All Things Mk5 > Members Rides
LC5F's Graphite Blue GTI - Pilgrimage to Caffeine & Machine
LC5F:
--- Quote from: LC5F on October 24, 2021, 05:56:15 pm ---Fixed a clunking noise in the nearside door that occured turning left/right and a speaker crackle in the offside - both were the speaker cable adaptors similar to type shown below flapping about - some double sided number plate pads stuck them in place - no more clonk / or crackle:
--- End quote ---
No real news, except to report some fails:
The speaker crackle was hiding - returned mid week after reporting the fix. Following weekend dash apart and its a duff bullet connector - I going to have to solder the connection from amplifier cable to OEM loom.
-and-
The clunking... that came back... some head scratching, and a bit more thinking... it's the passenger seat belt buckle knocking against the door card!
Making sure the belt is around the outer seat back bolster and there is no clunking, its fine with a front passenger, but if there is someone in the back when they get out it re-sets the belt off the bolster.
LC5F:
Just back from a 800 mile round trip to West Wales - usual random stuff found in farmer supply shops:
The trip down was pretty un-eventful, other than the seat belt chimes randomly sounding despite both belt buckled up. Some quick research on here helped, being 400 miles from home I did the non-VCDS option of just disconnecting the 2 pin pressure switch plug under both seats.
Fuel - its difficult to maintain any average or low enough speeds to be economical, but I was happy Golf did just over 6 miles per litre on Sainsbury's premium, on the way back I tried Tesco Momentum - definitely got a bit more umph, will find out if it did better mileage when I fill up.
Oil - previous few similar trips were before the head & turbo rebuild, it would use at least half a litre of oil each way, that looks like the consumption has halved - approximately 0.6 litres per 1k miles.
Return journey back to Scotland was a bit painful:
My timing was not good - I joined the M5 at Worcester, managed to then hit Birmingham at peak rush hour, and then all the way up till past Manchester it was random stop starting in the fast lane -I was sat there waiting for a pile up with the other 3 lanes still rolling.
M6 quietened down at Preston, all good through the lakes apart from some light mist - this then meant several cars decided to put fog lights on and leave them on...
But then I got to Penrith - a numpty in an older Astra joined the motorway, pulled into the middle lane to over take a slower car he had followed down the slip road, with no other cars in front of him, just as I was about to pass he decided to pull into the 3rd lane I was in.
He was doing 70 - I was doing 80, to miss him I had hard swerve towards the barrier, had to swerve back, nearly went into a complete tank slapper - but after a couple more left / rights and the Golf collected itself.
I think it would have been a different story if I was still on standard ARB's - the H&R's just killed the body roll - without them I could have spun, rolled or anything in between.
Strangely, by the time I got to the Borders, I was sick and tired of motorway, I could not either wait till the A702 or the possibility of more numpties on there too, so I escaped early by diving off onto the A701.
Normally this is a great drive, but the mist made an unwelcome return, this time it was thicker and hanging about.
I was hoping it was just in the valleys and would clear once I got the the Devils Beeftub... but it ended up 50 miles driving at 30 to 45.
The good news it was completely empty, caught up with on Scottish gas van who pulled over near Biggar, and for the last 10 miles I was grateful to tail a transit, he somehow could see further so it was a lot less stressful just following at a good distance.
Now I just have to deal with the road muck:
LC5F:
What's in the box? - hopefully the fix to mental auto wipers and cruise control not always switching off:
My wiper arm was always generating a fault code, replacement arm was required, couldn't see any point trying a used one as it could also be faulty and it would also be odd replacing wiper stalk and leave indicator stalk old....but then occasionally the cruise control wouldn't respond to input from controls, so both needed replacement
Removal was straight forward:
Interestingly the the Febi indicator stalk has the VAG logos deleted:
As the wheel was going to come off I thought I would make some improvements there too.
I love the original wheel, but find the leather lacks grip and feels like it could do with a bit more girth.
Scanning through Chinese ebay (somebody has to keep their economy going) I found a good looking alcantara wheel cover to fix my issues.
Current girth at thumb rest - front to back:
Side to side:
Installing the cover was tricky, watched loads of YT films and got stuck into what ended up taking 6 hours!
With my carbon paddles I decided to strip the entire wheel down, this is half way having done the lower 2 openings:
I am reasonably happy with the result being OK, a lot better than some I have seen, stitching is a bit random:
Girth improvement, F to B:
Side to side:
2mm improvement in both directions definitely feels better and the grip with alcantara is superb.
Currently I'm not 100% on board with the red stripe - I was swayed by a wheel TR Hamza installed in his Mk7
But my biggest annoyances are-
Around the DSG paddles - the seller did accomodate for paddles, but the fit isn't the best - the paddles used to give a nice mechanical click, the paddles still work but now the material is cushioning the paddles. Plus the fit on the Left side thumb rest has an exposed edge of the suede.
Currently it is a bit baggy & I have a couple of bubbles of suede in the stitching - hoping this will flatten out, but this may be it:
Think I will try black sharpie on the exposed edge.
pudding:
Great job on the steering wheel :happy2:
RBS:
Indeed looks great :congrats: :congrats: :happy2:
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