Another VW Golf Mk2 16v
Discussion
Swapped the interior today. Some might think this a retrograde step, but the seats remain really comfortable and suit the car so much better in my view. Looking pretty much stock now (except the exhaust!).
No nasty surprises within, the shell is in great condition under the carpets. Took the opportunity to give it a really good clean.
Doorcards and seats in as would have originally been fitted to the car. The only difference is the car came with a split-fold seat and the replacement is a one piece item - you can't have everything.
Really happy with the way it's looking now and I even got the old stereo in - not wired up yet though. Did pull out all the amplifier wiring and assorted cables. That was a right mess, with scotch blocks and all sorts. Will tidy that up at some point, but for now the car is looking pretty much like it did in the 1980s. Onwards we go!
Apologies for the bad phone pics, waiting for better weather to get a decent camera out.
Cheers,
Drew.
No nasty surprises within, the shell is in great condition under the carpets. Took the opportunity to give it a really good clean.
Doorcards and seats in as would have originally been fitted to the car. The only difference is the car came with a split-fold seat and the replacement is a one piece item - you can't have everything.
Really happy with the way it's looking now and I even got the old stereo in - not wired up yet though. Did pull out all the amplifier wiring and assorted cables. That was a right mess, with scotch blocks and all sorts. Will tidy that up at some point, but for now the car is looking pretty much like it did in the 1980s. Onwards we go!
Apologies for the bad phone pics, waiting for better weather to get a decent camera out.
Cheers,
Drew.
pistolpedro said:
I was never one to get too hung up on originality you should definitely go with what you like best, they're an easy cheap thing to add should you ever decide to sell / show the car in the future.
Agreed. I'm not going to be anal about it, I just want to ensure I have all the bits I need to make it 100% stock. Cheers,
Drew.
A bit more work on the old girl. We're getting there.
Spent yesterday morning fighting the with the locking wheels nuts (no key!). Pistonheads advice bang on (literally) as normal. We used the Imperial bolt technique with application of hammer. Got there in the end.
For anyone else who needs to do this. An 11/16 is the one you need.
After that, we spent a bit of time trying to figure out why the rear suspension was clonking. Identified the coilovers as "V-Maxx Autosports". Perhaps the cognescenti can comment on what these are like as a long term proposition. Right now I'm giving them 2/10 for ride, don't know about handling yet.
https://prodigymotorsport.co.uk/v-maxx-coilovers/6...
They seem to be almost brand new based on appearance. We have wound them up to their maximum height at the rear (god knows what they look like lower down!)
Took the shelves out of the way in order to access the rear shocks...
Quickly discovered the reason for the clonk. Rear lower suspension bushes were knackered. Looks like the previous owner put new coilovers in without replacing them. A bit weird. Fortunately I had spares.
Fitting is the reverse of removal etc.
The ride is a little better now, it's still very jiggly to my way of thinking, but I wonder whether these shocks have done any miles at looking at the state of them, and whether it'll just be best to give them a bit of time to settle in - though a quick look on internet reviews seem to indicate they're not great and my experience is about par for the course.
Cheers,
Drew.
Spent yesterday morning fighting the with the locking wheels nuts (no key!). Pistonheads advice bang on (literally) as normal. We used the Imperial bolt technique with application of hammer. Got there in the end.
For anyone else who needs to do this. An 11/16 is the one you need.
After that, we spent a bit of time trying to figure out why the rear suspension was clonking. Identified the coilovers as "V-Maxx Autosports". Perhaps the cognescenti can comment on what these are like as a long term proposition. Right now I'm giving them 2/10 for ride, don't know about handling yet.
https://prodigymotorsport.co.uk/v-maxx-coilovers/6...
They seem to be almost brand new based on appearance. We have wound them up to their maximum height at the rear (god knows what they look like lower down!)
Took the shelves out of the way in order to access the rear shocks...
Quickly discovered the reason for the clonk. Rear lower suspension bushes were knackered. Looks like the previous owner put new coilovers in without replacing them. A bit weird. Fortunately I had spares.
Fitting is the reverse of removal etc.
The ride is a little better now, it's still very jiggly to my way of thinking, but I wonder whether these shocks have done any miles at looking at the state of them, and whether it'll just be best to give them a bit of time to settle in - though a quick look on internet reviews seem to indicate they're not great and my experience is about par for the course.
Cheers,
Drew.
Edited by drewwa on Sunday 23 February 11:08
Investigating a few bits and pieces today, replacing wrong screws with the right ones - small detail but satisfying.
Also, delved into the speaker wiring. Turns out the original wiring for the car speakers is all in place and mostly unbutchered, which was a nice surprise. It's pre ISO connectors though, so took a while to figure out what went where.
The front pair of speakers have been replaced with a half decent set of Alpine components, but they weren't wired in for some reason. The rear pair are the original paper VW ones, but the wiring is yet to be located.
Managed to figure out the wiring for the Blaupunkt after a bit of judicious voltage and continuity checking,. This was bought in an uncertain condition from ebay, but pleased to discover that it worked and even played a cassette. Back to the 80s indeed.
The Golf mk2 doesn't have a switched live, but the Blaupunkt (unlike modern stereos) can actually be switched 'off' - very old skool.
Next step to solder everything in properly and heat shrink the wiring.
And then.... tape the TOP 40 off the radio... we can still do that, right?
Cheers,
Drew.
Also, delved into the speaker wiring. Turns out the original wiring for the car speakers is all in place and mostly unbutchered, which was a nice surprise. It's pre ISO connectors though, so took a while to figure out what went where.
The front pair of speakers have been replaced with a half decent set of Alpine components, but they weren't wired in for some reason. The rear pair are the original paper VW ones, but the wiring is yet to be located.
Managed to figure out the wiring for the Blaupunkt after a bit of judicious voltage and continuity checking,. This was bought in an uncertain condition from ebay, but pleased to discover that it worked and even played a cassette. Back to the 80s indeed.
The Golf mk2 doesn't have a switched live, but the Blaupunkt (unlike modern stereos) can actually be switched 'off' - very old skool.
Next step to solder everything in properly and heat shrink the wiring.
And then.... tape the TOP 40 off the radio... we can still do that, right?
Cheers,
Drew.
Edited by drewwa on Wednesday 18th March 17:48
Gallons Per Mile said:
You should have a switched live, I definitely did on my MK2 and that was 1987 vintage. It came with a hole in the dash where a head unit should be so I put a free cd player in and, of course, tidied the existing wiring up a bit. You may require a new ignition switch.
Interesting... I'll have more of a poke around then. I've only found a permanent live so far. My son's 88 Golf CL didn't have one that we could find either.Cheers,
Drew.
Edited by drewwa on Wednesday 18th March 19:06
A few more jobs on what has become known as "Florence" ... yes, I know. F-reg you see.
First up, brake fluid change. This was properly manky, so a good job done and flushed through with new DOT-4. I did the heavy lifting by pressing the brake pedal, whilst my son did the easy bit with the spanners.
With that done we turned our attention to replacing the ignition barrel. We've already done the door locks, but it was going to be nice to have the car working from one key plus the existing ignition barrel was decidedly knackered...
... this is a horrible job on the Mk2. The ignition barrel is a spring fit and wasn't designed to be replaceable. You have to dismantle most of the electrics on the steering column to get at the barrel and you have to drill a small hole in it to 'ping' the retaining spring for the old barrel out of the way. Fitting is the reverse of removal as always.
In our travels we discovered a nice bodge.
So that was fixed with the soldering iron and some shrink wrap. The rest of the wiring appears to be in good order, though a few lights are mysteriously missing from the clips in the dash... who removes the old busted lights but doesn't replace them with new? Weird.
The interior door lock pin came off in my hand too and this was traced to a broken retaining clip - on order.
With the door card off we found that the car is fitted with (defunct at present) central locking. This appears to be factory stock and we traced a pump to the boot below the nearside rear light. Something to investigate in the future.
Just got to reassemble the dash again at some point!
Cheers,
Drew.
First up, brake fluid change. This was properly manky, so a good job done and flushed through with new DOT-4. I did the heavy lifting by pressing the brake pedal, whilst my son did the easy bit with the spanners.
With that done we turned our attention to replacing the ignition barrel. We've already done the door locks, but it was going to be nice to have the car working from one key plus the existing ignition barrel was decidedly knackered...
... this is a horrible job on the Mk2. The ignition barrel is a spring fit and wasn't designed to be replaceable. You have to dismantle most of the electrics on the steering column to get at the barrel and you have to drill a small hole in it to 'ping' the retaining spring for the old barrel out of the way. Fitting is the reverse of removal as always.
In our travels we discovered a nice bodge.
So that was fixed with the soldering iron and some shrink wrap. The rest of the wiring appears to be in good order, though a few lights are mysteriously missing from the clips in the dash... who removes the old busted lights but doesn't replace them with new? Weird.
The interior door lock pin came off in my hand too and this was traced to a broken retaining clip - on order.
With the door card off we found that the car is fitted with (defunct at present) central locking. This appears to be factory stock and we traced a pump to the boot below the nearside rear light. Something to investigate in the future.
Just got to reassemble the dash again at some point!
Cheers,
Drew.
Edited by drewwa on Tuesday 31st March 17:32
A few steps forward and one step back. Typically for an old car!
Three new sensors arrived in the post today, so we set to work plugging those in. However two of the sensors already on the car were the wrong ones and had oversized bolts, meaning that to remove them we had to take off the coolant flange and... discovered the internal o-ring had perished. Tried a bit of gasket sealant... lasted all of 5 mins.
However, it did hold together long enough for us to ascertain that the new sensors were working... the temp gauge in the dash came to life... and the car started idling way too high.
More investigations required as it seems the previous owner had bodged the idle to work with the ISV getting a duff signal from the sensor. Now the sensor is working the ISV is revving the car at 2,000 rpm from cold - confirmed by unplugging the ISV.
Online searching reveals setting the idle on the 16v is a bit involved, so research is ongoing. We probably need to check the timing is good as well.
We can't run the car until a new o-ring appears (probably saturday) so going to turn our attention back to the interior (part for the door pull arrived).
One small bonus is that we managed to get the lower valance plastic trim for both of our Golfs for £7.50 each (genuine VW part) when the pattern part was listed for £27.50. Not quite sure how that happened, but not arguing!
Three new sensors arrived in the post today, so we set to work plugging those in. However two of the sensors already on the car were the wrong ones and had oversized bolts, meaning that to remove them we had to take off the coolant flange and... discovered the internal o-ring had perished. Tried a bit of gasket sealant... lasted all of 5 mins.
However, it did hold together long enough for us to ascertain that the new sensors were working... the temp gauge in the dash came to life... and the car started idling way too high.
More investigations required as it seems the previous owner had bodged the idle to work with the ISV getting a duff signal from the sensor. Now the sensor is working the ISV is revving the car at 2,000 rpm from cold - confirmed by unplugging the ISV.
Online searching reveals setting the idle on the 16v is a bit involved, so research is ongoing. We probably need to check the timing is good as well.
We can't run the car until a new o-ring appears (probably saturday) so going to turn our attention back to the interior (part for the door pull arrived).
One small bonus is that we managed to get the lower valance plastic trim for both of our Golfs for £7.50 each (genuine VW part) when the pattern part was listed for £27.50. Not quite sure how that happened, but not arguing!
Edited by drewwa on Wednesday 1st April 21:45
We're making progress!
Managed to seal up the coolant system, topped up with water and fired the old girl up.
She runs!
Timing was off, set at 4 degrees, so we adjusted to 6. Idling smoothly now and throttle response much improved.
We also have a working temperature gauge now that the car has the right sensors. Coolant system seems good and the fan is cutting in and out as expected.
Cheers,
Drew.
Managed to seal up the coolant system, topped up with water and fired the old girl up.
She runs!
Timing was off, set at 4 degrees, so we adjusted to 6. Idling smoothly now and throttle response much improved.
We also have a working temperature gauge now that the car has the right sensors. Coolant system seems good and the fan is cutting in and out as expected.
Cheers,
Drew.
I take it there were marks on your crank pulley to do the timing from! Usually you have to undo the bung in the top of the bell housing and look at the marks on the flywheel. Also, hope you remembered to unplug the wire under the coil to disable any advance 
Hope it drives nicely, I loved how my 16v pulled to 7000RPM
Hope it drives nicely, I loved how my 16v pulled to 7000RPM Yep. The timing mark on the crank pulley is clear and visible and we did disconnect the red wire from the coil.
Even more progress, we've just managed to fix the central locking too. Both doors now lock and unlock on the key... though the boot doesn't as yet. Pretty pleased thus far! Dismantled the plastic scuttle tray and gave that a good clean out. Ticking off the bits one by one!
Cheers,
Drew.
Even more progress, we've just managed to fix the central locking too. Both doors now lock and unlock on the key... though the boot doesn't as yet. Pretty pleased thus far! Dismantled the plastic scuttle tray and gave that a good clean out. Ticking off the bits one by one!
Cheers,
Drew.
Edited by drewwa on Monday 6th April 18:17
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