VW Mechanic Needed !!!

sugref

Hello everyone am new to boards in general so not sure if this is way to go about this but anyway.
After much much searching have finally got my hands on a very clean 91 mk2 golf gti .
The bodywork is spotless and feck all mileage really. Ive a lot of work i want to get done to the car but first i want to get a few small faults fixed and then a total checkup of the engine and the electrics done also.

What i also need is the interior re-done, i want to to install corado front and back seats and possibly change the dash and the seatbelts which have seen better days.

Ive searched long and hard for this car and am loath to turn it over to someone who doesnt know the model or who hasnt the expertise or the experience to handle the job.

Does anyone know a mechanic or a garage in either dublin, wicklow or wexford who fits the bill ? **** it does anyone know anyone anywhere in the country who could do it?

Id really appreciate any ideas anyone had. Thanks

leon8v

sugref wrote:

Hello everyone am new to boards in general so not sure if this is way to go about this but anyway.
After much much searching have finally got my hands on a very clean 91 mk2 golf gti .
The bodywork is spotless and feck all mileage really. Ive a lot of work i want to get done to the car but first i want to get a few small faults fixed and then a total checkup of the engine and the electrics done also.

What i also need is the interior re-done, i want to to install corado front and back seats and possibly change the dash and the seatbelts which have seen better days.

Ive searched long and hard for this car and am loath to turn it over to someone who doesnt know the model or who hasnt the expertise or the experience to handle the job.

Does anyone know a mechanic or a garage in either dublin, wicklow or wexford who fits the bill ? **** it does anyone know anyone anywhere in the country who could do it?

Id really appreciate any ideas anyone had. Thanks

What exactly are you after mechanically, ie the few small faults you mention.
Also electrically? Is anything actually not working or is it just a check over, if all is working fine, I would leave it as is.
As regards your interior plans, Corrado front seats are an easy swap, Can be done in a few minutes. I had them in my mk2 for a while but took back out to replace with Recaros. The thing with Corrado front seats is they sit much lower than mk2 standard seats due to the set up of corrado. The base is different. Its not too low that you cant see over the dash or anything, just a little lower than the Golf ones. In order to fit a corrado rear bench correctly you need to weld in brackets as its narrower than a mk2 back bench. Have a corrado back bench in my mk2 also and it is much nicer than the standard mk2 bench in fairness.
Seat belts can be removed easily enough.
As regards a dash conversion, are you talking corrado dash/mk3 dash? This is a very time consuming job and if you are looking for a garage to do it, firstly you may have problems finding one that will take it on and if you do, you will pay a lot for it as its going to take a while. If its just a swap to a fresh mk2 dash then, while still time consuming, is a bit easier.

fits

Pembroke Garage. Just off waterloo road. The owner has an immaculate Mk2 Gti himself. He did some work on friends scirocco and he was very happy with it.

Nom-IzZ

check out accarsales.ie, the lads there are great, Al & Richie, they are highly regarded on BMW work they do.

Simon

sugref

Fits , Nom-IzZ - thanks lads i'll suss those two out , like the sound of pembroke garage !

Leon 8v - About the dash swap, its not a pressing thing i just dont really like the look of the current dash. I saw an Mk2 at a show in England once with an Audi TT dash. Although the TT dash wouldnt really be my thing either it put a germ of an idea in my head that it can conceivably be done; i dont have a particular one in mind i was just wondering if anyone had done it.
Thats interesting about the seats in your own motor, did you replace the corrado seats because they were too low and it was annoying you, or just because you preferred the recaros?
The small faults are 2 brake lights out, back wiper sluggish at best and slowly dying , bulb over the speedometer gone, airconditioning making a low droning noise for a few minutes when first switched on and no recpetion on the radio.
I had an apprentice mechanic friend of mine look at the engine and he reckons the CV joint is ripped and the alternator is faulty.
As you might have guessed i dont yet know a huge amount about engine and electrical mechanics and so i would like all of this cleared up and out of the way by someone i can trust who could also handle the welding for the back benches.
Thanks for the reply.

sugref

Fits , Nom-IzZ - thanks lads i'll suss those two out , like the sound of pembroke garage !

Leon 8v - About the dash swap, its not a pressing thing i just dont really like the look of the current dash. I saw an Mk2 at a show in England once with an Audi TT dash. Although the TT dash wouldnt really be my thing either it put a germ of an idea in my head that it can conceivably be done; i dont have a particular one in mind i was just wondering if anyone had done it.
Thats interesting about the seats in your own motor, did you replace the corrado seats because they were too low and it was annoying you, or just because you preferred the recaros?
The small faults are 2 brake lights out, back wiper sluggish at best and slowly dying , bulb over the speedometer gone, airconditioning making a low droning noise for a few minutes when first switched on and no recpetion on the radio.
I had an apprentice mechanic friend of mine look at the engine and he reckons the CV joint is ripped and the alternator is faulty.
As you might have guessed i dont yet know a huge amount about engine and electrical mechanics and so i would like all of this cleared up and out of the way by someone i can trust who could also handle the welding for the back benches.
Thanks for the reply.

leon8v

sugref wrote:

Fits , Nom-IzZ - thanks lads i'll suss those two out , like the sound of pembroke garage !

Leon 8v - About the dash swap, its not a pressing thing i just dont really like the look of the current dash. I saw an Mk2 at a show in England once with an Audi TT dash. Although the TT dash wouldnt really be my thing either it put a germ of an idea in my head that it can conceivably be done; i dont have a particular one in mind i was just wondering if anyone had done it.
Thats interesting about the seats in your own motor, did you replace the corrado seats because they were too low and it was annoying you, or just because you preferred the recaros?
The small faults are 2 brake lights out, back wiper sluggish at best and slowly dying , bulb over the speedometer gone, airconditioning making a low droning noise for a few minutes when first switched on and no recpetion on the radio.
I had an apprentice mechanic friend of mine look at the engine and he reckons the CV joint is ripped and the alternator is faulty.
As you might have guessed i dont yet know a huge amount about engine and electrical mechanics and so i would like all of this cleared up and out of the way by someone i can trust who could also handle the welding for the back benches.
Thanks for the reply.

Well altenator is easily replaced in a few minutes, But be sure its gone first!! Is the battery light coming on? Battery going flat? You haven't said if its 16v or 8v but either way its easily replaced. CV joint a little more time consuming but again easy enough. About €50/60 from somewhere like GSF for the CV. I assume its clicking while turning? The CV boots tend to tear on them alright.
An Audi TT dash seems to be a very hard conversion and very very time consuming and you would want to get someone who has done it before or who has a lot of patience and is willing to put the effort into it and treat it like their own car. A corrado dash conversion is a little easier and offers a different dash look for the mk2 although personally I like the mk2 dash.
It was a bit of both with the seats for me. They werent too low that it annoyed me but I prefered the "proper" height and I changed to Recaro SR seats which are a completely different seat to the standard ones and even the VW option Recaros. I also fitted a roll cage to mine so the seats were keeping in tune with that theme.
The best way to get the corrado back bench is to cut the brackets out of a corrado, easier said that done I know. I have a set for mine, just havent gotten round to fitting them properly yet.
Brake light switch could be gone or stuck on it. Has happened mine a few times. Take a look before buying bulbs or anything.
The heater fans tend to make that noise when they get old. You can get a full replacement from GSF, pricey enough, prob near €100 abut its an easy enough replacement, located under the dash, can be wedged in sometimes, just be careful not to break the clips taking it out.
Clocks need to come out to replace bulb over the speedo, again easy enough, just a little time consuming and need to take care not to break any dash parts while removing them. Not sure what could be the problem with the rear wiper. The motor could be on its way out. Its easy enough to get at and remove and you can get a motor out of any mk2 to replace it. No reception on the radio is probably just your aerial cable, Especially if its an aftermarket radio. GTI's tend to have had the stereos replaced a few times in them and the cable could have been pulled out or is disconnected elsewhere. Has your car had its aerial moved? Some 8v's have had the "bee-sting" aerial fitted to them and the aerial mightnt have been wired properly.
You could do most of this yourself if you are mechanically minded.

fits

i just looked up the number there but cant find it. As far as I remember its on pembroke lane. Couldnt find anything called 'pembroke garage' in golden pages, so could be a different name. 2 garages came up for pembroke lane so you could ring both and ask if the owner has a Mk2 Gti. (You should see it, its like its straight out of the showroom)

sugref

Fits – Thanks anyway for looking. I think ill definitely give them a shout and try and hunt this guy down, im intrigued now, you seem very impressed with it !
What colour is it? Big bumper model ? Have you seen it driving around or been up to have a look?



Leon – Ya seem to know yer stuff there right enough ! I know what you’re saying, its not that I don’t think id be able to do any of the work myself its just that I haven’t done anything like it before. Id hate to be poking around blindly pulling at things and do some damage that would really land the budget up the creek..
Having said that im sick of getting garage bills where the part itself doesn’t cost much but the labour really hurts, especially when you know they haven’t spent that long on it !
Id have to see someone making these kind of repairs or have some sort of guidelines to work off first. You know those GTI maintenance books you can get, would they cover that sort of thing ?
The battery light isn’t coming on. I noticed whilst driving at night I could see the headlamps flickering in the reflection of the car in front and then also the overhead light in the cabin doing the same thing. I told my friend about it and he reckoned it was the alternator on the way out.
He showed me the CV joint (it clicks while turning) theres definitely a big hairy rip in it alright.

I dunno, I just don’t like the blockiness of the dash, its all angles. Im more of a smooth curves man J
I don’t much like the TT dash, although I do take your point about the hard conversion. What im really after is a relatively painless swap within the VW family so as not to overcomplicate things too much. Its funny I was in a 94 cl golf the other day and I thought the dash in that was alright.. think id be lowering the tone of the poor car to do something like that though !
Do you know how a corrado dash compares to the mk 2 (mines an 8v bigbumper) ive seen pictures but never seen one up close.
Your own car sounds mean, have you any pictures of it ?
I was out there on the weekend looking at a front/back rado seat set. The fella who was selling was doing up an MK1, had it propped up in his garden with the seats thrown in the back. He was going to put them in the MK1 but the fit went off him so he decides to sell them. He’d one of the doors off for a while looking for a replacement but the rado seats were still in the car. They were soaked through and one of the adjuster handles was snapped off.
I was raging , been waiting ages looking for these seats and finally thought id hit gold. Its all such a patience game.

leon8v

sugref wrote:

Fits – Thanks anyway for looking. I think ill definitely give them a shout and try and hunt this guy down, im intrigued now, you seem very impressed with it !
What colour is it? Big bumper model ? Have you seen it driving around or been up to have a look?



Leon – Ya seem to know yer stuff there right enough ! I know what you’re saying, its not that I don’t think id be able to do any of the work myself its just that I haven’t done anything like it before. Id hate to be poking around blindly pulling at things and do some damage that would really land the budget up the creek..
Having said that im sick of getting garage bills where the part itself doesn’t cost much but the labour really hurts, especially when you know they haven’t spent that long on it !
Id have to see someone making these kind of repairs or have some sort of guidelines to work off first. You know those GTI maintenance books you can get, would they cover that sort of thing ?
The battery light isn’t coming on. I noticed whilst driving at night I could see the headlamps flickering in the reflection of the car in front and then also the overhead light in the cabin doing the same thing. I told my friend about it and he reckoned it was the alternator on the way out.
He showed me the CV joint (it clicks while turning) theres definitely a big hairy rip in it alright.

I dunno, I just don’t like the blockiness of the dash, its all angles. Im more of a smooth curves man J
I don’t much like the TT dash, although I do take your point about the hard conversion. What im really after is a relatively painless swap within the VW family so as not to overcomplicate things too much. Its funny I was in a 94 cl golf the other day and I thought the dash in that was alright.. think id be lowering the tone of the poor car to do something like that though !
Do you know how a corrado dash compares to the mk 2 (mines an 8v bigbumper) ive seen pictures but never seen one up close.
Your own car sounds mean, have you any pictures of it ?
I was out there on the weekend looking at a front/back rado seat set. The fella who was selling was doing up an MK1, had it propped up in his garden with the seats thrown in the back. He was going to put them in the MK1 but the fit went off him so he decides to sell them. He’d one of the doors off for a while looking for a replacement but the rado seats were still in the car. They were soaked through and one of the adjuster handles was snapped off.
I was raging , been waiting ages looking for these seats and finally thought id hit gold. Its all such a patience game.

To be fair, the mk2 golf is easy enough to work on, Yes, you could muck up and end up costing yourself more but some of the jobs you mention can be easily done if you are anyway mechanically minded. The Haynes manual is a good help alright for starting out but can sometimes leave out bits.

Not sure if there is such a thing as an easy dash conversion:D The mk3 and corrado are probably as close as you will get to one though.
Here is a quick pic of a corrado dash.




Heres a quick pic of mine from a show during the summer.


Dont worry too much about the corrado interior, you will come across them all the time. Which colour are you going for? Black or Grey?

sugref

Shes lookin only smashing in that picture, love the alloys, ive seen them before in magazines on mk1s, didnt audi make ones like that before?
Was it an Irish show or an English one?
Whats the story with the engine , did you do a rebuild or replace it altogether ? 16v?
I dont really mind what colour the seats come in, id be looking at getting them covered anyway, im just after good nick.
Here i meant to ask you something. When i put on the dipped beam headlights, the outer two lights come on and then when the full lights are on, all four are lit. WOuld it be a big job to rewire them so that the inner ones come on for the dipped beam ? The four lights was always one thing that attracted me to the car, i just like the look of them, but i wont feel complete unless all four are on for dipped or full !

I think i know where i could get a corrado dash in fairly good nick. If i was to remove it would i go for just the shell of the dash or take all the connecting wires too ?
That might seem like a stupid question but i saw some fella on ebay selling a dash but there wasnt a lot with it eg he'd no a/c dials or any of the buttons to the right of the steering wheel in your picture (thx by the way was a good pic)

leon8v

sugref wrote:

Shes lookin only smashing in that picture, love the alloys, ive seen them before in magazines on mk1s, didnt audi make ones like that before?
Was it an Irish show or an English one?
Whats the story with the engine , did you do a rebuild or replace it altogether ? 16v?
I dont really mind what colour the seats come in, id be looking at getting them covered anyway, im just after good nick.
Here i meant to ask you something. When i put on the dipped beam headlights, the outer two lights come on and then when the full lights are on, all four are lit. WOuld it be a big job to rewire them so that the inner ones come on for the dipped beam ? The four lights was always one thing that attracted me to the car, i just like the look of them, but i wont feel complete unless all four are on for dipped or full !

I think i know where i could get a corrado dash in fairly good nick. If i was to remove it would i go for just the shell of the dash or take all the connecting wires too ?
That might seem like a stupid question but i saw some fella on ebay selling a dash but there wasnt a lot with it eg he'd no a/c dials or any of the buttons to the right of the steering wheel in your picture (thx by the way was a good pic)

The wheels on mine are genuine Porsche. Audi did make a similar one from the A8 alright which are generally used on mk3/4's rather than earlier cars.
Pic was taken at a show up north during the summer.
Engine is a turbocharged 8v with 6 speed Gemini/VW motorsport gearbox, aftermarket engine management and a spec list the length of your arm:D Pretty much none of the original engine set up left. A G60 engine block, and a lot of other performance bits in there instead. Brakes and suspension all fully upgraded to cope.
With regard to the lights, I would personally leave them the way they are. If you were to wire up the centres two lights to come on, you would end up blinding other drivers (well in theory, in reality standard mk2 lights are more like candles but thats another matter!!:D ) And I doubt it would pass NCT (if you are bothered with that sort of thing) The actual wiring up of them probably wouldnt be that hard, it would be just a case of joining them into the circuit for your dipped beams but I really dont think it would look good or be practical, your choice of course though.
With regard to the dash. You would need to strip everything. I have never fitted a different dash before but in order to get everything working properly as per the corrado, like all switches, heaters etc you would need to strip absolutely everything from the corrado, all switches, all heater boxes, ducts all dash wiring back to the fuse box. I am not sure of the wiring configuration but you would then have to tease it out and make sure everything is wired into the correct pins in the fuse box for everything to work properly on the dash. This is where it gets very time consuming. It is not a case of just unbolting a dash and rebolting in a new one. The speedo for example in a corrado is electronic, yours in run by a speedo cable. So in order to get it working properly, you also have to get the speed sensor from the gearbox and then wire that into the clocks, and into the correct pins at that which can be hard to tease out, especially if you dont have detailed wiring diagrams which can be hard to come by. This is why I was saying you really need someone with patience and who has an interest in doing it. A lot of garages could get pissed off when it starts taking a while to get right and your car is taking up space in a garage where they could be making money on something else.
I had to do this recently on a mates car when we did an engine conversion to get all the clocks working correctly with the new engine and it took a bit of time to tease it out. I would say it wouldnt be the end of the world to do but at the same time you couldnt be expecting to leave your car in on a friday and pick it up on a monday complete with new fully finctional dash. Also not all of the corrado dash will fit, AFAIK some parts of the under tray have to be left out in the mk2 as they dont fit properly.
You would need to be very careful removing the dash and label all wires. To be honest If it were me fitting it to my own car I would want to remove the corrado one myself preferably, as it is much easier to refit something when you removed it yourself rather than being handed a box of parts.