Hey Everyone!
I have been meaning to sit down and write this stuff down so that I can keep a log of all the stuff I do to my car.
My name is Reed, I am 26, live in Dallas, TX and have worked on cars most of my life, I am very thankful to have a father who shared his passion for cars with me. This is my third VW, I have also owned a 2000 GTI VR6 in Tropic Orange that I had modified and a 1995 Corrado G60 that I didn't finish fixing.
As for this car, it is a 2012 VW GTI in CSG. When I was originally looking for a new car out of college I knew it was going to be a GTI. I have driven and owned all types of cars and trucks but the GTI is the perfect balance of speed, practicality, and is a great looking car too. I purchase the car on December 28th, 2013 with 32,000 miles on it. Originally I had been looking for a Candy White GTI but when I ran across this one I fell in love with the CSG as it was the first time I saw this color in person and the dealership gave me a great price on the vehicle. I have loved driving this car and plan to continuing driving it until it falls apart. I also wanted to note that all modifications, maintenance, and repairs have been completed by my father and myself unless otherwise stated.
So onto the facts:
2012 - VW - GTI - CSG - Base with Sunroof - 61,000mi
First Modification:
First mod was Smoked Side Markers. As far as I am concerned replacing the side markers should be the first modification on any new GTI. Its cheap, easy and makes a huge difference in the looks. I also debadged the rear when I installed these.
Second Modification:
My second mod was seat inserts and monster mats. I work as a construction manager so the monster mats were a must. So far I have been please with them, however, like others I did wish they didn't wear down as quick. I knew going in that this would likely be an issue but the way they match the cars interior I decided that it was worth the shorter life span than other floor mats.
The seat inserts were a cheap and nice touch to add to the interior that just completed the look of the seats.
Third Modification:
Third mod was DIY LED interior lights. I spent 6 bucks on these led's from amazon,Led Lights, and it has given my GTI that new crisp interior lighting. I replaced the two footwell lights, both puddle lights, all the dome lights, license plate lights and the trunk light with these. I have had no problems with them at all so far. The one thing that I did have to do was modify the light holders so that they would fit in the foot well lighting fixture. Without narrowing the holder the led's would fall out of the socket whenever I hit a bump in the road.
Fourth Modification:
When I had to change my oil I decided to purchase and install the Fumoto F-106 Engine Oil Drain Valve. This little add on is extremely useful for those people who change their own oil.
Fifth Modification:
My fifth mod was wheels and suspension. For wheels I purchased Alzor 881 18x8.5" ET 35 with the gold face. I had seen a couple of guys running similar wheels on the boards and really linked the contrasting look of the gold and CSG. I purchased the wheels from ECS Tuning and had a great experience with their customer service team. I need to put together a formal review of these wheels but basically one wheel had a little bit different color gold, it was darker, and Chris with ECS had a new wheel shipped to me immediately. I highly recommend purchasing parts from them as they stand behind their products and provide quick support when needed.
I replaced my suspension at the same time with FK Street Coilovers. I purchased the kit and the coilover installation kit from ECS Tuning. I purchased these as budget coilovers as my end plan is to move to bags but I don't plan on doing that for a while. So far the coilovers have done just what they are designed for and that is to lower the car and provide a decent ride. Don't get me wrong, the ride is not top notch but I did not spend the money to get Bilsteins or Koni's and as such the ride does take some bumps a little rough but overall I am happy with my decision on these coilovers.
Here are some photos from after the wheels and suspension was installed:
Sixth Modification:
Sixth Mod was fender screw removal and fender rolling. When lowering the car the fender screw is a mandatory modification and took all of ten minutes to do. It was quickly apparent that I was going to need to roll my fenders when I started driving with my new wheels and suspension. When I looked at the different DIY methods I decided that I did not want to just use a wooden bat on my $20,000 car and that I would use the actual tool to do the job. When I looked at renting the tool it was going to cost about $40-$60 to rent it. I decided to get a quote from a local forum's sponsor, Dorbitz, who quoted me a price of $75. I decided to go this route as I hadn't rolled fenders or seen anyone do it before in person and I really didn't want to screw up my fender. Dorbitz did a great job and even allowed me to watch them do it and showed me the steps. I highly recommend this shop if you live in the Dallas area.
Service:
I did my 60,000 mile service with the kit from ECS Tuning. The kit had everything I needed except the brake fluid which I got separately. Relatively painless and was much less than the $600 I was quoted from the dealership.
Accident:
Then shortly after this, while I was leaving work, a girl backed into the side of my car. Naturally I researched the number one shop in Dallas for body work and found Details, LTD. located in Addison, TX. They had great reviews online with their only complaint being that they charged too much for people paying out of pocket. With this not being an issue for me as her insurance was fronting the bill and me wanting to make sure that my car was being fixed correctly I took my car to their shop to have fixed. The owner of the shop, Ron, was a great guy and helped me a lot in the insurance process. He provided great insight on how to handle the situation with supplemental estimates and fighting with the insurance to make sure they paid to have the car repaired correctly. When it was all done, I left the shop with my car in pristine condition and looking just as good as the day I bought her.
Repair:
Right before my car was in an accident it had started to leak coolant. It started off with me just having to refill the coolant once a week to having to do it each morning for about a week until I got the new water pump in. I purchased the water pump kit from ECS Tuning and installed it. This install was definitely not fun to do but wasn't too difficult to complete. If you have the tools, parts and 8 hours I think just about anyone can do it with the DIY post by DBESTGTI that is stickied in the DIY section of the forum.
Seventh Modification:
I decided to change up the wheels because I hit a ginormous pothole (f Dallas roads) and it bent one rim and scared up another pretty bad. I was getting tired of the gold and wanted to go with something a little more classy looking and I knew as soon as I saw the 3SDM 0.06 wheels that they were the wheels I wanted. A set of used 3SDM 0.06 18x9.5" et40 square wheels came up locally and I purchased the set originally thinking I would run the 9.5" all the way around. I decided against running those in the front and purchased two new 8.5" wheels to run in the front. I had Dorbitz from Plano, TX mount and balance the tires, give my car new alignment and dial in my suspension.
Eighth Modification
I went ahead and purchased the ebay smoked LED tails that can be found in a thread here on the forum.LED TAILS I haven't taken any real pictures yet and I want to do them justice. Honestly the fitment is alright, meaning anyone but myself and VW enthusiast won't know the difference between them and real OEM lights. I still need to play around with them and add the led reverse lights I purchased on amazon for $3.32 to see how they look. They are a 20 led light and should provide plenty of lighting for when I reverse. Will post pictures after I have installed these.
Ninth Mod
My car had been running a little rough on idles and thought it might be either a coil going bad or carbon build up. So I decided to try the cheaper of the two options and purchased R8 coils. After an easy 10 minute install using the zip tie trick they were installed and my car has been running better but I don't think it is 100% with about 63,000mi I think it might be time to get the carbon buildup cleaned. I am currently trying decide if it is something I want to tackle myself as I have a media blaster that can shot walnuts or if I want to just pay to have someone else deal with that headache.
This is where my car stands today. I haven't done anything performance wise yet because I am scared of my clutch failing and having to purchase a new clutch. I don't plan to do anything until I have enough saved up for a Stage 2 tune, downpipe, exhaust, and a stage two clutch. To be honest, I also haven't felt the need to increase the power in the car because I still enjoy driving the car with the stock HP and Torque. Until I stop getting the smile on my face when I drive I may continuing to stick with cosmetic modifications. NOw here are a couple pictures.
Overview of where the care is now:
Cosmetic:
Smoked Side Markers
Seat Inserts
Monster Mats
Debadged
LED License Plate
LED Interior Lights
Replica OEM Dark Cherry Tails
Suspension/Wheels/Tires:
FK Street-Line Coilovers
3SDM 0.006 Staggered 18x8.5" et 42 (Front) 18x9.5" et42 (Rears)
Nankang AS-1 215/40/R18
Performance:
R8 Coils
Also parts I have but haven't installed yet are:
Shift linkage
ECS Dogbone Mount
Thanks for taking the time to read this and hopefully some of my snippet reviews can help some of you.
Also, I created this at the airport and have all my photos at home. I will add them later but here is one really bad photo of my car for sh*ts and giggles.
(That's my Dads Datsun 2000 he is restoring right now in the background)
I have been meaning to sit down and write this stuff down so that I can keep a log of all the stuff I do to my car.
My name is Reed, I am 26, live in Dallas, TX and have worked on cars most of my life, I am very thankful to have a father who shared his passion for cars with me. This is my third VW, I have also owned a 2000 GTI VR6 in Tropic Orange that I had modified and a 1995 Corrado G60 that I didn't finish fixing.
As for this car, it is a 2012 VW GTI in CSG. When I was originally looking for a new car out of college I knew it was going to be a GTI. I have driven and owned all types of cars and trucks but the GTI is the perfect balance of speed, practicality, and is a great looking car too. I purchase the car on December 28th, 2013 with 32,000 miles on it. Originally I had been looking for a Candy White GTI but when I ran across this one I fell in love with the CSG as it was the first time I saw this color in person and the dealership gave me a great price on the vehicle. I have loved driving this car and plan to continuing driving it until it falls apart. I also wanted to note that all modifications, maintenance, and repairs have been completed by my father and myself unless otherwise stated.
So onto the facts:
2012 - VW - GTI - CSG - Base with Sunroof - 61,000mi
First Modification:
First mod was Smoked Side Markers. As far as I am concerned replacing the side markers should be the first modification on any new GTI. Its cheap, easy and makes a huge difference in the looks. I also debadged the rear when I installed these.
Second Modification:
My second mod was seat inserts and monster mats. I work as a construction manager so the monster mats were a must. So far I have been please with them, however, like others I did wish they didn't wear down as quick. I knew going in that this would likely be an issue but the way they match the cars interior I decided that it was worth the shorter life span than other floor mats.
The seat inserts were a cheap and nice touch to add to the interior that just completed the look of the seats.
Third Modification:
Third mod was DIY LED interior lights. I spent 6 bucks on these led's from amazon,Led Lights, and it has given my GTI that new crisp interior lighting. I replaced the two footwell lights, both puddle lights, all the dome lights, license plate lights and the trunk light with these. I have had no problems with them at all so far. The one thing that I did have to do was modify the light holders so that they would fit in the foot well lighting fixture. Without narrowing the holder the led's would fall out of the socket whenever I hit a bump in the road.
Fourth Modification:
When I had to change my oil I decided to purchase and install the Fumoto F-106 Engine Oil Drain Valve. This little add on is extremely useful for those people who change their own oil.
Fifth Modification:
My fifth mod was wheels and suspension. For wheels I purchased Alzor 881 18x8.5" ET 35 with the gold face. I had seen a couple of guys running similar wheels on the boards and really linked the contrasting look of the gold and CSG. I purchased the wheels from ECS Tuning and had a great experience with their customer service team. I need to put together a formal review of these wheels but basically one wheel had a little bit different color gold, it was darker, and Chris with ECS had a new wheel shipped to me immediately. I highly recommend purchasing parts from them as they stand behind their products and provide quick support when needed.
I replaced my suspension at the same time with FK Street Coilovers. I purchased the kit and the coilover installation kit from ECS Tuning. I purchased these as budget coilovers as my end plan is to move to bags but I don't plan on doing that for a while. So far the coilovers have done just what they are designed for and that is to lower the car and provide a decent ride. Don't get me wrong, the ride is not top notch but I did not spend the money to get Bilsteins or Koni's and as such the ride does take some bumps a little rough but overall I am happy with my decision on these coilovers.
Here are some photos from after the wheels and suspension was installed:
Sixth Modification:
Sixth Mod was fender screw removal and fender rolling. When lowering the car the fender screw is a mandatory modification and took all of ten minutes to do. It was quickly apparent that I was going to need to roll my fenders when I started driving with my new wheels and suspension. When I looked at the different DIY methods I decided that I did not want to just use a wooden bat on my $20,000 car and that I would use the actual tool to do the job. When I looked at renting the tool it was going to cost about $40-$60 to rent it. I decided to get a quote from a local forum's sponsor, Dorbitz, who quoted me a price of $75. I decided to go this route as I hadn't rolled fenders or seen anyone do it before in person and I really didn't want to screw up my fender. Dorbitz did a great job and even allowed me to watch them do it and showed me the steps. I highly recommend this shop if you live in the Dallas area.
Service:
I did my 60,000 mile service with the kit from ECS Tuning. The kit had everything I needed except the brake fluid which I got separately. Relatively painless and was much less than the $600 I was quoted from the dealership.
Accident:
Then shortly after this, while I was leaving work, a girl backed into the side of my car. Naturally I researched the number one shop in Dallas for body work and found Details, LTD. located in Addison, TX. They had great reviews online with their only complaint being that they charged too much for people paying out of pocket. With this not being an issue for me as her insurance was fronting the bill and me wanting to make sure that my car was being fixed correctly I took my car to their shop to have fixed. The owner of the shop, Ron, was a great guy and helped me a lot in the insurance process. He provided great insight on how to handle the situation with supplemental estimates and fighting with the insurance to make sure they paid to have the car repaired correctly. When it was all done, I left the shop with my car in pristine condition and looking just as good as the day I bought her.
Repair:
Right before my car was in an accident it had started to leak coolant. It started off with me just having to refill the coolant once a week to having to do it each morning for about a week until I got the new water pump in. I purchased the water pump kit from ECS Tuning and installed it. This install was definitely not fun to do but wasn't too difficult to complete. If you have the tools, parts and 8 hours I think just about anyone can do it with the DIY post by DBESTGTI that is stickied in the DIY section of the forum.
Seventh Modification:
I decided to change up the wheels because I hit a ginormous pothole (f Dallas roads) and it bent one rim and scared up another pretty bad. I was getting tired of the gold and wanted to go with something a little more classy looking and I knew as soon as I saw the 3SDM 0.06 wheels that they were the wheels I wanted. A set of used 3SDM 0.06 18x9.5" et40 square wheels came up locally and I purchased the set originally thinking I would run the 9.5" all the way around. I decided against running those in the front and purchased two new 8.5" wheels to run in the front. I had Dorbitz from Plano, TX mount and balance the tires, give my car new alignment and dial in my suspension.
Eighth Modification
I went ahead and purchased the ebay smoked LED tails that can be found in a thread here on the forum.LED TAILS I haven't taken any real pictures yet and I want to do them justice. Honestly the fitment is alright, meaning anyone but myself and VW enthusiast won't know the difference between them and real OEM lights. I still need to play around with them and add the led reverse lights I purchased on amazon for $3.32 to see how they look. They are a 20 led light and should provide plenty of lighting for when I reverse. Will post pictures after I have installed these.
Ninth Mod
My car had been running a little rough on idles and thought it might be either a coil going bad or carbon build up. So I decided to try the cheaper of the two options and purchased R8 coils. After an easy 10 minute install using the zip tie trick they were installed and my car has been running better but I don't think it is 100% with about 63,000mi I think it might be time to get the carbon buildup cleaned. I am currently trying decide if it is something I want to tackle myself as I have a media blaster that can shot walnuts or if I want to just pay to have someone else deal with that headache.
This is where my car stands today. I haven't done anything performance wise yet because I am scared of my clutch failing and having to purchase a new clutch. I don't plan to do anything until I have enough saved up for a Stage 2 tune, downpipe, exhaust, and a stage two clutch. To be honest, I also haven't felt the need to increase the power in the car because I still enjoy driving the car with the stock HP and Torque. Until I stop getting the smile on my face when I drive I may continuing to stick with cosmetic modifications. NOw here are a couple pictures.
Overview of where the care is now:
Cosmetic:
Smoked Side Markers
Seat Inserts
Monster Mats
Debadged
LED License Plate
LED Interior Lights
Replica OEM Dark Cherry Tails
Suspension/Wheels/Tires:
FK Street-Line Coilovers
3SDM 0.006 Staggered 18x8.5" et 42 (Front) 18x9.5" et42 (Rears)
Nankang AS-1 215/40/R18
Performance:
R8 Coils
Also parts I have but haven't installed yet are:
Shift linkage
ECS Dogbone Mount
Thanks for taking the time to read this and hopefully some of my snippet reviews can help some of you.
Also, I created this at the airport and have all my photos at home. I will add them later but here is one really bad photo of my car for sh*ts and giggles.
(That's my Dads Datsun 2000 he is restoring right now in the background)
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