My Mk7 GTI PP....turns out I cant resist the VAG.

[Lucas_R]

My Mk7 GTI PP....turns out I cant resist the VAG.

Some more mods and maintenance on the GTI over the past few days.

My battery powered rattle gun and ratchet got a workout and certainly helped make this job faster and less of a pain than it was the last time I did it (3-4yrs ago on my Mk6 GTI using hand tools only).

- Denso IHK24 platinum spark plugs fitted
- 034 Dynamic+ lowering springs
- 034 street density strut mounts and new strut bearings
- trimmed about an inch off the bump stops all around
- cleaned and detailed under the guards/axles/struts/suspension arms etc

The springs have lowered the front about 2.5cm and the rear about 3cm. The springs ride well and although they are firmer than stock, they are still very comfortable for daily road use.

The jury is still out on the 034 strut tops because they are noisy, but I just found that 034 sell some rubber sleeves to put around the top of the spring which will help in this respect. So ill buy a set of these and see how much it improves the situation. Worse case ill buy set of stock VW strut tops and change them over.

New strut bearings are great - the original ones were buggered and were making lots of creaking and groaning sounds.

[Johnbu]

Looks great.

How's the PP compared to your Mk6's?



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[Lucas_R]

Id say the biggest difference from my Mk6 GTI to the Mk7 is the electronic differential. The Mk7 just puts the power down so much better than the Mk6 did. Apart from this they are very similar in my opinion. The Mk6 had a better steering wheel though - nice to look at and nicer to hold.

And I do still miss the 6 speed manual transmission - as good as the DSG is in the Mk7, I still wish it was a manual.

Looks great.

How's the PP compared to your Mk6's?

[Lucas_R]

More goodies incoming over the next little while:

- Maxton design front lip. MAXTON DESIGN LTD - FRONT SPLITTER V2 VW GOLF 7 GTI
- IE DSG tune (and with that, I can then load on the high torque stage 1 tune).
- New OEM strut tops to replace the woeful 034 Motorsport ones which just knock constantly. I have used quite a few 034 products on several cars and this is the only product I have not been happy with.
- New rims should only be 1-2 weeks away now.

[Lucas_R]

Nice thread, you go thru more cars than I do jeans
Still have my MK6R, 45K on the clock only.
Interesting you still prefer the manual. My manual is slipping like crazy, still have the sachs pressure plate+clutch sitting here not fitted, probably should do that!

Hey Tony! Long time no see or hear. Hope you have been well. Good to hear you still have your Mk6 R. Hurry up and get that clutch kit fitted....you've had it for about 5 years haha. You might want to get the mechanic to change the rear main seal while he is in there too as these are known to leak.

Yes I like to change my cars every 2-3 years as get bored and I end up wanting to try something new to keep my interest. And yes I still do prefer a manual gearbox but with the GTI PP I had no option unfortunately as these were only available in Australia with a DSG.

[tonymy01]

Yes I like to change my cars every 2-3 years as get bored and I end up wanting to try something new to keep my interest. And yes I still do prefer a manual gearbox but with the GTI PP I had no option unfortunately as these were only available in Australia with a DSG.

My post disappeared, I was about to edit it to put it more on topic earlier.

I can't believe how ratty the brakes looked on your PP after so few kms. You have tidied them up very nicely, how will you keep that stainless hub part shiny though (edit:-ahh, I see it is just shiny black and reflecting rather than shiny stainless)?
Did you get a template/stencil to get the gti logo back on, or was that part just a clean up job (or a sticker)?
So many new bits already into your GTI! Nice one, always like reading your threads to get some new ideas.

[Lucas_R]

My post disappeared, I was about to edit it to put it more on topic earlier.

I can't believe how ratty the brakes looked on your PP after so few kms. You have tidied them up very nicely, how will you keep that stainless hub part shiny though (edit:-ahh, I see it is just shiny black and reflecting rather than shiny stainless)?
Did you get a template/stencil to get the gti logo back on, or was that part just a clean up job (or a sticker)?
So many new bits already into your GTI! Nice one, always like reading your threads to get some new ideas.

Yes the brakes did indeed look ratty. The people who owned the car before me lived about 1km from the ocean so that probably contributed to it too. But yes I just used a wire wheel to remove as much of the rust off the hub etc and then gave it a few coats of a high temp black paint. They look much better now.

I didnt paint the calipers, they were grubby but underneath all that dirt the calipers were undamaged. So the red you are seeing is the original finish on the calipers - just nice and clean now. The GTI logo was already there (because my GTI is the Performance Pack it has the larger Golf R disks and calipers and they come with the GTI logo on the front calipers).

[Lucas_R]

My Mk7 GTI PP....turns out I cant resist the VAG.

My new Koya SF11 rims have arrived and I did a test fit on the weekend while pulling the front suspension out (yet again) to remove the 4 week old 034 Motorsport strut tops which were a huge disappointment (very noisy and rattly when driving). Replaced with brand new OEM (Sachs) strut tops which are now nice and quiet. Also fitted 034 Motorsport spring sleeves to help protect the paint from chipping off the springs and reduce noise when the spring coils touch each other under compression.

Very happy with the rims so far, they look to be very nice quality, nice paint finish and are pretty light. Cant wait to get the tyres mounted and another wheel alignment done so I can properly see what they will look like. I am booked in on the 16th Dec for this.

Rims spec is 19x8.5 ET42.

Loaded on the Integrated Engineering DSG tune....so much better than the stock DSG tune. I used to never drive around in normal D mode because I hated how the car was always in such a high gear and never had any power because the revs were always so low. Since the DSG tune, I have left the car in D mode for the majority of my driving the past few weeks because it is so much better now. As an added bonus, now that I have the DSG tune I was able to load up the high torque version of the stage 1 engine tune from Integrated Engineering.

Also rolled over 50,000km last week.

[vorace]

Hi Lucas,

What colour/finish are your Koya wheels?

[Lucas_R]

My Mk7 GTI PP....turns out I cant resist the VAG.

Hi Lucas,

What colour/finish are your Koya wheels?

They are Gloss GTR grey Koya Wheels | Colour Collection

I just had them fitted yesterday.

[vorace]

nice!!

[Sharkie]

Those look good!! Need to fix the puny exhaust tips now

[Lucas_R]

Those look good!! Need to fix the puny exhaust tips now

Yep agreed - the stock tips are puny. Trying to decide on a new exhaust and tossing up between the APR, Unitronic & CTS. The APR looks to be beautiful quality but the only thing I dont like about it is that the main muffler is before the rear wheels which leaves it looking a bit odd from behind IMO (i like a nice stainless muffler when looking from the back).

The CTS has a nice big muffler at the back, but after having a CTS on my Mk6 GTI a few years back, fitment was a bit off which caused some rubbing when the exhaust warmed up (which cost me a few hundred $ at my exhaust shop to fix up) and it was a little too quiet (big rear muffler and big mid muffler too).

The Unitronic is a similar design to the CTS but with a smaller mid muffler, used v bands which are much nicer to work with than bolted flanges and the stainless piping/mufflers are brushed which is a much nicer look than the polished piping IMO. Ive had a few Unitronic parts in the past and they are lovely quality. So the Unitronic is at the top of my list at the moment.

You might think that it would seem silly to not consider the newly released Integrated Engineering exhaust considering I have quite a few of their products. I dont like the way it sounds (based off YouTube vids) so its out.


APR: APR Catback Exhaust - 20T GTI MK7 - APR

CTS: CTS Turbo MK7 GTI 3" Cat Back Exhaust - CTS TURBO

Unitronic: Unitronic Cat-Back Exhaust System for MK7 and MK7.5 GTI - Available Now

In the meantime, I have purchased a Integrated Engineering downpipe when they were on special recently. Still very expensive but a few hundred $ cheaper than the normal price of $1,729. Also purchased an Integrated Engineering turbo elbow to replace my current 034 Motorsport one and will match my IE intake.

IE Downpipe: IE MQB VW MK7/MK7.5 GTI, Golf, & Audi A3 Performance Cast Downpipe (FWD) – Dub Addiction

IE turbo inlet elbow: IE Turbo Inlet Pipe for VW & Audi 2.0T/1.8T Gen 3 Engines | Fits VW MK – JT MODS


The car is also booked in for its 4yr/60,000km service done with Newcastle VW Centre next month. The previous owner who was a mechanic said he had changed the DSG fluid about 18 months ago but had no evidence, so getting it done for piece of mind along with brake fluid and the haldex fluid for the e-LSD which comes in the GTI Performance.

[adey88]

EDIT - yes the 034 strut mounts suck. They are not for me. Sounds like I have left all the bolts loose in the front suspension. Will be buying some brand new strut tops and fitting those - cant wait to pull the front suspension to bits again.

Slow reply sorry, just had a re-read through your post. That sucks about the 034 mounts. I would describe the sound similar on mine, initially I reassembled and double checked all the bolts as I thought I had installed them incorrectly lol.

Some googling leads me to believe it's a common problem but I would much rather have OEM quiet and slightly softer mounts over the noisy 034 stuff.

Wheels look good and exhaust options look good too... My preference would be unitronic with black tips but yeah it's pretty exe [emoji106]

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[goobags]

I have definitely seen this floating around Newy. I also have a 2015 PP Gti and I am quite literally putting an IE ECU and TCU tune in it as I type. Where are you located? I’m interested in hearing an aftermarket exhaust, previous owner did a resonator delete that I am just starting to get over and would rather buy an exhaust that sounds good than spend cash on an OEM resonator installation.


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