Advice on modded AUDI TT purchase

I don’t have much experience with 1.8t cars but what seems like a pretty enticing deal has popped up. 

2000 1.9LT TT coupe Quattro 5 speed stick with a gt28 series turbo upgrade. 

A guy I deal with a lot in our business park asked me if I wanted to buy his 2000 TT coupe with a built motor - at first I said no but asked more questions about it and might be interested now. 

Car has quite a bit done to it:
Bored to 1.9l with aftermarket forged pistons/rods
Gt28 hybrid turbo
Custom tuned Ecu at 30psi 
Snow Water/meth injection
1000cc injectors 
Custom charge pipes, down pipe and exhaust
Boost controller 
Bigger clutch

and more....

This guy is a VERY capable engineer/fabricator that I have dealt with for a couple years and I have seen him build some very clever bikes/cars/industrial equipment. I have no reservations about the build quality of the motor, fabrication  or that only top shelf parts were used... but I just don’t know much about these motors or drivetrain and how robust these are. He is not sure exactly what it puts down for power but well north of 400hp. 

I also have no idea what it should be worth? It is a one owner car and has 145,000km on it (motor built at 90km) and is accident free and in nice clean shape. It is a total sleeper - looks completely stock.  

What would a reasonable value be? Any input is appreciated.

Ok so I ended up buying it.... 

Opposite of hidden hitch.... kinda more like fully proud erect hitch.... has since been removed.

The Greddy boost controller has high and low settings - currently at 30psi and 18psi respectively. I drove it home on the low boost setting and it pulled pretty hard.  Going to insure it soon and see what it will really do. 

My wife's TT is at the top of my list for best and worst cars I've owned. I loved the car itself. One of the great designs. Beautiful inside and out. The 1.8, even stock, was a great motor and it handled well enough to be a great daily driver. 

But..... 

Oil changes were an hour long ordeal with removing the undertray. As the car aged there were intermittent and untraceable electrical issues with windows, locks, and all sorts of things. The final straw was the underhood plasrics getting fragile and starting to break under a good hard stare. 

I'm sure you'll enjoy it. They're great.

Does it have the Baseball Glove seats? I can't form an opinion without this information.

Agreed the baseball globe seats are a clincher.  In general always liked these and despite the early sludge  issues of the 1.8t it’s proved to be a much stouter motor than the 2.0t.

A friend asked me if he should buy one of the later S models lightly used. I told him no, too many issues. After the second trans under warranty the rear end locked up on I75 in downtown Atlanta. They towed it to the dealership and he left in a V6 Dodge Charger which has been a much better car.

Best of luck.

Woody said:

Does it have the Baseball Glove seats? I can't form an opinion without this information.

I did not know this was a thing ... Not sure how I feel about them. 

IIRC, the baseball glove seats were only available in the roadster/convertible models. Bummer, I know as they do look and feel awesome.

I don't get why people bitch about the underbelly pan.  Are you guys removing the screws with your teeth or something? It takes like 30 seconds with a cordless screw-gun. Yeesh... After that, it's a typical Euro car to service. Some tasks will be easy, others will make you learn new swear words in German. 

The 1.8t is definitely a capable engine and can be modded for huge power gains. It sounds like the guy knew what he was doing, but still - when you start to push the limits, things will break and it's not the fault of the engine. Be sure to change the oil fairly often and use VAG-rated synthetic. VAG turbo engines do not tolerate cheap oil. 

Bear in mind, this is NOT a stop-light car. Yeah, it'll do hard pulls if you make it, but the drivetrain bits won't last long doing so.  This would be a better track car

The first gen TT is essentially a modified Mk IV Jetta/Golf.  Buy front wheel bearings in bulk and the tools to R&R them.  And follow the installation procedure (which is... weird...). It has better front suspension geometry than the VW. A popular Golf/Jetta upgrade is to install TT front suspension bits, which bolt in.

That hitch with a 2" receiver is definitely not a standard part by any hitch vendor I've ever seen.  My guess is it was modified to bolt to the TT sub-structure.  I might be interested in it (it might fit my Jetta wagon), depending on where you are.

That hitch with a 2" receiver is definitely not a standard part by any hitch vendor I've ever seen.  My guess is it was modified to bolt to the TT sub-structure.  I might be interested in it (it might fit my Jetta wagon), depending on where you are.

I’m in the Vancouver BC area. It was a custom install and pretty sturdy! I would be open to selling it if shipping was not a killer. 

So far the car is great - great meaning I drove it home without issue and it is sitting on my driveway. I have a few other priorities that I need to take care off before I will insure it and get to drive it. 

Does not have the baseball glove seats - just plain black leather. That is kinda unfortunate as the baseball glove interior is really cool. 

I remember there being a silver TT in our local vw/Audi dealer’s showroom in 2001 when we bought a new beetle there. I distinctly remember thinking that interior was the most excellent interior I had ever seen in a new car. 

If if I decide to keep this car I might order a replacement set of those seat covers and redo these. 

I wouldn't use an electronic boost controller on that engine.  They come with an electronic boost controller stock, the N75 valve.  If someone has pulled that out and gone with a Greddy, I'd take it to a shop that knows 1.8T's inside and out and have them carefully inspect everything.

30lbs of boost is WAY too much unless it has a built motor and much, much larger turbo.

docwyte said:

I wouldn't use an electronic boost controller on that engine.  They come with an electronic boost controller stock, the N75 valve.  If someone has pulled that out and gone with a Greddy, I'd take it to a shop that knows 1.8T's inside and out and have them carefully inspect everything.

30lbs of boost is WAY too much unless it has a built motor and much, much larger turbo.

Posted above but you probably missed it:

Car has quite a bit done to it:
Now a 1.9l with aftermarket forged pistons/rods
Gt28 hybrid turbo
Custom tuned Ecu at 30psi 
Snow Water/meth injection
1000cc injectors 
Custom charge pipes, down pipe and exhaust
Boost controller 
Aftermarket clutch

The motor is far far from stock - also has a FMIC, external Tial waste gate, MAF delete - running exclusively on the custom tune.

Moving the A/F and boost gauges out of the pillar pod and into the 2 center dash vents....
 

....problem was the glue in plastic adapter rings I bought positioned the gauges too far out and uneven given that they have different bezels.....

....so I made some custom beefy aluminum ones and they are now ready to install. They allow both gauges to be mounted flush with the TT aluminum vent rings.
 

 Very slick gauge install

That is an awesome mounting solution. 

Going to build something like this shortly. 

Which will work with the rear seat delete/sub box I just made. 

These showed up on the weekend - should get rid of the unsightly fender gap. 
 

And gauges looking good back in the dash 

I like where this is going!  Always loved these cars

Worked on the TT today. Filled all the screw heads in the sub box/rear seat delete with bondo and sanded smooth, glued on the felt and speakers back in

Love the gauge and sub box mods! Very excited to see where this goes, I'm rocking a 2016 Beetle 1.8T/5-speed right now, but I've been eyeballing TT Coupes for awhile... 

~Peter

Ok - both amps functional now, wires tucked and ready to fine tune. 

Very cool. I purchased a 2001 tt 225 last year. very good condition, no rust and it had a lot of mods already done to it. i took it to a shop here in detroit and sunk almost $10k into. turbo, inter-cooler, injectors, exhaust, fuel pump, tune, suspension.. etc. on the way home from the shop getting it tuned.. it exploded on I-75 in Detroit. shot the rods through all 4 cylinders walls lol never seen anything like it in my life. long story short... looking for a AMU short block to rebuild it and make it a street/track car for my wife in hopes that she will want to start tracking it with me in my Porsche.

following your thread, keep it up ;) and the a sub box.. awesome!!