Daily Driven 1.8T Build

[cmdshft]

So I was going to attempt to run through my state inspection for a new sticker and see if I could pass without my cat installed, since I am lowered they may not have been able to tell...

Well, since I live in NJ, I am not required to go through a visual inspection of emissions equipment, just an OBD scan and as long as I have no codes (including pending codes) and only one monitor failed/not ready, I pass.

I checked my car through VCDS to see what the readiness was, expecting to see all pass like always... Except this time, I had several "Not Ready/Failed" monitors.

I had been dealing with an occasional upstream O2 sensor code relating to the heater circuit being below performance and my car was not doing the SAI cycle all the time on cold starts, just going right to high idle and then slowly coming down over time. My vac readings when the SAI cycle wasn't running was my normal idle reading of -20/-22. When the SAI cycle did run, it's usually -15 until it's done and then goes to -20 to -22.

I replaced the O2 sensor and it seems that it's been doing the SAI cycle more consistently now but I am still unable to get the readiness to go through. I cleared codes about 140 miles ago and still nothing.

I decided to take a look at Measuring Block 032 in VCDS and I noticed that after the same 140 miles, my long term fuel trim was still at 0%... Then I remembered that my tune is setup so that in order to pass NJ inspection, the tune has to allow the monitors to pass "naturally" and so I have to use resistors to allow the system to "see" the "hardware" that doesn't exist and adapt trims... Since I am not adapting trims apparently, I suspect my issue lies in a failed resistor. Saw the other day that one of them was bent pretty bad (I have the plug and play ones from Urotuning) but didn't think anything of it.

Now I am going to order 2 new ones where the SAI would plug into and see what happens.

[cmdshft]

I've finally had enough of my sway bar rubbing and banging the axle, especially since that now it's been very warm out it's seemingly doing it more and more. Tomorrow I will be taking the angle grinder to it.

[cmdshft]

hell yea homie!!! cant wait for real lows

I'm very excited but unfortunately, it will likely be a few weeks before I can actually get around to installing. I picked up so many overtime shifts over the next few weeks... Gonna be tough. Might have to do it in parts, electrical and management mounting first one Sunday and then the actual bags and air lines another.

[storey618]

hell yea homie!!! cant wait for real lows

[cmdshft]

Some goodies arrived in the post today...

[kittenpuncher]

classy, and quality modifications so far, strong work.


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[WaStateKillerBee]

Looking good!

[cmdshft]

Wow, I haven't updated this thread in a while.

Not much has really changed over the last few months.

Did some maintenance stuff, I developed a bit of a clunk that I thought was attributed to a few things, although I now believe I had this issue for a while since I lowered the car more but never paid attention to it until recently and it drives me nuts.

I swapped out the passenger side axle finally which was bad. The inner CV had almost come out, there was a decent amount of slop play to it. New one in and that took away a lot of the noise, but it was still there.

Also installed ECS engine and trans mounts.





I changed out the BFI Stage 2 dogbone mount to see if that cleared it up. Unfortunately... had some issues.

Here's the new one, the ECS performance mount. 70A bushings and a teflon lines stainless steel spherical trans side bearing.



Stripped a bolt out of the trans and had to drive an hour away to a friend's house to drill out the hole and the dogbone bushing to fit a step up size bolt.











New golf ball shifter installed.



New touchscreen radio.

[cmdshft]

So H2Oi was an interesting weekend.





Then, after having to drive through some puddles (read: road lakes) due to all the bad weather, I had the car parked in our condo garage area. An R32 and my buddies S4 were 2-stepping because we all couldn't get out to go cruise the strip and wanted to make some shenanigans happen, so I decided to join in.

Well, I destroyed the upstream oxygen sensor in the process. Found out the next morning when I went to go drive it. Parked it in a parking lot and then picked up a new sensor. The old one sounded like a baby rattle. After replacing it, the car drove fine for about 20 minutes and then decided it wanted to go into EPC hard limp mode. Had a throttle related code, so I assumed the ECU was dead. I managed to get in contact with someone with an ECU on hand and could also swap over my tune to the ECU as well.



Took the car for a spin with the new ECU and 20 minutes later, the car went into EPC hard limp mode again. Thankfully, that means the old ECU was fine. So I took the ECU back out, inspected all the wiring, cleaned up all the connections with electrical cleaner and cleaned the engine with some brake cleaner and WD-40 on all the parts that had water touch them from the lakes in the road and massive rain. Took it for a drive and the car was perfect.

Partied my ass off at the condo to celebrate.

Day of the show, I went to leave and made it about 6 blocks from the condo and I went to take off and I hit a bump and snapped my driver side inner CV cage apart.

Took that shit apart on the side of the road.



If you never heard what a failed axel sounds like, this is it:

http://tinypic.com/r/euoo5i/9

Back together.



Because it took me a while to get it done, I didn't get to make the show so I cruised around and met up with some friends.



One last bootay shot at the condo.

[cmdshft]

Threw the 20mm's back on because the 10mm's I was sent, one had a bad warp to them so I am being sent a new set. But, I think it looks good with the 20mm's.

[cmdshft]

Haha, I agree but this is my daily and I got other responsibilities to handle so I don't want to always be breaking stuff from being slammed.

[storey618]

looks good homie, comfort levels are overrated though!

[cmdshft]

Spent half the day adjusting everything down. Took the rear perches out and removed the 20mm spacers. I have 5 threads left on the front coils and about 1/2-3/4" between the passenger axel and the frame rail. That's pretty much my comfort level in regards to the axels.



I may take out the rubber top spring mounts in the rears and test some 10mm spacers on them to see how they tuck. If I can get the frame notched then I'll drop the coils completely.

[cmdshft]

Lowered the GTI a bit more today. Forgot to add wheel specs that I currently have:

225/45/17x8 ET35
10mm in the fronts
20mm in the backs

I do wish to lower it a bit more, I am comfortable with how it sits right now but it wouldn't hurt to bring the gap closer down in the front. However, I feel like I may need 15mm spacers instead for the backs to clear comfortably without rubbing the tire to fuck all. Gonna try and trade them.

Here's a shitty pic for now, I'll take a better one tomorrow and post that with a side profile of the front and rears.

[cmdshft]

And of course, the bra was delivered late as always. Never the less, it was a simple install. I think it looks great. However, since I don't have the notch filled, you can kind of still see that there is an empty spot where the notch is. I may take care of it before the drive to H2Oi.