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  #981  
Old 04-06-2020, 09:05 PM
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Originally Posted by GAFIT
Golf update...

At 75,500 miles now. Just ordered spark plugs and filters for it's 80,000 mile tune up.

I'm starting to wonder why so many report that VW's aren't reliable. It is definitely more expensive to maintain than a Honda, but so far so good on the reliability. Plus, we've gotten to drive something quiet and high speed stable for this time which Honda doesn't really offer. Even my father in law's Acura is louder on the highway.

Not that VW ownership is all roses. Like I said, it is more costly to maintain and it has it's weird quirks. However, still no repair expense. Hope it keeps going with that trend.
Nice!!

After seeing how most of my co-workers "maintain" their vehicles I'm not surprised that people report them as unreliable. It's not like a Honda or Toyota that you can run it low on oil and put crap gas in it.
 
  #982  
Old 04-08-2020, 11:22 AM
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Knocking on wood, our '17 Golf Wolfsburg has also been excellent at 34,761 Miles as of this morning. GAFIT's appraisal on its stability at speed is right on. It'll run at speed on the Interstate, quietly keeping pace with most anything and never break a sweat doing it. That li'l turbo is quite impressive.

How often do y'all change your engine oil? I change it myself with a DAP kit between the factory/Dealer changes, so it gets changed every 5,000 Miles. Is this excessive do you think?
 
  #983  
Old 04-08-2020, 11:46 AM
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Originally Posted by Alco RS-1
Knocking on wood, our '17 Golf Wolfsburg has also been excellent at 34,761 Miles as of this morning. GAFIT's appraisal on its stability at speed is right on. It'll run at speed on the Interstate, quietly keeping pace with most anything and never break a sweat doing it. That li'l turbo is quite impressive.

How often do y'all change your engine oil? I change it myself with a DAP kit between the factory/Dealer changes, so it gets changed every 5,000 Miles. Is this excessive do you think?
I don't think it's excessive at all as I did the exact same thing up until we surpassed the warranty mileage. Starting at 60k I do them all myself every 5,000 miles.

5,000 Miles is the most I'm willing to put on a direct injected turbocharged vehicle regardless of oil type or vehicle manufacturer. All GTDI motors have fuel dilution issues so it's best to change regularly and only use full synthetic.
 
  #984  
Old 04-08-2020, 02:11 PM
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Thanks GAFIT. I'll stay on schedule with what I'm doing then. At 34,761 Miles, I need to order another DAP kit today.

My wife took the Golf on an important five hour round trip yesterday and with the Interstates nearly empty following Coronavirus directives, she said speeds were crazy fast. Many cars were exceeding a 90 MPH pace, which the Golf was quite happy to maintain. However, she wisely decided that 80 MPH was safer and chopped her speed.
 
  #985  
Old 04-08-2020, 02:18 PM
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Originally Posted by Alco RS-1
Thanks GAFIT. I'll stay on schedule with what I'm doing then. At 34,761 Miles, I need to order another DAP kit today.

My wife took the Golf on an important five hour round trip yesterday and with the Interstates nearly empty following Coronavirus directives, she said speeds were crazy fast. Many cars were exceeding a 90 MPH pace, which the Golf was quite happy to maintain. However, she wisely decided that 80 MPH was safer and chopped her speed.
Allegedly, they are still quiet and stable at triple digit+ speeds :)

Everything about the car got even better with the Michelin Pilot Sport AS/3's. Now on it's second set of those.
 
  #986  
Old 04-09-2020, 01:15 PM
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Originally Posted by GAFIT
… Everything about the car got even better with the Michelin Pilot Sport AS/3's. Now on it's second set of those.
I just made a note of that so when our time comes for new tires, I can look into them. Thank you for the tip!
 
  #987  
Old 05-12-2020, 05:45 PM
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Wife's request for Mother's Day...she wanted to go drive the Tail of the Dragon. Killboy and 129 Photos got some good pics of our dirty Golf in action.



 
  #988  
Old 05-12-2020, 05:49 PM
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  #989  
Old 05-12-2020, 06:01 PM
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It did extremely well! Was able to carry considerable speed through even the hardest sections. Had it in manual shift mode and kept it in second gear with the exception of three sections where I bumped the limiter and upshifted to third. Was mostly just high rpm second gear for most of it.

Chased down and passed an obnoxiously loud modified Miata and one sport bike. I'm sure they were surprised!

Only issue at all was the front tires were loosing grip towards the end of the 11 miles. I slowed it down just a tad and let it cool down before making the u-turn and running back through the other direction.
 
  #990  
Old 05-13-2020, 10:47 AM
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Thanks for the posts and photos GAFIT! What a great way to spend the day. We too bought photos from our Golf's venture on the Tail and were pleased.
 
  #991  
Old 05-13-2020, 05:11 PM
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Yeah awesome pics and idea. I still need to get down there so I can drive the dragon.
 
  #992  
Old 05-16-2020, 05:08 PM
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Did another mountain drive today. Just local roads. Feel so lucky to live where we do.

Otto, once again, did great. Our Fit handles a little better, but at the cost of comfort and composure. The Golf makes for a very enjoyable place to spend the day in the mountains. The Fit is a blast for 30 minutes and then I want sound deadening, satellite radio, etc.

Shopping GTI's as a possible replacement for Otto. Wondering if we should take advantage of deferred payments and zero percent interest and move into a new VW with zero miles. Ours is nearing 80k miles and I'm a bit concerned what it may cost to own a high mileage VW. So, far so good, but I don't know how far we should push our luck?
 
  #993  
Old 05-18-2020, 09:36 AM
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Originally Posted by GAFIT
… Shopping GTI's as a possible replacement for Otto. Wondering if we should take advantage of deferred payments and zero percent interest and move into a new VW with zero miles. Ours is nearing 80k miles and I'm a bit concerned what it may cost to own a high mileage VW. So, far so good, but I don't know how far we should push our luck?
We had the same thought, but our '17 Golf Wolfsburg as been super-reliable, the sunroof has never squeaked or leaked and my wife still loves the car, so I'm thinking that we're best served by keeping it. I'd love to get a GTI now, but it'd mean FOUR vehicles to support, our driveway doesn't allow for excess parking and having two Golf-based vehicles may be kind of nutty. My Nissan Frontier has nearly 180K Miles, but it's seeing heavy use as we clear out a family member's home. Nonetheless, I can't get the GTI out of my mind. :-)
 
  #994  
Old 05-26-2020, 01:40 PM
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Hello folks, long time since I've been here. GAFIT, a larger rear swaybar would be a great upgrade. I'm not a fan of the dragon, but have been there many times. One day I hope to get the GTI down there.

RS1 nothing better than driving a car you like that is paid for. I keep thinking of buying something else, but I really like my car & I love no payments.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Cars/MINIs/OFOTD-2010/i-PD5BLMz/0/15b0f7d6/M/e%20US129_4-M.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/Cars/MINIs/OFOTD-2010/i-KrNQM3N/0/be062905/M/e%20US129_3-M.jpg
 

Last edited by ashchuckton; 05-26-2020 at 05:55 PM.
  #995  
Old 05-30-2020, 10:20 PM
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Soooo nice ashchuckton! I'd be keeping it too. :-)
 
  #996  
Old 06-24-2020, 04:24 PM
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I noticed that the supply of MK7 GTIs on Dealer lots is thin, so was reading various Internet sources to learn more about the Golf MK8 release date for the U.S.. The last news I read long ago had the MK8 arriving this fall as a 2021 model. Now it seems that VW has pushed U.S. release of the MK8 to autumn of 2021 as a 2022 model. I'm actually pleased at this, as it gives me another year to decide. I like the look of the MK7 and I would not want to purchase the first year of the MK8.

My '06 Frontier has cost me some significant money in repair bills lately and at 175K Miles, I doubt it will subside. I need to keep the truck another year for moving furniture between various residences and for lumber for a new model railroad, but after that, perhaps a GTI is in my future. I hope I haven't waited too long. My 60+ year old body doesn't jump out of a car like it used to. I wouldn't be opposed to an SUV, but even the "small" ones look too big to me. Case in point is the new Kia Seltos, packing a nice 175 HP, 195 LB-FT Turbo with 7-Speed Dual-Clutch Auto. I wish it was smaller. I took the below Seltos photo on Sunday.


2020 Kia Seltos
 
  #997  
Old 06-24-2020, 05:03 PM
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That Kia looks like a competitor to the Tiguan. The wife and I have decided that we could live with the looks of the R-line version, but the regular Tiguan just looks too boring.

Guess that's strange coming from people that like the Golf. It's as plain as it can get, but I like it's shape.

Sorry to heat about the Frontier. Kind of surprises me as those are so durable. Maybe it will stop being a money pit once basics have been replaced?

Our Golf is due for it's 80k mile service. May work on that tonight. Have the spark plugs, air filter, pollen filter, oil, and oil filter. Just need to do the work.
 
  #998  
Old 06-24-2020, 09:15 PM
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Service complete! Well, part of it. New spark plugs, air filter, pollen A/C filter, oil, and oil filter completed tonight.

Tire rotation and transmission fluid change to come later.

Otto continues to treat us well.
 
  #999  
Old 06-25-2020, 10:14 AM
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Glad that your maintenance work went well. I've read that spark plug removal is difficult on our MK7s, something about the coil packs not wanting to come out without tearing the wire out of the assembly? I think the host in the DAP DIY video even ruins one. Did you have any problems with that?

My Frontier is still at the shop after two days -- they'd not even started working on it after two days there! Shop manager said they've had a number of cars that have taken longer to fix that they expected. This likely screws up my weekend plans to move my college student's furniture to temporary storage until August. Grrrr.
 
  #1000  
Old 06-25-2020, 11:16 AM
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This was my second time doing the plugs. Very quick and easy. Maybe people are having an issue with the connectors that plug into the coils? I studied them a bit and decided to just leave them connected. My method, that is also very fast, is to unbolt all 4 coils, unplug one connector that feeds off of the end of that part of the wiring harness, unclip one wire on the other end and then pull all 4 coils out at the same time with them all still connected to the wiring harness. If anyone is going to do there's, let me know and I'll try to get a pic or two to show my painless method.

I learned a long time ago to only rely on "experts" if I can't figure it out myself. I usually find a method that I like better because I err toward not separating any more connectors or gasketed items than is absolutely necessary.

I have a similar method with doing the valve adjustment on our Fit. Instead of separating a bunch of stuff, I literally pull everything from the air box all the way to the lower intake manifold off as one big assembly. That way I'm not risking leaks from separating multiple items. Last valve adjustment and spark plug change on the Fit took me about two hours from start to finish.

Sorry to hear about the Frontier! What is wrong with it?
 


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