Jarred's Mk 2 GTI & silly questions.

[Jarred]

Just a thought I've had the other day. Is there anyway of tuning our ECU's? Can we put a chip on that allows us to tune them (ie with a laptop and wideband) or can we only do generic chip upgrades?

[h100vw]

Jarred, There's nothing easily available that you can do that with. I had my G60 tuned by a guy in the UK. He read my existing chip and then hooked his laptop to the ECU with a cable that plugged into the socket the chip came out of. He tuned the ECU in real time using the emulator. When he was finished, he burnt it to a chip and I went home.
TBH it would be far simpler to buy a generic chip. A great deal cheaper too.
snstuning.com do chips for the G60 which is where I got my first G60 chip from.
Gavin

[jayjay]

i've been looking into this myself jarred. yes you can but it's expensive. and you need someone with the know how/hardware/software.

if you have all that available it's quite simple really, just like flashing a new car without having to bypass anything...

real time tuning is difficult (read more expensive) because it requires an emulator and software.

[Jarred]

bother. oh well.

oh and ITS ALIVE! kinda loud without and exhaust though

[Peter Jones]

Cool, glad to hear it's up and running again. Just have to figure out that exhaust now and you're done.

There's a bunch of Seats at Centre Rd wreckers at the moment you might find a cat to suit there.

Pete

[Jarred]

Yea, James gave me the heads up today on some cats up at centre road, so I'll probably grab one of them, whack it on, and then take it down to the exhaust shop and get them to complete the system

I didn't end up installing the new timing belt, just cause I dont have any locking tools, and couldn't be bothered fiddling around with makeshift tools. The belt isn't excessivly worn or cracked, so it'll do for a while, I'll just have to do it later on. Also new to flush the oil tomorrow.

[Jarred]

All was running well with the mk 2. still plenty of things that need fixing, but I'm slowly getting around to doing them.

Tonight I had a more urgent problem though. I had the water light come up on the dash, just after starting, odd I thought. I chucked a little bit of water that I had in the car into it, and went of my way, light didn't come back on.

kept my eye on the temp gauge, and notice that it crept upto about half way. Normally it would only ever get this high sitting in traffic on a hot day. Checked the oil temp, and it was slowly creeping up to about 104/106. This was whilst crusing at 80kph, ambient temp is 10degress or less, not thrashing it at all.

Checked the hoses when I got home, all of them were cooking, except for the hose that goes from the lower radiator outlet to the waterpump, it was cold even, and the very short hose that goes from the water pump to the metal waterpipe that goes to the heater pipes. all the others were very warm. (20+mins driving) I believe alot of the water has boiled and come out of the overflow on the expansion bottle, I'm suspecting it'll take a atleast a litre or two tomorrow morning.

Any ideas?? I'm thinking stuck thermostat maybe?

I also topped up the oil and retimed it the otherday (with a gun finally) and noticed there was some oil leaking from the oil pressure (or temp?) sender on the side of the head?? Is the switch busted or what? This was before I filled up with oil, and just today, I've noticed that I have some noticeable oil leaks appearing under the car. a good 5cm puddle after a few hours. I havn't had a chance to go looking under the car yet.

Thanks in advance!

[sports racer]

Sounds like your thermostat isn't opening correctly. Take it out and put it in a pot of warm water on the stove. Bring the water to the boil and you should see the thermostat opening before it gets to boiling point.

You can't run the car without a thermostat because even when fully open they restrict the waterflow to the correct rate.

Oil leak may be as simple as taking out the oil pressure sender, cleaning the thread and applying a sealant before screwing it back in.

Hope this helps.

Paul

[benough]

Man your experience with your MK2 is reading almost identical to mine!

The oil temp sensor on the side of the head did the same. I just got it replaced. Same with the two sensors on the top of the coolant flange.

Yeah my pipes were like that when the thermostat was dead. Easy to replace it you gotta disconnect the power steering belt to get to it.

[Jarred]

Cheers guys, I figured it would be the thermostat. I have a feeling it's been iffy for a while, and probably lead to the demise of or atleast contributed to the leaking headgasket.

I'll have to check the sender again, because it is actually a new one.