Mk4 Golf diesel machine
Discussion
Gallons Per Mile said:
Fastdruid said:
I wish manufacturers paid more attention to such mud traps. I took the rear arch liners off the MPS the other week....and stuck a finger through the ends of the sills where the mud had collected and rusted them through. 
OUCH! That's not good. I'm rather glad my car doesn't look like that... Hope you get it sorted out.
Not yet had a chance to look at the other side though... I have a feeling it'll be just as bad and I'll have to do the same again.
Time for another update!
I changed the strip fuse. It's a bit fiddly to get in there with sockets - you need 1/4" ones or they just won't fit:
Old fuse was definitely blown:
Rather than great success, it was only partial success. The fans worked but didn't run on low speed with the air con on. Instead they pulsed on and off at full speed. This is a known failure mode for the fans - there's a resistor in each fan that controls the low speed operation. When it dies, you get the pulsing problem with the air con on and also when when the rad calls for cooling. Clearly, this won't do!
I went to my favourite car parts place armed with a click and collect order number and took advantage of their constant 'sales' and online discount codes
Luckily they had just the right amount of fans for a Mk4 Golf PD150 in stock. They're different to a PD130 Golf which I hadn't realised until I looked under a friend's bonnet and had a sinking feeling that I'd bought the wrong fans on the morning we were going to change them over. The car parts shop had come up trumps and given me the correct fitment; panic over.
We needed to loosen the front end of the car to gain enough clearance to pull the fans out. Sounds a bit dramatic, but those clever Germans made it rather easy to do.
Firstly, remove engine cover, just because that's always the first thing you do if you have to lift the bonnet and work under there
I think it did actually give a bit more room to work:
Next up, un-clip grille and leave it balanced on the bonnet catch mechanism that runs through it because you're too lazy to undo it all properly:
Those three bolts need undoing, and some behind the small grilles in the lower part of the bumper, plus some in the wheel arches. Then the bumper can come off:
Pretty easy so far. Don't forget to un-clip the ambient temperature sensor. I had to undo the bolts holding the cross member on so that it could be pulled forward:
There are two bolts just behind the headlights on the front wings that detach the slam panel from the front of the car. The whole lot can now be pulled fowards, leaving headlights, rad etc all in place. Pretty clever! Next thing to do was release the fan shroud from the rad:
Once that's done (4 bolts), it's time to disconnect the wiring connectors and pull the shroud out from the top:
Disassembling the dead fans from the shroud:
Looks a bit bare down there now. Loads of space made from pulling the whole front end off the car a couple of inches:
New fans attached to shroud:
Fit shroud the same way it came out:
I got the shroud back on to the radiator and connected the wiring up. All working perfectly now
After that I just had to attach the front end of the car again and we were good to go.
Clearly the car runs well and doesn't get hot in traffic - I had no working radiator cooling AT ALL until I changed that strip fuse! I've been driving around in 30+ degree heat including getting stuck in traffic and the temperature gauge has never gone beyond the usual half way mark. Which was nice.
Now with working fans and air con that stays cool when you're not moving, I went all the way to the North Coast of Scotland to see family. From Kent. It's nearly 700 miles door to door. I wanted to do a range test and can confirm you can drive from Kent to Inverness on 1 tank of fuel. I did about 53MPG too, certainly the most economical car I've ever taken North!
Just to prove it, here's the car on the drive about 5 minutes' walk from the North Coast of Scotchland. Killed a few flies on the way:
I had a developing wobbly brake disc which worstened due to excellent twisty Scotch roads. I've got to admit, I was pleasantly surprised by how the Golf handled the bends. It's no Puma or E46 M3, both of which absolutely loved those roads, but it did much better than expected and I actually had fun - the car rolls a bit but then the suspension seems to firm up a tad and feels much more controlled. It's still way too soft for me personally but it will go around corners if you push!
Anyways, coming back to the point. 1500 miles later and my front passenger disc had definitely seen better days. It's a bit annoying because the brakes were nearly new when I bought the car and as I found out today they were Brembo discs and pads. I'm not entirely sure what's given that disc a wobble but the only way to cure it is a new set of brakes. I did take the passenger side apart before going to Scotland and cleaned it all up but it's not made any difference.
Let's get on with it then! Here's the offending passenger side all stripped down:
New disc ready to go on. Note the amount of meat on the pads I removed. How annoying!
I fished out the end of the old retaining screw from the hub flange. I managed to break it trying to undo the hub nut by wedging a screwdriver between the disc and the caliper when I changed the lower arms a few months ago... Maybe this is partly the cause of the wobbly disc problem!
The new screw didn't want to go fully in even though the old one just unscrewed using pliers. A quick tap later:
Disc and new retaining screw fitted:
Carrier cleaned up:
Caliper piston pushed back a small amount and carrier fitted:
Finished article:
Yes, I left the backing paper on the back of the pad by mistake but it can stay there now!
Rinse and repeat for the driver's side, I've now got new smooth brakes again. i've gone for Pagid discs and pads, hopefully they'll be a litte less dusty than the Brembo ones, as you can see by the state of the wheel in the pic above.
9000 miles since purchase and I'm still under £1500. That equates to current running costs of just over 16P/mile.
Next on the agenda is a service, investigating the slight play in the steering I noticed today while doing the brakes and investigating a slight rattle on the passenger side when going over bumps. I think it's just the door card.
More shedding updates coming as they happen
I changed the strip fuse. It's a bit fiddly to get in there with sockets - you need 1/4" ones or they just won't fit:
Old fuse was definitely blown:
Rather than great success, it was only partial success. The fans worked but didn't run on low speed with the air con on. Instead they pulsed on and off at full speed. This is a known failure mode for the fans - there's a resistor in each fan that controls the low speed operation. When it dies, you get the pulsing problem with the air con on and also when when the rad calls for cooling. Clearly, this won't do!
I went to my favourite car parts place armed with a click and collect order number and took advantage of their constant 'sales' and online discount codes
Luckily they had just the right amount of fans for a Mk4 Golf PD150 in stock. They're different to a PD130 Golf which I hadn't realised until I looked under a friend's bonnet and had a sinking feeling that I'd bought the wrong fans on the morning we were going to change them over. The car parts shop had come up trumps and given me the correct fitment; panic over.We needed to loosen the front end of the car to gain enough clearance to pull the fans out. Sounds a bit dramatic, but those clever Germans made it rather easy to do.
Firstly, remove engine cover, just because that's always the first thing you do if you have to lift the bonnet and work under there
I think it did actually give a bit more room to work:Next up, un-clip grille and leave it balanced on the bonnet catch mechanism that runs through it because you're too lazy to undo it all properly:
Those three bolts need undoing, and some behind the small grilles in the lower part of the bumper, plus some in the wheel arches. Then the bumper can come off:
Pretty easy so far. Don't forget to un-clip the ambient temperature sensor. I had to undo the bolts holding the cross member on so that it could be pulled forward:
There are two bolts just behind the headlights on the front wings that detach the slam panel from the front of the car. The whole lot can now be pulled fowards, leaving headlights, rad etc all in place. Pretty clever! Next thing to do was release the fan shroud from the rad:
Once that's done (4 bolts), it's time to disconnect the wiring connectors and pull the shroud out from the top:
Disassembling the dead fans from the shroud:
Looks a bit bare down there now. Loads of space made from pulling the whole front end off the car a couple of inches:
New fans attached to shroud:
Fit shroud the same way it came out:
I got the shroud back on to the radiator and connected the wiring up. All working perfectly now
After that I just had to attach the front end of the car again and we were good to go.Clearly the car runs well and doesn't get hot in traffic - I had no working radiator cooling AT ALL until I changed that strip fuse! I've been driving around in 30+ degree heat including getting stuck in traffic and the temperature gauge has never gone beyond the usual half way mark. Which was nice.
Now with working fans and air con that stays cool when you're not moving, I went all the way to the North Coast of Scotland to see family. From Kent. It's nearly 700 miles door to door. I wanted to do a range test and can confirm you can drive from Kent to Inverness on 1 tank of fuel. I did about 53MPG too, certainly the most economical car I've ever taken North!
Just to prove it, here's the car on the drive about 5 minutes' walk from the North Coast of Scotchland. Killed a few flies on the way:
I had a developing wobbly brake disc which worstened due to excellent twisty Scotch roads. I've got to admit, I was pleasantly surprised by how the Golf handled the bends. It's no Puma or E46 M3, both of which absolutely loved those roads, but it did much better than expected and I actually had fun - the car rolls a bit but then the suspension seems to firm up a tad and feels much more controlled. It's still way too soft for me personally but it will go around corners if you push!
Anyways, coming back to the point. 1500 miles later and my front passenger disc had definitely seen better days. It's a bit annoying because the brakes were nearly new when I bought the car and as I found out today they were Brembo discs and pads. I'm not entirely sure what's given that disc a wobble but the only way to cure it is a new set of brakes. I did take the passenger side apart before going to Scotland and cleaned it all up but it's not made any difference.
Let's get on with it then! Here's the offending passenger side all stripped down:
New disc ready to go on. Note the amount of meat on the pads I removed. How annoying!
I fished out the end of the old retaining screw from the hub flange. I managed to break it trying to undo the hub nut by wedging a screwdriver between the disc and the caliper when I changed the lower arms a few months ago... Maybe this is partly the cause of the wobbly disc problem!
The new screw didn't want to go fully in even though the old one just unscrewed using pliers. A quick tap later:
Disc and new retaining screw fitted:
Carrier cleaned up:
Caliper piston pushed back a small amount and carrier fitted:
Finished article:
Yes, I left the backing paper on the back of the pad by mistake but it can stay there now!
Rinse and repeat for the driver's side, I've now got new smooth brakes again. i've gone for Pagid discs and pads, hopefully they'll be a litte less dusty than the Brembo ones, as you can see by the state of the wheel in the pic above.
9000 miles since purchase and I'm still under £1500. That equates to current running costs of just over 16P/mile.
Next on the agenda is a service, investigating the slight play in the steering I noticed today while doing the brakes and investigating a slight rattle on the passenger side when going over bumps. I think it's just the door card.
More shedding updates coming as they happen
Nice. I ran a 130 one of these about for a good while and have fond memories of it overall. The engine and gearbox were superb but the heavy front end used to nod about like the Churchill dog on bumpier roads and judging grip was difficult because there was so little feel.
Mine started leaking rain water in which eventually led to tons of electrical issues. First the brake light switch went, then the throttle pedal (as I was trying to enter a queue of traffic :/) and it was forever blowing fuses and bulbs.
Still, as a motorway cruiser the Golf really excelled, and it seemed not to suffer with the continual DPF/Injector issues that plague some diesels.
Mine started leaking rain water in which eventually led to tons of electrical issues. First the brake light switch went, then the throttle pedal (as I was trying to enter a queue of traffic :/) and it was forever blowing fuses and bulbs.
Still, as a motorway cruiser the Golf really excelled, and it seemed not to suffer with the continual DPF/Injector issues that plague some diesels.
Another day, another update
This time, It's an oil change first up. I'd done about 9k miles since the last time I serviced it, and knew there was the possibility of an impending Euro trip. Perfect time to get the servicing sorted before winter.
Old oil out:
New filter going in:
Both were replaced with genuine parts as they were pretty much the same price as a motor factor. My local VW dealer are doing 5L of the recommended glug at £22! The oil filter was £9 I think so not worth messing around with going to a motor factor just for that.
Just after the service I started getting the message on the dash saying "Service me in 2000 miles" or similar. I quick reset via VAGCOM and that was cleared.
And now for the fun part! My girlfriend and I were planning on going to Prague for a few days and we both decided it would be more fun to drive than to fly. Flying there was actually quite a bit cheaper, but who said shedding was all about money?! Oh...
Anyway. Once we'd driven off the Euro Tunnel train, this is what we did:
We stopped in Kassel, about mid way though Germany on the way out. Had a pleasant afternoon exploring local sights and a nice dinner in town. This was an excellent trip to get a lot of Autobahn in, and there were even some derestricted sections were I could really put my foot down. Quite a lot of the time on this particular route it was just too busy to try out some speed, but some sections were quiet and allowed for some fun:
That's 140MPH @ 4k RPM! Lowest RPM I've ever done at that speed
I was quite surprised that the car felt totally stable and well within its comfort zone even when flat out. I was following a Kia Stinger who was also wanting to make progress and that thing could accellerate quite well. He would be off up the road once the traffic in front cleared and I'd spend a KM or so playing catch up and then cruising at a safe distance behind doing the same speed. I found out that the brakes are working well too - a lorry pulled out on our two car convoy but it was around a left hander with not brilliant sight lines as bushes had been allowed to grow in the central reservation. 120 - 60MPH was dealt with no problem but you can feel the softness in the suspension - the front end did a bit of a dive. I may look in to new dampers at some point soon.
Prague appeared pretty quickly, and the Golf got parked on the side of the road outside our hotel for a couple of days' well-earned rest. The first thing to do was find a nice pub for a spot of relaxation. As it happened, I found a nice 'craft ale' pub a whole 3 minutes' walk away from the hotel! Several Czech 'craft' beers later and all was well!
The place was excellent, so I'll just leave this pic here. If you're ever in Prage and want a beer, you should go there:
I won't bore you with too many pics of pretty buildings etc, but this band were playing in the middle of town that evening. A kind of Czech/Scottish kilty and violinny theme. Except they were playing Greenday and Iggy Pop?! Not half bad actually, but I'd had a few by then!
Here's one from the castle grounds looking over most of the town. My hotel was near that big radio/TV transmitter thing in the distance:
Back to the important stuff! Time to head home. This time we decided to play Euro Tunnel/traffic roulette. We were 1100KM away from the train and had about 13 hours to play with. We took more or less this route home:
There was definitely a bit less traffic on this route and it meant we got to see more of the excellent scenery in Germany all while going as fast as we fancied. You can really make progress in Germany and I absolutely love the roads and the driving there.
We made it back to Calais with plenty of time to spare. We got in to the terminal and were allowed on an earlier train so just drove straight on. Absolutely couldn't have timed it any better! Door to door, from leaving the hotel in Prague to opening my front door was exactly 12 hours. Not bad really.
The car performed faultlessly, but I didn't really have any doubts about it as I've been over it fairly thoroughly by now. Remember that CV boot I replaced a while back? That was the only minor inconvenience of the whole trip. I noticed my front drivers' side wheel had started to look like this:
And this:
Leading to finding this:
And this:
That's a lot of grease thrown around the place... Luckily the brakes hadn't been affected at all.
Lets see if we can find the split then:
Aha!
The rubber boot obviously couldn't handle the speed. It's bellowed out at speed and been rubbing on the hub, hense why the rubber looks all grazed on one of the ribs. That caused the rubber to wear through and grease to go everywhere... That'll be why VW use much harder plasticy/rubber CV boots then.
I couldn't wait to order new drive shafts as I had a busy work schedule the following week, so my friendly main dealer sorted out a nice OEM boot, grease and all the clips etc for £26. I swapped that over and cleaned up the grease but forgot to take pics of that part of the process. Needless to say, it's now perfect again.
Yay for German design, Autobahns, Czech beer etc! I had a great little Euro trip and the car was better than expected at doing the speed thing. Golfs seem to really get under your skin...
This time, It's an oil change first up. I'd done about 9k miles since the last time I serviced it, and knew there was the possibility of an impending Euro trip. Perfect time to get the servicing sorted before winter.
Old oil out:
New filter going in:
Both were replaced with genuine parts as they were pretty much the same price as a motor factor. My local VW dealer are doing 5L of the recommended glug at £22! The oil filter was £9 I think so not worth messing around with going to a motor factor just for that.
Just after the service I started getting the message on the dash saying "Service me in 2000 miles" or similar. I quick reset via VAGCOM and that was cleared.
And now for the fun part! My girlfriend and I were planning on going to Prague for a few days and we both decided it would be more fun to drive than to fly. Flying there was actually quite a bit cheaper, but who said shedding was all about money?! Oh...
Anyway. Once we'd driven off the Euro Tunnel train, this is what we did:
We stopped in Kassel, about mid way though Germany on the way out. Had a pleasant afternoon exploring local sights and a nice dinner in town. This was an excellent trip to get a lot of Autobahn in, and there were even some derestricted sections were I could really put my foot down. Quite a lot of the time on this particular route it was just too busy to try out some speed, but some sections were quiet and allowed for some fun:
That's 140MPH @ 4k RPM! Lowest RPM I've ever done at that speed
I was quite surprised that the car felt totally stable and well within its comfort zone even when flat out. I was following a Kia Stinger who was also wanting to make progress and that thing could accellerate quite well. He would be off up the road once the traffic in front cleared and I'd spend a KM or so playing catch up and then cruising at a safe distance behind doing the same speed. I found out that the brakes are working well too - a lorry pulled out on our two car convoy but it was around a left hander with not brilliant sight lines as bushes had been allowed to grow in the central reservation. 120 - 60MPH was dealt with no problem but you can feel the softness in the suspension - the front end did a bit of a dive. I may look in to new dampers at some point soon.
Prague appeared pretty quickly, and the Golf got parked on the side of the road outside our hotel for a couple of days' well-earned rest. The first thing to do was find a nice pub for a spot of relaxation. As it happened, I found a nice 'craft ale' pub a whole 3 minutes' walk away from the hotel! Several Czech 'craft' beers later and all was well!
The place was excellent, so I'll just leave this pic here. If you're ever in Prage and want a beer, you should go there:
I won't bore you with too many pics of pretty buildings etc, but this band were playing in the middle of town that evening. A kind of Czech/Scottish kilty and violinny theme. Except they were playing Greenday and Iggy Pop?! Not half bad actually, but I'd had a few by then!
Here's one from the castle grounds looking over most of the town. My hotel was near that big radio/TV transmitter thing in the distance:
Back to the important stuff! Time to head home. This time we decided to play Euro Tunnel/traffic roulette. We were 1100KM away from the train and had about 13 hours to play with. We took more or less this route home:
There was definitely a bit less traffic on this route and it meant we got to see more of the excellent scenery in Germany all while going as fast as we fancied. You can really make progress in Germany and I absolutely love the roads and the driving there.
We made it back to Calais with plenty of time to spare. We got in to the terminal and were allowed on an earlier train so just drove straight on. Absolutely couldn't have timed it any better! Door to door, from leaving the hotel in Prague to opening my front door was exactly 12 hours. Not bad really.
The car performed faultlessly, but I didn't really have any doubts about it as I've been over it fairly thoroughly by now. Remember that CV boot I replaced a while back? That was the only minor inconvenience of the whole trip. I noticed my front drivers' side wheel had started to look like this:
And this:
Leading to finding this:
And this:
That's a lot of grease thrown around the place... Luckily the brakes hadn't been affected at all.
Lets see if we can find the split then:
Aha!
The rubber boot obviously couldn't handle the speed. It's bellowed out at speed and been rubbing on the hub, hense why the rubber looks all grazed on one of the ribs. That caused the rubber to wear through and grease to go everywhere... That'll be why VW use much harder plasticy/rubber CV boots then.
I couldn't wait to order new drive shafts as I had a busy work schedule the following week, so my friendly main dealer sorted out a nice OEM boot, grease and all the clips etc for £26. I swapped that over and cleaned up the grease but forgot to take pics of that part of the process. Needless to say, it's now perfect again.
Yay for German design, Autobahns, Czech beer etc! I had a great little Euro trip and the car was better than expected at doing the speed thing. Golfs seem to really get under your skin...
colin_p said:
Brilliant read, nice road trip.
Interesting v-max as well, did you counter check against a sat-nav?
Cheers!Interesting v-max as well, did you counter check against a sat-nav?
Nope, didn't check with a GPS. That pic wasn't actually v-max. I'm sure it would have revved out if I had a bit more road to play with. It was pulling hard still at about 4K RPM so I guess I would have seen more on the clock! Parkers website reckon v-max is 134MPH so accounting for clock inaccuracies i'd say I probably did about that speed, and their quoted 'max' figure might be slightly low!
Gallons Per Mile said:
Cheers!
Nope, didn't check with a GPS. That pic wasn't actually v-max. I'm sure it would have revved out if I had a bit more road to play with. It was pulling hard still at about 4K RPM so I guess I would have seen more on the clock! Parkers website reckon v-max is 134MPH so accounting for clock inaccuracies i'd say I probably did about that speed, and their quoted 'max' figure might be slightly low!
I can't remember if you mentioned it having been re-mapped? The thing is, any MK4 GT TDI is now so old there is a high chance it would have been mapped by a previous onwer. Nope, didn't check with a GPS. That pic wasn't actually v-max. I'm sure it would have revved out if I had a bit more road to play with. It was pulling hard still at about 4K RPM so I guess I would have seen more on the clock! Parkers website reckon v-max is 134MPH so accounting for clock inaccuracies i'd say I probably did about that speed, and their quoted 'max' figure might be slightly low!
colin_p said:
I can't remember if you mentioned it having been re-mapped? The thing is, any MK4 GT TDI is now so old there is a high chance it would have been mapped by a previous onwer.
It's not mapped that I know of. It certainly doesn't go better than my friend's old PD130 that had been mapped. That thing felt like a rocket ship!Another update! This time involving a turkey baster... 
For the past few weeks if the car was stone cold, or it was a little chillier outside than usual in the morning then the dash would beep and scream at me to "STOP - Check coolant". I duly obliged and found that my coolant level was perfect. The car still moaned about it, and I've been living with turning it off and on again once the engine had warmed up a litte, which cures the problem for the rest of the trip. Rinse and repeat the next day, etc.
The coolant level sensor is moulded in to the expansion tank. Which means you need a whole new one if the sensor fails. No bad thing in my case, the old one looks a bit grotty anyway. Here's the offending item:
Let's get basting then! A great way to extract coolant from the tank without spilling it everywhere. I do this with brake fluid too:
Uh oh, there's a big hole where an expansion tank should be now:
Aha! A new one awaits:
Here's my professionally basted coolant, ready to be infused with brand new header tank:
Tank in place and ready for pre-basted coolant:
Filled back up, and a shiny new tank cap as well:
All for the miniscule sum of just under £15. And about 15 mins of my time. Voila.
For the shed men and ladies, I'm up to nearly £1600 spent on buying and maintaining in the 6-and-a-bit months' ownership so far. I've done 13k miles though, so my PPM ratio is looking good; just over 12p/mile at the moment
For the past few weeks if the car was stone cold, or it was a little chillier outside than usual in the morning then the dash would beep and scream at me to "STOP - Check coolant". I duly obliged and found that my coolant level was perfect. The car still moaned about it, and I've been living with turning it off and on again once the engine had warmed up a litte, which cures the problem for the rest of the trip. Rinse and repeat the next day, etc.
The coolant level sensor is moulded in to the expansion tank. Which means you need a whole new one if the sensor fails. No bad thing in my case, the old one looks a bit grotty anyway. Here's the offending item:
Let's get basting then! A great way to extract coolant from the tank without spilling it everywhere. I do this with brake fluid too:
Uh oh, there's a big hole where an expansion tank should be now:
Aha! A new one awaits:
Here's my professionally basted coolant, ready to be infused with brand new header tank:
Tank in place and ready for pre-basted coolant:
Filled back up, and a shiny new tank cap as well:
All for the miniscule sum of just under £15. And about 15 mins of my time. Voila.
For the shed men and ladies, I'm up to nearly £1600 spent on buying and maintaining in the 6-and-a-bit months' ownership so far. I've done 13k miles though, so my PPM ratio is looking good; just over 12p/mile at the moment
colin_p said:
Nice update.
The cheapness of, and massive availabilty of parts for the MK4 along with probably more online information than any other car makes them perfect for shedding.
I'll be taking off the Monty II's (summers) and putting on the Avus II's (winters) soon on the Wife's MK4 Golfy.
Totally agree. There's a shop 10 minutes away from me that specialises in VW too, so I'm sorted for most bits and pieces.The cheapness of, and massive availabilty of parts for the MK4 along with probably more online information than any other car makes them perfect for shedding.
I'll be taking off the Monty II's (summers) and putting on the Avus II's (winters) soon on the Wife's MK4 Golfy.
I don't bother with winter tyres. It's balmy down here in the South still!
Gallons Per Mile said:
colin_p said:
Nice update.
The cheapness of, and massive availabilty of parts for the MK4 along with probably more online information than any other car makes them perfect for shedding.
I'll be taking off the Monty II's (summers) and putting on the Avus II's (winters) soon on the Wife's MK4 Golfy.
Totally agree. There's a shop 10 minutes away from me that specialises in VW too, so I'm sorted for most bits and pieces.The cheapness of, and massive availabilty of parts for the MK4 along with probably more online information than any other car makes them perfect for shedding.
I'll be taking off the Monty II's (summers) and putting on the Avus II's (winters) soon on the Wife's MK4 Golfy.
I don't bother with winter tyres. It's balmy down here in the South still!
The thing with shedding is that you can afford to endulge in such things. Both the Mrs MK4 Golf and my similar era Passat have have a summer and winter set of wheels. It makes little difference to cost in the long run as you are evening out tyre wear over two sets instead of one and another set of wheels is cheap.
Christmas update on the Diesel Machine, and it's not a good one... 
Lets start off with a couple of pics from Christmas Day, when I was at work:
Looking pretty unloved at the moment. Can't remember the last time it got washed but it had been really clocking up the miles including another dive in to Europe but for work this time. 7k miles in three months is something of a record for me!
This week the Machine started to run a bit lumpy - misfiring it felt like. One day I had to nurse it to work, yet the run home was almost perfect. This carried on all this week. I suspected the usual injector loom problem that these suffer with and got one ordered. I took my laptop and VCDS to work and plugged it in only to find no codes at all. Fair enough, the EML wasn't on either.
Fast forward to today. I've got the new injector loom so decide as I'm having a morning under the bonnet that I'll take the EGR off and see if it needs a clean:
Looks ok on the face of it, but...
Yep. That's a bit gunked up!
Yay, loads of gunk in the inlet too!
Scraping out the rubbish:
The amount of gunk in the plastic bag! That's all come from the inlet and EGR
I scraped out the joining pipe from the EGR cooler too:
Inlet looks quite a bit cleaner now!
On to the main job, replacing the injector loom. Cam cover off:
Looks reasonable in here. Better just check that chocolate cam while I'm there:
Hmm. What's that on cyl 1 injector lobe?
Oh dear:
That's dead then... Explains the rough running though!
At this point I put everything back together and went indoors. Didn't bother changing the injector loom just yet.
I'm unsre how to proceed now. The car's only cost 9p a mile to buy and run since I bought it in April and I've done nearly 18k miles now. Is it worth many hundreds of pounds for a new cam kit, cam belt and service or do I just throw it away and get something else?
Lets start off with a couple of pics from Christmas Day, when I was at work:
Looking pretty unloved at the moment. Can't remember the last time it got washed but it had been really clocking up the miles including another dive in to Europe but for work this time. 7k miles in three months is something of a record for me!
This week the Machine started to run a bit lumpy - misfiring it felt like. One day I had to nurse it to work, yet the run home was almost perfect. This carried on all this week. I suspected the usual injector loom problem that these suffer with and got one ordered. I took my laptop and VCDS to work and plugged it in only to find no codes at all. Fair enough, the EML wasn't on either.
Fast forward to today. I've got the new injector loom so decide as I'm having a morning under the bonnet that I'll take the EGR off and see if it needs a clean:
Looks ok on the face of it, but...
Yep. That's a bit gunked up!
Yay, loads of gunk in the inlet too!
Scraping out the rubbish:
The amount of gunk in the plastic bag! That's all come from the inlet and EGR
I scraped out the joining pipe from the EGR cooler too:
Inlet looks quite a bit cleaner now!
On to the main job, replacing the injector loom. Cam cover off:
Looks reasonable in here. Better just check that chocolate cam while I'm there:
Hmm. What's that on cyl 1 injector lobe?
Oh dear:
That's dead then... Explains the rough running though!
At this point I put everything back together and went indoors. Didn't bother changing the injector loom just yet.
I'm unsre how to proceed now. The car's only cost 9p a mile to buy and run since I bought it in April and I've done nearly 18k miles now. Is it worth many hundreds of pounds for a new cam kit, cam belt and service or do I just throw it away and get something else?
I guess it depends how much you like the car. It clearly doesn’t owe you very much so you could easily justify the repair cost, but then it’s also fun to get something different albeit at that price point, it may not be a better car and may actually have more wrong with it.
The Golf seems to have been pretty reliable give or take some minor-ish issues, plus you know it well now. You sound like you’re quite enjoying it so I’d probably say spend the money, unless you’re bored of it in which case you have a great excuse to get rid...
The Golf seems to have been pretty reliable give or take some minor-ish issues, plus you know it well now. You sound like you’re quite enjoying it so I’d probably say spend the money, unless you’re bored of it in which case you have a great excuse to get rid...
You can buy cam and follower kits for reasonable money.
And you need a few specialist tools also to pull the cam pulley off..... which I might be able to help with. Do you know if the car has the earlier dampered cambelt tensioner setup or the later friction setup? It changed sometime on the 02-52 reg cars therefore yours is on the cusp. If it is the later friction setup then the cambelt is a doddle, if the earlier dampered setup then it can be a mare.
A shame and again being so old, chances are that "any old oil" has been used, probably more than once, rather than PD specific stuff which these engines must have.
And you need a few specialist tools also to pull the cam pulley off..... which I might be able to help with. Do you know if the car has the earlier dampered cambelt tensioner setup or the later friction setup? It changed sometime on the 02-52 reg cars therefore yours is on the cusp. If it is the later friction setup then the cambelt is a doddle, if the earlier dampered setup then it can be a mare.
A shame and again being so old, chances are that "any old oil" has been used, probably more than once, rather than PD specific stuff which these engines must have.
col1983 said:
I guess it depends how much you like the car. It clearly doesn’t owe you very much so you could easily justify the repair cost, but then it’s also fun to get something different albeit at that price point, it may not be a better car and may actually have more wrong with it.
The Golf seems to have been pretty reliable give or take some minor-ish issues, plus you know it well now. You sound like you’re quite enjoying it so I’d probably say spend the money, unless you’re bored of it in which case you have a great excuse to get rid...
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 The Golf seems to have been pretty reliable give or take some minor-ish issues, plus you know it well now. You sound like you’re quite enjoying it so I’d probably say spend the money, unless you’re bored of it in which case you have a great excuse to get rid...
colin_p said:
You can buy cam and follower kits for reasonable money.
And you need a few specialist tools also to pull the cam pulley off..... which I might be able to help with. Do you know if the car has the earlier dampered cambelt tensioner setup or the later friction setup? It changed sometime on the 02-52 reg cars therefore yours is on the cusp. If it is the later friction setup then the cambelt is a doddle, if the earlier dampered setup then it can be a mare.
A shame and again being so old, chances are that "any old oil" has been used, probably more than once, rather than PD specific stuff which these engines must have.
No idea on the cam belt query - I'll have to check that out. I wasn't really paying attention to the belt other than making sure it didn't look like it was about to fall apart.And you need a few specialist tools also to pull the cam pulley off..... which I might be able to help with. Do you know if the car has the earlier dampered cambelt tensioner setup or the later friction setup? It changed sometime on the 02-52 reg cars therefore yours is on the cusp. If it is the later friction setup then the cambelt is a doddle, if the earlier dampered setup then it can be a mare.
A shame and again being so old, chances are that "any old oil" has been used, probably more than once, rather than PD specific stuff which these engines must have.
Looking online, I think I need special tools T10051 and T10052 to get the cam pulley off. If you've got those then I'd love to borrow them.
Yeah, bit of a shame really. I clocked 146k on the way home last night too. Nothing for a PD engine! It's definitely had the correct oil on the last two services as I did them, but who knows before that.
I'd better have a look around at cam kits, cam belt kits and more service items...
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