Author Topic: Dom's DBP R32  (Read 8171 times)

Offline dom

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Dom's DBP R32
« on: 02 March 2019, 21:20 »
Evening all, time to finally start one of these again!

A bit of background (partly because I'm enjoying flicking back through old threads on here)!

I became active on here in March 2010 after buying my first GTI:



Which I sold in August 2011 looking like this:



I caught the modding bug badly with it, the 100+ page thread for the car is here if anyone is interested:

http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=147378.0

I then moved on to a 1.8T:



Which I spent a small fortune on, in the 3 years I owned it



The 150+ thread for it is here:

http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=199526.0

Which brings me on to my favourite car so far:



Which I owned for a little over 18 months before becoming a parent, this combined with a 60 mile a day commute meant it had to go  :cry:





I needed something cheaper to run and with more doors and this did the job:





I started a new job at Christmas which means a much shorter commute, so the Leon went and this took it's place:






Offline dom

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Re: Dom's DBP R32
« Reply #1 on: 02 March 2019, 21:34 »
I'd been half looking for a while and spotted this one in Luton (I live in Cumbria), on paper it was almost perfect, 3 doors, DBP, Half leather interior, full service history, but no record of the chains having been done.

Someone went to look at it for me and checked the chains with Vagcom and the readings showed that they needed to be done so I made the decision to walk away.

The seller then offered to get the chains replaced for a renegotiated price which i was happy with, I paid a deposit and booked a train for the following week.

The seller kept me updated with photos:







When I arrived to collect it I almost walked away again, the bodywork was mostly very good but there is rust showing around the handle on the tailgate and the rear bumper has had a really poor scuff repair.

Inside was pretty tatty though, lots of scuffed trims, headliner filthy and has a couple of holes in, parcel shelf bent, steering wheel worn and drivers seat damaged.















But, then I took the car out for a drive. It's worth saying at this point that the car is fitted with a Scorpion exhaust with decats, that noise...wow :evil:

I had a long think about what to do and then realised that I was being an idiot to contemplate not taking it home. The interior bits and pieces can be sorted and what 16 year old car doesn't need a little bit of bodywork sorting?

The 4.5 hour drive home was fun!

Offline dom

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Re: Dom's DBP R32
« Reply #2 on: 02 March 2019, 21:52 »
But anyway, as always when buying a used car there are always unexpected problems.

First, the car almost rolled down my driveway when I pulled the handbrake up:



That needs some attention then!

Then day after driving it back from Luton I headed down to Leeds to see some mates, leaving Leeds the car decided it wanted to be FWD  :rolleyes:

Got it home and scanned it:



Balls  :undecided:

On a more positive note, the only other fault codes were relating to the headlights (which I think just need aligning), and the aerial.

Anyway, I did an output test on the Haldex pump and it showed me that the pump was dead. I was planing on changing the Haldex oil/filter anyway so ordered the parts for that and bought a working 2nd hand pump to see if the pump was the culprit.

I got the car up on a lift earlier and swapped the pump over...Haldex is now working, thankfully a nice easy, (cheap) fix. I will sort a new pump in a few weeks as I have no idea how many miles the pump had on before i fitted it.

The diff was covered in oil though which is slightly concerning:



However, when undoing the drain plug on the Haldex it was apparent that no seal was fitted the last time the Haldex oil was changed :shocked:

I am hoping that the oil on the diff has actually leaked from the Haldex and ran backwards while the car was moving. I've cleaned it all up and will keep an eye on it.

Other things that I know I need to sort:

- A rear caliper is knackered
- Handbrake cables are stretched (already have new cables)
- Front calipers need to be painted
- Rear springs are cheap lowering springs, fronts are standard  :rolleyes:
- There is slight hesitation when on very light throttle...a throttle body clean will be a first step
- Re-trim the drivers seat
- Tidy up interior trim...possibly hydro dip some parts
- Paint the rear end
- New xenon bulbs
- New rear tyres

Once the car is mechanically solid I'll move on to the bits I want to do:

- LED bulbs inside
- Pressed plates
- US spec rear lights
- Coilovers
- Spacers
- Front splitter
- Side skirt extensions
- New exhaust tips
- Some polybushes - dogbone mount first

That's about it for now!

Offline Mr_Orange

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Re: Dom's DBP R32
« Reply #3 on: 03 March 2019, 20:50 »
Great to see you went ahead with the purchase and are willing to put the effort and funds into the car.
Timing chains look fun :(
Hopefully caught the diff in time. Did the seller cough up on that one?
Bodywork and trim bits can be sorted out over time.
Enjoy and keep up with updates!


Build thread clicky

Offline QazGolf

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Re: Dom's DBP R32
« Reply #4 on: 22 May 2019, 07:44 »
Good to see you back in a mk4 Dom!

Lovely purchase, great colour. Will be watching this one.

Qaz