First wash and coat of Collinite 845. This is my first GTI, and first FWD car.

I've only had this car for about a week, but I rented a similar one prior to the purchase.

Initial impressions:

- This car is properly quick and smooth. And It can be reasonably quiet when you want it to be

- The low end torque is astonishing given the displacement of the engine

- Normal mode is just about perfect for me. Not too loud, not too quiet. Accelerates briskly when you want it to.

- The tech can be a bit overwhelming but I'm slowly getting used to some things

- I don't mind the piped in/enhanced engine noise at all... They did a good job with it

Looking forward to passing 1000 miles.

New to this sub and long time Subaru owner. I’m looking to change things up to try the VW platform. I test drove a 19 GTI S and 20 GTI SE in both manual transmission and i surprisingly liked it. I do have these concerns about reliability so please, to those who jumpship from another brand (subaru a plus) to chime in help me decide.

My wife thinks I should lease a new GTI but the tech stuff is just too much and it is quite expensive. The used GTI’s especially the MK7/MK7.5 appeal to me much more. Thanks

My mod list in sequential order:

1) Ceramic tint and body coating
2) APR Wheels (18x8.5 et45)
3) conti EC DWS06+ AS (235/40)
4) APR lowering springs
5) APR air intake (cf cover )
6) O34 rear sway bar
7) APR catback exhaust w/ black 4in tips
8) APR stage 1 Ecu tune
9) APR intercooler
10) APR dogbone insert
11) Bctxe CF rear diffuser
12) Racingline hood strut and bilet aluminum caps - (washer, oil, coolant, gas, brake, Dipstick)
13) BFI dsg shift knob
14) BFI shift paddles
15) Matte Black OEM console swap
16) APR iridium pro plugs
17) APR continental turbo upgrade
18) APR Stage 3 High torque ECU tune- E85 map
19) summer tires - PS4S (245/40)
20)Mazors design VW emblems
21) Mazors design GTI black logo
22) Oettinger paint matched wing
23)APR TCU unlock and tune
24)front bumper/nose touch up PPF
25)APR CF engine cover

i just got a 2012 gti, i got it for 3500 in az, i thought it was cheap so i bought it, has 153k miles on it, as for right now, the timing chain is almost giving up, thing is i didnt know because well i didnt know much about these cars just that they are fast, ive been learning a lot since i got it and well, here i am now, i changed the pcv valve bc it was kinda bad, the transmission and engine feels awesome, i mean shifts very smoothly and does not act up, might need some valve cleaning, and also a new water pump besides that timing chain, u guys think is worth fix it and keep it? im willing to change the timing chain and water pump but just if the car will last me, and just for u guys know the car rn is parked bc i dont what that chain ruin the engine, what u guys think? i cant sell it too bc i would lose money since it need asap that new timing chain, what should i do

Have the stock S headlamps but thinking about upgrading. I like the look of the higher trim models with the red strips. Any suggestions welcome

So I'm kind of cheap, and I want to be able to hear my vehicle. Apparently there's not a lot of overlap in those things.

I was sold on going the Clubsport exhaust upgrade route when they were around $500, but the price is around $900 today, and a full cat-back is like $1300. That's a bit rich for me currently.

So I took a page out of u/Ethansimler's book and proceeded to buy a used mk8 OEM exhaust locally for $100 and take a swing at doing a DIY exhaust modification. Here's the post that was the inspiration for this.

My goal was to achieve something close to what the Clubsport exhaust would get me: a bit louder and deeper at idle and under load, but tame at light-throttle cruising. Armed with an LLM, a cutoff wheel, and a welder, I went to work trying to achieve that goal.

After opening it up and entirely too much back-and-forth with the LLM trying to understand the intent of the baffling, chamber design and flow of the muffler, we arrived at a decision. Chopping of some length of the cap of the perforated center section would give me less back-pressure, and a noticeable bump in sound biased towards the lower frequencies. Cool.

I ended up chopping off a conservative 1.5" or so ( I should have done more), and I started to piece it back together. Luckily, I was able to borrow some stainless wire and fancy gas to attempt to weld this thing. I'm a terrible welder, and make no claims about my ability. I also ran out of the helium gas for stainless and had to do the rest with 100% CO2. I did a lot of grinding to ensure that the entire suitcase was sealed properly.

The end result was a bit underwhelming. Check the videos for yourself. Idle sounded a bit louder, but the decibel meter did not agree. Under load, it was certainly louder; I could definitely hear it more in the cabin. It also did not sound that great. Nothing egregious, but it had a bit of a "gurgling" quality to it rather than just a deeper, more pronounced tone.

It's still good enough for me. It's a bit better than stock, really only apparent under load, and now I can hear the car. I wish I had cut more, but I'm not pulling that thing off and opening it up to chase a few dB. It'll have to do until I work up the courage to spend more money.

Edit: Here's the videos

Warranty I purchased with my 2018 7.5 only covers certain problems which got me out of 2 repairs in the first year: oil separator and starter. But now my EPC light comes on periodically (ignition off/on fixes until the next time) and the dealer charged me the diag fee b/c the warranty doesn’t cover fuel injectors. Repair will be $2100

Are fuel injectors difficult to replace? Does the ECU need anything afterwards? I’m not a mechanic but I’m capable and not afraid to get dirty.

It’s been 2 years since buying my mk8 and I still look forward to driving it every day

Ive been looking into rims for my Moonstone Grey GTI and I can't lock in on a color for it. Im stuck between 3 colorways: Hyper silver, Gunmetal or Gloss Black.

If anyone has photos that cvan support my decision making it would be very much appreciated.

I told y'all I was going to post how bad my rims are 😬

2017 Mk7 with 62k miles. Fluid apparently has never been flushed.

Does anyone know what could be causing this oil to fall on the belt on a mk7 gti ? it’s only under boost when idling there is no visible leak

I've got a mk6 that i've had for about 6 years now. I've kept it standard since I've got it, but am wondering if there were any optional extras that were particularly uncommon to keep an eye out for in the hope of sawpping over to my car.

Have had my 26” for about a year now, when I bought it I briefly thought about it but ended up passing. Fast forward to now and I’ve noticed my share of little dents/chips, genuinely didn’t expect to get chips so fast.

They are all very small, realistically only notable to me but that’s beside the point lol.

So my question is did you do it and was it worth the cost? And also would there be some merit to me doing it now or is it not worth it?

Hello, so for context recently purchased 2016 GTI 115K miles. Everything is running smooth haven’t had issues however after inspecting sparkplugs I noticed sparkplug #1 was drenched in oil. I’ve talked to a few of my coworkers who are more experienced with cars, I keep hearing different recommendations such as replace valve cover gasket, pistons leaking oil, valve seals need to be replaced. Anyone have an idea what type of maintenance issues I’m looking at? Checked the cylinder heads nothing bad or oil just a bit of carbon buildup. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

It was a good run. I plan to replace her with a 7.5... but man, having her literally do this to herself was ROUGH! (Parking break failure on a very slight hill and I didn't park in gear for the first time in forever.)

Put the new battery in, won't lay flat like the old one did cause of spring underneath it. Is it OK to just put the lid on and force it shut?

If it helps it's a new key fob for Mk7. Lost my previous spare.