Email "The Brain" your technical Q&A to thegolfmag@ipcmedia.com and have your garage and workshop queries answered by none other than Mr Steve Cresswell himself. Yep, that's right, the head honco of Nottingham based C+R Enterprises is here to cater for your every possible workshop need. Whether you want to know about porting your head, changing your exhaust, or even a complete engine transplant, THE BRAIN will have the answer.

Have you got a VW, SEAT or AUDI technical question? Then email it to us at thegolfmag@ipcmedia.com and we'll pass it onto the all knowing BRAIN - A.K.A Steve Cresswell of Nottingham based C+R Enterprises

MK1 Golf

MK1 GTI STEERING PROBLEM
Hi there I own a 1983 MK Golf GTI and the whole time I have owned it the steering has never felt positive and direct, it always feels loose and like the front and rear act independently. Over the weeks I have changed the wishbones, track rod ends, wheel bearings, shocks and springs (GAZ Coilovers) wheels, tires and top mounts then had it tracked up properly all of which didn’t solve the problem so it has been in and out of a few garages all which have said they cant really see anything wrong so I’m now at a loss

Thank you kindly, Thuven

ANSWER

The first thing that springs to mind is if the rack mounting on the right, in front of the drivers feet, is cracked and breaking away from the body and this is a very common and dangerous problem that you should get looked at straight away. Other common problems we see are the tacking and camber set to Golf 2 settings, not Golf 1 and worn rack mounting bushes or even the rack itself.

Wheel adaptors
My name is Shaheed, and I am from South Africa. I absolutely love your mag, it’s awesome. Here in South Africa, VW still makes Mk1’s and it’s a steal here. Not too sure if you guys have seen the latest releases (2006 - 2007) However, I’ve done a little to my car, and don’t worry it’s not a Pimp my ride car. I prefer the UK look, you know broad wheels, extended fenders and so on. Currently, I have a 17 inch wheel 4 x 100, (works - Ryver Touring), 7 J in the front and 7.5 at the back. I have no stress with these wheels and they look awesome. However, I bought another wheel, but the wheel is 5 x 100. I need to know to more about adapter plates. I’ve heard that these can cause vibrations, and cause the wheel to stick out more on the car. What would you suggest? - Drill the original hub which 4 x100 to 5x 100 or 5 x 112 - Fit VR6 hubs, or adapters. I find you mag highly interesting, and would like to hear your views.

Akoojee Shaheed S

ANSWER

Converting the rear of the car to 5x100 PCD is easy; you fit a rear disc conversion and use Golf 3 discs that have a 5x100 M14 bolt PCD. The front is a problem as we have found it impossible to obtain blank Golf 1 hubs to have drilled 5x100 M14 or buy them like that off the shelf. If you use adapters, we don’t know of anyone marketing a 4x100 M12 to 5x100 M14 adapter. Even if one was available, you may run into problems with the ET number of the wheel. Say for example the wheels you have found are ET35; a typical spacer would be 25-mm thick so your ET35 wheel is suddenly ET10, not ideal. The only adapters we have used that work on a Golf 1 platform are 4x100 M12 to 5x130 Porsche adapters for ET60 wheels and these are 25-mm thick so give an effective ET35



MK2

1.8 GOLF AUTOMATIC MK 2.

I have a 1990 1.8 Golf automatic Mk2.The push rod on the 4 point unit does extend when cold or the engine is turned off but does not go back in as far as it should when the engine is at full temp. Can you help? Is this unit adjustable or faulty? Thank you.

Gino.

ANSWER

The Pierburg 2E3 carb is unreliable and this problem may be a control relay fault or a vacuum leak in one of the vacuum pipes to the rear of the carb. As we don’t like the Weber conversion on the automatic we recommend you have the carb repaired but you need to take it to someone who fully understands how they work.


Irratic 1989 Mk2 GTi running

I have a Mk2 Golf GTI, 1989, and it is running really badly at the moment. She started off just getting hot when being stuck in traffic, but I could cope with this. But then, about two weeks ago she started running badly, stuttering and stalling when pulling up to junctions or even just slowing down in traffic. I thought it could be something to do with the fact that I had been running her under 1/4 of a tank of fuel for the last few weeks or so (I was skint!), so I treated her to some nice expensive petrol. She seemed to be OK for a few days, but then yesterday, I had a nightmare journey. I had to drive along the bypass at 50 so that the car didn't jerk around too much, and when I got to the junction she stalled and didn't really want to start again. When she finally got going, I pulled away giving her a few revs and there was a huge cloud of black smoke! She also seemed to be using a lot of fuel, as I put a tenner's worth in before leaving and by the time I got home it was nearly on the red - I work about 10 miles from home. Please help! I am getting so fed up with it that I am seriously thinking of selling the car I love. I look forward to hearing from you.

Carly Dutton

ANSWER

That sounds like the blue coolant temperature sender on the water outlet on the front of the cylinder head between cylinders three and four is reading low. These are very easy to change but firstly, ensure the car is stone cold and remove the cap from the water tank for the cooling system. The sender has a blue plug on top which is removed by squeezing the two metal tags. The sensor is removed by sliding out the metal clip and then it just pulls out but the “O” ring may need to be fished out of the hole. These senders are available from VW and other companies under the part number 028 919 081 D for the sender and N 903 168 02 for the “O” ring.


Mk2 16v - 2Y OR NOT 2Y
I have a Mk2 G reg, 90-spec 1.8 16v, the diff has blow through the gearbox casing! I have just bought a 8v box, so are the ratios different as I don’t want to lose speed and gain fuel consumption? Could you please list the correct other boxes that have the same centre shaft size and ratios as my original 16v gearbox.

Dan

ANSWER

Mk3 Golf 8v GTI boxes (such as the AMC and CHE) have the same input shaft but the wrong ratios so only the 2Y is suitable for a Mk2 Golf 16v. Used serviceable examples are also getting very hard to find so a complete strip down and rebuild is really your only option


MK2 16V GOLF
First of all I would like to comment on your excellent magazine that I buy without fail every week (its monthly! – ED), keep it up. I have a 1990 Mk2 16v Golf, which I've had for about 3 years; I want to do 9A conversion and was just wondering can I reach my target of 200bhp with about the same amount of torque. I've got the 9A ready to go in with high compression JE pistons 83.5mm bore, I'm gas-flowing the head with Kent cams running and a 4-2-1 manifold. Is there anything else I should do to reach my target?

Cheers Gunz.

ANSWER

First of all, what do you mean by “high compression” as the 9A compression is already 10.5:1, it isn’t sensible to go higher and 83.5-mm is really pushing it on the head gasket bore which is about 83.90-mm before it is compressed. Achieving 200BHP using naturally aspirated K-Jet is impossible in our opinion, we tried that with a K-Jet 2.2 running GF1602H Kent cams and got 174BHP so you will have to go throttle bodies to get 200BHP and 200Lbft isn’t going to happen even then.


Mk3 GOLFS

Mk3 16V
My 16v runs fine from cold, but once warmed up it starts violently juddering and misses firing at 3000rpm and above. This is constant and doesn’t seem to clear no matter how much I try and push through. I have had it diagnosed and a temp fault came up 00522, I replaced both temp sensors and also cleaned out the throttle body. This helped for a couple of days, but the problem has come back with vengeance. My Golf is a P reg. and has air con. I don’t know if this is a factor but my water pump sounds like its had better days?

Ross

ANSWER

Cleaning the throttle body out on a Mk3 Golf 16v is virtually a waste of time (unless deposits are preventing the throttle closing properly) as only the 8v has the motorised throttle body. If you have already replaced the coolant temperature sender we suggest you now change the ECU relay as these commonly cause very poor running on the ABF.

VW GOLF 2.0 8V GTI, 1996, MK3
I've had a problem with my Golf for the past 6 to 8 weeks. When I drive along my oil light will flash, my rev counter will start moving up and down erratically and my car will judder a lot. When I put my foot down on the accelerator I get no power and then all of a sudden I will get a rush of power and sometimes it will just cut out completely but it will start up again. Also, while this is happening I get a clicking noise on my dash board (around steering wheel and ignition area). I have had a few mechanics look at it, but it's so temperamental the problem never happens when they drive it. It will happen to me at least twice a day. I have replaced the spark plugs and leads, rotor arm and distributor cap and this seemed to solve the problem for the weekend (I drove at least 400 miles and it didn't happen once), yet it came back on the Monday driving to work. I’m not sure if there is a link to do with the temperature, as it has happened when it's been warm or cold. When I bought the car 5 years ago, I had a similar problem where if I was driving along or came up to a junction the car would cut out. I had a specialist look at it and he changed the fuel pump and the ECU relay and it was fine. As the problem is different compared to five years ago with the juddering and such, this is a complete mystery to me.

ANSWER

The first step would be to have the car read for engine fault codes so you need to find someone with diagnostic fault code reading equipment and these days that isn’t difficult. We suspect that you have a faulty crankshaft speed sensor and hopefully a fault code read will confirm this but it is possible that you have a faulty ECU relay again and as they only cost £11.08 it would be worthwhile changing it again. The VW part number is 165 906 381 and it is at position three on the relay plate (top row, third from the left) and has the number 30 printed on top. The newer more reliable relays are in a grey case and the earlier unreliable relays are in a black case.