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Model specific boards => Golf mk4 => Topic started by: asif on 14 March 2011, 17:04
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Right the happy day came on Saturday when my MK4 GT TDi 130 was picked up to an extremely happy buyer on Saturday for a tidy 4k.
As some of you know my car gave me loads of MPG issues, i've had loads of threads where so many of you have helped me and pointed me in the right direction.
I did make some silly mistakes and changed parts I don't think I should've and didn't need to change which cost me quite alot and worst thing didn't make an ounce of difference to my goal which was to sort the MPG out.
To be honest this completly ruined my whole V Dub experience and left a bad taste in my mouth as I felt as though I had a VW which was so common yet I couldn't get anyone to get to the bottom of my problem.
But basically I recently before putting the car up for sale took the car to my local VW specialist which is Lions Garage, they are all old VW technicians and know VW's literally like the back of there hand.
After all the work and hundreds I spent on the car with no joy I left it with them for 2 hours and they advised me that my tracking was so badly out that the car wouldn't free roll as it should meaning that I had to be constanly on the accelerator to keep the car at a steady pace. I also had to have a track rod changed and a CV boot. This is what was causing me MPG problems :( the tyres were badly unevenly worn, if me or anyone inspecting the car would've noticed it I would've had some alarm bells ringing but this was missed so the poor MPG went on.
In the last 6 months I was told it could've been my ECU which would definately cost me an arm and a leg probably around £500, I was also very recently told by a specialist off the forum that my turbo needed to be removed and cleaned and re-machined at a whopping cost of £250.
Can you imagine if I got these 2 bits of work done! I would've still had a car with poor MPG and I would've spent well over a grand to be in the same place and not move an inch closer to getting better MPG.
So my advice to anyone on this forum, please please make sure you get a few opinions on your car before you start forking out hundreds of pounds on possible issues.
Fair do's I made some balls ups along the way also as I shouldn;t have forked out so much dough after failed attempts to sort my car out.
I just wished I had taken it to this place right from the start as I would've been so much happier with my VW than I was. I got to a stage where it was making me feel like sh1t knowing how much i'd spent with no progress and it ate up all my modding funds so car was still standard :(
So a big massive bit of advice to anyone with MPG issues, get your tracking checked and also keep an eye on your tyre pressures and tyre wear to make sure it's even.
My tracking was so far out that I only used to get a mere 400 miles driving like a ponce for a whole tank.
So thanks to eveyone for your help and warm welcome to the club, for now i'm going back jap where the car can be diagnosed without Vagcom :)
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Shame to hear that mate. Lion is close to me, where are you from? Just goes to show that it is worth getting things done properly sometimes. It would probably have made me feel the same as you mate.
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Oh just to add on my last tank before I sold the car I got 550 miles so this was definately the cause of my poor MPG as I never ever got close to that in the year and a half I owned it.
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Why sell it after getting it sorted you madman?! :grin: R tech is only just down the road.
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Shame to hear that mate. Lion is close to me, where are you from? Just goes to show that it is worth getting things done properly sometimes. It would probably have made me feel the same as you mate.
I'm from Leicester, there is a Lions in Leciester and also one in Hinkley, but I can only comment on the one in Leicester as that is the one i've used. They really know there stuff.
Just to add, this thread is not a moan or indirect dig at anyone hence why I didn;t mention any names it is simply to make sure we all look at all possibilities before you go splashing out hundreds of pounds for naff all. After all this is a drivers/owners forum where we share our experiances so other don't make the same mistake, that is the only reason for this thread.
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shame your problems mate glad it was sorted in the end though and whats next for you ??
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Why sell it after getting it sorted you madman?! :grin: R tech is only just down the road.
Mate by this time I was so fooked off with the car and the Mrs was also fuming at me as I had to dig into my savings to pay for the repairs that didn't need to be done.
Basically it'd gone too far and there was no way I was going to start spending money on modding it the way I wanted as I didn't have the money to throw at it so deciided to cash in whilst I still could.
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shame your problems mate glad it was sorted in the end though and whats next for you ??
Next up is definately going be a Jap car, more than likely a facelift Civic Type-r or the Sport version on a 54 or 55 plate.
I've always had Jap before this car and they are so straight forward to diagnose, hardly any problems in 8 years of owning Jap. I have one VW and all hell broke loose.
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its all luck of the draw mate.. i will be going jap after my VW phase :smiley:
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Appreciate your honesty there. Just sorry to hear you had such a bad time of it. :undecided:
I hope I'm not on your list of drama queens! :lipsrsealed:
All the best mate.
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A better bit of advice is if you don't know what you are doing with cars don't ask a forum take it to a good mechanic. Sorry to hear your VW experience wasn't a good one.
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A better bit of advice is if you don't know what you are doing with cars don't ask a forum take it to a good mechanic. Sorry to hear your VW experience wasn't a good one.
Indeed :smiley:
Take it easy :smiley:
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all the best mate i aint had a good vw experience either but i love ittt llooking at it as a learning curve bring on the mods :grin:
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Maybe if things got sorted earlier then I would've kept the car, but it was getting like everytime I looked at the car I felt like burning the fooker.
Wish i'd known my issue was such a small thing and nothing to do with the engine at all.
Mr Orange there is no list of drama queens I just wanted to pass on my experience so nobody makes the same type of mistake.
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A better bit of advice is if you don't know what you are doing with cars don't ask a forum take it to a good mechanic. Sorry to hear your VW experience wasn't a good one.
Mate I asked on the forum got some good feedback and then did take it to a mechanic, but things just didn;t work out and the problems didn't get fixed after alot of money was spent on various bits and bobs.
I don't know how to do stuff myself so deffo needed to take it to a mechanic everytime I needed assistance.
I only used the forum for pointers and reccomendations on good places to use to get the car looked at.
Maybe another good point is don;t let yourself look like a total noob as the barrel maybe waiting for you to be bent over it and shafted :grin:
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I kno how u feel!
My celica had major problems with it when i bought it!
Had it wrongly diagnosed few times had an engine rebuild that didnt solve the problem and the ended up having to ave a complete new engine!
Even tho there is nothing wrong with it now i still hate it!
I think when you get such bad experiences with a car it will never feel the same agen!
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Munks that's exactly how this car made me feel, i'd never be able to feel good driving the car I was just so put off it.
I hate the fact that I allowed this to happen to me.
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Ye even tho their is nothing wrong with it u jst wana get rid!
I loved my cellica for the firs 2 weeks until i found out wat was wrong with it!
Its just sitting in my drive hasent been used for 6months!
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Did you suffer from the death rattle on the Celica?
I was on the market for one of them recently until I read about that.
Apparently oil starvation to the engine is common on the early 140's.
New engine is in the region of 1k for that car which would make me feel like slitting my wrists :grin:
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Lot's of support here, I feel i've got to be the thingy and ask the question.
If the tracking was that far out, how on earth did you not see or feel it?
It's a shame this has ruined your experience.
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Lot's of support here, I feel i've got to be the thingy and ask the question.
If the tracking was that far out, how on earth did you not see or feel it?
It's a shame this has ruined your experience.
Fook knows mate, i'm not the sharpest tool in the box when it comes to cars so unless I noticed the uneven tyre wear I wouldn't have known any different. To be honest I did wonder when I was on motorways but because of the diagnosis I was given and the fact that it was gonna cost so much I thought the tracking was the least of my worries so thought i'd hold onto the pennies and do that later. Little did I know this was the cause of the car giving me sh1te MPG.
If I let off the gas the car would slow down well quick but again i didn;t think this was an issue at the time.
Please do remember the car was also driven previously by mechanics on the forum and off the forum so I know I aint that sharp but I would've thought someone getting paid would've noticed this.
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To be honest I did wonder when I was on motorways but because of the diagnosis I was given and the fact that it was gonna cost so much I thought the tracking was the least of my worries so thought i'd hold onto the pennies and do that later. Little did I know this was the cause of the car giving me sh1te MPG.
Please do remember the car was also driven previously by mechanics on the forum and off the forum so I know I aint that sharp but I would've thought someone getting paid would've noticed this.
Not much you could have done, it's difficult having to rely on other people to diagnose problems. As annoying as this expereince was, if you learn and take something from it, it's not a total loss.
Well, three things to take from this for the future.
1) Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
2) Try the cheapest/easiest fixes first.
3) With a problem, the solution will depend who you take it to (and they aren't always fully honest).
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Yeah i've learnt my lesson me thinks, first is that i'm going back Jap which are easier to diagnose and i've never had a Jap car mis-diagnosed in almost 10 years, their also touch wood more reliable.
I also like the fact that you don't need Vagcom or a laptop to tell you something is wrong or to get a code that mean about a 100 different things :grin: Think i'm just bitter cuz my DUB didn;t go the way I wanted :grin:
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Did you suffer from the death rattle on the Celica?
I was on the market for one of them recently until I read about that.
Apparently oil starvation to the engine is common on the early 140's.
New engine is in the region of 1k for that car which would make me feel like slitting my wrists :grin:
Got it in one mate!
£1200 for a rebuild that didnt work and then they changed the lump under warranty!
Oil starvation causes oval boars common fault on the 140's
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Did you suffer from the death rattle on the Celica?
I was on the market for one of them recently until I read about that.
Apparently oil starvation to the engine is common on the early 140's.
New engine is in the region of 1k for that car which would make me feel like slitting my wrists :grin:
Got it in one mate!
£1200 for a rebuild that didnt work and then they changed the lump under warranty!
Oil starvation causes oval boars common fault on the 140's
Feel for you mate, that is a proper wounding.
So your car is up and running now? Make you feel any better about the car or has it gone too far for you?
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Yeah its just sitting in my drive nothing wrong with it!
Have spent loads on it and no mods wat so ever!
Disks and pads all round last year cost me £250 plus 2 rear calipers at £40 each!
New clutch which was over £100 just on parts
New battery the other day £90!
did try and sell it last year but it didnt sell so gave up on it!
I may put it bk on the road for a bit if i sell the golf but could never enjoy driveing it!
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sorry to hear of your bad experiance in the VW world.Generally not much headache car's.But to be honest I notice turbo car's no matter which type/brand need alot more care to keep running perfectly boosting/fueling/mpg etc etc N/A engines seem alot less headache
And your title sounds like a line from a love song :grin: :laugh:
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Yeah its just sitting in my drive nothing wrong with it!
Have spent loads on it and no mods wat so ever!
Disks and pads all round last year cost me £250 plus 2 rear calipers at £40 each!
New clutch which was over £100 just on parts
New battery the other day £90!
did try and sell it last year but it didnt sell so gave up on it!
I may put it bk on the road for a bit if i sell the golf but could never enjoy driveing it!
look into dropping a 3sgte in there, thatll change your mind :evil:
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sorry to hear of your bad experiance in the VW world.Generally not much headache car's.But to be honest I notice turbo car's no matter which type/brand need alot more care to keep running perfectly boosting/fueling/mpg etc etc N/A engines seem alot less headache
And your title sounds like a line from a love song :grin: :laugh:
:grin: :grin: :grin:
You probably hit the nail on the head about the turbo comment, it makes things so complicated when a turbo is the centre of all your entertainment :grin:
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sorry to hear of your bad experiance in the VW world.Generally not much headache car's.But to be honest I notice turbo car's no matter which type/brand need alot more care to keep running perfectly boosting/fueling/mpg etc etc N/A engines seem alot less headache
Have to disagree as ive never had any trouble with boost leaks/fueling/mpg :smiley:
I know what you mean though there is always someone on here with these faults :grin:
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Rich mate, lets say you are one hell of a luckly fooker, go and touch some wood mate, or get wood and touch that :grin:
Boost leaks are a royal pain in the crack. MPG issues can be suicidal in my case :grin:
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Rich mate, lets say you are one hell of a luckly fooker, go and touch some wood mate, or get wood and touch that :grin:
Boost leaks are a royal pain in the crack. MPG issues can be suicidal in my case :grin:
lol :grin:
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sorry to hear of your bad experiance in the VW world.Generally not much headache car's.But to be honest I notice turbo car's no matter which type/brand need alot more care to keep running perfectly boosting/fueling/mpg etc etc N/A engines seem alot less headache
Have to disagree as ive never had any trouble with boost leaks/fueling/mpg :smiley:
I know what you mean though there is always someone on here with these faults :grin:
Not only do we snap on milage, we also snap on no boost leaks or mpg problems lol mines been smoke tested all standard hoses and its still all fine and leak free :D
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sorry to hear of your bad experiance in the VW world.Generally not much headache car's.But to be honest I notice turbo car's no matter which type/brand need alot more care to keep running perfectly boosting/fueling/mpg etc etc N/A engines seem alot less headache
Have to disagree as ive never had any trouble with boost leaks/fueling/mpg :smiley:
I know what you mean though there is always someone on here with these faults :grin:
Not only do we snap on milage, we also snap on no boost leaks or mpg problems lol mines been smoke tested all standard hoses and its still all fine and leak free :D
Good old AGU Eh? :afro:
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wow i have not been here long and you can blatantly tell if your trackings out mate, you cant say anything about bad advice if you ignore the obvious can you? :lipsrsealed:
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wow i have not been here long and you can blatantly tell if your trackings out mate, you cant say anything about bad advice if you ignore the obvious can you? :lipsrsealed:
To me it wasn't that obvious, I just though ok i'll sort it when I have some pennies and when my MPG problem is sorted.
But the beauty of this is that mechanics and MK4 Golf specialists didn;t pick up on the poor tracking so who am I in that respect? I aint no mechanic and I sure aint got the same knowledge and experience as a MK4 specialist or a qualified mechanic.
Like i've said I aint that clued up on the mechanics of any motor so my faith always lies in mechanics.
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sad to hear your out of the vw scene... be sure stick around mate and post a thread up of your new motor ... im definelty looking into the jap scene by end of the summer too getting bit bored of my agu now ... :lipsrsealed:
hope your future motor is problem free :wink:
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Cheers Nav, fingers crossed for going back Jap although i've not had probs with them in the past.
Next car is either a Type-r or a Civic sport depending on what comes up.
I'd prefer the sport as it's a good all round package as I wouldn't use the power enough to warrant buying a 199bhp car :grin:
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Good luck, but surely when you buy a car one of the first thongs you should do is service it and put it in for tracking. That's what I do with mine so you can know how you stand.
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Good luck, but surely when you buy a car one of the first thongs you should do is service it and put it in for tracking. That's what I do with mine so you can know how you stand.
Deffo from here on will me a must.
Not far from where I live got a proper professional laser full geometry tracking place, he's been there for years and will tell you everything with printouts and about your toe in toe out, camber and allsorts.
Apparently he can even tell you if your c0ck is hanging to one side and if your balls are out of balance :grin: :grin: :grin:
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Get your new car down there then! Or don't if you have a wonky one :grin:
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Get your new car down there then! Or don't if you have a wonky one :grin:
:grin:
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Cheers Nav, fingers crossed for going back Jap although i've not had probs with them in the past.
Next car is either a Type-r or a Civic sport depending on what comes up.
I'd prefer the sport as it's a good all round package as I wouldn't use the power enough to warrant buying a 199bhp car :grin:
wb an integra mate.. there awesome motors even jap haters will agree :grin:
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I prob wouldn't use all the poke though so no point paying the insurance.
Although I do agree it's one hell of a machine, the car picks up speed like a blooming motorbike :grin:
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I guess your MPG problems will prepare you for the shocking MPG of a Type-R :tongue: :grin: :grin:
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I guess your MPG problems will prepare you for the shocking MPG of a Type-R :tongue: :grin: :grin:
If I do go a type-r i'd be more than prepared for poor MPG as that is expected, but more than likely i'm gonna go for the Sport unless a really good deal pops up on a type-r.
I've already owned a Type-R facelift so know the running costs.
When I had the Golf it wasn't the money issue regards MPG I just wanted the car to run as it should and give me the MPG that I should've been getting like most others. I was missing out on atleast 100 miles to a tank for over a year.
It's a bit like buying a pint every weekend but they only fill up half the glass every time you ask for a drink for one and a half years, you'd be pissed but not in the way you intended as you'd be more like pissed off :grin:
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You still here? :tongue: :grin:
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You still here? :tongue: :grin:
Have met some sound very welcoming and fun to talk to lads here so will still pop on here now and then.
Some good banter on this forum, keeps me here for now.
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You still here? :tongue: :grin:
Have met some sound very welcoming and fun to talk to lads here so will still pop on here now and then.
Some good banter on this forum, keeps me here for now.
Only joking man...
Appreciate you posting this topic as a heads up for people.
It is after all very easy to get carried away with online advice. A bit like typing in "I feel unwell" or something on google, you'd think you are about to drop dead!