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Finally picked up a GTi today

Having had a 9N3 1.4S for the last two years, I decided to upgrade to a GTi. Found one the other week and went to take a look, and ended up buying it! Haven't taken any photos yet because it's pretty dirty after the drive home, but here's a couple of dealer shots:





As far as I can work out, the extras on it are:

• Diamond black metallic paint
  Heated leather seats
  Climatronic
  Reverse parking sensors

Describe it in one word? Epic . Massive step up from the 1.4. I finally see what you guys were on about all this time lol.

Plans so far are mainly refitting stuff from my old car before moving on to a couple of extra touches. Stuff like:

• Gloss B pillars
  Stubby aerial
  Silver indicator bulbs
  Parrot bluetooth kit
  Xcarlink
  Cubby box
  New centre caps for the alloys
  Rear mudflaps
  Lower honeycomb grilles
  Possible full FIS conversion - still looking into how possible/expensive this is...
  Cruise control (?)

Looking back on that, its not a bad list so far

Only problem I've found (and I'm SERIOUSLY picky...) is the brakes. When stationary, the pedal feels firm, but when moving it becomes a bit spongy and almost reaches the floor when breaking. It also feels like the first inch or so of pedal travel doesn't have any effect on the braking. They seem to work alright though. It was checked over by a garage before I took delivery and no problems were found, but I'm still not too convinced. Is this a common problem?

Comments/opinions welcome!

Brake fluid bit low maybe?

Is the handbrake on when you are on about it being stationary?

As far as I am aware its all the same system, then you put you handbrake on/off you can feel the pressure change through the pedal, if the handbrake is on, the pedal will be quite firm asif the footbrake is on (at least on mine it does)

Yeah I'd check the brake fluid level also, it should be near the floor when you brake, seems a bit too spongey that

Welcome to the gti club pal. Feels good dont it haha. Car looks spot on mate. Must say, brakes felt very crapy on mine when i picked it up, dealership told me it had been sat for awhile and they just needed bedin back in, couple week later still felt crap. Lookily i still had my 312mm from my 1.9tdi so put them on, what a huge difference. Fully recommendes spendin 200 rips on a set mate, itll feel like you can pull stoppys lol. Anyway ur plans sound pritty much like what i have for mine, plus had a revo map put on mine just before xmas, totally different car mate.

BennoGTi wrote:Is the handbrake on when you are on about it being stationary?

When the car is stopped, like at a set of traffic lights or a junction, the pedal feels firm, but if I'm braking, like on approach to some lights, it feels quite spongy and the pedal travels almost to the floor, which to me seems wrong. It was apparently checked over a couple of days ago and the fluid level was supposed to be normal... think it warrants another check though. If not, my local dealership has another GTi in stock I think, so I might need to convince them to let me have a go to compare them! Thanks for the suggestions though guys, I'll check the levels myself tomorrow.

NMavs wrote:Welcome to the gti club pal. Feels good dont it haha.

Feels awesome mate, only got about 90 miles on it so far but loving every minute of it! Looked into the revo maps, looks pretty good but I don't think my insurance will be too happy about it lol, looks like I'll have to wait a couple of years... Still got a good step up in power to play with though!

Go r-tech for map mate n say I told you to n he may give a bit of discount he does custom maps n a gd bloke too if u left ur car there he could possibly develop launch control for u like he has on his golf 1.8t. He has just sold that to someone else so revo will start doing that soon. But he knows loads about mapping and will only charge if it works how it should and also will tell if anything is wrong. But each to there own

Think I'll leave off the remapping for a while, but thanks for the advice anyway.

The big news is that the brakes seem to be repairing themselves - fluids were on the money when I checked this morning. Five minutes later an idiot cut me up in traffic so I pulled an emergency stop and after that the brakes seem firmer. Strange but I'm not complaining lol.

Went into the dealers today for some new centre caps for the alloys, found they only had three in stock. Typical lol.

Had a bit of time off yesterday so thought I'd get a couple of small jobs done on the car.

First up, Philips Silvervision bulbs, front and back:

Before/After



Shortened Aerial - thinking about a shark fin aerial in the future but got this on for now...



Gloss B pillars


Also managed to give it a quick clean and took a couple of photos (bit dark though lol):





I'm considering an LCR front splitter, think it might sort the front and make the car look better from the side. Only problem is that I can't decide if it'll actually look good or if it'll just look rubbish. Thoughts?

congrats mate, car looks awesome, i love the gloss b pillars! i reckon lcr splitter will look good!!

Car looks awesome mate, great wheels , love the 9n3 GTi. I reckon the LCR front splitter will look good! Go for it! How the reception with the shorter aerial?

Thanks man, got a couple of other small bits ready to go on the car so I'll get a proper update up in a few weeks. Busy with uni stuff at the moment so it's been kind of sidelined a bit

Reception with the shorter aerial is pretty good actually, its one I got off ebay. I tried using a stubby one from a VW Sharan, but the reception where I live is rubbish so it was useless lol. Toying with the idea of a new headunit as well so if I go down that route then I'll look into fitting a shark fin aerial as it will need amplifying anyway.

I believe it's still on ebay if you're looking for one. Search for 'polo stubby aerial' and it's the longest one that comes up.

Yeah mate I know what you mean about Uni stuff getting in the way If you're at Uni the Insurance can't be too favourable on the GTi? Looks awesome though mate, and very jealous of the extra power/9n3 front end (amongst other stuff lol). I've replaced the headunit in mine now, went for a faceoff BT/Phone/CD/mp3/USB/SD one, but how does the shark fin aerial affect amplification? Wanting to go down the sharkfin route as well but not looking forward to removing the headlining to get at the bolt holding in the old aerial haha! Let me know how it goes bud!

There's a seller on ebay offering shark fin aerials for about £20, not sure if they are OEM or not. Probably not lol. I'm assuming the reception would be pretty rubbish on it with the standard radio, but as it needs amplifying to fit an aftermarket unit it may turn out alright... I was going to refit my Xcarlink and Parrot kit but somehow convinced myself I needed a new Pioneer unit which has it all included, as well as navigation. Haven't fitted it yet because the bloke in the shop sold me the wrong adapter lol, but once I get it working I might give the shark fin a go... I'll let you know how it turns out if I do.

I believe it just needs the C pillars removing and then pulling down the headlining a bit to get to the bolt though, so it shouldn't be too hard.

Right, time for a couple of updates.

To start it all off, I fitted a LHD rear light cluster to lose the red fog light filter.

LHD rear light:


Next, onto some interior jobs, which naturally required taking the traction control off:



I'll get my coat...

Glovebox light:


LED ambient lighting:



Made a mess of this. Broke a map light switch and drilled a hole to big so needed to glue it. and typically glue went everywhere. Needs doing again but gives a really good glow to the interior at night.

New headunit with custom splash screen



Cubby box:



Got a couple of small exterior bits to go on as well in a few weeks and I'll hopefully get round to giving the car a full detail closer to summer, but aside from that I'm fresh out of ideas lol. Think I'll just take some time to actually drive it!

Cars looking nice mate! I am jealous you have the winter pack and leather seat Something I wished mine had.

Btw! could you please give me the part number and materials required for glovebox light?

Cheers