FMIC & Suspension Upgrade Suggestions/Ideas

[simon k]

you could also orient it so that the stud in the bottom of the strut top pic is installed closest to the firewall. That would give you the slot angled diagonally back towards the centre of the engine bay yeah? - that way max caster and not giving away too much camber.

yep, rotate it anti-clockwise from where I've shown it...

[PoloGIT]

Nice find Simon, thanks. Funny thing was I was changing the cambelt at a mate's place a couple of weeks ago, he races an old 1600sss. I'm sure had I mentioned it, he would have said something like "have I got just the thing for you..."

Meanwhile I've put the H&R springs back in, paired with the B8 struts. I'm happy with the results at this stage.

[JTop]

Hey All,

Sorry for the radio silence, just finished my exam on Friday so I'm done with my studies for the year
The night before purchased all my Bilsteins from the UK, so they'll be another week or two.
Now my options are;
Stage 1 tune at UGP what I have right now, I'll probably book tomorrow morning, then build my suspension as it comes, get new tires and a wheel alignment done. Then go Stage 2 with all the front end mods, once I get the Intercooler I want from Perth

Do both Suspension, wheels and tires and all Front end mods before jumping right into Stage 2.

I also have two questions if anyone knows.
Removing Secondary Air Pump, aren't there covers for the inlet port on the engine to close it off? Anyone know where I could find one, I think I saw one some website.
Also Fuel Injectors 1 and 3 have a bit of a puddle around them on the top, whilst 2 and 4 are dry. New O-rings to reseal them or new injectors?

Cheers guys, I'll be posting pics with what I'll start doing to the car.
Got a few stupid ideas to program a micro controller to do, Steering Wheel buttons and a butterfly valve for the exhaust.

[h100vw]

I can donate a blank for the SAI at the side of the head. Just remind me. There always ends up being a bit of residue around the injectors. I don't reckon it's a big deal. O rings if it upsets you. Not new injectors.

[JTop]

So done the entire rear today: PICS AT THE END <3
Installed the new Bilstein B8 shocks, cleaned all the older components before reinstating them onto the Bilsteins. Sitting on the car or jumping in the boot, it just returns to its original position. Totally worth it
Fitted the Weitec lowering springs that Sambb had sent me earlier last month. Honestly make a nice difference, I'm super happy right now, Thanks Sam <3
Fitted the rear sway bar from whiteline, actually ties up the rear a bit nicer on the corners, so for my feeling it made the rear end less noticeable when driving. Or maybe it's everything that's doing it,

Super Happy how it all turned out

Got my boost gauge to do tomorrow, had to buy longer vacuum line due to running through the passenger side grommet and back to drivers side. And I'll replace my leather shifter casing that's torn with a newer one. Car is required in the evening so not doing anything major to it

Saturday, will be doing the front, so shocks and swaybar first, and if time permits, also fit off the silicone turbo inlet tubing and throw in the R8 coilpacks.
Sunday, I'll plan the intercooler fitment and get that purchased with the right amount of tubing to get that done.
Sometime next week get new tires onto the 17" alloys

Then I'm only left with a stage 1 tune, secondary air injector delete, fix the pod in the stock box due to the delete and wait for Gavin's downpipe to do stage 2
But I'll do these last few parts in a few weeks. Hoping for a big sale on a few products to instantly get the stage 1 done without anyone nagging me to stop wasting my money
before, after
trick with the top of the OEM struts, try to use precision vice grips to not damage the head
finished

[JTop]

So yesterday I only managed to get the Boost Gauge in, double checked with Gav because I thought I didn't splice it in the right spot (BOV line), but that was actually the best spot so did good not touching the fuel pressure regulator line. I did some testing today to wire in the Led for it so when I've got my headlights on, I can see it.

Ok, SO TODAY... bit of a blonde moment, I forgot to plug in one of my coils and ran the engine for a little while...

So this afternoon, I replaced the shifter boot lining, then felt like, hey! why not do the R8 coilpacks, won't take long right?
To start at 7pm, which definitely didn't help...
As light evades me and I manage to lose both a nut and allen key in the engine bay, I do a complete swap with the R8 coils, with the necessary spacers and I made sure I pushed the coils all the way in. Plugged everything up, forgetting cyl numb 3, which is one of the two easiest to see in the engine bay...
Pack up all the tools, go and get ready for a test drive and ...
So, opened the bonnet, and realised, oh ****... Didn't plug you in. Opened my OBD2 up, checked and saw, error on cyl 3.
So I turned it on again, was better, but still, error on cyl 3 ...

SO, with only my phone light, had to test why it was doing this to me, swapped cyl 2 and 3 coils over, and ...
No more error, but rough idle. So I thought, hey this should be fine right?

NOPE, as soon as I try to park the car out of the driveway, I realise I have 0 power when I press the accelerator :|
SO, back go the original coils, to fix the issue. And I thought, hey I fixed it, yay, but then I had the same problem, just less severe...

NOW, is it
A - A Spark plug hates me - Cyl 3
B - Multiple Spark plugs hate me
C - Anything else from the above that can cause problems.

I believe it's A
So I'll take them out and see before heading down to the store to get new plugs because I killed atleast cyl 3 I believe or it needs a clean because of fuel
Any input would be appreciated, even if it's to tell me I'm a dumbass
*not my first time replacing spark plugs, had been through all of this before*
**I feel like this wouldn't have been the issue if I plugged in the coil in the first place, or am I wrong? Would I need to replace spark plugs for a different size or something that I didn't think mattered? I know the spacing matters on the inside and they need to be gapped to spec**

Cheers Guys

*EDIT, Forgot to mention that when I went under the car, (I cleaned it up last time I was there), it's all oily again. SO, I have a leak on probably the turbo line, this might explain my boost leak...
Should be fixed as soon as I do the silicone piping, which will probably end up being a midweek job after I'm done working.

[sambb]

so did you run the car initially when coil 3 was unplugged. Might just have a badly flooded cylinder. To remedy that I'd pull fuse 41 for the fuel pump and crank it for a while. Then refit the fuse, clear errors (fuel pump and coil errors) and give it a hit.
So you cleared the coilpack errors and they keep coming back or is the cyl 3 error gone but the car just wont run? I'd have thought the car would still start after fitting the cyl 3 plug and the error would just be historical, not something that would stop you if not cleared. Definitely clear the error if its there though.
If you didn't touch the plugs then its not them. But if you put new ones in and didnt gap them down to 26-28 thou then their big out of the packet gap mightn't be arcing.
Is all your vaccum gear that covers the cam cover refitted ie no vacuum leaks

[h100vw]

Listen for airleaks too. Brake booster pipe is a favourite for splitting causing bad idle.
Does the code not clear with your scanner?

[PoloGIT]

Did you drive it after day one's boost gauge swap, and all was fine, prior to the coil swap job on day two?

[JTop]

Ok All fixed after 4 hours of diagnosis

Cyl 3, had no residue on the plug, Cyl 1 had residue... Which was weird, but then I thought about it and after the car told me that cyl 1 and cyl 4 were the culprits.
Reason, Cyl 1 and Cyl 4, Spark plugs snapped... Bosch ****ing platinum plugs, broke, but I didn't notice until I fiddled with one to see that the top shaft was spinning whilst on the body...

Replaced with Spark plugs I pulled out of my old car, which were in really decent condition, checked the gapping and was still perfect so put those in as replacements.

Wasn't having any prior problems, everything was working beforehand
Everything is working as new with the R8 Coils in

Cheers Guys

*Edit/idk why phone deleted the post when I went to edit...
I took a photo of where oil was leaking from, looks like at the end of this hose, but if anyone has any better ideas, go ahead

[sambb]

That pipe in the pic, the one that goes into the comp housing is for fuel tank vapours - not an oil hose. I had a similar coating of oil on my turbo and it was coming from the rocker cover gasket. Reach your hand down the back right of the cam cover (when facing the engine bay). Often its the back half moon seal on the exhaust cam that'll be trickling or the back right corner and that oil will track down and drip all over the turbo. Check that first and let us know.

[JTop]

Hey Sam,
I had a look Monday but fell asleep writing a response in the evening.
So I did a bit of research to learn more components and how the engine is assembled
So my crankshaft case breather is covered with oil, as you said too, rear rocker cover gasket in the far right is leaky
This whole area is oily after being cleaned when I wanted to figure out where the problem was originating from, got soaked again, so I'll double check everything again..

Mates polo has the same oily crankshaft case breather, but says underneath isn't covered in oil, so got to believe him.

Would it be to replace this breather, get a new one or is there something else to it.
I'll probably get a new rocker cover gasket too, do this before doing any tune, make sure everything is solid so there is less to break.

Cheers <3

[sambb]

YouTube

in the above vid is the crankcase breather. front of the engine under the inlet manifold. The seals are normally fine but the plastic goes brittle and splits. You can just buy them on ebay or go direct to VW. When you go to get yours out you have to twist ever so carefully while lifting without out getting any angle on it or it will sheer clean off in your hand and then you'll be using long nose pliers to dig out the rest of it that's still resident in the block and hoping that no chunks fell in. So really clean the area around it before starting. If your doing it just make sure you have the time to keep going in case this happens and then you probably want to do an oil change/filter afterwards if you think crud and chunks of plastic fell into the sump. I'd change the PCV valve at the same time. If the diaphragm in it fails open, then you'll be pumping boost straight into your crank case which might be why its blowing seals in the first place. The guy in that vid is stressing about nothing though. They just sit in an O-ring and do move around that much. Alternatively 034 or ECS (one of them) sell a fitting that fits into the block OE style (uses same push clip to hold it in against the OE O-ring) but has an AN- threaded output in case you want to run AN lines to a catch can or something. A lot more work/$ in that though. The AN- fittings, hose and catch cans really add up fast. You can also buy billet aluminium PCV valves from 034 and maybe also a complete hose like this but I wouldn't bank on it for a Polo https://youtu.be/yr0xUsaUNJs?t=368

Yeah bugger re the gasket. They can also go underneath the VVT tensioner solenoid and that oil will track backwards because of the slant of the engine and drip down the back too. When you order a gasket kit make sure its go the VVT tensioner gasket and the 'half moon' seal to go with it too. Youd be silly to replace the cam cover gasket and not do the VVT solenoid gaskets cos they will go about now too.

[JTop]

Got a small problem, and if anyone could help that would be great!!

I have a HWY transmission sitting in a polo gti
The diameter of the transmission joint is 108mm
Diameter of two sets of driveshafts that I have, 100mm

So I can't match them up
Sooo...
What code are the driveshafts? I can't find any different ones from any wreckers
What model car does this transmission sit from, because I can't find **** on it?
Do I have to take the transmission out and swap the joints to a smaller size to accommodate the driveshafts I currently have?

Any help would be appreciated
Cheers

[sambb]

Hmm not sure mate. I have an HWY in my car now. It initially came out of an 07' Polo Gti. I transferred it into an 08' that had a different designation and that 08 cars driveshafts went straight onto the early HWY box. Are the bolt patterns definitely different?