scoobyvirgin

Hi I've been asked to take a look round a Golf Gti for a friend of mine, can anyone advise me on what things to look for and what they are prone to etc.
Also what are they worth?

The car: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1990-VOLKSWAGE...QQcmdZViewItem

Cheers
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Andrew Dixon

From the pictures on the eBay link the car looks straight and original. It's a later big-bumper car so threfore more desirable, and that looks like a fairly rare colour.

Values can vary from peanuts up to thousands for a mint, late, low mileage 8v. A very low mileage 16v recently acheived £7000+ on eBay! For an 8v of that age and mileage I wouldn't pay more than £1500 privately for an absolutely mint, FSH example. Check the following sites for example prices from specialists:

http://www.futureclassiccars.com/
http://www.volkswizard.co.uk/
http://www.golfsgalore.com/

There's a reasonable buyers guide here, and if you want to get the car checked out by a Mk2 specialist, C&R Enterprises are located in Nottingham and can do a very thorough vehicle inspection complete with a 'hit-list'.

A few more things to check that aren't mentioned in the guide are rust bubbles around the windscreen seal, rust around the wiper arm holes and LHD blanking grommet, and rust appearing around the wiring grommet holes at the trailing edge of the roof under the hatch. Also, the handbrake mechanism in the rear calipers is a bit crap so check that the handbrake locks both rear wheels.

The good news is that parts are cheap, and the car is easy to work on. So as long as the bodywork and trim are straight you should be able to produce a good runner.

Give me a shout if you have any more questions. I'm on my 10th year (and 3rd car!) of Mk2 GTI ownership.

brickboy

My bro-in-law and sister just sold their small bumper 8v MkII with 150K+ up.

Mechanically bulletproof, a bit tappety from cold but fine when warm. Their corrosion probs were all cosmetic, the actual structure was solid.

The big problems they had were a leaky sunroof, which defied all attempts to fix, and an appetite for clutch cables every 5K miles.

Steve Whitehorn

iTrader: (13)

Some already mentioned - The list....

Rust areas as mentioned previously - especialy round ariel cover on near side.
Tappets tend to go - so cars often sound tappety
Bearings in Radiator fans
Water ingress -near side front passenger window. Some cars do some cars don“t
Rear brake calipers stick.
Wear on drivers seat
Plastic housing that sits at the bottom of the gear stick wears and needs replacing.

16 V more complicated therefore more prone toelectrical problems.
Personaly would opt for 8v - More low down torque less top end grunt that the 16v

Often have self adjusting clutch cables which are cr-p -worth changing for a manual cable.

Thats it really. Brilliant fantastically well built cars. Parts cheap as chips from the breakers.

Andrew Dixon

Noisy tappets can often be fixed by running a good engine flush through the car. Some people swear by adding a litre of ATF fluid to the oil and running that through the car for a few hundred miles!

As for seat wear (on the offside driver's bolster), mine's on 160k and barely worn at all. Then again I've seen some 60k cars with holes worn through! Apparently it depends on the owner's style of ingress and egress?!

Bearings in the heater blower motor are prone to wearing as water can sometimes drip into them - tend to screech on low speeds. Can be replaced with a new one for £50 (or less from a scrappy!). Also the blower speed controller can die leaving only off or full-blast. Easy to replace though.

Gear mechanism can get a bit 'loose' but re-bushing is an easy one-hour job and will transform it. The ball & socket at the bottom of the gear lever is a bit more involved to replace but can be done.

And another vote for the 8v here. Makes a better daily driver than the 16v, lesss complex, very nearly as quick and far more economical (an easy 40+ mpg on a good day).

Phew.

Steve Whitehorn

iTrader: (13)

I think you sumed that up far more eloquently than I ever could Andrew

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Its a 5 door, I have had six of these and the 5 door is a lot soggier with age, the 3 doors arent that stable, jack one up and see if the doors still open properly !

Agree on the 8 valve 16 valve thing, nicer drive most of the time the 8 valve, not that much slower.

They do rust, check under the plastic trims, mine went around the front screen, some do not rust at all, its weird, the earlier ones (A and B reg seem better protected).

Chris96wrx

I had a 8v (180k plus when stolen and used no oil! ) and a 16v. Prefered the 8v's better torque lower down.

Make sure the heater matrix works, as a common fault and VW recall added some valves to the matrix/cylinderhead pipework that stopped pressure from building up in the matrix. e.g. my 16v had no hot air which was a pain.

Otherwise, great cars!

Andrew Dixon

And they also added a 'shield' above the driver's left leg so that if the matrix did let go, the driver's leg wouldn't be showered by boiling coolant. Thoughtful eh?

wide

Bit more
General rust on tail gate
Heater fan switch not working unless on full( cheap ballast resistor)
2nd gear crunching very common
Worn bushes all over
Cracking car though!

s70rjw

iTrader: (2)

Got my crunching second gear sorted by a VW specialist...he took off the release bearing cover and put an old 10p in. Gearbox was like new at 100k

flynnstudio

1) Expect the car to be far tattier than the pictures suggest...
2) If the engine has no oomph then walk away - it'll utterly knackered in a multitude of ways.

I was looking for one a while ago and cars advertised for £1.5-2K with amazing looking pictures which I was told on numorous occasions were 'mint' or 'almost like new' only to find they were crapped out knackered, badly resprayed and generally not safe or fit for human transportation!. I wasted a lot of time looking at a number of these.

There are a lot of students and the like buying these cheap, caning the crap out of them for 3 months and then selling them again for silly money. Sorry to bum the party but buying one of these cars has become a total minefield.

I'd seriously consider buying a cherished MK1 1800 for £2K and just forget the MkII - it's a bloody tragedy but that generation of cars due to cost, endless abuses and ownership type has been absolutely wasted.
The Mk1 is the true classic and as such will have attracted some owners with a little love and consideration (though sub £1.5K will generally be thrashed sheds as well!).

Of course your mate may be one of the above wanting to join the long line of 'thrash and burn' 6 week owners - if he is then fine - go get one...better still if it's £500 he's wanting to spend go look at a K reg Audi 80 -will be a much better car for the money and won't have attracted the same kind of buyer...

(sorry I had to get that off my chest!Golf Owners flame me if you want but I have never seen a generation of cars so badly abused as the mk11 golf Gti - especially avoid 16v!)

CrisPDuk

I bought a 16V before christmas. As I've had several GTi's in MkI & MkII format over the years, I thought it was time to try the supposed best of the bunch, in Oak Green too, no less. Yes it goes like the clappers when you rev it, but it drinks like a fish & is no where near as pleasant to do long distances or heavy traffic journeys in.

As already mentioned they all to some extent rust around the arial hole in the wing, the windscreen wiper holes in the scuttle and at the top of the tailgate where the wiring connections are.
If the gears crunch going into second the synchos are getting a little worn, but rebushing the gear linkage eases it some too. If the gearbox whines in 3rd & 4th, walk away, it's soon to be catastrophically terminal Engines are bombproof, the 8 valves have even been known to survive cambelt failures unscathed (it's not recommended you try it though), they'll get tappety at around 80k and start smoking at around 100k, the former is cureable with a good engine flush, the latter with a £5 set of valve stem seals.
Check the carpets in the rear footwells for signs of damp, they have nearly all had their doorcards removed at some point to have new speakers fitted (unsurprising, the factory blaupunkt ones are ****e).If the plastic membrane has been removed too, rainwater tracks down the back of the card and into the car. An easy fix, but something to chip the seller on
The pre-86 cars (the ones with the front quarterlights) were better built than the later, facelifted cars. German manufacturing as a whole was going through a cost cutting period at this time to compete with the Japanese, and quality bit the dust as a consequence, even Porsche wasn't immune

CrisPDuk

Can't disagree, my last MkI and my first MkII were used and abused right into the ground They both died happy though

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I abused them but never killed one !

CrisPDuk

The MkI fell apart at the seams The MkII lost a 70mph side-on argument with two steel reinforced brick gateposts

Steve Whitehorn

iTrader: (13)

Must also add that along with the 205 it is one of the best balanced FWD cars I have ever driven. The ones I drove allways felt a bit light on the front -big understear moments didn“t feel too good - a characteristic of a powerful 80“s hot hatch I suppose. BUT when a MK2 overstears for driver feedback it really it up there with the best. A very good drivers car - but you probably dont need me to tell you that as all you herberts that have owned them know that