OK so i thought id start a project thread for the GTi6 i bought last weekend. I purchased the car on Ebay, with a recent engine rebuild (documented) and two previous owners, ive never seen as much history on a car as is with this one.



So when i turned up the car was filthy and looked like it had ram raided halfords. Everything a kid would fit, was there. Lockwood dials and sill trims, sunstrip, bodged stainless system that was blowing, blue LEDs, bodged centre console, battery in the boot (which ill get to) and generally totally minging. So i managed to pay a little less and cracked on with the buy.

I drove it to my sisters 100 miles, it wasnt idling well and drank £30 of petrol in 97 miles. Driving carefully too! Whilst driving down the A1 the drivers inner ach liner fell off and rolled down the motorway. Oh no, i thought, ive bought a proper lemon here. It almost overheated and was running cold when driving (ie, no thermostat / stuck open).

So after a look in the bay i found at least three sensors and the idle control / fume valve thing disconnected. Some engine rebuild! Pouring oil out of the cap and no water in it. Aircon had been half removed, which wasnt a problem as i wanted to pull it anyway.

So.

I cleaned up the bits i could, removed the tints and sunstrip and sorted the bay out. Oil, coolant and everything topped up i drove it up the M74 237 miles and it was sweet. 36mpg at about 80mph and all was well. I managed to bridge the aircon so i could put the fans on with the aircon switch, and a multimeter told me the brown CTS was duff. Just waiting on a new one.

I started the dechav today when i discovered the state of the 'setup' for the battery to boot. No idea what made someone do this, but there was about 15 feet of wire which made the starter spin slow. None of it was insulated and indeed some of it was just dangerous. Bolts through the boot floor, BMW battery box things, awful. Ill let the pictures do the talking.























So, the battery was in the boot and grounded to a bolt in the floor. Four bolts through the floor held it in place with a battery tray off who knows what. The wiring was then split under the rear bench, using a BMW branded box. It then ran under the carpet, through the bulkhead, to another BMW box which distributed the power. Almost all bolts were loose and some were missing. The negative was bodged to metal under the fusebox. The brown CTS had the wire chopped as did the power wire for the heater. All now cleaned up.

So now, the battery is half secure until i get a proper battery tray (which seems like a pain as there is a fusebox built into it) but its enough to be able to move it off and on the drive until parts come.

And, tidier..



Next jobs will be fitting a new brown CTS, thermostat and a proper flush of the coolant system. Ill weld up the holes in the boot that were created and move on.

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Paul
Hiding with Pride

Looks like Bodge it and scarper auto's done that job lol

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cherry rallye daily (the money pit)

I managed to do some great work to this over the weekend, theres a lot so ill just list it:

Bridged the aicon plug to get fans through the button
Replaced handbrake surround trim, removed old security device that was sticking out of it
All blue bulbs removed
Door pins replaced - no more clicking!
Oily block tracked down to a leaky oil cap, engine degreased and cleaned down
Replaced wiring for power supply to heater fans
Replaced rear C pillar trims to black ones
Removed all 10mm bolts visibly deterioated / craply painted in the bay and fitted anodised black allen bolts / gold washers

I want to replace the pillars and also the little trims that cover the rear of the headlining for black too, but that can take time.

Realistically now im going to move onto the fans - im not convinced theyre coming on when they should. Relays out as soon as i get time, but they run fine with the brown plug pulled?

Aircon needs pulling out, id like to fully remove the compressor if i can. Im also tempted to remove and reseal the rocker covers.

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Paul
Hiding with Pride