1990 Golf GTI 2.0 ABF: Tales from the Duffer's Side 01/08/16

[Kroney]

Hello, I've lurked for a few years and finally got something worth posting about.

I had an 8v about seven years ago and eventually ended up breaking it. After pining for another one ever since, I've finally found one I want to keep! It's a 1990 in Schwarzblau with an engine transplant from a mk3 16v. The shell's done 132k and the engine 70-odd. Tailgate and wiper grommet rust free, with only a minor scab in the fuel filler neck. I was going to get TSR involved eventually, so the existing engine swap makes me feel a bit better as I wouldn't be ruining an original car.

I've chucked in a few bits I had from my last one, CD holder, leather wheel etc. I'll post some more photos when I get it clean, but in the meantime:



I've had to give it new discs and pads all round, new clutch, new front shocks (the guy previous to me had apparently been using it to drive across fields, so I'm hardly surprised everything below the wheel arch liner was knackered), new thermostat, rear wheel bearings and a couple of coolant and oil leaks plugged up.

Plans are really just to spruce it up and use it. The sunroof and electric windows are a little temperamental, so I'll sort those out, all the speakers are dead so I'm going to replace those, that kind of thing.

[Kroney]

Hi, I thought I'd bang in an update. Quite a lot has been done to the car, though I don't really have any pictoral evidence.

The PO really didn't treat this old girl very well at all. Since the above, I've had to replace half the oil seals and a new 'stat housing and new water pump fitted. The old one was rattling like a ******* and leaking coolant everywhere. Must have been on the verge of collapse. Also it stopped wanting to idle. Unless you nursed it to a halt it'd just die. After having it conk out six times on the trot in heavy traffic on the North Circular, followed by immediately dying when starting unless I manually kept the revs up, I thought enough was enough. Most common cause according to the internet was the ISV. Since it was due for its MOT anyway, I just got the garage to do the lot. Car passed its MOT with only a couple of perished CV boots. For about three months it ran flawlessly.

Until yesterday, when it started blowing blue smoke under hard acceleration. I don't have the facilities to have the head off at my flat, so I've had to take it in to my preferred garage. I'm expecting a big bill.

Things that need doing:
Rear suspension. This thing's been squatting like a shitting dog since I got it and feeling very nervous and insecure on bends. I suspect that the bushes are worn and maybe the springs/shocks on the rear have gone, result in the nose up pose.

Paintwork. The paint's pretty ropey, especially on the bonnet. Needs a bloody good polishing at the very least and perhaps a new top-coat.

Sunroof. The mechanism inside is badly rusted, resulting in a roof that won't close properly. I'll have to look into why it was leaking in the first place. Drain holes, probably. It's always the drain holes.

[Kroney]

During September, I did manage to take it on a driving holiday, during which it behaved remarkably well. Aside from the rattle in the engine bay, which later proved to be the bad water pump, and a screeching aux belt, it gave me no problems at all. For a 23 year old car, it was extraordinarily reliable. The only damage from 1400 miles was a screeching aux belt. At one point, a wrong turn even ended up with some unexpected off-roading down a 1 in 4 hill on a heavily rutted track that ended up at somebody's farm gate. With first gear engaged, the clutch out and brakes applied, I was barely able to keep the car under control. The girlfriend was less than pleased with me for that one!

Here's the route:



Along with some photos taken along the way

[Kroney]

I know the old girl's not terribly unusual or interesting, but I think it's a brilliant car. I have high hopes it'll be something to be proud of, one day.

[anthony3p]

Looks like you've got yourself a nice, origins, example, it even has it's original dealer number plates. Really liking the wheels in that colour too

[Kroney]

Unfortunately I've just had word that the engine is dead. At least, it's beyond economical repair as far as getting a garage to do it. I don't have the room to do the work myself, so I'm looking at options. I might be getting TSR Performance involved for a new engine.

[Kroney]

Well, it's been a week. After a lot of umming and ahing and thinking about putting it in a lock up and going back to moderns until I can get a driveway to work on it, I decided in the end that I only really had one option. I didn't see any point in paying a garage to swap a similar engine in just to keep it on the road, yet I also don't have the facilities to carry out an engine swap myself. If I'm going to have to pay somebody to do the work, then I want a better car out of the deal. So it's going in for an upgrade. The 2.0 ABF is going to be rebored. A new cam and manifold will be fitted and it'll be going in within the next couple of weeks. Following this work, I'll be repairing the gear linkages and looking into getting the car polybushed and some decent suspension fitted.

I have a list.

*Broken central locking - Replacement actuator ordered.
*Screeching heater and generally indifferent venting - New blower motor en-route. Heater ducting will need repairing.
*Fogged and cracked lights - Going to have a crack at refurbing the good ones. They're glass, so hopefully I should be able to rig some sort of rag-on-a-stick type contraption to clean the interior.
*Leaky door seal - Looks like it's a replacement on there, so a gentle tickle with a hammer might persuade it to seal properly.
*Wheels need a refurb - They're on the standard 16v BBS RAs at the moment. I may look into getting something a little more interesting.
*Gear linkage - Gear lever is capable of some three inches of movement whilst staying in gear. I am no expert, but I think something's knackered.
*Rear window demister half useless - I've got some metal repair stuff kicking around, so I'll have a crack at that.
*Paintwork is rough - Perhaps just a hand-polish will help, but I suspect it's going to need a mopping, if not a blow over.

All little stuff that I can do on the flatblock forecourt/girlfriend's carpark. KWP shall ride again.

[Kroney]

So I figured I'd do a few little jobs whilst I'm waiting for the call from TSR.

First thing was the central locking. It's been bust since from about a month after I bought the car. Having tracked down a replacement actuator, I took off the door card only to find...



...one of these things is not like the other, VW unit on the left. I've got an aftermarket jobbie. I'm hoping I can just get another aftermarket actuator and that it'll be a simple plug and play affair. They're only about four quid, so no bother. I've also got a lovely rusted screw head in there and a miniature swamp in the bottom of the door. The weather seal on the door is a little porous, so I'll have to change that and hope it eliminates the issue before my door rusts out.

Another job was to replace the heater motor. It's not a difficult task, the bottom passenger dash unscrews and the motor's hiding under some foam. Click the tab, rotate the motor and it pops out. Then you have to remove the multiplug plate to swap to the new motor.



The old motor's on the right with the faceplate unclipped but still attached. Wires unplugged, then swapped and then in Haynes talk, refitting is the reverse of removal.

Something nice is that I keep finding these little tickets stuck to parts whenever I go poking around. Either it's had a LOT of new parts fitted at some point, or these are original factory notes.



One last thing I did was to go digging through the car's past to try to find out where it was originally sold from. The idea was to get some new dealer plates made up by the original dealer. Unfortunately, they all seem to have shut down, or no longer sell cars. It was originally sold by Black and White in Worcester, it bounced around for a bit until it was sold by Martock Motors, also defunct, whose plates it was wearing when I got it. I did the best I could with the tools I had to had and got some new plates made with the Martock details on it.



It's a shame to do it, but the plates were knackered and the rear screws had all but dissolved and had started to take the boot along with them, so they had to go.

[fer4l]

Good work - nice car

See you on 31 May?!

Cheers

Matt

[joejoelowlow]

Looks good, My 8v is in the parents garage waiting for free time to come. Such ace cars. Would you be going fro another ABF?

[Kroney]

Quick sit-rep post. The car still lives. A new engine is being run in after being fitted over the last month or so. A few further small things have changed. The spots were a mess, so I got some replacements on ebay. The stickers are maybe a little scene, but I like them.



The headlights were just dirty and came up well enough with a bit of glass cleaner.



The rear bumper's wonky, so I took it off to find the problem was caused by what looks like a pretty low speed shunt, which has bent the metal bar of snapped the locator runners.




The good news is that there's no bodywork damage underneath the bumper and it looks like there's no rust, either!



Second hand replacements are getting pretty expensive, plus due to the rare-ish colour I'd need it sprayed. I've found some new replacement locator clips though. I will have a go at straightening the bar before anything else. Anybody got any tips?

As for the engine, the car was taken to have the work done at the end of February. Now, I'm an amateur at absolute best, mechanically. I am not up to swapping an engine at the best of times, so my options were a) pay a garage to swap to another 15 year old engine with unknown provenence or b) have the current engine rebuilt, upgraded and tuned. In the end, I chose the latter. The car was in a right old mess by the time I got it to the garage, blue smoke on gear changes, overruns and under heavy acceleration. It had also developed a bottom end death rattle, which turned out to be a piston shell shaking itself to pieces. That the car made a two hundred mile trip to get to the tuner's was an absolute miracle.

However, it did make it and a month later, this is the result:



2.0 litre ABF engine bored out to 2.1, 83mm Wossner pistons and a 288 cam. Lumpy as you like and quite a laugh to drive. Even on the standard exhaust it howls at you when you give it some throttle. It's still bedding in, so I can't give it the amount of beans it is quite clearly begging for but even so it's a lot of fun!

[latemistered]

Very nice. Engine looks lurrvely.

Bumper wise, I could be wrong but you should be able to remove the metal bar and replace from any other rear big bumper, keeping your colour correct facia. You can take the bar out of the front so I don't see why it would be different for the rear.

[MK2VR6]

Nice - lovely looking mk2 . I have an affinity for mk2's myself . One thing though, please, please tell me you've kept the original plates? They look so much nicer!

[Kroney]

Cheeky vid

[Kroney]

I'm told that with a better metering head and exhaust, plus a vernier pulley and a rev limit increase will see me get to around 190bhp. That'll be for another day, though. There are other things I want to do first. Next stop heater, suspension and some bodywork. It's plenty quick enough for now.

[Kroney]

Jan 21, 2014 12:29:28 GMT Kroney said:

I have a list.

*Broken central locking - Replacement actuator ordered.
*Screeching heater and generally indifferent venting - New blower motor en-route. Heater ducting will need repairing.
*Fogged and cracked lights - Going to have a crack at refurbing the good ones. They're glass, so hopefully I should be able to rig some sort of rag-on-a-stick type contraption to clean the interior.
*Leaky door seal - Looks like it's a replacement on there, so a gentle tickle with a hammer might persuade it to seal properly.
*Wheels need a refurb - They're on the standard 16v BBS RAs at the moment. I may look into getting something a little more interesting.
*Gear linkage - Gear lever is capable of some three inches of movement whilst staying in gear. I am no expert, but I think something's knackered.
*Rear window demister half useless - I've got some metal repair stuff kicking around, so I'll have a crack at that.
*Paintwork is rough - Perhaps just a hand-polish will help, but I suspect it's going to need a mopping, if not a blow over.

Hello, I thought it might be time to update the thread chronicling my enthusiastic but bumbling efforts at old car ownership. I'm working a lot of this stuff out as I'm going along, not having any real experience. This post is mostly going to be a catalogue of me fouling something up and then taking four times as long to work out how to fix it.

I've done a few bits and bobs recently (mostly swearing and drinking tea), but the summer has seen me knock a few things off the list. Firstly, the central locking. I ordered a new actuator and hopped in, taking the old one out, disconnecting all the wires and then...oh, the new one has wires all of a different colour to the old one and I can't remember what went where. I was left to touch wires together to try and work out where things went. The Golf has three wires in the door. Red, red/white and red/yellow. As you'd expect, red is power and the other two are unlock/unlock signals. The problem comes from, what appears to my limited electrical knowledge, a totally -about-faced circuit. You'd expect that it'd be a simple case of red to red, lock/unlock to actuator equivalents. No. You need to wire actuator black to car red to get the power flowing down the lock/unlock switches in a manner the car expects. It took me all bloody evening to work that out as I was under the impression that actuator black was a simple earth. If another Golf owner finds themselves in a similar situation, have a picture.



Black goes to red, brown to red/yellow and white to red/white. I have no idea whatsoever what those other two wires are all about, but there's no power there and the door works, so that's all that matters to me!

Whilst I had the door cards off, I took the opportunity to fit some new component speakers and refresh the door membranes. After replacing the speakers, the head unit stopped working. I was tired and sweaty and incredibly grumpy by this point (manual labour isn't my strong suit) and threw my toys out of the pram. Assuming it was broken, I went and bought an identical one. The mrs kept saying things like "Are you sure it's broken? It's a bit of a coincidence it stopped working right after you were mashing about the electrics like a semi-intelligent chimp", or words to that effect. Ignoring her, I waited for days, getting stroppier and stroppier, for this replacement to turn up. In the end I got too impatient and bought a third off a different site. The two radios turned up on the same day.

Neither radio worked.

It was then I noticed the frayed wire in the back of the ISO block. Somebody had wired in a switched feed at some point to turn the radio on when the ignition activated. I couldn't be bothered to replace that, so bridged the switched and live from the radio to the live from the car. Working radio. Long story short, I'd wasted two weeks and three hundred pounds buying two replacement stereos to replace a third that was never broken. Net result: three working stereos, no money, damaged pride and a woman that thinks I'm a pillock.

To do all the speakers, I needed to dismantle the lower dash and centre console, to get the wiring and crossovers mounted. In a classic case of a job snowballing, I figured I might as well continue to dismantle everything so I could get the heater matrix out. I'd had some problems with the heating... well, not heating. The usual culprit is a pair of valves on the matrix hoses. Back in the distant past, a few heaters failed, causing hot coolant to flood into the footwell. VW issued a recall but, instead of replacing the matrix, inserted these safety valves. These valves fail, get jammed, can't be replaced because they're obsolete and block your heating off. I was going to replace the hoses with new ones, to do away with the valves and figured that I'd better replace the matrix with a new, later one. The later ones don't have the same weakness, so don't need the valves. Also, the foam on the flaps that direct the airflow crumble away, stopping you from being able to control the flow of air and firing bits of gross old curse word at you through the air vents. Not nice.

Oh my God, what an utter pain in the this job is. As a guide, I used another couple of threads that describe how to get the airbox out and how to go about repairing the flaps. They are here:

First thread
Second thread

If you're going to attempt to do this job, good bloody luck, is all I can say. I came away from this absolutely black with a god-awful mixture of engine dirt, coolant, blood from the legions of cuts and scrapes I picked up from various points under the dash and in the engine bay AND a rather fetching little burn on the back of my hand from massaging coolant hoses.

Anyway, after a Herculean wrestling match with the air box, I finally got it out and split.



Here you can see the control flaps with all the foam curse word removed in the foreground and the airbox behind it. WARNING: THE AIRBOX COMES PREFILLED WITH AN ASSORTMENT OF BUGS AND SPIDERS, ALL DEAD. TRYING TO THROW THEM AT YOUR GIRLFRIEND IS HILARIOUS BUT ULTIMATELY ILL-ADVISED.

I had bought some double sided tape and some table insulation to replace the manky old foam. Once trimmed, I reassembled the fresh air box. Well, I mean, I tried. I'd got one of the flaps incorrectly inserted. When I tried to close the box up, the cog pinged out of the bottom of the box and ended up buried in the recycling box. Upon retrieval of that, I spent ten minutes working out how to put it back in again. I then inserted the new matrix. Backwards. Of course, I didn't realise at first that I had done. The bloody thing wouldn't go into its slot no matter how much I cursed and swore at it. Ten minutes fuming and puzzling and I suddenly realised that the pipes would be pointing into the cabin. I reversed the matrix and it slotted in beautifully.



I then took it back to the car and spend the worst hour of my life struggling to get the bloody thing back where I put it. In the end, I had to get the girlfriend out to guide me into the second bolt hole. A few "left a bit, right a bit, up a bit, oh god I don't know are you even listening to me?" comments later, there was a magical moment when I felt in suddenly give and slide in. By this point it was getting dark.

This was literally the worst job that anybody has ever had to do at any point in their lives. There are people cleaning out festival cesspits across the world who're saying "Don't worry, could be worse, we could be that poor sod in London who's trying to replace his heater matrix". I hope I never have to do that ever, ever again.

[Kroney]

All I had to do was replace the coolant.

That was my thought after replacing the matrix. What a simple job this was. For somebody who wasn't a numpty, anyway. Unfortunately, I am.

Firstly I was losing coolant. Fast. Hadn't done the bottom radiator hose up properly on the water pump. Then, after fixing that, my warning light started blinking again. Then the temp needle started rising and rising and rising. BY the time I'd found somewhere to pull over, I had steam escaping from underneath the bonnet. Thinking that my ham-fisted amatuerism needed a professional eye, I got the AA out. Except my cover had lapsed two years ago. An eye-watering re-joining fee and half an hour later, a chap comes along. After popping the bonnet, he takes one look, points to the heater matrix intake hose and says

"I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be connected to something".

Brilliant. I had my screwdriver, a funnel and a load of coolant in the boot; I could easily have sorted that out myself without the need to get stung in the wallet and, once again, in the pride. My cack-handed bumbling is at fault once more! Still, I'm glad it's not something more serious. I'm glad to say that, so far, I've not had any further problems.

Well, except for the fact that my engine was now covered in coolant, which burned off on the way home and made the missus and I absolutely high as kites during the Sainsbury's trip afterwards. Turns out coolant is some sort of solvent. Just say no, kids.

The result of that Sainsbury's trip was the purchase of some peanut butter. This was met with extreme derision and ridicule from the missus when I told her I was going to put it on my bumpers. I'm rapidly coming to suspect that she thinks there's something wrong with me. It's quite possible she's right. After all, in the last few weeks I've bought three times more radios than I need, turned my car into a hotbox and now I'm going to start spreading sandwich condiments all over my car.

On the plus side, the results of that application speak for themselves. Here's the car, post application, looking entirely innocent of the trouble it's causing and, actually, somewhat respectable.



I expect I'll have more ridiculous anecdotes about my struggles with stupid, simple tasks in the near future. God forbid I try anything complicated. I am now utterly convinced that, should I try any serious engine work, the direct consequence will be my engine firing its pistons through the bonnet and into orbit.

[darrenh]

are TSR still around ?

[goingfinn]

I feel your pain with the Heater Matrix. If you find my thread you'll see I've just done the same job on my kadett (mk2 astra) and it was a pain in the back side to say the least!

Here you can see the control flaps with all the foam curse word removed in the foreground and the airbox behind it. WARNING: THE AIRBOX COMES PREFILLED WITH AN ASSORTMENT OF BUGS AND SPIDERS, ALL DEAD. TRYING TO THROW THEM AT YOUR GIRLFRIEND IS HILARIOUS BUT ULTIMATELY ILL-ADVISED.

Your warning may have come too late as I did try this and to say it was frowned upon is a major understatement


The Golf is coming along nicely. Great work so far

[Kroney]

Just posting to relate a couple of things. I've been chasing a persistent coolant leak since I did the heater matrix. On my way into work the other day I had to pull over to top it off again. I was running late, so did it double-quick time; I pulled off and ten minutes later the warning light started blinking. Oh God, what's happened this time, I thought. It was then I noticed the long, shiny line of liquid following me around. With visions of popped radiators and ripped hoses flying through my mind, I quickly pulled over and discovered I'd left the STUPID expansion cap off. What a total fool.

As if to reward all of my natural mechanical talent, the car's started graunching when it hits a sudden bump. Seems to be on the front left and is a sort of grinding/knocking noise. The suspension's been a bugbear of mine on this car from the start, but it does have two new shocks on the front struts so I should be fairly safe in ruling those out. I'm worried I might have a cracked spring on there.

In nicer news, I was parked up on the Chiswick high road the other evening and as we were preparing to pull off, an Irish chap launched himself at the car, waving and gesticulating. Turns out he wanted to buy it. It's nice when that happens, but I'd rather people left a note, rather than attempt to throw themselves under my wheels.

I'm also now starting to think about things like new wheels and interiors. During the Nineties and 00s, there was a fashion for ripping out whatever seats you had and sticking in some Rainbow trimmed ones. The Rainbow trim was a late spec option and mostly appeared on the run out edition, just before the mk3 came out. As a result, they're pretty ubiquitous. Mine, judging by the doorcards, was a recipient of this later speccing up and would originally have come with the classic mk2 red checked trim as here:



I could set it back to that, but I'm toying with the idea of installing a set of the earlier trim that was fitted to the pre-87 facelift cars. In black:



or red, which is my preference:



All of this would be a short term affair as I'd eventually want to do something more custom. Maybe get some Corrado seats retrimmed in a dark brown leather, or something.

And wheels. I need some new wheels.

Oct 24, 2014 21:12:00 GMT goingfinn said:

I feel your pain with the Heater Matrix. If you find my thread you'll see I've just done the same job on my kadett (mk2 astra) and it was a pain in the back side to say the least!

Here you can see the control flaps with all the foam curse word removed in the foreground and the airbox behind it. WARNING: THE AIRBOX COMES PREFILLED WITH AN ASSORTMENT OF BUGS AND SPIDERS, ALL DEAD. TRYING TO THROW THEM AT YOUR GIRLFRIEND IS HILARIOUS BUT ULTIMATELY ILL-ADVISED.

Your warning may have come too late as I did try this and to say it was frowned upon is a major understatement


The Golf is coming along nicely. Great work so far

It took me ages to get back into her good books. Completely unreasonable.

Thanks, it's no classic build thread that's for sure, but it's nice to have somewhere to write stuff down and poke fun at yourself over whatever last piece of truculent metalwork's gone and sliced you open this time.

Oct 24, 2014 11:45:54 GMT darrenh said:

are TSR still around ?

Yeah, pretty busy too by the look of things. I think they've changed ownership a couple of times over the years, though.