Tappets

Morning all, had a great result today. My car sailed through the MOT with no advisories!! Not bad for a 24yr old girl!
However they gave me a quote of £370 for replacing the tappets, cambelt and rocker cover gasket.cf_emoticons__BangHead:. I know they need replacing as it takes about 5mins for them to quiet down. Just wondering if its a do-able job for a med DIY'r?? 

Yes! Do it. Never let a garage touch your mk1. Get a Haynes manual and some parts from vw heritage, crazy quiffs, gsf or euro car parts. 

You may as well do the water pump as well whilst your doing the cam belt. 

It will probably cost you £50-75 in good quality parts. Don't buy el cheapo stuff cos it may cost you in the long run. Most places will tell you what brand the parts are. 

24 years old sound like a later cabriolet

These may have hydro tappets not shim and buckets like the early golfs

You should have to do the tappets if this is the case

Yeah they are hydraulic tappets. If its not to difficult I may have a go.

Hydro tappets self adjust so you shouldn't have to do anything as they self adjust

Pretty easy to combine the two jobs of cambelt change and changing the tappets. Once the cambelt is off, remove the rocker cover then bit-by-bit (ie half a turn or so on each bolt) remove the cam bearing caps. Then lift the cam and the shells away. Then you can get to the tappets. Some kind of suction tool would help to lift them out.

They should be okay, being hydraulic, but its quite possible they're gunged up and hence a little seized. I reckon its not too hard to give them a good clean, eg with parts cleaner or a long soak in ATF. Or, you could choose to replace them.

Lovely job!! In that case I think I'll look at doing it myself! Cheers guys.