The Crack

So after last week and taking a good look at the car I realised that it was dirtier than a very dirty thing. So I put all the wheels back on and took it outside to meet Herr Kartcher. Germanic engineering aided the removal of about a tonne of mud. I swear it was sitting better afterwards but then again I did jack it up so I could jet wash underneath so it might just have settled differently. The shocks are about as smooth as sandpaper. It also bled a little bit. I do not think that this is a good thing.

I knew that the rear arches had gone the way of most 106s and divorced themselves from the boot floor. When I was cleaning under the car I spotted this in the passenger side rear arch. Umm, yes. A new feature.

I don’t recall this being a design feature of my last GTI. I conclude therefore that this is a special edition model. With added lightness and ventilation. And less panel structural integrity.

After washing the car it seemed to have a bit of a condensation problem. So I investigated. I did not find any aquatic life, but there was a small pond in the boot floor.

I suspected that the passenger arch was the culprit so removed the black glued on acoustic material. Some body work came away with it.

Sensing I had struck on a seam, I decided to see how far it went. So off came some of the interior plastics. Fixing this could be interesting, it’s a good thing I like a challenge. I am not sure I have enough zintec steel at the moment though.

Not sure what started it but judging from the cables, there was clearly some ICE fitted in the past so I suspect that this was just self tappered into the arch and which won’t have helped.