Anyone still alive??

[Greg Roles]

Sorry guys, been off for ages it seems, 2 years worth of PM's to answer. Apologies to all!!

Been busy, ol Yeti now at 220k and going FAR better than ever. Almost went to Audi early this year then 'Corona, and I decided no debt was the new rich, and cashflow king. Spiced the old girl up some, missus likes GTI front seats the best.

[brad]

That looks great. Lovely wheels.

I'm a fan of the previous face but that looks really good

[Alexsandro111]

Personally, I like the appearance of Yeti more than Karoq.

[Smiley_Walsh]

Are the GTi seats a direct fit? I’ve been toying with replacing mine as well but haven’t looked into it.
Which year model did you part from?
I agree the Yeti is looking great.
Thanks


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[Greg Roles]

Yep, easy fit, although the base is a lot shorter in height, so you have to pump them up to maximum to get to the height where the yeti seats START. If you are shorter and have the seat pumped up at all the GTI seats max out at the stock seat minimum height. No contest on comfort, lateral hold and how they look, Yeti stock seats are crap in comparison. You lose the passenger under seat drawer, but no big deal for me. Mine are MK6 fabric, not a leather fan in sunny QLD!

[Smiley_Walsh]

Awesome. Good info. Thanks Greg.
Took mine to the track last week. Could definitely do with more lateral support..


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[Greg Roles]

The GTI seat rail sits further back than the Yeti, so you will have some rail overhang out the back and the seat will sit quite forward on the rails. If you have shorter legs or you like being up close to the wheel you will struggle. I'm an average 178cm and there's still forward motion for me, just an FYI. I used to consider the stock seats as OK, the GTI seat is however immensely better.

[Sharkie]

I think I saw your Yeti about 2 weeks ago on the coast at Buderim PH. Looked really good!

[Greg Roles]

I think I saw your Yeti about 2 weeks ago on the coast at Buderim PH. Looked really good!

Yep would have been me, I'm an orthopaedic rep and Buderim is one of my haunts. Thanks, I get a lot of comments, mostly " what is it ".

[Greg Roles]

A long overdue update.

Decided to do a full rebuild of the Yeti as I've owned it for near ten years now, and still get asked if it's new. Lot to be said for regular washing and some good polish twice a year, plus looking after your car in general. To this day I still enjoy driving it so very much, it's just such a torquey go-cart.

Anyway, I ended up buying wifey a new Tucson diesel, and this is now my tax purposes car so the budget is tied up on anything else new. The Hyundai is nice but has so many bloody annoying driver aids and seems to want to chime warnings at you every minute, I've decided there's lot to be said for a low tech 2014 car that barely interferes.

I found a low km donor 4x4 Yeti at a nearby wrecker with only 24 thou on it, so have been steadily buying everything from the DSG back. Propshaft, rear Haldex diff, axles, alternator, air con compressor, fuel pumps, you name it. I also managed to find a Audi Q3 CR 170 engine with 80 thou on it and have stripped that back to the block and rebuilt it with Darkside cams, springs, headbolts and anything else worth doing for the medium power levels I'm aiming at, but also to be ready if I did go big turbo. It's all built now ready to drop in, so have a big swap ahead of me, but very much looking forward to it. I also did a mild port job on the head, spent a day on it, and boy isn't diesel porting a very different beast to normal petrol. Got to keep the swirl on the inlet, but can go nuts on the exhaust. Took a ton of research to work that all out, most people make the mistake of flowing the intakes and demolish the swirl features, and lose all the low end torque.

I approximate with OEM GTD 1549 turbo I'll get 220ish hp and towards 500 torx, which is a nice step up from the 140/320 she came with. I reckon I'm at 180ish and 440ish now, and that's been fun.

I agonised over going the usual GTB2260 turbo route, but the idea of a laggy diesel goes against the whole point of a tractor motor - the lazy torx. If I wanted a big power car to rev out, I'd just get a Golf R. That and the fact having to spend further on fuel pumps and injectors starts to add up to "just buy a used SQ5 money". I decided to make the most of the turbo I have, as it starts boosting at 1200rpm, and with the cams will be a fun beastie for a daily. I so very nearly bought the BMW/Alfa2.2 GTD1756vrk, but it seems this is problematic to control on 2014 VAG vacuum conversion, does much better with the electronic control it comes with. I still reckon that would be some fun.

Anyhoo, will log my progress, I have a ton of parts hidden around the house, and some niceties like 034 engine mounts and have pretty much everything new ready to go, all the belts, fluids, filters - have been planning this for about a year.

No doubt I'll have forgotten something, but will be a fun week or so of busted knuckles.

[guile]

nice work mate, not many people do these sort of builds these days...

[Greg Roles]

nice work mate, not many people do these sort of builds these days...

Yeah it does seem to be a dying art, seems people just upgrade their cars these days rather than do rebuilds, although with cost of living that might turn back around! There's no car under a truckload of money that really excites me over what I've turned the Yeti into, and all my mates that drive fancy new cars all say they can't see me driving anything else. The interior and tech is dated, but so too the lack of nanny features to help me drive is a HUGE asset.

Thanks for the comment, it's sad to see the old forums so quiet these days, used to be such a hive of nutters doing all kinds of crazy stuff, and I was very happily amongst it. Guess people don't take the time to write informative posts anymore, and would rather YT or make a rap soundtrack short about their exploits. To be fair I'm a YT addict, but could not be stuffed making and editing video!