2002 VW GTI VR6 24V - my return to fun with cars

I've gotten old.  Perspectives change.  I was an autocross and road racing fool in my youth.  1987-1996, most weekends.  Nationals, trailering to events far away, the inevitable late Sunday night arrivals back home.  Lots of SEDIV events where I met Tim, JG and many others and it was still Auto-X Magazine.  My life revolved around cars, motorsports and the SCCA.  Life happened, kids came and now on their own.  I haven't driven in anger since Covid.  A boat and a business revolving around classic cars means lots of weekend car shows, so it always seems like there is a conflict with every event.  My helmet aged out.  I have a couple of cars that could autocross, but we never found the time.

At 55, this may not be my last hurrah, but I feel like my hurrahs are becoming way more limited.  I saw a post for a car and I don't know what triggered me.  A whisper said "you need this."  I mulled for about three days before I reached out.  Two months later, it's in my shop.

I bought MrJoshua's ex-Challenge car

Goals for the project:

Autocross 3 times per year (setting a realistic goal)

Open track day at the FIRM - my wife has never done more than autocross and wants to try in a controlled environment

Challenge 2024 - will be my first as a competitor 

First assessment:  The clutch slave is dead.  I've never had a VW.  Of course my relationship with VW starts off right when I discover the slave is inside the bellhousing of the 02M 6 speed trans, so major disassembly right off the bat.  Other than that, it appears to be a pretty sound starting point.  I'll have to de-musty the interior as the Lexan rear window and sunroof plug both leak a little and the car has been sitting outside.  I also spent $10 at the car wash blasting a lot of Florida gunk off of it.  It looks much better and shinier now.

I started to make a list, and it was a bit overwhelming.  The car needs.... well, everything....  Mostly checking to learn it and get comfortable driving it hard, and optimizing, and cleaning.  But basically, everything....

And away we go!  It's good to be back.

It was nice to meet you in person after all our text conversations. I'm really glad the car is going to be used for fun. Hopefully I can see you as a competitor at some of the events. 

One week in.  First step is to get the car into its workspace in the shop.  The clutch slave is junk, no sense trying to drive it any like this, so let's get ready to tear into it.  First off, an omen?

Thanks to MrJoshua for guidance on what this is likely supposed to be powering.  We'll add that to the list for later.

First, let's clear out the hatch and see what parts were included:

spare rear bumper (torn pretty good but will be useful for practicing plastic bodywork at some point), new oil filter and very important clutch slave, the original sunroof, two Planted seat mounts (driver shown, passenger bolted to car for now), four original springs, two Audi TT control arms for added camber, TT engine and trans mount, dogbone mount, two ball joints, two end links, and the VR6 engine cover.  

Car is now tucked in the corner ready for disassembly.  I'll swing the nose out away from the wall but it leaves the garage entry area to get another car in while this one gets disassembled.  

Time to start learning Mk IV VW stuff and engine/trans removal.

All the suspension stuff and motor mounts are off of a 2000 Audi TT quattro. 

MrJoshua said:

All the suspension stuff and motor mounts are off of a 2000 Audi TT quattro. 

And wheels too, it looks like. 

Yay, glad to see this one go to a good home. (Not that it was at a bad home before, but you know what I mean.)

Time to start this project.  The clutch slave is toast.  Clutch engages with about 1/32" travel off the floor, and then sticks there.  Unfortunately on the 02M six speed the slave is part of the bearing which means the trans needs to come out.  As long as the trans has to come out, we'll take out the engine/transmission as a unit and get a chance to clean and inspect along the way.  I've never done this before, let's hope it all works out.  I am grateful for the Challenge to make me tackle this well, challenge.

step 1:  up in the air

"disconnect the negative"

Take a minor diversion to pull a wheel.  Bilsteins and lowering springs already in place.  Brakes can probably stand a little lovin.

Reminding me that sometimes it's never easy

I had to remove the front bumper so I removed the inner fender liners.  Plenty of crud to clean out

Finally, end of day one progress.

I am happy to see this thread pop up! Looks like you are making great progress. Man everything is right there when you take the front bumper off. I should have done that on my sons TT when I dropped the trans.

Had another good session so I'll update that later.  For now, a short moment of zen when you feel like the car is on your side in a project.  One rotor still had the set screw in place.  A little kroil, a little heat and it came out with no drama.  Not the end of the world to drill it out but a definite feeling of satisfaction that something worked right - which is usually not how it goes....

I always thought these were neat little cars. I'll be interested in seeing what you accomplish with it.

Kept digging in on the disassembly.

Left axle had two surprises.  It was definitely replaced at some point in its history as the outer axle nut was a 6 point and not the original, caked in rust 12 point like the passenger side.  I put the impact gun on the first inner bolt and held my breath... and it spun off without so much as a single impact hammer hit.  Same for the rest.  The axle was hand tight.  Especially appreciated for the mismatched bolt that was able to be removed with a needle nose pliers grabbed onto the face since there was no clearance to get a socket around it.

Next up was the subframe.  Removing this gives great access to the exhaust bolts that will be the next challenge.  

This also led to the next thing I'll have to deal with.  The captured, blind nut for the one control arm broke its spot welds inside the subframe and spins freely.  I'll need to figure out how to get in there to get the control arm removed.  MrJoshua provided a set of Audi TT control arms that are slotted for camber adjustment so I really want to use those.

That happened on a customers car once and I ended up just having them fork over $60 for another subframe from a local junkyard. The original subframe had a window cut into it from when it had happened before and been rewelded!

In reply to orthoxstice :

I have cut a window (on 3 sides) then fixed the captive nut and welded the access hole back up. I never lost sleep over it. 

Interesting on the left Axle bolts. The axle bolts had loosened itself up the first time I drove it to the point of the whole car thumping around like it had square wheels. They were adequately tightened at that time and made it through lots of use at the challenge. Looks like some new bolts and locktite might be a good idea.

Im digging this.

A small update.  I got stuck at the stuck exhaust bolts.  Two rounds with kroil and heat and no luck yet.  I started thinking about moving to plan B and just separating the transmission in the car to get moving.

A week at SEMA then the redeye back Friday and an unplanned business trip that required leaving that same Sunday night.  That got me behind in life and the car sat.  I got a call from a friend with a better shop and better skills and he had time to help, so I took care of those items now.  Unfortunately got involved in working with him and forgot to take pictures during the process.

First was the Audi TT control arms.  Benefit here is the slotted ball joint mounts to get some free camber help.  Plus sportier looking castings. 

The problem is the Audi mounts the sway bar to the strut housing.  They were kind enough to leave a blank mounting pad, so I needed to drill and tap.  He helped to make sure everything was square and had better machine tools to make sure I didn't bugger this up.

Next up was the subframe and the control arm nut that broke its weld.  He cut a window in the subframe, I tack welded (that's my skill level LOL) and he welded the piece back in.  Now I just need to finish grinding and add paint.

Well, poo.  5 out of 6 exhaust nuts cooperated, one didn't.  I knew it coming off.  Each time I put heat to it I would only get a half turn before it got tight again.  I was hoping I could get there but alas.

Is there a small enough tool to get in there to break the nut or do I need to dremel hack at it until it gives up?

my experience has always been, heat, then ugggas, last resort cut them out....those things are rough

If you break a stud, the manifolds might as well come out and get some ARP studs for both the head and manifolds

The stud is broken free.  The nut turns but doesn't remove.  

glueguy (Forum Supporter) said:

The stud is broken free.  The nut turns but doesn't remove.  

any chance you can put enough pressure on the stud by pulling down on the down pipe to get something to bite?

Got the exhaust done.  Can you spot the shiny happy nut?  

Next challenge is two of the intake manifold bolts.  6 mm hex heads, these two are losing their hex.  Once the intake comes off there will be clear access to look at the rear of the engine to see what else needs to come off.  Shouldn't be much at this point but I feel like there is at least one more coolant line back there.

And score!!!!  Found a set of almost new Azenis RT615K+.  They are old - 0419 date code.  They were mounted for a spec BRZ and then covid happened so they sat and then got swapped out.  $200 on FB.  That should definitely help the "cash in the envelope" planning.

Hit my goal of being to the point of ready to start the fun side of the work before Christmas break.  Hopefully I can make good progress on the reassembly during the last two weeks of the year.

I know this is old hat to a lot of you but this is a first for me.

Getting dangerously close to the halfway point in the project.  "Assembly is the opposite of removal."

And here is the offending combination slave and throwout bearing

If you can source the replacement ToB with the metal neck/stem, the plastic ones are known to break when installing the bleeder/line