All Things Mk5 > Members Rides

Calum’s pride and joy

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CalMac:
Look what came today! :smiley:



Brand new Nissens AC compressor, one step closer to having that functioning again, the condenser hasn’t turned up yet though…

I got both parts on Black Friday for a good deal, £250 for both, shipped! Will have to wait for a nice dry day to do this but summer is still a while away, no rush.

CalMac:
I retrieved a quote today from a local reputable wheel reburbishment company that does off PROPER split rim wheel refurbishment. I was quoted £470 for all 4 wheels refurbished, that’s pretty reasonable for a split rim. However, this doesn’t include the cost of me supplying new bolts, and it also assumes that the whole process goes buttery smooth.

I was explained to that a multitude of problems can occur when restoring these kinds of wheels. The bolts that secure the face onto the drum can shear which requires careful extraction. The threads on the barrel that the bolts screw into can be damaged during the process which requires re tapping (Even though I’m far from a newbie at tapping, I was informed this escalates the financial contribution substantially). Previous c*ck ups from owners, bodged repairs and “glued down” sheared bolts are opportunities for extra cost.

The cost of a new set (60) of bolts is £210 from PW Motorsport. Adding up the initial cost, refurbishment cost, and the hardware we come to a total of £1130.

In preparation I have found an set of 1 piece 7 spoke Ronal wheels from an Audi A8 for £200. These can be refurbed and balanced for a total of £245 including centre caps. £445 vs £1130 to get a set of 18” wheels looking presentable, sounds like a no brainer right? The contrary argument I have in my head is that the split rim wheel just look so cool! Im very tempted to just go all in at this point.

So what I’m going to do is take the wheels for an inspection and be told what they reckon the condition of the wheel is like and how they expect the process to go. Unfortunately it’s really one of those “suck it and see” situations where you don’t really know how bad it is until they’ve been split.

Im also not forgetting that the larger wheels will need skinnier tyres. £350 is about the going rate for Goodyear asymmetric 5. And if I did have the split rim ones refurbished, ideally I’d like to eventually get the BBS 80mm centre emblem to suit.
This brings the minimum total to around £1680…
…to get a set of split rim wheels fitted to my liking, on a 15 year old car worth £5-6k, in a ‘perfect world’ scenario where nothing ever went wrong.

It’s starting to sound a little silly isn’t it.  :doh:

I’ll update this with what I decide on, I think it’s pretty clear which way is the right way to go here… don’t get me wrong I love the Ronals I’ve bought but the rs 795 just seem effortlessly special.

LC5F:
The refurbished wheels will retain majority of the costs involved and BBS wheels will always be saleable -it's not like they are a consumable like tyres, so you could think of them as an investment?
Considering the grief and stress over the last 2 years, this isn't a dress rehearsal! if you can afford it, I say go for it.

CalMac:
Been a while since I last updated on here. As of yesterday the bbs wheels have found a new owner, this comes as I have now sourced myself a bmw e46 330i! Have that car stored for now and haven’t driven it much but I’m dying to get it up and running properly for the summer, freeing up some funds for that. It’s a polar opposite experience to the gti in all imagineable ways. I’ll perhaps leave a review of both behind one day. Despite these cars sharing nothing in common other than being German and nippy, these cars were often compared and contrasted even today!

I’ve performed my first oil change on the golf and it went fine, I would strongly reccomend that you disconnect the coil packs and cycle the starter motor for about 10-20s to cycle some oil through the engine. As the oil filter is accessed upside down, and has its own reusable housing, filling up the filter with oil before installing is not an option. I briefly ran my car on low/ or no oil pressure for no more than 3s! And immediately stopped when I heard rough sounding start. I rememeber reading some time ago that after 8-10 secs of running without oil is enough to have depleted the piston rings of oil and start to damage your cylinder walls. Take that general rule advice with a pinch of salt as I can’t remember the source!

Today I tried to swap in a new compressor and condenser I had bought back on Black Friday. I didn’t get as far as I thought I would, but I will be trying this again soon, hopefully with a decent explanatory video on my channel ‘CalTarMac’.

Please note: you should not disassemble your own air conditioning system as recommended by vw and haynes. Haynes do not provide any instructions for this so it is entirely at your own risk. The air conditioning guy I went to reported to me that my system had fully depleted of any pressure. Therefore by disassembling myself I’m doing no more harm than already to the environment. It is a criminal offence to knowingly discharge refrigerant fluids into the atmosphere.

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