Mk4 GTi Build Thread

[RM86]

Hey fellas,

Few months ago I brought a 03 MK4 GTi for my first car, after much thinking of i should sell it or not and buy a R32 i decided to keep it as I couldn't really find one in good nic. The car has 159xxx km on the dash and it already had a bit of work done to it such as a stage 2 APR tune, down pipe, larger front brakes, turbo back exhaust and a few R32 peices (steering wheel and gear stick). At this current time if have already brought a few other things but have not installed them such as FK halo lights with a black backing, new UK style tinted rear lights and stubby side mirrors.

I'll post up pictures below of the car as it was when i brought it and now how it looks as well as constant updates as i go.



So basically the car already had 17 inch BBS wheels that were plastic dipped is some terrible gold color and there is some scratches on the rear passenger side door as well as some scratches on the rear passenger side break light. As you can probably see I'm getting most of my work done at Tunehouse.

First thing I replaced prior to dropping the car off there was the stock seats, I actually purchased some leather R32 seats via the forums from LeStig and he was kind enough to drive up from Canberra and drop them off to me



The seat were in great condition and i really think they set the interior off.

After a few weeks of trying to decide where i wanted to go with the car i decided to go for a JDM/Euro look so i rang Tunehouse and asked them to order me in some wheels as well as book the car in for a power run and a full look over to see what issues the car currently has as well as order some KW V2 Coilovers.

Looking through a lot of sites and build threads i saw a lot of VW car owners go for BBS wheels and i guess i feel there not really my style so i decided to order some Rota Grid for the front and Grid R's for the rear



The grid's of the front are 18x8.5 ET44 and the Grid R's on the rear are 18x9.5 and i carnt remember the ET on them at the moment, will up date. As for the tread as i was running a little short on cash at the time we went for Achilles ATR sports front and rear, I'll update later with sizing.



At the same time i purchased the wheels i got the rest of the parts installed.



KW V2's. At the time of install they were also going over the car and noticed that my front control arm bushing were well gone so they replaced them with a Whiteline bushing kit as well as replace the rear trailing arm beam bushing and then fully re torque all necessary components. We also replaced the front strut mounts as they basically fell apart when they removed the old suspension.

Here's a few pic's of the car as it is



I'm pretty happy how the car turned out so far, I would like for it to be a little lower though this is my daily car and I don't really want to draw too much attention, That and I still want the car to be comfortable to drive. Other things to mention that were done were the general maitance stuff such as a engine oil flush and change, brake line flush and change, and a clutch inspection as well as fluid top up. Also another thing to mention was my APR DV was not working and after inspection we decided to replace it with a GFB Despons TMS, after installation the car was put on the DYNO and to be honest i wasn't really expecting great figures but after seeing the results i was kinda shocked how bad the car ran.



I guess this was just a base run and now that i know where the car is i can go from here though it does seem to have me wondering if the car actually has a Stage 2 APR tune as i believe the car should have a bigger power output then this.. that and i did notice that the car had a CPI tune sticker on the back so I'm not sure whats really going on there..

Now come for the bad news i received from Tony, here is a picture of the report



As you can see there is quite a bit of work to do before the car will be A1. I'm basically just saving at the moment to get all this done in 1 hit then after that hopefully around tax time I can go ahead with a CTS Stage 3+ Ko4 with GIAC tune as well a CTS FMIC.

So yeah that's where I'm currently at and i guess now u know the direction I'm going to go with the car. Any feedback or information would be great! I'll be continually updating this thread as i go.

As for future things to be done after the stage 3
- Whiteline swaybars
- Replace all mounts and bushing with appropriate polyurethane bushings/mounts
- Brembo BBK
- Car respray in Jet black

Hope you enjoyed the read and look forward to getting to know more of you.

Cheers

[caputo9]

Looks good man! Jealous of the seats haha
Keep up the good work

[lemontree]

Nice! one regret is that i should've picked up a GTi after they introduced the new power to weight laws… stupid nsw...

[caputo9]

Exactly why I upgraded from my 1.6L lemontree!
Couldn't cope with having a slow car anymore

[JustCruisn]

105KW is a bit low. Stage 1 APR should see 120KW at the wheels.
All those issues are just normal wear and tear that most of us have had to deal with over the years. I reckon you will have some leaking vac lines too as most of them get brittle and break.

Car looks nice, I like the stance and wheels.

[RM86]

Hey guys thanks for the feed back, yeh I'm looking at dropping the car off at Exoticars in the next few weeks to get that list sorted then around tax time I'll be going for a CTS Stage 3 turbo kit with a GIAC tune, I'm not sure what the power that tune makes but will defiantly be better then what i have now (anyone know rough power for the CTS stage 3?).

Also quick question for you's, I've noticed now since I have a turbo gauge that I'm not pulling even PSI though the gears.. like in first I max out around 10 -12 PSI then 2nd, 3rd and 4th I hold around anything from 13 to 15 PSI when I give it a bit. I don't think this is normal and I'm still leaning all about this so would anyone have any idea what that could be? I just replaced the old R1 APR DV with a GFB Respons TMS BOV and its currently on full atmospheric so could that be the issue?

Any help would be great!

[caputo9]

Sounds like a mental plan you've got there haha
Having full atmospheric could possibly cause the issue but not sure
Change it to full plumb back and see what it changes
Then report back to us

I'm interested in hearing what the bov sounds like as I'm currently looking into upgrading mine aswel

[HaydEn]

Turbo doesn't have the load put upon it as it does in higher gears. Therefore makes less boost.

I know that the cts stage 3 kit takes 2 years to install

[RM86]

Caputo9 my BOV sounds exactly like this http://www.gfb.com.au/phocadownload/...here_incar.wav though the sound is starting to get annoying I have a whistling trumpet as well but haven't put it on yet.
HaydEn haha na they aren't too bad at Exoticars, I've been told by a few guys that it generally take's a week for full install with FMIC and tune.

[schwartza3]

Good work mate!
Which K04 does the CTS stage 3 turbo kit include?