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!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.
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!!
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
greenarrow said:
These cars were really quick for their time in a real world 30-80 sense.
Yep, mid range is really nice. It doesn't seem much effort accellerating away from a roundabout and suddenly I'm up to NSL.greenarrow said:
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 understand your point. But if the suspension's done 130k and is worn out then I've got a great excuse for tinkering... greenarrow said:
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.
Mine has zero rust that I can find. There's even a small dent and scrape in the nearside sill - one small part of the scrape has gone down to the metal and yet it's just not really rusting at all. Must've been there a while too. You do see the odd one that looks a bit tatty though, but they seem to be the exception. Front wings rust badly if the arch liners wear the paint through on the inside. That's about the worst that happens though it would seem.viciousj377o said:
Surprised you're not a fan of the handling! I can hustle my W reg Bora along pretty much better than anything else i've ever owned... and that does include some far more exotic machinery! A lot of love for the mk4 platform, easy to fix, maintain.. 60mpg at 55mph over decent length journeys... Whole lot of love for it!
Oh and its soon to break the 170k barrier, 70k of which are in my ownership... only wear, tear and service items replaced, not one single non service part... hell of a car!
It feels rather soft compared to the Puma, which was on rails and loved lift-off oversteer!Oh and its soon to break the 170k barrier, 70k of which are in my ownership... only wear, tear and service items replaced, not one single non service part... hell of a car!
My friend had a PD150 with 250k on the clock and still going strong. He sold it on and it's still out there somewhere!
Squishey said:
Coming from a Puma, even one with tired suspension, will make most hatchbacks feel wobbly!
My previous reply was mostly in jest to be honest - I keep trying to find something wrong with the Jag so that I can spend some money on it and wield the spanners! I'm pretty sure all the brakes will need an overhaul soon...
If you want a hand with the brakes then let me know My previous reply was mostly in jest to be honest - I keep trying to find something wrong with the Jag so that I can spend some money on it and wield the spanners! I'm pretty sure all the brakes will need an overhaul soon...
Small update on the diesel machine. It's munching miles extremely well and keeps coming back for more! MOT was passed with no problems, and I've added a set of Nexen tyres to the mix as the Michelins on the front were worn out. They seem reasonable for the money and I've not yet woken up dead from fitting cheaper tyres to my car... It came with brand new Goodyears on the rear, so I've got plenty of miles to do before needing more tyres!
I'm pretty much up to scratch with all service items and there aren't any faults apart from the cloth inserts in the door cards coming away from the rest of the doorcard - some plastic rivets have been broken and a hot glue gun worked only temporarily, so I'll just live with it. I'm still undecided on whether to change the cam belt so I've not bought the kit yet, and the only other things that might need doing are coolant and brake fluid flushes. Both of which don't look desperate, so I'll do them as and when. With this hot weather I'm considering spending money on an air-con regas as it's not blowing as cold as it could do!
With not much spannering to do I had a go at the cosmetics. I'm working at the end of a mile long dusty track some of the time, and a building site sometimes too. Going anywhere near either of these means the car gets instantly filthy:
As you can see, I'd not really bothered washing it for a few weeks. The car always looked ok with a wash and brush up but the laquer was pretty badly scratched when you looked closer. You can just about see what I'm on about on the front wing. The whole car has deep scratches like that, as well as swirl marks over the top:
I presume the previous owners just used a car wash constantly. This is clearly not good enough for a dieselly shed so I set about it with my MOP and some compound:
It looks a lot better now! A much deeper shine, a fair amount of the scratching has gone and the paint feels smooth to the touch. I've put wax on top to protect the paint too. I couldn't get really close up pics because it's too sunny at the mo, but I'll try to get some better pics at a later date. It's far from perfect but definitely prettier than it was. You can see the multi shades of blue more clearly where someone 'smart' repaired it in the past
Not bothered really. Looks ok for a cat S with no paint or bodywork done since the incident 
I've made a few holograms in the paintwork too from the MOP so I'll have to have another go around the car at some point. I didn't have great light conditions when I was doing the polishing one evening on the drive!
Value for money wise, it's still early days, but I'm running at around 28p/mile @ 4500 miles in to my ownership. To make this car as ridiculously cheap as the previous Puma I'd have to do nearly another 40k miles @ next to £0 spent. Sounds like a challenge!!
I'm pretty much up to scratch with all service items and there aren't any faults apart from the cloth inserts in the door cards coming away from the rest of the doorcard - some plastic rivets have been broken and a hot glue gun worked only temporarily, so I'll just live with it. I'm still undecided on whether to change the cam belt so I've not bought the kit yet, and the only other things that might need doing are coolant and brake fluid flushes. Both of which don't look desperate, so I'll do them as and when. With this hot weather I'm considering spending money on an air-con regas as it's not blowing as cold as it could do!
With not much spannering to do I had a go at the cosmetics. I'm working at the end of a mile long dusty track some of the time, and a building site sometimes too. Going anywhere near either of these means the car gets instantly filthy:
As you can see, I'd not really bothered washing it for a few weeks. The car always looked ok with a wash and brush up but the laquer was pretty badly scratched when you looked closer. You can just about see what I'm on about on the front wing. The whole car has deep scratches like that, as well as swirl marks over the top:
I presume the previous owners just used a car wash constantly. This is clearly not good enough for a dieselly shed so I set about it with my MOP and some compound:
It looks a lot better now! A much deeper shine, a fair amount of the scratching has gone and the paint feels smooth to the touch. I've put wax on top to protect the paint too. I couldn't get really close up pics because it's too sunny at the mo, but I'll try to get some better pics at a later date. It's far from perfect but definitely prettier than it was. You can see the multi shades of blue more clearly where someone 'smart' repaired it in the past
Not bothered really. Looks ok for a cat S with no paint or bodywork done since the incident I've made a few holograms in the paintwork too from the MOP so I'll have to have another go around the car at some point. I didn't have great light conditions when I was doing the polishing one evening on the drive!
Value for money wise, it's still early days, but I'm running at around 28p/mile @ 4500 miles in to my ownership. To make this car as ridiculously cheap as the previous Puma I'd have to do nearly another 40k miles @ next to £0 spent. Sounds like a challenge!!
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. I made mine look like it was RWD a few times coming off roundabouts
colin_p said:
That'll be me.
colin_p said:
Take the arch liners out, clean the mud out and have a good look on yours.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks, I'll have a look at that when time allows and update on here!Keep up the good work.
You'll be pleased to know that I actually checked the oil level for the first time since I serviced it the other day. About 5k miles ago...
All is well though, it appears to have used virtually nothing. Which is nice.I've had some free time this weekend, so an update is due!
I knew one of my CV boots was starting to split so I bought a universal one and got cracking. I also wanted to check out the 'mud behind the wheel arch liner' situation. So that's where we'll start:
Hmm, quite a lot actually!
All clean and tidy. No rust either:
Ok, well just a tiny bit:
Other side was just as bad. Didn't bother with a 'before' picture, so here's the 'after':
At this point, I forgot about using my phone to take pictures and changed the CV boot. It's a messy job - CV grease always gets everywhere, but I knew this and prepared with an old sacrificial bed sheet. The CV joints are easy to remove on this car. Just bash them with a hammer (carefully) and they pop off the end of the shaft, rather than having to find a C clip in the grease and then splay it apart to remove the joint.
One shiny new outer CV boot. Perfect fit, came with fresh grease and new clips too:
I'm pretty happy with that. A couple of jobs ticked off, but I've got a couple more now! I noticed that the passenger side inner CV boot is looking pretty perished, so that'll need doing sometime in the future. Also, my radiator fans don't appear to be working - they don't come on with the air con, so it warms up when you're sitting in traffic and then cools down once you're on the move and have air flow over the condenser. The car doesn't overheat though, so either it's not getting hot enough to need the fans at the moment or they are working but on high speed only. More investigation is needed.
I knew one of my CV boots was starting to split so I bought a universal one and got cracking. I also wanted to check out the 'mud behind the wheel arch liner' situation. So that's where we'll start:
Hmm, quite a lot actually!
All clean and tidy. No rust either:
Ok, well just a tiny bit:
Other side was just as bad. Didn't bother with a 'before' picture, so here's the 'after':
At this point, I forgot about using my phone to take pictures and changed the CV boot. It's a messy job - CV grease always gets everywhere, but I knew this and prepared with an old sacrificial bed sheet. The CV joints are easy to remove on this car. Just bash them with a hammer (carefully) and they pop off the end of the shaft, rather than having to find a C clip in the grease and then splay it apart to remove the joint.
One shiny new outer CV boot. Perfect fit, came with fresh grease and new clips too:
I'm pretty happy with that. A couple of jobs ticked off, but I've got a couple more now! I noticed that the passenger side inner CV boot is looking pretty perished, so that'll need doing sometime in the future. Also, my radiator fans don't appear to be working - they don't come on with the air con, so it warms up when you're sitting in traffic and then cools down once you're on the move and have air flow over the condenser. The car doesn't overheat though, so either it's not getting hot enough to need the fans at the moment or they are working but on high speed only. More investigation is needed.
colin_p said:
You now know what I was on about with having a looky behind the arch liners.
As for the CV's, you can get a pair of new complete driveshafts from J&R for less than £50, cleaner, quicker and easier.
Yep. Cheers for the tip As for the CV's, you can get a pair of new complete driveshafts from J&R for less than £50, cleaner, quicker and easier.
Wow! I just had a look at J&R's site. A pair of complete shafts for my car is under £54. That's insane!
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.paultownsend said:
We had issues with our 1.8t fans just before selling. Look the fuse board above the battery. Ours had, as I remember burnt out. A cheap fix from the famous auction site and all was good in the world.
I checked last night actually, after doing a bit of reading on the subject. Can you tell what the problem is:
Relevant auction site has been raided and two new strip fuses are on their way. Two, just in case there's a problem with a fan or the control module and it blows as soon as I fit a new one...
colin_p said:
The shafts have gone up a bit, but still cheap at twice the price at £54! When you think of it that x2 driveshafts and x4 CV joints with all their gubbins for £54, amazing.
As for the fan problem, my understanding is that the fan resistors fry so they won't work on the low speeds but will pulse on and off at full tilt. I'd be interested in the e-bay fix as well? Would it be some big arcol or similar resistors?
Yes, exactly, that's a great price and I'll probably order some soon just so I don't need to replace the other CV boots. I'll have shiny shafts and new CV's thrown in too!As for the fan problem, my understanding is that the fan resistors fry so they won't work on the low speeds but will pulse on and off at full tilt. I'd be interested in the e-bay fix as well? Would it be some big arcol or similar resistors?
There's no magical Ebay fix that I'm aware of. I've bought a couple of strip fuses to replace the blown one. If the new one blows straight away then I have either a fan or a fan controller problem. I'll do some diagnosis if the simple fuse replacement doesn't work.
I've heard the same about the resistors on the fans for the low speed operation. I'll see what happens when I plug the new fuse in.
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
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