[pjs]

Good read as ever Matt. We had an 06 mk5 dsg gti for a year or so. Never the quickest in a straight line, I did see 150+ on the clock, and it could go round gildersome roundabout at awesome speed.

[zltm089]

good stuff!!!.....waiting for pics now!!!....and few videos wud b nice! ;-)

[Hotcoupe]

Originally Posted by RagingKileak

Mine is DSG so its about 1300kg inc the heavier R32 brakes!

Matt

Quite a bit lighter than a 335D.

[RagingKileak]

Deffo lighter than a 335 mate. Feels it too, though the overstated understeer pre suspension mods does come across as lardiness a bit, I found.

Matt

[TMP]

Really good post Matt, great journey

[scooba0010]

Hi Matt, Fabulous update and glad you are still pleased with the ED30 , We still have ours its just clocked 16,000mls ,Only mods were S3 Brakes and a fressh set off Pescaras with PS 3

[rogerxp]

Good write up fella, interesting to hear how the progress was made, look forward to the piccies (does it still look fairly standard then??).

[Team Green2]

Great thread waiting on the pics

[RagingKileak]

Pics are coming!!!

As a small addendum I just realised something that I thought noteworthy...

Yesterday afternoon, quite late on, I set off down to Hemel Hempstead, calling in at Sheffield on the way to sort a couple of things with the Golf.

Firstly, I've had a persistent engine warning light for about 6 months now which tells me that 'the powertrain mixture is too rich.' Despite this, multiple diagnostics both physical and via VAGCOM have shown that nothing is wrong with the car.

Last week, as part of all this other work, I had Statllers in Sheffield try to fix the fault by swapping out 'targeted' but fairly random bits and pieces of the engine. The fault went away for perhaps 100 miles (as it always does) but then came back, much to my dismay.

So, yesterday I had to call in to Sheffield to have yet more parts switched out and as I was off down to Hemel for the second thing, it made sense. So I did that.

Secondly, I went down to Hemel to have a man off the VW GTI forum fit me a Highline dashboard cluster for £250 and code it in. This probably needs more explanation. My dashboard was a 'midline' meaning that it had a half sized screen between the clocks which shows things like MPG etc, but doesn't provide a detailed 'convencience' settings menu, or provide a HUD for the sat nav etc.

Changing to highline is a total ballache on 2007+ cars and was once basically impossible as the cluster holds mileage etc. I had a quote from VW Bolton (which was hard enough to get) that came in at over £1000 for the cluster and fitting it, plus coding and transferring the mileage over.

This chap doing the whole thing for £250 was therefore a big deal.

So off I set upon a journey that basically got me a new oxygen sensor (no engine light yet, even driving from Sheffield to Hemel and then back to Leeds so I've got my fingers crossed) and a highline dashboard (which coming from a BMW/Audi/Porsche background is a fairly dull thing) and took about 9 hours in total.

This is the thing with the Golf that I can't put my finger on. It is, without a doubt, the most troublesome car I've ever owned. Not in terms of faults or breakdowns, but in terms of every little thing requiring me to invest time and money, yet I can't help but warm to its irrepressable charm. Me and the Golf have had more adventures in a year than I think I have had with all my other cars put together!!

It just keeps on giving and therefore I keep on giving is what I think it is.... It's like I wake up on a morning and say 'Hiya Golf, fancy big power? Think about it carefully, it might just blow you apart' and instead of 'doing a BM' and going 'fuck that' the Golf just wags its tail like mad and goes 'Yeah, memememememmememememememe!'

I think it has personality. Anyway, I'm gonna back off the psychotropics now.

Regards
Matt

[themetz]

Great writing and write up Matt - very enjoyable!

As I recall those two old ladies outside Warwick racecourse were mighty impressed with the stage2 mapping!!