Hi all

[marcogolfo]

Hi I just wanted to introduce myself.  My name's Mark and I live in South Lakeland (NW) I'm 24 and after driving diesels and other slow cars all my life i've decided to go for something a little more poky and so I've just bought my first ever Golf, a  Mk2 16v

It cost me 400 notes so it was quite cheap however it does have a few problems, it leaks from somewhere.  the whole floor panel seems to be wet, this includes passenger side, drivers side, and two back panels (all the soundproofing is wrecked so i've had to remove it all for now), i've checked the roof but theres nothing.  Also the doorseals/windows seem to be ok so I'm a little baffled.  Could it be leaking in from the front under the bonnet somewhere?  

Another thing i'm finding is that it doesn't handle quite as well as i would have expected.  It seems to be very tail happy and quite unpredictable, sometimes i'll lose the front slightly and sometimes the back will just swing out, granted i'm just getting use to it but as with all cars i like to test the boundaries and throw them about a little to get a feel for the handling.  It's just that I hardly pushed the car and the back was away, is this common?
It has been lowered 40mm but unfortunately it has no service history so i don't know much about it.  It has quite an oil leak that seems to be leaking from around the dipstick area other than that it starts well, sounds nice, and goes really fast.  I'm really impressed and have started to fall in love with it already, it never fails to make me smile when i put my foot down.  
When I get some photos I'll stick them on but in the meantime I was wondering if anybody could help with the issues above as I don't know may way around golfs whatsoever and think I'm going to have to do a lot of learning.

Anyway ciao for now
regards
Mark

[jasonpi]

you got a sunroof? if so this could be the source of ur leak

[pc16v]

hi marco,try this http://www.matey-matey.com/leak_prevention.shtml

[VW2010]

Check the heater matrix, maybe that is leaking

[DanGtd]

Ive got the cheap see through type sunroof and this leaks a bit when its raining a lot.

[marcogolfo]

Thx for that matey matey link pc16v im gonna pull the car to bits at the weekend and see if any of them places are leaking.

The problem I'm having is that I don't know what some of the terminology means, such as skuttle and grommets etc, also whereabouts is the heater matrix located, what does it look like and how can i diagnose whther or not it is leaking?

Would be nice if there was somewhere on the net that had a picture of under the bonnet and named everything that was there lol.  I'd find it helpful anyway, I mean i know what alternators, distributors and bits like that look like its just the other things that im not sure about.

Anyway thanx for your help its much appreciated.  After ripping out that rotten sound deadening the car absolutely stinks

regards
Mark

[Dizzie]

I've got a spare mk2 matrix if you want it.

[marcogolfo]

thx man, if it is the heater matrix then I'll take you up on that offer, however what the hell does the heater matrix look like?

[marcogolfo]

pardon my ignorance

[gti fly bye]

like a mini radiator that sits a the back of the dash behind the center, its a pain to replace