Hi Everyone! Just got 2012 Golf R 135k miles

Hi all,

New to the forum and excited to join the Golf R community. I love my new R because of the style, performance and practicality. My car is completely stock and with my car being in the higher end in terms of miles (135k), I would love to keep it going as much as I can. I have an appointment to drop off my car to a Volkswagen dealership for up to date maintenance and a diagnostic for preventative measures.

I have been reading a couple of threads regarding maintenance for the Golf R's but have not crossed any threads or someone with almost the same amount of miles as my car. However, I read over a few threads and many seem to mentioned doing cam followers (every 10~20K), Haldex (every ~30K),regular oil changes, transmission fluid (every 40K). I have also heard about water pump recall so I will definitely keep an eye for that.

I would love to hear from fellow members regarding maintenance or any preventative maintenance to keep our cars on the road. :happyanim: Also, any advice given regarding our cars is greatly appreciated. :thumbup:

Thank you,

Mark

Oh btw, how does your car push in first gear? I don't really feel a strong push in 1st, increases 2nd and pushes really strong in 3rd.

Welcome! I'm also a newbie - bought my car at the beginning of April with 62k miles. I think your maintenance plan is solid, but I recommend checking the cam follower at each oil change/every 10k. That's not an issue you wanna leave to chance. Also, since you're at 135k I would consider at least checking the timing belt. There's no official published interval for changing it, but from what I've read popular opinion is to change it somewhere between 85k - 100k to be safe - also not something you wanna leave to chance.

Regarding the power through the different gears, I agree. First seems a bit weak and pretty short, second seems to pull a bit more, and third and fourth are where the car really comes alive, all of which I more or less expected from a 6-speed manual gearbox.
I noticed second gear woke up quite a bit and third and fourth REALLY came alive after I put the Unitronic Stage 2 tune on it. I also went with ECS Tuning's intake and 42 Draft Design's 3" catted DP which improved things further.

Sweet! I was thinking I may have a problem with turbo but seems to be working fine. Thank you for your advice and I’ll definitely keep that in mind. I’m currently at the dealership and they are doing an inspection in my car.

JamesStreck said:

Welcome! I'm also a newbie - bought my car at the beginning of April with 62k miles. I think your maintenance plan is solid, but I recommend checking the cam follower at each oil change/every 10k. That's not an issue you wanna leave to chance. Also, since you're at 135k I would consider at least checking the timing belt. There's no official published interval for changing it, but from what I've read popular opinion is to change it somewhere between 85k - 100k to be safe - also not something you wanna leave to chance.

Regarding the power through the different gears, I agree. First seems a bit weak and pretty short, second seems to pull a bit more, and third and fourth are where the car really comes alive, all of which I more or less expected from a 6-speed manual gearbox.
I noticed second gear woke up quite a bit and third and fourth REALLY came alive after I put the Unitronic Stage 2 tune on it. I also went with ECS Tuning's intake and 42 Draft Design's 3" catted DP which improved things further.

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Might be a bit on the excessive side here. Be super careful with the bolts as I've seen more than 1 excessive cam-follower-checker strip them and have to go through an expensive repair.

I've had my R since brand new in 2012 and changed the follower every 20k or so and they usually look good. I just use some assembly lube when I install the new one and always use liquimoly oil in my R and that seems to be working perfectly but who knows. Fingers crossed. Good luck dude:thumbsup:

Good point, should I replace the three bolts often?

So far I replaced the cam follower, water pump, timing belt and tensions, oil change, changed the coolant and greased up my sunroof.

My rear springs are almost out so I will eventually replace them. Do you guys recommend any shocks?

Just traded my blue 2012 2dr GTi with 125,000+ miles in for a grey 2013 4dr R with 90k. It’s slower than my GTi was but not for long!

M6rk said:

Good point, should I replace the three bolts often?

So far I replaced the cam follower, water pump, timing belt and tensions, oil change, changed the coolant and greased up my sunroof.

My rear springs are almost out so I will eventually replace them. Do you guys recommend any shocks?

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It's not so much the bolts you have to worry about but the holes they thread into - if you strip those threads you're in for some serious heartache and repair $$$.

There are stud conversion kits out there that help reduce the risk of damage. I'm going to get one soon I think.

M6rk said:

Good point, should I replace the three bolts often?

So far I replaced the cam follower, water pump, timing belt and tensions, oil change, changed the coolant and greased up my sunroof.

My rear springs are almost out so I will eventually replace them. Do you guys recommend any shocks?

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You don't really need to put much torque on the HPFP fasteners. I use a torx driver in the end of a screwdriver handle until it's snug. You're fastening into aluminum, so it doesn't take a lot of torque. I change my oil about every 5-7,000 miles, I'm also running LiquiMoly full synthetic. And I'm changing the cam follower every 20k. I did the Haldex at 30k it looked very clean. If you find the right trans oil you don't really need to change it much. but it took me 2 tries. VAG gear oil was very stiff in the winter, I switched to Motul which wasn't much different (I think they make VAG's private label), then I switched to LiquiMoly. I love the way my tranny feels winter and summer.

The best mod you can make is a downpipe. (the 2 600 cell ceramic cats are way more restrictive than one 200 or 300 cell rare metal cat). Your stock tuned engine will have much better response (less lag). 1st gear is very short in these though.

Torque spec for the HPFP bolts is 7ft-lb (84in-lb). You can get a good 1/4" torque wrench for $40 or less, I highly recommend it.