Back on the Road
• Sivert • 8 views • 2 min read
With the new ECU installed the GTI is finally back on the road, and the difference is night and day. The over-sensitive throttle is gone and the shifts feel smooth. It drives and looks like it is back to factory standard.
With the engine behaving, the next job was winter tyres. The old ones had hardened with age, and we live further north than the previous owner, so our winters are harder. Snow melts and refreezes into ice, and the gravel the city puts down just sinks under it. Winter tyres are not optional here.
I wanted Nokian Hakkapeliitta 10s, but the 18 inch rim size meant no local shop could get them. Ordering online would have added shipping and handling, so I settled on Continental IceContact 3s. They are not as well known as the Nokians, but they will do. Winter driving here means taking it easy on icy corners whatever tyres you are on.
With the car stable and ready for winter, there are a few jobs left. The injectors we got back from BAR-TEK in Germany came back with problems: three of them leak. The original Bosch injectors are discontinued, so finding genuine replacements has been hard. After a lot of searching I found a French supplier who claims to have four brand new genuine Bosch injectors in stock, listed as "BOSCH NEW". I am taking them at their word.
Every fixed problem gets the GTI closer to what I had in mind when I started. We will see what the new injectors do. I also want to shoot some video of the car so you can see the state it is in.
