MK3 2.0 tdi elegance plus

[MarkyG82]

As I have had the car for approaching 2 years and made some changes to the stock setup I thought I'd add a project thread of my own mostly for me to keep track of mods so I can revert them if needed but also to add to the huge pile of inspiration for others.

 

I'll try to keep it in chronological order as far as I can remember and then add the other things I have planned as I get to them.

 

For starters I took ownership of a 64 plate quartz grey octy3 2.0 tdi dsg estate in October '17 on I think 34k miles.  It stayed stock for a while aside from having 'the' overheating issue so got the pump and belt done around march '18

 

Wheels:

In November '17 I put winter tyres on the standard teron 17 wheels.  I took the opportunity to then source a second set of wheels to put summer boots on and ended up with a nice set of rare seat 18s from Maw on here.  They are now in need of some love but I'll come to that later.  He chucked in some 12mm spacers which I put on with the 17s with winters and this brought the front wheels out nicely.

As I was never 100% happy with how the rears sat in the arches I have since got a pair of 20mm spacers which made a huge difference to the look of the stance.  12mm front and 20mm rear are a good combo.  The facelift has a slightly wider rear track I think so maybe 15 in the rear would suit that better.

 

Fast forward to now and the wheels are looking a little tired.  Due to the design and the tyres rim protection they are holding up well to curb rash.  they are just looking a bit dull and the back side is starting to get a touch corroded.  I am thinking of getting them refurbed in the winter after swapping back the 17s but don't know whether to stick with the standard silver of go with a darker colour.  Suggestions welcome.

 

Chassis:

As a family we like to go down to Southsea and the carpark we use has sharp cobbles which give suspension a hard time smoothing out the ride.  I understand that the torsion beam rear on the lower power models is not the finest but its functional and plenty comfortable in most situations.  In addition on MOT in October '18 it was highlighted that one of the front shocks was leaking and I also discussed suspension options with the garage regarding the rear.

I didn't fancy lowering so looked into new shocks.  Ended up going for Bilstein B6 allround with stock springs.  At the same time I got them to fit TT console bushes.  This has done wanders to the ride and handling.  Body roll is greatly reduced as is braking dive.

 

After a few months of this I new I wanted to improve the slop in the drivetrain particularly on the downshift in sport mode.  It felt like a rubber band.  So I fitted a powerflex dogbone insert in may '19.  It initially introduced a fair bit of vibration but that has since died down to a bearable level.  It also helped with the shifting as expected.  One thing I didn't expect was the affect on the handling.  The front end is now very composed.  Turn in and direction changes particularly are so much better now.  I put it down to the whole package of shocks, bushes and insert but the handling is now what I would expect of a modern car with decent rubber.

 

Drivetrain:

Here is somewhere I didn't expect to find myself changing.  The 150 engine is no sporty V8 but in stock tune it is plenty powerful while sipping the diesel nice and slowly.

 

However.... 😁 

We all crave that little extra and as we get used to the power we have it never seems like enough.  A tuning box popped up in the for sale section at a great price so I grabbed it in march '19. 

It's a Bluespark Pro= Boost.  I set it to a relatively conservative increase and enjoyed it for a while.  Probably increased my mpg by 1 or 2.

Having just finished my degree and got my final result I wanted to treat myself so I booked into my local trusted tuners for a remap.  Very early days yet as I have had it back for less than 24 hrs but great so far.  Will report back as I get more used to it.

 

Interior:

As the place where you spend your time owning a car I wanted to improve on the experience offered by the elegance spec of half leather, mib1 Amundsen and multifunction steering wheel.

Early '19 saw me bag a couple of bargains. One from eBay with a MIB2 Amundsen and another on here from rustynuts, a 6.5inch mib2 screen. Old and new units sent off to pab567 for coding I set to the screen. It had damage where someone who didn't know how to remove it had taken chunks out and marked the frame. It also had a slight mark on the screen itself. That I couldn't do anything about but the frame I had a go with a sharp knife at levelling it out and trimming it back to make it as smooth as possible. I then popped the from facia off and wrapped it in matt black vinyl to go with the rest of the dash. The gloss attracts fingerprints like nothing I've seen before.

 

I have also added sunshades from carshades.com to help keep the sun out of the little man's eyes. Gives a touch of the stealth look too.

 

Rubber mats front, back and now on the tunnel help keep things tidy.

 

A Mi mirror dash cam records the numpties on the roads.  The cable is routed down the A pillar under the steering column to a switchable power thingy in the centre box. It has usbs for phone chargers and a little screen for battery voltage.

 

Finally in the interior I have a 3 spoke steering wheel from a fabia with dsg paddles. Needed new buttons so the wheel went in while I acquired a new set of buttons that had the required connections for the paddles. They are now waiting to be fitted.

 

Will take photos of everything I've talked about and edit to match.

 

Things that need/want doing:

- Rear camera for reverse

- Rear dash cam

  - these could be the same unit but not sure

- The gear knob button chrome is peeling

- I want to make a divider to go under the variable boot floor to add support and provide compartments to stop things sliding around

- Additional door seals to reduce the wind noise. I have the seals just need to find time to fit them

- Gearbox map.  Once I've got used to the engine map I'd like to look at the gearbox

- Sports seats.  Maybe golf r or GTi but must be heated and some leather Ooer.

Edited 4 July, 2019 by MarkyG82