Re: My new project - 106 GTI
Update...
Well since December the car has had its moments making me love & hate it even more than ever! Not long after the last update, the car decided it wanted to try and set itself on fire, this was caused by the loom runs in underneath the nearside arch rubbing away at the wing. Turns out it was just wrapped up in electrical tape, luckily this happened on the driveway and not while driving it.
So after many swear words, I set about sorting the issue and had the pain staking job over soldering wires back in to the loom! This was clearly nice and easy when all the colours matched....... NOT!
So after two evenings sat outside in the pouring rain and minus temperatures I got the wires all matched up and soldered, heat-shrunk and put in some conduit. However with it being crap and french it turned out that it had blown the majority of the fuse box so once I traced back what it had also buggered up, I started it and it sprung in to life. We were back in business and I could now start making progress with the things that actually mattered and needed sorting.
2 weeks later..... (January)
Driving to a friends house for a catch up and I pop it in to 5th on a dual carraigeway and I let of the accelarator it throws the gearstick back at me and refuses to stay in 5th gear.... ARGH! So the gate is clearly buggered, not to mention the car had started making some awful noises and rattles from the gearbox, just what I wanted. It also starting making a whining noise from the nearside... which I still can't figure out.
At this point I had lost all hope, I parked the car up and took it off the road until I found the motivation to find another box and fix the sack of shite!
April ...
A miracle happened, I found some motivation and the weather started to get better. This helped me pull my finger out and start fixing the car, I sourced another gearbox off ebay, bought a new clutch, booked and MOT and got started getting back on the road.
I managed to get this all done along with a list as long as my arm to get it ready for the MOT, luckily a few friends chipped in and helped me get it ready.
A couple of late nights in the pissing rain and she was ready..
MOT day came around and I was nervous, while driving the car to the garage, two bulbs decided to screw up along with the new gearbox making some awful sounds. So after a mad rush I sorted the issues and handed over the keys and went for a nice big breakfast.
An hour later I got a phone call saying it had passed with no advisories, I was chuffed however the MOT tester must of fancied me because I really wasn't expecting it to pass, never mind get a clean sheet.
So I finally started to enjoy the car again, I wired the new battery in, sorted the ignition cut, gave it service and was starting to make plans to get a cage in and work towards doing the sprint at Abingdon carnival.
Even took a few photos..
May..
After a thousand or so trouble free miles in the car, I start hearing a knocking noise. At first I thought it could of been a loose engine/gearbox mount, so I changed the top gearbox mount and checked the lower one was tight, noise was still there.
I was beginning to hate the car again, it was just one thing after another. I jacked the car up and popped both front wheels off and stuck the car in gear to investigate the noise to discover lots of play in the diff, when the car was in gear you could turn the wheel a good 270 before it engaged. Great so another buggered gearbox, at this point I decided to drive it until it broke.
During this time I picked up a set of 205 speedlines for a steal so I couldn't say no!
I was happy and started lining up another gearbox until crap luck set in again.
After pottering round in my brothers car for work I came home to find my car looking like this outside my house....
A neighbours friend had reversed in to it and just driven off and not bothered to let me or my family know. I managed to figure out who had done it after knocking on his door with a piece of paint left on mine from his car, asking if he had a friend with that colour car after first saying no, I threatened to call the police what do you know an hour later I get a knock at the door.
I didn't really want to bother with insurance, so I suggested he purchased the new wing and paid for it to be painted and he agreed, thank god!
June..
After finding an indigo blue wing on ebay for £28.00 with arch I got straight round to fitting it.
I sent the car off to the paint shop the following week, and got it painted up however a 13 year red car it which is had faded pretty bad in places I wasn't expecting great things for this new red wing which stands out like a sore thumb, the door is pink at the bottom and the wing is red and matches the new wing lol!
While the car was getting paint done a friend offered me a dished steering wheel out of his mk2 escort rally car he was breaking, so I couldn't say no. I knew I had to bring the wheel closer to me as I felt cramped with the old wheel and couldn't bring the seat as far back as I needed to.
With the new wheel fitted the car feels great to drive, so much more comfortable. So after getting the car I finally sourced another Gti box off an a forum instead of ebay, I arranged courier and got it fitted last week. The car is now driving so much better, no more knocks every time I lift of the throttle.
However one issue I am having, which I have had since the first box gave up is I am getting a high pitch whine from the nearside, I can dip the clutch, brake etc and it doesn't go away. It seems to come and go and the only time it stops happening is when I come to a halt. I have noticed it always from 30mph in any gear :/ I am stumpted to what it could be, I am going to change drive shaft next week and also the speedo drive, as I have used the same one in all 3 boxes.
Next major jobs on the list are -
source and fit full cage.
fit new master cylinder and braided lines.
fit floor plates and griptape.
Hopefully if I get all that sorted I will be doing an abingdon track day next month aswell an autosolo with my local motor club..
I am hopefully also picking up a new project and donor car next week, its another gti in silver, the bottom end has gone so i am going to strip it for all useable parts and keep them as spares for this car. Providing the shell is in decent condition I will be stripping it back and starting from ground up, building up the shell over time with intentions of building another car to enter a race series with.
