Mk4 Golf diesel machine
Discussion
Gallons Per Mile said:
It's a good work shed. Never let me down and even coming home last night it limped along at motorway speed without complaining too much! I'm not bored of it yet. It's been too cheap to run, but I'm missing having the power and soundtrack of an M3... I don't think there's any point in binning this and getting another cheap shed - like you say, I might be jumping straight in to more problems. I don't think I want an M2 enough either to justify spending 34K just yet, so it looks like fixing the Golf is the way forwards 
I know what you mean. Could you run an M3 or similar as a second car, keep the Golf to daily? I’ve got a Z4MR which I do that with and it works well - keeps the Z4 feeling special when I do take it out and more importantly, keeps it feeling fast enough so I’m less tempted to look for something quicker 
col1983 said:
I know what you mean. Could you run an M3 or similar as a second car, keep the Golf to daily? I’ve got a Z4MR which I do that with and it works well - keeps the Z4 feeling special when I do take it out and more importantly, keeps it feeling fast enough so I’m less tempted to look for something quicker
I've already got a Mk2 Golf GTI 16v and an Escort RS Turbo as second cars... If I got an M3/M2 then it would replace the daily Diesel Machine. The more I think about it the less it's making sense at the moment!Gallons Per Mile said:
exgtt said:
Great car, Too nice to play water pump lottery with it though!
I’ve gotta Puma that’s just been rebushed including the rear beam, as said before most hatches will feel sloppy in comparison. I think refreshing worn out suspension on the Golf is a great idea, mapping these with great results is very cheap but I’m with you on potentially leaving it alone. A cheap map can all too often mean chasing drive shaft/clutch/gearbox problems on an older car with some miles under its belt, especially with the PD150’s lump of torque.
Wish you the best of luck!
The water pump is the least of my worries! I really shouldn't play cam belt roulette with this one, but time is short at the moment. However, I will change it sometime this year (probably!).I’ve gotta Puma that’s just been rebushed including the rear beam, as said before most hatches will feel sloppy in comparison. I think refreshing worn out suspension on the Golf is a great idea, mapping these with great results is very cheap but I’m with you on potentially leaving it alone. A cheap map can all too often mean chasing drive shaft/clutch/gearbox problems on an older car with some miles under its belt, especially with the PD150’s lump of torque.
Wish you the best of luck!
I'm slightly envious now that you say you've got a sorted Puma. Mine was the most fun I've ever had just by driving to work - certainly on par with my E46 M3, which was a different kind of fun. Please go and explore lift-off oversteer, you'll absolutely love it.
Your Golf is a keeper, sure it needs a bit of work but 3dr 150’s in this nick are non existent round these parts (West Yorkshire)
This Golf is the pinnacle of sub £1500 motoring, sure it doesn’t tick the fun box but it ticks all the others.
Gallons Per Mile said:
col1983 said:
I know what you mean. Could you run an M3 or similar as a second car, keep the Golf to daily? I’ve got a Z4MR which I do that with and it works well - keeps the Z4 feeling special when I do take it out and more importantly, keeps it feeling fast enough so I’m less tempted to look for something quicker
I've already got a Mk2 Golf GTI 16v and an Escort RS Turbo as second cars... If I got an M3/M2 then it would replace the daily Diesel Machine. The more I think about it the less it's making sense at the moment!I enjoyed reading your thread, they are good cars if they haven't been messed with. I have a similar 2004 Seat Leon cupra TDI 150 I picked up 3 years ago and had many of your similar issues. After a bodged attempt to fix a driveshaft CV joint i ended up binning it for a full replacement only to find the other side needed doing a year later, every window regulator and locking module has been replaced, not expensive but it gets tiresome. It failed an MOT this year and realised the EGR was 50% blocked and I dare not take the rocker cover off! Good luck with yours
Edited by bassett on Saturday 29th December 21:17
exgtt said:
Haa, I’m too chicken to explore LOO on the roads, just tooling about @ 70% gives me all the smiles I need!
Your Golf is a keeper, sure it needs a bit of work but 3dr 150’s in this nick are non existent round these parts (West Yorkshire)
This Golf is the pinnacle of sub £1500 motoring, sure it doesn’t tick the fun box but it ticks all the others.
You need to give it a try! Seriously, it's so controlable you wouldn't believe. Your Golf is a keeper, sure it needs a bit of work but 3dr 150’s in this nick are non existent round these parts (West Yorkshire)
This Golf is the pinnacle of sub £1500 motoring, sure it doesn’t tick the fun box but it ticks all the others.
Yep, I'm sort of the same opinion. It's a keeper but it's just not amazingly fun. At this price point I guess I need to compromise on fun a little bit. Maybe a suspension kit and a remap would sort that out. But then I'd be spending more money on it... Ahh!!
col1983 said:
Yeah you’ve definitely got the fun car well and truly covered with those two! I do really fancy an M2 as well, just can’t bring myself to justify the cost for something i’d do 15k pa on. I’ll be all over them when they drop to £20k or less, but that’s a bit of a way off. Best of luck with the Golf!
15kpa is just my commuting mileage to my normal base, let alone any other mileage I do! M2 is only justifiable if I do some man maths. Basically I can spend about £500 on the Golf or 34k on an M2. I'm still tempted though. If I could bag a deal on one at 30k I'd be very interested. I'm not going to ring a dealer and ask about discounts though.bassett said:
I enjoyed reading your thread, they are good cars if they haven't been messed with. I have a similar 2004 Seat Leon cupra TDI 150 I picked up 3 years ago and had many of your similar issues. After a bodged attempt to fix a driveshaft CV joint i ended up binning it for a full replacement only to find the other side needed doing a year later, every window regulator and locking module has been replaced, not expensive but it gets tiresome. It failed an MOT this year and realised the EGR was 50% blocked and I dare not take the rocker cover off! Good luck with yours
Thanks! Yes the EGR surprised me too. Couldn't believe it runs (ran..) that well with that amount of rubbish in the inlet. A neighbour had a Leon that literally had a lake in the rear footwells. I said it was probably the door seals as they're apparently prone to being leaky but he decided he knew better and got the bathroom sealant out all over the place. Eventually he crashed it in to someone and wrote it off, my imagination presumes there was a mini tsunami inside at the time 
Gallons Per Mile said:
I've got a cam kit and new set of securing bolts coming from Darkside Developments and a cam belt kit on order too. VW genuine parts were over £900 which is basically what I paid for the car, so that was never going to happen!
Nice. Did you / have you confirmed it is the later friction setup?Give us a shout about tools and the lending thereof.
In fact where are you?
There is some very clever fetteledge that needs to be done regarding measuring the dynamic timing on these during and after the cam belt change. Do a bit of searching on "sync angle" or "torsion value". You'll need some decent diagnostic kit (VCDS) for that, which I may be able to help with if you are close'ish. Maidenhead here.
colin_p said:
Nice. Did you / have you confirmed it is the later friction setup?
Give us a shout about tools and the lending thereof.
In fact where are you?
There is some very clever fetteledge that needs to be done regarding measuring the dynamic timing on these during and after the cam belt change. Do a bit of searching on "sync angle" or "torsion value". You'll need some decent diagnostic kit (VCDS) for that, which I may be able to help with if you are close'ish. Maidenhead here.
I've gone with the fitment guidance on Euro Car Parts website as per the link I posted up there somewhere. Hopefully that won't come back to bite me. Give us a shout about tools and the lending thereof.
In fact where are you?
There is some very clever fetteledge that needs to be done regarding measuring the dynamic timing on these during and after the cam belt change. Do a bit of searching on "sync angle" or "torsion value". You'll need some decent diagnostic kit (VCDS) for that, which I may be able to help with if you are close'ish. Maidenhead here.
I bought a timing tools kit on Ebay which should do the trick as I like buying tools, but many thanks for the offer of borrowing yours
I'll have a look at the timing things you said about. Sounds interesting! I've got VCDS lite but it sounds like I'll need the full version which I may need to borrow. I'm about an hour and a half away from you but happy to have a trip over if you'd like to show me this funky timing stuff
It is not that clever.
All you are doing is setting the torsion / sync angle value.
The ECU measures the angular difference between the cam and crank and compensates. The closer you can get it to 0.0 the better.
If you have the light version you may be able to check if you can view it. Look in measuring blocks.
All you are doing is setting the torsion / sync angle value.
The ECU measures the angular difference between the cam and crank and compensates. The closer you can get it to 0.0 the better.
If you have the light version you may be able to check if you can view it. Look in measuring blocks.
No, check it first.
Some cars have a sweet spot for the timing and if yours is running / pulling well it'd be a good idea to replicate that. If you are lucky then on the upper plastic cam cover on the factory sticker the factory torson value will be written in biro but sadly most cars are so old it is illegible.
The value can go between -3.0 and +3.0 before running and starting issues ocurr.
The trick is when doing the belt is to understand the significance of the movement of the outer cam pulley (which is free to rotate as you tension the belt with the inner cam pulley being locked with a timing pin).
The best way is, and to allow reasonable post belt adjustment is to ensure that the outer cam pulley bolts are centred in the elongated slots. This allows +/- adjustment. To do this, you set the pulley over to the left which will be drawn back to centre as tension is applied to the belt. If you don't do this then what normally happens is the outer pulley ends up at the limit of adjustment on the elongated slots.
Sounds complicated but when you are in there it should make sense.
Quite simply;
Crank is locked with the toothed locking tool
Inner cam pulley is locked with a pin
The outer cam pulley is free to rotate (until the three 13mm bolts are tightened which locks it to the inner pulley) as the belt is tightened.
Some cars have a sweet spot for the timing and if yours is running / pulling well it'd be a good idea to replicate that. If you are lucky then on the upper plastic cam cover on the factory sticker the factory torson value will be written in biro but sadly most cars are so old it is illegible.
The value can go between -3.0 and +3.0 before running and starting issues ocurr.
The trick is when doing the belt is to understand the significance of the movement of the outer cam pulley (which is free to rotate as you tension the belt with the inner cam pulley being locked with a timing pin).
The best way is, and to allow reasonable post belt adjustment is to ensure that the outer cam pulley bolts are centred in the elongated slots. This allows +/- adjustment. To do this, you set the pulley over to the left which will be drawn back to centre as tension is applied to the belt. If you don't do this then what normally happens is the outer pulley ends up at the limit of adjustment on the elongated slots.
Sounds complicated but when you are in there it should make sense.
Quite simply;
Crank is locked with the toothed locking tool
Inner cam pulley is locked with a pin
The outer cam pulley is free to rotate (until the three 13mm bolts are tightened which locks it to the inner pulley) as the belt is tightened.
Ok, thanks for the advice. I'll do that first on Sunday and see if I can view the value that I need. I'm pretty sure the sticker on the cam cover is still there on my car but it's dirty so most likely unreadable now.
Luckily I'm borrowing a friends spare shed Mk1 Focus which has only done tip runs for the last year or so. I had to fix it before throwing it in to 90 miles a day commuting but that's another story!
Luckily I'm borrowing a friends spare shed Mk1 Focus which has only done tip runs for the last year or so. I had to fix it before throwing it in to 90 miles a day commuting but that's another story!
Gallons Per Mile said:
Ok, thanks for the advice. I'll do that first on Sunday and see if I can view the value that I need. I'm pretty sure the sticker on the cam cover is still there on my car but it's dirty so most likely unreadable now.
Luckily I'm borrowing a friends spare shed Mk1 Focus which has only done tip runs for the last year or so. I had to fix it before throwing it in to 90 miles a day commuting but that's another story!
Nowt wrong with a MK1 Focus. Getting rare now due to rot, something a similarly aged MK4 doesn't suffer from except the superfical stuff on the front wings.Luckily I'm borrowing a friends spare shed Mk1 Focus which has only done tip runs for the last year or so. I had to fix it before throwing it in to 90 miles a day commuting but that's another story!
200Plus Club said:
Questions for you knowledgeable mk4 tdi folk- how often are cambelts needed on the 1.9tdi and where's best for a pair of front struts and springs as I think mine has a collapsed front coil spring?
General rule of thumb for cambelts;Early damper tensioner setup with the small idler pulley , 40k (I think VW reduced it from 60k). This setup was massively over engineered except for one thing which VW really dropped the ball on and that is the tiny idler pulley.
Later friction setup, 60k
However the age of belt is probably more important now on these cars. Anything over 5 years old should be changed. Also and whilst doing it, the waterpump is a must and good practice to do the aux belt tensioner also. I've got the cambelt to do soon on the Wife's car soon and it is the piggish nightmare dampered setup on her car. The 4mm gap shenanigins LOL!
Springs and shocks; it is cheaper to buy a matched set of Bilstein B4 shocks and Eibach springs than to replace the OE stuff. Better to and as a bonus some mild lowering and better handling. German e-bay is your friend for the matched sets. Also, don't skimp and make sure you fit new front top mounts and bearings.
colin_p said:
General rule of thumb for cambelts;
Early damper tensioner setup with the small idler pulley , 40k (I think VW reduced it from 60k). This setup was massively over engineered except for one thing which VW really dropped the ball on and that is the tiny idler pulley.
Later friction setup, 60k
However the age of belt is probably more important now on these cars. Anything over 5 years old should be changed. Also and whilst doing it, the waterpump is a must and good practice to do the aux belt tensioner also. I've got the cambelt to do soon on the Wife's car soon and it is the piggish nightmare dampered setup on her car. The 4mm gap shenanigins LOL!
Springs and shocks; it is cheaper to buy a matched set of Bilstein B4 shocks and Eibach springs than to replace the OE stuff. Better to and as a bonus some mild lowering and better handling. German e-bay is your friend for the matched sets. Also, don't skimp and make sure you fit new front top mounts and bearings.
Thanks! This is my freebie car as the wife was given it foc and it's a 175k miler lol.Early damper tensioner setup with the small idler pulley , 40k (I think VW reduced it from 60k). This setup was massively over engineered except for one thing which VW really dropped the ball on and that is the tiny idler pulley.
Later friction setup, 60k
However the age of belt is probably more important now on these cars. Anything over 5 years old should be changed. Also and whilst doing it, the waterpump is a must and good practice to do the aux belt tensioner also. I've got the cambelt to do soon on the Wife's car soon and it is the piggish nightmare dampered setup on her car. The 4mm gap shenanigins LOL!
Springs and shocks; it is cheaper to buy a matched set of Bilstein B4 shocks and Eibach springs than to replace the OE stuff. Better to and as a bonus some mild lowering and better handling. German e-bay is your friend for the matched sets. Also, don't skimp and make sure you fit new front top mounts and bearings.
I need to get under and see what's going on as it might not be worth spending monies on tbh.
Front windows both not working and plastic shims holding the glass up with advisory not to use email lol!
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