Over the years we’ve purchased the odd broken car that’s arrived in the shop and treated as a wee project to do when we have down time. Often the cost of repairs can be more than the value of the car, so unless you have some real attachment to the car sometimes its easier just to get out of it and move to the next one. So this was the case with MZM532, stretched timing chain, resulting in 8 bent valves and zero compression.
So, WEEU bought the car to save it from the wrecking yard and popped it down the back end of the shop and waited for a quiet day to start some repairs. This picture is before we bought it, having just discovered the extent of the engine damage. As you can see its not in the best shape so its never going to be a show car, damaged bumpers, door gaps not great etc etc.
Anyway, a look over the the car uncovered other items, such as the drivers door window switch pack in pieces, some WOF items like front subframe bushes, and lower arm reaction bushes, roof lining starting to sag (Standard). What was going for it was, decent rubber and brakes, nice wheels (Likely changing anyway). Leather interior in reasonable condition.
So!!!!!! $500 buys the car. What is the plan?
In the first instance I figure we can save it from the scrap yard and keep costs down by having it as a ‘filler’ job. From there I don’t know. Fix and sell? Fix and sign write it, another loan car maybe? We don’t have anything really promoting ‘Wellington European Tyres’. So a tyre promo car??
Some jobs to take care of.. Window switch and door card repair, easy. Something we hadnt spotted with the car on the hoist and the tailgate up was the top of the tail gate was damaged., you will see we are now sporting a Black tailgate (for now).
Below, well the cylinder head came off and went to headmaster for repairs/rebuild, including 8 new valves and the re assembly included new chain kit, gaskets and the usual odds and ends. Interior is pretty good.
So we get the car going, ticked off the WOF work and some trim work and went driving. Other things to sort were some general tune and maintenance work, coils, plugs, and a DSG service. And while this was happening the apprentices added a sneaky bonnet stripe. For giggles it’s stayed on and might be inspiring something for the future branding on the car if that’s the way we go……
Now What?
So its together, its legal, its going well, and it has a black tail gate! And in amongst all of this we’ve engaged with a new tuner ‘EuroTune’ so we figured why not plug some power into it and have some fun.
So on paper a stage 1 power tune takes this little 1.4 to 200HP. We’ve also done some other minor mods like a decat/downpipe and added the pops and bangs for a laugh. For now aside from the downpipe the exhaust is standard so the pops and bangs are minimal. I know plenty are going to hate on the pops and bangs, but hey, we are having some fun!!!
Now what/ watch this space.
We do have some wheels that we might try on it, and possibly give it a little lowering job, and then some signage…. But the immediate future is to get some km’s into it and make sure everything is working as it should, and enjoy the 200 HP’s!!!
AUGUST updates, where does the time go? So we’ve been super busy so the Golf has’nt had much happen until late this month. We did have some ‘new’ condition Tiguan 18 inch wheels that we were keen to see how they looked on the car, means a shift up from 17’s. We had some OK Bridgestones x 2 and bolted them on. Pretty happy with the look, so bought 2 new Continentals. Keen to know what you think.. Remembering we are patching this together on a budget and these are what we had.. We also gave the engine some LiquiMoly Ceratec additive. Something we started promoting with our servicing.
So the new rubber went on, supplier gave me a sharp deal on some Continental UltraContact UC7’s, and below for something controversial we’ve put a piano black boot spoiler. Its bigger than I imagined from the catalogue, but I like it!!
We are excited to announce that we have teamed up with Eurotune NZ to be one of their official NZ dealers.
Check out the link to their site, put in your vehicle details to see what gains can be had with a stage one tune, and in many cases with Diesel Turbos, some fuel gains to be had. EUROTUNE
Check out what a stage one tune will do for my car
Why Now?
We have facilitated many tunes, however its been something we’ve outsourced, and struggled to answer questions quickly around, what are the gains? What price? and when can you do it?.
Now we will be able to provide this info on the spot. and time frames we can manage based around our own workshop loadings…. Wins all around.
We will look at combination deals also around engine detox (Carbon clean and walnut blasting) followed up with a performance tune.
About EUROTUNE
EUROTUNE, is a nationwide franchise giving us a huge network and support.
Eurotune was founded by a group of individuals with extensive and deep experience in the performance and ECU tuning industry to serve the New Zealand market. Our tunes are developed on a dyno in New Zealand on Aus/NZ spec. vehicles, using local fuel, in local climatic conditions – all critical elements when tuning vehicles for the best driving experience and reliability.
Customer satisfaction is the heartbeat of our company, and when combined with the wealth of knowledge, skills and experience of our New Zealand dealer network; first class products and consumer experiences are delivered. Our car tuning ECU remaps are designed to provide an increased level of performance that enhances customers driving experience, whilst maintaining engine and driveline reliability and normal service levels. Some diesel tuning and 4×4 tuning & ECU remapping companies quote higher torque and power and torque figures than we do, but they usually prove to be inaccurate or if actually delivered will likely compromise reliability whilst increasing service and maintenance costs.
The Eurotune Head Office is based in Auckland New Zealand and our dealers have bricks and mortar premises in local communities. We don’t have travelling salespeople selling copied or cut and paste tunes out of the back of their vehicle that they purchased off Ebay, Alibaba, India, China, South Africa or the likes, to unsuspecting consumers who don’t understand what they are purchasing.
Buying a remap is something you do once for your vehicle…do it right and choose Eurotune for your performance tuning and vehicle emission solution needs.
Sample
Sample, We are tuning Our Diesel E-Class E220. Take a look at the what we can expect to see, hp, nm and economy gains… A massive 100Nm of added torque. Looking forward to this!!
First Tune went extremely well!!
2 Range Rover Evoques in for work. Diesel had a service and a tune while the Petrol had rear brakes replaced. Nice to start seeing a few of these coming through the shop.
We are calling this our Stage 3 clean. Stage 1 being Hydrogen Carbon clean machine. Stage 2, Hydrogen Carbon Clean machine and Liquimoly intake cleaner.
Stage 3 Walnut Blasting
Stage 4 = All of the above
What is it? quite literally its a machine that uses compressed air and fine crushed walnut shells to remove carbon build up. In our application, usually intake ports and the back sides of intake valves.
Why do it? Alot of modern engines by design are prone to carbon build up in the intake system, over time as the carbon build up increases the efficiency of the engine reduces, meaning less performance, fuel economy etc.
Why now for WEEU? We deal with a lot of cars that suffer from carbon build up, and a lot of our customers like to keep there cars no only going, but going like they should! We follow a lot of forums and in recent times have seen a lot of discussion on this topic. We also dont know of many local workshops that offer this service so decided now was the time. Its also a good fit with our other Detox Tools and Tuning service we now provide.
Whats involved? There is some time involved and the time taken varies from car to car. We do have to remove the intake manifold to gain access to the intake ports, this can mean on some cars, intake runner flaps also need removing. Each cylinder is done separately as the valves need to be in the closed position so as to not fill the cylinder with walnut shells, all other ports are masked off etc to avoid walnut shells going where they are not wanted.
Great feedback from the customer re the end result. We could tell from start up that the car just sounded crisper and more responsive.
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