Howdy folks,

Nice weather this weekend so I decided to take the time to remove the front of the car.

There seems to be alot more wrong than I first envisaged... :(

[ATTACH=CONFIG]46550[/ATTACH] started by removing the head lights and the fogs. The screws that hold the glass fogs in are fudged and so was the drives side head light centre screw so it took a while to get to the picture above. Ended putting a screw driver through the back of the drivers side head light in order to get it off... I've got a spare though so its all good! :)

Anywho, next came the bumper revealing the problems that i already knew about.

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The pas pipes and and the radiator support panel are monkeyed, will need replacements.

I have a spare power steering rack but the rad panel I have is from a early 16v. I think it will fit on to my front cross member but I don't think it has the holes for the pas pipes to fit through so I'll have to drill a few holes but that's no big deal. So long as the radiator and stuff fit I'm happy! (advice would be welcome!)

Anywho, I carried on removing things....

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The radiator is leaking badly so i'm getting a pattern replacement. I was going to buy a brand new one from VW classic parts but at £260 ish I could buy 2 pattern replacements for £100 each and still have money to spare! So who cares if it only lasts half as long! I'll get something sorted when it does!

Regardless of the new radiator though I thought i had already diagnosed the reason for the radiator fan not working

[ATTACH=CONFIG]46554[/ATTACH] very bad corroded connections. But in the process of removing the rad I saw something rather shocking...

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It's difficult to see from this photo but i've highlighted the problem in a red circle. The fan is touching the fan cover preventing it from turning, after removing the radiator i find that this is because the fan cove has been bent, as if it's been pulled towards the fan at some point. Now... the fan worked when I first got the car and apart from this weekend the only time the radiator has been out was when my subframe collapsed and i had it fixed by my local garage. SOoo.. either it was damaged when the subframe broke and was never spotted OR they damaged it when removing the engine to repair the subframe. Either way, I'm not particularly chuffed.

And to top it off when jacking up the car i noticed that the engine moved quite a bit... And here's why!

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That's the front engine mount. :bonk:

OH WELL! onwards and up wards!