I asked the question on the mk2 owners Facebook page and the consensus was coilover socks are definitely worthwhile. And like you said hopefully will protect them for future.
I wasn't too concerned about the actual appearance of the caliper but more from a safety point of view. I guess if I'm doubting it I already know I shouldn't bother and either find an alternative or just stick with the existing mk2 calipers for now.
What a journey to collect it! Looks like it was worth it though and appears solid in the right places which is a massive bonus. Its goo to see a few new build threads appearing, I find it motivates me to get outside and work on mine.
I've had some polo gti stub axels and calipers for some time now. These allow you to do away with the taper bearings. They been in a box in the garage waiting to be fitted. I've just noticed that someone has grinded some of one of the calipers away! I'm guessing for wheel clearance? I'm planning on fitting all of this when the new bearings and discs arrive but not sure what I think about the calipers now? Maybe I'll source some mk3s that don't require a conversion hose. I've heard the bleed nipples seize on these so I thought I would try amd get these free whilst I make a decision on what to do with them Also ordered some Sayner Works 10mm stub axel spacers and longer high tensile bolts. I think sometimes standard wheels can become a little lost on the rear of mk2s when you start to lower them. From what I understand these put less stress the wheel bearing compared to a normal spacer? Also ordered some of these coilover socks to protect my other new purchase- some BC Racing coilovers. Really excited to get these fitted. I was so impressed with some of the mk2s at Curbourgh on track, everyone was either using BCs or KWs. They've been on my wishlist for sometime amd I've watched the prices creeping upwards. It was a hard decision on what to go for but the BCs offered more adjustment for the comparable priced KW V1. Obviously V3s would have been nice bit I just couldn't bring myself to spend twice the money of the BCs and 2nd hand sets just didn't seem to come up. Sadly no photo of the coilovers yet but I shall be booking a day off soon to get them fitted and setup and maybe get the stub axels on too.
I think I've found some good advice on my powersteering issue. The issue is definitely more obvious when the weather is or has been wet. I think this is causing the belt to slip and then in turn maybe heat and stretch 🤷♂️
The solution is try and protect the belts from the weather and see what happens. I didn't realise that there should be a lower v belt cover until the other day. I sourced one of these 2nd hand which arrived today. Soggy conditions to be rolling around but ideal to see if it make any difference. Part number for big bumper mk2s is 191825250A or 191825250 for small bumper. It fixes to the front cross member and under the wheel arch lining. I went for a test drive but I think this is one for those things where time will tell. I got alot of response on Facebook about this and it seems that is solved the same issue for others. Fingers crossed its going to solve mine 🙏
The golf hasn't had much attention recently other than taking a beating on the winter roads. I've neglected it abit due to house renovations which has consumed all of my time and money! It was filthy so definitely needed a decent clean, otherwise it's going well except for the powersteering belt issue which is still bothering me. I've found so many screws on my driveway from the building work, typically got one in the side of my new tyres I left it jacked up for 3 or 4 days whilst I left my wheel and new tyre with a mate. Strangley when I put it back on the ground the rear calipers had seized on. Not sure if this was because I'd left handbrake on? I managed to release then and found my brakes were juddering, this gradually got better over a few miles and brakes seem absolutely fine now. No idea what happened there?
Something else I had stumbled across on YouTube was throttle body porting. I did some reading up and you get mixed feedback on whether its a waste of time or worthwhile. I decided for the cost of some carbide bits and some flap wheels what have I got to lose.
You can see how much material there is inside of the gasket, where as it seems pretty well matched on the intake manifold mating face when you offer the gasket upto it. Marked it up I think this was a during photo before I got the flap wheel on it. I seem to be missing a finished photo of this side. It didn't end up perfect significantly better than where it started. For the otherside, I had read some more info by this point which suggests that there isn't much point taking any material off other than the ramp at the top (bottom in my photo) initially I was going to try and knife edge but I'm glad I didn't as I didn't enjoy any part of this little project 🤣 I was quite worried about making sure I got all metal grindings out of throttle body before refitting. I used a whole can of carb cleaner on it 😅 Fitted back on car I was quite eager to take it for a drive to see if there was any noticeable difference. I tend to agree with some of the feedback I had read online- part throttle feels more responsive than before. it seems keener from low revs but once the revs start building I can't really feel any difference.
Yes I had to push the pump all the way in to get the belt off so maybe that just how they are.
I didn't adjust the bracket no. I didn't realise there was any adjustment in the bracket itself. Yes some of the teeth have chipped off mine but I'm finding it easier to tighten using a regular bolt and tensioning the pump and belt by levering it with a large screwdriver. Hopefully it will hold up this time 🤞🏻
After seeing Tim's subframe bolts I decided it wouldn't hurt to have a quick spanner check over mine this weekend. Fortunately everything seems to be good in terms of subframe, ball jointed, arbs, engine mounts etc.
However my power steering belt has come lose, think this is the 3rd time since pas conversion was fitted a few months ago. Jacked car up this afternoon to have a look and see if I can work put what's happening. I am wandering if I have over tensioned belt and stretched it if this is possible? Found a selection of belts in the garage although they were all too big 🤦♂️ As you can see it has pretty much been on it's maximum adjustment. I gave up on those tension bolts a while ago, the teeth on my bracket are almost none existent at the part I need them for anyway. This was after I'd loosed everything off faffing with the belts This was refitted and tightened back up, very little adjustment left. Maybe I have the wrong belt? The microswitch on my throttle body was making me suspicious as it had a cable tie on it! My car would sometimes stutter when you start it up but wasn't consistent. I bought a pack of spare microswitch some time ago as I know these are prown to falling but I noticed I have 2 complete tb's in my abf spares box so cleaned one up for a test. I know you can check them with an ohm meter but the chances of me finding tester and the batteries not being flat were minimal and certainly by outweighed by the 10-15mins of fitting a spare throttle body. Dirty old throttle body. I forgot to photo the clean tb but I can assure you it was. I think you can take some metal out of these and match to the gasket and inlet but that's maybe something to think about another day Also I sent my demobilised ecu back for some tweaks incase thus was linked to my stutter, so this was refitted too. Carrier bag for added waterproofing 🤣
Probably should have tested microswitch and ecu separately to determine which made an improvement but went for a nice little blast and it feels back upto 100% I'll keep an eye on the pas belt situation but may pickup a new belt to measure against mine if it does come lose again.
I'm off to Retrorides at Mallory Park next weekend with the mk2 owners club. So brimmed it with fuel and check my levels, its a wash away from being ready now.
Whilst we are on the subject of the plastic "pins". The ones on my seat rail covers have gone AWOL. Any thoughts on where I get replacements? Thinking.....kite spars may do the biz if I haven't binned the old kites!
Mine are missing too Andy, my covers are just sitting lose. Let me know if you find any or buy some spares 👍🏻
Can't go wrong with ra's in my opinion. They will finish the car off nicely. Fair play for the DIY refurb on them, I can't even bring myself to clean my ras 🤣
I’ve looked at the rclick kit before and considered Doing it. If I didn’t have factory c/l I would for sure. But having factory air c/l I wasn’t sure how best to integrate it.
Good to see you solving this, perhaps I’ll take another look.
Did you get a flip out key?
I didn't go for the flip key, to be honest I didn't notice that it was an option. It would confuse me with the van keys so probably just as well 😅
I looked into teeing off a vacuum pipe etc into drivers side door and fitting just a remote switch into boot by the pump but that seemed way more complicated for my simple mind to overcome.
So far the only teething problem I've had was the window catching and snapping the wires when I wound it down so I've tucked them right out of the way
Midlands would be ideal for me. Caffeine and machine is always a good place to meet. Bristol is just a bit too far for me, maybe I could make it on a one off mind
