Author Topic: th3_f15t - '07 GTI "Project Evie"  (Read 48310 times)

Offline th3_f15t

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Re: MikeMaher205 - '07 GTI
« Reply #10 on: 08 November 2013, 16:57 »
Well, it is done... I can only sum up the effect of stage one tuning in this way;

WEEE!

After an initial scare with a fuelling issue, the car was put through it's paces and is now waiting a mini photo shoot tomorrow and then a post to be written up about the evens of this weekend. Hoping to have a video of the exhaust for your viewing pleasure as well, so hang tight for that.

For now, I shall be off racking some miles up to bed in my new exhaust.
« Last Edit: 15 November 2013, 17:16 by MikeMaher205 »

Moving over to Flickr, sorry for the broken picture links!

Offline th3_f15t

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Re: MikeMaher205 - '07 GTI
« Reply #11 on: 17 November 2013, 20:45 »
So Friday was D-day for stage 1. Booked into AMD Tuning and took it in the morning, handing over the keys and headed off for a fry up. Came back to grab a quick picture of it on the lift, not a great picture but better than nothing!



So as you will probably know by now, I was having a Miltek cat-back non-resonated system installed along with the rear bumper to compliment the R32 rear silencer. I also had it booked in for a remap, and I’m aware I said I would go to R-Tech (based on tons of positive feedback from other users) but it was cheaper and easier to get it done all in one day.

For note, AMD currently offer 50% off remaps when bought with Miltek exhaust systems! So £250 instead of £500… Love a bargain!

Things didn’t go smoothly though at AMD…

They ran their full diagnostics before the remapped it and came up into the waiting room to tell me that there was an error for low pressure in the fuelling! Panic stricken is a fairly accurate way to describe the internal meltdown I started having. The technician said it could be two things, either incorrect fuel filter or the cam follower on the high pressure fuel pump. So imagine my joy when I remembered I’d replaced said cam follower not two weeks prior (to avoid this very problem)! So after a short while I got my first chance to hear my new, shiny exhaust as it sang on the rollers!



I asked the guys to let me have the old filter, and when they inspected it more closely they revealed it was not just the wrong filter (incidentally, it was for a 2.0 FSI engine, I think, whatever it was it was only providing half the fuel it should have been!) but it wasn’t a genuine Volkswagen part, which the garage that did the service had led me to believe the parts would be. Driving home in a rage when you have just had a remap isn’t advisable. I did manage to get my money back from the garage for the part at least, but certainly not going to use them again!

Oh, numbers! Well…
199.9 BHP and 234.7 lb/ft Tourque @ 2777 RPM before the remap
265.9 BHP and 304.6 lb/ft Tourque @ 3157 RPM after the remap

That works out as a 33% increase in BHP and 35% in tourque! Certainly shifts now at in any gear but sadly, I fear the brakes won’t like being punished with the new power so the upgrade is being bought forward to before Christmas (exact date TBC at this time)

AMD kindly parked the car right outside the front door for me to allow a brilliant shot of the car! Shame it was dirty…



So all in all, a pretty decent way to celebrate my 25th birthday I feel! I had the intension to get the car cleaned and do some more shots today, but sadly discovered a screw in my rear tyre and none of the tyre shops open near me had a Falken FK-452 in stock so it was called off and left at home (had to get the train back to base in London!)

I leave you to enjoy a few (attempts at) artistic shots of my car. For now, I’m waiting for funds to allow for some stainless steel brake lines and some rear brakes from a Golf R (to match my fronts!). Feedback for taking shots is requested from anyone who does it for a proper hobby or career!




My personal favourite;

Moving over to Flickr, sorry for the broken picture links!

Offline th3_f15t

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Re: MikeMaher205 - '07 GTI
« Reply #12 on: 02 December 2013, 12:35 »
Well, in keeping with the monthly updates, I’m trying to pull together some exciting news on the project and sadly I have nothing to report that will be of much interest. First off, the rear tyre didn’t need replacing as the screw didn’t do any serious damage and the tyre has kept its air and seems good (even after some road testing), which is hand as the Falken FK-452 is no longer produced, replaced by the FK-453 now so in the event of a tyre going, it’s a minimum of 2 now as I won’t run mismatched on the same axel at least.

Apart from that, I’ve finally ordered my Hel SS brake lines for the front brakes, but the acquisition of rear Golf R brakes (to match my front) hasn’t come about just yet, so leaving the rears alone for the short term. Also bought some genuine Volkswagen brake fluid as I’ll only want to top up any fluid lost rather than replace the lot (which if you remember, is less than 1 year old at this point in time) and I don’t like to re-use fluid that’s been bled out as it could pick up contaminants once out the braking system.

Lastly, I’ve gone and bought lowering springs. APR currently have a deal on till the end of December on the VW Racing springs (which, if I’m correct, are made by Eibach to VW Racing specs) which normally retail for £210 but with £30 off, this bought them down to the price of other recommended springs and I’ve liked what I’ve read about the VW Racing ones, so in the shopping basket they went.

Enough text, picture time.


So all I have to do now is find a time (and friend) to help me fit all of the outstanding modifications to the car now. This is still TBC… Annoyingly.

Moving over to Flickr, sorry for the broken picture links!

Offline th3_f15t

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Re: MikeMaher205 - '07 GTI
« Reply #13 on: 18 January 2014, 20:03 »
Time for a January 2014 update I think! Sad to say, there’s not an awful lot of bits added to the car. In fact, nothing has been added to the car physically but the corner of my room and the bench in my garage are becoming full again.

So, before I begin, a couple of pictures of the “Veedub Family” that I have got going locally. There’s my Golf, my friend’s Fox and his neighbour’s Rocco R. There is a reason I included these pictures;


If I’m honest, in the future when I have money to waste (i.e. within the confide of my dreams), I would like to re-spray my Golf in the green here;


But for now, I’m happy with my tornado red. So happy I bought this as a pre-Christmas treat;


10 hours of my life over 2 days on the paintwork. But even I have to admit that the hype behind Meguiar’s products is true, the difference in the paint is amazing. And a proper wax makes all the difference to long term care, the dirt doesn’t cling on now so as soon as it rains it washes itself. I like that in a car.

Another pre-Christmas present was in the form of a cheap deal on another forum, the item in question: a Volkswagen approved Kenwood DNX512DAB DNX520VBT stereo upgrade. About £850 new, or nearer to the four figure number from a Volkswagen dealer, but I bagged this unit for a tasty £450, minus box and manuals (but who needs those anyway?)


Sadly, it won’t be installed for a while as I will need to upgrade both my speakers and my aerial, for my current one doesn’t know how to pick up digital radio and the speakers will sound pants due to the way they work with the standard stereo.

Another forum spot came in the way of Hurdy. After a message about a carbon fibre bonnet he has picked up, he directed me in the way of a company in Kent that has some carbon fibre parts just sat about from when they took over the unit they occupy. A quick look on their Facebook page revealed they had some Mk5 parts and I happened to notice a front splitter. Called them up and the man who runs the business asked for £80 for it. Needless to say, I was quickly in the car with cash in hand and driving down the M20 to find the place.


Both Hurdy and I suspect that these parts are made by Seibon, but there’s no branding or paperwork to confirm. However, if all the parts are Seibon parts, I bagged a £370 splitter for just £80. See what you think for yourself;
http://seiboncarbon.co.uk/products/tt-style-carbon-fiber-front-lip-for-2006-2007-volkswagen-golf-gti.html

Was ironically looking at those parts before I spotted this deal, so it’s nice to see that fate has decided my plan for splitter, grill, bonnet and wings should be so.

Final purchase before Christmas (although sadly not delivered till much time after) was a set of 2008 Golf R32 rear brakes.

Calipers;


Dust shields;


Discs;


It looks as if the setup has been sat around in a scrap yard for a fair while, but to me, the most important part where the calipers which look to be in very good condition. Sadly, I think the pads will need replacing but the discs look usable for short term anyway. The dust shields look a little damaged, but if it’s just superficial scratches then I’m not concerned as I have a plan.

The calipers themselves are going to be stripped and sent for powder coating to match my front Golf R calipers which are a gloss black. But I think I may do the dust shields in a shade of red as close to my car as possible, just to shake things up a bit. Also need to obtain rear stainless steel brake lines, possibly new brake pads already (just to be safe, don’t like to take too many risks with safety items) and find time, space and help to fit the brakes really soon. I may go ahead with the fronts separately to the rears but it depends on timing right now.

So that’s it for now, another essay for you all to read on a Saturday night. I have a bottle of Southern Comfort that needs my attention, so good evening for now.
« Last Edit: 16 February 2014, 13:54 by MikeMaher205 »

Moving over to Flickr, sorry for the broken picture links!

Offline th3_f15t

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Re: MikeMaher205 - '07 GTI
« Reply #14 on: 26 January 2014, 13:36 »
Well, two updates in a month now, it appears I’m getting my arse into gear. I got bored and wandered into my garage, which usually ends up with something being taken apart and/or broken. Which it did. Again.

I decided to start prep’ing my rear brake calipers ready to be sent into the powder coaters so I can get them done in a gloss black to match my fronts. I also plan to powder coat the dust shields, both front and rear, in a gloss red that matches the colour of my car. Was tempted to do a silver/black combo on the rear calipers to really go mad but thought it may end up over the top, but opinions welcome!

Anyway, I began with it looking like this;


Pads don’t look horrific now they’re out, plenty of life left and they’re Pagid pads which, while not a performance pad, are still quite good for my needs. Again, whether I use them or swap them for some ATE or performance pads remains undecided.

So, off come the carriers and the pins;


After a few hours of working out how to undo seized on bleed nipples and lines without damaging them, and a lot of cleaning, I had them like this;


The second caliper was dismantled in less than 15 minutes, getting quite good at taking things apart. Not so good at putting things back together though. Upon laying everything out and doing a stock check, I realised that the seller forgot to pack the brake lines! It’s a good job I planned to upgrade to stainless steel lines anyway, but still a bit annoyed. Also discovered one of the little clips that sit on the carrier to secure the pads is missing, so hoping to try and find one if they’re really needed. For reference, they’re the U shaped bits of metal just to the left and below the brake pads in the above image.

Another reason I’d planned to re-colour the calipers the whole time;


Most of the original blue has just flaked off. The caliper on the left is lucky if it has 20% of the original blue left on it. Tried a bit of paint thinner to remove the last but they will need to be shot blasted to get them fully prep’d for painting. Still deciding whether to paint them myself or powder coat them. But for now, it’s a case of getting a new seal kit as the current ones feel brittle and could do with replacing, along with the pad clips and lines. Also need to get a professional mechanic to look over my discs and pads to see if they’ll be OK for use after a bit of a clean-up.

That’s all for now, more to come soon though. I’m getting a shift on with the brakes, due to some hairy moment where I had a good look into a field.
« Last Edit: 16 February 2014, 13:57 by MikeMaher205 »

Moving over to Flickr, sorry for the broken picture links!

Offline th3_f15t

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Re: MikeMaher205 - '07 GTI
« Reply #15 on: 16 February 2014, 14:55 »
Well, February is upon us, so I feel it’s once again time to update this project. And this time, no new parts have been bought but outstanding parts have been fitted. Also bought some new tools, a VW oil filter housing draining tool and a set of VW coil pack removal tools.

This makes the job so much easier and less messy;


Changed the oil as I’ve done 85K miles and I want to re-do the service the previous garage did as they are retards and did it wrong. See my previous post about my day in AmD. Although they did manage to fit NGK spark plugs correctly, so 1 out of 4 parts replaced was done correctly. Yet to replace the pollen filter, but it’s low down the list of priorities. My brakes are making that “pads wearing out, so we’ll eat your discs” noise again. It’s only been about 12K miles!

Anyway, time for the stereo update! Before I being, I should like to point out that it’s always important to check the item you’re buying when meeting some random person is actually what they have advertised. This is something I failed to do, with regards to my stereo. I originally thought I’d bought a Kenwood DNX512DAB (indeed, the advert listed it as this) but only today, months on, did I discover that the model I own is a DNX520VBT. The only real difference is lack of DAB radio, and considering I don’t really listen to much radio, I wasn’t too annoyed. However, if I ever find the lying little scum back in London somewhere, I shall brake his hands…

Enough hate talk, time for pictures! Started by moving to a nice, sunny spot and broke out the tools;


I discovered that the aerial didn’t seem to be connected properly, noticed this;


Quick look at the wiring harness for the stereo, found a blue wire which I though was power into the unit, so stuffed the exposed copper inside, taped it down and cable tied it all together for extra comfort, and I have radio. Front facing AUX/USB as well as built in navigation are all great things, haven’t tested it with my iPod yet, but I hate my iPod anyway.

The only issue is where I removed a wire to the airbag light, I think it’s tripped the ECU into thinking there’s an airbag fault. Certainly, it beeps at me and leaves the airbag light on the dash illuminated. My rules have always been if airbag check fails, the car doesn’t go anywhere except to the garage to get fixed. A trip to VW during the week for an inspection may be on the cards.

But the finished product;


Moving over to Flickr, sorry for the broken picture links!

Offline th3_f15t

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Re: th3_f15t - '07 GTI "Project Evie"
« Reply #16 on: 11 March 2014, 16:39 »
So, time for another update and this one is part one of #insert number here#. Sadly, it’s not been good news this month in terms of progress. For anyone following the project, you may recall that back in September 2013 I purchased a cheap set of Mk6 Golf R20 front brakes. Well, 7 months on and I finally decided that having them sat in my room wasn’t practical any longer and made an effort to begin the process of fitting them. I even purchased a brake bleeding tool to help the process, more on that later.

So, the weekend rolled round, the weather was good and the driveway and garage was booked. Out came the tools, on came the overalls and so began the list of problems…

Up to here, everything went well. From here… Not so good;


Fitting the parts was really quite straight forward, except for the stainless steel brake lines. The problem was that due to the bolts in my kit not being the correct type, I had no way of attaching them to the caliper. This lead to having to use the stock ones that came with my kit, as well as routing the cable between the driveshaft and the wishbone, far from ideal and in no way a permanent fix. You can see the problem below;


A quick e-mail to HEL, who’s very friendly customer support pointed me in the direction of where to get the correct banjo bolts and also acquired some fresh hose securing clips because I think I lost the original ones in the process.

So, aside from those bolts not fitting, everything else bolted on and connected up like the theory said it should of. As a side note, when people say you need 18” alloys minimum, they really do mean absolute minimum! No photos at this time but trust me, they’re bloody big. Anyway, once the dust shields, discs and calipers with pads were all bolted up, time to bleed the system. We connected up my new bleed tool to the air supply, connected it to the bleed nipple, opened it up and became bleeding… A long while later a small amount of fluid go through. After about an hour or bleeding (using both the tools and a manual approach), time came to fire up the ignition and check the brakes with the engine on. Disaster struck again, as soon as the servo kicked in, it passed the air that was left in the system all round, resulting in no brakes at all. I pumped the pedal and built up a little pressure (enough to limp it to a proper garage perhaps) but as soon as the clutch is depressed, it loses everything and you can push the brake pedal to the floor. On top of this, the brake pad wear sensor wasn’t bridged (I thought it didn’t need to be) so my warning message for checking pads came on. I also think I failed to reconnect the passenger side ABS senor, so now I have lights on my dash for;

- Airbag
- ABS
- Tyre Pressure
- Warning Messages

Basically, if you’ve been to a sea side town at Christmas and seen the light displays, you have some idea of what sitting in my driver’s seat is like. To say I was gutted was an understatement. As it stands, I will now try and get the car drivable enough to take it into AMD to have the rest of the work done, which currently stands at;

-   Front brake pads (with wear sensors) replaced / Bridge sensor
-   Front stainless steel lines fitted
-   Rear brake conversion (to R32 setup – see below)
-   Full brake fluid renewal + power bleed
-   Health check and errors cleared

To finish the R32 rear conversion, I still need to powder coat my calipers, replace the seals, acquire new pads, discs and dust shields, then re-build the calipers and then get it all to AMD. Big jobs on now so hopefully another big update soon, with pretty pictures of a car with working brakes. I've decided to cheat and duck out of finishing this myself, as I'd prefer to just get the car back on the road. It looks like at least a month before I can get this all sorted out. Stay tuned.

Moving over to Flickr, sorry for the broken picture links!

Offline th3_f15t

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Re: th3_f15t - '07 GTI "Project Evie"
« Reply #17 on: 13 April 2014, 16:07 »
Time for some more pictures and words about how I’ve achieved nothing with the car over the last month. So to start, I’ve got the first official picture of the (long awaited) Golf R20 front brakes installed!



I endeavour to get some much better picture once the cars all up and running again, which is still TBC at the time of writing this. Next up, finally got some nice new alloys cheap.





Bagged these for a tidy sum of £450, few scratches but nothing a refurbishment won’t cure. Going to get them powder coated, but as for colour, I’m swinging towards a gun metal grey at this moment in time, but like everything that’ll be subject to (a lot of) change. On the subject of powder coating things;



They came up pretty well considering how corroded the calipers were in the first place. The inside finish is a little off in my opinion but considering it’ll never be seen, I can forgive them. The parts on display are finished to a high standard though, and it’s on there pretty well so fairly pleased. Got the hand brake part of the calipers sorted and starting rebuilding them but ran out of time this weekend;



Next step is to get the calipers rebuilt fully, stainless steel brake lines ordered, some new pad retaining clip things as I’m missing one from the original set and clean up the discs. Just to ensure that everything is lovely and all that jazz when I finally get her back on the road, I decided it best to get some decent pads;



So perhaps not a total wasted month but certainly not moving as quickly as I’d like at this time. Spending the day at Early Edition today also has spurred me onto sorting my s**t out and getting it together (literally). More to follow (soon) (hopefully)…

Moving over to Flickr, sorry for the broken picture links!

Offline th3_f15t

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Re: th3_f15t - '07 GTI "Project Evie"
« Reply #18 on: 21 April 2014, 16:32 »
Slow and steady progress again, but pleased to report that the rear calipers are now fully back together (respectively) and discs have been cleaned up, HEL lines ordered and everything placed ready for the trip to AmD.



Going to bring the day at AmD forward to this coming Monday/Tuesday, can’t be dealing with a week off and no car so bringing it forwards. I think it’s nearly two months since I last properly drove her beyond my driveway!

And also accidently got lost, went to ask for directions and wound up with these;



More on that later…

Moving over to Flickr, sorry for the broken picture links!

Offline th3_f15t

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Re: th3_f15t - '07 GTI "Project Evie"
« Reply #19 on: 04 May 2014, 22:44 »
Finally, Evie is back on the road with working brakes. 2 months after beginning, it’s done, front brakes are on and working a treat. Still in the wearing-in phase, but I’ve already noticed that there’s a lot less pedal pressing for stopping the car, what used to be a firm press on the pedal is now a gentle touch. Yet to do an emergency stop to really see how they handle.

So, going back in time a little, this is how my heads up display looked prior to this weekend;


Ever been Southend sea front at Christmas? Reminds me of that. Loaded up the boot with the rear R32 brakes in preparation for my tow to AmD;


Thursday rolls round, time to put her on the back of a flat bed. Feels like admitting defeat, or that hung-over walk of shame the morning after…




Early start on the Friday, get to AmD for about 10am, spend a lot of time waiting to get a phone call saying the rear brakes didn’t fit correctly. Was a little bemused, but transpired they meant my rear dust shields didn’t fit as they’re for a mk6 Golf R which has a different axle shape so they're not backwards compatible. Not the end of the world running without them but still slightly annoyed.

Many, many hours later, the guys pop up to the waiting room and tell me there’s another problem with the rear brakes. The passenger side caliper was just losing all the fluid in a rather bad manor where the brake hose meets the caliper, looks like I’d cross-threaded the bolt as I screwed it in so fluid was just flowing out, even at normal pressure. Result: new caliper needed, along with new hose mountings (solid lines that then attach to stainless steel lines). So they didn’t end up going on and I had to get my stock rears re-fitted. Devastated.

Also found the reason my brake pedal was just sinking to the floor even though there was no apparent air in the system after several bleeding cycles. I’d somehow managed to fit the front calipers upside down (effectively swapped the sides over). So because the bleed nipple was at the bottom, all the air was trapped in the top of the caliper. Felt like a massive c*** in AmD, decided there and then to give my tools away and give up doing things myself for the sake of further embarrassment! Credit to the guys there, they were really good about it and told me of some worse case situations they’ve had to fix to cheer me up.

But anyway, enough stupidity, I shall bring a small update and some better pictures in a few weeks when my new camera tripod arrives (it is a small one mind so no high up pictures!).

Moving over to Flickr, sorry for the broken picture links!