than the UK but it sold reasonably well here. I get 30ish mpg to a tankful which isn't too bad really - a remap would see closer to 190bhp and a slight increase in economy too so if I keep the car then I'll probably go down that route to be honest.

 

maff - I'd wanted the E46 for quite a while prior to getting it and I scraped together every spare penny that I could in order to buy it. It was a lovely car and drove nicely but I think it was almost too good for my liking. It didn't really have much character and while it was very competent I just found it a bit boring. I put a turbo on it and did all the other necessaries (swirl flaps, EGR clean etc), full service etc but I didn't really bond with it. It scratched the itch that I'd had for one and to be honest I don't think I'd have another one - never say never though!

 

Thanks for the comments :-)

[Laser Mark 0]

Another epic thread Tom.

 

Its not until you write it all down do you realise how much work you have done, and on haw many cars.

 

And any body know's why you didn't bond with the E46, deep down your heart is taken with the VR6, and nothing else will do. Hope you see you in another soon.

 

Mark