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Considering a 2005 1.8T GTI. Anyone have any VW experience to share?

This one has had a lot of maintenance done in the past 6 months: springs, timing belt, water pump, oil change, coolant flush, brake rotors and fluid, new tires, smoked tail lights, brand new APS turbo-back exhaust with high flow cat, intake, and diverter valve. Also has a set of winter tires on the stock rims. Still needs a tune, maybe fresh bushings?

Coworker bought it to play with, did all the work, but some personal things came up and now he's selling. I trust the guy, so there's that. He paid $7000 and then put $3200 into it. He's asking $7500.

I need a beater. This one looks fun. What say you?

1.8Ts are notorious for sludging.
I'm not certain I would buy one from an "unknown" but if this guy followed maintenance closely than that might not be an issue. You could pull the valve cover gasket and take a look as well. If you have any concerns most knowledgeable folks say running 2 rounds of AutoRx to dissolve any deposits and make sure to run synthetic from now on and your far less likely to run into issues down the road.
Honestly though $7,500 isn't bad with the all the extras.
I had a buddy years back with an A4 1.8T with a Stage 2 APR ECU (intake, TBE, intercooler) and it was a hoot.
No Galant VR4, but fun.

He's only had it for 6 months, no idea what was done before he had it but he did all the necessary things.
He replaced a broken spring with stock springs. Missed opportunity to upgrade but he didn't know it was broken when he dropped it off and German mechanics aren't one to have or even suggest aftermarket parts. He was in a time crunch so he just went with stock. He bought a set of used black wheels for the new tires but I think they're ugly (especially with the stock ride height) but that's an easy fix.

Looked up the most common bushing fixes. It's a little sloppy (understandable for a 10 year old car) and I think with a couple suspension and shifter bushings things would be ship-shape. Maybe get the engine sea-foam cleaned as I read they can gum up the intake?

It really could use a tune now that he has all the supporting mods.

Probably going to go for it. I need a beater now that I have to drive 100 miles per day for work.

He replaced a broken spring with stock springs.

This is the first time I have ever heard of a car of any vintage with a "broken" spring. How was that achieved?

Enjoy the GTi and keep us informed on the details.

No idea. It was making some strange noises right after he bought it but it was difficult to tell exactly what was amiss. He dropped it off at the shop, a few hours later the shop called and said one of the springs was broken. He was under a time crunch so he had to go with stock. The mechanic was only going to replace one, but he insisted that the guy replace both front springs. I had never seen a broken spring on a non off-road vehicle before...

The car had really good maintenance records from every owner up till the last guy before my coworker got it. It changed hands every two years, not uncommon here where people PCS every 2 -3 years.

Sounds like a good deal to me. An APR tune will make it in to a little rocket. I'd go with Kreen over any other cleaners. It's the only cleaner I have ever noticed a difference with.

The tune would be €599 without VAT at ARP's European HQ (if I can get an appointment). Expensive, but you can tell from driving the car that it would really come alive with a good tune. I've already preped the wife that the tune will be expensive but will be the only major cash outlay after the purchase.

Until I get the car up on a rack I won't know exactly which bushings need replaced, but I'm guessing new A-arm and dog bone bushings at the least. Brand new A-Arms with R32 bushings and ball joints already fitted are $400. If I had the facilities I'd press in new ones, but I don't and labor is expensive here. Dog-bone is easy to replace. I'd consider new motor mounts but I will be commuting 100+ miles a day and don't want to increase NVH too much. New struts for the hatch, maybe a fuel filter, new plugs, and she should be good for another 85,000 miles.

Sounds like a great plan!

I hope so...

so, has there been a change in ownership?
Inquiring minds want to know.

Bought it today. Removing 10 year old badging is a lot harder than on a new car...

She needs some bushings, top hats, shift kit, headlights (stock ones are badly oxidized) and the tune.

I have saved really bad headlights with toothpaste.
I use regular Colgate (white) and a damp cloth with some tack to it. Rub it on with some force and you will feel it biting in. Rinse it off before it dries and go over the trouble areas twice. Trust me it works. Toothpaste is cheap and one tube will last you (nearly) forever.
It's not a permanent solution, you will likely have to do it every year or so to keep certain areas clear.

Sounds like a good short-term solution till I can budget for replacements. The replacements I'm looking at have black housing that matches the car, fog lights, and glass lenses. Just need the cash...

With a few bucks more and a bit more effort than the Colgate method (or less if you have a pad attachment on your drill), you can go with http://www.amazon.com/3M-39084-Headligh ... DBB7KADZC5 and be set for a couple of years.

I want the black housing lights with glass lenses. The Autobahn is hard on plastic lenses, even if I clear them up. But thanks for the tips!

Today I put Rain-X on the front and rear glass, and replaced the hatch and dome lights with LEDs. Now it doesn't feel like a cave in there.

A few of the plastic interior panels have this sticky black residue on them. Not sure how best to scrub it off, and I'm a little worried that it's the actual plastic itself that's degrading.

Used GooGone and an old sock to scrub the Heat/AC control panel. It was amazingly filthy but it all came off eventually. The driver's inside door handle area is looking pretty rough, and GooGone didn't do anything for it. Not sure how best to bring it back. Might try to find a "new" one at a junk yard that I heard about from a co-worker.

Rear hatch needs new struts soon.

I tried toothpaste and baking soda to scrub the headlights. After 10 minutes I couldn't tell any difference on any part of the light. Just going to let it be for now.


I did some window shopping and think I have a suspension plan.
For around $900 I can get:

• A-Arms with R32 rear bushings and Progress front bushings pre-installed
  ball joints
  Bilstein non-adjustable "sport" struts (front)
  HD strut top hats
  H&R sport springs
  Progress rear subframe bushings
  Bilsten non-adjustable "sport" shocks (rear)
  HD shock mounts
  sway bar bushings
  all new installation hardware

The only issue is finding a shop that will do the rear bushings. I'd like to just drop the car off, have 1 shop install everything and then do an alignment.

Here's how I hope to proceed: Stage 1, suspension; Stage 2, headlights and FMIC; Stage 3, tune.

Sounds like a great plan Any chance you'll be going to the ring with it? If so, are brakes on the todo list?

sounds like a nice process.
Congrats on the acquisition.

Rotors, pads and fluid were done. Brakes are solid at Autobahn speeds, not replacing them till they need it.

Holy smokes it gets worse mileage than the X1! The commute to and from the new office is almost all Autobahn and I'm getting around 21mpg. At least I'm keeping the miles (and rock chips) off of the X1. Hopefully I can tune it and hopefully the tune helps.

Quick / Simple checks:
1. dirty air filter
2. dirty MAS
3. fouled plugs
4. dirty O2
All relatively easy/cheap to clean / replace
Also, vary your speeds a bit and see if the mileage changes.
The LGT gets best MPG at 70 mph or so (around 2,750 RPMs). Above 3,000 and below 2,500 RPMs I see worse MPG.

I'm sure it's mostly speed related. Hard not to do 110mph going home when it's legal.

The intake is new. Could probably stand to do plugs though...

Mr Kleen wrote:Hard not to do 110mph going home when it's legal.

At 100+ mph (even if it's not for extended time periods) I'm shocked your getting double digit gas mileage at all.

As long as it's steady, I don't see why not. It's using the turbo that kills MPG. I can cruise at 80 going to CT in the STI and get 27MPG. If I go to the track where I'm constantly on boost though I see 8-9MPG

You have a six speed. My 4EAT, doing the speeds that people drive around here, I definitely see a correlation between speed and MPG.