Greetings. Here in Alberta, rust-free Mk4’s (or rust free anythings) are completely unheard of due to all the salt on the roads, and nearly every TDI that comes up for sale has 450,000km on it. Recently, I found a unicorn, and picked up this one owner 04 BEW Golf with 96,000km.
The owner was an older gentleman who passed away, so the car sat in the barn for a number of years until his wife sold the farm. I drove a few hours to buy the car sight-unseen, and after some bargaining, got it for a steal. Strangely, according to the service records, when it was new the owner had the dealer convert from power to crank windows before he even drove it off the lot. I guess he must have had past experience with VW window motors.
The tires had dry-rotted, but otherwise it looked like new. After getting the car home, spending some serious time with a pressure washer, and getting new tires on it, I started undoing the neglect. As expected, the battery was toast after freezing and thawing repeatedly. But the real nastiness came when I investigated the smelly HVAC. The entire bulkhead area where the cabin filter, ecu, and wiper motors are was a giant mouse nest, and clearly had been for some time.
So once the deep-clean inside and out was complete, I started looking at mechanical items. Changed every fluid & filter, installed a frost-heater, replaced the driver's door lock actuator, replaced the cracked lower front valance, did the timing belt, inspected the cam, verified the EGR brackets were all present & tight, purged the fuel system, and flashed a Malone Stage 1.5 tune.
At this point, it was time for the first real test-drive. The car had a significant boost leak, exhaust leak, and lack of power. Turns out the lower intercooler hose was completely disconnected, and the turbo was only bolted on finger-tight. A dig through the records shows a turbo replacement under warranty just before the car was parked (gotta love dealership service attention to detail haha), so after tightening things up it ran like a champ.
Now it was time to tackle some mods. If you've ever wondered why MK4's rust behind the front wheels, this is what I found after removing the inner fender liner:
After cleaning, to keep the rust at bay I bedlined the lower inner fenders:
Then installed an OEM Roof rack, Carplay deck, and small sub.
Also added a center armrest from ECS, and swapped all the interior bulbs to LEDs, and picked up a set of OEM 15" alloys for summer.
And that's how it sits to date. Runs great and rides like a cloud (for a MK4). Started it up in -30C this week with no problems. Future plans when the weather is warmer include undercoating the body seams/pinch welds, and then probably a VNT-17.
The owner was an older gentleman who passed away, so the car sat in the barn for a number of years until his wife sold the farm. I drove a few hours to buy the car sight-unseen, and after some bargaining, got it for a steal. Strangely, according to the service records, when it was new the owner had the dealer convert from power to crank windows before he even drove it off the lot. I guess he must have had past experience with VW window motors.
The tires had dry-rotted, but otherwise it looked like new. After getting the car home, spending some serious time with a pressure washer, and getting new tires on it, I started undoing the neglect. As expected, the battery was toast after freezing and thawing repeatedly. But the real nastiness came when I investigated the smelly HVAC. The entire bulkhead area where the cabin filter, ecu, and wiper motors are was a giant mouse nest, and clearly had been for some time.
So once the deep-clean inside and out was complete, I started looking at mechanical items. Changed every fluid & filter, installed a frost-heater, replaced the driver's door lock actuator, replaced the cracked lower front valance, did the timing belt, inspected the cam, verified the EGR brackets were all present & tight, purged the fuel system, and flashed a Malone Stage 1.5 tune.
At this point, it was time for the first real test-drive. The car had a significant boost leak, exhaust leak, and lack of power. Turns out the lower intercooler hose was completely disconnected, and the turbo was only bolted on finger-tight. A dig through the records shows a turbo replacement under warranty just before the car was parked (gotta love dealership service attention to detail haha), so after tightening things up it ran like a champ.
Now it was time to tackle some mods. If you've ever wondered why MK4's rust behind the front wheels, this is what I found after removing the inner fender liner:
After cleaning, to keep the rust at bay I bedlined the lower inner fenders:
Then installed an OEM Roof rack, Carplay deck, and small sub.
Also added a center armrest from ECS, and swapped all the interior bulbs to LEDs, and picked up a set of OEM 15" alloys for summer.
And that's how it sits to date. Runs great and rides like a cloud (for a MK4). Started it up in -30C this week with no problems. Future plans when the weather is warmer include undercoating the body seams/pinch welds, and then probably a VNT-17.