2013 VW GTI progress

It's Arrived!

Wow. Relief, at last. And before anyone else jumps on it, I know that :needpics:

Anyway, went to get the GTI yesterday. There were just a few small issues with stick-um from the body wrap on the B-pillars and excessive door grease on the latches. So my wife and I went and got lunch while those were remedied.

Picked up the car with 11 miles on the odometer. It now has 15 or so because it started snowing yesterday after I picked up the car. I'm hoping to keep the underneath a little neat while I'm doing prep for autocross. Therefore, we didn't go on a traditional "new car show-off ride" around town ... yet.

Anyway, after I got it home, the credit card started melting with some online purchases.

Of most interest to people on this board, I should be receiving soon ...



... the garage door opener button. I chose the far right side for this button. Of course, I will be following the instructions to make this functional. I have the same garage door opener, so those instructions will be perfect. And I figured while I am in there, I would add some levity with ...



... non-functional of course. This will go closest to the driver's seat to give it some authentic ejector-button provenance.

Next purchase was the digital fit floor mats because next winter, this will be my only car and they salt our parking lot at work enough to rival fast-food french fries. So I'm going to try to keep the salt out of the carpet. Also got the trunk liner #becauseautocross.

Final purchase yesterday was just some tools and protectants from one of the big online purchase sites. And I splurged to get a Cell Phone Vent Mount.



I figure it will be nice because of the Bluetooth Music with my Android. I should be able to advance songs if the phone is mounted securely right in front of me. (And it might be fun to add the Torque app later and use it in this same location.) Now I just need to make the hard wired power supply and charger cord adaptolator.

First Pictures

Got a picture finally. There was still salt all over the roads yesterday, but I couldn't contain my desire to drive.

So, before I took it out, I stopped to get some pictures.

Put the car on scales this morning.

WEIGHT [lb] - BONE STOCK
Full tank minus 30 miles of driving results, no driver:
Left Right
1019 918 Fr
547 665 Rr

Total: 3149 lb



This was just an instructional "how to use the scales" measurement. I intend to get the weight with half and quarter tanks and always with the driver. But that will wait.

Also received many goodies in the mail this week:



I'm thinking next weekend will be exhaust install week. If anyone in the area wants to help or just watch and take pictures while I'm doing it, let's discuss timing. We can also scale your car if you care to know those kinds of things.

Mod #1: Garage Door Button

Well, I got back from a monsterously long trip today. Even though my back hurts and I am tired, I was able to do this:

Lights Off:


Lights On:


The buttons match the TCS button that came with the car very well. Trouble is, the blank buttons that came with the car are a little shinier than the real buttons, so they look a little peculiar.

The Eject light is a very close match to the TCS button, but the Garage Door light is a few shades lighter. I can live with it, but I honestly expected better matching for as much as those suckers cost. Oh well, now I have a proper garage door opener.

I also received a package from VW Group of America while I was away. It was so critical for me to get it, that VW made my wife sign for delivery. Needless to say, I was expecting something majorly awesome.

Especially after opening the box and finding this:



The box was a bit difficult to open. I am blaming altitude sickness and lack of sleep after waking up at 3:30 this morning. But after finally getting it open...

... it was just a cardboard USB thumb drive and a booklet. I think the packaging cost more than the book because it is made from custom cut foam.

Oh well, the thumb drive took me to a website where I have a chance to win some prizes. We'll see.

Pictures don't work!

Maybe I have fixed posts 49 and 50? It is hard to tell for sure because I can see my own dropbox photos all the time. Sorry, I am not internet savvy. Let me know if the two posts above are fixed and I'll go through and fix the rest.

bimmer635csi said:

Maybe I have fixed posts 49 and 50? It is hard to tell for sure because I can see my own dropbox photos all the time. Sorry, I am not internet savvy. Let me know if the two posts above are fixed and I'll go through and fix the rest.

Click to expand...

All fixed now. Car looks good. That garage door button has been on my list of mods to do for a while now. :w00t:

Spring / Damper Removal

Well, it has been one heck of a long weekend.

First, some notes on the whole damper/spring removal process.

Things I wish I'd know before I started:

1] There is a little tab on the bottom of the front struts that goes in the steering knuckle where it is split.

2] The Metalnerd strut spreader (Part MN3424) is too long and can prevent you from lifting the strut out because the tab mentioned in #1 hits the spreader.

3] For removing the rear dampers, it is easiest to loosen the bottom bolt first, but leave it mostly installed, then remove the two bolts at the top, and finally, remove the bottom bolt.

4] Jacking on the bottom of the rotors will almost definitely bend the brake shrouds.

5] To remove the struts as easily as possible, I found that if you jack the strut up, put spring compressors on to hold the spring compressed, then put a ratchet strap on the strut to compress it, it gives you lots of space to wiggle the strut out. But on the left side of the car, you probably still need to separate the ball joint from the knuckle -or- lower control arm.

6] It is almost required to have a damper top-nut removal tool. You can sometimes spin the nuts off with an impact wrench, but I found doing this just made the shaft spin. Luckily, the nuts backed off enough that I could grab them with an open ended wrench while holding the shaft with a smaller open ended wrench. But for reassembly, I will need that top-nut tool (which is on order already).

There might be more notes, but I'm not able to get them in my brain right now.

So, on to the good stuff:

I have in hand a set of the Öhlins R&T dampers. They are 3 lbs heavier up front, 2 lbs heavier out back, and look much more durable than the stock dampers. The shaft of the struts is almost double the diameter of the stock units. Sorry about the bags still on the new dampers.




Öhlins provided a dyno sheet and many stickers. If they prove to be worth their extra 5 lbs, I may put a sticker on the car.

Hopefully next weekend I have the springs measured and the car reassembled. I'm really trying to get to the first autocross next weekend, but it isn't looking good right now.

FYI, the "shaft" you see on the Ohlins IIRC is actually the damper body. I believe these are up-side-down monotube much like the Bilstein

Should be, in theory, less unsprung weight...

BTW, damn VW and their inconsistent gift thing....I got diddly squat outside of a $5(wow) Starbucks gift card....

Ohlins are legit! Looking forward to reading a review of those dampers.

RacingManiac said:

I believe these are up-side-down

Click to expand...

On the rears, yes

RacingManiac said:

I believe these are up-side-down monotube much like the Bilstein

Should be, in theory, less unsprung weight...

Click to expand...

Yes, the rears are upside-down (as snobrdrdan mentioned) compared to the stock dampers. I can't comment on Bilsteins since I've never seen them for this vehicle.

RacingManiac said:

BTW, damn VW and their inconsistent gift thing....I got diddly squat outside of a $5(wow) Starbucks gift card....

Click to expand...

What gift? Are you referring to the magic black box that was sent in the mail to me? That was the most hoopty thing I have ever seen. I did get a metal drink container from the dealer, but I don't carry beverages around with me, so it just sits in my garage.

andy_uranium said:

Ohlins are legit! Looking forward to reading a review of those dampers.

Click to expand...

If I can get them on today, I will drive them this week and get an autocross in on Sunday. Then, a review will follow for sure.

snobrdrdan said:

On the rears, yes

Click to expand...

The silvery portion you see as the "shaft" is actually damper body on the front...

So this weekend was very busy trying to finish up for the autocross next weekend.

Short story: Not gonna happen unless I take a day off this week.


Was able to get the springs measured at Kaz Technologies. Very fast, dropped off Wednesday noon, they were finished by 5pm on Thursday, but because this was an abnormal activity for them, it wasn't until Friday before I was able to pay for them and then pick them up.

Good results allowed me to pick the highest rear rate springs and lowest front rate springs. The fronts have a 0.7 lb/in rate difference between them, so I will put the stiffer rate spring on the right side of the car. They are not on the car yet for reasons to be discussed below. (And yes, I know, 0.7 lb/in is probably just error, but I'm looking for anything I can get.)

All 4 rear springs were basically the same, so I chose the two highest, even though the extra rate is also within the margin of error of the measurement. I assembled the rear end (without extra parts laying around ) and got that all buttoned up. I even took the time to torque the bolts to the spec of the Audi A3 pdf that is floating around. I love my new torque wrenches too.

Now, for the fronts. I did everything in the wrong order and it made for a very troublesome installation. I cannot say what was done exactly, but I will say, if you plan on changing anything other than the struts at the same time, it is easier to just drop the whole assembly and disassemble it with air tools.

Anyway, I got the front struts completely assembled. They are now laying on cardboard next to the car until I can get a new ball joint for the lower control arm to steering knuckle. It is probably ok, but the boot ripped and I don't want to have to worry about it, so I'll just replace it now. So I can't put the struts in until I get that part. I also lightly stripped one of the wheel bearing bolts and I can't seem to find just the bolt online, so I need to look again tomorrow when my brain is working better.

So, in the process of removing the rear springs, I broke the little plastic round clip that attaches in the center of the bottom spring isolator. I'm struggling to find the replacement for that as well. It probably isn't worth my time, but I want a complete car, so I'll go ahead and replace it.

Other than that, no real issues other than having to do things multiple times. I guess I'm a GTI suspension semi-pro now though, so it wasn't a total loss.

I'll get pictures this week and get them up here. If anyone has any specific requests, let me know, but it is just a normal damper replacement.