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Hi all, I just wanted to introduce myself to you lovely people on this forum... A long long time ago (20years or so) and in a different country (Germany), I used to own a black Lupo 1.0E with pop out rear windows (brilliant!) and I absolutely loved it. When I moved to this island, I sold the Lupo to my sister and replaced it with a 54reg Polo Sport 1.4 Tdi, which was also good fun if a bit rattly. I swapped the Polo for a 59reg Golf 1.6 Tdi bluemotion which was boring but alright because I was doing lots of boring job related miles. In March 2017 I sold the golf because the plan was that I'm gonna share the husband's Skoda Fabia Monte Carlo (He only needs a car about half of the working week, and I had a new job where I just had to go across town and no travelling for work and I was gonna cycle to work on the days he needs his car). I cycled to work once, in the dark, in the rain, up the hill and the next day I went off and bought a car. That was the first time I seriously considered buying a Lupo Gti even though I sort of always wanted one. I looked at a black one that appeared to be standard and in good nick and was advertised for £2000. (Those were the days...) It was at the other end of the country of course, so in the end I bought an 03reg BMW 318i touring. It was an absolutely terrible snotter, but I loved it. I spend many weekends and about 3 times more on parts than I spend on the actual car. That BMW finally died of cataclysmic engine failure caused by a snapped timing chain on 30th January this year. At that point I think there was only 1 Lupo Gti advertised on Autotrader and again it was over budget and far far away, so I bought a 58reg BMW 320i M-sport touring and it was weird, I somehow didn't bond with it. So I wasn't terribly upset when on the August bank holiday Madame decided that she had enough of waiting behind the bus that was stationary in her lane and crashed her Mini into the side of my BMW. Last Friday the insurance came to the conclusion that they don't want to repair the BMW and offered to put some money into my account instead. Straight onto the Autotrader website of course and there it was: A silver Lupo Gti for only a couple of hundred pounds more than what I got from the insurance and under an hour drive away. Of course I went and had a look first thing on Saturday. YC04WXY appears to be factory spec, 2 owners, 117000miles with full service history, incl. recent cam belt and water pump change. He looked (to me anyhow) very tidy and well looked after and I put down a deposit, now waiting for the Bacs payment to clear so I can go and pick him up. Here he is, still on the dealer forecourt... Okay, so the VW stickers have come off the wheels on the passenger side, there are a few unavoidable stone chip dings in the bonnet and there is a smidgen of bubblyness around the hatch handle. Of course the driver side door catch makes the typical clack clack noise and I'm hoping that the air con does just need a re-gas (I know, I know, my Polo's air con was destroyed by a stone too). However everything else seems to work and he drives beautifully, on the short(ish) test drive promising to be as much fun as expected. Since thenI have had a closer look at the MOT history and it appears that nobody bothered to do a MOT in 2017. It's 27 May 2016 then 26 April 2018. I wonder what's happened there... So, if anybody knows something about this car / has come across it before, please give me a shout, I would be very interested. Otherwise, wow I can't believe someone is still reading all the way down here and thank you for paying attention to me going on and on and on and on...

You should be telling her what's happening.

The easiest way 'apparently', to upgrade it is to simply nick all the bits off a golf or bora 1.9 engine- if you want to keep the same engine number (for insurance reasons). Like you say, it is the exact same 1.9 block, with different bits bolted on and a different crank. A strong little engine, capable of at least 150hp.

Thank you Silver, never thought one of my post would make it to such heady heights 😎 Ian

Finally done it!😁😎 The procedure didn't start too well, could I get the steering wheel off, yes but after nearly an hour! My problem was the centre boss with the air bag would not come away, I'd love to tell you about some magical way that I finally discovered, but there wasn't one, just plain old perseverance and a load of swearing. Wheel outer came off easily to reveal this (1st photo, sorry I've forgotten how to insert pics) Next round of swearing! I had to buy a new three legged puller ready for this, it refused to work, the toes were too rounded to get enough purchase upon the collar, the lip can't be 2mm deep, I tried all sorts to get it to work but it wasn't having it. In the end I resorted to using a 4" pair of mole grips (rounded jaws) wound as tight as possible onto the collar behind the lip and the using the puller with just two legs. I think I got lucky here and off the collar came (pics 2 &3). I removed the interference fit screw, same 4" mole grips, and with a good bit of wiggling the barrel came off (pic4) this revealed the fixing for the switch (pic5). It may well be that it might just be possible to undo that bolt (note: it is a small cross-headed bold and not a screw) from behind, you can see a channel in the barrel casting leading to the bolt, it's a hindsight thing and frankly I'm not convinced it'll work as I seem to remember that it's in at a bit of an angle. Anyway that's it, I put the new switch in, refitted the barrel, replaced a minimum of wires, reconnected the battery and she fire up first ask! Hope this is of use to someone? I'll rename this thread to 'fitting new ignition, switch 2000 Lupo' if I can if not can I get an admin to do it for me please? Any question please don't hesitate to ask, unless you're going to ask me to do it for you, then please hesitate at length! Ian

The ALD engine doesn't have EGR. First check the ignition on cylinder 4. It would be useful if you posted the errors as given by the tester.

The coilovers said they would drop a bit after settling. Seems they have settled at this height. I'm happy with this considering this was the first attempt at setting the height and I haven't touched it since.

Proper pics. Proper workshop. That's dedication to the cause 👍🏻

Welcome to Club Lupo There's a how-to do it yourself on here.

Drum brakes of course... Just wondering as I had a need to sort out the rear brakes on my silver SDI. Had the car nearly 7 years now. When I got it, I checked the rears and they were like new, hardly worn at 65k. Now at 120k, still hardly worn. But the handbrake didn't really work, so decided to strip, inspect and replace if needed. Date code was still on there, genuine vdub shoes (!!!) from 2001. Obviously the brakes that came with the car from new. So the problem became apparent once everything was off. The handbrake hinge cable lever arms were seized almost solid. So when you pull the brake, the brakes go on, sort of, but not enough. And didn't release much. Lots of handbrake arm movement. Also explains why there was very light binding. Solution was to swap to new brake shoes. But before fitting the new ones, decided to make sure the brand new lever worked smoothly. It didn't...! So worked in a small amount of CV grease until it worked easily. No excess grease anywhere. Now, the handbrake works with finger tip effort. Sorted. Handbrake turns to impress...

Morning guys, Thought I would mention how much of a legend that Rich was on saturday after fixing and replacing the pedal box on my lupo, like a new car now. Many thanks to Rich.

Where is it?

Hello mate looks a lovely car! I’ve just started to look for another GTI after 10 years since I had one. How much did you pay for that if you don’t mind me asking. Here’s a photo of my last one (I’ve owned about 5 in the past)

Yeah, like @Rich says, almost certainly the temp sensor. Buy genuine VW for this. I honestly cannot believe that VW never did a recall for temp sensors. Every, and I mean EVERY single vdub model from about 1998 to 2007 has had it's temp sensor changed. There's even a you tube video somewhere of a garage in the US that collected every faulty one it had changed in a big bin. It was full. Thousands. Mk4's, Boras, Lupos, Polos, Phaetons etc and the Audis, Skodas and Seats too. The cause I think, is that the Luxembourg company that made (and still makes them), used the wrong potting compound. The stuff they used set rock hard to encapsulate the two thermistors (One for the ECU the other for the dash). Only trouble is that the physical expansion of the thermistor material is different to the compound, resulting is heat expansion fatigue stress, then failure. Silicone or polyurethane compound (softer) would have been fine, but perhaps not as tough.

Green temp sensor, buy oem. Collecting gtis is fun. Do it.

i found the only locking tools i needed to do the cambelt were some drill bits, 8mm or 8.5mm from memory

Does look smart that! looks well looked after, no doubt it will get more of the same treatment from you!

That is V nice. You are now part of a small elite group. There aren't many GTis left in the Uk. Please look after it Is it the 5 or 6 speed gearbox version? Guessing 6... Red & black stitched interior.

I get what you're saying. It's also expensive to have enough space in Reading where you can put several cars though... He's home btw. Very Happy boy now!

So last weekend me and the missus made the trip up to Anglesey for a track day on the Sunday. We travelled up on Saturday and stayed the night, it's a 5-6 hour journey from Ipswich so I didn't fancy doing it all in one day :laugh: Once again the car perfomed faultlessly, the best it's ever felt in fact with the new KW V2 coilovers. They really have transformed the car, night and day better than the BC's. The car feels so much more composed and the spring rates seem much better. A lot less body roll also. I managed to do around 60 laps in total, some on the international circuit and some on the coastal circuit. On the way home we decided to go to the Evo Triangle, having previously been before the cameras got installed, I knew it wouldn't be as good this time but it would of been rude not to ey? It's still a great road with some great views, got a couple of pictures and a little video of what the car sounds like on the outside. I'll leave some pictures and video's below https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDk0kPqjFiA&ab_channel=ClaytonJones https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7ye4G77ChQ&ab_channel=ClaytonJones

Richtig toll. Alles auf Deutsch. Cool. Seriously. And yes... Lupos. Plural. Mmm. Me and @danno have more than one. Can't remember who else, but there are a few of us on here that believe that more is better. Usually not Gtis though; That gets expensive.

That is the plan, yes!

Give it some shell v power a shot of redex blow all the cobwebs away and enjoy.

Cheers mate. Nice one. It's fairly obvious that I am very excited, isn't it? I can't quite believe that tomorrow I will get my hands on my own Lupo Gti. On my regular dog walking route back in the old days when I was driving the black poverty spec Lupo I always walked past a black Gti that belonged to a snooty posh fräulein and I was extremely jealous that her daddy had bought her a Lupo Gti that should obviously have been mine. I also remember spending hours on the VW website car configurator (This was before broadband internet was a thing)... Your Lupos? as in more than one? The only one I can remember seeing around here is a silver Gti and when I used to work in Maidenhead another (!) silver Gti that was driven by a middle aged lady. But yeah I'd love to meet up and talk cars and I already know that I will be driving around a bit just for the fun of it. In the first post I did say that I used to own a black Lupo 1.0E, well technically it was the husband's car but we'll gloss over that. As we were just playing a bit of "spot the dashboard-differences" he went upstairs and got the book that he got when he ordered the Lupo. It's a 170 pages A4 hardcover that somehow I had forgotten existed, but I'll definitely have a read tonight. Here are a few pictures:

ill have a look at the map and get back to you on the complex questions, Injectors are the stock gsxr600 ones which i think are 240cc, but are at 80% duty so any more power and would probably need some bigger ones idle isnt too bad now ive balanced the itb's, its been raised to 1000 ish as itd try and die when the fan comes on or i turn the wheel at idle which loads the engine ill post a picture of the graph when i get a chance

Hi all, I just wanted to introduce myself to you lovely people on this forum... A long long time ago (20years or so) and in a different country (Germany), I used to own a black Lupo 1.0E with pop out rear windows (brilliant!) and I absolutely loved it. When I moved to this island, I sold the Lupo to my sister and replaced it with a 54reg Polo Sport 1.4 Tdi, which was also good fun if a bit rattly. I swapped the Polo for a 59reg Golf 1.6 Tdi bluemotion which was boring but alright because I was doing lots of boring job related miles. In March 2017 I sold the golf because the plan was that I'm gonna share the husband's Skoda Fabia Monte Carlo (He only needs a car about half of the working week, and I had a new job where I just had to go across town and no travelling for work and I was gonna cycle to work on the days he needs his car). I cycled to work once, in the dark, in the rain, up the hill and the next day I went off and bought a car. That was the first time I seriously considered buying a Lupo Gti even though I sort of always wanted one. I looked at a black one that appeared to be standard and in good nick and was advertised for £2000. (Those were the days...) It was at the other end of the country of course, so in the end I bought an 03reg BMW 318i touring. It was an absolutely terrible snotter, but I loved it. I spend many weekends and about 3 times more on parts than I spend on the actual car. That BMW finally died of cataclysmic engine failure caused by a snapped timing chain on 30th January this year. At that point I think there was only 1 Lupo Gti advertised on Autotrader and again it was over budget and far far away, so I bought a 58reg BMW 320i M-sport touring and it was weird, I somehow didn't bond with it. So I wasn't terribly upset when on the August bank holiday Madame decided that she had enough of waiting behind the bus that was stationary in her lane and crashed her Mini into the side of my BMW. Last Friday the insurance came to the conclusion that they don't want to repair the BMW and offered to put some money into my account instead. Straight onto the Autotrader website of course and there it was: A silver Lupo Gti for only a couple of hundred pounds more than what I got from the insurance and under an hour drive away. Of course I went and had a look first thing on Saturday. YC04WXY appears to be factory spec, 2 owners, 117000miles with full service history, incl. recent cam belt and water pump change. He looked (to me anyhow) very tidy and well looked after and I put down a deposit, now waiting for the Bacs payment to clear so I can go and pick him up. Here he is, still on the dealer forecourt... Okay, so the VW stickers have come off the wheels on the passenger side, there are a few unavoidable stone chip dings in the bonnet and there is a smidgen of bubblyness around the hatch handle. Of course the driver side door catch makes the typical clack clack noise and I'm hoping that the air con does just need a re-gas (I know, I know, my Polo's air con was destroyed by a stone too). However everything else seems to work and he drives beautifully, on the short(ish) test drive promising to be as much fun as expected. Since thenI have had a closer look at the MOT history and it appears that nobody bothered to do a MOT in 2017. It's 27 May 2016 then 26 April 2018. I wonder what's happened there... So, if anybody knows something about this car / has come across it before, please give me a shout, I would be very interested. Otherwise, wow I can't believe someone is still reading all the way down here and thank you for paying attention to me going on and on and on and on...

Found one at the scrapyard,was the last one! Both lupos have been almost gutted in about 2 weeks.

😁Hello after lurking on the site for a over a year I have now a Lupo.Japan import 79k all belts and pulleys done.All stock and staying as is.I live one mile from work so I’m keeping the car hopefully 15 years,can anyone tell me how to set the clock? The car was on piston heads for about 9 months! Here are a few pictures.

Hi all, Was curious if anyone has attempted a project similar to this before: raising a Lupo. When the Volkswagen Lupo was announced many years back I was disappointed that no "cross" version of the vehicle was ever made, as the VW Golf Country Mk2 looked (and still looks) amazing - even if it was built in limited numbers. So, the intent of this project would be to produce a VW Lupo which looks similar to the VW Golf Country Mk2 and fulfills a similar purpose. Of course, this is a very early concept and something I quickly whipped up in Microsoft paint but this would be something similar to the final design if said project was ever to be started. To start, the vehicle would be given a DSG Gearbox from perhaps a VW Golf Mk5/6/7 to assist in driving through the United Kingdom. The proposed engines can be seen below, as you notice the displacement does not go above 1.4L, this is due to a multiple of reasons including: insurance, emission laws, fuel economy, and longevity of the project. Atop of this, I assume installing a 1.4L engine into a 1.4L car is not as difficult as perhaps swapping a 1.8L into a Lupo; though with no experience I could be wrong. Most likely, the Volkswagen Golf Mk7 1.4L TSI R-Line (150bhp) engine and 7 speed DSG will be used; this is to increase the longevity of the car as a VW Lupo in perfect (or near perfect) body condition with a (roughly) 3 year old engine and transmission will likely last for atleast another 5 years. if this project was to either begin, as well, the car would be looked after extensively to ensure its longevity. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the vehicle would be the external roll cage and Mercedes-Benz G-Class wheel guards, said guards would roughly increase the width of the vehicle by 120mm each side (*note, not finalised). The roll cage would be attached to the vehicle at several points (as seen in the pictures below, in lime green), the two attachments in the roof are intended to form inner roll cages and connect to the floor of the car (the Chassis) for additional rigidity and support. Atop of this, the G-Class style dual side exit exhausts would also be present on the vehicle because... 😄 and a car snorkel would also be fitted. A roof rack would also be added to the vehicle, holding either an LED bar of lights or Circular LED lights similar to the front of the Lupo. The car would also have a ladder on the back to access the roof rack more easily (even if you can just jump it 😅) . The cars suspension would also need to be altered to accommodate the weight, the minimum ground clearance of the vehicle would be 5" and the proposed vehicle would not be fitted by hydraulic suspension; nor would the vehicle be fitted with 4WD (unlike the Golf Country) due to budget constraints. Cosmetically, the car would be receive the words "Lupo" on the rear similar to how the words "Golf" appear on the new Volkswagen Golf Mk8. The front of the car would receive the "mean" eyes and badgeless front end; however, the badge would still be mounted onto the bonnet of the car in a way similar to that of the Volkswagen Scirocco Mk3. The badges, of course, would all be blacked out and the car would be painted Audi Nardo Grey. The roll cages would be painted BMW Protonic Red. The brake calipers would be painted gold. The brake lights of the car would be custom made, however this is not finalised. The rear seats of the car may be removed to accommodate additional storage for when you want to go camping etc. The spare tire storage area would be removed for further storage and, when needed, (i.e. not around town) a spare tire can be held by the roof rack. The G-Class wheel guards would also have indicators on them, these would be in an as yet finalised design - but most likely be similar to that of the G-Class bonnet indicators, but placed on the guards instead. Whilst I understand this isn't the traditional or "go-to" Lupo modification, I just thought it would be fun: whether or not I, or anyone else, attempts such a modification I just wanted to get his out of my system lol. Atop of this, the vehicle originally was to become 4WD, have a DSG transmission, and a decent engine - when roughly adding up the costs the car soon exceeded £10000: which is out of my budget. As a result, the more realistic approach would be to keep the car as front wheel drive and make the roll cage myself to save on most of this projects costs. Regardless though, I hope you enjoyed my take on a Volkswagen Lupo Country. *Note* and I understand that some of the images and diagrams I have used are not accurate, but they are their to simple estimate costs/sizes and are temporary: once the project officially begins I will document all changes to the car thoroughly.

That was years ago. When I got that car it was a 2.0 16v ecotec.

Year 2000 Lupo 1.0 with 36.5k miles

Wow that is a clean beam - thought you were going to say it had been powder coated. Rich - did you picked that language up - in between comparing hair straighteners -on the TT forums?

Ah, I hadn't realised, it's a switch, it's a switch that seem very difficult to get hold of, I'd assume run of the mill stuff like that was easily available fro EuroCar parts, no it had to come (eventually) from Germany. Took the old and knackered on apart, the sprung contact(?) fell out, can't be arsed to figure out where it came from but the of white base on the half to the right hand side is showing some serious wear, dunno, 'electricks' aren't my forte! Ian

Nice one Mickster. Probably the best colour too. Hope it serves your sister well.

Update: Some engine mods have been on the cards for a while now, with the jersey rally (main event of the year) being cancelled due to Covid now has been the ideal time to start this. In the hunt for more power, i decided to bite the bullet and go standalone ECU as no one on island can map the factory ecu. Aswell as doing an AVY/AFH Hybrid built (very basic) I managed to pick up a 6n polo 16v for a donor head (AFH) which would form the base of the upgrade. I rebuilt the head which was pretty minging for a 40k miles car, and stuck it on the stock bottom end. And ran it on the stock management in order to bed the cams in. Once all was bedded in i started on the Standalone conversion I went for a ME221 motorsport electronic ecu which has alot of features of expensive ecu's for a lower price point. I then spent a good few days making an engine harness for it. Keeping the stock ecu to run the clocks (minus the rev gauge) With the new ecu wired up it was a case of putting it all together, injection is by the way of gsxr600 itb's on a danst intake manifold. with a few tweeks to the basemap it fires up and idles sweet, with the lovely itb soundtrack. Also fitted in a aem wideband gauge to get the idle safe before the dyno session, aswell as an oil pressure light on a higher pressure switch. this had to be wired up separately to the factory light as having the engine run on the standalone, the factory ecu doesnt like to see oil pressure when it thinks its not running. The rolling road day is in 2 weeks time, a week before the next event so fingers crossed for no dyno day hickups

Gearbox oil change resulted in significant improvement. All sorted thanks.

Hi all! First post on the forum, after some help and advice. Bought a lupo 1.0 MPI as a cheap runaround for the next year of university, parking space in my apartment block is tiny so lupo it is! On the drive home it started hesitating and losing power on the motorway section, which luckily wasn't too long so I made it home fine but it's definitely misfiring and my scan tool confirmed it's cylinder 4 along with lean fuel trim. I've done some reading on the forums, seems spark plugs, leads and coil packs are a must and they looked quite old so I've bought new ones which are in the post. While they're on their way I decided to clean the throttle body which cleaned up lovely, but I also wanted to clean the egr but couldn't find it?? Very confused because maybe the engine doesn't have one but most posts suggest cleaning it so maybe I'm being brain-dead but does the ALD engine have an egr? If the plugs and leads do nothing I will put a new fuel filter in anyways and check for fuel pressure, fingers crossed the plugs and leads fix it, coil pack after. I'll do a compression test too and get back with the results when the tool arrives, I know about the +-10% rule but any PSI values I should be aiming for? Would appreciate any advice or help from you guys, hopefully get the car running sweet before uni, I'm not afraid of doing a head gasket or anything either but let's try the easy stuff first haha Cheers!

Could be a clogged up injector - try swapping cylinder 4 injector with another and see if the misfire moves to that cylinder Take care re-inserting injector into fuel rail - they don't go all the way in - the clip limits its height Edit : those injector seals look really crusty, probably could do with a clean and lube with thin smear of vaseline

Ha ha. sorry the car has been amazing. still need to fit the bloody rear brakes.

I've been finding the same for many parts from ECP recently. Yeah when left and right sides are different, i can't stand it. OCD for sure Ball joints, track rod ends, bonded bushes, lock components, brake parts, wheel bearings. Arggghhhh!

If it sticks, my guess is that something hasn't been put back right. The plunger should travel in and out quite easily, with the pedal connection point at the centre of the pivot. So when off, it should be slightly high, when pressed slightly low. Is the brake servo working ok?

60 Nm + 1/4 turn (90 °) further Must be renew.

Yeah, that looks ok. If mostly short journeys, I'd go one level hotter. So if it's a nnn7 plug, try a nnn6. Helps keep combustion chamber a bit cleaner, but shorter plug life.

So the compression tester arrived today, just did the readings and I've got to say I'm very relieved: 4 200 psi 3 185 psi 2 195 psi 1 200 psi 3 does seem a bit lower than the others but correct me if I'm wrong it's within tolerance. Also checked the plugs that were in there, all looked fine no soot no white crystals, only thing is they were Bosch plugs and I've read on here NGK is the way to go so luckily I ordered some NGK ones on eBay yesterday. When the plugs, leads and fuel filter arrive I'll give an update but it looks promising! 😃

You know I have a gut feeling it's not ignition related. A manifold or vacuum hose / servo hose leak usually causes this type of problem. Try disconnecting the vacuum lines and plugging them if you get nowhere with new ignition bits to help isolate the fault. But, could be compression . Hoepfully not the valves or HG. May just be a stuck ring and needs a good thrashing after an oil change (if low compression).

Thanks for the reply, I've attached the codes from my obd reader, I'll do a compression test when the kit arrives and report back. Any neat ways to check the ignition on cylinder 4? I was thinking of swapping some of the HT leads around and seeing what happens?

Thanks Just needs a small repair to the bonnet and some paint now. Don’t want to do heavy mods but I fitted Bilstein B12 suspension kit to it, the 15mm lower ones. Got a full stainless system for it too (manifold back) other than that it’s staying as stock and will keep original parts for resale at some point.

Yep. Original spec had air con, leather, electric windows. I was told it was a dealer demo car so had the options.

After testing all our skills in sanding, filling, painting and laquering a black indicator panel and then building broken the support brackets from plastic, glue and nuts/bolts this morning we have: Its still not 100%, but once the local breakers yeard opens up, i will find the parts i need. It does look better though! All credit to my daughter who has learnt the fine art of painting and sanding....

Quick update, lupo is nearly fixed. Strategically positioned camera angle here as I’m still waiting for the O/S wing to arrive from Poland. Other than that grill to fit then off to Bodyshop for a respray