Ownership Verified: Sik-Ponys '08 VW GLI Project

DubyaStep

DubyaStep

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Joined
Oct 9, 2008
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Location
Tampa, Florida but now in Casselberry for school
Car(s)
Ford Thundercougarfalconbird
So, picked up a new car this weekend to replace the 400HP Mustang i was driving 200 miles a day. Yes, i know these are not my photos but i will post some soon. Basically the car looks EXACTLY like this though this picture just does it no justice.

As some of you may remember, i was asking for advice in what car to buy because i had been looking for an Audi A4 S-Line but could not find one so i had pretty much settled on a CC. As i am very picky about what i drive, i have been car shopping for like 2 years now and i usually spend a ful day just going from dealer to dealer. Saturday i left the house with the gf to just get out and go for a drive. Drove by a local used car dealer (with a very good reputaion after 39 years of business) and saw a gold CC with the nice wheels and shit, well, i stopped in there. As i was walking to the CC i saw this very good looking GLI with the nice wheels so i looked in the window and saw the 6 speed tranny. Immediatly hopped on the phone with a family member (who knew the drill after 2 years of me shopping) and said "get on NADA and get me the price for this car" he came back and said it was worth about $18,000 to $19000. I walked inside to the office and asked how much and he said $16000 because "its been here to long". Now, i know that statement is usually an indicator that something is wrong with the car but this one is still under full warrenty so im confident that people were just scared of the color. needless to say i got it.

I never wanted to get rid of the mustang and my cousin hated his current car so i worked out a deal where the dealer would accept his car as a trade and the mustang as a trade and then turn around and sell the mustang for the price i wanted and then put the difference from the quoted trade in and my price towards the down payment on the VW so everyone wins. The Mustang is still in the garage and im in a more realistic car to drive 200 miles a day. Well, as i left the dealer and went on a prolonged drive to play with my new toy, guess what i found on accident, yep, an Audi A4 S-Line. Oh well, this one is sick and and the words of Jezza "it goes like Bleep-Bleep".

One last note, kinda funny to me, I kind of grew up in car dealership so i know my way around the process from the dealers perspective and after i got home i sat down with the numbers from the deal and i work out the im confident that this deal cost (yes COST) the dealership about $500-$1000. Fun Stuff!

Anyways:
2008 VW SLI
I-4 Turbo (200hp-207tq(i think))
33000 miles (still under full warranty till august and then another year of drive train)
6 speed Manual Trans

So, anyone got any good advice for this car? Ideas for easy power gains? Anything else?

Came with a set of Dunlops but i may change those to Pirelli PZero Rosso's because this is going to be a sort of project car. Basically, it wont be stock for long

Will get better ones soon. these were taken with my iPhone camera.

POO:
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Another MKV owner!! Welcome and I hope you enjoy your car. With regards to advice/technical information I'd look through vwvortex there's a lot of knowledge and experience from owners who can guide you in the right direction. I just beg you don't join the stance crowd on the vortex! PLEASE!!
 
Like it!
VW are one of the few brands that manages to pull off the hatch to sedan conversion.
 
Nice spec, colour and rims but what's that huge wart growing out of the back of it? It looks like a Golf with a disease.
 
nice car , congrats !
 
Well, I wanna lower it no more than an inch maybe but I'll check out that forum. I love this car and I hope to start a running thread about how it comes along. I plan on making this a fun project car.
 
Well, I wanna lower it no more than an inch maybe but I'll check out that forum. I love this car and I hope to start a running thread about how it comes along. I plan on making this a fun project car.
 
I was asked to post here by people in #gear :p

I know the mk5 pretty well. I know how it drives in all conditions, and I have a pretty good idea of how to get it to perform. See the videos linked here, if you like.

Sik Pony said:
So, anyone got any good advice for this car? Ideas for easy power gains? Anything else?
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first thing's first... the mk5 and the 2.0t have proven to be quite good. The revised 2.0t that's found in your car will be even better than the earlier version. That said, the engine still has a cam follower issue where it wears down over time. It's worth looking into around the 40k or 50k time period, and replacing if need be.

The best performance upgrade you can make is yourself. The mk5 is one of the best FWD chassis available right now. It handles well in stock form. Look into participating in a basic skills/high speed driving course from a local car club, then move on to a high performance driving day (basic track skills). After that, any good club will have lapping days with instructors that can stay with you all day to help you become even more familiar with your car and with your own skills. There is really very little point in modifying a good car like this much without improving yourself first. The car can wait a bit, if need be ;)

One of the most immediate and best value improvements you can make is to go with a Stage 1 software upgrade. Almost every European tuning company has software for the 2.0t's. The most popular brands are probably APR, Unitronic, and Revo. APR actually races these cars and has a lot of experience with tuning them in a way that works. $500 - $600 will give you a massive increase in power. Besides, with your car being stock my TDI is faster than your GLI :p

You already have mentioned going with a max performance summer tire, which is definitely one of the best ways to improve handling. You can't have performance without having grip.

As for lowering.. try to avoid going with just springs unless you also upgrade the dampeners (ie. struts or shocks) to a heavier duty piece. Your stock dampeners will bounce too much, and will begin to wear out much more quickly than normal if you simply replace your factory springs with lowering springs. My recommendation is to go with a good coilover system. One of the best value coils you can buy for these cars is from Koni. They have a lifetime warranty, have rebound adjustability (though mine has been on the medium setting and I have no plans on changing it. Setting it to full stiff is not a good idea for most people or situations), they're very comfortable (only just a little stiffer than factory suspension on most roads, as long as you don't drop them down the whole way), and of course you have height adjustability. They last, and they're one of the cheapest of the nicer coilovers you can buy.
Keep in mind though... lowering a car and increasing the suspension's rate does not really improve handling. Instead, it really just improves communication and gives the driver more confidence in knowing what the car is doing. This is because of the reduced roll and that feeling of being more connected to the road. The only real advantage seen from lowering the car is the lowered center of gravity. But, since you're also reducing your suspension travel, the positives and negatives kind of balance out.

One of the real problems with the mk5, once you start pushing it, is that the brakes fade a little more quickly than you might like. This is mostly due to the pads and fluid.. not the calipers, lines, or rotors. Your car already has 312mm rotors up front and 286mm rears. The rotor size is fine (actually, it's quite good). The calipers, while only single pots, still do the job very well. 99% of drivers (even on the track) won't really have a need to ever upgrade these calipers. The pads and fluid definitely need upgrading though.
There are a ton of great pad options... all are good in different areas, and are useful for different reasons. Axxis Ultimates are supposed to be good for higher performance street driving with lower dust (they're ceramic). Hawk has a few very well respected pads for street performance, auto cross, and track use as well (these are very common). EBC has some good higher performance pads as well. My current favorite are the Centric/StopTech Street Performance pads. I've used them for about a year now.. through a few different track days. They bite better than most any other performance pad I've used in cold weather (on the first stop), they heat up fairly quickly, they're quiet, they don't dust much around town, and I was still braking deeper on track than most other cars. I love them. They're not at all a heavy duty track pad.. I got them to fade on a 100F day on a very technical track in September, but they still held up very well.
Fluid-wise... go with something like ATE if you want something with higher temperature capability and less compressibility. It's not too much more expensive than factory fluid, and will last longer than the higher performance racing fluids from Motul, Castrol, and Brembo. Keep in mind that higher performance fluid simply will not last as long as factory-spec fluid, but will endure higher temperatures and will not boil as easily. It's a trade-off. My Brembo LCF-600 Plus fluid (which I love) is really only good for about a year, and for much less time than that if I track the car often. It's more expensive as well. But it feels awesome.

Don't upgrade any sway bar until you have driven the car for a while and you know what you want. The mk5 chassis does tend to understeer in long sweepers, even with good tires and an aggressive alignment, but it still transfers very well and is very controllable both with throttle and steering control. If you want to limit some of the understeer then do go with an upgraded rear sway (leave the front alone.. the only reason to install a front sway bar on this car is to limit roll, which your upgraded suspension will do on its own). H&R makes the largest solid rear sway bar (24mm) (there are larger hollow sway bars.. but the spring rate of a hollow sway bar is lower than a solid sway bar). It's adjustable as well, so start out at the softest setting and slowly move up. The point of a sway bar, in this situation, is to limit traction by limiting the suspension travel of the inside wheel. My inside-rear wheel actually (slightly) lifts off the ground on hard turns now (low coils, rear sway is in the middle setting). There's no point in me ever moving up to the stiffest setting, unless I merely want less predictability and less suspension travel.

And, as most people know now, one of the better ways to improve performance is to lose weight. Reduce wheel weight.. reduce brake system weight (calipers and rotors), remove interior bits, etc. Wheel size isn't as important.. since an 18" wheel can easily be lighter than a 16" wheel (for example).

Try to never make more than one change at a time. You'll never know what affect any of the changes had if you make them all at once. I lowered my car first, then started driving at the track. After a while I upgraded my pads, upgraded the software, and went to my current track tires. A while later I added the rear sway bar on the softest setting and upgraded the lines and fluid. For the track day after that I moved the sway bar up to the medium setting, and have put a few track days and autocross events on that setup since. I now have upgraded calipers, which will be nicely tested in a few months. Because I did these mods in a step-by-step fashion, I know the result of each of the mods pretty well and can explain exactly why I did what I did.

Keep your performance mods simple. Don't add a "performance mod" simply because someone tells you it's cool. Keep to the basics and slowly work your way up. You will learn more about how to drive well with a slow car that isn't properly set up than you will a fast car. The more you improve yourself, the more you'll be able to take advantage of the car.

I'm at a point now where my tdi wagon can outhandle a large amount of cars on the track, and it's very difficult for most cars (with a lot more power) to lose me in a corner. The car will never be very quick in a straight line, but it's still a blast to catch up to cars in corners and then have the drivers approach you afterward asking what's been done to the car.. and then to see their face when you tell them it's diesel :D
 
Rather than reply to the entire thing ill just summarize, lol.

I am i higly trained driver but thanx for that advice. Its one of the first things i tell people when im asked things like that as i used to work for MBUSA.

Really what i was asking is for specific parts that people prefer. Found a local "euro"tuning shop today and was very happy when i pulled up and all the employees cars out front were VW's. Talked to them and they said some great things about advice for the performance of the car as well. they explained about the chip and said it can add upwards of 50hp and 100 tq for about $500 so im interested in that but only after i upgrade suspention things. the reason is that as i was driving it in the rain today i found it very hard to keep from spinning the front tires through third gear so im going to do something about the tires and shit. Also, interested in a high quality intake for starters and they showed me a set of rear LED tail lights ($180) that looked great so im interested in that.

I lowered my car first, then started driving at the track. After a while I upgraded my pads, upgraded the software, and went to my current track tires. A while later I added the rear sway bar on the softest setting and upgraded the lines and fluid. For the track day after that I moved the sway bar up to the medium setting, and have put a few track days and autocross events on that setup since. I now have upgraded calipers, which will be nicely tested in a few months. Because I did these mods in a step-by-step fashion, I know the result of each of the mods pretty well and can explain exactly why I did what I did.
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Thats very much the way i think of things when deciding the next change to my cars "how/what will it effect and can that part handle it or should it be upgraded first"
 
Sik Pony said:
I am i higly trained driver but thanx for that advice. Its one of the first things i tell people when im asked things like that as i used to work for MBUSA.

Really what i was asking is for specific parts that people prefer.
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well then.. your post wasn't very specific in any of those areas ;)

You need to provide some sort of idea of what you're looking to do with the car. I can list off a ton of names and parts, but it's all rather useless without knowing what your goal is.

Upgrading to those max performance tires will only make your rain traction worse. You need some ultra high performance all season tires if you are going to drive in the rain at all (I love the Continental ExtremeContact DWS tires)... or at least something like the Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Specs (I've tracked my car on these in a downpour with standing water on the track.. they work wonderfully). You'll definitely want some of those over the Pzero's you mentioned, if rain is to ever be involved. Save those for the summer...

I'm not sure how suspension will limit your traction issues though. Does the weight really transfer that much under acceleration? That said.. look into the "dogbone mount". You can upgrade the stiffness of the rear engine mount, which will limit wheel hop with the 2.0t cars.. supposed to be a huge improvement.

For an intake.. check out the APR Carbonio intake. It's actually cheaper than most intake systems.. it completely replaces the airbox, it looks good, and APR has actually tested their systems a lot better than most any other brands test theirs (again.. they race their cars).
 
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Did you ever end up running an autocheck/carfax on the car, or did you just go for it and hope for the best?
 
Yes, it does shift more than i would like on acceleration so thats one of the main reasons i want a small suspension improve. As far as the tires, i had high performance tires on my Mustang (400hp) and i live in west florida so i know what rain is all about (i have lived in seattle, that aint rain ;) ) and i managed to handle that one fine so this one should be easier. I will deffinitly look into the dogbone mount, got a link for a good one?

What i am trying to accieve with this car is a fun, fast touring car that i can take down backroads when i find them and have confidence that it wont kill me. At the same time, i dont want to make the car worse just so it looks good. As i said before, i am a trained driver and i know the limits of the each surface that im on so im not afraid to build a fun car as long as the improvements are functional. As far as track days, we dont really have any open "track day" type tracks here so its all just highway/backroads here so im not really concerned about running it on a track because im not into ovals and drag strips because thats all we have here that i know of.

Anyways, any advice you can give me would be great. let me know if you need more from me. Thanx!
 
MWF said:
Nice spec, colour and rims but what's that huge wart growing out of the back of it? It looks like a Golf with a disease.
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yeah, maybe some explaination for the Europeans here would be nice as I have never seen anything like this. Is that a Golf Spec GLI or is it called "GLI"? Or is that a Jetta (Bora in europe)? And what is the difference between that and the Jetta?
 
Interrobang said:
yeah, maybe some explaination for the Europeans here would be nice as I have never seen anything like this. Is that a Golf Spec GLI or is it called "GLI"? Or is that a Jetta (Bora in europe)? And what is the difference between that and the Jetta?
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Its just VW GLI (jetta when it was born). Think GTI with a trunk/boot. As far as the other questions, ill leave that to the others on here to answer as im not sure yet. havnt done the research.
 
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The Golf GTI is so big in North America that VW started marketing it as just "VW GTI" somewhere along the line.

North Americans have always preferred small sedans over hatchbacks, which means that the Jetta outsells the Golf. VW naturally wanted to cash in on this and brought out a hot version of the Jetta for the North American market. They decided to call it GLI, probably to not dilute the GTI brand. "GLI" also sounds more luxo-performance than hot hatch, which goes well with the Jetta since the whole point of it is to be more "grown up" than the Golf.

And the "golf sedan" has always been called Jetta in North America, even during the mk3 and mk4 eras when ours were called Vento and Bora. The Jetta name reappeared in Europe for the mk5 though.
 
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Perc said:
The Golf GTI is so big in North America that VW started marketing it as just "VW GTI" somewhere along the line.

North Americans have always preferred small sedans over hatchbacks, which means that the Jetta outsells the Golf. VW naturally wanted to cash in on this and brought out a hot version of the Jetta for the North American market. They decided to call it GLI, probably to not dilute the GTI brand.

And the "golf sedan" has always been called Jetta in North America, even during the mk3 and mk4 era when ours was called Vento and Bora.
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People tend to look at me funny around here when i say this but i just love the look of a nice sedan. Im talking more about a model like the 05ish E-Class benz or the new CC (only the well equipped one) the newer model Audi A4's like the S-Line or this GLI. I just think they look great and its even better when they can perform.
 
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Sik Pony said:
Yes, it does shift more than i would like on acceleration so thats one of the main reasons i want a small suspension improve. As far as the tires, i had high performance tires on my Mustang (400hp) and i live in west florida so i know what rain is all about (i have lived in seattle, that aint rain ;) ) and i managed to handle that one fine so this one should be easier. I will deffinitly look into the dogbone mount, got a link for a good one?
Click to expand...

I've been in the south during some downpours... (7" of rain in one day?). The only difference there is all of the standing water.. and you're not going to drive full speed through those puddles no matter what tires you have on the car :D

A dogbone mount from any company will do. I know Neuspeed has one for the car.

As for suspension, do check out the Koni coils (part #1150 5080). They come with a lifetime warranty, they're built extremely well, they ride wonderfully, and will still outhandle all but the hardcore suspension systems. They're also one of the cheapest coilovers you can buy. It's a no-brainer.. imo.

If you upgrade the suspension and your tires and you still think you have too much understeer, then go with the H&R 24mm rear sway bar. It's a mild upgrade on its softest setting, but gets aggressive quickly once you bump the spring rate up. It's extremely well built with teflon bushings so you'll never hear any squeaking. Just keep in mind that the function of a sway bar is to reduce suspension travel, which, in-turn, reduces traction.

Basically.. all the car needs to be a great car, besides engine upgrades, is a little suspension, brakes, and tires.

As for software, look into APR or Unitronic, imo. APR will have a ton more options, since they offer a full range of upgrades for the car (including turbo upgrades, etc.). There are a ton of exhaust and intake options for the car as well... but definitely look into that Carbonio intake. The others tend to just pull air in from the engine bay, which is rather pointless... or they only replace part of the factory air intake.
 
Wow, that thing's sexy! I haven't seen many GLIs with Denver wheels, most of the time they always have that multi-spoke wheel (I forget the name). I think the Denvers look even better on the GLI than the GTI.
 
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