35 replies to this topic

[robminibcy]

here is my golf I bought a year ago to replace my mini as a daily as im doing 60 odd miles a day. plan was to keep it standard and use it as n economical daily and use the mini as a weekend toy. that lasted a day and then I started fiddling!
its a 2003 1.9 100hp tdi golf mk4 and sounds like a proper tractor! tis reasonably quick with a good load of torque. brought with 92000 on the clock no service history :-/ but drove right looked right, hpi clear ect so took a bit of a gamble and went for it. it was obviously a family car as one mot had an advisory for being unable to check the rear seat due to a kiddy seat fitted! certainly it is in very good condition in and out for its age.
Its not the mot exciting car and every other car on the road seem to be one of these but I do like it and it is a real contrast to drive to the mini which I think is good as it gives me something to look forward to t the weekends. although I do like being able to jump in and cruise at some miles an hour t the other end of the country and back with out even a single doubt that it wont make it!
 
This is when I got her home

This is on a typical summers day in wales
The first mod was a cup holder. Brought a front one on ebay and was delighted to receive both front and rear in post. there was no mention of rear in listing so gave them both a good clean and fitted.
next up was the stereo. as standard it had a beta unit with no rear speakers. I went down to a scrap yard and cut the b pillar door connectors and a pair of tweeters connectors from a crashed gti they had there. I then got some standard speakers of ebay along with a gamma head unit (for 99p!) and some high quality speaker wire and a pair of rear door looms with the speaker connectors and did effectively an oem rear speaker install. all put back together and sounding much better (well a bit better!) will be putting some decent speakers and double din head unit when funds allow but for now it will do and should make it very easy to upgrade when the time comes.
Also fitted a sunglasses holder in place of the drivers roof handle.

Edited by robminibcy, 04 January 2015 - 10:09 PM.

[robminibcy]

She did develop a problem about a month after getting her. On the way back from Cornwall she suddenly went In to limp mode. Nursed her home and scanned on vagcom (vw diagnostics). Came up with a whole list of errors. one by one I tested and researched each and was getting a bit fed up! finally found it to be a blown fuse, then just needed to find the cause. as if it was replaced I would be fine for a few minutes driving then would blow again. found that the valve controlling the antishudder valve had come of its mount burned on the exhaust shorted and blown the fuse. This took out the whole circuit which included the maf, crank position sensor along with a few others causing all the errors. Put it back on its mount properly and changed the fuse again and all was well even the valve had survived with just a bit o molten plastic round the bottom.

It also had an issue with the traction control light coming on and staying on after about 15 mins driving. everything still worked and eventually I found this to be simply a lead that had been knocked off the alternator. simply plugged back in and car error code free

gave her a full service with all genuine filters and quantum oil. certainly needed it as cabin filter looked never to have been changed and oil was lovely and black!

 

 Next job was to have a go at tidying up the interior. It wasn't really in bad condition and it does get vacuumed and washed most weeks but the rubber coating on door handles and the centre console was starting to wear away and look a bit tatty. Id seen about wrapping parts and seen a lot of carbon fibre. I also like the look of the silver r32 parts but the prices of second hand stuff did seem a little high. I decided to have a go at wrapping it all in brushed steel vinyl. I took all the interior apart and where needed sanded or scraped the rubber away and then wrapped it in some vinyl I brought on ebay. it was not the easiest job I' ever done and some parts did take several attempts but I'm very happy with the results

Here is how it was (not my car and wheel is on wrong side but you get the idea)

Here's the results.

 

 

twin engine golf!

Edited by robminibcy, 09 March 2014 - 03:14 AM.

[robminibcy]

More stuff done:

Sprayed rubstrips silver along with a general tidy up of a few stone chips, looking lovely now!

 

 

All round disc and pad change

 

changed arb mounts as well as a full fluid and filter service.

 

Camber!!!

 

 

 

Little mods: mk5 rear wiper, GTI light (with reading lights), all interior and no plate lights changed for LEDs, power socket in boot, twin rear fogs, GTI head lights with the built in fogs (probably many more ive forgotten about!)

 

 

And the big one: GTI heated cloth sports seats , very comfy, much more supportive in excellent clean condition and of course heaters! Rear seat has the 3 proper seat belts and 3 head rests to replace my standard rear bench with a centre lap belt. Almost feel guilty as the old seats were/ are in very good condition. Gave the car a very thorough clean whilst seats were out.

 

Both the fogs and the seats use kufatec looms which were dead easy to fit and seem excellent quality.

[robminibcy]

Stuff still planned:

remap (maybe upgrade turbo)

30mm lowered springs sports shocks,

detachable Towbar (for all the scene points!)

new alloys

cruise control retrofit

euro rear lights (white indicator rather than orange

Edited by robminibcy, 09 March 2014 - 03:10 AM.

[Minimoke8394]

Can't beat a 1.9 tiddy, fantastic engines. A friend is building one up in his garage to stick in a Mk1 Caddy. Golf looks clean mate, yes they're pretty common but they seem to be reliable things. 

[Minimoke8394]

Coilovers and BBS CH's....DO IT! 

[robminibcy]

Coilovers and BBS CH's....DO IT! 

I love chs, especially the black ones. I think that's what will end up with. Not sure on coilys as this is meant to be the sensible car for thrashing from one end,of the country to the other to collect mini bits! Going down about 30 mm but not slammed!

[Minimoke8394]

They're a good choice for the Mk4.You've probably only got to lower it around 30-40 to get it sitting at a nice height with those wheels. I had a Mk3 before my current Merc and I had that lowered around 90mm on 15's, ha. 

[miniaddict92]

looks very tidy quite low mileage on it . My Gti hit 200k on way to bingley dubfreeze last month . thats one thing i enjoy when i got mine plug it in and tell me whats wrong rather than the mini where it could be bloody anything. wouldnt recommend coilovers with the milage you do mine is on joms not sure on drop but does scrape sometimes( cant do multi storeys anymore  )  and mine is stiff as out and i honestly didnt enjoy a run in the country side. no anti roll bar fitted because of the drop < didnt know when i bought it doh! to be fitted now . i was looking at getting some mk5 edition 30 seats with the mk1 style pattern on for mine but yours look very smart . the centre console looks very good as well ! look forward to updates !

 

need new alloys !!

[robminibcy]

Arm rest fitted along with tt clutch rest to go with the pedal covers coming later this week

 

wind deflectors fitted:

 

booked in with awesome gti to have cruise control fitted on Wednesday and got a set of euro rears (white indicator lens on rear light as opposed to orange) on the way

[robminibcy]

had cruise control fitted today at awesome gti:

Also got genuine tt pedals covers.

euro rear light are due tomorrow:-)

[robminibcy]

Got my euro lights today:

before

during

after, not the best pic as it was nearly dark and if I put the flash on just got reflection of the rear reflectors and regplate!

And one showing off the twin rear fog mod I did a while back.

 

Next up I think will be a remap.

[Chris Jones]

I have one of these too. Got it for the g/f to use as she's the same as you, doing a 60 - 70 mile round trip 5 days a week. Got about 133k on the clock. Absolutely fantastic engine, everything else has pretty much broken.

 

Alarm kept going off randomly. Fixed by ripping the siren out.

Boot won't open.

One of the rear doors won't open.

Wet rear footwell.

Water keeps getting into the rear lights and blowing bulbs up.

Sounds very tired when starting up.

Stereo is pretty much on it's way out, sounds awful.

Central locking is pretty random to which doors actually unlock.

Sunroofs shot.

 

Absolute workhorse though. Has it's MOT at the end of the month. Hoping the mechanical stuff is in order. Drives really nice!

 

(The above is not representative of how I look after my Mini)

[miniaddict92]

good upgrades still coming, rear lights look greeat. having only had mine 4 month with other commitments im going to be selling my petrol GTI soon to get a mk5 1.9 tdi need something cheaper to run on fuel and insurance . looking top though   need some alloys !!

[robminibcy]

had a problem with the brake switch on Tuesday evening, dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree and engine workshop on screen no brake lghts. scanned on vagcom and got a brake switch fault and a abs sensor fault. turns out the abs one is brought up by the brake switch fault so £13 and a trip to vw later problem fixed and error code free once again

Today gave it a good clean and fitted reg plate surrounds and new pressed plates.

Desperately needs lowering!

 

pair of golfs!