GOLFMK8
GOLFMK7
GOLFMK6
GOLFMKV

nicholam77's PP GTI thread

GTIdre1

Ready to race!
Location
Vegas
Haha, yea it was dangerous for sure. Got the CO's. I like they kinda OEM+ since you can reuse stock hardware and dont need hubcentric rings either. They weigh like .5lbs lighter than the stock Austins. The KW coilovers are on back order for like 8-10 weeks, so I went with Bilstein B16's instead. They were about $200+ cheaper than tirerack (no tax through neuspeed.com).

Ill post some pics and start a build thread once I have everything. Where do you host your pics? Oh, and she looks really good! Very happy with my decision on the wheels!

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
 

RRocket

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
OKC
Minor update on the car / build.

BFI motor and trans mounts are great.

I still have a rocking/bucking on acceleration and deceleration in the lower, torque-ier gears (mostly 1st and 2nd), and a slight hesitation or hiccup in the higher gears (3,4,5). I don't think it's the mounts anymore, having brand new motor and trans mounts, and brand new dogbone lower and upper insert. Unless my dogbone bushing itself is trashed, but it seems unlikely to me after only 3 years and 23k miles of casual city driving. No launches, no track days, no tune. It's just a daily driver.

My latest inclination is it could be the dual-mass flywheel somehow, or something with the clutch. I'd love a different clutch setup anyways as I've never been very fond of the OEM one, so I'm debating on whether or not it's worth it to save up for that. But in any case the lurching is kind of driving me nuts and ruining the driving experience in a way.

On another negative note my VWR + stock dampers setup is for sure deteriorating. Suspension feels crashy over any little bump.

Over the weekend I made some small coding tweaks.

Removed Direct Acceleration Tweak.

I did this to attempt to put things back to stock to see if it would help the engine rocking. It didn't, really.

Then I coded my tail lights to ROW settings so only the outers light up on braking. Previously I had inner and outer light on braking, but there was a slight delay from outer to inner that I couldn't figure out how to get rid of and thought it would be cleaner without.



Other than that I haven't paid the car too much attention in the way of mods lately. Had a kid 8 months ago and it has worked well for baby duty. It actually has more rear seat room for the car seat than my wife's CX-5. Was pleasantly surprised about that.



On that note I scored some OEM pop-in shades for the rear windows and hatch, locally, for free! They work great.





There's lot's of things I'd still like to do to the car, ideally:

- minimal looking front splitter
- proper summer tires
- clutch (probably DIY ttrs)
- ECU tune
- coilovers or better shocks

I don't know if or when these things will happen, but probably not anytime soon.

:D

Details on window shade, seat cover, and headrest mirror please. Having our first in November, excited to Dad in the GTI
 

nicholam77

Go Kart Champion
Location
Minneapolis
Details on window shade, seat cover, and headrest mirror please. Having our first in November, excited to Dad in the GTI

Congrats! It's a a wild ride! I think the GTI works great as a baby transporter and looks good doing it.

The window shades are OEM from VW Parts & Accessories. They are very good. I got mine for free from someone who offered them up locally, so I lucked out. New, they are pretty pricey @$270 from the dealer although maybe you could find a better price on eBay or Amazon.

https://parts.vw.com/p/Volkswagen_2016_Golf-GTI/Rear-Sunshades/52645462/5G0064365.html

We have the static clingy cheap ones in my wife's car and my OEM ones are 1000x better. They cover the full window, don't fall off, can still open the window, good visibility in the day and night. Because it includes both rear windows and hatch, there is total shade, and keeps the rear cooler. Inconspicuous from the outside and almost looks like a slight tint. Blends in with the interior and doesn't look cheap. If you can afford it or find a deal, I would highly recommend them, in fact I *almost* want to say they are worth the price of admission.

I believe this is the seat protector and mirror I got on amazon:

www.amzn.com/B01MXQJWRA

www.amzn.com/B00INGNYXS

There are a ton of more-or-less-equivalent products like this out there, but I have no complaints about the ones I ordered.

Several areas so far I think my GTI has really shined as a baby mobile:

1. Rear seat room. It has accommodated both the infant carrier and fixed car seats better than my wife's crossover (Mazda CX-5) leaving more legroom for the driver/passenger up front

2. Rear a/c vents. Great for making sure hot or cool gets back to the little passenger, can make a big different in their comfort

3. The sun shades... see above

4. Safety/visibility features... I love having full LED lighting, amber blinkers, front fogs, rear fog, etc

Have fun, life's too short to drive boring cars!
 

RRocket

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
OKC
Congrats! It's a a wild ride! I think the GTI works great as a baby transporter and looks good doing it.

The window shades are OEM from VW Parts & Accessories. They are very good. I got mine for free from someone who offered them up locally, so I lucked out. New, they are pretty pricey @$270 from the dealer although maybe you could find a better price on eBay or Amazon.

https://parts.vw.com/p/Volkswagen_2016_Golf-GTI/Rear-Sunshades/52645462/5G0064365.html

We have the static clingy cheap ones in my wife's car and my OEM ones are 1000x better. They cover the full window, don't fall off, can still open the window, good visibility in the day and night. Because it includes both rear windows and hatch, there is total shade, and keeps the rear cooler. Inconspicuous from the outside and almost looks like a slight tint. Blends in with the interior and doesn't look cheap. If you can afford it or find a deal, I would highly recommend them, in fact I *almost* want to say they are worth the price of admission.

I believe this is the seat protector and mirror I got on amazon:

www.amzn.com/B01MXQJWRA

www.amzn.com/B00INGNYXS

There are a ton of more-or-less-equivalent products like this out there, but I have no complaints about the ones I ordered.

Several areas so far I think my GTI has really shined as a baby mobile:

1. Rear seat room. It has accommodated both the infant carrier and fixed car seats better than my wife's crossover (Mazda CX-5) leaving more legroom for the driver/passenger up front

2. Rear a/c vents. Great for making sure hot or cool gets back to the little passenger, can make a big different in their comfort

3. The sun shades... see above

4. Safety/visibility features... I love having full LED lighting, amber blinkers, front fogs, rear fog, etc

Have fun, life's too short to drive boring cars!

Thanks man!

My wife drives an Alltrack, so I'm happy most of the things we will buy will be interchangeable or I can just buy two of the same thing and know they will fit and look great in either car. Looking at roof racks and cargo carriers as well. (We have two dogs and parents live within 4-5 hours, so I'm trying to make those trips as easy as possible with a little one)

Have you ever set up the car-seat in the middle seat in the back? I am worried about legroom for upfront passenger if car-seat is behind passenger seat, but as you said it was fine.
 

nicholam77

Go Kart Champion
Location
Minneapolis
Thanks man!

My wife drives an Alltrack, so I'm happy most of the things we will buy will be interchangeable or I can just buy two of the same thing and know they will fit and look great in either car. Looking at roof racks and cargo carriers as well. (We have two dogs and parents live within 4-5 hours, so I'm trying to make those trips as easy as possible with a little one)

Have you ever set up the car-seat in the middle seat in the back? I am worried about legroom for upfront passenger if car-seat is behind passenger seat, but as you said it was fine.

Ah, yeah that's nice. I can't remember 100% but I think putting the seat in the middle wouldn't really let you put the driver or passenger seat back much further because it interferes, so I'm not sure it gains you much for legroom.

But yes, my wife and I are fairly tall (I'm 6' 1" and wife is 5' 10") and have no issues with legroom in the front of the GTI.

One thing is I can't fit our full size stroller in the hatch, so we have a smaller light-duty one if necessary. I'm sure the Alltrack is a bit better in that department, but a roof box might be nice if you're road-tripping a lot.
 

nicholam77

Go Kart Champion
Location
Minneapolis
Haha, yea it was dangerous for sure. Got the CO's. I like they kinda OEM+ since you can reuse stock hardware and dont need hubcentric rings either. They weigh like .5lbs lighter than the stock Austins. The KW coilovers are on back order for like 8-10 weeks, so I went with Bilstein B16's instead. They were about $200+ cheaper than tirerack (no tax through neuspeed.com).

Ill post some pics and start a build thread once I have everything. Where do you host your pics? Oh, and she looks really good! Very happy with my decision on the wheels!

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

Nice! They will look great with coils. I'm on VWR springs but I wish I had a bulkier performance tire and just a *little* bit more low and I think they would look perfect.

I mostly host my pics on Imgur, which I have no complaints about, but lately I discovered another option called postimages.org which is free and does a nice job, it's geared towards forum hosting.

Yeah lmk if you start a build thread, would love to check it out.
 

billbadass

Drag Racing Champion
Location
your moms house
love this build! we put our child seat in the middle in the back because heard it was more safe and never had any issues with seat room and have had tall people in both front seats, although each front seat does touch the baby car seat on each side, although it also helps hold it steady in the middle too. video from Car Seat Lady are great for tips on how to really get it snugged in there too. love this car!
 

nicholam77

Go Kart Champion
Location
Minneapolis
It's been awhile since I've posted, even though I still check in on here regularly. Summer really flew by.

One thing that drives me NUTS about my car is the sunroof squeak. When it starts to get cold (sub 50º F), it squeaks like crazy over any little bump. Always made the car feel cheap to me and pissed me off all winter long. It came back a few weeks ago with the cold weather setting in, so I did some research and found a potential fix. It's not my idea, I found it in this THREAD.

About 4-5" in from the rear of the sunroof opening there is a black plastic bar that squeaks if it is rubbed. You can see and hear the noise of me rubbing it in this short YouTube clip:



In the center of it there is a factory piece of very low profile felt, like impossibly thin. This must have been intended to be a buffer, but it's not enough. The fix is to add pieces of adhesive felt to the sides of the black plastic bar.



In the pic above you are standing on the driver's side and looking through the rear of the sunroof area. The sunroof has been opened a few inches to get some clearance.

The felt should be placed so it covers part of the top of the black bar as well as dips into the "valley". I used 1.5mm adhesive felt from Amazon, but I think you could go even thinner if it exists.



It's easiest to apply if you open the sunroof about half way, and reach from the front inside of the car. I used roughly 1" x 2.5" strips, one on each side.

This felt alone took care of the squeak, but while I was working on it I thought I would lubricate the rubber seals that go around the perimeter.



First I cleaned them with paper towels and rubbing alcohol to get the dirt off. Looking at the above photo, make sure NOT to clean out the track for the actual sunroof. It has a special grease applied that should be left in place. Only clean the rubber seal on the outer edges.

I found two recommendations for lubricants, Nextzett Gummi Flege, and DuPont Silicone lubricant w/Teflon.



The Gummi Flege probably works fine, but my issue was it uses an applicator pad instead of of compressed air straw, so it's impossible to reach all areas of the seal. The DuPont lubricant does have a "precision stray" so it was possibly to spray along the whole thing:



After applying the felt and lubricant I went for a test drive (40º F outside) and intentionally hit every manhole cover and bump in the road I could find. NO SQUEAKS from the sunroof. NONE. Same on my drive to work this morning. I am so thrilled with this fix. I haven't tested for watertightness yet, but hopefully it won't be an issue.

Now there's only two things I hate about my car (NVH from dogbone and excessive motor rocking). :D
 

VL3X

Go Kart Newbie
Location
Delaware
Car(s)
2017 GTI SE
^^ This is a great write up! I've been lucky not to have really noticeable sunroof squeaks, but if that changes this winter, I'l definitely be trying this fix. I already use the Pflege on my window/door/trunk seals, but will look into getting a bottle of that DuPont spray lube.
 

nicholam77

Go Kart Champion
Location
Minneapolis
^^ This is a great write up! I've been lucky not to have really noticeable sunroof squeaks, but if that changes this winter, I'l definitely be trying this fix. I already use the Pflege on my window/door/trunk seals, but will look into getting a bottle of that DuPont spray lube.

Still no squeaks yet, the felt seems to have solved it. You're lucky if yours is quiet, fingers crossed it stays that way. I think the issue has made a lot of people on here wish they didn't have a sunroof.
 

nicholam77

Go Kart Champion
Location
Minneapolis
In another boring update I got the car winter prepped last weekend. Swapped to winter wheels and gave it a hand wash for the first time in forever.



Cleaned up the BBS which were caked in brake dust. I really gotta look into some low dust pads when it's time to replace them.



Then clay barred, rinsed, and sealed.





The final result is looking pretty good.



Downside to cleaning your car up is you notice all the new rock chips :mad:

Did not have time to do my usual FluidFilm rust inhibitor treatment on the undercarriage. It's cold now and they've already salted the roads so I might just skip it this year. :eek:
 

riceburner

Autocross Champion
Location
nice try PPNT
Car(s)
MK5 Best GTI
^Did you not 'neade' the claybar during the entire claybarring process? Looks like you didn't just a heads up just in case, always re-work the clay periodically to ensure you aren't just rubbing what it picks up over the rest of the paint as you go along.

That said I just read your whole thread and it's fantastic. I don't usually read all the way through but your attention to detail both in the information you post as well as detail to the car is excellent. Love all the small things; its what makes the experience of modding fun! Keep it up, nice ride.
 
Top