Paul's VR6

[itsagolf]

I have owned my VR6 since May 2010, am second owner, bought off a friend of mine. Car is stock standard, now has 108,000km on the clock. I still have the original owners manual, service log book and a few other bits & pieces from when car was first sold. Still have the Service history, I have let the side down on that front . I have not been driving the car much as I work in the city so mostly on the train.









Not much has happened in 9 years it is now back end of 2019. I have kept the Golf despite pressure to sell given its not our main car, but am so glad I still have it.

Replaced the coilpack in 2016 based on good advice from the forum . Had some frustrating previous failed attempts with mechanics at local garage.



I put in a new head unit that has bluetooth and handsfree, still have to finish the handsfree install part.
new Head unit installed - Pioneer DEH-S5050BT
* Key features are bluetooth & support for iPhone, Spotify and handsfree



Then had the coolant system issue in June 2019, again great advice from the forum that stopped me spending more $$ than I needed to, big thanks for that



Was great to fix the coolant issue, first time I ordered stuff from ECS in the US, all went very well. Now want to drive the car more often, will keep an eye out for drive days, that sounds like fun. I am somewhat of a noob re mechanicals but have now done some minor stuff compared to the major work others do on this forum.

Just got new tyres, Yokohama 205/50R15 86V Advan Fleva V701 got 3 for the price of 4 deal at Bob Jane Moorabbin, they did a great job, very helpful



Today I fired up the Karcher and gave the car a bit of a clean, looks great after some attention



I wanted to start this to motivate myself to work through the list of things I want to get done.

My list

1. Service and tune up (last one done in Aug 2013)
2. Flush coolant & oil change
3. Remove wheels and give them a really good clean
4. Coilovers - looking at BC Racing (H-01-RN), cannot afford the KWs or similar at $2K plus. Car sits way too high at the moment, would handle better too if lower. One day I might go to 16" or 17" wheels but for now happy with the 15" and am loving the Yokahamas
5. Aircon - need to get this fixed as I am too old to drive around this car w/o that outside of winter months. Think the whole thing needs replacing not just re-gassing
6. Exhaust - want a little bit of low end growl nothing to loud & def need some chrome dual pipes
7. Fog lights, have panels but no lights would love to get a set installed
8. Fix passenger side door lock. Have the issue where the lock mech spins and comes out with key
9. Fix rear window mech, window just falls open now, have jerry rigged it so it cannot be opened for now ��
10. Fit hands free kit to the stereo, came with one so just need to install the mic
11. Fix the rear demister, currently not working
12. Sway bars - keen to get rock solid handling
13. Timing belt - not sure when to do this, perhaps should replace cams at the same time, not noisy but probably overdue.

So lets see how I go

[Sharkie]

Nice, VR6, there Paul!

I loved mine and its 1 of 3 VWs (out of 10) I still miss today. The R is shaping up to be #4 on that list, but the VR6s are special.

[itsagolf]

Nice, VR6, there Paul!

I loved mine and its 1 of 3 VWs (out of 10) I still miss today. The R is shaping up to be #4 on that list, but the VR6s are special.

thanks Sharkie hoping to keep this one going for a while its great to drive when everything is working.

Quick update

My new headlight bulbs arrived today so thats a small start, will get them in over the weekend


Ordered my Bentley Mk3 manual as well as the coilover install kit for the various bushings/bearings from ECS
Will order my BC racing coilovers soon, will go with the more street friendly option VN model.

Car booked in for service, tune up, coolant flush & aircon check next Tues at Auto Union in Oakleigh, they were good with our family MKV golf so thought I'd start there.

Am off and running hopefully next week won't have too many surprises from the service & aircon check but that might be being a bit too optimistic.

Have been reading up on BMC CDA's they look like a good addition

[itsagolf]

Got the bulbs installed. Took of the headlights plus front grill to do a bit of a clean. All came up ok, I didn't break anything , lights now much brighter.

Removed front wheel passenger side, cleaned that up made a big difference. Realised it was the first time I had removed the wheels. I was expecting the inside of the BBS wheels to be same colour as the front but they were a white/stone colour. Cleaned up well, looks heaps better than before. Did a bit of work cleaning the interior today.



Ordered the coilovers tonight, went with the BC Racing RN's will post some pics once they arrive as well as some shots once they are fitted to the car, assuming I can do that .

Off to the mechanic on Tuesday morning.

[dylan8]

Looking good!
They nailed the oem bbs, such a good looking wheel.
Be sure to order new strut top bushes and bearings for the coils, the other ones are likely dead

[MattyT]

Nice thread so far!

[itsagolf]

Nice thread so far!

Thanks Matty am enjoying getting the car back on the road. The new tyres are so good, driving around today in the rain was fun, car feels really sure footed, corners so much better.

Got the car back from the mechanics:
- I now have working aircon - system all checked out ok, has been re-gassed lets see how it goes, so far so good. You know your getting old when having working Air Con is a great thing
- Coolant flushed now have the pink/red coolant, will ring then Monday to find out what brand
- Service done, car running nicely
- Front brakes done new pads and rotors, feels much better when braking
- Replaced the main drive belt

Today I finally put on my vwwatercooled.com.au sticker on the rear window, was a nice touch.

Coilovers, bearing kit and Bentley manual should all arrive in 2 weeks.

I did loose one of my BBS centre caps, the front left side one, lost some tabs after I cleaned the wheel and then the cap fell off when driving . Have ordered some VW ones off ebay, will be interesting to see how they pan out.

[itsagolf]

Quick photo of the water cooled sticker as I have no other cool parts yet.



As mentioned earlier I did loose one of my BBS centre caps after i cleaned the wheel so I ordered 4 VW wheel centre inserts off ebay



Will keep looking for a BBS one, but the ones I saw were a bit expensive plus shipping from the UK.

Still waiting on my ECS package plus my coilovers

[itsagolf]

Parts have all arrived

All the parts have now arrived. I have coilovers, suspension kit and the Bentley repair manual along with some BBS centre caps if I change my mind about the VW ones.

BC Racing coilovers




Suspension parts


My new Bentley manual


and some extra centre caps


Now the challenge is getting these all fitted by myself over a weekend one wheel at a time
I also have the slight problem that the mechanic tightened up the wheel nuts so tight i can't undo them with the standard wheel nut tool .

May need to get a long steel pipe as an extension lever or go back to the shop to get wheel nuts loosened....

Paul

[itsagolf]

ran into a problem today that i overlooked, I can't get the 21mm nut off the top of the existing strut as I have no way of then getting the allen key in to stop the thing spinning. Also don't have an impact wrench so maybe i need to look into that as well, nice to have i guess.

Will either order the strut tool from ecstuning or they have a large offset wrench that does both 21mm and 22mm which is designed to get at that nut.

Am looking at various coilover install guides, lot of the MK3 ones don't seem to have pic's any more.

In the meantime I wanted to check how the coilovers and the bearing parts all fit together

The pics below show how i think the bearing parts go onto the front coilover. Does this seem right
Here is he coilover with the parts from coilovers plus the 2 black bearings


Step 1 - attach the metal sleeve I got with the coilovers to the top plate


Step 2 - add the small bearing


Step 3 - add the large black bearing peice


Step 4 - would need to add in the final cover plate that i need to get off the car then add that last nut


Does that all seem about right for these BC Racing Coilovers or is there another nut I need to add in there similar to what the existing shocks have? - seems like I have missed something??

[dylan8]

I dunno about the spacer under the bearing.
But otherwise should have a flat looking nut to hold the bush/bearing to the coil. Then you have a normal but to hold the whole assembly to the strut tower/body

[itsagolf]

Thanks Dylan.
I Found a flat looking nut in the parts from ECS have added that in
Without the spacer the nut runs out of thread and the bearing and the plate that sits above the spring are all loose.

With the spacer it’s all tight, the top plate all held in place and as I tighten the nut I get some compression in the spring
Feels like that’s right now I just don’t know how far to tighten it

See photo below

[dylan8]

Very good.
I had the torque settings on a piece of paper that came with my refresh kit. Otherwise I can pull the Bentley manual out and have a look

In the past I've just done it as tight as possible by hand as I'm normally fighting it with inadequate tools

[itsagolf]

Awesome and thanks. I have a Bentley manual so will see what I can find.

Messed about with rears too, couple of shots below, seems more straight forward.
Bottom plate and sleeve


Then all the other bits from ecs kit


I also ordered a strut tool from a local tool supplier, 21mm version should arrive tomorrow.
Hoping my 7mm Allen key is long enough.

[itsagolf]

The 21mm strut socket arrived today from ozwidetools. Fair bit cheaper than ordering from the States let’s see how it holds up.
It’s 1/2 inch drive so fits all my tools hoping it will be ok

guy ru