R32 Evo X

[MitchellR32]

So here starts my progress thread of a Vag car going through the motions 

I bought the car already sporting some mods, milltek cat back, apex springs, BBS forged ally rims from an Evo X mr.

Since buying the car in April 2015 it received a mild brake upgrade up front with some Dba grooved discs and Ferrodo Ds performance pads. Then it had a gearbox refurb in October, me and my mechanic are still unsure of the reason why it failed, the history of the car seems pretty solid so that remains a mystery. Then with help from Piggy the car was treated to some Bilstein B14 coilovers, the apex springs ruined the original shocks and I had started to feel the front left shock hitting the top mount. I've just had the wheels completely refurbished and am collecting them on Thursday, so once I have I'll  post up some pictures and grab some pictures from over the year.

Next up: upgrade front brakes again, more grippy pads, braided lines and good fluid. Upgrade the rears to match. Other than that just a few cosmetic corrections, few patches of rust on the back that need sorting, nothing to disastrous.

As said I'll get some new pictures up when I pick up the car on Thursday. But to wet your appetite here's a video of the car blasting through the Brecon Beacons in January this year, enjoy!
https://youtu.be/g1JFS1w4K4E

[tim 306td]

Sounds well that and love the video haha made me laugh

[Poodle]

Aw i thought this was some sort of rare mitsubishi, turns out it's a vag. ick: As long as you like it, then, well, i guess at least you like it.

Welcome to the forum, please take careful note of my signature!

Does sound pretty mint mind, is that a modified exhaust or standard part?

[Piggy]

Needs update this...
Refurbed wheels look mint

[MitchellR32]

Wheels! Haven't had time to get on this plus photo bucket kept spamming me!!

Fiat bronze in a Matt finish. Enjoy

[Dum-Dum]

Looks Gorgeous mate

[Piggy]

Yeah love them...

Story of balancing...tell all...

[MitchellR32]

    Piggy pid='590253' dateline='1464640143']Yeah love them...

Story of balancing...tell all...

Too much too write..... I need a secretary to type it all out for me.

Basically, the wheel refurbishers sent me away in an unprepared car, forgot to replace the spigot rings on the front, tried to say they weren't there originally, found them eventually, put them on and still had balancing issue. Took it back the next day and left it with them all day again, took it home, still the same problem. They kept saying there was nothing wrong with their balencers and that there must have been something wrong with my car before taking it in. Which there was not! Took the car to my mechanic to get the once over, he not only confirmed that the wheels were still off balance but that the "wheel refurbishers" had damaged their own work on the inside of the rims, scored the rim by taking off their first bodged up weights! So After a long and drawn out phone call and a trip back to the workshop I was offered a full re spray on the wheels, as you can imagine I was really frustrated by all this. I demanded a full refund as I no longer trusted them with my car.

That's exactly what I got! Still have a problem with the balance but my mechanic is confident he can fix it. I'll add some photos of their damage, you'll see why they didn't argue my demand!

[Piggy]

Dynamic balancing fail

[MitchellR32]

So after 9days of being off the road again the vibration has been sourced! To find it my mechanic went round the houses, 3 times!

First the wheels were re balanced, sure enough they were not balanced properly at the refurbishers. This wasn't the cause of the vibration.

Then came the time to truly eliminate the back wheels and drive, so off came the rear subframe and prop shaft. Again a problem was found in that the rubber donut on the prop shaft was cracked! A test drive without this though only showed that the vibration was still there.

Now only the front end was causing the vibration. Engine mounts were tested and showed a little play, not enough to cause the shocking amount of vibration. A run out test on the discs and drive shafts were carried out, very small amount on the offside shaft, again not enough to cause a problem which would have been there the whole time.

A trip to a gearbox specialist proved unproductive as he eliminated the possibility of it being a transfer box issue. 

All seemed hopeless when after exchanging the front driveshafts off of his own mk5 golf that the problem was still grinning at him. As a final ditch attempt to find the bug they removed the front brake discs. PROBLEM FOUND! There is no warping or damage noticeable, but once removed all is fine and absolutely no vibration. Conclusion, your guess is as good as ours. Long and short of it is that I will need to replace the front discs and pads for the second time in a year. 

I've never seen my mechanic so confounded. The upside is that this thorough health check has revealed some potentially harmful issues, such as the prop shaft donut which has now been replaced. The dog bone mount had serious amounts of play, also changed.

Looking forward to getting it back so I can make plans for a change in the front braking system.

[MitchellR32]

       

Gave the car a mini detail on Saturday. It's the first time I've cleaned it since the whole wheel and Unknown vibration saga. Wheels cleaned really well and really stand out. Even had time to paint up my tyre decals again. Need to get it lower though, will be winding it down when I get a level surface.

[Toms306]

I don't usually like Mk5s....but I'll make an exception there!

[Dum-Dum]

The colour of those wheels is definitely spot on.

[MitchellR32]

Been a while. Basically I've been driving it very carefully on its damaged brake dics (whatever the damage was) but finally I had all the parts and some of Piggy's time to get it sorted.

So as follows:

M-Tec C hooked discs 345mm
Ebc Yellowstuff pads
Hel braided brake lines
Motul Dot 5.1 fluid 

Piggy made a start on the discs and pads and after a couple of hours of uncertainty and research we eventually got the lines and fluid all bolted on and bled. The brake fluid was only 1year old but seemed to be very discoloured after only covering 5000miles of road driving, according to Piggy the fluid coming out of the clutch was black, that too should have been drained in October. So either my driving is really bad or I need to find a new mechanic. Anyway here are some pictures of the finished article!


   

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[Dum-Dum]

Looks good, I saw the pics of the discs Piggy posted on facebook and wondered whose they were.

[Piggy]

Just to compare these to 266mm Pug discs...

   

[MitchellR32]

   

Haven't updated this for a few weeks, mainly because nothing has happened since me and piggy upgraded the front brakes. The car was taken down to Newquay the following weekend where it had some fun along the B roads of the beautiful Cornish coastline upto Bude. But the car is going on a diet this weekend for reasons I will explain next week ?

[Dum-Dum]

Ooh a diet, I hope it's carbon fiber rather than full strippage

[MitchellR32]

Ooh a diet, I hope it's carbon fiber rather than full strippage

If I had the wallet for carbon replacements I'd be a happy man! But you are correct. I'm taking the car to Bedford autodrome next Saturday along with the new owner of the 328i that I attended Fcs in. My car is being treated to some new Yokohama Ad08r's, a new Itg panel filter and front drop links. This weekend it's going on a little diet, rear seats, spare wheel well and anything not nessisary or glued in will be removed. Losing just the stuff in the back will gain a 50kg reduction in weight. Not ground breaking but defo enough to make a difference

[MitchellR32]

   

So this happened yesterday! And now it feels epic!!! I've removed as much as I feel I'm prepared too, driving without the sound proofing and extra weight is very addictive but I know it'll all need to go back in after the track day. Suspension needs tweaking to factor in the loss of weight in the back but I'll do that on the day.