Ratghia's 1984 rabbit gti

This car is just going to be my daily driver. My father and I are planning on autocrossing it this season. It will be kept mostly stock with the addition of round headlights and euro/early bumpers. I also plan on lowering it a little bit. The interior is very nice for a 25 year old car. Today we fixed some of the cars problems with parts from another rabbit at the vw-farm. I also started to loose some of the rice. These included wire for a kicker box in the trunk. Some wire for nonexistent speakers and a black light. There were also speakers mounted on the windshield pillar. I am also trying to get the smoke smell out of the car. The car has also been added to the readers rides.

My first real autocross car (I tried it once in a 73 Squareback automatic before I got serious) was just like this. Great cars for autocross or just driving, have fun with it!

nice car....

Man, brings back memories of my '83. Not all the memories are good. Anyway, looks real clean!

Every so often the O2 sensor light will come on. If you remove the instrument panel surround and look on top of the cluster with a flashlight, there's a lever sticking up (IIRC it's on the right) if you pull that forward with a piece of safety wire etc it resets the light and it's good for another 30K miles.

The oil pressure warning systems have been known to go off for no reason, it scares the crap out of you. Disconnect both sensors, use a mechanical oil pressure gauge tapped in at the head fitting and drive on.

The engine mount at the timing belt side will collapse, this makes everything in the car buzz like crazy particularly with the A/C on. The mounts are cheap (~$15) but last only about 10K miles. They also have to be pressed out of/into the bracket.

New bushings tighten the shifter up tremendously but like the engine mount they don't last very long. Also check the alternator mount, they used urethane? bushings which will wear and make it spit belts.

On mine, the seat back 'rake' adjustment (the knob on the outside at the hinge) continually changed itself and nothing I did fixed it. But the seats were among the best I have ever driven in. Supportive, firm, good bolsters.

There's an aluminum plug on the CIS distributor between the dizzy itself and the rubber air boot, if you drill this out you'll find a 3mm Allen bolt under it. This is used to adjust the mixture and you can use it to pick up some HP and low speed driveability. Then plug the hole back up with a blob of silicone. Of course, if you have emissions testing you shouldn't tinker with it.

Hey, looks like my old hillclimb car!

For that year, the system is "visually examined" for tampering only (PA Emissions)

I'd love a GTi like that. Were there others at the VW farm?

Rob

ZOOMiata wrote: I'd love a GTi like that. Were there others at the VW farm? Rob

They can get you a good deal on a orange rabbit with some slight front end damage.

To get thesmoke smell out of my Cavalier I bought a box of Bounce dryer sheets and stuffed them under the seats for a few weeks, that seemed to pretty much get rid of it. Good luck with the new toy.

There are only 2 rabbits at the farm and the orange one is in the best shape. The guy that owns it has restored all of the cars that could be fixed.

Heck Yeah! One of the best cars ever. Both of the Rabbit GTIs I had were white. Nice, but I like the silver ones the best.

BTW, if you just want to lower it a touch (1/4-1/2 of an inch), find some of the stock Scirocco 16V springs.

My mom had a diesel rabbit so I guess there will always be a soft spot in my heart for the thing. I still like the type of cars that are cool on this forum, that is a cool little car.

They make stuff to remove the smell of smoke, maybe you'll get the funky old car smell pretty soon though.

Good luck with the minimeats.

Aaron, that's an excellent choice! As you know, there is much love here for the Rabbit. I'm sure 16vCorey will give you about a million pointers, and Per pretty much wrote the book (pun intended) on getting these cars to turn.

the pun

my cousin had a white one just like that... loved that car

I've been getting nostalgic for old Rabbits lately also. Brings back many memories. I had issues with most of the parts that Jensenman mentioned - particularly that damned rubber alternator bushing that kept falling apart.

During the week I got out to the shop and got some work done on the GTI. I reset the O2 sensor. I also replaced the ignition switch and the starter to fix a starting problem it had. I then pulled the lights out from behind the grill and just spent a few hours cleaning the car to get all the dirt out of it. I also added an early style hood release with the latch inside the front grill. Today we put azenis on the car.

new and old

wow... sounds like you have been busy.

did the azenis get a new tread pattern? mine have a slightly different pattern

how do you reset the O2 sensor? mine is still on and that lil light is annoying me!!!

Check my post, the destructions for O2 light reset are in there.

Rusty_Rabbit84 wrote: how do you reset the O2 sensor? mine is still on and that lil light is annoying me!!!

Where the speedo cable passes through the rain tray, it goes in and out of a black box that's about 3"x3"x2". That little black box has a little white button on it. Push that button.

hell ya! Thanks guys!

Hmm. My US built '83 had the switch on top of the cluster.

My car also had the boxes with the hooks on the cluster. My manual says that 81 and up US spec cars had it there.

IIRC the late '70's cars had an EGR timer like 16vcorey describes. Lots of British stuff had them as well. You had to have some sort of special two legged key to turn it.

Jensenman wrote: IIRC the late '70's cars had an EGR timer like 16vcorey describes. Lots of British stuff had them as well. You had to have some sort of special two legged key to turn it.

So did all the MKII's and German built MKI's (Cabriolet and Scirocco). I forgot about the goofy set up the US built Rabbits had.

I got my JOM coilovers today. I ordered them on closeout form veedubmachine in the UK. I ended up buying their last set and with shipping it was $300.