Tom's TDI

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TomG
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Tom's TDI

Post by TomG »

Hi my name is Tom. Im mostly a lurker when it comes to forums etc and don’t post often, but im currently distracting myself from doing uni work and would rather talk about my car lol. Apologies for the forthcoming rant, ive never written about this before and will try and remember everything! The following is what happened over 2 years.

I bought a Polo Sport TDI 130 2 years ago after my 206 hdi decided to blow up on the motorway…literally. As most people know on here, its hard enough trying to find a 130, non GT, let alone a 3 door, in a colour you want! 2 years ago it was even worse.

So here it is in “granny spec”, in official Winter Berry Red don’t you know lol (see what I mean about colour choice?), bought from a VW dealer as the second owner, with whopping 15inch alloys.

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Within the first week I had a Revo remap installed and it was great, a real flyer! They reckon about 170bhp and 280lbft.

I ran it like this for about a year then decided I wanted some more fun bits and pieces. I wanted to uprate the handling as it was fairly shocking as standard. The 288mm front brakes had good bite but suffered from fade quickly. For 312mm I needed bigger alloys, a set of Monty 2 ‘s would do nicely. A trip to Awesome GTi and I had 35mm H and R springs a Whiteline ARB and Cupra bushes etc all round. The car could finally go round a corner at least a bit! Since then I have also fitted the Forge front and rear strut braces too.

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Visiting Darkside Developments to pick up my 312’s I was taken for a spin in the Jetta. This was when it was running about 320bhp. A pretty interesting machine that revved and sounded like no diesel I had been in before.

Over the coming year I flitted between the idea of a Hybrid 150 or big turbo. I decided to start doing all the supporting mods before hand and started clicking :/

Milltek cat back exhaust and chop the cat out sounded like a plan. According to Milltek they don’t do an exhaust for the Polo tdi. I ordered a non resonated 9n3 Gti one instead. Fitment was perfect. Not a fan of the chrome tips, like the standard look :) so I had the ends chopped off and some down turned tips welded on instead.

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Intercooler next, went for a SEAT sport job and pipework.

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Hybrids regularly seem to put out a fair 370ish lbft of torque, so it needed a clutch and flywheel setup that could take the pain. I opted to go for the well thought of Southbend Stage 2 daily clutch and SMF. Good for about 400lbft, I reckoned it could hack it! It is pretty quiet but not silent, better than any other SMF I have heard tho.

I wanted the car to be an all round daily driver, I didn’t want to be struggling to keep it on the road every time it came on boost or saw a corner. I had a Peloquin ATB installed when the clutch was out.

Got fed up of the ride of the H and R springs so swapped them out for some Weitec Hicon GT coilovers. Sits at an acceptable height for me and the ride/handling is much improved.

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Saw a few pics of 9n2/3’s with TT comps, and sourced a set nearby. They came with budget tyres with little tread. Order a set of Toyo T1-R’s as they have a good name on other forums.

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Finally came the turbo, I opted for the baby big turbo. The GTB1756. Keeping with the daily driver theme, it came on boost earlier than a hybrid and would be capable of maxing out the standard injectors.

DD fitted and mapped it all extremely well. The saying goes “no smoke no poke” but there really is no smoke but a fair bit of poke lol.. It drives like standard, boosting nice and low so youre not caught out in the wrong gear very often.

I took it to Dynodaze (next door to R-tech – a very nice bunch of chaps) to see what power it was running. It made 224 bhp and 360lbft with NO smoke.

Until recently it was an absolute nightmare trying to keep the engine cool. The coolant kept boiling over after a spirited drive and it would need replacing often. I had the waterpump changed and cambelt while it was apart. Still cooked itself. Then had the cooling tank and all the pipework replaced, checked for headgasket failure, radiator leaks - nothing. I noticed the radiator fan wouldnt ever come on despite the heat. Wired up the sidelights to the fans so now they come on together (cool mod i really like).. This has solved the problem completely and it works a treat now and im really happy with it.

Comments are welcome! im not offended easily :)

Sorry for the lengthy write up :/ I wish I could do it with uni work!
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Ben90
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Drives: Olympian Blue Polo TDi Sport
Location: Kent, UK

Re: Tom's TDI

Post by Ben90 »

Welcome to the forum. She's a beauty! Looking back I wish I had the patience to wait for a good pd130 to come up! Really nice find. The monty 2s look good, I picked up a set recently too and they suit the car really well.

Great results on the modding too, you've done a fair bit! 8)

Will be watching this
TomG
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Re: Tom's TDI

Post by TomG »

Cheers matey! Yeh its really slim pickins when it comes to 130's. Makes them all that more special tho :)

I do like the montys alot, just liked the TT comps more after a while. Do you have any spacers on yours? I ran 20mm hubcentrics on the back and 10mm on the front and it helped puff the car out a bit in the arches. Any more plans for yours?
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Ben90
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Drives: Olympian Blue Polo TDi Sport
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Re: Tom's TDI

Post by Ben90 »

According to howmanyleft.com there are only 263 left on the road! Even rarer than the 9n GTs :o

I should get some spacers on mine really, once I lower it a bit. The spacers were on your montys? Are they on the one you pictured above? A few plans yeah I've got a votex roof spoiler that needs painting and fitting, this year I've been on a bit of a budget focusing on getting the car running sweet so only had money left for little visual mods.

I'm getting some horrible cabin noise on the slightest bumps from the dash, I'm pretty sure it was last owned by some brute who removed it with a crowbar and chucked it back in from a distance, i'd like to sort that before I lower it else I'd just be getting more noise :P

Any more plans for yours? Judging by your progress with the engine I guess you can look to visual stuff, unless you want to a sleeper :wink: you should get an SDI badge for the back and have some fun with the local chavs. :lol:
TomG
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Re: Tom's TDI

Post by TomG »

Yeh it has the spacers on in the pic. Im sure ive got some other angle shots to give you and idea of the stance, il see if i can find them. My spacers are for sale if youre interested?

Haha, i know what you mean about the dash, mines the same :/ i just turn the volume up lol..

Visually im finished i think, im not a big fan of the "headturner". Always wanted to plasti dip the alloys black just to see how good the stuff is! I am thinking about a 1.2 badge or somthing tho haha

I am tempted to go to the next level with power.. My only tuning options left now are to hybrid this turbo and fit bigger injectors. Im just worried about its driveability tbh. Its current power is a bit too much for the chassis, but it doesnt mean you cant have more power for straights!lol
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Ben90
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Re: Tom's TDI

Post by Ben90 »

I may well be, I've got a couple of other things in mind I'd like to get first so we'll see.

Haha yeah I do that too, did lowering it make it any worse? What was the ride difference stock vs springs vs coils?

Hmm how about interior mods? The mk5 golf gti steering wheel is a straight fit and looks the business, ive been keeping an eye out for one..

Haha I can imagine! With that kind of torque you must be lighting up the tyres constantly :P I've heard of people upgrading the diff to better handle the power, might be worth thinking about perhaps.
TomG
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Re: Tom's TDI

Post by TomG »

The springs didnt make any difference to dash board rattle.. Not that i could notice anyway. They did make the dash cubby pop open tho, everytime i hit any kind of uneven surface :/ ended up gluing it down! Looking back id say dont bother with the springs - go straight for at least a half decent set of coilovers. The ride now is much better, less wallowy and FAR less crashy over bumps. Saying that tho, ive not gone mental and slammed it on its arse, for handling and arch paintwork reasons!

Its funny you mention GTI steering wheel actually, just had a quick browse on the bay today, a potential upgrade indeed :)

Yeh got the Peloquin diff with the clutch, as its a direct copy of the Quaife but a tad cheaper, wanted to try and keep the car user friendly :) tyres are still a bit of a pain, only had 6k out of these fronts and they could do with replacing!
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greypolo9n3
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Drives: white 6r 1.6 tdi rline/gti
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Re: Tom's TDI

Post by greypolo9n3 »

be careful with your weitec suspension....they do come with a 1 year garuntee but make sure you treat them good

i had a set and the front left shock gave up totally after 6 months beleive it or not...i could literally move the whole thing in and out with my hands....it had totally lost what it had...worst of all i couldnt find my warranty card :(

Just an advance warning ;)
TomG
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Re: Tom's TDI

Post by TomG »

Thanks for the heads up! Il keep a closer eye on them.. How did you get around your problem? Did you manage to replace just that shock or did you have to go all out? :/
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greypolo9n3
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Re: Tom's TDI

Post by greypolo9n3 »

TomG wrote:Thanks for the heads up! Il keep a closer eye on them.. How did you get around your problem? Did you manage to replace just that shock or did you have to go all out? :/
i just got fed up and bought 50mm lowering springs....now i drive 20mph everywhere incase i hit a little stone on the road lol

i will however use the rear weitec adjustable springs on the back as 50mm lowering isnt quite enough :P
TomG
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Re: Tom's TDI

Post by TomG »

Mini update - So many potholes everywhere! I managed to crack one of my comps on the A1?? Massive hole in the road in the dark =

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So instead of running the spare i managed to find an Octavia VRS spider in mint condition for £30.. Not sure about the difference tho :/

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So im currently on the look out for an individual TT Comp if anyone knows of any? Ive seen a couple on ebay but those are silly money.

Annoyingly id just had a new pair of tyres put on the front, and had to go back and swap it over (literally the next day) to the spider.

Which brings me on to these -

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The T1-R's only lasted me 7k.. Very disappointed with them, performance and life. I chose them based purely on the positive response they seem to get across forums. These Pilot Sport 3's however are in a different league. The grip levels in comparison to the Toyos is huge! NEWSFLASH more expensive tyres are better than cheaper ones :o shock lol.. Yes they are more expensive but why cut short on probably the most important part of the car?

Lastly, a friend of mine has a remapped BMW 123d and wanted to see what power it was making. So we both went to Noble Motorsport in Chesterfield to see what was what.

I had my map tweaked a few weeks before, to lower the torque spike slightly. Here it is -

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There is a dip in the graph, but overall i like the way the power is delivered. It holds onto over 220bhp to nearly 5k rpm so im happy!

So it made 232bhp and 327lbft, an increase in BHP but due to the tweaking, the torque is lower and much smoother.

The 123d has a DMS remap and should have made 245bhp/350lbft. It made 233bhp and 301lbft and a very smooth graph.

Cheers!
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Ben90
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Re: Tom's TDI

Post by Ben90 »

I'm not sure what all the fuss is about with Toyo's either, I think it's just because they stretch well. According to the new rating system (if it's anything to go by) they don't stack up very well in terms of wet grip..or noise..

Can the crack not be repaired? There are some savage potholes around here too, probably due to the floods. Are you considering taking the claim to the council?

Haha I love the VRS spider! definitely something new, you should finish the set 8)
Jordi
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Re: Tom's TDI

Post by Jordi »

Nice thread.

How'd you find the handling now compared to standard springs? I have an '09 TDI and TBH, it's completly shocking in the bends. Thinking about coilovers and am hoping these improve the handling alot. Coming from a Renaultsport Clio 182 doesn't help, either.

Also, once its lowered, do you find you need spacers on the wheels to push them out a bit? Didn't know whether they sit too far in once the car sits lower.
TomG
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Re: Tom's TDI

Post by TomG »

Thanks :) Ive heard the crack can be repaired but it will just crack again around the weld. Really cba with that!

I agree the standard handling is terrible! Coilovers and a rear anti roll bar make a big difference tho. If youre hoping for an improvement then i would recommend both. Takes away that wallowing and alot of body roll round corners. I almost got a 182, but after a couple of test drives i just couldnt get over how bad the seating position is?? Feels like a 4x4! How did you find it?

Yeh i think spacers are a must when you lower the car, it just looks a bit odd when the wheels are hidden behind the arches! I spose it depends on the alloys you have and their offset? The TT comps sit really nicely flush without them but the Montreal 2's tend to hide a bit!
Jordi
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Re: Tom's TDI

Post by Jordi »

I loved my 182. Really miss it, wish I hadn't sold it TBH. I liked the seating position, as I did the steering wheel. I have had a 1.2 of the same shape so used to it I guess. Sold it as I was doing over 80 miles a day, so decided to buy a diesel, mistake really.

Anyway, handling is awful as we say, was thinking of trying springs to see what that does for the handling. And TBH, the wheels on mine are 15" so probably don't help when it comes to cornering. What size spacers are you running? front and backs? Also, how much £££?

Mine is also going through front tyres like no-one's business, sticking on a new set this weekend after only 12k!
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