New (to me) VW Beater

GLIGTO

Coyote Nut Swinger
Jun 3, 2012
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Desantis-Land
I've always been a VW nutswinger for some ungodly reason. Probably has to do with how much time I spent driving (and beating on) my grandma's Mk2 Jetta when I was 14/15 and then my first car was a 91 Mk2 Jetta that was slow as balls but still fun. When I bought my Mustang, I still had my favorite VW to date, my 04.5 GLI 1.8T


Well my lame ex wife at the time forbade me from having both that and the Mustang because then, in her opinion I'd have 2 "toys" and that was just too much. Reason #6774 why she's my ex...
Current Pic of the crowd killer for reference:



Anyway, went through a series of pretty boring stuff over the years to use as daily commuter junk, but I think I finally found a keeper. Meet ze 2008 Jetta Wolfsburg Edition 2.0T FSI DSG. Brought it home last Friday:



Not super exciting to most I'm sure, but I'm absolutely loving it. The Wolfsburg is basically a GLI minus some of the luxury options but had the same engine/trans/suspension. This one is at 78k miles, one owner car, bought and serviced at the same dealership its whole life with every service done on time or early and all records show right up on Carfax. Drives like new, great shape all around and feels way quicker than the rated "200hp". Already threw some 18" MK7 Golf SEL rims on it, cleans it up quite nicely:





Planning on getting some tints, tune, downpipe, and a few other odds and ends for it, then just driving the F out of it. Already have some suspension bits laying around that will go on shortly as well. Anyways, cheers all!
 

Dave M

TCG Elite Member
Aug 28, 2015
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Those were basically the "sleeper GLI". I've seen them with the black grill which looks sharp, but takes away some of the stealth factor.

Does 2008 still have a cam phaser? I know my 2007 showed abnormal wear and I had to change that out...

Yup, the 2008 still had the FSI so check on your cam follower as I'd bet it's never been changed at 78k, and you don't want it to fail...

I had an 08 GTI DSG with a stage 2 tune, downpipe, CAI, and suspension. Loved the hell outta that car, but once I got into the 125k mile range the maintenance was adding up, and the FSI also likes to burn oil like crazy to the tune of a qt every 500 miles for mine before I sold it.
 

GLIGTO

Coyote Nut Swinger
Jun 3, 2012
603
1,588
Desantis-Land
Yeah I hear you on the cam follower. Going to check that next and if it looks trash, might just throw in a Golf R camshaft while the tbelt is being done since they're pretty cheap. Interestingly this particular car had the piston rings replaced about 10k ago due to oil consumption per the carfax but runs incredibly strong now and hadn't burned any oil yet in the ~500 miles I've driven it.

Dave M. What kind of issues did you have, if you don't mind me asking?
 

Dave M

TCG Elite Member
Aug 28, 2015
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The main issues I had was the oil consumption, and once I deleted the cat it would puff out blue smoke on decel, but not every time... couldn't figure that part out...

Had the DSG serviced at 80k and that made a world of difference, and I had to run new wire and rewire the throttle body as it just stopped working one day.

Other than burning oil and the throttle body issue, she was good to me and pretty damn quick with the tune, just could never get it to hook up at the track, even with launch control, but I was trapping near damn 110 in the 1/4, so it was likely a low 13/high 12 second car if I could make it hook.
 

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