LightningRhod's quest to 200k.....and beyond

CEL turned back on several days ago and is still on. This morning when I turned the car on, the CEL was blinking then turned solid and stayed on. Will need to scan and troubleshoot (change out all coils and plugs possibly).

UPDATE on my CEL....

Changed out my coils and plugs, cleaned the MAF, and cleared the codes. It would be ok for a day, then turn back on the next day. NOW if I clear it, the CEL will turn on during the second start up (after driving several miles on the first startup).

The codes that are being thrown are always the following:

P301 - Cylinder 1 misfire
P302 - Cylinder 2 misfire

A random misfire code will also pop up with it.

At cold start, it is very apparent that there the cylinders are misfiring as I can hear "stutters" in the exhaust rumble. I've essentially already ruled out electrical issues (coils, plugs, MAF), so I'm willing to be that its air/fuel related.

Made an appointment at 034 Motorsports to do a carbon cleaning on Jan 29th. Before then, I'm going to take it to Winn VW to check out the fuel injectors to see if those are faulty. I believe VW extended the warranty on this part to 120k miles, to which I'm currently at 116k miles.

I should also add that once the car is warmed up, the audible misfires go away. I have full power with no hesitations when on the gas.

Looks like I finally solved my misfire problem. Got a carbon cleaning last week and the rough idle at cold start is gone. It's been a few days and no check engine light has come back on yet. Here are some pics.

Valves before:


IMG_5878 by ichibankakkoii, on Flickr

Valves after:


IMG_5880 by ichibankakkoii, on Flickr


More carbon build up shots on the port dividers:


IMG_5876 by ichibankakkoii, on Flickr


IMG_5877 by ichibankakkoii, on Flickr

do you plan on replacing your shocks? or are they still holding up with DG springs?

APRMK6GTi said:

do you plan on replacing your shocks? or are they still holding up with DG springs?

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I actually have my Bilsteins on hand, just haven't had the time to install them.

But yeah, my stock shocks are freakin' BLOWN lol.

Good opportunity to update since I'm here....

Car is sitting at 122k miles and nothing new to report. It's kind of boring when I have nothing to fix on the car.............lol.

LightningRhod said:

Good opportunity to update since I'm here....

Car is sitting at 122k miles and nothing new to report. It's kind of boring when I have nothing to fix on the car.............lol.

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thats a good thing!

Seriously, don't jinx yourself. I'm at 108k and my commute is about to get longer. Hoping to make 300k eventually.

zrickety said:

Seriously, don't jinx yourself. I'm at 108k and my commute is about to get longer. Hoping to make 300k eventually.

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gotta love seeing other GTIs reaching these high mileage without too much problems..ive only owned Japanese cars in the past and GTI was the only car that gave me problems(water pump, radiator) but thankfully warranty covered them all.

Awesome build thread -- glad to see someone else in this for the long haul! I'm just creeping up on 100k myself, and plan to keep her until it's just not feasible to keep her running anymore.

To celebrate an aggressive first 100,000 miles, I'm starting to mod back towards daily driving comfort - trying to strike a balance between aggressive performance and 25,000 miles a year.

sub'd

As a guy who keeps cars a long time & puts lots of miles on them I love this thread. Nice to see only normal maintenance needed. The battery is a normal wear item & carbon cleaning is normal for direct injection. Keep on truckin LighteningRhod! :thumbsup:

Impressive 120k miles with relatively minor work.

timneedscoffee10 said:

Awesome build thread -- glad to see someone else in this for the long haul! I'm just creeping up on 100k myself, and plan to keep her until it's just not feasible to keep her running anymore.

To celebrate an aggressive first 100,000 miles, I'm starting to mod back towards daily driving comfort - trying to strike a balance between aggressive performance and 25,000 miles a year.

sub'd

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ashchuckton said:

As a guy who keeps cars a long time & puts lots of miles on them I love this thread. Nice to see only normal maintenance needed. The battery is a normal wear item & carbon cleaning is normal for direct injection. Keep on truckin LighteningRhod! :thumbsup:

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maxtdi said:

Impressive 120k miles with relatively minor work.

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I'm glad you guys are enjoying this thread. I didn't see a "long haul" build thread on here anywhere, so I figured I'd start one.

I've been really impressed with the vehicle so far and it has been pretty solid considering the abuse it goes through

So just sort of thinking out loud here.....

I've been hitting the throttle lately and find myself..........bored with Stage 2 power. I don't get the same boner in my pants anymore when I hit it as before.

So I've actually been thinking about going K04. I go back and forth for a number of reasons:

Pros:
- MOAR passing power at the track
- MOAR fun
- Did I mention MOAR power and fun?

Cons:
- K04 + new intercooler + labor = $4k?. Given that I'm getting married next year, saving to buy a home, and starting a new family in the next few years, not sure that I want to dump that money into the car.
- Reliability? I'd like to keep the car as long as possible
- Slippery slope. Given the K04 and track hobby, I'm probably going to want to upgrade the brakes to an ACTUAL BBK, which is just more money.

There is also the perspective of "I think I'm going to stop tracking the car" and just have it be my daily. I'd de-mod the car to be Stage 1, then buy a dedicated track car to continue my hobby. Miata or E30 are my options at this point, so I can eventually start competing in the Spec Miata or Spec E30 league with NASA.

I might have already answered my own question typing all of this. But what do you guys think?