Well its finally happened
I now have my first car


Its a tidy little 1992 MK2 Golf GTI imported from Capetown (Africa) with a 2.0 Litre engine.

Its just a arrived home so only managed to get a couple of pics, some from the seller(will take some more tomorrow)







Has a few minor issues which will be fixed

*Heater Core doesn't work (Bypassed)
*A/C doesn't work (hopefully just a seal, not a new compressor)
*Engine temp gauge not working (we believe it may be the sender unit)
*Minor clear coat paint issues
*Minor trim... stuff
*Spedometre is a bit shaky, but I may have to learn to live with it
*Clutch/Brake pedals have a bit of "free" travel

Mechanically the car is superb, engine and gearbox couldnt get much better
Im extremely thankful to Adam for allowing me to buy his beloved MK2. He runs a European car garage down on the Gold coast. Heres his site
http://www.vagarage.com.au/index.ews 

I'm Happy
Thanks

My mates son has one of these
It was the red one in VW Australia or something about 10 years ago

For a water cooled car they have a bag of street cred and go ok to boot

GREAT score

Very nice

Yay, congrats dude!

Saw this baby at Gold Coast show and spoke to Adam about it. You have my identical twin except yours was born in South Africa. My "GerTIe" is also a 2L, she has an Audi 2 Litre in her and some sports performance parts. She sticks to the road and is an awesome car to drive, you will love driving yours for sure. Congrats!

yay for import!
The A/c could be very costly, because the car was manufactured before the new R134A (ozone friendly) gas came out and made the old R12 obselete. Conversion starts at nearly $300 upwards depending on condition of bits at an a/c shop. can reach $800 if compressor and seals/high pressure lines are cactus too.

Most efi setups have a/c pressure sensors that do not activate the compressor clutch unless a certain amount of gas is present, so if you hit A/C, it won't exactly operate. I believe its a fail safe measure for the compressor.

This is assuming the previous owner did not do the r12 to r134a gas conversion already. if its done, should be the 'convertor's' shop sticker in the engine bay somewhere, if not, should atleast have new red/blue valve caps along the a/c steel piping. The process involves changing seals and changing the oil in the compressor to make it compatible with the new gas.

If you are handy, you can buy the conversion kit yourself from uk (on ebay). comes with gas, an ester to 'make' the stock oil compatible, new values and pressure tester, for $69 pounds. will take a while to get to you as its gotta be posted via 'ground mail' due to the compressed gases not being all that great up in the low pressure atmosphere (air freight)

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=400048544826&ss...

Only challenge with the heater core i guess it ripping through the dash and finding a spare.

But regardless, nice car man. i luv the GTi's.

Thankyou all very much, Im enjoying driving it immensly with all its little kooks, you could say it has a attitude of its own.

Chris,

I'm fear that it will be a very expensive repair (gonna estimate $1000 from experience with other family cars)
As to whether its been converted to r12 to r134a gas Im unsure, but there is a sticker in the engine bay for the A/C, dated 2001.
Not sure if it was a conversion or a regas/maintanence but I will go check tomorrow.

There's a few threads over on vwwatercooled of how to replace a heater core, its just a big job and chances are once the dash is pulled MORE little problems will arise.

Gave the MK2 a bath and a quick detail this arvo. Took way to many pics, and Im gonna post them all once the camera battery is finished charging

Ryan

Looks nice and tidy

Heater core replacement is a bitch of a job.
I've never done a watercooled dub one but nearly all other mainstream cars need the dash removed so it's a pretty involved job.

If the A/C has been worked on in 01 enough that they;ve put a service sticker on then there's a 99.9% chance it's probably been retrofitted

the main reason they lose their charge is people dont run them often enough especially through winter so the shaft seal dries out.
thats why alot of cars now engage the compressor clutch when reverse is selected.

I used to hate retrofitting FWD cars.
the compressor is always buried right down the back of the engine like on mitsubishis or right down the bottom at the front like mazdas where as an EA-ED falcon i had down-pat less than 1 hour
so much room to work

The compressor on this Golf is right up the front, under and slightly foward of the alternator. No power steering pump so nothing else to be in the road. Dad always says, when ever a car is made, they start with a heatercore and then build the car around that.

Now heres the swarm of pics















I should thank Amorall, Vuplex, Amway car polish, Lanosol, RainX and a few rags for tidying it up a bit.

Somthing doesn't seem right.... hmmmmm I wonder what

Just another thing to fix : )

Now on more of a serious question, hands up who knows what this symbol means and why the light for it is on? I perused through the owner manual and couldnt find anything useful

I dont "know" per se,

but my guess is its a seatbelt/door/headlight chime - on/off.

Thanks Colonel, you a few others have confirmed it, apparantly is to to with the immobiliser/alarm

Now does this sticker confirm anything?


I dont know if these will help but, heres the (top) of the A/C compressor.





I'm really in the dark when it comes to this, but when I get a bit of time I'll take the MK2 to an A/C tech and see what they say.

Thanks

yup, 134A, its been retrofitted so long as there;s not a leak somewhere, in the condensor is where they often get leaks should be right to get recharged

just make sure to run it for a few mins every few weeks it keepd the shaft seal oilled and stops the gas leaking

Ahhh the joy of owning cars.

Found a few more problems today, that will require more attention than the others mentioned.
The housing that comes off the side of the engine block that holds the oil filter has an annoying little leak, nothing to major but its just a nuisance.
Found a transmission fluid leak/weep around the axle seals, again nothing major but its somthing that might get replaced when the cars up on the hoist.

On a positive note both side idicators work and have yellow globes now, also changed the blown foglight bulb..... little things

A minor update

Have spent the last 4 days replacing all the accessable lights in the dash (eg switches, and climate control panel) with LED's.

First bulb to be replaced was the heater/climate control/fan control panel. Used a 5mm Green LED and a 470 ohm resistor.

Next up was the Foglight, Demister, A/C and actual Light control switches. Had to use Blue LED's as Dicksmiths doesn't have any green 3mm LED's. I will confirm that was the biggest PITA to retrofit the LED's in.

But heres the result







Pretty happy with the result.


Ordered a heap of parts from German Auto Parts.com
(axle seals, heater core, oil filter flange seal, temp gauge sender unit).
Aswell as a 800 page Bentley manual

More updates coming

Good luck with replacing the heater core. Its a real PITA. Had a simlair model when I lived in South Africa. It took 2 of us a whole day to replace it as we practically had to remove the dashboard.

Turns out the only problem with my A/C system is a $30 mechanical seal found in the front of my compressor
However fitting the seal + labour + regas + a new receiver dryer will total up to around $350.

Will fix the system once the leaky tranny and engine seals are replaced (along with a gearbox oil change)

this thread kinda makes me miss my old mk2 gti..

wasnt the quickest thing out but man they can take corners like a pro!!!

Well after a bit of a wait, I now have recieved my first (of hopfully many) parcels from Germanautoparts.com.





Pffft, phonebook ain't got nothing on this bad boy of a manual



Parts recieved where a set of axle seals, sender unit for temp guage in cluster/dash, oil filter flange seal, heater core and or course a Bentley Car manual

Can't wait for the work to begin

awesome bed spread

Quote:

Originally posted by Joel awesome bed spread

Can't hurt to throw a few happy snaps ups
(Dodgy phone cam though)

This was a week ago when I go to work nice and early


This was from this arvo, when I found one of my cars younger siblings

Was driving along nicly Monday arvo when I heard a sizzling cracking sound coming from the dash.
Suddenly my radio went off then came back on.

I looked at my cluster and my Tacho, Temperature Gauge and Fuel gauge has all dropped out (car was still driving fine).
Indicator light does not work anymore now and neither does my battery warning light.

So went home ripped the dash apart then thought it to be a good idea to check my alternator, so I tested the voltage at the batt terminals whilst car was running and got 12.1 volts.... oh dear and if I remove a battery lead whilst the car is running it stalls.

As the car sits in the garage at the monent with a highly suspect alternator (removed)


The culprit!


and can you spot whats missing


Aiming to get the alternator rebuilt in the next week or so (really hope its just the alternator).
Whilst it was out I took advantage of the oppurtunity to replace my squealy old vee belts

Alternator has been rebuilt and is back in the car.
Luckly the tacho,temp, and fuel gauge issues where only fuse related and now all the electrics (that were working!) are working fine again
Not long now until the car gets a major service in regards to various leaking seals.

This car is in for a whooole lot of TLC

Ryan

Nice work on the electrics

The car got tinted today.... so perfect excuse to take some more photos

I'm still a bit of an amatuer when it comes to photography

"In Volkswagens we trust, Oil Leaks and RUST"

And a MK2 is no exception



Tidied up with a wire brush



Hit the rust with a rust converter (from Bunnings :P) and let that dry over night.
Next up I gave it 3 prime coats with kill rust (in a tin), which turned out quite well.
Finally (paint wise), just used a old tin of touch up paint from our old Falcon, (wasn't even sure how close the colour was) gave it 5 light coats and the result was this.


Of course I sprayed as much fish oil as possible inside the tunnel to hopefully slow any further rust (god forbid it come back!)

Then just put some "Knead it" to fill the hole and give it a bit of water resistance.


This hopfully won't be permanent, just until I can afford to get new metal welded in there properly.

We'll today I did the Upgrade that Ive been planning on doing for a while....upgrading my headlights!!!
As any MK2 owner would know how craap their headlights are. To rectify this, you run power directly from the battery for each headlight with the use of a relay. Basic Diagram below



Now I actaully have decent low beam!!!

Lowbeam/Dip Before and After





And the High beam Before and After (Not as noticable result)




Planning of getting some Philips Extreme +80 Globes once I have the $$.