Inspecting The Underneath.
All right I will start this off saying "My Bad"; I should have inspected the underneath of the GTI before having the alignment done.
Threw the GTI on the lift and got the shop light out and started looking for the good and bad.
The good started with the most obvious, a bright shinny new OEM down pipe and catalytic converter, with a date tag on each 08/2016.
Drivers and passenger side drive axles are clean, shinny and look new.
No leaks from the shocks, no leaks of any kind from the engine and all the bushings are in great shape.
The worst thing I located was the boots on the steering tie rods had come apart and were leaking grease. I purchased a pair of new tie rod ends from Detroit Axle at a very good price and the construction looks very good. The dimensions are a little different then OME and I had to use a string to get the alignment back. I would say the dealer should have found the bad tie rod ends, but I really should have looked everything over before I ran down there.
There was some minor surface rust on some components, but a wire bush, rust treatment, primer, and black paint corrected this. All items I had on hand.
Where the back of the catalytic converter connects, overlaps to the rear exhaust , it was held together with an old exhaust u-clamp. It had an exhaust leak here and the pipes were flexing. I thought about just having this welded, but just maybe one day I may want to change the sound of the GTI, so I removed the u-clamp and replaced it with a lap-joint clamp.
Oily dirt had collected around the intercooler pipe connections and as you know not uncommon. I disconnected the pipes and drained the collected oil, cleaned everything and reassembled
Steering tie rod ends -- Detroit Axle-Ebay -- $28.25
Stainless Lap Joint Clamp -- Ebay ----------- $14.08
Cost / Maintenance --------------- $4302.86
Miles Driven ----------------------- 882
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Cost Per Mile ------------------------- $4.88