Oli's '97 5 Door VR6 Journal

[Lukey. 381]

New parts always look nice don't they

[Therusterman 59]

Well for a few miles at least! Need to remind myself cars are built to be driven and not wrapped in cotton wool

[Therusterman 59]

Wheel bearings finished

 

Finished installing everything on Thursday morning, seems the car goes back together three times quicker than it took to take it apart! Had one minor hiccup though. When I put the car back on its wheels to torque up the hub nut's and wheel bolts, I heard the nearside wheel make a slight clunk and the camber of it looked a little odd. At this point I assumed one of the hub to strut bolts had come loose, so up the car went again, wheel off, and no dice, those bolts were perfectly tight.

 

Noticed at this point there was a little play in the wheel hub and thought the wheel bearing had somehow s**t itself. Soon after I noticed the driveshaft wasn't fully pulled through into the back off the hub. I had torqued the hub nut and given it the extra 45 degrees it needed to tighten it, but the drive shaft wasn't all the way in. 

 

So car back on the ground and I just kept tightening the hub nut until it would go no more! Jacked up one final time and no play  

 

Took the car for its alignment later that afternoon which went without a hitch. The fitter mentioned I managed to get the fitting of the offside hub almost spot on the specs for camber etc, by fluke though!

 

Car is driving very nicely now. Combined with the MTL gearbox fluid which has made gear changes much smoother especially from cold and the absence of grumpily wheel bearings the VR is a nice place to be.

 

Which will be further enhanced by this latest eBay addition;

 

 

Think these will complement the Recaro's nicely having a bit of leather, plus I've been thinking of retrofitting the puddle lights for a while now anyway. Picked them up earlier this evening so they'll be popped on tomorrow.

 

Until next time...

[Lukey. 381]

Redline in the gearbox is a revelation isn't it.

[Therusterman 59]

Certainly is good stuff, wish I'd bought this when I first did the gearbox oil.

 

Leather door cards fitted

 

Cracked on getting the new door cards fitted this morning. Wasn't a bad task as I'd had a couple of them off before to replace a window regulator and check some wiring. Broke a couple of the plastic fittings but that's to be expected on 15+ year old components. Biggest ball ache was properly fixing the spade connectors on one of the front aftermarket speakers.

 

Before I started fitting them, I noticed a lot of grime and the driver side door card sounded like a money tin. Unscrews the door pocket and look what fell out;

 

 

Some of the mung;

 

 

This was all cleaned up with some G101 all purpose cleaner, hot water, detailing brush and some microfiber clothes. Once all the door cards were fitted I went over the leather with Autoglym leather cleaner and conditioning cream. Looked, smelt and felt a whole lot better!

 

 

Inside of the VR is getting to be a nice place now, got the cloth Recaro's, black A/B/C pillars, Highline gear knob and handbrake surround and the Fischer CD holder, and of course some leather on the door cards . Like the little details on them such as the reflector on the door pocket, and the soft material covering the pocket as well, as the plastic on my old ones always used to look scuffed.

 

Edited December 2, 2013 by Therusterman

[Therusterman 59]

Sunday clean

 

With nothing much better to do on my days off, thought I'd keep on top of the car and give it a wash. Cleaned up nice and easily, especially the wheels, paying off big time having spent hours waxing them! Went over the car with some Meguiars tech wax I've had knocking around for years that needs using up. Went on and was buffed off nice and easily. 

 

Would like to get a rotary polisher and deal with all the swirls and scratches, something that can wait until next year. Checked all the fluids and happy to see them all o.k and checked the tyre pressures-including the spare. Was a nice relaxing way to spend a few hours outside

 

Not much else in the pipeline at the moment, still need to get the Hella Quads finished and fitted, also ordered a air con cleaner 'bomb' to get rid of a musty smell I get after running the a/c. Until next time.

 

[Lozi 22]

I think you need leather recaros to compliment the door cards

[Therusterman 59]

I think you need leather recaros to compliment the door cards

 

I see where your coming from, and I did consider tracking some down. But as the leather on the door card is only the insert, I think what is there more compliments other leather touches in the interior, such as the steering wheel, gear knob gaiter and hand brake gaiter. 

[Therusterman 59]

Hella Twins fitted

 

Finally pulled my finger out and carried on working on the Hella's to get them ready for installation. All in only took a couple of hours.

 

Started off with tidying up the wiring;

 

 

 

The way I've wired the lamps in they can more easily be replaced as there is now only the feed wires for the bulb going through the rubber grommet. Originally all the wiring went through the grommet which made installation more tricky.

 

Rinse and repeat;

 

 

Wasn't 100% sure if this is right, so correct me if i'm wrong. The headlamps can be adjusted for right hand drive, and left hand drive. However the lamps themselves state 'left side traffic' and 'right side traffic'. So I've gone for left side traffic.

 

 

And all done;

 

 

Will wait until its dark later to see how they perform with the HID lamps, hope the beam adjustment isn't too far off 

 

Air con deodorize

 

Also been noticing the air con has smelt damp and musty after use. Seen the Wurth air con deodorizer is meant to work well

 

 

Action shot

 

 

Worked a treat and has got rid of the damp musty smell I used to get so happy with that.

 

Until next time. 

Edited January 13, 2014 by Therusterman

[Therusterman 59]

Windscreen wiper stalk replacement

 

Ever since I bought the car the 'mist' or 'one wipe' function on the stalk was always hesitant to work-the wipers would sometimes stop on the way through their sweep and required a couple of pushes to get the wipers to cycle. This has got worse this month in particular, spreading to other functions on the same stalk including when clearing the windscreen with the washers, the rear wiper would start sweeping.

 

The steering column was stripped down and I got to the wiper stalk and found this on a number of the contacts;

 

 

I think this was due to the lubricant that had been liberally applied by someone before me. I took the stalk apart with the intention of cleaning the terminals. I unscrewed a fitting, then everything sprang apart all over the garage with bits hitting the ceiling......needless to say I just fitted the replacement stalk I had lined up. Everything is now working much smoother.

 

Whilst the steering wheel was off I hit it with some Gliptone leather cleaner, and unsurprisingly a lot of grime was pulled out;

 

 

 

Achieved the nice matt 'new leather' look to the wheel, but also highlighted some heavy wear to the top of the wheel, someone driving one handed with too many rings springs to mind!

 

HID woes

 

Unsurprisingly, one of the HID units had failed over the past few days. Drove to work on my last night duty and thought the lights seemed a little dull, get to work and yup one lamp was out. Took a closer look at the problem today and the fuse for the nearside dipped beam feed was blown, replaced fuse and blew again. Tested the lamp with the ballast from the other side and everything worked fine. Checked the offending ballast with the multimeter and was giving high resistance. Already ordered another complete HID kit as I'd prefer to have other spare bits on standby when needed, so for now back to running the original headlights.

 

During stand down at work decided to give the car a wash and another quick coat of wax, looking ok at the moment

 

 

[Therusterman 59]

Its all in the details...steering wheel cowl trim

 

Since I removed the steering wheel to give it a clean the trim behind the wheel wasn't fitting properly anymore due to a busted fitting, which made it fit like crap and bug me every time I looked at it

 

 

The broken part which wouldn't allow that side of the trim to screw together (this had been poorly glued together previously)

 

 

The replacement peice shown below shows what the fixing screw should go into

 

 

With the replacement trim in place I carefully replaced the screws been mindful not to over tighten them, as it doesn't take much force to over tighten the screws and snap the brittle plastic. The cowl trim was given a quick once over with some all purpose cleaner on a microfibre cloth to clean off some grubby marks from fitting.

 

 

Brake refresh parts hoard

 

I've now started getting bits and peices together to refresh the all the brakes in the springs when the weather is better. The discs are all showing signs of wear now, and i'd also like to replace the rear wheel bearings to complement the fronts that I did at the end of last year.

 

Having this in mind I spotted a used set of Goodridge braided brake lines suitable for the golf so snapped them up a few months ago;

 

 

They also included some new copper crush seals which is handy to have.

 

 --------------------------------------------------

 

Other than the minor bits above, the VR has been behaving itself. Just wish the local field mice would stop nesting in my bonnet insulation! 

[Lukey. 381]

Omg I had some take refuge over a 2 week Xmas period that my old focus didn't move, they chewed through the rocker cover oil return, oil sprayed everywhere, nightmare. How about some warfarin pushed into the blanket dotted about the place? It worked for my issue, except I put rat traps all around the focus until the problem stopped and not just in the bonnet insulation lol

[Lukey. 381]

I see where your coming from, and I did consider tracking some down. But as the leather on the door card is only the insert, I think what is there more compliments other leather touches in the interior, such as the steering wheel, gear knob gaiter and hand brake gaiter.

Agree, I think leather door cards with cloth seats is acceptable

[jamesw6810 80]

Right, got a few things on the agenda. No photos in this update at the minute i'm afraid though!

Managed to locate the peice of under body trim by the rear bumper after a chance find on eBay. Still working on the highline wooden gearknob. I used some clear wood varnish but the finish was very soft and milky, looking for a better lacquer to protect it.

Also received another cd player in the post today. Went for an old skool Sony head unit which is much more in keeping with the era of the car. Ideally i'd like to retrofit the Nokia dsp audio system, but can't seem to find them over here, only in Germany. Someone please point me in the direction of the setup if you see it though

Plan on sound proofing under the rear bench still, waiting for some more dynamat after I stupidly threw the box away with it still in there. And i'm also still trying to secure a highline centre console, i've let 3 slip through my fingers now!

Will have my days off from work next week so stay tuned for some more updates then. I'll be at Gti International tomorrow so hope to see some of you guys there then, i'll be on the club stand

great choice on the old sony unit, good to see enhancements in keeping with the standard and age of the car;)

[Surreyvr6 199]

Shame I didn't know you was after the bumper trim, got rear bumper with trim sat in the back garden. Interesting about the terraclean, I know a man on my girlfriends estate that does it, he done my mates stagea and my mate didn't notice any difference at all, but the fella that does it says he's the only person he has had that didn't rate it.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Therusterman 59]

The terraclean I think will give the biggest difference in 'feel' for a diesel engine, but for me the biggest improvement has to be the emissions coming right back down, might consider again just before the next mot. 

[Lukey. 381]

Get a bottle of comma d-tox and compare the results back to back, I've got mine tested before and after as my mot man was curious back to back aswell. Made a good improvement got a tenner.

[Therusterman 59]

Get a bottle of comma d-tox and compare the results back to back, I've got mine tested before and after as my mot man was curious back to back aswell. Made a good improvement got a tenner.

 

Good to know Luke, may give this a try instead next time.

 

12v Socket Plug

 

Since I have no need for a cigarette lighter these days, I looked into getting a blanking plug similar to those found on modern VAG group cars. Had a quick scan on eBay and found an Audi equivalent that looked in keeping with the Golf, in terms of style and the font of the lettering;

 

 

The plug was slightly too small, so packed it out with a little bit of black electrical tape which has worked quite well as it allows a snug fit, but has a bit of give in it which allows it to easily be removed. 

 

 

And seen as it was a sunny dry morning the car had its weekly bath, looking ok in this picture, with last weeks little waxing session helping to keep off most of the grime. Starting to find little spots of rust bubbling through here and there now usual culprits like the bottom of the front wings and around the rear arches a little.

 

[Therusterman 59]

Summer wheels back on

 

Now the daytime temperatures are getting warmer I decided to go back to my summer wheels, this warm weather doesn't do the winter tyres any favours. Before the Solitudes made their way back on they had the obligatory wax;

 

 

 

Got them fitted on this afternoon. Then noticed a nasty scratch by the offside wheel arch hasn't gone through the paint so hoping the DA polisher can rescue it.

 

Whilst the car was in the air earlier I could see the exhaust was still blowing by the cat, tightened up the mikalor clamp a bit, which nearly stopped the blowing, went a bit further and snapped the clamp, new clamp now on order. 

[jamesw6810 80]

that poorboys is a quality wheel wax isnt it....

[Therusterman 59]

that poorboys is a quality wheel wax isnt it....

 

Been very impressed with it, has made cleaning the wheels so much easier. For example, when I took the summer wheels off last autumn, all the brake dust and grime that had built up on the inner part of the wheel (which I had been too lazy to clean off!) pretty much just wiped off, which is a testament to the wheel wax.

------------------------------------------------------------

I'm hoping the new mikalor exhaust clamp arrives tomorrow, if it does I'll be taking the centre pipe off the car and measuring with the vernier caliper the outer diameter of the cat and the inner diameter of the front pipe and make sure I don't need a reducer or spacer. The exhaust blowing at the cat has been a thorn in my side since I removed the original exhaust over a year ago. This means I can hear a lot of popping on the over-run and just sounds unrefined to me so would like to get this fixed once and for all.

[Therusterman 59]

Exhaust clamp fix

 

The new mikalor clamp arrived this morning, which i'm glad it did as I need the car tomorrow for work and the broken clamp allowed the exhaust to blow way too much.

 

So, some 'overnight parts from Japan' arrived, and were duly fitted. Actually, I lied, the clamp came from Herefordshire...

 

 

Old clamp which received some over-zealous application of the impact gun;

 

 

Whilst I was crawling around on my back under the car I also found a very tired looking heat shield clip which was allowing the heat shield around the exhaust to rattle a little when ever a door was closed with a little too much force;

 

 

This is all that was left of it by the time it was peeled off the car;

 

 

Nice shiny new clip in its place doing its thing;

 

 

Washed the car earlier and forgot how good the Poorboy's wheel wax beads;

 

[Therusterman 59]

Haphazard indicators

 

A couple of times this week the indicators and the hazard warning switch haven't been working. So far repeatedly indicating on and off seemed to fix the issue, until earlier this evening when even that wouldn't solve it. A quick look online pointed to poor connections at the stalk been an issue. If you have been following this journal, you will remember the problem I had with the intermittent wiper stalk, especially on the sweep function. This was attributed to a build up of corrosion from something, most likely too much dashboard shine in the past.

 

For reference;

 

 

I'm guessing a similar thing is happening with the indicator stalk, seen as its in such close proximity. I have managed to get the indicators working again tonight by unplugging the stalk plug and putting it back in. This worked until I refitted the steering wheel shroud when it stopped working again, given another wiggle and now it works.

 

I've left the shroud off for now and will wait for some daylight tomorrow when I can take the wheel off (for the second time this week) get the stalk off and give the connections all a good clean.

 

In the picture below there is some exposed wire tracks in front of the indicator stalk wiring block which has got some funky gunge on it, hopefully cleaning it all off will solve the problem once and for all!

 

[Therusterman 59]

Indicator stalk continued...

 

Whipped the steering wheel back off this morning and removed the indicator stalk. I cleaned the contacts up with some contact cleaner, and ran some fine sand paper over them as well to make sure the pins are making good contact. However, with the indicators and hazard warning switch such a safety critical part, I've ordered a new (non genuine ) stalk from Veedubmachine. My thinking is that there could be some corrosion and gunge inside the indicator mechanism that I can't get to which may lead to a repeat of the problems I've been having. Fingers crossed I won't get anymore problems with the indicators before the replacement part arrives.

 

Oh, and typically i'd normally be on my days off from work now, but have a course for work all next week, so have to use the car.

[Therusterman 59]

Indicator stalk finished...sort of

 

Went about fitting the replacement stalk today. Lasted on the car all of a few seconds after refitting the steering wheel and all the trim. The quality was just not up to scratch, the worst been the huge amount of flex there was when pulling the stalk back to use the main beam. The original stalk has been trouble free all week, so hopefully cleaning the contacts off has done the trick.

 

Also had a horrible scratching/scraping noise when turning the steering wheel. This was due to a copper strip which goes between the wheel and slip ring had a piece of dirt stuck underneath it. Whilst the wheel was off I gave the slip ring a blast with some brake cleaner and put a thin smear of fresh lm grease on, now no more noise.