Wasn’t going to make a thread for this car but thought it might be a good diary and somewhere I can ask questions to you guys if I need to.
My step dad decided it was time he offloaded his mk5 golf and get into something a little bigger (passat). Wanting to keep the car in the family as he bought it new in 2008 he offered it to me at quite a reasonable price. Car has done 217,000kms but I knew it'd always been looked after and never had any problems so after owning a fair share of mk3s (and a mk2 briefly) I took him up on the offer and committed to moving on my mk3 and upgrading to something a little more modern, comfortable and reliable. Knowing there was a few things I would want to change on the car I started purchasing some bits and pieces for it.
Soon after this decision was made to buy the car we encountered it's first ever engine problem (running rough, down on power, very tappy
sounding) so we took it to the mechanic that had been servicing it for the last few years and he refused to touch it so off to VW for a
diagnosis. No fault codes so they wanted to take the head off to inspect as they suspected it was an intake valve causing the problem.
I doubted that was the issue and there was no way we were prepared to pay the labour costs on that so took it to another local mechanic. He
suggested it was the injectors and roughly quoted $2500 plus labour to replace them. After we questioned him with no guarantee on his work we decided to take the car back home and think about it. After the thousands of dollars quoted to fix the car my step dad renegotiated
price with me to take the car as is so he didn't have to deal with getting it fixed. Meanwhile I had found a used 1.9tdi motor on eBay
for a fair price in Canberra so contacted the seller and arranged to pick it up on the way home from VITS in Albury thinking I could use
the injectors out of it or if necessary swap the engines.
Having not dealt with diesels before and not having had a whole lot to do with engines anyway I asked Aydan (GldGti) for some advice and he
doesn't live too far away from me so he came around one Sunday to have a look and see what he thought. In this time I had been researching a lot and come across problems some of the pd engines have with camshafts (mainly overseas). Symptoms seemed similar and soon enough
after a quick trip to Bunnings to buy some tools (mk3s don't use torx bits) Aydan and I pulled the rocker cover and inspected the camshafts
to note 1 had worn out significantly. Aydan offered assistance in changing it and suggested doing the timing belt and water pump while
at it for piece of mind so currently waiting on parts to do that. I’d like to thank Aydan for his help and for his help in advance for when
we fix it.
That pretty much brings things up to speed. I’ve just been installing all my parts that I had piled up in my room for months.
My mk3 vr6 that I had to let go of to get into the mk5.
Mk5 as I bought it. Completely original mk5 1.9tdi trendline BXE engine code.
Installed some fk streetline coilovers bought second hand off a forum member here. I removed the front helpers, cut the bump stops in half
front and rear and removed a rear locking collar before install to save me pulling them out again. Also cut the screw tab in the inner front arches and rolled them and trimmed the fender linings front and rear.
Also pre ordered engine mount spacers from Euro-Image tuning for it. Hopefully they’ll get made up as I plan to lower this a bit and want
to avoid cracked sumps. (Changed a few on my vr6)
After install the car sits pretty much dead even at 24" in each corner (fluked that). It's on some 16" stock wheels which I'll be changing
for some 17s that I had bought for the mk3 and probably drop it at least 1" to 23"
Installed a 2nd hand ANS-510 (Rns510 copy) that I bought off a facebook group. Just wanted something I could plug a phone into and this was cheap (relative to VW and aftermarket units) has all sorts of fancy navigation features, touch screen, plays dvds etc. Was going to install a sub but it sounds so good as it is I'm not going to bother! (Compared to mk3 stereos). Also chucked a stubby aerial on that I had
around.
Installed front and rear GTI seats that I won on eBay. Good opportunity to vacuum it out and collect some dropped coins! (Don't have a pic of them in the car)
Plans are to fix the camshaft and just drive the thing! Will give it a good detail and muck around with wheels a bit but apart from that pretty happy with it as it is after my little changes.
What a lengthy post… I’m procrastinating TAFE assignments.
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