MeTsU's 9N3 TDi - Sooty from South Africa

[mli]

Loving the OZ wheels mate, looks awesome!

[MeTsU]

Loving the OZ wheels mate, looks awesome!

Thanks mate. I really do love them, and hope to never part with them.

[MeTsU]

Thanks to my team mate and good friend Darren for his help, as well as Nick, for ensuring our glasses were always kept at an adequate drinking level.

[MeTsU]

Sooty is back on the road.

We fitted the flywheel, clutch & pressure plate during the week. It was at the same time I decided to do a little cleaning up and general inspection of all the odds and ends that I have been thinking about. Had it not been so cold and pouring with rain during this past week, I would've loved to have done more in and around Sooty. Small things that were done, were like to clean the wheel arch liners and I got around to removing the left one and cleaning behind there. Touching up of marks on the subframe and frame rail from removing the gearbox. Etc.

On Friday night, a had a couple good mates help me and we got the box in and hung. They really were saviours, as the box weights in at 49kgs, it's not the easiest thing to manoeuvre around and get mated to the motor when lying on the ground. I went and bought the gearbox plug removal tool - it's available at your larger tool shops. They use a 16mm spline type plug, with a raised nipple in the middle, unlike the Citi Golfs where it's a normal 17mm plug. Although I knew the gearbox was empty after having a friend redo the syncros and check it out for maintenance purposed, I remove the drain & fill plugs. I made up a funnel and pipe to fill the box and poured in about 150ml odd to just rinse out any muck that might have not been cleaned up - no real dirt, so I was happy knowing all was clean inside. I closed up the drain plug and filled the box with 2.3L of gear oil from VW.

On Saturday we did all the final odds and ends, checked items that needed to be torqued and got the drive shafts in. Bled the clutch and got the subframe back in place - surprisingly, we got it close enough to where it used to be, so the alignment, although out, it doesn't pull the the left. We refitted the battery tray, battery and airbox etc. and fired Sooty up whilst on the trestles to ensure we had gears. Running through the gears was a little nerve racking, as the now chattery gearbox makes you second guess yourself - but we expected it and tried to not let our minds make us uneasy. We put the OZ's back on and took Sooty for a test drive.

All I can say is, wow, it's already biting like a beast - thank goodness I opted for the Stage 3+ and not the Stage 3 (6-puck) clutch. So far I've done 65km and I've started to get used to the clutch feel.

The flywheel - everyone that saw it, couldn't believe how well manufactured it is. It was so beautiful, I didn't really want to but it in the car, LOL. Immediately, I realised how much quicker Sooty revs up. Rev matching is an easy task now and I'm fast perfecting it. There is a lot of chatter, which was expected. For those of you who are wondering what I'm talking about, it sounds like a stuffed release bearing almost - here's a video of a Helix clutch & SMF setup - https://www.youtube*.com/watch?v=_z8Vmo-s1TY - sounds like that. I can expect it to get better as it breaks in, but it will always be there. It will just take some getting used to.

The clutch - being a full face disc, I was expecting it to be forgiving, which is it. It makes town driving a breeze. It's the material that it's made from - carbon semi-metallic friction material - that gives it a lovely bite. I can now feel that when I've engaged the clutch, it's engaged.

The pedal - it feels a little lighter than OEM, but the bite threshold and engagement are just perfect. I have to blip the throttle a little more than I used to, to ensure I don't shudder when pulling off, but I've always been a little cautious, so I'm finding it easy.

I'm going to break it in for 800km - it needs to be town driving (plenty of stop/start traffic) is necessary for the materials to bed and mate correctly.

After that, it'll be time to have soem fun.

A big thank you to Darren, Nick, Jason, all those who contributed & of course, *SamStaR*.

[MODDED9N]

Planning on replacing my clutch with the same one as yours because mine is shot! It good?

[MeTsU]

Planning on replacing my clutch with the same one as yours because mine is shot! It good?

Well, I haven't finished the break in period, so I can't exactly say, but I think my previous post sums up the quality of the kits. I received excellent service and so far, I'm a happy camper. There are a lot of stories of SPEC clutches being rubbish or failing - but do your own research and decide for yourself. I researched for months and months.

[MeTsU]

I've been meaning to update things for a while now. Thanks for the comments guys.

After the clutch & gearbox, I did a massive detail of the engine bay and behind the arch liners, rain tray etc. The whole front end of Sooty was taken apart and cleaned in every little area I could get to. Unfortunately, I didn't really document too well photo wise, seeing my hands were covered in Prepsol and other chemicals.

I fitted a PD160 air box pipe and removed the snow stop plastic section preventing a clear flow of air.

[MeTsU]

DubRun 2011 was awesome - a massive thanks to Rob aka Rob_dbn - not only for organising such an awesome event at Vmacs for the Vdub Day, but also for hosting *SamStaR* and I. Without him, I would never have made the trip this year! Thanks to all those who voted and I had chats with as well. Sooty took home the Best Polo award in the Show & Shine. After last years 2nd In Show, I didn't expect Best Polo this year with more than triple the cars than last year. It was a fantastic event, with great friends and fellow enthusiasts.

Thanks to Robbie for these photos below:










I've been moaning about not having rolling shots of Sooty - thank Fray for these:

[MeTsU]

It's been ages since I last updated my thread.

Not much has been happening, so nothing to really report back on, other than the OZ's will need a refurb soon as they starting to look a little scruffy. That and the fact that the left rear wheel's lip took a beating a week or two ago, when I had to swerve mid-corner to avoid hitting "an asshole". Unfortunately, there wasn't enough room between the curb and the OZ, and that was that. Before I could even come to a stop, the guy was gone.

I thought I better post a few photos we took at a rather impromptu photoshoot - Senna, Redrum and I got together to check out a potential area for a future shoot. Unfortunately, it was midday and the sun was incredibly bright. So please excuse the horrible lighting.

[MeTsU]

Finally, after more than a year, I got around to painting my Cup Edition bumper. Here's a quick sneak peak whilst the bumper is being flatted.

[MeTsU]

[MeTsU]

[MeTsU]

I gave everything a good clean last night, the amount of dust etc. that came out from between the fins of the SMIC was quite incredible.

[MeTsU]

New aircon condenser installed. Ready to fit the bumper.





Three weeks ago, my battery finally started to give in - after 7yrs, my OEM Varta has served me well. So I replaced it with another Varta - very very happy.

Then, two weeks ago, my front pads decided to let go, so it was time to replace the discs and pads.

This past weekend was spent searching for the minute aircon leak I had. This week we found it, turned out that the only place we didn't check was the dryer, under the black cap. There was some corrosion and after battling a little to get the circlip out, I was told that it's not uncommon for them to develop a leak there.

I decided to replace the condenser with the new screw type dryer and not the circlip type, which I fitted last night. Tonight I plan to fit the bumper and will get the system re-gassed next week.

It's been an intense three weeks, with also having to sort out SamStaR's front discs and pads on her Polo.

[MeTsU]