randal

I'm going to jump on the "leave em on" boat too. My recent incident on the motorway was almost certainly made a little easier by the mouldings. In fact, the rear quarter moulding has lost about 3-4 inches from the impact! Word of warning though if you do wish to replace them with new ones from VAG. The early ones are discontinued, and the late ones are rather pricey. Front section on the wing - 9 quid + vat Door section - 25 quid + vat Rear quarter - 18 quid + vat Typical :roll:

Blimey, must be a VW trait - my polo did the same thing! found it creaking down a hill at about 1am! :shock:

Busy boy today, sanded passat handles and mechs for painting when the dent/door/wing repair happens in July (keen arn't i?) Then replaced track rod ends, and slipped the collars missing from my wishbone bushes into place. Seems to have cured the odd sensation in the steering after getting it lowered on the weitec kit last weekend. Hopefully I can take it back to get aligned now without any hassles. :D Weird thing now, it seems to be sitting lower on the rear driver's arch than the rear passenger's - I'm hoping it's just from the jacking etc.. and it'll settle soon. If not - **** **** **** **** ******* ****! edit - oh, and settled an oil leak by replacing the two pressure switches on top of the cooler :D

Get yerself down to Halfords tomorrow, and buy an allen socket. Best way. I didn't have that much trouble when I did mine last weekend. In fact, that was the easiest bit and they've been on there for nigh on 15 years... It's funny, I had allen bolts on the rear for the callipers - but normal bolts on the front. :scratch: Once you've got the calliper off, undo the nut/bolt at the ball joint, the track rod nut, and the two susp strut bolts and the whole hub assembly should come off. Then the fun starts... ...all I'll say is I hope you have patience, a vice, a hammer and something the same diameter as the bearing outer casing - good luck mate!

Hmm, that link doesn't work for me... odd. :scratch: yep, it does. flakey... nuts.

Couldn't agree more, mine eats cold mornings in the winter too, probably means it's running rich knowing mine though :roll: My old 'yota GTi loved damp mornings, back end of the car didn't however!

I totally forgot we're due a scorcher, piddle. Oh well, I've ordered a load more parts to put on the rado - and I'll be damned if i'm letting a little bit of tan/sweat get in the way! :D I hoping this will solve the funny play i've got in the steering and braking - otherwise I'm fresh out of ideas. :?

Right, sigh... much kicking of self - then kicking of father! After pressing the wishbone bushes back in, I gave the arm to me Dad who put it back on the car... ...what did he forget? THE METAL SLEEVE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BUSH! Going to squeeze this in this weekend, see if that helps.... ;)

Only way to tell is get it on the rolling road methinks. How convenient, there's a rolling road day on Saturday in Camberley :D Link here

Looks like the tracking/alignment is off again, took it back down to the garage to get them to check it over and they're p*ssing and moaning about the track rod ends. Personally I can't anything wrong with them, but as I've replaced pretty much everything else down there I might as well do them too. That way I can eliminate them. I've definately got negative camber on the front end, so that's not helping the diagnosis. The dude also said I've got uneven wear on the front tyres (probably owing to some numpty driving 100 miles on badly aligned wheels :roll: ) so I'm going to swap them over for the rears and see if that helps. Sigh, another weekend working on the car when I should be out drinking beer... ...oh well :D

Picture skateboard wheels on a mountain bike :lol:

Have any of you guys removed the counter weight from the drive shafts?

Don't think it's the handbrake, I'm 100% sure it's coming from the front of the car. You can feel it through the pedals and the wheel. I dropped another post about this on the board the other day, I'll dig out the link because it's got some relevant info in it... edit Link here has a little bit of info in it. Are any of you having similar symptoms mentioned in this thread too?

I've just replaced the wheel bearings all round, new wishbone bushes, roll bar drop links, and ball joints at the same time as doing the susp swap out. :scratch:

Ditto :(

Mine is clunking at low speeds, and pull aways/stops. It's not clunk clunk clunking on corners, so I'm thinking the CV is ok. I'm pretty sure it's not the top mounts as I've just replaced them - and the plates at the top. The only thing that I've been told of that makes sense is the counterweight on the driveshaft being loose. I'm going to take a look at the weekend, see what I can see. Might be worth checking on yours too.

Sorry matey, yeah I read the *whole* of your post a moment ago as opposed to just seeing "powder coat" and searching for that one :roll: Sounds like a good excuse to buy a 50 quid car with barely any MOT/tax to thrash around in while it's getting done though :twisted:

Here you go mush: Clicky clicky

I had to read that link twice, as I first saw it as "EvilPortalApp"!! Would have stood to reason, as the taxation system could have only been designed by Lucifer himself. :roll:

Yep, that's right - there's two components between the top spring plate and the turret. There's the mount and the collar. Both have to sit sorta like: | \__/ - top mount /--\ - collar | The snap back happens just after the wheel centres, which would point to strut maybe relocating and taking the wheel with it - pulling the whole lot about. There's not too much negative camber, a wee bit - but not a huge amount. I haven't had it geomerofied (liking the term!) yet, but I would hope that the dude at the alignment place would have copped it yesterday if there was a problem. I think I'm going to have to get grubby again this weekend, strip the front struts off and have another look. Worst case scenario, I've got the original mounts that I can reuse. Thanks for the information, good to know. 8)

After getting the new susp on there at the weekend, I've got an intermittent clunk noise at low speeds. Also have a weird thing on the go with the steering, it sort of "snaps" back a bit after a hard corner. I've had a look underneath, and at the mounts and I think I've traced the problem. The Weitec kit from C&R came with VR6 top mounts and plates to improve the ride. The driver's side plate is sitting a bit higher than the passenger, so much so I can get my thumb between the plate and the turret :( When we were tightening the nylock nut at the top of the piston, the passenger side went tight, and the driver's side wouldn't tighten past a certain point leaving play in the mount. After jiggering around, removing the strut/plate/mount and repositioning everything came together OK... ...or so I thought. Both struts were built up at the same time, and both were identical from bottom bolts to the plastic plate covers - anyone have any idea why the driver's side would be so problematic? Thanks

Looks like the glasses might have worked there, she's certainly worthy of the Elton-John-Glasses-O-Rama-Wonder-Treatment. Boing. :lol:

I'd trust the man, but not the glasses. Very suspect indeed... :lol:

Places to check for leaks: Expansion tank + cap Breather hose from expansion tank to top of rad Oil cooler hoses - check for crystaline deposits And the one my money is on: The metal "L" shaped clamps that hold the rad in place. Known to rust, and when they do they also rust through the rad! Cost me a new rad, but coated the "L"s in copper ease so shouldn't happen again. Hopefully it's something simple like one of the above, and not something more severe with your engine... :|

Think that was for the lot mate. Although my receipt wasn't exactly conclusive, it just says "Foul Wheel Laser Alignment". See, the problem there is they have a STACK load of Zoo magazines which feature Lucy Pinder in spades. I kinda umm, lost... sorta.. concentration and... where was i? :oops: :lol: