Tonight I've finished the first three mods I've done to my car. Like the title says, I'm a complete noob. If you're wondering to what extent im a noob, this gti is the car I've learned to drive manual on. Technically my friend's girlfriend let me learn the gist of it on her Elantra or something; I took it around the block until she was worried the gears had started to grind too much. Six months later I talk the salesmen into letting me test drive the gti, and everyone hangs on for life while I floor the pedal and launch the car at every chance to make sure I don't stall on the highway. The salesman Coolly guides me down the quickest route back to the dealership.
I'll take her.
My car before this, and first, was an 08' charger se (2.7 l v6) because my mom said I'll kill myself with anything more powerful. It was a you'll shoot ur eye out moment
My experience is an above average understanding of tools and terms, and zero knowledge of car interworkings. I could expertly jump your car or jack and change a tire, and I know, generally, the magic behind how a car operated, but other than that I know nothing and am ill equipped (I had to borrow a screw driver from a guy at Home Depot because I didn't want to have to go to my moms house to get one.)
You guys get it.
Anyways, for some reason I was struggling for a long time to master smooth clutch engagements (I've put 13,000 now on my used '15 from 27,000), and although I'd never say it because it sounds like a cop-out, I think it was mostly the cars fault. I really just couldn't figure out the clutch consistently.
However that's not what brought me to golfmk7, instead I was finally exploring downshifting and heel/toe and really disliked the position of the gas pedal in relation to the brake pedal.
That's what brought me here, but exploring the holy bible and the stocky about how to make ur gti not suck, I stumbled upon the first 3 mods that I have now done to my car.
After a late night expedition of having 30 tabs open of forums, I decided I had educated myself enough and had the means and time to complete the first task
1) clutch stop - the only con I saw was a comment that said "or you could just learn how to drive" but I disagree why not engineer it better if u can? Plus I would take ANY advice that could improve my inconsistent engagements, and it was the easiest DIY. It was 9:10 Home Depot closes at 10 I could quickly hunt for the right pieces and while I was there I ask to borrow a screwdriver and perform the job in the parking lot like the lowly noob that I am. Nothing but my flashlight and a return for more of the right size and a second visit for screws I decided I needed, my only concern was not making the poor old man think I ripped him off a screw driver.
I had to jerry rig the whole thing, not as clean as the forum tutorial went along but I gave her a try and it felt okay. Mission accomplished. I was excited, relatively suprised and please with the result, and feening for more.
2) the second task that seemed most possible for my budget and equipment (and the one I wanted to do most) was the clutch bleeder block valve removal however since I didn't have a bleeder kit or anything I needed my friends help, he agreed to help me tonight. I went to the store and eventually got help from three O'riley auto parts associates who were a lot less knowledgeable than I thought they'd be. However they were nice and overall helpful (just not like super smart hobbiest know it alls that I was hoping for (? Is that normal))
Anyways I got the $7 dot 4 and met my friend at the fateful hour, it was at his place cause his dad had tools on deck. I had all of the steps memorized based on what I've watched and read online. Let me say I definitely hit road bumps, following a tutorial, removing the air intake they never mention removing the front grill piece that's over the front of it. I knew I could do this only because of a different video I happened to watch about installing a different air intake. So I take that off and when I go to remove the intake after removing all of the instructed parts, I get unexpected resistance. There are rubber parts I've never seen or read about before, I had to pry around one with a flat head only to learn I destroyed another one while trying to force it out. Fortunately these were only fasterners and I think the intake is still secure overall. I run into a few more road bumps, struggle to break the diaphragm, blast the bits out with an air compressor, get flouid squirted all over while I'm bleeding the line, I just wing the whole job and assume (reasonably) that that'll do.
This was the only mod I told my friend I'd be doing, lo and behold I see exposed before me an area whose location was formerly unknown to me, but now that I was enlightened I informed my friend, who was ready for bed 'let me do this one other mod real quick, while I have it all open' which leads me to
3) shifter alignment - why didn't I plan to do this one at my friends house? I had watched a video tutorial, linked and suggested by the "make ur gti not suck" thread, however the parts the guy were demonstrating on were entirely removed from the car, and I had no idea where they were located in an actual car. Secondly I was only able to perform the mod because another separate video taught me how to remove the boot from the shifter, exposing the alignment home thread.
I finish all the steps I had memorized, hope to myself I havent shat the bed, reassemble the now destroyed air intake and struggle to put on the front grill frame thing, and ask my friend to join me for a test around the block
I'm pleased to announce shes running fine and the shifting feels much slicker. The clutch, I'll have to feel out more. No mind bending feedbac
OH and that reminds me I almost forgot. #4) clutch assist spring removal
Super easy, some tutorial called for removing screws, but I was able to simply push the clutch in and remove the spring with a screwdriver and some leverage
Anyways this all brings me to the point of this post
My review and experience of attempting mods as a complete noob from these tutorials:
The whole time I was reading tutorials I had wished they were detailed to every detail, so anyone could do it
I want to see exactly every step u do. Because I have no idea what I'm looking at.
Some tutorial forums had no pictures because the links were now expired, the only reason I was able to pull of these mods was because I had watched a ton of videos that all happened to have bits and pieces of information that I could jigsaw into an understanding enough to do the job
However every tutorial fails to stand alone as an adequate tutorial, missing vital information to some degree.
It would have been incredibly helpful if these things were explained and illustrated at a rudimentary step by step level.
But I understand that each thread is a person putting in their own time. I'm not trying to make demands; Im just saying what would have helped me in my experience
The whole car thing can be intimidating. My friend was calling me crazy as I ripped apart my hood, us both being complete amateurs.
I'm glad this worked out, fortunately it took a whole network of car enthusiasts and educators to help me complete these theee (four) first simple mods
And I'm excited for more
My long term goal is a stage 1 or 2 tune with an inter cooler because Florida and an upgraded clutch.
Also seriously is there a way to adjust the pedals???
(I've clicked links and read threads but have found nothing really!! Maybe I'm inadequate)
Thanks for reading
I'll take her.
My car before this, and first, was an 08' charger se (2.7 l v6) because my mom said I'll kill myself with anything more powerful. It was a you'll shoot ur eye out moment
My experience is an above average understanding of tools and terms, and zero knowledge of car interworkings. I could expertly jump your car or jack and change a tire, and I know, generally, the magic behind how a car operated, but other than that I know nothing and am ill equipped (I had to borrow a screw driver from a guy at Home Depot because I didn't want to have to go to my moms house to get one.)
You guys get it.
Anyways, for some reason I was struggling for a long time to master smooth clutch engagements (I've put 13,000 now on my used '15 from 27,000), and although I'd never say it because it sounds like a cop-out, I think it was mostly the cars fault. I really just couldn't figure out the clutch consistently.
However that's not what brought me to golfmk7, instead I was finally exploring downshifting and heel/toe and really disliked the position of the gas pedal in relation to the brake pedal.
That's what brought me here, but exploring the holy bible and the stocky about how to make ur gti not suck, I stumbled upon the first 3 mods that I have now done to my car.
After a late night expedition of having 30 tabs open of forums, I decided I had educated myself enough and had the means and time to complete the first task
1) clutch stop - the only con I saw was a comment that said "or you could just learn how to drive" but I disagree why not engineer it better if u can? Plus I would take ANY advice that could improve my inconsistent engagements, and it was the easiest DIY. It was 9:10 Home Depot closes at 10 I could quickly hunt for the right pieces and while I was there I ask to borrow a screwdriver and perform the job in the parking lot like the lowly noob that I am. Nothing but my flashlight and a return for more of the right size and a second visit for screws I decided I needed, my only concern was not making the poor old man think I ripped him off a screw driver.
I had to jerry rig the whole thing, not as clean as the forum tutorial went along but I gave her a try and it felt okay. Mission accomplished. I was excited, relatively suprised and please with the result, and feening for more.
2) the second task that seemed most possible for my budget and equipment (and the one I wanted to do most) was the clutch bleeder block valve removal however since I didn't have a bleeder kit or anything I needed my friends help, he agreed to help me tonight. I went to the store and eventually got help from three O'riley auto parts associates who were a lot less knowledgeable than I thought they'd be. However they were nice and overall helpful (just not like super smart hobbiest know it alls that I was hoping for (? Is that normal))
Anyways I got the $7 dot 4 and met my friend at the fateful hour, it was at his place cause his dad had tools on deck. I had all of the steps memorized based on what I've watched and read online. Let me say I definitely hit road bumps, following a tutorial, removing the air intake they never mention removing the front grill piece that's over the front of it. I knew I could do this only because of a different video I happened to watch about installing a different air intake. So I take that off and when I go to remove the intake after removing all of the instructed parts, I get unexpected resistance. There are rubber parts I've never seen or read about before, I had to pry around one with a flat head only to learn I destroyed another one while trying to force it out. Fortunately these were only fasterners and I think the intake is still secure overall. I run into a few more road bumps, struggle to break the diaphragm, blast the bits out with an air compressor, get flouid squirted all over while I'm bleeding the line, I just wing the whole job and assume (reasonably) that that'll do.
This was the only mod I told my friend I'd be doing, lo and behold I see exposed before me an area whose location was formerly unknown to me, but now that I was enlightened I informed my friend, who was ready for bed 'let me do this one other mod real quick, while I have it all open' which leads me to
3) shifter alignment - why didn't I plan to do this one at my friends house? I had watched a video tutorial, linked and suggested by the "make ur gti not suck" thread, however the parts the guy were demonstrating on were entirely removed from the car, and I had no idea where they were located in an actual car. Secondly I was only able to perform the mod because another separate video taught me how to remove the boot from the shifter, exposing the alignment home thread.
I finish all the steps I had memorized, hope to myself I havent shat the bed, reassemble the now destroyed air intake and struggle to put on the front grill frame thing, and ask my friend to join me for a test around the block
I'm pleased to announce shes running fine and the shifting feels much slicker. The clutch, I'll have to feel out more. No mind bending feedbac
OH and that reminds me I almost forgot. #4) clutch assist spring removal
Super easy, some tutorial called for removing screws, but I was able to simply push the clutch in and remove the spring with a screwdriver and some leverage
Anyways this all brings me to the point of this post
My review and experience of attempting mods as a complete noob from these tutorials:
The whole time I was reading tutorials I had wished they were detailed to every detail, so anyone could do it
I want to see exactly every step u do. Because I have no idea what I'm looking at.
Some tutorial forums had no pictures because the links were now expired, the only reason I was able to pull of these mods was because I had watched a ton of videos that all happened to have bits and pieces of information that I could jigsaw into an understanding enough to do the job
However every tutorial fails to stand alone as an adequate tutorial, missing vital information to some degree.
It would have been incredibly helpful if these things were explained and illustrated at a rudimentary step by step level.
But I understand that each thread is a person putting in their own time. I'm not trying to make demands; Im just saying what would have helped me in my experience
The whole car thing can be intimidating. My friend was calling me crazy as I ripped apart my hood, us both being complete amateurs.
I'm glad this worked out, fortunately it took a whole network of car enthusiasts and educators to help me complete these theee (four) first simple mods
And I'm excited for more
My long term goal is a stage 1 or 2 tune with an inter cooler because Florida and an upgraded clutch.
Also seriously is there a way to adjust the pedals???
(I've clicked links and read threads but have found nothing really!! Maybe I'm inadequate)
Thanks for reading
Last edited:
