Pineapple's Express 2.0: Dude Where's My Car?

[Pineapple]

This journal is a place to publicly document my notepad musings about my 2015 GTI. Moving into a different phase of my life I really wanted a sporty car, and to move away from driving my eco hybrid box that met its limits around 72mph. Coming from a different 4-wheeled road sport I found myself taking increasingly "spirited" lines in my commuter vehicle and realized I should get something more enjoyable. A friend of mine experienced in vw/mqb convinced me to look at GTIs.

Previously biased against vw drivers, I open-mindedly looked around and found precisely the combo I felt I wanted: base model 2 door manual in reflex silver. Nothing else appealed to me. After being informed by my friend I had found a unicorn, I pulled the trigger and received in June 2022 with approx 52k miles on the odo. Now after thoroughly lurking this forum and putting about 10k miles on daily-ing it, I'm ready to start making improvements and posting about it. I'm not sure if this will be a long term project or if something more interesting will catch my eye, but I'm looking forward to learning the ins-and-outs of it all as I go.

While I really want the ability to do my own work and learn hands on, I currently lack garage space and a backup vehicle to use during extended work. I hope both of these can be arranged in the soonish future but I'll probably start off by finding a local mechanic and having my work done expediently and expensively.

 

[Pineapple]

I'll edit this post later but this is a copy paste from my notepad. A roadmap of things I'd like to do.

Gti things
Order of operations:

1. shifter kit, gear oil change?
2. Drivetrain mounts
3. Health check: inspection for leaks, squeaks, etc. send oil for blackstone, compression test? Pm on water pump? Pm on injectors? Carbon cleaning?
4. Konis SA, rsb, camber?
5. FMIC
6. Oem+ exterior, paint scrapes and windshield lol
7. New wheels/tires (maybe sooner)
8. Clutch
9. This is where we diverge: either head towards BT either APR dtr or whole stg 2->3 project (highway queen path)
10. Or stay stg 1 with OS tune (balanced power manageable heat trackable)

Shifter: would like a more refined slide into gear. Link alignment? Gear oil change or full kit? Also pedals suck for heeltoe.

Drivetrain mountings/bushings - need to correct the excessive rubberbanding and bonks. Very noticeable in 1st and into 2nd

Suspension:upgrade - at 60k miles the stock stuff is probably worn out. Rear feels jittery and unplanted over bumps. Consider: camber , koni SA, rsb, fsb, bfi stg 1 mounts

Clutch: upgrade in preparation for power upgrade. Southbend?

Power upgrade: need to consider the end-goals for the car and what level of power is worth. Need to consider balance overall -- drivability, reliability (maintenance and heat). Following clutch, doing ecu tune is v likely. Choice of tune depends on equipment (accessport etc) and turbo choices. Big turbo progression worth considering if the car won't be tracked/autox'd and just a highway boi. IC mandatory with sg 1 tune.

Cosmetic: rennline splitters and skirts give a nice oem+ look. Could tweak things like mirror caps for color contrast. I don't want to do LED conversion headlights or tails given the price and difficulty. Xenons would be nice but pricey and idk if there's a decent aftermarket option.

Wheels/tires: the pilots are probably aging out this summer, will need replace. Prob do something similar, a solid A/S for the austins. Consider summer set for new wheels + grippier tires. Should just sell the winter set tbh, get some money back

 

[manu97]

Maybe you can hang out with the New England crew to get some of the work done? @dtfd @Acadia18 @mwoodski

 

[Acadia18]

My garage is open to all.

 

[Acadia18]

Except don't even think about bringing a clutch here.

 

[Pineapple]

I can pay in food I think I'm a pretty good cook

 

[dtfd]

Except don't even think about bringing a clutch here.

I'm always willing to help with anything except that.

 

[Acadia18]

1 through 5 are totally doable. I'd have to rely on @dtfd's expertise for #1 because I'm too DSG to have ever done that, but the rest isn't bad.

 

[Pineapple]

1 through 5 are totally doable. I'd have to rely on @dtfd's expertise for #1 because I'm too DSG to have ever done that, but the rest isn't bad.

1 and 2 are quality of life maintenance that'd I'd do even if I was selling in the near future. I haven't made any effort to get maintenance records but #3 is a big one, that will determine the future of the car. A bad inspection report/oil analysis and I'll need to think about whether to keep the car long term.

 

[Pineapple]

Well, it's been a hectic Autumn, and things really won't give me a break in my personal life. Some bad, some good, but I've finally made some headway on a long-outstanding piece of business and I figured I'd update my journal.

On September 12th, I was making my commute home as I do. Coming off exit 127 of the Mass Pike, I was entering what I continue to affectionately call "the circle of death". I began making my merge from the far left lane to the far right lane towards Watertown, crossing 4 lanes of traffic mediated by nothing more than a single yield sign. Before I could even exit my lane, a car appeared from ahead of the car next to me, and merged directly into the space my passenger side door was occupying. I saw them behind and to the right, and I had enough time to gasp as I watched them approach on a collision-course, but not enough to swerve brake, dodge, or honk. My passenger window exploded at me in a spray of tempered glass. My head swam with adrenaline and shock. I wanted to wake up. I really could not process or believe what just happened.

No airbags deployed, probably because I didn't have a passenger (thankfully). From my car, I called the police and managed to convinced them, despite geolocation, I was on the bridge and not actually on the Mass Pike. Staties would have scrambled to keep traffic moving if I were. I got out, and checked the woman in the Nissan. She seemed unhurt, but also in shock. Mostly refused to talk to me. I collected a few photos that I could of the damage without stepping into the curious commuter traffic. You can see my mirror cap jammed into her hood. When the cop arrived, he collected our info, assessed the damage, and called a tow to my location, telling me my car was unfit to drive. I agreed and scooped what personal stuff I could carry. For the lady, he cleared the glass off her hood, pulled free my mirror cap (which he politely returned to me) and sent her on her way. The cop took off after giving me his info and the case number. He told me the people who engineered the interchange were idiots, and that it happens all the time there. Soon after the tow truck arrived, and took away my mauled baby while I stood and saluted.

Despite my spicy implications in the mk7 confessions, the insurance investigation quickly cleared me of wrongdoing. Due to repeated bungling by my incompetent insurance adjuster, the prognosis started as just a new door and wheel, then proceeded to total loss once the appraiser saw the extent of damage, 3 weeks later. I'm still being taken for a ride by insurance and haven't settled, but thankfully I'm financially stable enough to keep afloat. I used a rental for way too many weeks to get to work, and then finally I arranged a sale with a forum bro @ourlee . I met him in Delaware this past Friday, and took possession of his beautiful blue '17 S 4dr 6mt with ~72k miles. He's done a great job tastefully upgrading, maintaining, and overall babying the car since he acquired it. I'm so happy to be back in a GTI! He was very helpful in setting up the sale and making it easy for me to drive it back to MA.

I'll be writing a separate post to describe what upgrades and work he's done for the vehicle, and hash out my plans for the future. Again, very glad to be back among the mk7 gang!

 

[dtfd]

Glad to see you're okay.

I know exactly the intersection you're talking about. I'm in Belmont and have to take the same exit. You're coming off the highway on the right and need to cut across 3 lanes left to make it to the watertown turn. There are people coming from a U turn of a circle that need to cut across two lane right to go to Newton, or one lane to go straight onto the 90. Once you cut across the 3 lanes left you're then merging with two lanes coming from opposite direction. Your two lanes are a left turn only lane now and the people now on your right are in two lanes that are straight ahead only lanes. Within 50 feet a large number of people who are coming from the highway need to merge right in order to straight toward watertown and a large number of people on the other side need to merge left in order to go through the U turn to head toward Newton.

"Idiots" is far too nice of a word to describe urban planners around Boston.

 

[messrock]

Glad to see you're okay.

I know exactly the intersection you're talking about. I'm in Belmont and have to take the same exit. You're coming off the highway on the right and need to cut across 3 lanes left to make it to the watertown turn. There are people coming from a U turn of a circle that need to cut across two lane right to go to Newton, or one lane to go straight onto the 90. Once you cut across the 3 lanes left you're then merging with two lanes coming from opposite direction. Your two lanes are a left turn only lane now and the people now on your right are in two lanes that are straight ahead only lanes. Within 50 feet a large number of people who are coming from the highway need to merge right in order to straight toward watertown and a large number of people on the other side need to merge left in order to go through the U turn to head toward Newton.

"Idiots" is far too nice of a word to describe urban planners around Boston.

You fahkin goobahs just don’t undahstand ah supreme puritan logic.

 

[Pineapple]

Glad to see you're okay.

I know exactly the intersection you're talking about. I'm in Belmont and have to take the same exit. You're coming off the highway on the right and need to cut across 3 lanes left to make it to the watertown turn. There are people coming from a U turn of a circle that need to cut across two lane right to go to Newton, or one lane to go straight onto the 90. Once you cut across the 3 lanes left you're then merging with two lanes coming from opposite direction. Your two lanes are a left turn only lane now and the people now on your right are in two lanes that are straight ahead only lanes. Within 50 feet a large number of people who are coming from the highway need to merge right in order to straight toward watertown and a large number of people on the other side need to merge left in order to go through the U turn to head toward Newton.

"Idiots" is far too nice of a word to describe urban planners around Boston.

I'm about west Cambridge as you can get, so I bet we've crossed paths before! But yeah these days I take route 2 to Alewife rather than take the Pike

 

[Acadia18]

OH LOOK, IT WAS A NISSAN ROGUE. SURPRISE, SURPRISE!

 

[Acadia18]

Glad to hear nobody was hurt, and you were able to move on to a new one.