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My Lupo Gti


bernd
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Well, as Frank aka @mk2 has asked how things are with the Lupo now I've had it a few months, here goes:

I am absolutely and totally in love with the teeny tiny Volkswagen!

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To be a bit more specific:

  • I'm driving around everywhere with a big grin on my face, possibly going a tiny bit faster than what would be sensible for someone my age.
  • It's brilliant fun to just not slow down at all for roundabouts (However, the dog would probably disagree with this)
  • The little car is bloody fast.
  • At the same time it's also comfortable.
  • The noise it makes when you put your foot down is absolutely hilarious.
  • The build quality is outstanding (The 03 reg E46 BMW I used to have with 30000 miles less was in a considerably worse state)
  • I like the stealth-factor of the Lupo Gti, as in most people just see a little shopping car but you get an appreciative nod from some people (mostly blokes in their 40ies who recognise what it is and are still a bit sad that the girlfriend insisted on buying a Mini Cooper back in 2003).

Regarding this particular Lupo Gti, I appreciate that it is completely original spec. floor mats and everything, with only 2 previous owners who appear to have looked after it reasonably well, although there are signs that it suffered at times from a ham-fisted mechanic. It is by no means in perfect condition, e.g. the interior generally and the door cards particularly are somewhat scruffy, but then it's 16 years old, so fair enough really. I was relieved to see that when we had it "flying" in the garage, everything underneath looks in good shape apart from a little bit of surface rust here and there. Messing about with jacks and ramps and axle stands is always a bit tense though I have to say.

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Things I've done so far:

  • 4 new tyres: Immense improvement. I can definitely recommend the Hankook Ventus Evo 2 tyres.
  • 2 new window winder switches driver's side
  • New oil and filter, air filter, pollen filter, spark plugs.
  • Cleaned throttle body and cleared adaptations.
  • Windscreen wipers part 1: The part of the column switch that holds the stalk in position had broken off, so had to be replaced. In the process of doing that, taking the airbag off, I ripped the plug off the clock spring cable. So I had to replace the clock spring too. D'oh!
  • Windscreen wipers part 2: At some point, the linkage from the wiper motor to the driver side wiper had come apart and whoever repaired it put it all back together upside down. Obviously this caused insufficient shuddering wipers and a really annoying rattle. It also bashed into the plenum chamber cover  with every wipe and completely destroyed that. New wiper blades of course.
  • 3rd brake light / rear spoiler: Matey next door pointed out to me that the 3rd brake light does not work. So I took the spoiler off and discovered that there was quite a bit of moisture inside, but the main reason was that it was not connected to anything. The plug was missing, just 2 blanked off cables with a bit of masking tape wrapped around them going nowhere. This does cause some doubt about the latest MOT test. However I tested the led unit and it worked. I put everything back together, thinking I'll chance it with the rubber seal around the led unit and fingers crossed. So of course when there was torrential rain for several days at the beginning of October a substantial amount of water collected inside the spoiler and caused havoc with the electrics. The alarm went off 3 times during one night. To not cause more grief for my neighbours I left it unlocked for the rest of the night, hoping the rain would put any casual car thief off. Luckily I was then able to leave it in the neighbours garage next night to dry everything out again. A little bit of clear silicone sealant together with the rubber seal seems to have sorted it. At least so far.
  • Aux belt, Cam belts and water pump: While it's not very difficult, it is a big job and it seemed to go on and on for ever. By the time I was already well fed up with tinkering with engines, it looked like half my car was still in bits on the garage floor. I'm not gonna write it all up, there's a very good guide on the forum already, but here are a few pictures: 

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Things that need sorting:

  • The dreaded door strap issue. Check out @mk2's post on the topic here: https://forums.clublupo.co.uk/index.php?/topic/106783-everyone-with-a-lupo-or-arosa-important-door-strap-info/
  • Actually replace the wonky coolant temperature sensor with the new one that's been lying around on the window sill in the living room for a while.
  • Find out what exactly it is that causes the car to lock itself again and set the alarm off if the ignition is not switched on quick enough after unlocking.
  • Find out why the air con doesn't work
  • Wheel centre VW badge: Anybody got an idea where I can get my hands on one?

Things that I'm sort of thinking about maybe doing at some point in the future:

  • I mentioned that it is nice that the car is completely original, I'd definitely prefer grey door cards to the red ones.
  • I also quite like the idea of swapping the front seats for a pair of  Recaros from a Mk4 Golf Gti.
  • Pop out rear windows: The only option on the Lupo 1.0 E I had many years ago were the pop out windows, and I absolutely loved them, because pop out rear windows are cool.

So all in all there's plenty to keep me occupied and I'm a very happy boy!

Finally, I'm thinking about the dilemma of using the Lupo Gti as "a car", meaning in this particular case: living outside, having an owner who is notorious for having a messed up car, transporting a muddy dog, etc. vs preserving it as a "modern classic" e.g. keeping it in a garage, keeping it clean, only using it when the weather is nice and so on. At the moment it functions very nicely as "a car", so I dunno about that one.

Thank you for reading, folks!

Frank, I hope this satisfies your curiosity 😀

Thoughts on any of this will be much appreciated...

Edited by bernd
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Epico. Approved. ☑️

Weird unlocking behaviour I've seen before in other vdubs of that era. Always related to central locking switches, in the doors. You lock it, then a second or so later it unlocks again...

AC- three most common problems on vdubs with AC is

  • the main power bus feed on top of the battery (on the front fuse holder unit for a gti), and no obvious increase in engine RPMs when selected to ON.
  • the fan controller unit is defective, usually indicated by only the high speed fan working (no low speed fan)
  • no power feed to the compressor when selected ON

But low gas is another, although unusual. There is a high/low/just right pressure switch sensor thing on the high pressure liquid feed into the evaporator.

Edited by mk2
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6 hours ago, weslangdon said:

With the end of petrol/diesel cars on the horizon I'd use it and enjoy it while I can, no point in storing it as the future will be here very quickly

Yeah, that is a very good point. Also, it seems to me that owning a Lupo Gti and not using it does sort of defeat the point of owning one in the first place...

IN OTHER NEWS, THIS JUST IN: Apparently the switch that triggers the handbrake-on warning light has now come to the end of its useful life, so every time I accelerate and/or drive uphill the warning light is triggered. Obviously fixing that has now been given 1st priority. I don't mind the warning light so much, but the highly annoying buzzer that comes with it would make me wanna tear my hair out if I had any left... So, Yay!

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Fossil fuel cars will be around for at least another 100 years... fuel costs, taxation and licencing may make it cost prohibitive though, only becoming a luxury thing for the wealthy. A bit like the "certificate of entitlement" in Singapore which is a weird system apparently. Permits can cost more than a car.

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Thanks -Good photos and write-up Bernd.  I too remain devoted to mine!  All you mention is of interest, but I'm especially so regarding your new tyres - could you tell us please what size you've managed to find those Hankooks in?  I would like to retain the OE width of 205, but I thought the tyres you mention don't come wider than 195 for a 15" rim? Regards. David

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14 hours ago, mk2 said:

Fossil fuel cars will be around for at least another 100 years... fuel costs, taxation and licencing may make it cost prohibitive though, only becoming a luxury thing for the wealthy. A bit like the "certificate of entitlement" in Singapore which is a weird system apparently. Permits can cost more than a car.

Yes, its the restrictions rather than the lack of availability that will make life difficult, I suspect its also that wealthy people who can afford cars that can do large distances in electric cars want the scruffs like us off the Motorways

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I've no issues with electric cars in principle. Batteries are always the problem though, and at the moment it's a lack of infrastructure that prevents electric cars from being a viable options. Otherwise I might be tempted by a Honda e. I think it looks very cool.

@davy26 The tyres are 195/50 R15. When I was researching tyres I came across an "actual tyre size" chart (I can't remember where exactly I'm afraid, possibly on the Hankook website) and the Hankook 195/50 R15 are actually 203 mm wide. As far as I know, the only tyres available in 205/45 R15 are Toyo Proxes which are considerably more expensive and have a worse rating in both economy and wet grip compared to the Hankooks. I used to run Hankook Ventus tyres on a 3series touring a while back and I thought they were good tyres then, which was another reason for my decision.

@mk2Excellent advice. Many thanks. Switching on the AC makes no difference whatsoever to idle rpm, so I'll check out the power feed first. I assume that the central locking behaviour is caused by the door microswitches, e.g. it's not recognising that the door has been opened and the car locks itself after a minute or so. The interior light doesn't come on either when opening the door, which would support my hypothesis. It's not really a problem, there's enough time to e.g. get the dog in the back jump in and turn ignition on before the car locks itself again, and if I know that I will take longer I'm just turning the ignition on and off again briefly. It's just that the husband had taken the Lupo to Lidl the other day and didn't notice it had locked itself again, so he set the alarm off when turning the key in the ignition and was still in a fluster when he got home. (He's generally quite fed-up with my used car antics, as the Lupo is the 4th car I've bought this year.)

That handbrake-on warning buzzer is driving me absolutely crazy though, that needs sorting now! You don't happen to know the part number, or do you @mk2?

Edited by bernd
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No idea. I don't have a handbrake buzzer on my Lupos. On a gti, is there a separate buzzer for the handbrake, to the lights on reminder? I know that the buzzer (or sounder to describe it more accurately) in the instrument cluster can fail. Did on one of my Lupos...

If you leave the lights on and open the driver's door, does it give you a warning?

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I don't know if there's a separate warning sounder for the lights on, because of the failed microswitch in the door. I've sorted it out though. Phew! I pulled the plug off the handbrake control (handbremskontrolle) and the warning light / buzzer still came on intermittently, which caused momentary panic where I saw myself pulling apart most of the interior to find where the insulation has been scrubbed off the wire. Instead I searched for the symptoms on Clublupo and it turns out that the handbrake-on and brake fluid level indicator share a warning light. So a good glug of Dot 4 and all is well again, thanks to the wisdom dispensed on internet forums. With hindsight it makes perfect sense as well that the pattern when the warning light came on was related to a fluid level, e.g. when accelerating, going uphill it sloshed backwards, the light came on, while parked on the drive with the nose down it didn't.

Now I just need to find out where the brake fluid is disappearing to and either find the little plastic plunger that came off the handbrake switch and disappeared somewhere in the depths under the carpet last night or get a new switch...

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The pads look ok, plenty meat left on them. However the MOT test at the 22nd June noted the following:

Do not drive until repaired (dangerous defects):

Front Brakes imbalanced across an axle by more than 50% Axle 1 (1.2.1 (b) (ii))

Repair immediately (major defects):

Central Rear Stop lamp(s) not working (4.3.1 (a) (ii))

Nearside Front Service brake excessively binding (1.2.1 (f))

Offside Front Service brake excessively binding (1.2.1 (f))

The brakes seem to be working fine, not pulling to a side or anything, so some sort of repair has clearly been done. Considering the way the 3rd  brake light had been "repaired", a complete overhaul of the brakes has now moved to the top of my to do list. This is also a good opportunity to paint the 2  silver callipers on the rear red.

The other thing that has happened, this afternoon is that some crazy person reversed his Ford people carrier into the front of the Lupo in the Screwfix car park in Reading. This car park has an odd shape and the parking bays are laid out in 3 different directions. I had parked in that particular spot because the car in front would have been able to just drive off straight ahead, easy peasy. I was about to open the door when that car's reversing lights came on. I did think, he must see me, I'm right here when he actually started reversing. Because I had the key in my hand already, pushing the horn did nothing, and before I could think of something else to do I already heard the dull thud of impact. So I took a deep breath and got out of my car to have a look. I'm quite proud of myself that I managed to not shout at the other driver, but I couldn't help greeting him with a "What did you do that for mate?" as well as pointing out that he blatantly wasn't looking where he was going. He was very apologetic about it and luckily as far as I could see he hasn't caused any damage. I've got his details though and will have a closer look in daylight tomorrow.

A bit of background on this: 

On the 6th July, exactly a week after I bought it, my best mate and neighbour managed to flip my Mazda MX-5 on it's side at 60 miles an hour and smash it through the hedge into a field near Pangbourne. That was rather exciting.C5B20E59-6699-4234-9FDA-1EE364F63D81.thumb.jpeg.ca7ac03f41bede526b9c1877613dddb3.jpeg8AAEC5B1-E506-45EF-BD3E-D736869FCBA7.thumb.jpeg.225920570dbfbbf5db92186eb261e338.jpeg

I'm still amazed that we both walked away from that without as much as a scratch. And yeah, we're still mates...

And then on the August bank holiday, that woman, completely unprovoked, smashed her Mini into the side of my BMW and wrote that off. Ironically I was on my way to Guildford with a boot full of bits from the crashed car, that we've sold to recoup some of the money matey boy spent on a replacement Mazda. 

Therefore, I think understandably, I'm a bit sensitive in regards to car crashes at the moment.

 

Edited by bernd
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Personally I would be planning to spend a good amount of time looking at your front brakes for leaks, uneven wear and condition of discs and pads.

It may be something as simple as gummed up sliders and pads sticking in the carrier causing the imbalance- all you need is couple of tins of brake cleaner and silicone brake grease.

The holes in the carrier that the slider pins go into are best cleaned out with a drill bit turned by hand -iirc 8mm - and a good squeewsh of brake cleaner.

With caliper off, check under for brake fluid leaking past the seal, carefully prise up the piston boots.

 

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So far the level of brake fluid does appear to be stable. The brakes are also not pulling to one side, but I will have a good look when I’ve got a bit of time and a free garage. The car only did 1000 miles between this MOT and the one before, so it’s not really surprising if the brakes are a bit sticky. 

There’s more maintenance to catch up with:

It occurred to me to check the power steering fluid today and well, it didn’t even reach the dip stick, so I filled that up.

It also seems that the alloys are very porous indeed. I have to pump the tyres up basically every week, and I don’t think it’s the brand new tyres. I don’t really know what to do about that... Any suggestions would be very welcome...

And the Lupo has acquired a generous coating of lovely winter grime:

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On 12/3/2020 at 3:11 PM, bernd said:

I've no issues with electric cars in principle. Batteries are always the problem though, and at the moment it's a lack of infrastructure that prevents electric cars from being a viable options. Otherwise I might be tempted by a Honda e. I think it looks very cool.

 

The basis of the electric car issue is questionable as there is no recognition of the immense cost of manufacturing the batteries especially when this involves scarce resources like lithium from Bolivia (just recovering from a US organised coup) and rare earth metals excavated by children in the DRC. Plus a battery doesn't last very long, what happens then, do you get a replacement or do you bin the car, I much prefer the use of hydrogen or methane as clean fuel. 

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Totally agree. Makes sense eventually, but right now, the infrastructure isn't there, and burning coal or gas to generate power to run the cars is less efficient than running a petrol or diesel. So taking into account the materials and the energy consumption, we're actually taking a big step back right now. But hey, it keeps the masses employed and taxes coming in for gov. :)

 

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I suppose the ideal scenario would be hydrogen fuel cells, using nuclear power to extract it from water in a carbon neutral manner. Preferably fusion as it’s much more efficient than fission, but hey ho, pipe dreams...

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1 hour ago, bernd said:

I suppose the ideal scenario would be hydrogen fuel cells, using nuclear power to extract it from water in a carbon neutral manner. Preferably fusion as it’s much more efficient than fission, but hey ho, pipe dreams...

They plan a huge increase in wind farms but there will be times when wind is slack so they can use pump storage, nuclear and stored hydrogen created when there is surplus wind power. Fusion is still theoretical I'm afraid.

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Yeah, I’m aware of that. I’m married to a Physicist 

Actually, fusion is possible with current technologies and has been achieved in experimental research, e.g. at CCFE in Culham, Oxfordshire. The problem is making fusion commercially viable 

Edited by bernd
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  • 3 months later...

Ah, cheers! 
Well, I do like a good odometer picture. Luckily this one happened just as I was arriving home anyway. Usually I tend to miss the interesting number by a couple of miles, and nobody wants to see a picture of that. 

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