Still loving the return to Anniversary ownership, after a couple of weeks the new secondary air pump is still working well and the car has, to date, never done it's impression of a jet engine again. CV gaiter to fit next, the 8N0 498 203 part number has been discontinued by VW but luckily managed to grab a 'new old stock' one on eBay. Ideally I wanted two but only need one so that will have to do. Few recent random photos The factory AC information decal had been taken off in the past so managed to get hold of a new one of those, it's little things, but I like them! Always loved these wheels and when clean they truly are hard to beat.... well, clean at the front anyway!
Decided recently it's time to get the proper genuine Anniversary headlights re-fitted..... I was lucky to get these included with the car when I bought it but was holding out re-fitting them as I was on the fence with the Halo's. I didn't mind them, but wouldn't have bought them myself....... however, first time driving at night in the countryside and they were s**t so that sealed it. Gave them a good clean up as they were pretty dirty being the same age as the car; Also got some decent Osram bulbs, these are much more me, i'm not into cheap LED bulbs like the other lights had fitted; I think we'll ALL agree, that is much better The Halo's looked reasonable from the front; ... but defo NOT from the back So that's now all sorted and also got the needed outer CV gaiter fitted as well, this has been a complete pain in the rear to source and luckily found a 'new old stock' one on eBay hence the battered box, but was brand new inside.
Osram night breakers, excellent bulb, changed to them after my hid lamps started to play up in the A4, driving through the Yorkshire moors was vastly improved, in a lighting way.
Little update on the car for anyone interested, the new genuine VW outer CV gaiter went on the car which was the MOT advisory, but whilst being done the guy who does the work on my car said the inners were looking a little dodgy too due to being cheap non genuine ones and would probably be worth doing too. So I booked the car in for that, knowing it would be an issue getting some but a week before it was to be done....... Yep, the inner decided to split and s**t itself. Brilliant! At the same time this happened, the car started to lightly judder when turning the wheel to the right, this wasn't just on harder turns or full lock, but just when moving across to over take on a dual carridgeway etc. So with all this, the car was parked up for a week in the garage as I didn't want to use it until it could be looked at. This has resulted in the car now getting two new complete driveshafts which have been a complete pain in the rear to get as the place supplying them keeps sending standard GTi ones despite saying they would be checked, where as the Anniversary ones are thicker and shorter. This is still on going. The car, whilst at it, is also getting new wishbones and drop links too to keep everything fresh. Oh and also, i've been getting a very mild hum when coasting to a stop, so thinking this might be a very slightly warped front disc (as comes from that area) I bought some replacement MTEC Discs to match what was already on there from the previous owner. They had money off recently so for the cost, was a no brainer to try it really; This then made me think I don't want old pads being used with new discs so took full advantage of Euro Car Parts having a whopping 45% off brakes and got some Brembo front pads and also the rear pads too which I didn't need, but at only £16 it would have been silly not too;
I've been collecting a few other parts too to get fitted at some point but these have taken a back seat the last couple weeks due to the stuff going on in the above post. But this is what i've bought; Bora Vents (good condition with wiring and rear frames and had a good clean); W8 Interior Light which i've bought new replacement OSRAM bulbs for and fitted inside; Stack boost gauge; The car came with a boost gauge fitted when I bought it which I really like, this is just a better quality one in PSI rather than BAR which will go in the same pod....
I'm starting to see a lot of this at the moment...... ... but hopefully things are now getting sorted, the new driveshafts and wishbones are on, suspension now raised a tad to make it more user friendly for our roads and so they can actually do the alignment at the garage and just as well that's still to do, as I now have what I assume is a wheel bearing gone. Brilliant. Anyway, some shiney bits have now been fitted so let's concentrate on that; That is the interior now with all the little upgrades I had been collecting now fitted, I have a silver trimmed headlight switch from a Polo, the interior light from a Passat W8 and the illuminated vents from the Bora. Also had the boost gauge swapped over to the much better Stack version; [ The Polo switch is a nice little upgrade to match in with the silver Anniversary trim, a bargain too at £17 off eBay! Was used but in excellent condition and only needed a simple clean....... well, and taking all the yellow paint off!! .... and here's a random photo from yesterday just because I can!
Looking good. I put a headlight switch in the polo like that, it was off aliexpress, and had the pin on it for DRL, so new wire run and have drl when the switch is off and ignition on. It is a very nice mk4 you have.
Ahh nice! I was thinking of getting the switch that includes auto lights but all the ones I saw were cheap chinese switches with chrome trim on eBay, didn't fancy that, so got a genuine VW one without that function, with the silver trim Haha cheers! Yes there is several around here that are......... well, not so subtle as mine
Well the driver's side front wheel bearing escalated quickly, went from not really there to like sitting on a plane next to the engine in no time at all - good job it was already booked in to have this done. I went with Febi Bilstein bearings and bought two as seemed silly not to have everything new at the same time on both sides - the quality was really good, but what wasn't so good was the issues the garage had getting the old ones out. But with tricks of the trade, all was good in the end.......... wheel alignment still to do next week all being well but this is finally getting there now. The company I bought them off even included new bolts, free of charge, as my car is an Anniversary and how they fit requires these bolts. They are not included in the bearing kits so I thought that was pretty decent of them.....
Just been having a think of all the 'maintenance' stuff that's been done on the car now since I bought it and the list is getting long now. This doesn't include any 'pretty' bits i've added either!! Thinking out loud I think this covers it! Fresh oil change Oil filter change Fuel filter change Coolant change Brake fluid change Screen wash bottle properly cleaned out with new fluid put in Cambelt with tensioner and roller Water pump Aux belt Replacement secondary air pump Both front driveshafts Both front wishbones Both front wheel bearings New MTEC front brake discs New front Brembo brake pads New rear Brembo brake pads
All looking very fresh and much improved under the front arches now, the final jobs this past week were to fit a pair of track rod ends and also had the alignment done at last - with all the changes and new parts it's understandable that the alignment was a bit out and my steering wheel was slightly down to the right when going in a straight line. All corrected now and nice and straight, they were well happy with the alignment measurements down at the garage when they sorted it for me Before the rain came over the last few days, there was an opportunity to get some photos whilst it was clean - so would have been rude not too! It's also 8 years ago this week I bought my silver Anni in 2013, so here's a throw back photo....... this photo reminds me that the front bumper fitted much nicer on the driver's side on the silver one lol!
I keep coming back to read this thread, and then head to EBay to search for anniversaries! Haha. such a lovely car.
That's very kind, thanks! It's not concourse but does me nicely, you know what black is like, shows all the marks that silver would hide most of lol! I too look on eBay all the time at them and it's nice to see another hasn't come up like mine since I bought it (spec for price etc).
It's been a while since I updated the thread so thought i'd better get back on it...... Over the winter the car has been used daily and continued to put a smile on my face, so many of these Anni's are getting garage queen'd now and I do get it, but mine was bought as my daily as I already have a car in the garage so it's used in all weathers - the joy of a black car and winter roads! Prices are still holding strong, I recently saw a Red Anni with 213k miles up for sale for £4000 and needed work at that price too! Anyway............ It's always bugged me since I bought my car that the wing mirrors didn't match. The Anniversary and R32 have the smaller, more stubby mirrors and this is what I had on the passenger side, but a 'normal' longer Mk4 one on the driver's side. Clearly a previous owner's quick bodge. It took me nearly 7 months to finally find a replacement listed for sale so had to grab it straight away, regardless of condition (within reason!) - it had only been listed 1 hour when I saw it. Was only £65 as it had some stone chips as you can see; Clear to see what car it came off; Got to work touching them in the best I could and the end result came out ok, I mean the passenger side mirror casing has some marks so this actually matches better with the age of the car than if I had bought a new one; The differences can be seen here; So that is now on the car and looking much improved. Another thing missing that I wanted to sort was the missing factory decals. Again, almost impossible to find. Luckily someone within the Anniversary Owner's Group eventually was selling some reproductions so I grabbed a set. The only one I didn't need was the airbag warning; The EML engine light came on about three or four weeks ago and even though I use a very trusted garage local to me for this car, I thought i'd better take it to VW to get plugged in at looked at. This presented a decent photo opportunity with the new model Golf in the car park. Only a little bit different!! The comical thing is, they plugged in car in, got 3 error codes up and then phoned me to ask if the car had been "enhanced" - to which I said in what way and they said re-mapped. I said yes and that was it, they didn't want to touch the car! They clearly could see it WAS re-mapped so no idea why they needed to ask. Either way, very helpful and clearly worth the diagnostic charge It wasn't a complete waste of time though as I got the major service done there this year including spark plugs, coolant change and air-con regas so that's a decent stamp in the book. I've since taken the car back to my usual garage who guessed straight away what the issue would be and replaced the pre-cat sensor that I supplied and they supplied and fitted a genuine VW temperature sensor and after resetting the light, SO FAR, it has not come back on. We shall see how it goes........
