Project Red XIII: avenali312's OEM+ GTI

[avenali312]

New tires went on last week. The old DWS06 were getting down around 3/32" and starting to get a bit loud. These new ones are Continental SRS+. According to some research, these are supposed to be identical to the DWS06+ as far as compound goes, just formed in a different mold so they can be an exclusive to Discount Tire. They are a few dollars cheaper per tire and also had an instant savings of $110, so I figured I would give them a go. So far so good. Alignment later this week to make sure they wear nicely.

 

[Diggs24]

 

[avenali312]

Car is coming up on about 73k miles. Started to feel some bumps at idle recently. Think it might be about time to get some carbon cleaned along with my DSG service next month.

 

[avenali312]

Mostly basic maintenance stuff recently. Had the DSG serviced and valves walnut blasted.

Also threw on the second set of yellow Lamin-x fog light covers that I had laying around. This definitely moved the color more towards yellow like I was hoping. Photos don't really do it justice, but when installing and comparing the left to the right light when one had two layers on and the other only one showed a pretty drastic difference.

Comparing photos taken 4 years apart is pretty useless, but here they are haha.

Single layer:

Two layers:

 

[avenali312]

After searching for the cause of some intermittent starting issues, I ended up replacing the battery, N80 purge valve, and PCV in the past week. More can be read here:

https://www.golfmk7.com/forums/index.php?threads/stumbling-start-in-maybe-humid-weather.441217/

 

[avenali312]

After keeping up with the Understanding the MK7 PCV function thread for a bit, and my recent issues with the N80 and PCV, I decided to revert back to stock and remove my MST inlet hose and TIP.

I know that @DerHase has mentioned that most of the time this isn't really terrible unless you're tracking your car and creating a smoke show, but I do think that I fall into a "worst case" scenario with my daily driver. It's all hypothetical at this point, but I think I fall into the category of "loose ass engine" (DerHase's quote from his video haha), failing PCV, and just a ton of idle time with my daily commute and Atlanta traffic. If I understood the video correctly, there's a chance that my PCV just isn't doing a lot of work and it's open most of the time (I watched it last week and may be misremembering since then haha).

There are signs of weeping in multiple places (upper timing cover, oil cap, both ends of the PCV hose going to the TIP, and oil pan), so the plan is to clean up that evidence and just keep an eye on it from here on out in stock form.

Puddle of oil in the TIP

Some residue up into the inlet hose where it connects to the TIP

Turbo looked good and no shaft play

 

[avenali312]

Small update. Went down to my trusted indie this morning and had him look over everything the dealer wanted to replace for $3,800 due to my increased crankcase pressure (valve cover, cam cradle, oil pan, etc). He showed me everything the dealer noted, but said that none of it was anywhere near needing addressed other than the oil pan. No rush on it though as it's not even really forming droplets yet, but said he can replace it during my next oil change for the cost of the part and minimal labor.

 

[Diggs24]

dealer gonna dealer

 

[avenali312]

dealer gonna dealer

I know... I need to figure out how to get this suction pump recall taken care of for free once they have a fix without having to go see them

 

[Diggs24]

It's so easy, just do it. or have your indie do it.

 

[avenali312]

Figured I would share my weird findings in my fender liner from my other thread where I'm tracking some intermittent starting issues.

Took the time this weekend to pull the charcoal canister. No signs of fuel in there at all.

Here's a fun thing. About a year ago we had seen signs of a mouse living in our basement. Most notably, it had destroyed a golf club headcover that my wife had knitted for me. We never could find its nest or where it took all the yarn. I think we found it

I did visually check all the wiring in that area and don't see where anything was chewed. This is also the only place I've seen anything, never any trace under the hood. Guess the next time I rotate my tires, I'll pull the other three fender liners to check.

I don't think this would have anything to do with my issues as the missing headcover predates my starting issues. I did have to pull some yarn out of that plastic cover that goes over the fuel neck, so it would seem it was packed between the fender liner and that cover.

 

[avenali312]

Installed four new Beru ignition coils this weekend. Definitely a noticeable difference in idle smoothness. Cleared my misfire codes to keep an eye out to see if they return. Time will tell if it helps with the intermittent starting issue. Pulled the plugs while I was in there to check on how they are burning. Everything looks good after about 15k miles on them.

Also, with Georgia summer fast approaching, I threw in my new H6-sized Aliexpress battery blanket.

 

[avenali312]

Basic maintenance with an oil change. Also had a new oil pan installed at the same time to help with the weeping. Oil report from Blackstone below. This one was an 8,766 miles interval. The injector cleaner mentioned in the notes was a bottle of Jectron that I mentioned when submitting the oil sample.

It appears that the injector cleaner didn't significantly skew any of the results from this report. Wear metals are in familiar territory relative to the trends for your VW 2.0L turbo. Finding silicon at 7 ppm once again indicates quality air filtration and speaks to the integrity of the intake system. Low levels of potassium and sodium rule out coolant contamination. Molybdenum, boron, and calcium-zinc are harmless oil additives and are not related to wear. Viscosity is within specification for the oil type with no contamination from fuel. Spotless report at 78,231 miles.

 

[avenali312]

Nothing major to report lately. I did have to have the seal for the oil level sensor replaced. My indie covered it under warranty since the one that came with the new oil pan had some issues.

I hit 80k on the commute into work today.

 

[avenali312]

Small update, but no photos unfortunately.

Finally installed the Audi rear subframe damper that I snagged from @mrmatto a while ago. No one else will probably ever notice it, and it might be placebo, but I do feel the car is quieter, especially on a lot of the roads around my neighborhood with a bunch of that crack sealer stuff all over the place.

Installed a fresh set of Bosch AeroTwin wiper blades.

Also had my indie do some diagnostics on my intermittent rough starts. After going through everything I've done so far, and that he has seen it pretty common on 2015s, he is confident it's the HPFP based on what he was seeing with rail pressure. He said it's not as bad as some he has seen, so we are going to try and push the pump to at least the next oil change to see if the events are more consistent (since the symptoms pretty much go away in the winter). We will reevaluate next spring/summer.

Got the Quad Lock phone case and vent mount and absolute love it. One of the most sturdy mounts I've had in my car, and way above any $15 Amazon one I've tried haha.