Mook told me to get a GTI so I did

[Kensington]

Interesting, I ran what was in it when I bought it for about 5K miles, then threw in Mobil 1 Euro, and I've done changes of about 5000-7500 miles since with only that oil. I didn't really notice much of a mileage difference. Highest I've ever seen was 33.5 calculated at the pump (35 on the dash) after doing only highway in northern Michigan over the summer, and a good 100 miles of that was absolutely ROMPING on it flowing with people on the highway doing 90-110. Normally, I'm doing 70 up and down 290/53, and a bit of around the burbs off the highway, reads anywhere from 31-32, but usually between 29-30 calculated. Lowest I've ever seen was 27 when I was doing nothing but driving around town.

 

[greasy]

Quick update: went to put the rings on, and found that the wheels already had plastic rings on them that listed 73. to 57.1...which would be the correct ones, in theory. The 73. bothered me though, thinking a number had worn off after the point, but all of them were like that. I decided to throw my set up, which I linked above. Threw them on, and no more shake. Huh. Did the old plastic rings wear out? Very odd. The old rings had little clips that held them in, whereas my new ones didn't have anything holding them in really, just fit snug but not overly tight. Torqued wheels to 90 ft/lbs and haven't had an issue since.

Car has been dead nuts reliable, not a single issue. Just rolled over 30K miles, and maybe this weekend I'll change the oil. Gets ~30mpg per tank with my normal commute, even now in winter. Sometimes I wish it were a little bigger, but then I remember, that it's just me now in it, basically 100% of the time, as they wife's CX-5 has taken over as our get around town together vehicle. I kind of wish this engine/transmission got into the last generation GLI...

Those retainer clips are for sure the culprit. Had those on my 2nd Mustang and had a similar vibration issue when I switched to aftermarket wheels. The aftermarket wheels didn’t seat properly with those clips. They are strictly on the car for the assembly process .

 

[Kensington]

Those retainer clips are for sure the culprit. Had those on my 2nd Mustang and had a similar vibration issue when I switched to aftermarket wheels. The aftermarket wheels didn’t seat properly with those clips. They are strictly on the car for the assembly process .

This is what I got, without clips

Whereas the ones I took off looked like this...

 

[CMNTMXR57]

They put an impact on it and went to town.

While they do a final, manual pass with a torque wrench, they may be using what are called "torque sticks" on the impact. The "stick" is calibrated to a certain torque limit and won't tighten any more despite how hard the operator is pulling the trigger on the impact.

This is a Snap-On set;

 

[DanJ]

I’ve done 37 all highway calculated at the pump on 0E Wisconsin gas.

 

[Five-0]

I've added these to my list of wants for my next daily. I assume you're pulling that mileage out of Premium only? I drive 25-30k per year, so filling with 87 would be preferred.

 

[Kensington]

I’m on Costco premium. You could do your own tests, but most of my vehicles lost more mileage going to 87 than I was saving not buying premium. I generally don’t even risk it with DI turbo motors, given their propensity to build carbon in the intake runners and valves

 

[Dan00Hawk]

Costco premium is my typical go-to unless I didn't plan well enough and need gas "now". My mileage has been shitty this past week though (if 26 mpg is actually shitty) as I've had more short trips and in heavier traffic while commuting. Winter blends of fuel also hurt mileage a bit.

 

[Five-0]

Good info guys, thank you. I drive 25-30k miles per year so running premium wouldn't be worth it even if I was pulling a couple more MPG's.

 

[Kensington]

Good info guys, thank you. I drive 25-30k miles per year so running premium wouldn't be worth it even if I was pulling a couple more MPG's.

So just looking at the prices at my nearest Costco $2.39 for regular and $3.00 for premium. 10 gal of Premium is $30 and $23.90 for regular. For the sake of argument I'll say I drop 3 MPG by running regular from the 30 I run with premium. 270 miles per 10 gallons of regular vs. 300 miles for 10 gallons of premium. Obviously 30 miles isn't going to be a huge difference, and accounts for basically an extra gallon of gas of cost, which the price of regular (at least at my local Costco) more than makes up for. The previous generation VAG 2.0T's were notorious for carbon buildup, and in theory, premium gas SHOULD help with that. I haven't heard as much with the Gen 3, but a few extra bucks per tank, in my eyes, is cheap insurance.

 

[DanJ]

I could be completely wrong on this... but I don’t think grade of fuel is going to make a difference on carbon buildup since these motors are direction injection and the fuel doesn’t spray over the valves.

 

[Kensington]

It doesn't spray over the valve, yes, but the, in theory, cleaner burn of premium, should account for less carbon buildup.

 

[IceCreamAssassin]

Plus “premium” from most suppliers comes with “injector cleaner” built in. Mostly bs but they don’t make sure premium is a much better quality than regular gas

 

[The Beast]

So just looking at the prices at my nearest Costco $2.39 for regular and $3.00 for premium. 10 gal of Premium is $30 and $23.90 for regular. For the sake of argument I'll say I drop 3 MPG by running regular from the 30 I run with premium. 270 miles per 10 gallons of regular vs. 300 miles for 10 gallons of premium. Obviously 30 miles isn't going to be a huge difference, and accounts for basically an extra gallon of gas of cost, which the price of regular (at least at my local Costco) more than makes up for. The previous generation VAG 2.0T's were notorious for carbon buildup, and in theory, premium gas SHOULD help with that. I haven't heard as much with the Gen 3, but a few extra bucks per tank, in my eyes, is cheap insurance.

Lol who cares this is TCG everyone here trades in there vehicle every 2-3 years. It don’t matter

 

[Kensington]

Lol who cares this is TCG everyone here trades in there vehicle every 2-3 years. It don’t matter

I mean, when I get to two years, I've been probably itching for a new car for at minimum 6 months. Even now, I look to see if I can trade up or around, and I've only had this for what, 8 months?

 

[DanJ]

Good luck on trading up. These things seem to lose value pretty quick ?. Or at least they were. And I forgot to mention on the previous post, but the gen3’s have carbon build up problems as well.

 

[Kensington]

I really want to try autocrossing, and I thought this GTI would be perfect...but because I didn't get the PP, I miss out on the bigger brakes (which I've heard don't make much of a difference) but more importantly the better diff. Now I'm wondering if it's even worth trying...not that I'd want to go National anyways, but is it really any fun, if you aren't at least competitive?

 

[Kensington]

Good luck on trading up. These things seem to lose value pretty quick ?. Or at least they were. And I forgot to mention on the previous post, but the gen3’s have carbon build up problems as well.

I mean, I got this pretty cheap...It was only like $15-16K with <20k miles and even CPO. I'd be curious what it's realistically worth now. I know I lose shit loads of money every time I trade after 2 years, but rolling through cars is my vice.

 

[Dan00Hawk]

You'd be fine autocrossing it with the regular brakes and without the LSD. There are a ton of FWD cars that autocross that don't come standard with limited slip (Focus ST, older GTIs, Mini Cooper S, etc...). Your driving ability and tire choice will make more of a difference in your times against other comparable cars than a LSD would. Will you battle some tire spin, and the brakes heating up while trying to control the wheelspin? Yes, but because autocross is short it won't be a big issue like an extended track day.

 

[DanJ]

I mean, I got this pretty cheap...It was only like $15-16K with <20k miles and even CPO. I'd be curious what it's realistically worth now. I know I lose shit loads of money every time I trade after 2 years, but rolling through cars is my vice.

If you bought used the big depreciation already hit. You should do alright.

 

[Blood on Blood]

So just looking at the prices at my nearest Costco $2.39 for regular and $3.00 for premium. 10 gal of Premium is $30 and $23.90 for regular. For the sake of argument I'll say I drop 3 MPG by running regular from the 30 I run with premium. 270 miles per 10 gallons of regular vs. 300 miles for 10 gallons of premium. Obviously 30 miles isn't going to be a huge difference, and accounts for basically an extra gallon of gas of cost, which the price of regular (at least at my local Costco) more than makes up for. The previous generation VAG 2.0T's were notorious for carbon buildup, and in theory, premium gas SHOULD help with that. I haven't heard as much with the Gen 3, but a few extra bucks per tank, in my eyes, is cheap insurance.

Consider looking for E15 (88 octane) as it’s typically 8 - 10 cents cheaper than 87. I also get 2 mpg better than 87 octane.

I have a Murphy’s down the road.

To note, I drive a 2.7 Ecoboom F150

 

[Kensington]

I should be looking for less ethanol, not more. Ethanol = shit gas mileage

 

[DanJ]

I get better mileage on E0 91 then E10 93. Hard to find that stuff in Illinois though.

 

[Kensington]

Yeah, you should get better mileage on E0, but agreed impossible to find around here

 

[Bob Kazamakis]

So what are you possibly looking at to “trade up” to?