nekkidlad

iTrader: (4)

last night picked up a preowned candy white 09 jetta s 5 speed...second one we own now(my wife has a blue mk5 SE also)...
cloth seats - heated fronts only and power backrest adjust fronts only, am/fm/1cd radio, 16" steelies and hubcaps with a/s michelin tires, sunroof, dent on roof and on lf fender, scuffing at ft bumper, bone stock...

after dealing with the guy for almost 3 weeks now...maybe against my better judgement....
i hope it doesn't bite me later

i was looking to trade in my 14 mazda cx-5 6 speed manual(nothing wrong with it...me nor my wife really felt like it fit us..and the seats were quite uncomfortable...) and knew i wanted a vw...woulda liked a mk4...but mk5 is all that was available when we looked...(i didn't really want to buy a car with very high mileage...so MOST mk4's would'nt pass "spec"...i already had my share of experience where i had to spend thousands just to get the car to "normal" condition maintenancewise....and it still needed major work soon)
and wanted to keep the manual(we spent like 3 months trying to find a cuv with a stick...and finally settled on the cx-5, mainly because it's the only place that would buy out our trade instead of only pay half of what we owed)

went down the street from my place to suburban mazda assuming they'd give me the most for trade in...
well...they didin't...and they were kinda dicks about it too...
so we went down to the vw area to check out possibly a new mk6 for my wife and i'd keep her mk5...too expensive...
thought we'd have to deal with the mazda...but then.....we decided to check out their "used car area"(even tho they have used cars scattered around the rest of the property)...success....4 mk5's...
1 auto wolfsburgh red
2 auto se black
3 auto jsw black
4 manual s white.....CHA-CHING

they'd closed by then so we called in the next day they said 3 days later we get a call saying "oh yea it's new, so it's not in the system yet..but you can come check it out no problem..."
so we did...
pulled out of the lot...car drove fine...felt exactly like my wife's...shifted 1, 2, 3 fine...
got on m5, shift to 4th....umm....why won't the car move?...just free rev's....ok...wtf? almost get rear ended by a f-150 blasting by...
figure out i can feather the pedal and it goes ok...but doesn't really move...very well...so i called the dealer from the shoulder and limped the car back to the dealer ASAP...when i got there the sales guy was waiting outside with the sales manager...gave them back the keys explained what happened...let them know i suspect the clutch is ok when not under heavy load...but slips when you floor it..
i leave and wait for a call back on info the car...

pull the carfax for the car...no accidents...AWESOME service history...it's a local car(apparently previous owners were an older couple living in novi, traded it in because they couldn't do the manual trans anymore so they got it a mk6 auto instead - according to the svc manager at vw), sold from suburban vw troy w/ service records and maintenance records every ~5kmi at both troy and farmington hills vw for every maintenance under the sun and a few warranty thing for trim and minor things...new brakes and tires ~10kmi before trading it

finally after 3 days i get a call from the dealer...yes the car needs a clutch, and we got it in...BUT...they ordered the wrong clutch...3 days later the new clutch arrives...BUT...they pull the trans and find metal chunks in the housing...not good...needs a trans....
3 more days needed to order a trans...reman'd unit...
finally after a week and a half of waiting on parts...they get the car together...
they call me and i ask for a test drive to verify the work at my shop, and give it a quick once over make sure tires, brakes etc are ok.....

lift the car up at work...HOLY CRAP!!...looks like somebody dunked the engine and trans in oil...along with the exhaust and subframe..its all SOAKED in oil....
used 2 full cans of brake clean to clean it all off(as good as i can get it)...put it down again...drive ~20mins put it back up...some oil....looks mostly mostly residue...but send it back to re-verify the oil leak by their guy who did the trans...
he said they rushed him so much he didin't get a chance to clean off the engine from where the old trans blew a hole thru the case at the ft transfer shaft bearing and dumping most of the fluid into the clutch housing..that's y it was originally soaked...

and they showed me the trans..there is a hole about the size of a golf ball and a bunch of mangled metal chunks in the clutch housing...

anyway...finally after 3 more days of them being "so backed up they can't wash it up or do the paperwork"...they call saying it's all ready...paperwork is done...car is all washed, waxed, vacuumed etc

so we went over last night and picked it up...

anyway here's my of list of mods i plan on doing...(not in order, mods will not be done all at once)
green is what i've done...
red is in the works...
black i haven't done yet


hitch receiver and cargo carrier basket - curt
4" hitch rise adapter - maxxtow(had to modify by notching 2" off the back)
coilovers - st speedtech coilovers
cold air intake - injen
red coil packs - since i'll be removing the engine cover/airbox because the CAI renders it useless and they add some color to a sea of black under the hood
exhaust - "custom"(2.5" piping from catalyst to a glasspack "resonator" and then all the way back to a cherry bomb/magnaflow muffler with twin tips)
tune - c2?
sell hubcaps and paint steelies - gloss white
swap 16" wheels with wife's jetta before sale - OZ Adrenalina 16"
plastidip grille chromes and rear vw badge matte white
remove trunk side badges
crystal clear sidemarkers - ebay...
paint calipers - not sure what color...again
lightweight crank pulley - ebay...
torque mount insert - ebay...
white NON-LED euro tail lights - 'tex classifieds
mk5 gti rear swaybar
TT short shifter
tint windows - 35%
shorty antenna - white 3" off ebay
upgrade head unit - maybe...if i do i'd like to get the one OE one w/ the 6disc changer...(like my wife's)...i don't feel like spending ~$400+ on the nav unit one...
remove dent on roof(best as possible) and fix ft bumper paint damage then properly polish and wax
misc maintenace - as needed...will be ongoing

may add more plans later on...but for now that's the plan...(i'll just edit them into this post)
i've never had a build thread before but i have had cars and posted about the mods/repairs here and other forums...

gone and forgotten items:
white painted steelies
thule roof rack and cargo bag

ps:
heres more info how i came to get the car
warning...it's another massive long winded first post...
http://michiganvw.org/forum/showthre...066#post925066

nekkidlad

iTrader: (4)

picture of car from the dealer website...(as delivered to me)

and old trans pictures...
sorry for the crappy quality...i don't own a smartphone



(the bolts are for the axle...the metal chunks are from the trans)

nekkidlad

iTrader: (4)

coilovers...(not istalled yet...but will install within the next few weeks)


not in the list...but i changed the pinlight to an amber bulb...
not very noticeable in the picture...but very bright amber in person

nekkidlad

iTrader: (4)

went camping....
so i got a roofrack and cargo bag because it's not a hatchback anymore and i needed a bit more room....
also i took the hubcaps off until i can sell them, before painting the wheels...


loaded bag and car


unloaded bag and car

nekkidlad

iTrader: (4)

cold air intake


removed grilles and took apart for plastidipping and installed the clear sidemarkers...


wheels before paint(after washing, sanding and drying)


after paint!

they're not perfect but good enough for my purposes....(some texture in spots, a bit of pitting in spots, and got a few cottonwood fuzzies got on the wet paint...but you can barely see any of them unless you're right up on them like 1 ft away and crouched at them....also not a perfect color match but i don't mind)

wheel on the car(no grille yet)


and the grille.....(well...pieces of the grille....)....washed and dried...prepped for plastidip

nekkidlad

iTrader: (4)

grille dipped, reassembled and reinstalled on car...
as it sits now...(needs a wash tho...dirty, greasy handprints all over)

like the wheels, it's not a perfect color match, but i don't mind it...

bakuro117

iTrader: (5)

Its no Ralliart. But hey I like it! :P How would you compare it to the RA?

nekkidlad

iTrader: (4)

no comparison...
this doesn't have the performance feel and aggresive drivablity the RA has...
it does have more power off the lot, but it doesn't feel like it tho...

this car feels in every way like the cheap audi that is(in a good way)
so much more refined and well equipped for the price...
original sticker price on this car was ~$18k...
original sticker price on my RA was ~$23k(it had the pricing sticker in it when i bought it, lost it soon after tho)
this car is more deserving of the $23k price tag than the RA is...based on look and feel

i do miss my RA a ton but, after the coilovers and short shifter, im guessing this car will be definetly my 2nd favorite - out of the 5 cars i've owned...(ra #1...white jetta #2...)

great look and styling, sunroof, auto up/down all 4 windows, the shifter is soft feeling, the clutch pedal is very soft and easy to use, handles wonderfully, very comfortable, super quiet(engine/exhaust - has 2 large mufflers in line...very little road/wind noise - very well insulated), throttle response is delayed(tuned that way....re-tune fixes that) but that adds to the "cheap audi feel"...
it feels much more expensive than it should for the price...it's good and bad overall...
it sure does need sportyness tho...

ps: this is the car i texted u a while back asking if you liked white cars before you bought yours...and i hated white cars myself....but now i can only say i love the white of the car...(don't know about other cars tho...but i love this car in white now)
i wish i could've found a cherry red one, but then that meant most likely getting an auto(that red is super hard to find in stick apparently, mostly turbo ones so i couldn't afford it)....or a blue one like my wife's, but then that's too confusing if we have 2 same cars the same color...
of a golf which is what i wanted but stick is only available in 3 door and with a baby that'd be very hard...
or a diesel model, 5 door model does comes in stick which ruins performance but greatly improves fuel economy, would be way expesive and hard to find also...

bakuro117

iTrader: (5)

awesome! Im glad you like it! The grille looks much better white than it did chrome.

I had to take the silly engine cover off of my Fiance's turbo beetle. She drove it for half an hour and you couldnt put your hand on the intake manifold when I removed the cover 15 minutes after it had been sitting. Removed it, drove all day popped the hood soon as we got home and it was just slightly warm. LOL

cmspaz

iTrader: (1)

I actually really like my daily driver GLI, great cars.

The dipped grill looks good!

nekkidlad

iTrader: (4)

thanks...

the GLI is as close to performance model in a jetta tho...(seeing as how it IS the performance model..)...2.0t with performance engine and sport suspension...

mine's an S(aka base model)..."economy" engine and comfort suspension...not sporty, comfortable tho

i'd love to get a gli...but insurance would be more than it already is...and it's pretty high already

cmspaz

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, insurance on mine is quite a bit.

Even without the GTI underpinnings I'd still like this car, it's absolutely wonderful around town. Roomy and comfy, the auto windows as you said, and a number of other things you can play with in the VAGCOM to make life a bit easier; I enabled FOB controlled windows, for example, and in the winter I turn off the e-brake chime.

I can walk past my Evo to get into this 6 or 7 days out of the week and not turn around wishing I were driving it instead, which at least in my mind says quite a lot about this car.

nekkidlad

iTrader: (4)

i agree...
however i'd like it to have just a bit more ***** and sporty feel...
but then that's y they offer the wolfsburgh(middle ground...has gli/gti engine, and if memory serves me right same suspension as mine..) and the gli(sport model)...

when i get the coilovers installed, the guy that's helping me(has all the special tools) and a vagcom so i can do the window thing too(didn't put it on the list but i should, since i'm getting it done)..i've been waiting to get it since i have to go to his place for both...
instead of bothering him twice or 3 times...just do it all at once..
tho i may see if i get it done to my wife's too anyway...so that's more than once regardless...lol

nekkidlad

iTrader: (4)

ordered shorty antenna(4") and the torque mount insert this morning...

may get some caliper paint later this week too...
also have plans saturday to finally put the coilovers in..

cmspaz

iTrader: (1)

Also, add to the VAGCOM list if you haven't yet, enabling the auxiliary heater. The PDI documentation written for the US completely skips over the fact that the heater isn't enabled from the factory, and should have been enabled at the dealer. Since the documentation didn't list it, it didn't get done so you'll have to manually. All MkVs are affected.

It won't give you notable heat, but it's enough to get your windows defrosted by the end of the block instead of when you're pulling into the office.