Mk4 Golf diesel machine
Discussion
A new job with a somewhat longer drive to site meant the previous Puma needed to be replaced with something equally good value for money but better on fuel. I set about searching Ebay of course and settled on a Mk4 Golf 1.9 GT TDI.
This particular car came up only 10 minutes away from me in the exact spec I was looking for - 3 doors, dark blue or black, black interior. Even better that it was the 150 version so it has the nicest wheels. These seem to be fairly 'rare' in 3 doors and 150bhp version, so my interest was piqued...
The only problem was that it is cat S listed, which is why the previous owner had it up for sale. Someone dinked the rear end which resulted in a scratched and dented rear bumper and a very small dink in the spare wheel well. I took a gamble on it being as good as it looked in the pics, plus the previous owner knew how to spell and punctuate in the advert which I took as I good sign. I ended up buying sight-unseen and in the rain and the dark. The opposite of what you should actually do when buying something you're going to rely on heavily! I had a quick look around and a small test drive, and it was exactly as described in the ad, if not better condition. It survived the 10 minute drive home anyhow!
I gave it a wash and it doesn't look too shabby for £940. Non-cat registered ones seemed to go for a minimum of £1500 for anything even slightly close to the condition this one's in. I think I did ok:
The interior's really clean, no seat wear to speak of:
And the starting mileage:
I'm going to run this thread a bit like the £50 Puma one. Service and maintain but look to keep costs to absolute bear minimum if possible...
There may be one slight exception to that rule. It *really* doesn't handle well. Coming from the Puma, I was rather underwhelmed with the large amount of understeer, wobbliness and general vagueness. I may have a go at sorting this out a bit! Having said that, it's rather a lot more comfortable that the Puma was, and I'm going to mainly be using this to sit on the motorway for about 85 miles a day.
The car came with full history give or take, low previous owners and not many faults. Things are looking good then! Even the air conditioning worked, which I really don't expect on cheap old cars
Faults:
Rear bumper dent - Fixed: removed rear bumper, block of wood + club hammer sorted the dent in the wheel well, re-fit bumper. £0 spent
Central locking broken - Fixed: replaced both door actuators. £50 spent
Clunky front suspension - Fixed: replaced lower arms and ARB bushes (which for the bushes was a TOTAL pain the arse). £45 spent
Wobbly temperature gauge/cool running - Need to order thermostat and sender from VW
Flickery display in centre of instrument cluster - Still working. Meh
Can't reset trip meter - Meh. Apparently a small bit of plastic has broken off behind the push button and there's a DIY repair for this. Might give that a go.
I gave it a service too as PD engines are fussy about which oil should be used. I wanted to make sure it was correct and it wasn't too far off needing a service anyway.
Unsure if I'll play cam belt roulette on this one. It's due on age but not mileage. I may do it over the summer!
I'll probably play the 'get the pence per mile as low as possible' game if I end up keeping it and piling some miles on. I currently need to do about 34k to make it as good as the Puma in those stakes...
Thoughts/opinions/general rants appreciated!
This particular car came up only 10 minutes away from me in the exact spec I was looking for - 3 doors, dark blue or black, black interior. Even better that it was the 150 version so it has the nicest wheels. These seem to be fairly 'rare' in 3 doors and 150bhp version, so my interest was piqued...
The only problem was that it is cat S listed, which is why the previous owner had it up for sale. Someone dinked the rear end which resulted in a scratched and dented rear bumper and a very small dink in the spare wheel well. I took a gamble on it being as good as it looked in the pics, plus the previous owner knew how to spell and punctuate in the advert which I took as I good sign. I ended up buying sight-unseen and in the rain and the dark. The opposite of what you should actually do when buying something you're going to rely on heavily! I had a quick look around and a small test drive, and it was exactly as described in the ad, if not better condition. It survived the 10 minute drive home anyhow!
I gave it a wash and it doesn't look too shabby for £940. Non-cat registered ones seemed to go for a minimum of £1500 for anything even slightly close to the condition this one's in. I think I did ok:
The interior's really clean, no seat wear to speak of:
And the starting mileage:
I'm going to run this thread a bit like the £50 Puma one. Service and maintain but look to keep costs to absolute bear minimum if possible...
There may be one slight exception to that rule. It *really* doesn't handle well. Coming from the Puma, I was rather underwhelmed with the large amount of understeer, wobbliness and general vagueness. I may have a go at sorting this out a bit! Having said that, it's rather a lot more comfortable that the Puma was, and I'm going to mainly be using this to sit on the motorway for about 85 miles a day.
The car came with full history give or take, low previous owners and not many faults. Things are looking good then! Even the air conditioning worked, which I really don't expect on cheap old cars
Faults:
Rear bumper dent - Fixed: removed rear bumper, block of wood + club hammer sorted the dent in the wheel well, re-fit bumper. £0 spent
Central locking broken - Fixed: replaced both door actuators. £50 spent
Clunky front suspension - Fixed: replaced lower arms and ARB bushes (which for the bushes was a TOTAL pain the arse). £45 spent
Wobbly temperature gauge/cool running - Need to order thermostat and sender from VW
Flickery display in centre of instrument cluster - Still working. Meh
Can't reset trip meter - Meh. Apparently a small bit of plastic has broken off behind the push button and there's a DIY repair for this. Might give that a go.
I gave it a service too as PD engines are fussy about which oil should be used. I wanted to make sure it was correct and it wasn't too far off needing a service anyway.
Unsure if I'll play cam belt roulette on this one. It's due on age but not mileage. I may do it over the summer!
I'll probably play the 'get the pence per mile as low as possible' game if I end up keeping it and piling some miles on. I currently need to do about 34k to make it as good as the Puma in those stakes...
Thoughts/opinions/general rants appreciated!
Thesprucegoose said:
Surprised you got rid of the puma to save 10mpg. I had a Octavia tdi 130 great engines and got a remap from blacksmoke. I got 44mpg average over 25k. The tdi 150 biggest weakness is the chocolate cam, did you check it?
So am I to be honest! I think I'd hit the sweet spot of pence per mileage on the Puma and really if I wanted to start doing more serious mileage every day it was going to need a clutch and cam belt. Plus the rust situation was starting to catch up so I called it a day.The cam is still there and there's enough power and torque to make me think it's not particularly worn. In short, I've not bothered to take the cam cover off but I'm aware they can eat cam lobes if run on the wrong oil. Hense the service as soon as I bought it. 2k miles in and it seems to be running sweet. Worst MPG I'm getting is 45 around town and that's gone up to more than 50 with commuting. Should get better still once I sort the thermostat and sender out.
willmagrath said:
Very nice that. That engine is fantastic in my opinion
Cheers, yes the mid-range is rather nice actually. I'm not used to torquey diesels, I've only ever had one diesel before this car and the timing on the pump was miles out so the power and torque curve was pretty odd!I think these are good cars. I had a 130 and ran it for 30 or 40k miles - I forget now. In that time I had to replace a PAS pump, battery, and a couple of suspension bits, but the rest were things I decided to do rather than it actually needing anything. Given it was in today's terms an 'old' car, I thought that was OK. I could have gone for something a lot more reliable I'm sure, but I like the blend of everything that the Golf is designed to do. A bit agricultural, mind you, but I thought the PD had a certain charm.
Very nice colour. I have the 3 door petrol 1.8T version in black that's also on Montreal 2 wheels - although 3 of them leak air from internal corrosion, be surprised if yours still hold air if they haven't been refurbed - something to keep an eye on.
Would you mind adding a few more details on the door lock fix? My passenger door lock pin jiggles when trying to unlock but doesn't actually raise the pin.
I've had the doors apart on both sides to fix broken window regulator plastic clips, but as I remember the door lock is riveted on? I'm loathe to take the glass out... again...!
Cheers!
Would you mind adding a few more details on the door lock fix? My passenger door lock pin jiggles when trying to unlock but doesn't actually raise the pin.
I've had the doors apart on both sides to fix broken window regulator plastic clips, but as I remember the door lock is riveted on? I'm loathe to take the glass out... again...!
Cheers!
ryan1684 said:
I'd be blocking off the egr and get the inlet and egr out for a good clean. if its never been done it will make a world of difference to how it runs and more importantly the mpg! thermostat will definitely make a dent on the mpg too.
Good point, I've thought about doing that but I'll have a more serious delve! Also, the thermostat/temp sensor problem was resolved for free - I wiggled the connector on the sensor and everything's been fine since. A nice solid 90 degrees at all times again Superchickenn said:
Id highly recommend the EGR delete, I done this to mine too, id also whist you do that do the Vac simplification mod.. only costs about £5 and makes things a lot more simple when looking under the engine bay.
Interesting... any more details on the vac simplification mod? There do seem to be rather a lot of vac pipes under there, but it's the same on any VAG product I've been near! It's not got any vacuum problems but might be nice to have it apart and check/simplify.Paul S4 said:
Of course you could get a remap....then it would be a bit of a Q Car...! But that would go against the ethos of the purchase I suppose !
That idea did surface in my mind. Apparently I could have even better MPG after a map too... I've driven a mapped 130 spec and it went link stink. The only problem I currently have is that my gearbox sounds like it won't be happy with a remap - 3rd gear is a bit whiney and I get a vibration humming noise when turning left at low speed. I've dropped the gearbox oil and replaced but it's still there. I might have to look at swapping the box over at some point!mwstewart said:
I think these are good cars. I had a 130 and ran it for 30 or 40k miles - I forget now. In that time I had to replace a PAS pump, battery, and a couple of suspension bits, but the rest were things I decided to do rather than it actually needing anything. Given it was in today's terms an 'old' car, I thought that was OK. I could have gone for something a lot more reliable I'm sure, but I like the blend of everything that the Golf is designed to do. A bit agricultural, mind you, but I thought the PD had a certain charm.
Yep. They seem pretty solid. Mine's only really needed the door actuators, a set of lower arms and ARB bushes, and all of those are fairly normal wear and tear items in my book. It's super practical, seems to do every job well but not brilliantly. So basically exactly what it was designed to do! Yes, it's a bit agricultural first thing in the morning but I like the way it hums along on the motorway.timmymagic73 said:
Very nice colour. I have the 3 door petrol 1.8T version in black that's also on Montreal 2 wheels - although 3 of them leak air from internal corrosion, be surprised if yours still hold air if they haven't been refurbed - something to keep an eye on.
Would you mind adding a few more details on the door lock fix? My passenger door lock pin jiggles when trying to unlock but doesn't actually raise the pin.
I've had the doors apart on both sides to fix broken window regulator plastic clips, but as I remember the door lock is riveted on? I'm loathe to take the glass out... again...!
Cheers!
Cheers! One of my wheels does appear to leak, and yes my wheels are a bit corroded so it probably is the same problem you mention. A refurb is definitely on the cards. This thread may end up going the way of the man with the 'shedding properly' Passat but I'm hoping it goes somewhere inbetween my bargain basement Puma and 'shedding properly'!Would you mind adding a few more details on the door lock fix? My passenger door lock pin jiggles when trying to unlock but doesn't actually raise the pin.
I've had the doors apart on both sides to fix broken window regulator plastic clips, but as I remember the door lock is riveted on? I'm loathe to take the glass out... again...!
Cheers!
Sounds like you have the same problem as I did. The central locking actuators being kaput. They're built in to the mechanism of the door latch so you need to replace the whole thing as one unit. I bought a pair from Ebay for about £40 and a boot lock for a tenner just in case. Unfortunately for you, you do need to disassemble the door completely to do the job, but on the plus side it's really not very difficult. The glass does need to come out but I found it very straightforward to do. The door lock isn't riveted on, it just unbolts once you've got everything else out of the way.
Thanks for the reply, I was afraid that was the case - will file that job away on the to-do list....!
Incidentally, I recently fitted a genuine armrest to mine - really easy job and so much better now my elbow doesn't keep falling down the hole between the seats. Wish I'd done it sooner.
Was quite difficult to get the matching fabric we both have, but ended up paying around £30 - and 2 hours cleaning off the shoe polish "trim cleaner" the seller plastered it in.
So much more time and money could be spent.... but I think I'm just about happy with mine for the moment, coming up for 150,000 miles soon and used every day. Jinxed it now.
Incidentally, I recently fitted a genuine armrest to mine - really easy job and so much better now my elbow doesn't keep falling down the hole between the seats. Wish I'd done it sooner.
Was quite difficult to get the matching fabric we both have, but ended up paying around £30 - and 2 hours cleaning off the shoe polish "trim cleaner" the seller plastered it in.
So much more time and money could be spent.... but I think I'm just about happy with mine for the moment, coming up for 150,000 miles soon and used every day. Jinxed it now.
timmymagic73 said:
Thanks for the reply, I was afraid that was the case - will file that job away on the to-do list....!
Incidentally, I recently fitted a genuine armrest to mine - really easy job and so much better now my elbow doesn't keep falling down the hole between the seats. Wish I'd done it sooner.
Was quite difficult to get the matching fabric we both have, but ended up paying around £30 - and 2 hours cleaning off the shoe polish "trim cleaner" the seller plastered it in.
So much more time and money could be spent.... but I think I'm just about happy with mine for the moment, coming up for 150,000 miles soon and used every day. Jinxed it now.
Seriously, it's not very difficult to do. If you're South-East based then I may be able to meet up and help!Incidentally, I recently fitted a genuine armrest to mine - really easy job and so much better now my elbow doesn't keep falling down the hole between the seats. Wish I'd done it sooner.
Was quite difficult to get the matching fabric we both have, but ended up paying around £30 - and 2 hours cleaning off the shoe polish "trim cleaner" the seller plastered it in.
So much more time and money could be spent.... but I think I'm just about happy with mine for the moment, coming up for 150,000 miles soon and used every day. Jinxed it now.
I've never been fussed about arm rests, in fact I didn't like the one on my E46 M3. The Golf doesn't have one and that's just fine with me
I've ticked over 130k already, that's over 2k miles and I've owned the car about 6 weeks. It's getting well used at the moment.
LeoZwalf said:
Nearly 20 years after launch, the clean mk4's STILL look fresh to my eyes. Nice car, hope it treats you well 
Thanks. I know what you mean, I do like the shape even though it's a bit wobbly compared to older Golfs!Filibuster said:
Although I hate Diesels, I am a sucker for 3-door mk4 Golfs.
And yours truly looks good!!
Cheers. Same here, not a fan of deg-degs really, but this was bought to do a job and it's doing it well. It had to be a 3 door - they look the best!And yours truly looks good!!
FFS man, don't bother! You bought it to do the commuting cheaply and (hopefully) reliably along the motorway. Don't spend £00s on making it handle better (you've got other cars for that) and ruining the ride - the M2 is bad enough!
Keep it well maintained and, other than fixing things that break, keep your spanners in the garage.
Pretty sure that there's a Series 1 RST that needs some money throwing at it anyway...
Keep it well maintained and, other than fixing things that break, keep your spanners in the garage.
Pretty sure that there's a Series 1 RST that needs some money throwing at it anyway...
Squishey said:
FFS man, don't bother! You bought it to do the commuting cheaply and (hopefully) reliably along the motorway. Don't spend £00s on making it handle better (you've got other cars for that) and ruining the ride - the M2 is bad enough!
Keep it well maintained and, other than fixing things that break, keep your spanners in the garage.
Pretty sure that there's a Series 1 RST that needs some money throwing at it anyway...
I looked and your current/previous car list and worked out I know you Keep it well maintained and, other than fixing things that break, keep your spanners in the garage.
Pretty sure that there's a Series 1 RST that needs some money throwing at it anyway...
Yeah, I'm toying with ideas at the moment... It's a tad dull to drive compared to the Puma!
BTW it's a series 2 RST and that reminds me I'll have to get a thread going about that soon
These cars were really quick for their time in a real world 30-80 sense, rather than 0-60 sense and in fact when you think about it, the current Golf GTD really isn't that much faster than the 150 PD was 16 years ago. For under a grand its a bargain and I wouldn't be wasting loads of money on suspension upgrades, accept it for what it is.
I had a PD130 in an A3 and as it only weighed 1300 KG it felt really punchy. about the same as my current Insignia which has 160 horses, but weighs about 300KG more - !!
Don't see many PD 150s any more, but overall, I think the MK4 Golf is wearing very well. Seems to be pretty rust proof after nearly 20 years.
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