Project Dadmobile: an Alltrack story

In reply to Parker with too many Projects :

Yeah, the OEM Canyons weigh a ton, but they do look good! They may stick around a little longer, actually. Currently planning out some front suspension upgrades and that'll probably take priority over wheels for now I think. 

Great read. Thanks for the wheel pics. I have a set of OZ and Sparco Wheels that I'm going to put on which one I like better in 235/45/17s.

I am picking up a 19 Sportwagen 4Motion with the manual next weekend. I'll be doing a small build with the items I have laying around and a small tune. I wanna keep it simple and on the cheap gas. I was on the fence but finding a manual put me over the top. 

That is the closest to the Golf R estate you'll get stateside.

In reply to bmw88rider :

Thanks! Glad this thread's been helpful and congrats on the new purchase! These really are great cars. I've definitely gone a bit beyond my original plan for the car, but at this point I'd still say it's all been worth it. I don't know of a much better do-it-all platform. At least at this price point

Big update over the weekend. I did a full refresh of the front suspension-with some upgrades, of course. 

In this lot, we've got 

-Superpro Alloy LCA's - good for 1.0 degree of caster and 0.5 degrees of negative camber per side. Pricy, but look at how shiny they are. 
-IE 26mm adjustable FSB to match the rear bar. 
-Tyrolsport front subframe deadset kit

-New OEM ball joints, tie rod ends, and sway bar links. 
 

Probably overkill, but anything worth doing is worth overdoing, right? Prior to this, I was just planning on doing the LCA's, but since the driver's side requires dropping the front subframe so that the front bolt can clear the transmission, I figured I'd do the other upgrades since they required the subframe to be dropped as well. 

All in all, it was a pretty straightforward job. Nothing too crazy, just somewhat time consuming for one guy with a car on jackstands. 

Here's the old crusty suspension bits

A closeup of the (probably) original rear LCA bushings. 107k miles. Definitely due for a refresh. 

And the surprise of the job. These were what my front sway bar bolts looked like. Rust isn't uncommon for me living in the Midwest, but this level of corrosion on these bolts was surprising. Especially considering how clean and corrosion free the rest of the car and its fasteners are. The threads on the bolt in the middle crumbled into dust as I was removing it. I'm guessing the subframe design traps water and grime in that area?

Thankfully, the IE bar came with galvanized bolts, so hopefully this doesn't happen again. 
 

After putting everything back together, there was a visible amount of toe out on each side (rear steer setup plus additional camber and caster), so I did a quick string alignment to get it decent, then took it out for a test drive. Normally I like to do one upgrade at a time for the sake of evaluation, so I can't say what made the most difference here, but WOW. Talk about a transformation. The front end feels so much tighter and more direct. Obviously just refreshing the old parts would've made an impact, but I feel fairly certain that this goes well beyond. There's minimal if any affect on NVH, but feedback through the wheel is dramatically improved. 
The car goes in for an alignment and new tires (DWS06+) this week, so I'm looking forward to giving a more accurate review once that's done. 

I did not need to know that SuperPro made alloy LCAs. My 2016 GLI just kicked over 100k. I see a set of these in my future.

In reply to 10001110101 :

haha sorry to lighten your wallet. I've got about 200 miles on them now and love them so far!

A new set of DWS06+ and an alignment. I really can't express enough how nice this thing is to drive now. 
One minor issue, but it was self induced. A couple days after the alignment, I started getting some loud knocking from the front. Turns out I forgot to go back and torque the sway bar brackets. 

I think some taller springs are in the car's future, which is a shame since I love the way it sits currently. It gets a little low in the back when hauling though. 

Too funny, as when I saw your pics the first thought I had was "way too low for me!".  I like to have around 1" of fender gap, that still looks nice but gives plenty of room for wheel travel, hauling stuff, etc.  On my R, when I installed the coilovers I think I only lowered it 1/4" from stock ride height.  Which was still pretty low, low enough I had to be careful driving in snow, or in/out of driveways.

I do have to say I enjoy the freedom of not worrying about any of that stuff with the Land Cruiser...

In reply to docwyte :

yeah lol you called it. It's fine for the kids and a stroller, but with two adults in the back it was a little lower than I'd like. Still, no rubbing on the inner fender or bottoming out. I think I've found a spring that should bring the rear up to around that 1" point. I'll probably order them in the next few weeks or so. Not in a huge rush to spend more money on this thing at the moment - I've gotta spend some time and money on my actual project car at some point! lol

Made some changes on the Alltrack, so I figured I'd make a post.

Like I mentioned in a previous update, I ended up getting taller springs. I'd originally installed H&R OE Sport springs for a Golf R on the rear with TT spring pads and EMD spacers. Looked great (imo), but definitely rode low with any sort of weight in the back. This time around, I went with the correct Alltrack version of the H&R Sport springs. I'm running these on the TT pads. There's a little more rake than I'd like, but I'm not really in a hurry to tear the rear suspension apart again. The springs should settle a bit anyway.

In other news, the car started throwing an intermittent CEL around the time it turned over 111,000mi. Reading the code with VCDS showed that it was from the SAI. Ran some function tests with VCDS and confirmed that the valve still worked, then checked the wiring. The harness is pretty tight around this area and puts more tension than I'd like on the connector. I'm guessing this was causing the code because after reseating the connector and trying to add some strain relief into the harness, the code went away and has stayed away for a week or so now.

I also went ahead and installed a boost tap and boost gauge, and ordered parts to add venturi function to the Mk8 PCV that I installed a few months ago.

What size tires do you have on there?

I like the look overall. but think even that may even be too low for me. I have a set of Golf R estate springs that a friend is holding in europe. I have a track car and a miata for sporting drives so I do want to keep mine stockish. 

These are 225/45/18 DWS06. Stock size for the Canyons. Personally, I don't feel like it's crazy low, but I know that's a matter of preference. The thicker sidewalls make it look lower than it actually is, I'd say.

Golf R estate springs are a great option. I was originally planning to go that route but had trouble finding a good source for them. Some guys have had good luck with e-acca, but I haven't

In reply to Turbine :

Thanks. I've got 235/45/17 DWS06's mounted on Sparco rims that are going on after winter is over. I was just trying to get an idea on clearance because my roads make Denver look like glass. My neighborhood doesn't seem to have been repaved since the 70s.  

Ouch, that sucks. FWIW, I think you'd be fine with those tires and that suspension combo. Add in an Alltrack belly pan or an aftermarket aluminum one for added peace of mind if you haven't already.

Maybe this is helpful. Here's an alltrack on 235/45/17 and Golf GTI springs. R springs might be just a bit lower than that. Found this from a google search, so I don't have much more info than that unfortunately

These alltracks look great with a one inch suspension lift and a set of rally wheels

Fifteen 52 turbomacs 

In reply to Turbine :

Thanks Turbine. I think I actually found what I was looking for. This is the an Alltrack on Gof R Estate springs. Perfect. This is the level I need. Just seeing the additional pictures made it clear exactly where I need to be. 

I took some time over the weekend to install an 034 Turbo Muffler Delete on the Alltrack. These are pretty useless mods generally, but I needed the test port to allow me to use the venturi on the mk8 PCV I installed a while back.
I used the turbo muffler delete, an 1/8" NPT M to 1/8" NPT F adapter, and a 90deg 1/8" NPT to 3/8" hose barb fitting, and the other length of hose that came with the Tiguan PCV pipe that I'd originally capped off.

Install was straightforward, if a little annoying due to space constraints, but overall took a little less than an hour to complete. The test drive was a success - no CEL's, and possibly better behavior on boost transitions? This might just be placebo though. This was all probably overkill since I'll probably never autocross or track it, but I really do like this car and am looking forward to many more years of reliable driving with it. Hopefully it continues to be completely unnoticeable and I don't have to think about PCV stuff on this car for a while.

And, as a full disclaimer, all credit for the research and implementation of this swap goes to Data Driven MQB, who's done an insane amount of research into the inner workings of these PCV systems. Definitely worth checking his site and videos out if you're into that kind of thing.

One year with the Alltrack! Not much has changed since the last update. It's been racking up (nearly) trouble free miles. I had to replace a rear wheel bearing in April, and took the opportunity to swap the TT rear spring pads for the stock ones, as well as change the rear diff fluid. I love this little car and hope it sticks around for a while.

Father's Day/1 year ownership update for the Dadmobile Alltrack

A little over a year of ownership and about 20k miles added. 
Issues during ownership: RF headlight assembly failed, rear wheel bearings needed replaced, intermittent CEL due to poor wiring harness routing to the secondary air pump. 
Modifications added during ownership: IE intake, IE turbo inlet pipe, 034 turbo muffler delete, APR intercooler, MK8 PCV retrofit, EQT coil grounding kit, GTI P Pack front brakes, Tyrolsport front deadset kit, IE front and rear swaybars, Superpro aluminum control arms, APR boost gauge/tap

Gave the car a quick wash and wax with the help of my two little assistants. First wash in a while, but it cleans up well. I need to get more into detailing, but I'd rather wrench or drive my cars instead. Still loving the car, although I'm starting to feel the normal itch that I get to switch it up after a year or so of owning something. Can't think of much else I'd go with at this price point that would check all the boxes. A new set of wheels should make it feel fresh again. 
 

Over the weekend, I took a roughly 500mi round trip drive to celebrate a friend's bachelor party. On the drive back, I noticed some grinding/scraping sounds off throttle. Changed the diff fluid when I got back expecting glitter, but the fluid was perfectly clean. Looks like some further investigation of the carrier bearing and axles is needed. Stay tuned, I guess 

I still have a list of mods I'm kicking around after I figure out this driveline noise. Most/all will probably never happen since, ya know, this isn't supposed to be a project car BUT, here's the list regardless 

-MPI retrofit/swap and accompanying tune (actually somewhat likely, corresponding with whenever I have to do a carbon cleaning next)

- golf R steering rack (probably wholly unnecessary, but it seems cool)

- mk7 P Pack rear calipers and vented rotors (again, unnecessary, but it'd be nice to match)

- Golf R rear valence (semi-unlikely)

-Golf TCR front bumper (extremely unlikely)

- DAZA/DQ500 swap (won't happen unless I hit the lottery, or someone around here is feeling REALLY generous) 

Remember that diff noise I mentioned in the last post? It got worse. Seems to be an issue with the early cars, and the diff is essentially unserviceable.  There was a revision for the rear diff that coincided with the mk7.5, so I picked one of those up. The "new" diff is a 60k mile unit from a 2019 Alltrack that I found on eBay. Higher mileage than I was hoping for, but it was hard to find a salvage yard that was willing to ship a part that wasn't a direct match. New fluids for Haldex and Diff, as well as magnetic drain plugs for both going in. 

 

I'll just say it-doing this job on jackstands sucks. Here's the two diffs sitting next to each other. 

And here's where I'm at now. New diff is in, subframe is attached. Still need to attach the axles, prop shaft, rear suspension bits, and the exhaust. I'm hoping to finish that tonight 

Ooof, that sucks about the diff... but awesome wagon! 

Glad the MK8 retrofit has worked out well!