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A friend of mine with a GTi recently blew his engine. I don't know the intricate details yet but I believe he was at 6000 rpm in 4th on the motorway about to change gear and pop it went. He looked after his engine (oil changes at least every 10k).

It kinda worried me cause I drive my GTi as hard as he does (and if i'm driving alongside my buddy in his VTS I tend to drive it harder).

I'm interested in how you guys drive? How often do you take her into the redline, what is your driving style? and have any of you had engine problems with the GTi?

Mine has seen the redline many times, although I always wait until the car is warmed up.

However I don't do it all the time, there is moments where I change gear at 2.5k

In normal town driving I change around 3k, out of town however I fairly regulary take it to the redline generally in 2nd and 3rd always make sure the engines warmed up first though, the way I look at it is thats what there built for.

I change the oil myself in between services so mines has had a change every 5k, I've not had any trouble with the engine bar the waterpump going at 55k (I was lucky it never took the timing belt withit), I suspect your friends failure will be caused by the timing belt letting go either due to the waterpump going or one of the tensioners failing this seems to be the main weak spot on the GTis engine.

Whatever car I'm in I usually don't take it past 2.5 until it is warmed up. I typically change gear between 2 and 2.5, 3 if I'm in a more feisty mood and 4+ if I'm in a weird or pissed off mood, or just in a hurry

Mouse_GTI wrote:Whatever car I'm in I usually don't take it past 2.5 until it is warmed up. I typically change gear between 2 and 2.5, 3 if I'm in a more feisty mood and 4+ if I'm in a weird or pissed off mood, or just in a hurry

That's almost the same as me.

The 3.5 miles i drive to work and back, the car normally doesnt go over 2k.

I always let it heat up before i boot it. It also gets an oil change every 5k miles.

There's a clue in my username.

Naturally only once it's warmed up. The GTi really could have done with an oil-temperature gauge in addition to the normal one.

so is the oil warmed up by the time the coolant gauge comes up?

For daily nornal drive, I generally shift up @ 3000rpm~
But when I go with my friends , they all drive VR6, I have to
shift up over 6000rpm in each gear

nickpolo wrote:so is the oil warmed up by the time the coolant gauge comes up?

The oil takes longer than the coolant, normally about 15mins of normal driving before the oil is up to temp.

2500 / 3000 rpm - normal driving

5500 / 6000 rpm - when the occasion arises to rag the sh1t out of Oscar the Olop ( only when at right temp though).