Managed to get the wishbones, ball joints and anti roll bar fitted up yesterday. A few people on Google said it's the worst job that can be done a mk3. The people who say that clearly have never danced with the pedal box or heater matrix. Those 2 jobs are deffo the worst jobs i have ever been involved in on a car let alone a mk3 If anyone stumbles across this the anti roll bar swap and new bushes can be done without fully dropping the subframe. Support the subframe and undo the rear bolts on it and the anti roll bar clip. While the subframe is supported loosen the forward bolts on it and this will give you the clearance to get the anti roll bar out. Clean where the new bushes will sit mine was full of 20 years worth of crap. We put the clip that holds it down on first. Wd40'd the bar and bushes to make them easier to manipulate and rotated them in. The clip will be a pig to get low enough to get the bolt through. We used plumbers pipe grips to compress it enough to get the bolt started. Repeat on other side and tighten everything back up. Very brief and I'll offer any other insights people need cbut don't let anyone tell you this is a hard job. It's annoying but it's not hard
yeah is the way we did it in mates mk2, right pain tho due to the poly bushes being the wrong shape so a massive struggle to get the clamps closed enough to start the bolts threaded on the inners
That sounds like what we did but on hard mode. I've not poly'd anything during this build but that might come later when I inevitably want more power. I love the abf's power delivery but I don't have deep enough pockets to do a proper build on one. Especially after factoring in the paint I'm going to be needing. I've had a good look round on Google and unless you want to spend a decent amount of money I'm not going to extract much more power. Think I might have solved my cat problem too I've found a corrado vr6 and a corrado 16v cat for sale and it looks like the same 3 bolt flange that my aftermarket 4 into 1 manifold has because the stock one was cracked in multiple places. Waiting for a message off the seller to tell me the dimensions as they look slightly different from each other. Unfortunately I've left my notes at the garage and can't remember the size of the manifold off the top of my head. Need to Google round and try to find a suitable cat if those ones ain't going to do it, i am not going to run "test pipe". Not long until I try the key and either hear good noises or pave the way to the next problem. Rear axle stuff is here on Monday. The gaskets should be here Wednesday. One of the steering column shroud screw holes has snapped so I need to bodge it back together until I can source a replacement as that holds the airbag cable in position. Even if I can't by close of play tomorrow I'll just bodge it as best I can. Not the end of the world as the golf wheel is in slightly better condition. One bit of advice I'll give anyone doing a build (that i have read a lot during my research for this) is whatever you budget it won't be enough. All the little things really do add up very quickly. And I had the full donor car. I could have bought a much better car for less money than what this has cost, but it wouldn't have the feels that come with rebuilding my first car. And the ventos are starting to get rarer these days according to how many left. If I go 1.8t there's at least another 1-2k getting the donor, downpipe and other bits sorted. I don't think the loom work would be beyond me as I can read a wiring diagram and doing IT in a heavy industry setting I'm handy with a crimper at least I can sell the abf on and part out the donor if that happens
Well it's back on the ground and passed the shoe test absolutely knackered been a few late ones and a lot of swearing but we getting there. Still need to swap ecu Aquire a few more bolts Swap the rear beam and bushes Fit callipers New brake pipes to the rear Aquire new cat Fit manifolds Fit belts Service Gearbox oil Adjust suspension as its scrubbing Probably a few other bits that I've forgotten Shout out to the absolute legend of a mate who been on this with me and thanks to rubjonny getting me this far. Will continue to post until completion
Got a few more bits done tonight and mocked up as far as I could get without parts. All the plumbing is in, looks like the loom needs some love some of the insulation is cracking so need to tart that up and do some repairs. The locking ring on the engine loom connector the big round one with loads of pins that connects to the car loom is broken. Need to root through the box of spares for the old loom and see if can transplant that one. If not will need to source another or seal it by some other means. In a turn of good luck the engine loom is separate from the lighting loom so can just reuse original setup without splicing. The ignition leads haven't stored well unfortunately and they were only on the car for about 8 months before I scrapped it. New ones needed Can't find the original intake pipe between airbox and throttle body if I can't source one can I just make something with a silicone elbow and catch can the pcv system? It looks like one pipe that's coming from a black box on the intake manifold is going to where the intake pipe would be or is this part of the isv system? I can Google it in the morning if no one comes back by the time I google round. I'm missing one of the fuel pipes that go from the rail but hoping i can use one of the original hoses. Tomorrow I need to lift the front up a bit more as it's scrubbing still. Rear beam is primed need to get it painted and then start with the rear end conversion. New brake pipes to the rear after that. Bleed all the hydraulics up. Service and deal with the problems I find in between all that good fun
Got the exhaust manifold fitted up and the replacement studs i ordered are about 10mm too short for the new one. Doh
If rubjonny or anyone else who knows about the mk3 golf loom differences comes across this i might need some wiring help soon. Do all the mk3 golf looms split under the slam panel to remove the lighting circuit on a big round connector? If not, both the vento and the golf has the separate lighting loom. I think I need to some more research but if anyone who knows could let me know that would be great. I do still have the golf car harness but not overly keen on de pinning that and getting it through into the cabin if I don't have to The abf loom is going to need some love so need to get myself a new crimp tool and some loom tape I need to spend a full day reading wiring diagrams and digesting the electrical side I've been putting off mentally. In bad light the round connector for the engine loom that connects to the car harness that goes into the cabin looks like it has a different pin layout. But I am tired and it was bad light. Gonna be a couple of weeks until I can get some help with the rear beam so going to spend my time sorting this If anyone is googling mk3 golf early vs late loom differences this is what I've found so far https://www.clubgti.com/forums/inde...-gti-looms-early-and-late-differences.268703/
yes regardless of age the headlight wiring on the slam panel runs to a big round plug and pinout is same for all years. only exception is mk3.5 cabrio the round plug is gone and all lighting runs direct to fusebox, nothing you need to worry about. either way the fusebox wiring goes through from the engine bay side, so you dont have to try and squeeze the large round plugs or ecu connectors through. regardless of age the big round plug for the sensor wiring on the engine loom is same pinout for all abf engines, but some have an extra wire thru it for the fan control module radiator fan after-run thermoswitch bolted to the front of the inlet manifold. if your FCM has this you can run the wire direct or just not worry about it
Thanks dude sorry if this is a really obvious thing but yeah do i have to swap the whole engine bay side of the loom? I.e from back of fusebox. I had it in my head it was just swap the smaller engine harness and connect to the rest of the bay loom. No worries if I do but will just clear up a misconception I had. Immobiliser doesn't frighten me anymore after reading a couple of your back and forths with other people.
you need to do the whole thing yep, headlight loom stays if its early type with separate looms the tricky bit comes if you have late abf loom you have to strip the ecu wiring out which isnt hard as per my thread above, but is a bit fiddly since you have to depin all the ecu wiring so you can swap smaller grommet over. (or you can chop the grommet and slip over if you're an animal)
Hahaha cheers dude. I've not been an animal up to this point so will keep it civilised I know one of the bigger round connectors was damaged removing from the car so will either have to replace it with another one by either trying to find another one or if it's the same as the one on the adz loom try and de pin it off the old loom and bring it over to the new one. All without that one cracking due to age. If I can source a new one would rather go this way. Know any good suppliers for the big round connectors? I found some in the states and a couple on the continent if there is no one in the UK.
the engine one uses micro timer pins which are a bit more fiddly to remove so a good tool helps a lot, but can try a paperclip or hairclip, others have filed down the metal strips from a wiper blade till they fit nice the round plugs are actually still available from vw, 37 for the female side and 24 for the male side. the old 8v plugs are the same though so if you get the pins out can swap over no problem
I've got some wiring coming up on the t4 i have so just going to buy a good set of removal tools. I don't mind improvising for a couple of pins but yeah if I'm doing the big connectors I'm gonna get some good ones. That's really good to know can still get them from dealers for not much money. I had stopped asking them for stuff as just kept getting told end of life. Looks like i need to inspect and potentially repair the rest of the bay loom then once I'm done with the smaller engine loom. I'll keep the old harnesses incase they come in handy for spares or 1.8t later.
