What did you do to your Mk5 today?

[davidorama]

Nice result on the headlights, I tried something similar years ago and made a mess, ended up paying someone to come do it properly with a clear coat spray too.

Got any before and after pics ?

Here are the pics, although they do not do the result justice - I suspect the before and after would have looked more impressive if I'd thought to take the pics head on at bumper level in daylight. Little more than 2 minutes work per light. Not looking new, but they make the car looked like a quality used car instead of something one P-Plater away from the wreckers.

LH light BEFORE (photo looks blurry but that is in fact the yellow haze):




RH light AFTER one application:



I'm a stickler for OEM so I'm much happier after relegating the after market Xenons to the shelf.

I guess modern cars are built with a planned 10 year life so this sort of thing is an annoyance only for lovers of the marque, the poor and the stingy... the Mk6 and 7 does not seem to suffer the same problem from what I've seen, and VW was rumoured to have used a rare futuristic headlight material called g-l-a-s-s for the Mk3 and earlier... never heard of... they say it was resilient and remained crystal clear, even after car itself had rusted away... believe that if you will... next they'll be saying that we used to make that sort of thing right here in Australia...

[JustCruisn]

Those pics don't load.
Glass headlights are not permitted anymore, yes my MK4 glass never had dulling issues either.
Safety to first responders with broken glass or some such.

Mk6 & 7 are probably about to suffer the same issue as they age.

[Lucas_R]

From somewhere around the year 2000, all cars have plastic headlights and are prone to fading/discolouration when exposed to UV light. You can quite easily tell which cars are garaged/kept undercover by looking at their headlights, as the degradation starts to appear after about 4-5 years in general.

If the headlights are in good condition, you can protect them against UV by simply putting some wax or sealant on them a few times a year, this is what I do.

[davidorama]

Doh! I never considered that but of course it makes complete sense to eliminate unnecessary glass on the car. But now that I come to think of it I’ve only ever had glass lights on one car - my first - so my joke fell flat. Sorry. Odd that the photos don’t load because I simply inserted them using the in forum editor… I’ll sort out image hosting then edit the post.

Those pics don't load.
Glass headlights are not permitted anymore, yes my MK4 glass never had dulling issues either.
Safety to first responders with broken glass or some such.

Mk6 & 7 are probably about to suffer the same issue as they age.

[davidorama]

I re-shelled my VW remote key today. Cost $20. What do you think? The one on the right is an empty shell for my second re-shelling. The remains at the top of the picture, yeah, well... you know.

[davidorama]

So I finally managed to reassemble the centre ashtray, cupholder and armrest catastrophe after fitting the new centre cupholder sliding cover. IKEA is nothing after jumping around the car finding the 1001 T20 screws...

all this for this

[sebas_thefish]

So I finally managed to reassemble the centre ashtray, cupholder and armrest catastrophe after fitting the new centre cupholder sliding cover. IKEA is nothing after jumping around the car finding the 1001 T20 screws...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]53450[/ATTACH] all this [ATTACH=CONFIG]53451[/ATTACH] for this

I don't even let my passengers touch the cupholder in case they break it! I don't want to be doing that job to replace it.

Sent from my Samsung Smart Fridge

[davidorama]

Low beam headlight blew. So I replaced both left and right. No idea how old they were. Cheapies from Repco. 30% brighter they say.

[chrisvw]

Picked up my new run around on the weekend - MY08 GT Sport! Already loving it.

Question - looking at the RCD330+ (with canbus upgrade) and most likely going to get the VW flip badge RVC - does anyone know someone in Sydney, NSW that can do the install?

[davidorama]

So today after what seems like forever I received a new plastic lead for the Golf fuel cap. See separate thread for my DIY Fuel Cap Tether.

[davidorama]

Well, it wasn't exactly my Mk 5, but today I test drove an old 2.0 FSI manual on standard 15" Wellington wheels and WOW the manual and smaller standard wheels transforms the Golf for the better (perhaps unsurprisingly). I always thought lower profile tyres on the standard Golf would change the ride and not for the better.

[Johnbu]

I re-shelled my VW remote key today. Cost $20. What do you think? The one on the right is an empty shell for my second re-shelling. The remains at the top of the picture, yeah, well... you know.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]53412[/ATTACH]

Looks great. Where did you get it from?


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[Johnbu]

Well, it wasn't exactly my Mk 5, but today I test drove an old 2.0 FSI manual on standard 15" Wellington wheels and WOW the manual and smaller standard wheels transforms the Golf for the better (perhaps unsurprisingly). I always thought lower profile tyres on the standard Golf would change the ride and not for the better.

Even though many new cars come with large low profile wheels due to aesthetics (and ride quite well), I do wonder how much better they would ride if they had smaller wheels and higher sidewalls.

My base model XC60 comes with 19 inch wheels standard.

The sportier XC60 model comes with 21 inch wheels standard, but you can option 22 inch wheels which I think is ridiculous.


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[davidorama]

Agree. Everyone wants to drive an automatic "sporty" car these days at 50kmh on suburban streets... I had the chance to drive a new KIA Sportage the other day (nice car) but the low profile wheels meant that the car was thumping on its bump stops regularly regularly on inner Sydney streets... great on a well maintained dual highway with divided roads at 110kph but still...

[vinnY]

waterpump started leaking just before christmas, decided it was time to address the other coolant and oil leak i've been having for the last 18 months and it was time for the second timing belt replacement anyway

tore down the timing belt side, ran out of time and had left it there for a couple weeks during the break
finally got some parts in and proceeded to tear out the coolant pipes and hoses, alternator, fans, charge pipe, oil cooler, and finally the oil filter housing
had to modify the silicon hoses i'd picked up a few years ago from aliexpress to fit(seems like the US got slightly different routes?), unfortunately not a complete kit but did replace most of the major ones

oil had been leaking from the rear of the oil filter housing for a number of years now, albeit very slowly, ended up installing a new oil filter housing and seals, bolted up the oil cooler to it and had a heck of a time figuring out where all the coolant lines went back to
coolant had been leaking on top of the gearbox for about 18 months, ultra slow but it had been progressively getting worse but i figured i'd just track it down when i tore everything down for the timing belt swap. i believe it ended up being the hose from the heater core so i ended up replacing both of them with some 19mm hose(or 3/4") and will probably need to wrap them in some heat reflective tape as the factory ones were wrapped in some form of insulated heat wrap
discovered at this time that one of the hard vacuum lines to my brake booster had split so i replaced them with silicon hosing instead(10mm if you're wondering)
since all of the coolant pipes,oil filter housing, and alternator were off i went ahead and swapped out the thermostat too since it would be a pain otherwise (gates th40187g1)

finally finished off the passenger side stuff and put it all back together, only the timing belt gear left
lined up tdc, marked the gear, timing belt, head, and block and pulled the belt off. ripped off the idler pulleys, tensioner, and finally the water pump
cleaned up the surfaces to prep for the new water pump, go to fit it and it turns out i'd picked up the wrong gates kit assuming the normal 2.0fsi would be the same as the gti kit fyi for anyone playing at home you need the gates tckwp334 kit for the tfsi gti, i'd accidentally picked up the tckwp334a a year prior(drove way less than expected due to covid so i ended up with this sitting around for ages), thankfully everything was the same except the waterpump
ended up ordering the waterpump separately(gwp8038 if you're wondering) and waiting for it to arrive now

also decided to pickup new spark plugs since i'd been getting some odd stutters at idle which would happen every now and then
pulled the first 3 plugs and they seemed to be burning okay, pulled the fourth one and found to be fairly rusted on the top along with the coil pack and after removal discovered some of the ceramic had broken off and was no longer arcing at the tip but on the side instead
picked up a replacement serpentine belt while i was at it since it was last changed with the first timing belt

been a hell of a journey, real keen to get it back together and on the road again and see whether the maintenance would restore some life to the thing
just passed the 10 year mark with ownership, time to whip it back into shape