Hi all, I have been lurking around these forum for past a few years but only just made an account so I thought I'll create my own build thread. I hope this is the right place for it and forgive me if it is not. Any feedback, thoughts, opinions and advice will appreciated so please don't hold back.
Some background on me:
I have always been a big VW fan from before I started driving but GTIs always had a special place in my heart. I have owned 20+ VWs/ Audis, Skodas, and Seats which included Golf Rs, S3s, GTIs, GTDs but I'm yet to get my hands on a Daza RS3
mostly because I buy accident damage / written off VAG cars to repair on the side and because of this I have a decent space (no lift) and good set of tools to work on cars. All work was carried out by myself with help of many threads on here and the tuning was done by two very reputable guys here in the UK which I'll go further into below. Although I have some experience on working on cars (not a mechanic by trade), this was really my firsts time getting into the modified territory aside from the casual stage 1 or some styling.
Background on the car:
It is a 2017 MK7.5 GTI DSG pre GPF. I bought this in early 2021 with 20k miles on it and completely bone stock. Before I added any performance mods to the car, it was serviced every 6 - 7k miles with Quantum 5w40 but since modifying it, I service it every 3k miles with the same oil and decided to service the DSG at 35k miles.
Styling:
Lets start with the boring bits, I wanted the styling to be very OEM+ and nothing that stands out in your face. I started with wheels, I have always been a massive fan of genuine Pretoria wheels and managed to find a set in perfect condition for £1K so threw them on ps. I know how weak these are, I have a spare
. I initially used 15mm on the rear and 12.5mm spacers on the front for a flush look before lowering but it was too much for the fronts after lowering so I reduced it to a 10mm spacer. I tinted the windows 5% rear, 50% front and wrapped the roof black (Yes I wish I had a pan roof 
).
Body styling:
- For the spoiler I put on Oettinger replica and was not a fan, the fitment was rubbish and it was too thick so I got rid of and picked up a club sport style spoiler that fits the normal GTI boot lid from the Ebay and I love it. The fitment is great and looks great in my opinion although some people don't like it at all as with anything.
- For the diffuser, I went the simple route and put on a genuine TCR one. Goes well with the rest of the car and doesn't stand out too much.
- For side skirts and splitter, I went with Maxton design which looks really good in my opinion. It's the V2 splitter which which flows really nicely with the 7.5 bumper.
- I also dropped the car by 1" or 25mm
I haven't done much on the interior other than a custom steering wheel and some paddles.
Some pics of the end result:
Handling:
TYRESSS - I love Tyres, the most important piece on any car in my opinion and MUST not be overlooked. I'm a big fan of Michelin Pilot Sport 4s (NOT the PS4) and can go on about them all day but yes, they have been great for daily driving, they warm up quick and they put the power down, they're decent in the wet too even for a fwd car.
The only bushing/mount mod I have is ECS insert which has been decent for me, the NVH has levelled out over time and it still helps put the power down.
Springs.... I went with VWR after how everyone went out on about how well they pair up with the stock shocks. Spoiler - they don't go well with the stock shocks. At first they seemed fine other than the occasional wing and tyre scrape with a passenger (I did the screw mod) but the spacers are more to blame here. After putting a few thousands miles on the car with VWR and stock shocks I noticed the scrapes got more frequent even after reducing the spacer to 10mm. The car also didn't feel very balanced when pushing it on back roads and I have no doubt that within 10 - 15k miles the shocks would have given up. this made me start looking at upgrading the shocks and the first easy choice was the Bilstein B8s but after seeming some people having issues with VWR and B8 combo, I decided against it After a bit of research I went with the Koni sports/yellow adjustable dampening struts and I do not regret this decision at all. Yet.... I set the fronts up to be very stiff and the rears up to be almost fully soft, it gave it a perfect balance of good handling around corners while still being comfortable. The scrapes are almost non existent now unless I hit a big dip at high speed with 4 people in the car.
My advice for anyone going the springs route, just price in the shocks while you're at it, it'll save you a lot of work and you won't regret it. Also, some Koni specific advice, if you're fitting them yourself make sure to sand the paint off the part that slides into the knuckle other wise you will struggle even with the correct splitting tool. This might just be personal preference but I wouldn't suggest the 4x2 method, don't be scared for undoing 4 more bolts and nuts if you've come this far. Just unhook the wishbone (3 nuts on the ball joint) and push the driveshaft out. Make sure the front of the car is levelled otherwise you'll never get the driveshaft in.
Future plans: most likely a H&R rear sway bar for the next handling mods and maybe a Wavetrac LSD one day. Most likely never
.
Brakes:
Since mine is non-PP model and I had to upgrade the brakes not only for performance but they were completely lost behind the Pretoria's. I found a cheap set of S3 front and back callipers which I painted painted red and stuck a GTI sticker on. I sold the originals and the rears which made this a free mod. Initially I was very happy with them but once I started pushing the harder and after repeat breaking, I experienced a lot of brake fade with them so I started looking at other options. I ran these with Pagid pads (can't complain) and Brembo discs (I know they're shit and not really Brembo, I had some lying around from an old s3)
For my next set up, the Porsche Macan Brembo callipers caught my eyes. After reading All 180 pages of this thread I decided to go with them. They fit my budget, look good, and would fix my issues but it's not all sunshine and rainbows with them. Although these are straight bolt on fit on to ours cars, you do have to take a few steps to make the most out of them. If you are interested in this set up, I really suggest reading some of the thread. I paired these up with MTEC drilled, slotted and coated 345mm discs and Pagid road pads. I'll be changing to the DS25000 next.
My thoughts on the set up:
- A lot of people complaint about the pedal feel on these but with the using RRB grease, doing the VCDS tweaks and bleeding the brakes and bleeding the brakes and bleeding the brakes and bleeding the brakes you can get very close to the PP brakes. I ended up bleeding it 4 times using a pressure bleeder with Motul RBF600 fluid and a manual 2 man bleed.
- These callipers are very very light compared to the Heavy PP ones which is a big advantage in my mind
- They are very easy to modulate and its not a on and off switch
- They are using the D1001 pad backing plate which means you have large selection of pads to choose from as its a very common pad
- Brake fade is non existent, I paired these with the RS3 ducts and even pushing the car very hard, I haven't experienced any brake fade.
- The pads are top loading so it's very easy to swap them.
- Most importantly they look great IMO of course, see some pics below.
Overall I think this is best sub £1k set up for the platform just be ready put a bit of work in, @GTIfan99 's thread will show you everything you need.
Exhaust:
Before I done anything to the cat back, I did the down pipe for stage 2. I tried cheap Toyosport decat downpipe and honestly don't have any complaints. The welds seem decent as it held up well so far, the fitment is a hit or miss with these but you can always make them work and once they're in, they sit very well. It takes me about 2 hours to get one in and out on the ground on stands.
After a lot of research and hearing different set ups, I added a TCR back box and it's probably one of may favourite mods so far. Honestly this paired with a decat, In my opinion it's the best exhaust I have heard on a GTI so far. There is no drone other than very unnoticeable amount going uphill or cruising at 80 - 90, It can be very loud when you want it to be or sound completely stock when you want, has a really nice deep tone and farts are more like loud slaps. I put a full TCR cat back with stock downpipe on my friends GTI and it was just as loud and same tone as my setup without the cat, we recently added decat downpipe to his set up and it's the loudest GTI I have heard so far while still sounding nice, even now it has minimal drone, although it is a bit too loud for me so I don't plan to add the TCR res.
Overall, very happy with the set up. Only thing I might change is the DP to a 4" which I'm still researching whether it helps the spool or not. As for the sound, I am more than pleased with it and it cost me next to nothing.
Stage 2:
Setup:
As mentioned above, I went with the Toyosport DP 3" but I also changed the turbo elbow and inlet pipe to the ram air one, I took out the snow guard from the air box and threw a panel filter into it. also drilled some holes into the intake front air channel thing . Also, changed the spark plugs with new OEM ones and RS3 coils.
Intercooler:
I went with with Ebay twin intercooler after reading about it a bit and it's not bad for the price at all, biggest disadvantage is its heavy but it did its job. The install wasn't straightforward as I had to modify it slightly to fit the 7.5 bumper but wasn't a big issue, overall it held up very well through stage 2 and I did push it hard. There is a long thread on it if anyone is interested, search Ebay twin intercooler. I didn't experience any heat soak with this set up on stage 2. As I can only attach 10 images, i'll add them below this post.
Tune:
The Tune was done by Nick at R-tech performance who has been big in the game here in the UK for a long time and is one of the best at it. If you are in the UK I would recommend you take your car to them as they only touch 1.8/2.0 tfsi and tsi engines so they know what they're doing. They perform a very thorough health check on the car before tuning unlike some companies that just load it on the dyno and send it. I can go on about R tech all day but just read their reviews and make your mind.
It was tuned to 99 ron and I only use momentum 99 but we didn't push it to its limits as I had further plans anyways.
Here is the dyno graph stage 2 TCU and ECU
Stage 3:
Now the fun part. I looked a lot into the IS38s and hybrid IS38s but after owning S3s and Golf Rs I didn't want to loose the low end characteristics of a GTI I started looking at hybrid IS20s. After a lot of contemplating, I went with the Venom 435 ball bearing Hybrid IS20. this made 445HP with octane booster on their development car while my goal was around 400 so it gave me a bit of safety room. There's a few turbo install threads on here so I won't go into details about that but it's not too difficult, took me about 4 - 5 hours.
I upgraded the HPFP internals to the Auto Tech which failed on the 4th dyno run. Auto Tech admitted they had a bad batch earlier this year which my parts came from and have given me a full refund. I then went for the pre assembled LOBA unit.
I added Racing line R600 intake to the set up which I'm very happy with.
I changed spark plugs to the NGK R7438-9.
Tune:
tune for this was set up was done by Doug at MRC Tuning who are very big in the game here in the UK and now expanding around the world mostly known for RS3, DAZA swaps and other RS cars. Like I said my goal was 400HP as it's my daily driver and I wanted to put the power down without a lot of effort or push the turbo to its limits.
So here is end result:
As you can see the car made 404HP and 555NM torque on 99RON. Very pleased with the set up and exactly what I wanted.
Spools up really quick and throws you back into the seat while pulling all the way to 7K. For a IS20 it does very well on top end as well. The set up puts the power down very well even to my surprise.
Since the dyno run, I took out the Ebay twin intercooler and put in a stock location Wagner. I haven't done any logs but spool seems slightly faster, car feels lighter, and seems to pull for longer.
Unfortunately I don't have draggy or anything so haven't recorded any times but will be picking one up soon and will be posting the results here.
If you read this far, thank you very much and please let me know your thoughts on the set up.
If I do anything in the future or have any issues, I'll be updating this thread.
I also have Instagram @Basic_gti a follow would be appreciated if this interests you of course.
Thanks again
Ahsan
Some background on me:
I have always been a big VW fan from before I started driving but GTIs always had a special place in my heart. I have owned 20+ VWs/ Audis, Skodas, and Seats which included Golf Rs, S3s, GTIs, GTDs but I'm yet to get my hands on a Daza RS3
mostly because I buy accident damage / written off VAG cars to repair on the side and because of this I have a decent space (no lift) and good set of tools to work on cars. All work was carried out by myself with help of many threads on here and the tuning was done by two very reputable guys here in the UK which I'll go further into below. Although I have some experience on working on cars (not a mechanic by trade), this was really my firsts time getting into the modified territory aside from the casual stage 1 or some styling.Background on the car:
It is a 2017 MK7.5 GTI DSG pre GPF. I bought this in early 2021 with 20k miles on it and completely bone stock. Before I added any performance mods to the car, it was serviced every 6 - 7k miles with Quantum 5w40 but since modifying it, I service it every 3k miles with the same oil and decided to service the DSG at 35k miles.
Styling:
Lets start with the boring bits, I wanted the styling to be very OEM+ and nothing that stands out in your face. I started with wheels, I have always been a massive fan of genuine Pretoria wheels and managed to find a set in perfect condition for £1K so threw them on ps. I know how weak these are, I have a spare
. I initially used 15mm on the rear and 12.5mm spacers on the front for a flush look before lowering but it was too much for the fronts after lowering so I reduced it to a 10mm spacer. I tinted the windows 5% rear, 50% front and wrapped the roof black (Yes I wish I had a pan roof ).Body styling:
- For the spoiler I put on Oettinger replica and was not a fan, the fitment was rubbish and it was too thick so I got rid of and picked up a club sport style spoiler that fits the normal GTI boot lid from the Ebay and I love it. The fitment is great and looks great in my opinion although some people don't like it at all as with anything.
- For the diffuser, I went the simple route and put on a genuine TCR one. Goes well with the rest of the car and doesn't stand out too much.
- For side skirts and splitter, I went with Maxton design which looks really good in my opinion. It's the V2 splitter which which flows really nicely with the 7.5 bumper.
- I also dropped the car by 1" or 25mm
I haven't done much on the interior other than a custom steering wheel and some paddles.
Some pics of the end result:
Handling:
TYRESSS - I love Tyres, the most important piece on any car in my opinion and MUST not be overlooked. I'm a big fan of Michelin Pilot Sport 4s (NOT the PS4) and can go on about them all day but yes, they have been great for daily driving, they warm up quick and they put the power down, they're decent in the wet too even for a fwd car.
The only bushing/mount mod I have is ECS insert which has been decent for me, the NVH has levelled out over time and it still helps put the power down.
Springs.... I went with VWR after how everyone went out on about how well they pair up with the stock shocks. Spoiler - they don't go well with the stock shocks. At first they seemed fine other than the occasional wing and tyre scrape with a passenger (I did the screw mod) but the spacers are more to blame here. After putting a few thousands miles on the car with VWR and stock shocks I noticed the scrapes got more frequent even after reducing the spacer to 10mm. The car also didn't feel very balanced when pushing it on back roads and I have no doubt that within 10 - 15k miles the shocks would have given up. this made me start looking at upgrading the shocks and the first easy choice was the Bilstein B8s but after seeming some people having issues with VWR and B8 combo, I decided against it After a bit of research I went with the Koni sports/yellow adjustable dampening struts and I do not regret this decision at all. Yet.... I set the fronts up to be very stiff and the rears up to be almost fully soft, it gave it a perfect balance of good handling around corners while still being comfortable. The scrapes are almost non existent now unless I hit a big dip at high speed with 4 people in the car.
My advice for anyone going the springs route, just price in the shocks while you're at it, it'll save you a lot of work and you won't regret it. Also, some Koni specific advice, if you're fitting them yourself make sure to sand the paint off the part that slides into the knuckle other wise you will struggle even with the correct splitting tool. This might just be personal preference but I wouldn't suggest the 4x2 method, don't be scared for undoing 4 more bolts and nuts if you've come this far. Just unhook the wishbone (3 nuts on the ball joint) and push the driveshaft out. Make sure the front of the car is levelled otherwise you'll never get the driveshaft in.
Future plans: most likely a H&R rear sway bar for the next handling mods and maybe a Wavetrac LSD one day. Most likely never
.Brakes:
Since mine is non-PP model and I had to upgrade the brakes not only for performance but they were completely lost behind the Pretoria's. I found a cheap set of S3 front and back callipers which I painted painted red and stuck a GTI sticker on. I sold the originals and the rears which made this a free mod. Initially I was very happy with them but once I started pushing the harder and after repeat breaking, I experienced a lot of brake fade with them so I started looking at other options. I ran these with Pagid pads (can't complain) and Brembo discs (I know they're shit and not really Brembo, I had some lying around from an old s3)
For my next set up, the Porsche Macan Brembo callipers caught my eyes. After reading All 180 pages of this thread I decided to go with them. They fit my budget, look good, and would fix my issues but it's not all sunshine and rainbows with them. Although these are straight bolt on fit on to ours cars, you do have to take a few steps to make the most out of them. If you are interested in this set up, I really suggest reading some of the thread. I paired these up with MTEC drilled, slotted and coated 345mm discs and Pagid road pads. I'll be changing to the DS25000 next.
My thoughts on the set up:
- A lot of people complaint about the pedal feel on these but with the using RRB grease, doing the VCDS tweaks and bleeding the brakes and bleeding the brakes and bleeding the brakes and bleeding the brakes you can get very close to the PP brakes. I ended up bleeding it 4 times using a pressure bleeder with Motul RBF600 fluid and a manual 2 man bleed.
- These callipers are very very light compared to the Heavy PP ones which is a big advantage in my mind
- They are very easy to modulate and its not a on and off switch
- They are using the D1001 pad backing plate which means you have large selection of pads to choose from as its a very common pad
- Brake fade is non existent, I paired these with the RS3 ducts and even pushing the car very hard, I haven't experienced any brake fade.
- The pads are top loading so it's very easy to swap them.
- Most importantly they look great IMO of course, see some pics below.
Overall I think this is best sub £1k set up for the platform just be ready put a bit of work in, @GTIfan99 's thread will show you everything you need.
Exhaust:
Before I done anything to the cat back, I did the down pipe for stage 2. I tried cheap Toyosport decat downpipe and honestly don't have any complaints. The welds seem decent as it held up well so far, the fitment is a hit or miss with these but you can always make them work and once they're in, they sit very well. It takes me about 2 hours to get one in and out on the ground on stands.
After a lot of research and hearing different set ups, I added a TCR back box and it's probably one of may favourite mods so far. Honestly this paired with a decat, In my opinion it's the best exhaust I have heard on a GTI so far. There is no drone other than very unnoticeable amount going uphill or cruising at 80 - 90, It can be very loud when you want it to be or sound completely stock when you want, has a really nice deep tone and farts are more like loud slaps. I put a full TCR cat back with stock downpipe on my friends GTI and it was just as loud and same tone as my setup without the cat, we recently added decat downpipe to his set up and it's the loudest GTI I have heard so far while still sounding nice, even now it has minimal drone, although it is a bit too loud for me so I don't plan to add the TCR res.
Overall, very happy with the set up. Only thing I might change is the DP to a 4" which I'm still researching whether it helps the spool or not. As for the sound, I am more than pleased with it and it cost me next to nothing.
Stage 2:
Setup:
As mentioned above, I went with the Toyosport DP 3" but I also changed the turbo elbow and inlet pipe to the ram air one, I took out the snow guard from the air box and threw a panel filter into it. also drilled some holes into the intake front air channel thing
. Also, changed the spark plugs with new OEM ones and RS3 coils.Intercooler:
I went with with Ebay twin intercooler after reading about it a bit and it's not bad for the price at all, biggest disadvantage is its heavy but it did its job. The install wasn't straightforward as I had to modify it slightly to fit the 7.5 bumper but wasn't a big issue, overall it held up very well through stage 2 and I did push it hard. There is a long thread on it if anyone is interested, search Ebay twin intercooler. I didn't experience any heat soak with this set up on stage 2. As I can only attach 10 images, i'll add them below this post.
Tune:
The Tune was done by Nick at R-tech performance who has been big in the game here in the UK for a long time and is one of the best at it. If you are in the UK I would recommend you take your car to them as they only touch 1.8/2.0 tfsi and tsi engines so they know what they're doing. They perform a very thorough health check on the car before tuning unlike some companies that just load it on the dyno and send it. I can go on about R tech all day but just read their reviews and make your mind.
It was tuned to 99 ron and I only use momentum 99 but we didn't push it to its limits as I had further plans anyways.
Here is the dyno graph stage 2 TCU and ECU
Stage 3:
Now the fun part. I looked a lot into the IS38s and hybrid IS38s but after owning S3s and Golf Rs I didn't want to loose the low end characteristics of a GTI I started looking at hybrid IS20s. After a lot of contemplating, I went with the Venom 435 ball bearing Hybrid IS20. this made 445HP with octane booster on their development car while my goal was around 400 so it gave me a bit of safety room. There's a few turbo install threads on here so I won't go into details about that but it's not too difficult, took me about 4 - 5 hours.
I upgraded the HPFP internals to the Auto Tech which failed on the 4th dyno run. Auto Tech admitted they had a bad batch earlier this year which my parts came from and have given me a full refund. I then went for the pre assembled LOBA unit.
I added Racing line R600 intake to the set up which I'm very happy with.
I changed spark plugs to the NGK R7438-9.
Tune:
tune for this was set up was done by Doug at MRC Tuning who are very big in the game here in the UK and now expanding around the world mostly known for RS3, DAZA swaps and other RS cars. Like I said my goal was 400HP as it's my daily driver and I wanted to put the power down without a lot of effort or push the turbo to its limits.
So here is end result:
As you can see the car made 404HP and 555NM torque on 99RON. Very pleased with the set up and exactly what I wanted.
Spools up really quick and throws you back into the seat while pulling all the way to 7K. For a IS20 it does very well on top end as well. The set up puts the power down very well even to my surprise.
Since the dyno run, I took out the Ebay twin intercooler and put in a stock location Wagner. I haven't done any logs but spool seems slightly faster, car feels lighter, and seems to pull for longer.
Unfortunately I don't have draggy or anything so haven't recorded any times but will be picking one up soon and will be posting the results here.
If you read this far, thank you very much and please let me know your thoughts on the set up.
If I do anything in the future or have any issues, I'll be updating this thread.
I also have Instagram @Basic_gti a follow would be appreciated if this interests you of course.
Thanks again
Ahsan
Last edited:
