It’s not a MK4 or MK5 but it has the heart of one. Blood, sweat, tears and a lot of swearing have gone into building up my MK2 R32 over the years and thought I’d share a build thread with you. Updates will come in fast as it’s a few years worth of work
I’ve been driving MK2’s since 1998. Pearl grey I've had for a while now and looked like this when I picked it up. Already had the Ronals, some cheap coilovers, GTI 8V engine, power flow exhaust and well maintained inside and out.
Only issue was the central locking stopped working. Removed the door card to reveal this work of art ..
installed a new solenoid and tidied up the wiring
The car quickly got an ABF conversion with a 4.25 final drive 020 gearbox. very quick acceleration but topped out at 120mph, she was a screamer on the motorway even at 70
Trip to the Nurburgring
The ABF is a great engine but no match for modern hot hatches which seem to be as quick as super cars nowadays with their 4wd twin clutch launch control flappy gearbox stuff. Plan was to give the MK2 a little extra power so opted for an R32. I'm big on nasp engines so turbo wasn't really an option for me. Luckily a guy from Westside VW was braking his mk2 R32 so I bought the engine and chucked it in ..
All the heavy stuff was done at my uncles garage during a long weekend when it was closed. Great man my uncle
Next was to remove the Subframe and fit a MK3 unit. I was worried about the dredded subframe bolts but the impact gun made short work of them. Also fitted MK3 power steering lines while the frame was off
years of oil and muck..
Good as new..
And then, hey presto ... the engine is in
I was lucky enough to get hold of a Mk2 R32 6 branch from Dubpower, they don't make this anymore but the fit was perfect
Wow...
Looking good man, another MK2 Owner that "builds not bought"..LoL..
Top marks there mate.
The ABF is a great engine but no match for modern hot hatches which seem to be as quick as super cars nowadays with their 4wd twin clutch launch control flappy gearbox stuff.
Disagree there mate as the ABF lump is quite adequate enough to keep up with a few of the new rides out there as long it has the equivalent bolted on, some sort of FI, either Charger or Turbo..
Gonna keep an eye on this build, no doubt it will be a good read.
MJ
<p>BBS Bits n Pieces *CLICKHERE* MJVR6Insta: @DjMj73 H&R Suspension parts/BBS Alloy supplier. Custom Mats all VAG via 'JustMatz/TorquePartz' 'Built Not Bought'.
I can be rude, opinionated, and sometimes come off as a dick. I am just speaking my mind. If it offends you, PM me. Don't go whine to someone else. I am civil, talk to me.
Wow...
Looking good man, another MK2 Owner that "builds not bought"..LoL..
Top marks there mate.
Disagree there mate as the ABF lump is quite adequate enough to keep up with a few of the new rides out there as long it has the equivalent bolted on, some sort of FI, either Charger or Turbo..
Gonna keep an eye on this build, no doubt it will be a good read.
Next item on the list was to fit a Cable change gear shifter to match the 02a gearbox. Gearbox is a mix of VR6 bellhousing, ABF internals (3.6FD), Quaife diff and Billet flyehwwl. For the clutch I used a SEAT mechanism so retained a cable operated clutch.
Old gear lever came out and I hacked it up to make a brace for the MK3 02a item. A small amount of material from one corner had to be removed from the MK3 box and it just slots straight in. The brace I made sandwiches the MK3 box into position.
With the heavy work complete it was time to take the car home so we towed it home and started working on the wiring
I wanted to hide the wiring so Engine loom comes out of a very conveniently placed bung on the bulk. Loom for the Fans, lights, starter and other bits go through the chassis leg.
At the same time I decided to move the battery to the boot as I wanted the air box in the corner of the bay to avoid heat soak as much as possible. Rivnuts were used on the floor of the boot and a MK5 battery box.
Once the battery was secure in the boot it needed wiring. I used 35mm2 welding cable for positive and ground. Battery was grounded on the rear seatbelt floor anchor point. I crimped, blowtorched the ends and fed solder into it until it poured out the bottom then applied a piece of heat shrink. This ensured the cable super secure and going to wiggle off the connector
Power cable routed through the bulk and covered with tubing
MK2 8V Fuel pump needed upgrading so sourced a 2nd hand MK2 16V unit. Pump was replaced and I binned the accumulator as the bracket had broken off and this engine doesn't need it anyway. Took a while to locate a 16V fuel pump housing. can't believe no 3rd party company makes these
16V fuel filter was used so had to get an adapter as the 8V fuel line is just an open ended hose instead of a banjo like a 16V. Probably get a banjo end in the near future
I noticed the auxiliary water pump was missing so went about adding it. Had to make up a bracket (any excuse to get the angle grinder out)
Bashed it into shape
Like a glove
At this point the car was turning into a SKIP
Battery tray was looking a bit sad so cleaned and sprayed it up
Why stop there, Servo was also looking a bit sad so decided to spray that too. very difficult manoeuvring this with the engine in. Had to remove the exhaust heatshield for space
Homemade spray booth with oven
Came out pretty good
Servo vac line had to be shortened. Brass insert and some heat was used to rejoin the tubing
Fitting it all without scratching was a pain in the ass
It was worth the effort though
Back to the wiring, because I hid the loom I had to run the wiper motor loom inside the car. I decided to rout through the aerial grommet. This is not easy to get to as the aerial wire goes behind the glovebox and around a vent pipe then up through the bulk. The grove box is stapled to parts behind the dash so impossible to remove without breaking something.
Solution was to tape string to the aerial cable and pull through the dash then tape the wiper loom and new aerial cable to the string and pull it back through the dash again
At the same time I made a loom for my seats
New seats fitted, managed to pick these beauties up for a good price and in A1 condition. Always wanted a set of Recaros. They are soo comfy
Back to the engine, I didn’t like the short intake I got with the engine so decided to extend it. Local machine shop welded a bung for the air temp sensor then I wrapped it carbon vinyl
So for a while I didn’t touch the car because of our great British weather. The car stood still for a few months in the rain and cold.
This didn’t go down too well as when I got back in the car I noticed the passenger side door was jammed. It wouldn’t open from inside or out.
I tried hot water, WD40 soak, plus gas soak, pushing kicking and swearing. Nothing would open it, not even the most harshest words. I didn’t want to damage the interior door card to get to the lock mechanism so got my tools together and attempted to remove the door card with the door still closed
Precision screwdriver and a mole grip did the trick. Was very pleased with myself
I was able to pry the door card from the corner and use my small girly hands to push/pull something on the back of the door latch.
I also managed to slice my hand when the latch let go and my hand hit the inside of the door, blood everywhere
At least the door was now open. And yes, that’s a heater in the car … it was that cold
The door latch mechanism had been chromed in the past but didn't look like any grease was applied to the moving parts. Luckily I had a spare in my hoard of parts. Greased and fitted. All good now
All bits were slowly coming together and I got to a point where the engine was ready for it's first start up in over 12 months. I jumped the starter to get the engine turning as it hadn’t been started for over a year.
Primed the pump a few times, turned the key and to my surprise … it fired straight up
Rad and Front end went back on and it started looking like a car again
It was time to give it a hot run to ensure cooling system was working ok. Started it up again and ran for about 5 minutes until I turned it off because of a very strong smell of fuel. First place I looked and the most likely cause was the dredded fuel pump housing which is notorious for failing over time. I was right, the 2nd hand unit I bought was leaking by the fuel return line
Again the car stood still until I sourced a replacement housing but as these are obsolete and most 2nd units have seen better days I knew it would take a while to find one.
After searching and searching for weeks an almost brand new unit popped up on ebay. I contacted the seller and made a deal. Pump was collected and fitted the next day with brand new brackets and fittings.
With the fuel leak sorted it was time again for a hot run again. Fired it up and left it running while I topped up the cooling system. All seemed to be going well but the fans were not kicking in. Water temp gauge went passed halfway and still no fans. Wiring to fans was fine so I changed the fan switch, still no fans.
Did some digging around online and came across a post on ClubGTI forum where another member had the same sort of issue after a 1.8T conversion. Turned out to be the water temp sensor for the clocks was a MK4 golf item so calibrated for MK4 clocks.
To confirm, I plugged in my laptop to the Emerald ECU and checked the water temp. It was barely 70 degrees. I let the engine run for longer this time while monitoring the ECU. Fans finally kicked in and did their job.
With everything pieced together it was time to take it for a spin up the road.
Initial thought of driving ..... DAMN it felt scary and dangerous! Tracking was out so was all over the place but it picked up rpm seriously fast! I didn’t drive it too much as it wasn’t insured and no road tax.
Insured the car and booked it in for tracking and a custom exhaust from Style Dynamics in Hayes. Driving to and from getting this work done it was evident something was not right with the engine.
At around 2.5K it hopped around like crazy then cleared after 3K and water temp was not moving past 1/4 when in motion. It was freezing the day I drove it but the engine shouldn’t be that cool. Oil temp was only at 52 degrees and wouldn’t move.
I knew the engine heated up fine when not in motion so had a hunch that there was something wrong with the thermostat. Front end came off for this job as I had to make some changes to the Rad bracket anyway.
On the V6 engine you have to remove the whole thermostat/water distribution unit from the head to get to the thermostat. Notice how the standard R32 housing had been replaced with a VR6 housing, probably to retain VR6 coolant hoses from the previous conversion.
There's the Thermostat, so I thought ..
A Matrix moment .. There is no thermostat ! It's been hacked off
Bought a new housing with fittings and thermostat. Stuck with a VR6 housing as hoses had already been adapted for that.
Pieced it all together and fitted to the engine.
Once it was all back together I ran the engine again, bled the cooling system and took it for a spin. Success, the engine was heating and cooling as it should and water temp gauge was now ok. At this point car wasn't driven much as I wanted someone to look at the mapping. A nice chap goes by the name Toyotec on ClubGTI offered to have a look.
He popped over to mine one evening, hooked up his laptop to the ECU and bolted a stethoscope to the block to listen out for knock. We drove around until the early hours of the morning adjusting the map. There was so much improvement after every adjustment and the ‘hopping’ around had virtually gone.
During mapping, we were getting loads of top end power but seemed to be lacking in low end torque, it almost drove like a Turbo car. Had a quick look under the bonnet and realised the Variable intake system was not working. This we left alone as it was most likely down to a wiring issue. which I'd have a look at later on.
We tried to make more adjustments but Cylinder 3 developed a misfire. Eddie swapped a coil over from another cylinder but the misfire remained on number 3. This cut our mapping session short and we called it a night. Big thanks to Eddie!
The next day I had a look at the misfire and decided to change all the spark plugs. I started on cylinder 3 which got rid of the misfire. Continued on to the others and noticed the coil on cylinder 4 had broken in half. The lower half was stuck in the head. Seems like a common problem with these coils on the R32. To remove, some people screw a very long screw into the coil then pull out. I took the car down to my uncle’s garage who used an old coat hanger to fish the broken coil out.
All spark plugs changed and broken coil replaced it was time for a proper spin.
I was not disappointed with the engine and gearbox choice. Acceleration in every gear was relentless and bounced off the limit in 5th with no problem. And the noise, what a noise!
Emerald ECU, Top marks!!
So Eddie done the map ehy...
Is he still lanky as hell and wears the same long arse cream Overcoat lol
hahaha, no overcoat this time. Engine came with Emerald and I had a spare OEM setup at home but I kept it on Emerald for switchable maps. Eddie got the engine running sweet and safe for me to drive. Car went in to emerald for the final map and config, updates to follow.
Time was getting close to the Euro road trip so had to get moving with the build. I wanted the car to look as OEM as possible so got hold of a brand new set of GTI arches. Front of the car had G60 arches which I never really liked as the wheels did not fill very well. These came off and replaced with GTI arches. Rears were also changed to make it look a bit fresher. At the same time I bought some side skirts from Heritage and fitted those two. Passenger side skirt had been out of stock for a while so I bought two driver side sills and modified one to fit the passenger side.
Arch looks a lot nicer now and the wheel fitment is spot on. I highly recommend the small ramp for lowered cars.
One job I had been putting off for a while were the coilovers. Both rear platform rings were seized solid. I bought some FK Konigsport rings a few years back as spares, lucky as FK no longer support these coilovers so can’t buy these rings anymore.
You can see the rings have jumped threads on one side when I tried to free them off.
This called for drastic measures. Dremel made short work of removing the rings.
There were literally no threads left on the rings. Stainless steel coilovers will be my next purchase if these fail again.
The top nut that holds the shock in the coilover body had to come off to get the new rings on. Quick trip the garage, a vice and water pump fliers were needed.
That’s better
Refitted the coilovers. Another job done.
Changed out my generic eBay rear washer bottle for a MK2 item. I have no rear wiper so diverted the water hose and wiring from that to this bottle.
Car was now ready for the euro trip. Plan was to drive some scenic routes to Nice > Austria > Germany. A few snaps I took of the trip
F1 fans will recognise this tunnel in Monaco.
Popped into the BMW museum.
You can see the road on the mountain edge. Looks scary from this angle
I highly recommend driving around europe. It's an amazing place and have some of the best roads. Mountain passes are plentiful and absolutely amazing. We finished up spending the weekend at the Nurburgring which is a petrol heads heaven.
The drive around Europe and the Nurburgring put the car to test and it didn’t disappoint. I thought the extra weight would cause massive understeer but it handles really well. The quaife diff was a good investment and the car surprised a lot of people at the ring. No one expected that noise and acceleration from an almost standard looking GTI
The only issue I had on the trip was when we drove up high in the mountains. The ECU was not configured to deal with the thinner air so started over fuelling like mad. It was quite difficult to drive at that altitude but once we started descending the engine started behaving properly again.
I contacted Emerald about this and they recommended fitting a map sensor and wideband Lambda. I ordered the bits and booked the car in for a mapping session with them.
Prior to the mapping session I had to ..
1. Fit a wideband lambda
2. Fit the Delphi map sensor from emerald
3. Fix the variable inlet manifold plunger
Wideband was bought from Innovate as they use a Bosch unit so should be pretty easy to find a replacement if it were to fail in the future. I went for the LC-1. Wiring was pretty simple but the Lambda bung in the link pipe was at an almost 90 degree angle so the tail end of the lambda was brushing against the exhaust tunnel. I didn’t like this so needed another trip to Style D to fix.
While I was there they made up a new centre section with an extra silencer with V Bands. This was needed for track days because the car was so bluddy loud and was bound to break the noise rules
V Band ends allow removed/refit of the centre section with ease. Straight through for normal use and extra silencer for Track days
Wideband bung was adjusted and sits nice now. Delphi map sensor was also wired in. 2 down 1 to go
The Variable inlet plunger was a bit more involved to fix. Popped into my uncle’s garage who put a manual vacuum tester on the plunger and confirmed the plunger was not seized so put it down to a wiring or solenoid issue. He gave me an ECU wiring diagram and said …. Good luck !
First thing was to trace the original wires back to see where they went. The wiring was simple. A two pin plug controls a small solenoid that is attached to a vacuum reservoir just under the inlet. Once open, the vacuum causes the plunger to open/close an extra chamber inside the inlet manifold to change the air velocity going into the cylinders at different RPM, phew
Under 4K RPM = chamber closed
Over 4K RPM (and idle) = Chamber Open
Wires seemed to lead nowhere so were not even wired in. One pin needed 12V and the other a switch ground from the ECU when required. Emerald recommended a spare pin on the ECU which I then wired in.
To double check it was working ok I hot hired the solenoid to the battery but the plunger still did not move. I then noticed the one way valve colours were opposite on the drawing I had so rotated the one way valve on the vacuum line and tried again. This worked, plunger was now working manually but did not operate with the ECU as it had to be configured.
One way valve (Black/White round thing)
The Plunger, quite ingenious how this works. The mapping session showed what a massive difference this little device made
Car was now ready for a mapping session with Emerald so drove up one morning and met a friendly guy Called John. He got to work straight away with configuring the ECU. There were quite a few settings that were incorrect, he started talking about injector drivers and PWM control at which point I deemed all to be witchcraft to my ears. I have no idea about mapping other than if you mess up it will destroy the engine. This is why I leave this bit to the experts.
Session was going well until one point John stepped out of my car with a concerned look. The engine wouldn’t go over 200bhp. At this point my heart dropped and I thought I’d bought a dudd engine or screwed up the wiring somewhere. Started looking around the bay and did a fuel pressure check, all seemed fine so John started looking at the map again. During the next run on the rollers, I noticed the variable inlet plunger would actuate then stay like that instead of returning to its original position at higher RPM. The plunger should move to the ‘Power’ position around 4.5K rpm. John adjusted this in the ECU settings and did another blast on the rollers. This time I see a big smile on his face and the engine produced 230bhp.
Phew, I was relieved! Mapping continued and we came out with a clean 270bhp. Air Fuel ratio was adjusted at different loads on the rollers at different throttle angles to ensure we had a consistent Air/Fuel ratio under general driving. John also did something with the fuel overrun on the power map so I have some fireworks on lift off
Cold start was adjusted as much as possible but I have to hold the throttle for about 10 seconds every time I start the engine from stone cold. This is because I don’t have a DBW throttle or an idle valve so limited to cold start idle control. No biggie for me really I was just ecstatic with the smoothness of power delivery. It no longer had a ‘Turbo Feel’ about it.
Emerald also updated the firmware so I wired in a Bluetooth OBD2 port to read ECU data on my phone and make pretty data screens to show off
Following a great road trip around Europe I noticed a strong smell of coolant inside the car. Initial thought was heater matrix leaking so I looked behind the centre console and found orangy/Pink drops of coolant from the heater box.
Got lucky this didn’t give way around Europe.
New matrix was bought from GSF. Fitting was a pain to say the least but at least it gave me an opportunity to recoat the heater direction flaps. These are common to deteriorate on MK2’s after time and limit direction
Next thing I had to look at was my clutch pedal. I was using a SEAT mechanism for a while which worked great. However, I was driving this car everyday for the school and work run and started noticing the clutch pedal was starting to stick. Popped into the Seat dealer only to find the cable for this kit is now obsolete so bought one off ebay. This lasted about 2 months until it started sticking so then tried a MK2 1.3 cable which many people recommended.
The 1.3 cable was way too tight and heavy and felt like it was going to snap. I was trying everything to avoid fitting a hydraulic pedal box. I even tried spilling oil down the clutch cable but this just made a mess
Only viable choice was to fit a hydraulic setup. According to many people online this is not a difficult conversion, simply remove old pedal box, drill a couple of holes then fit the new pedal box :cool (y): I thought
'Simply', hmm, I don’t think so. Big job in my opinion with many obstacles and much swearing
Jig to flatten off the bulkhead
Used a hole cutter for the main hole then fixed the pedal box and all bits in place. Top round pedal box bracket was ground off then nut and bolted approx. 15mm to one side to line up with the original one.
The master I got with the kit was a little worn, you can see the hole that attaches to the pedal is elongated which would have caused play and probably damage the pin on the pedal as the plastic end had worn down to the metal rod. This was replaced with a new one.
Pedal box in
Replaced the column and replaced the shear bolts with normal ones
Fitted a new reservoir bottle and seals then bled the system. All works as it should.
Jesus Christ this is impressive , love the workmanship and the whole car, hope to see it some day , you doing any shows soon
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I can be rude, opinionated, and sometimes come off as a dick. I am just speaking my mind. If it offends you, PM me. Don't go whine to someone else. I am civil, talk to me.
Great thread, did you ever consider the Digifiz clocks for this car?
I did until I saw the price lol. Waiting on Duostyle gauges to be available again ... they're a nice addition
Jesus Christ this is impressive , love the workmanship and the whole car, hope to see it some day , you doing any shows soon Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Going on a euro road trip next week then might do some shows when I'm back.
With most of the mechanical work done and car running 110% it was time for an aesthetic upgrade. Wheels!
I always wanted a set of, I know typical, split rim BBS’s. Common as the doors on a car but they sit soo well on a MK2. I purchased a set of 16” BBS RS023 which were in good usable condition but wanted to do something a little different with the colour so took the wheels apart, sent the lips and spare lips to Mike the polisher and the centres of the wheels to TT Tools in Chelmsford for machine work.
The barrels are 6” wide and came with 4 2” and 2 1.5” lips so had some sizes to play with. The whole lot went to Mike for polishing. 2 of the Dishes looked like this ..
Once Mike worked his magic the dishes looked like this ..
Wheels were originally 5 x 114, centre bore of 66mm and offset of 26. TT Tools plugged, redrilled to 4x100, flattened the back and made some custom aluminium spigot rings. Once the centres were back I went and chose some colours and had two of the centres wet painted. One bronze/Gold/Brown and one Grey.
Trial fitted them on the car to decide on colour
The grey has a nice oem look about it but I really liked the bronze so went with that. Remaining faces were painted and new hardware ordered.
This was the first time I rebuilt a set of split rims so read lots of DIY’s online before committing to the task. It was something I always wanted to try.
Started off by cleaning the old sealant and paint off the barrels with a drill mounted paint striper
Same cleaning was done on the back of the dishes too
Dremel with sanding discs were used on the faces to avoid damaging the paint
New hardware arrived from felgenfuchs. Decided to go with Gold bolts
Sealant used
Everything was cleaned with brake cleaner to remove any dust or grease
Wheels ready to go together
Thin bead of sealant went on the barrel
Then the mating surface
Dish was put in place and new bolts pushed through
Medium strength Loctite applied to the bolts
And then bolted together
Excess sealant on the inside was quickly smoothed off before drying and all nuts were torqued to 30ft/lbs in a crisscross pattern.
A bead of sealant was applied to the inside edge
Wheel was left for 24 hours then rechecked the bolt torque and applied another layer of sealant
One done. 3 more to go
Tyre size was something I wasn’t too sure on so tried Proxy T1R 195 40 16 and 195 45 16. The 40 had way too much stretch for my liking so went with the 45.
40 profile
45 profile
Fitted the wheels and decided to space them out by 10mm at the front and 15mm at the rear. Had some custom spacers made by a guy on Edition 38 forum. He made up some 4x100 57.1 inner bore and 73.80mm outer to match my wheels bore so didn’t need to use spigot rings.
I love the colour. They look stunning in the sunlight
Thought I’d share a quick summary of my Euro Road trip.
Car was checked over, serviced, rear bearings greased and adjusted and BBS’s came off for my Ronals which needed new front tyres. Got some replacement Proxy R1R’s and drove the car for a month before the trip to ensure it was running ok. Car was running nice and healthy.
Few days before the trip I loaded up the boot with all my tools, spare parts, oil, tow bar (hopefully not needed), repair putty and anything else I could squeeze in. MK2 Golfs have a good size boot!
I stayed the night in Dover as we were booked into the 6:40am Ferry. The port was quiet and we got on the Ferry with time to spare. Ferry journey to Calais was only 1.5 hours.
Once we offloaded in Calais we had a 7 hour drive to Geneva in Switzerland. Bit of a boring drive as it was pure motorway driving. Driving on the Europe motorways is not like UK. People don’t keep their distance and do not wait for a space to overtake….they literally pull out of a lane and expect you to slow down for them. It’s just the way they drive over there so you have to be vigilant at all times. On the upside though, drivers generally only use the fast lane for overtaking so if you’re moving at some speed you won’t be interrupted by someone hogging the lane.
The Tolls in France were a killer! We must have paid about £60 for that drive.
As soon as you step into Switzerland at the border you get pulled over and asked to pay £40 tax for driving in Switzerland. This is required from all non Swiss cars. Geneva wasn’t too far from the border so we got to our hotel at a descent time and had time to look around the shops. We went to get a bite to eat at an Indian ‘Fusion’ restaurant nearby but soon realised this was not our style of restaurant when the waiter poured us glasses of water like he was pouring the finest wine in the world. The bill came to a whopping £150 for two of us! I must admit, the food was exceptional…..even for us veggies….but not £150 exceptional
Next day we travelled to Zurich in Switzerland via Juan pass, Susten pass, Gotthard and Airolo pass.
If I saw a T-Rex running down the road in Switzerland I wouldn't be surprised. It's like driving through Jurassic Park.
The passes were absolutely amazing to drive on and some of the most scenic views I’ve ever seen. You can feel the engine struggle the higher you get into the mountains with the thinner air.
I love tunnels
Next day plan was to go Porsche museum in Stuttgart then onto the Nurburgring.
It’s funny to see the first car on display at the Porsche museum is a ..
This is a really good Museum with lots of Heritage on display.
Once we finished up we drove 3.5 hours home. When I say home I mean the Nurburgring
Tools and parts were offloaded at the hotel and we went out for some laps. Unfortunately I got a bit excited and mounted the grass on Adenau Forest (Turn 11). It’s the corner that catches everyone out, I approached it a bit too fast and decided to go over the grass instead of swerving and potentially sliding out.
In my mind I was thinking ok I’m going slow enough…...Oh Sh!t I’m going too fast!
Made a loud thud on the high curb and went over the grass. Got the car back to the hotel and it seemed fine. Looked under the car and saw some scrapes on the sump but no leaks. I came back to the car a few minutes later to have another look and noticed oil drops started to form on one side of the sump, pulled the dipstick and the sump was still full of oil so a scrape must have gone through as it was cooling or something. This wasn’t good so I quickly jacked the car up and the sump started leaking more. Sump was cleaned with brake cleaner and I could see a deep gash and tiny hole where it was leaking. I mixed up some chemical metal and applied sparingly over the damaged area. The sump was still warm so the chemical metal solidified really quick and stopped the leak.
Car was left overnight for the chemical to fully harden. Next morning I checked the sump and it was dry so I started it up and let it get up to temp. No leaks so far. Took the car for a local drive and stopped every 10 mins or so to check for leaks. After an hours worth of driving I was happy the sump was sealed and safe enough for more laps.
Laps were 30 euros each, Friday – Sunday which was twice the price from a few years ago when we first went. The ring seemed quiet this year and no closures due to accidents. I wonder if the increased rate for laps has put people off.
The Famous carousel. You get sucked into your seat if you’re going fast enough here.
The finish line
Managed to hit 140mph on some of the straights. Needle pass 130mph on the clocks ..
You see some strange things on the ring. I overtook this on one of my laps ..
The Nurburgring is a petrol heads paradise. I would recommend anyone who is into cars to pay a visit to soak up the atmosphere and breath in the fumes. You see some of the world’s best cars being driven seriously hard and everyone is on the level. UK drivers are always up for a friendly chat or wave as they drive past.
You have to be vigilant when driving on the ring though. I back off when approaching cars to ensure they have seen me so I can overtake safely. At one point a GT3 RS came around the corner behind me, didn't wait for me to move over and instead overtook me half on the grass and VERY close to my passenger side.
Apart from the Sump giving way, due to my heavy right foot, the car ran perfect with no issues. Now back in the UK I have to look at replacing the sump. Here is a vid of one of my laps ..
Been a while since I posted on here. Actually, It's been a while since I touched or even looked at my golf since I broke the sump and put the car under a cover. Spell of Home DIY and bad weather has kept me from working on the car.
Had the odd peek now and then to make sure I still had a car
My hoard of old bolts came in handy during the snow though
Finally the weather was good enough to tackle the Sump. It started leaking quite bad so needed attention pretty quick.
2nd hand sump was sourced from an R32OC forum member. First point of call was to give it a good clean and to remove residue of the old sealant.
Wet and dry used on the face and drill for the bolt holes
popped into my uncles garage to use the solvent bay then rinsed off with water and dried
nice and clean
Got the car up in the air and drained the remaining oil
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