Project Booger (Mk4 Golf GTI 1.8T)

[MrBig]

Named after what I suspect the carpets were made from on delivery...

Some time in April, I received an innocuous text message from a good buddy of mine asking if I knew anyone who would be interested in a cheap Golf GTI. Once I had established it was £200 and a 1.8T turbo, my interest was piqued.

Long story short, it was owned by a friend of a friend who lent it to a neigbour. Said neighbour abused the poor thing, left it sat outside their house on the road with no tax or insurance just waiting for a ticket.

Once we jumpstarted it it was immediately apparent the exhaust was broken. Having recovered it back to the relative safety of a the previous owners driveway, a cursory checks of the fluids and underside convinced me to give it a punt.

Fast forward a few weeks later and I've got it insured and taxed (done on the net on my phone in 5 minutes, so easy!) a very noisy drive home ensured. My local garage welded the exhaust up in an hour and so I set about cleaning the thing up!



Gave it a cursory wash, and spent some real time wet vac'ing the interior, to make it habitable if nothing else.




Looking much better for the removal of all the human slime.....


Which is where we are now. The interior is pretty worn and has suffered a good deal of abuse, in fact the whole car is covered in light scratches, several dents and some rust patches. At the moment its ideal as a tip run car while we redo the front and back gardens. I am also mid restoration of a beetle which needs to go for paint in the summer, so a tow car would be useful. A local breakers hooked me up (snigger) with a £25 towbar so now it has a purpose.

Closer inspection revealed a Direnza stainless exhaust, pipercross panel filter and the possibility that someone has 'played' with it the past. The drivers mirror casing was broken but a new ready-painted one was in the boot! Another careless individual broke the mirror adjustment switch off but that was soon taken care of courtesy of ebay and £4.50.

I'm not sure what its future holds yet, certainly its current duties are keeping it busy and I'm sure that its not worth bringing it back to its former glory given how cheap these things are these days. So the possible options are: Track day toy, punt it on or engine donor for a Mk2 Golf project.

MOT is up next month, and its due a cambelt this year so most of it hangs upon the results of the annual ministry inspection. In the meantime, I'm off to ebay to look for cheap trailers!

[colin_p]

The photos, you need to hold the camera the other way up.

As for the car, the MK4 is very much misaligned and suffers a lot of sneering at, always has as a performance machine, which it isn't. But as a reasonably quick daily driver they are brilliant.

[MrBig]

I know!! I'm trying to work out how to fix them!

Having owned a raft of VW's before but never a mk4, I'd always heard they were heavy and a bit cumbersome. It's not the best handling car in the world admittedly, but it grips well and allows you a little fun. What I'm currently amazed about is the aftermarket 'scene', seems like there is nothing you can't get or someone hasn't done! I've joined a couple of Facebook groups too and some of the cars really do look great.

Still can't help thinking that engine would be more fun in a mk2 though...

[BlueHave]

At least it came with some very grippy tyres

[colin_p]

MrBig said:

I know!! I'm trying to work out how to fix them!

Having owned a raft of VW's before but never a mk4, I'd always heard they were heavy and a bit cumbersome. It's not the best handling car in the world admittedly, but it grips well and allows you a little fun. What I'm currently amazed about is the aftermarket 'scene', seems like there is nothing you can't get or someone hasn't done! I've joined a couple of Facebook groups too and some of the cars really do look great.

Still can't help thinking that engine would be more fun in a mk2 though...

The MK4 is a best kept secret. There will always be those who look down their nose at them. With regard to the handling they are setup with nice safe predicatable understeer and once this is understood and they are driven accordingly, for a cheap daily driver they are perfect. And as you have said they are just about the best supported car of them all in terms of information and parts.

VW's of that era are massively under rated and make perfect reliable daily drivers. I have a Passat of that era and the Wife drives a GT TDI MK4 and cannot think of anything we would want to replace them with as daily's without spending a lot of money. Spending virtually nothing on the cars is a nice place to be.

They are not sharp track focussed racing machines and never have been. Once that is understood and you step away from the motoring journalist obsession, which still sticks to this day with peoples attitude to the MK4, about handling and realise that they are excellent fast cruisers you will attain inner peace and tranquility, or something.

[aka_kerrly]

MrBig said:

I know!! I'm trying to work out how to fix them!

Having owned a raft of VW's before but never a mk4, I'd always heard they were heavy and a bit cumbersome. It's not the best handling car in the world admittedly, but it grips well and allows you a little fun. What I'm currently amazed about is the aftermarket 'scene', seems like there is nothing you can't get or someone hasn't done! I've joined a couple of Facebook groups too and some of the cars really do look great.

Still can't help thinking that engine would be more fun in a mk2 though...

You're spot on, there are millions of potential upgrades available for the mk4 by stealing bits from TT/Leon Cupra Rs etc.

WIth regard to the handling I swear it is only PH that gives the mk4 such a hard time. Auto Car, Car Magazine & Top Gear all rated the handling fine and TG did a huge test with 15+ hot hatches at the time and put the mk4 GTI 20vt in 2nd place, behind the A3 20vt!

A good upgrade is a rear anti roll bar from Eibach or Whiteline and depending on how involved you want to be the alloy front suspension arms, hubs and arb from a TT/LCR sharpens the front.

[Teh3692]

I've got a mk4 1.8t as my first car- 12k miles in and it's not cost me anything other than maintenance and I think they still look pretty sharp; even if not very sporty looking compared to what came before and after. Since I put some branded tyres on it the handling is a lot better than it was, still prone to understeer but you have to be being silly really, bit of a point and squirt car I suppose but enjoyable all the same! (It may have been remapped, the seller reckoned it was but no proof one way or the other!

[MrBig]

aka_kerrly said:

You're spot on, there are millions of potential upgrades available for the mk4 by stealing bits from TT/Leon Cupra Rs etc.

WIth regard to the handling I swear it is only PH that gives the mk4 such a hard time. Auto Car, Car Magazine & Top Gear all rated the handling fine and TG did a huge test with 15+ hot hatches at the time and put the mk4 GTI 20vt in 2nd place, behind the A3 20vt!

A good upgrade is a rear anti roll bar from Eibach or Whiteline and depending on how involved you want to be the alloy front suspension arms, hubs and arb from a TT/LCR sharpens the front.

I'm so undecided on the future of this car! Everything I read tempts me to spend money on it. Could quite easily drop £1k on the TT upgrades you mention (TT steering rack is noted as a worthwhile upgrade too), plus coilovers, ARB's, strut braces etc., but it will still be a slightly tired golf covered in battle scars!

I'm still trying to find a suitably priced Mk2 GTI project and if I do, that will lead to the mk4 going on ebay, but in the meantime, for those short journeys round town and trips to the pub, I always find myself getting in the golf and not the daily derv VRS (despite the fact the fuel is paid for in the daily)!

[Limpet]

I've had nothing but good experience with both the mk4 Golfs I've owned. Short term, high mileage (145k when bought) GTI 1.8T and a long term (7 year) GT TDI 130. Both brilliant, reliable, well made cars that needed very little outside of scheduled maintenance.

The GTI also isn't the dog to drive it's made out to be, at least if it's running on decent tyres.

[aka_kerrly]

MrBig said:

I'm so undecided on the future of this car! Everything I read tempts me to spend money on it. Could quite easily drop £1k on the TT upgrades you mention (TT steering rack is noted as a worthwhile upgrade too), plus coilovers, ARB's, strut braces etc., but it will still be a slightly tired golf covered in battle scars!

I'm still trying to find a suitably priced Mk2 GTI project and if I do, that will lead to the mk4 going on ebay, but in the meantime, for those short journeys round town and trips to the pub, I always find myself getting in the golf and not the daily derv VRS (despite the fact the fuel is paid for in the daily)!

Are you planning a 20vt mk2? In which case dont upgrade any of the handling on the MK4. I'd keep the money for a qpeng or similar wiring /ecu set up and more goodies for a mk2 which is much more deserving!!

• note to self, I must crack on with my own 89 gti 16v.

[JakeT]

I had one for a while, and didn't mind it at all. Couple of bits done to it including a cheeky remap and some stiffer ARBs. Still a bit of a pudding and the K03 turbo ran out of puff over 4.5k revs, but the Recaro seats were amazing. Well judged motorway gearing though, long enough for good fuel economy but was right in the peak torque band and short enough for good acceleration. Obligatory pic of it when I sold it.

[MrBig]

Well all I have managed with this thing in the last 3 months is to fill it up with bricks, rubble, soil and bamboo roots and slug it to the dump and back!

MOT day tomorrow, so its fate really depends on the outcome! Its nice to have around when I don't want to dirty the dailies, especially now the VRS has gone and replaced with a Golf GTE which is not so generously endowed in the boot department!!

Anyway, the quest for another Mk2 beckons, so the question remains whether to strip this for the engine, sell it as is or try and trade it for something else equally worthless but fun/useful. Watch this space...

[MrBig]

And just like that, it's all over. MOT fail on high CO and missing cat!! I didn't realise it had been de-catted, it passed last year with the same exhaust at the same station so someone must have taken the cat out at some point.

So now it's sell it for spares or pull the engine and break it for parts.

[AndrewEH1]

Surely worth trying to get a suitable cat from a local scrappy?

[MrBig]

Just been ringing around. They all weigh them in, more money in doing that than selling them for parts.

[C7 JFW]

That's very sad - I just replaced the CATs on mine for race cats, on the basis the car's actually really good.

[RS Grant]

Worth a wee post on an owners club or Facebook group to see if anyone has something suitable lying around?

Seems a shame to break a decent car for such a small issue, or sell it for spares when someone with a spare CAT and/or a friendly MOT tester will get it passed no problem.


Cheers,
Grant

[eltax91]

I'll give you your £200 back for it.

[si_xsi]

eltax91 said:

I'll give you your £200 back for it.

Op needs his £200 'cat' back for it

[MrBig]

Well, with the judiciious use of octane booster (and of course fitting a cat ) it now has a full mot.

Problem is I have a weird hankering for a mk2 GTI again now, so have reluctantly put this up for sale. Still, trying to find a half decent mk2 for about £1500 should yield another interesting thread