Silver Mk2 VRS preFL

[zhz]

Hello,  I have recently picked up my first vrs. It is;

 

07 preFL vrs tdi in silver. 

102k miles

 

On my first real run out. B roads up Loch Tummel and Rannoch. 

 

The forum I have found hugely useful in the run up to buying the car and I hope my ramblings as I fix up some of the problems on this car can help others in some way too. 

 

I had been looking for a while for a vrs and my budget was quite tight. Bought the car in Sheffield from a scrap dealer. Head gasket gone. Car in reasonable condition for age otherwise and price was good. Slow trundle back up the motorway to Scotland topping the G13 coolant up a couple of times although only 500ml each time. A few other noises exist as my ear got in tune with the car. Booked into local VAG independent, Autohaus to have head gasket looked into. 

 

Turned out not to be the head gasket and the bubbling in the expansion chamber was the coolant boiling due to loss of pressure because of a leak in the housing behind the block. Yes. Win. A 600-800 bill reduced down to 140 odd. Pitted and corroded front discs were replaced along with the pads. Lots of stopping power. Clunk on turn in traced to arb drop link which was replaced. Car back and on the road again in 48hrs. All is well.

 

Looking forward...

I noticed the wind noise and the road noise a lot. Considering deflectors but they look pants, perhaps replace seal round drivers window. Road noise a product of low prof tyres and a stiffer setup, not sure I can do anything.

The badge on the grill is all delaminated and although purely cosmetic it would be nice to replace this and the centre badges in the alloys.

Recent snow conditions showed the down side of the Pirelli P7 Cintusevnvvss tyres. Consider 16'' steelies and winter tyres to stay alive.

Rear wiper doesnt work. Replace motor and check washer lines for leaks. 

Floor mat missing in drivers side. Replace, order through dealership ~40

Remap, I have been told, has it over 200bhp. Don't know from whom? Any way to find out? Torque delivery in 1,2 is brutal and am learning to modulate my right foot a little. At some point put it on a rolling road and look at what it is doing. 

DMF. A little clunky in traffic and initial pull away. Explore further, replace along with clutch. Probably about due at 100k miles.

Turbo. Faint distant siren sounds. I do believe that is the bearings starting to go. I also floored the throttle in 5th at 50 and had a few seconds hesitation before hooking up. Turbo spool or clutch slip, need to get to know the car better.

Tracking and Alignment

 

For now I am happy to have a project. It will be a work in progress and in the meantime my daily driver. 100 mile round trip commute daily and weekend trips. Pleased with the economy so far. Supportive seats if a bit narrow for my hips. **** speakers. Great turn in and sticky through the twisty stuff. I like 3rd. And 4th, if the roads were only a bit bigger and smoother. The pull of the turbo is enjoyable from 2k to 3.5krpm. Cruise control is nice on motorway. Will update this as I do things and have thoughts about things to do.

 

[zhz]

New floor mats picked up and installed.

Got them through the dealer and they have the vrs logo and a grey trim. Look real smart/clean. Hadn't noticed that the existing mats, although drivers one was missing, were not the originals. Just a black generic style. These are the ones with the hole for the fastener. £36 for the set. ps The drivers mat is an odd shape!  

 

 

Asked the parts guys at the dealer for a price on a new engine cover. All the foam has gone from mine and it doesn't stay attach very well. Has also been sugru'd back together some time in the past. Price- £130. It is not that important!  Ordered a couple of new 'bobbins' to see if it will help to keep things in place for now, may end up replacing engine cover at some stage anyway. ebay link for socket part of joint.

 

 

In the meantime the car developed a vibration at 1400-1700rpm which became really annoying. Tracked to the air intake rattling around. Seems that the part on the radiator rattles and then the intake hose leading down to the filter shakes too. Removed it to find someone had already done the top joint with electrical tape. So I repeated the process on the bottom push fit part and also put a diagonal wrap around the 'lid' because one of the clips has snapped off, presume when the previous person did the fix before. All back together and vibration gone.  Now I can enjoy the sound of my flywheel clunking and turbo whining all the more!

 

Found another problem too. The Aux in port in the jumbo box doesn't seem to work. Bought a new cable to make sure but nothing coming through. Have switched on the option in the menu and double click the cd button to select aux but no sound. Suppose I need to check if the socket is live or if a fuse has gone, although I imagine it shares a fuse with other things I would have noticed. I think I have a multi meter at the bottom of a toolbox somewhere.

 

Whilst in the Jumbo box I was intruiged as to what the handle was so pulled it up and it broke off a wee bit of plastic. I don't understand what this device is for? Now it doesn't stay up anymore although I don't understand what function that would serve if it did. Any insight? 

 

[Gissin]

pull the tab up and it opens a litttle hole at the bottom which allows air from the AC system to go in essentially making it a little cool box- there is also something similar in the glovebox

[pist0nbr0ke]

The handle thingy opens the vent to allow a/c air into the jumbo box

 

Edit: beaten to it 

Edited 28 January, 2018 by pist0nbr0ke
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[zhz]

On 1/28/2018 at 19:51, Gissin said:

pull the tab up and it opens a litttle hole at the bottom which allows air from the AC system to go in essentially making it a little cool box- there is also something similar in the glovebox

 

That is brilliant. I never knew I had a cool box. I like that 

[zhz]

Been a couple of months running the car and various updates to share. Now on 110k miles and into summer. 

 

Clutch slip began to get worse so I bit the bullet and replaced clutch and flywheel. LUK clutch and dual mass flywheel. Timing belt done at same time. Shuddering gone at low idle and clutch is much bitier. A little heavy in traffic but hopefully it will settle in a bit. Night and day from the vague feeling clunkyness it was. 

 

After some over-boost issues where the car ended up in limp mode a few times we found the egr cooler was leaking and needed replaced. A labour intensive job as the sub-frame needs dropped to allow access in behind the block. Decided I may as well kill two birds with one stone and get an egr delete kit from Darkside along with a Shark performance stage 1 map as it worked out slightly cheaper and let me address the brutality of the power delivery low down. EGR kit fitted and cooler removed.

 

Took in for tuning with mks performance and had major issues with the actuator not responding properly and the vanes on the turbo sticking. Made it impossible for him to map it as the turbo was coming in late and all at once meaning it was overwhelmed with boost and the ecu was calling 'over-boost' and cutting everything out. 

 

That same week I got a chip in the windscreen too big to repair and the wing mirror glass started to show signs of ?rust. Brown splotchy patches behind the glass that I could not clean. New mirror glass from GJAutos on ebay. 16quid a side. New polarized windscreen from autoglass for 15quid through insurance. What a difference., I can see! Rear wiper motor replaced, jets cleared and hose reconnected, vagcom used to turn off automated wipe when reverse is selected. 

 

A call to AET turbos and 350quid later a rebuilt turbo and actuator was on its way to me. Local mechanic fitted at less than 200quid labour, apparently the egr cooler not being in the way made life very straight forward. (small victories). New turbo installed and it comes in earlier and stays on boost for longer. Has a small whine to it which I was slightly concerned about initially but have accepted now. 

 

Back to MKS Performance to get the Stage 1 map installed. Had to play with the map a little as initially it had a stutter under power. A little tweaking, some mild cursing at the Bosch ecu being inferior to the Siemens one and it was all uploaded. Test drive showed that the power was increased throughout, with the peaks being mid to high range of 3rd and 4th gears. Now pulls all the way up to the red line and the stupid amounts of low down power has been redistributed. A more refined map that feels like it is not putting any undue stress on components. A pleasure to drive. 

 

Then limp mode and engine management lights again!?! 

Boost pressure regulation related. I am getting a much more noticeable whoosh when lifting off during boost or when shifting gears. It reset the limp mode the first few times when I restarted the engine, then under high pressure boost during hard acceleration it drops into limp mode again. So I believe I have a boost leak somewhere. Time to go searching..... I will get it into the garage as I don't have a vacuum thingee. 

 

When it goes in this week i am also going to have the new bushes I purchased fitted. A 'clonk' that has always been there has become more and more noticeable, probably progressively worse due to the awful state of the roads after a big winter. When braking and turning in there is a clear clonk, always at roundabouts or when the weight of the car is shifting laterally. I think wishbone bushes should help and I also got the lower engine mount bush too as I get a bit more pitch during gear changes than I would like. Meyle HD bushes from ebay for the wishbones and powerflex lower engine mount bush from DPM.