Volkswagen has acknowledged certain issues with the DSG gearbox and extended the warranty to 100,000 miles. Follow the link to read up on the details. Good stuff.
Monthly Archives: August 2009
Suspension Made Easy
Well, after a week of tweaking the suspension setup, I think I have finally found a happy medium. Shock rebound settings are in the right place, no more squeaks and rattles, everything all aligned. Basically to wrap up all the troubleshooting;
Double check your work!
Make sure the swaybar endlinks are secure – mine looked like they were, but were not and made a hell of a lot of noise on bumpy surfaces.
Sleeve the springs!!!!!! Buy some vinyl or rubber tubing, split them and wrap the dead coils. You’ll be much happier. It gets rid of the springy noises over small surface imperfections. I now have no more noise at all.
Get an alignment after a week or so. Handling was shitty until I got one. Find a good shop in your area. Front camber is not factory adjustable, neither is caster. Only toe is. The rear suspension is fully adjustable however. The front camber can be evened out on both sides by shifting the front subframe.
Get some decent shocks that can take lowering. Anything lower than 1.5 or so requires Koni yellows or something similar (Bilstein Sport or H&R cup kit or Autotech…) If the shocks are adjustable, DON’T set them to full stiff just because – match them to the spring rate. You’ll be happier with a comfy ride AND handling as well.
If you are planning to DIY, make sure you have all the tools at hand. If you don’t feel up to the task, no harm in taking it to a good shop, you’ll have a happier end result. Here’s to canyon carving!
ZOMG! I Fixed The Noise!
It took all of $4.26 and 30 minutes to silence the noise coming from my springs! Basically, I sleeved the dead coils up top with 1/2″ I.D. vinyl tubing. Now the coils are no longer in contact with each other. Vinyl to metal is much quieter than metal to metal. Oh silence is great. Off to the alignment shop tomorrow.
Finally Lowered
Before
After
Neuspeed on Koni Sports
Looks much more subtle in pictures than I imagined. I decided to get fancy with HDR in the 2nd photo. Note that lowering doesn’t make the car look like that in real life. Zing?
Suspension Installed!!!! But-
There are freaking noises. Like clunking and groaning. I spent most of the weekend diagnosing the noises. So far I’ve:
Tightened all related bolts, replaced driverside endlink (old one wouldn’t tighten well anymore), double checked installation, tightened subframe bolts-
I think I got rid of the clunking, all that is left is some spring binding and groaning (normal issues) that I DO have some solutions to. I will also triple check the top strut nut. To be fair, I haven’t really let anything settle in yet, so we shall see where the noises go from here.
The car does ride nicely and I love the drop. I need to dial in some more stiffness in the rear shocks though, the front seems perfectly set already.
Sigh, why can’t things ever turn out like the paper instructions said it would. Damm you printer! You lied!
Suspension update
Got the springs, going in tomorrow, er today. = )
Update: DAMN that was long installation. I’ve done it before, but it never ceases to amaze. Maybe I just suck at it. Oh well it is up and running.
Goodbye R-Line fogs
We hardly knew ye…
Sad times. Well i’m selling the R-Line front setup. I need the money for the upcoming semester. So sad to see them go but I think I’m happy with the stock setup.
Here’s lookin’ at you kid, er R-Line fogs 
and Jetta lower center grill with ghetto trim. Hopefully you go to a good home this weekend.
Cam Follower Troubleshooting
There still seems to be a good number of people who are unaware of the cam follower problems. Not all cars have the problem, and some may never have it. BUT it will kill your wallet if you find out yours is on the edge of dying and you are out of warranty.
There is no set of factors that directly contributes to the wear. If you have the A cam, there is a TSB out to replace your cam with the properly hardened B cam. VW will only replace the cam if the car is throwing codes or a check engine light or if they physically see the damage. The problem can still occur but having the B cam reduces the risks. I have had no problems and as far as the internet world is concerned, much of Europe seems to be just fine. The number of factors affecting the rate of follower wear is just enormous. It could be oil standards, fuel quality, driving habits, maintenance, and so on. The design has been remedied on the newer TSI engines with a roller follower. This design should have been used in the first place instead of the flat tappet style used on the FSI.
Here are a few links to check out:
A smooth unblemished cam
The most common symptom of a cam follower in trouble is a fuel cut. This feels like someone just took the gas pedal out from under you. It does NOT feel good. This doesn’t always come up with check light or code. Which leads us to the most obvious signs. These codes may come up when scanned.
–P0087 Fuel Rail / System Pressure – Too Low
–P1093 Fuel Trim 2, Bank 1 Malfunction
–P2293 Fuel Pressure Regulator 2 Performance
If these come up, check your follower. These can be symptomatic of other problems as well so don’t panic yet. Check the thrust sensor on the high pressure fuel pump. Your low pressure fuel pump could also be on its way out. These are all much cheaper problems than the cam situation. Best case scenario is that the ecu just glitched. Worst case, destroyed cam, follower and fuel pump. If you have never checked your cam follower and you have any kind of mileage, do so now. Don’t count on the dealer to check for you. It won’t destroy itself in 5000 miles but check every other oil change. If wear looks minimal every time you check, you can lessen the intervals.
The picture on the left shows a follower with normal wear patterns. You can replace it if you wish but it can probably go a few more miles. The part number is 06D 109 309 C. 1stvwparts has excellent pricing. Note that the edges still have some of the DLC coating on it. If yours does not, then that is absolutely time to change. I haven’t seen too many that look so clean. If your foll0wer looks like the picture on the right, sob quietly and then proceed to the dealership, if under warranty, and hope for the best. Or if not under warranty, prepare to feel a world of hurt. It’s going to be pricey. Replacement of the cam is recommended to be done at a shop or qualified service center. It is not really a job for the weekend mechanic as it needs specialized tools.
~57000 miles
Unknown mileage, center punched out
Energy Suspension Brackets
These fantastic pieces are made by Energy Suspension. They’re actually the brackets supplied by BSH for their swaybar.
Energy Suspension makes some of the best poly bushings for almost any application. Why? Because they have a few features to make sure that they stay as noise free as possible. If you’ve never heard a poorly greased poly bushing, you are lucky. It’s incredibly irritating. That is why I recommend avoiding the Neuspeed bar. It makes so much noise. They don’t have the grease channels or the zerks of the Energy Suspension bushings.
They make many different sizes of bushings, so if you have another swaybar, you could probably find something that fits. Another thing to note are the different colors Energy Suspension sells. The black ones are graphite impregnated. Can’t say how much of a difference that would make but technically it should make less noise. Polyurethane takes the slop out of the stock rubber bushings.
H&R swaybars though, have a well designed bushing. They have included a teflon insert (at least for the MKV bars) so that it doesn’t squeak.
If your bushings squeak, try using a polyurethane specific grease like this.
MS3
Here’s a pair of pictures from my buddy’s MazdaSpeed 3. The top one is of the top mount intercooler, the second picture is just a detail of the oil cap. This thing hauls, period. Midrange torque is incredible. Power delivery is not as smooth as the GTI and the engine itself runs out of breath past 5,000 or so rpm. It’s a very nice car with more sporting pretensions than the GTI. However, the interior is just a step below, the engine is thirsty and in my opinion, not as fun to wind out. It’s great value for money though, 263 horses on tap and a healthy dose of torque. Can’t argue with the pure visceral thrill the car delivers. Whereas my chipped GTI delivers a relatively smooth onset of torque, the MS3 just drops it all at once. Vicious indeed. I wouldn’t take it over the VW though, the chassis just feels, well, German. Here’s a detail of the oil cap, it’s a nice, heavy piece. My oil cap is jealous. 
markFive GTI 