The £500 Golf GTI

[henrytvr]

I thought the days of getting a good car for £500 were long gone.... until recently!

For context I am currently a car hoarder and for some reason I have purchased a few extra cars I have always liked to tinker with and keep nice for a bit. The current fleet is as follows...

TVR 3000M - Owned for 12 years, not going anywhere
Alfa Romeo GTV TS - Owned for 12 years (might sell one day)
Citroen Saxo VTS - Completely standard 70k miles, 2 owner car with rare leather interior
Smart Roadster Coupe - With modifications
Toyota Sera - Once destined for the scrap yard, it will live again!


and now the GTI.



It coincided with my other half having an accident in the car we share and I needed some wheels. The guy selling it worked at a VW specialist and was packing up and going to Ireland.
It is a 2002 Mk4 1.8T GTI, 157,000 miles with one or two little issues, a nice history file with original bill of sale and I like the alloys. How could I resist? So payment was made and the work could begin.

The jobs list started with the usual...
- Deep clean
- Oil and filter service
- Fix a coolant leak & new coolant tank
- Fix the dead rear wiper motor
- Fix the glove box
- New dipstick tube

Simple right? Little did I know this car would have a few surprises for me!

[Scoobydrew95]

Eager to hear about the surprises.

great buy at £500 in any case.

Are the GTi seats as comfortable as the V6 seats? Never been in a GTi.

[popeyewhite]

Drove an '03 GTi the other day. Similar mileage. Despite the years it was still solid. VW really did crack it with the Golf.

[henrytvr]

Scoobydrew95 said:

Eager to hear about the surprises.

great buy at £500 in any case.

Are the GTi seats as comfortable as the V6 seats? Never been in a GTi.

This is my first VAG product so cant say but the seats are quite nice, very supportive.

popeyewhite said:

Drove an '03 GTi the other day. Similar mileage. Despite the years it was still solid. VW really did crack it with the Golf.

This is the highest mileage car I have bought so far and this one feels like it could do it all again.

[Scoobydrew95]

henrytvr said:

Scoobydrew95 said:

Eager to hear about the surprises.

great buy at £500 in any case.

Are the GTi seats as comfortable as the V6 seats? Never been in a GTi.

This is my first VAG product so cant say but the seats are quite nice, very supportive.

My current A4 B5 is my first VAG car as well, really got under my skin. More so then the Fords/BMW's and Volvo.

[Quhet]

For all the criticism of how stodgy and slow the Mk4 GTI was, this generation of Golf seems to have been built and engineered spectacularly well.

[Bairn]

bookmarked with interest

[henrytvr]

So the first job was to give the car a deep clean. It wasn't bad but I knew it could be better.



The wheels were caked in brake dust but it shifted really quickly...



Some areas had been neglected over the years which was a satisfying clean



[url]|https://forums-
images.pistonheads.com/335071/202410244054364[/url]

The steering wheel was disgusting though...


The final result - The car now looks showroom fresh with only the odd car park ding. I also added a GTI badge to the front grill. Only experts can tell a normal 1.6 from a GTI so this little addition from Ali Express helps it stand out and adds 10bhp.



So it was time to move on to some repairs. The rear wiper had clearly not worked for a while and looked like this...


I started by having a look at the motor and upon removing the trim found it to be unplugged. Plugged it in and nothing. Weird. A quick search on the facebook group suggested that broken wires are common where the boot and body split.... and surprise surprise....


Once repaired I tried again and the washer worked and the motor got really hot, so I ordered a new one. A few days past and a new one arrived a new arm with areo wiper to tidy it up. It was super easy to change and I now have a working rear wiper. Not quite. The rear wiper works but it is on constantly which is probably why it was unplugged. Luckily I can get it to stop but you have to spray and wipe the front screen. So the real issue all along was probably the wiper stalk. This will be changed at some point when I pluck up the courage to remove the steering wheel and airbag.




More updates coming soon!

[Limpet]

As a former owner, I like these a lot.

I bought mine in around 2006. Didn't want to spend a lot, so was definitely at the bottom of the market. Eventually found a 170,000 mile one owner car in Indigo Blue, which looked and drove better than any of the lower mileage ones I'd seen. Chap was emigrating and selling off everything. Came with the original dealer invoice in his name, and a VW main dealer service history that ran across into 2 service books. Had both Climatronic and the electric sunroof, the cam belt had just done, wore 4 matching Michelins, and had clearly been loved. Snapped it up.

Ran it for 2 years, and apart from the alternator failing, it never gave a moment's trouble. Smooth, quiet and torquey, and although the wood effect on the dash looked a bit naff, and it had the usual peeling rubber coatings inside, but it was a lovely place to sit, and a very nice car to drive. It was never a car I wanted to drive on its doorhandles (never really felt like a true GTI to be honest), but on good tyres and properly set up, you could make good progress in it. The Recaros were genuinely all day comfortable, and it was very smooth and refined. Very good on fuel as well. A very pleasant car to munch miles in.

Our postman had commented positively on it a few times, and when we got chatting one day I mentioned I was thinking of selling it. 2 days later he bought it for very close to what I'd paid for it 2 years previously. Didn't even need to advertise it.

The shape really is timeless, IMO. Yours looks fantastic. Look forward to the updates.

[crofty1984]

Quhet said:

For all the criticism of how stodgy and slow the Mk4 GTI was, this generation of Golf seems to have been built and engineered spectacularly well.

My wife's Mk4 golf is still going well at just shy of 200,000 miles. The front arches do go on them, but apart from that I don't think we've had any real issues. I replaced a weak starter motor a couple of years back. Just did it in the garden.

[DM8000]

Nice! The engine will be an AUM code and is strong but wow what a lot of vacuum lines and pipes that like to break and perish and cause EML lights. Mine also started to use lots of oil after 150K but think it had had a hard life beforehand. They also seem to be quite hard on the front susspension components/wishbones etc but what I did love was that at 22 yrs old when I got rid there was very little rust - it sure was built to last - the mk5's feel quite flimsy (although they do steer better).

[Rich135]

That's a great buy, and satisfying to work on when cleaning makes it look like that!

I have just done similar, and picked up an MOTd MX5 NB with hardtop for £500. Looking forward to getting stuck in.

[Maxus]

Very good job cleaning that up, bargain!

We had a 3 door years ago. If you set aside the hot hatch aspirations, these are comfortable, well built and nice driving cars. We enjoyed ours.

I know it defies the point of buying a mega cheap car but, a basic remap to c190bhp on these is transformative.

[Court_S]

That looks like a lot of car for £500.

I know everyone slates the Mk4, but I really like it. A family member had a string of diesels and they always felt really well built and very solid.

[Mr Tidy]

I know MK4s didn't go down well at the time, but for £500 how wrong can it go?

[UK_Scat_Pack]

Quhet said:

For all the criticism of how stodgy and slow the Mk4 GTI was, this generation of Golf seems to have been built and engineered spectacularly well.

It was the only Golf GTi that car reviewers of the time, actually said to avoid!

[henrytvr]

Thank you for all the positive comments - I knew that the MK4 GTI isn't the most highly sort after and having never owned a VAG product before I had nothing to base it off, but it is not bad. For everyday driving with a dog in the back, going to and from work it is quick enough and more than comfortable, especially after driving the Smart for no more than 30 mins!

So, on to an update. I thought the next thing to look at was the coolant leak. I could see some rusty water on the passenger side of the engine and every 3-4 days the coolant light would come on. So if I was going to be using it everyday this could become annoying or more serious. Again, the Facebook group helped out and suggested the coolant flange. Basically anything and everything in the engine bay apart from the engine is made from plastic which is fine when it is new but as we know after 157,000 miles it turns into a hard cheese rather than plastic.

I want this car to live for as long as possible even after it has left me, so for longevity I opted for the aluminum upgrade and for £15 or so from Amazon was also really good value. This was a four piece set including the thermostat housing if I needed that in the future.... spoiler alert... I will.

Taking the engine cover off revealed this:



Not too bad... apart from one of the breather hoses was barely held together with electrical tape and had clearly been blowing for a long time as there was a light misting of oil over everything. So, back onto Amazon and a new set of rubber breather pipes were set for delivery the next day.

Draining the coolant was so simple, there is literally a tap! But the colour was awful. I have never seen coolant so rusty.



With the header tank off and with the help of an adult I flushed it through with a hose and then an air line to make sure none of that crap stayed in the system.

Coolant flange off and it was clear this was the problem all along.





A nice hairline crack. Putting the aluminum one on is slightly different as it has a gasket rather than rubber o-ring but once it was all lined up it went on fine.



It is also good practice to change the coolant sensor at the same time, so in went a shiny new Febi one.



All tightened up and sensors clipped in it was time for fresh coolant and the new tank just lifts the whole engine bay.



Coming up next time..... more broken plastic pieces get replaced and more get broken in the process!

[Vince70]

That’s a fantastic motor and the 2 litre might not be the fastest car off the line but when it comes to reliability it will go on forever and all parts seem to cost around £10 lol
I’ve two Mk4 Golf’s and a Mk3.5 and my only advice is once a year clean the mud out behind the liners on the front wings as that’s the usual rust trap and another rust trap is around the rear hatch handle but the handles are only about £15 new off eBay.

Mine cost me pennies as I’ve an early V5 that was a freebie, as it was going to be scrapped for tyres and an MOT and I also have an upmarket 2.0 cabriolet that I paid £250 for, as it had a cutting out issue that I diagnosed as a crank sensor which was a £12 fix and both still look as good as new.

The Problem with the really early V5’s now is parts availability, so I feel bad, but I bought a working example as a spares car for £500 with an MOT, too keep my freebie Golf going as it makes logical sense lol

Mine are both on around 80,000 miles now apart from my spares car which is on 136,000.

[Scoobydrew95]

Doing your temp sensor looked mightily easier then mine. Heard the 1.8s were easy but didn't realise quite like that. My hands are still sore from replacing it monday.
Nice little upgrade with the ali housing.

[Limpet]

Vince70 said:

That’s a fantastic motor and the 2 litre might not be the fastest car off the line but when it comes to reliability it will go on forever and all parts seem to cost around £10 lol

I might be wrong, but that looks like the 1.8T engine.