My New Zealand VR6

[vdub_pete 15]

I've owned my vr for nearly 2 years now and been a vr6oc forum user for a while untill i upgraded to a member and I thought it was about time that i started something to tell the story of my much loved VR

 

So im a massive VW fan and had vw's since i passed my test 7 years ago and got hooked on the vw seen loved going to all the shows and got tied up with a really good crew of vw lovers in the south west.

 

fast forward a few years i sold my current vw for a plane ticket and i moved to New Zealand with nothing more than 23kg of clothes! Been here for 2 1/2 years and really love the life style and the laid back approach to life

 

More or less as soon as i got off the plane i set myself the task of finding a vw

 

which was harder than i sounds lol

 

i soon realised that if i wanted a vw it may be very expensive and might have to bea 4 door or even an auto!! everyone drives fricking autos for some reason. so for the time being i settled for a 318 bmw it was cheep ish and only up the road.

 

Anyway after trawling 'trade me' (the kiwi ebay) nearly every day for 6 months i found a 1994 obd1 manual 4 door vr6 in dragon green with just shy of 200,000km on the clock for $3200 which was cheep for one which i thought was great this guy doesn't know what he's selling

 

so i went for a 4 hour drive to have a look and there was a reason why it was cheep. It was pretty ropey to say the least paint was filthy and had some lovely red overspray on it there was some fat dents on it, the interior was nice and doggy smelling and there was every fluid leaking from the engine. But there was not a spec of rust on it. I felt so sorry for the car so i bought it but i kinda knew that when i saw it on trade me lol.

 

On the drive home i did notice quite a few issues, the temp gauge barely moved there was a horrendous noise from the rear and when the brakes were applied holly crap i think something was metal on metal. I knew she needed some tlc so i popped into my local car parts supplier got the things i knew i needed brakes bearings service kit new stereo etc.

 

oh and a universal K&N filter which went straight on for the rest of the drive home. OMG i was in love with the noise i could not stop putting my foot down every time it gave me goosebumps haha!

 

Anyway i got home in one piece and gave it a bloody good clean and out, When i found a lovely surprise in the boot under the carpet.

Yep thats dog poop!

 

 

 

So this was how she looked after a good clean the day after i got her home.

 

 

I shall add some more to the story soon and hopefully bring you up to date and what i'm up to at the moment.

 

[Lukey. 381]

ha i see you got the trademark 1 missing sill strip lol

[VR6Pete 1,455]

Awesome story mate and another one rescued! Horrah. Looks ok after a good clean, once you get rid of that doggy smell you'll be on a winner. Temp gauge - try the yellow temp sensor. You can bridge the pins to see if the needle moves, sounds like it needs more work mind so keep at it mate don't let it out you off, that noise will keep you hooked!

Club Chairman

[vdub_pete 15]

ha i see you got the trademark 1 missing sill strip lol

Ha yea it was starting to come off anyway so i pulled it off for the trip home, its back on now but its not looking to pretty really need another one 

[vdub_pete 15]

Awesome story mate and another one rescued! Horrah. Looks ok after a good clean, once you get rid of that doggy smell you'll be on a winner. Temp gauge - try the yellow temp sensor. You can bridge the pins to see if the needle moves, sounds like it needs more work mind so keep at it mate don't let it out you off, that noise will keep you hooked!

Club Chairman

Thanks mate i wish i started this earlier but hey ho. Yea i really couldn't bare the thought of it ending up in the hands of someone who didn't care you know. I took it on as a bit of a project/daily so its been a bit of a challenge doing some major work and keeping it on the road. Yea she came up pretty good after a good compound, polish and a wax. Haha thats what air fresheners are for ay I ended up changing all three of the temp sensors and installed a 70 deg thermostat too.

Yea as it turns out there was heaps more work to do. Im just gutted i didn't take pictures of everything i did lol.  

[vdub_pete 15]

So as the story continues i had owned the car for about a week and she was due for a WOF (Kiwi MOT) I Had a good look underneath and got her up on stands and pulled all the wheels around also checked out that lovely noise coming from the rear as things turned out there was quite a bit to do

 

Passenger wheel bearing shot

Rear brake pads were not pads anymore

Wishbone bushes were totally split

And the front tyres were border line on the limit 

 

With all that in mind i took it to the local garage anyway and would you believe it it failed on the tyres and a number plate light!!!!

 

What about everything else i sad to myself needless to say i didn't go back there again and considering most places will check a whole car in less than 15 mins i now check the car myself before it goes in for a wof.

 

Anyway i got some new tyres and a bulb there and then to get her 'road legal'

 

Bearing in the back of my mind the other things i spotted she didn't get driven much and my lead foot was now a feather until things got sorted.

 

New rear bearings, discs and pads were ordered along with a service kit and some new sounds.

 

I also ordered some parts from germanautoparts.com from the US which turned up within a week  

 

 

New coolant pipe work 70 deg thermostat some fresh coolant as the old stuff looked like rusty water and cam cover gasket to try and stop one of the oil leaks.

 

 

After this i noticed when she was driven hard i could smell that lovely oily smell as if a breather was split or something and sure enough i noticed the breather between the cam cover and the intake was in two pieces so in went a oil catch can . Along with some new blue vacuum pipe work. And a bloody good clean with a steam cleaner

 

 

Next on the list was to try and stop this happening on the drive every time i parked up

 

 

i figured it was coming from the oil cooler so ordered a new one along with some other bits

 

 

After pulling the front end off the fit the new oil cooler i discovered it wasn't coming from the oil cooler but the core plug just above it. Great! so i hunted high and low all over NZ to find one with no luck as its such an odd size. So i ordered a new one from the states and got slammed on the postage for it and waited a week for it to arrive lol 

 

 

After this was done i thought great ive fixed all the scary things i found and stopped making a mess of the drive i can now finally do some real driving so i got out and about seeing what NZ had to offer

 

 

 

 

Thats all for now folks more coming soon

Edited June 7, 2014 by vdub_pete

[vdub_pete 15]

Next to happen was a set of bbs rxII which i snapped up on trade me for only $200 for a set of 5 and where in real good nick. wrapped them in 195/45r16 kumhos so not to put the spedo out to much but also If you fit aftermarket wheels you kave to get a cert done which is like $600!!

 

 

Id noticed that on and off the power pedal there was quite a bit of slack and it almost felt like the whole engine was moving around to much so i got a new set of engine mounts from black forest industries from OZ they were the stelth ones so as not to make to much vibration felt through the car

As you can see the old ones where pretty toast

 

 

Also fitted some HID's as you do

 

 

Over the next few months she got quite a bit of use and i even got involved with a small vw crew called Next Level VW on facebook. However there where a 3 hour ferry trip and an 8 hr drive away! Anyway i was determined to meet up with some fellow NZ dubbers so i booked a ticket and made the trip all the way up north. 

 

They were a great bunch of people who shared the same passion as me for the VW which i was stoked about, it was just a shame they were so far away.

 

 

As you can see i seriously needed to get some lows but after talking to the guys you can get into heaps of trouble with the cops and even have your car crushed if you mod a car in anyway from standard without getting the thing certified.

I gained alot of knolage and found out there are some things you can do without getting a cert. like you can drop it no more than 50mm on shocks and springs and as long as you try to keep things oem you'll get away with most things. If you start doing things that arn't the norm then its likely to attract attention unless you've got a cert which can cost upwards of $600 depending on what needs to get checked and what you've modded and stuff. Also you have to get a new cert done every time you mod something so your best to do everything you want to do then take it in but who does that unless your loaded.

Its part of the law that tries to deter you from modifying your car basically.

 

 

 

So after that trip up north and racking up nearly 1,400 km the gearbox was not sounding to fantastic and also the the timing chains were not sounding to great they has that classic ball bearings in a tin can noise at about 2,000 rpm. So i Bit the bullet and ordered an new timing set from the US and a gearbox bearing set from the UK.

 

I had also moved house and got a lovely big garage too

 

 

front end off and Gearbox out 

 

 

Rebuild in progress all the bearings were totally shot i was amazed it still went round! 

 

 

chains off

 

 

And holly crap!! no wonder it was making a noise!!

 

 

New chains on

 

 

More coming soon

 

 

 

 

[Lukey. 381]

Impressive bravery taking the gearbox to pieces!

[D11PS 146]

Wow.. Well done for attempting the work by yourself. I wouldn't have done it or Even tried. Hats off to you Mate

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[vdub_pete 15]

Impressive bravery taking the gearbox to pieces!

Cheers man I found an 02A gearbox manual online and followed it step by step which helped, I must admit there was a few moments where I thought omg why did I even start this but it payed off in the end. And I saved myself a heap coz my time was free and the bearing & seal kit was only about £60.

I couldn't believe the state of the bearings tho, I wish I'd taken some photos. It amazed me that it was still drivable and that the gears were fine.

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[vdub_pete 15]

Wow.. Well done for attempting the work by yourself. I wouldn't have done it or Even tried. Hats off to you Mate

Thanks mate, don't big me up too much I kinda knew what I was doing I am a mechanic by trade hehe!

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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk