davidwort

any suggestions on what to paint some rusty rear springs with, I'm thinking the hammerite I've already got in the garage, but will that just flake off straight away? The springs are fine, eibachs, which I guess are pretty good grade steel, just the original paint is coming off over most of the coils, have cleaned most of the old flaking paint off already.

mmm, I've got some genuine VW ones that need replacing, the oval ones with the rectangular tab on the end 191 253 147a which are used at the front of the rear silencer x2 and 8A0 253 147A that are used for the mid box and one on the back of the backbox, these ones have the oval lump in the centre to stop banging against the floor of the car. Now all GSF could offer me was the crappy mk2 ones for light exhausts and ECP have the ones listed about but they're a couple of quid each which means over a tenner on a few exhaust rubbers, seems a lot for what they are, haven't tried VW yet for aprice.

A 2L KE-jet is worth having custom mapped if you've had other modifications like headwork and cams, don't buy an off the shelf chip though. The 1.8 doesn't have any fuelling 'map' as it's fuel is 'mechanically' controlled and the best setup for any engine modifications is a rolling road session and the fuel system 'control' pressure set up appropriately via adjustment of the warm up regulator, base timing etc. I'd personally say 100 quid spent on a rolling road tune-up on either of these cars is money well spent, you could easily gain up to 10bhp, something you'll never even get close to attempting to 'chip' a 2L 16v with an off the shelf map.

that is setting your sights low :lol:

is that a 2L cross flow head 8v then? engine code should be on cambelt cover, a lot of car for the money but the engine isn't really tuneable, I guess you could flow the head but it's going to be £££ for a few hp. If you rev the car with one foot and hold the revs then dab the brakes with the other foot if it's DBW the revs will come down, then you know cruise is easy to fit. UK mkIV's forum is about the best.

depends what you need to replace, by cutting a very small amount of the inner lip front edge you can get that pin out see here: other thread

you picked the right car, easier on an 8v, it's just a case of unbolting the cam (in correct sequence) and lifting the buckets out and dropping new ones in, I'd do a full set, no way of really telling which one(s) shot. might as well do a cam belt while you're at it

I'm sure that ones an adapted punto bodykit lol, I'm all for them, more the better, if they suck up all the flies that would otherwise get stuck to my front bumper. Sort of reminds me of a basking shark. 200px-Basking_Shark.jpg[/attachment:3dfbm8m9]

you're lucky, most mk4's pop the connection in the roof (smart idea that VW) or the hose pops off the back of the spray nozzle and water fills the tailgate, seems the connections are not up to the pressure the little pump can deliver.

it's worth whacking in a new thermostat, darn sight easier to fit with the new pump off the car than upside down on the car and while it's all apart you might as well, use a genuine VAG one too for the sake of a couple of quid.

the 4 cylinder cars' water pumps usually rattle a lot when the bearings are going

buy one from VW then you can ditch the crap heater bypass valves, the genuine ones are stronger mk3 parts so there's no need for pressure relief. There was some word a while ago that GSF were doing the valeo (I think that was the make) mk3 matrix, which would be the stronger OEM quality mk3 type, worth checking and pricing up both. 16v water leaks can be from: flange on front of head (possibly side one) leaking pumps (but they usually rattle badly too) leaking temp switches in the rad rusty water pipe running around side of engine to front of block cracked radiators (although they're usually pretty long-lived unless thumped) dodgy valves in header tank caps or the dreaded matrix hoses usually split and go in one big cloud of spray/steam with little warning

you just reset the MFA when you were freewheeling downhill with the wind behind you :lol:

from what I understand it was North sea oil that helped to bring down the global price of oil after the 70's crisis, so we've had the help from that already.

I think it's pretty obvious, cars will always be taxed in some kind of banding system now, based on emissions or efficiency in some way. New vehicles will simply fall into the lower bands and if necessary more bands will be added at the bottom, and maybe top. So for instance a focus 1.6 diesel currently in the low band attracting 35 quid a year tax will eventually have new lower bands below it and they'll simply increase the cost of the current £35 band by more than inflation. It's not going to happen over night though, so that focus will be in a relatively low cost band for 5 maybe 10 years. We already pay tax on electricity, albeit lower than petrol, but I can imagine electric cars would simply be put in higher VED bands or something to compensate for the lower tax on that fuel type, either that or re-charge points will have to pay higher tax than domestic electricity supply. It'll all take a long time though, I can't see us all running electric cars in 10 years time.

nah, just the track rod to get an accurate measurement.

Ah, found the old Sprinter Tech article explaining the setting of track, the nearside has a very specific setting for 185 tyres, different for wider tyres, and ONLY the offside should be used to adjust the track, if the nearside is upset it must be removed from the car to correctly measure the length and reset. I think it's to do with self centering and the position of the rack/pinion. Somewhere, I've got the workshop info and measurements, I'm not sure if the Bentley has the right values, perhaps someone with one can confirm.

heat directly over a flame e.g. over a has hob and you'll hear the switch click first setting one then setting two as the temperature rises, use a multimeter or test light to make sure the two circuits complete, dead easy, just don't burn your fingers!

remove the pressure hose from the pump, largish nut, once the hose union is removed there is then another bolt head that when unscrewed pulls out the pressure relief valve, a spring and a second section that has a tiny gauze filter at the end. When it's out, stick your finger inside the drilling in the pump body and feel for any scoring. Just out of interest, whenever I've gone to prime my pump I've found the fluid tends to just run straight through anyway and attempting to prime it just made a mess running fluid everywhere???

I think the answer is Corrado subframes don't need the sleeve, when I finally got round to doing mine they had horse-shoe shaped locators in the subframe (1990 16v) and so the sleeve (mk2 style) wasn't needed. I believe the VR6 (plus axle) subframe also has those locators. Mine's certainly run OK without them.

I guess the short answer is adjust that side tie rod, but I think there's a particular measurement on one side's tie rod-to rack that should be observed, I can't remember exactly why, perhaps Yandards or someone can expand.

sounds to me like the pressure valve in the pump is sticking, so it thinks the rack is constantly calling for pressure, run it for long like this and your pressure hose to the rack will start to leak. You need to make sure the drilling in the pump body is smooth and not scored in any way, or the valve will stick, also amke sure the little gauze filter in the end of the valve is clean.

you mean shed any light on your original mount question? I thought I did :) you need to check the source of your rear main mount, like I said I'm pretty sure anything other than VW or FEBI will give problems.

don't disregard what they're there for in the first place, if your engine is high miles it's worth dropping the sump and checking the oil pickup strainer and preferably for play in the pump gears. from the description it sounds like the 'high' pressure sender, a misnomer, but it does have the higher of the two senders values, it basically needs to detect pressure of a minimum of about 1.3 bar at 2,500 rpm or the buzzer/light will go off. For the sake of a trip to a scrappy or a couple of quid from GSF you can stick a new sensor in there to be sure. The circuit is completed by the engine earth strap back to the battery (as mentioned) but it's unlikely that is the fault if other engine related electrics are fine (oil temp water temp, alternator etc). It is possible the wiring to the sender top is dodgy, they do corrode quite badly because of where they are situated.

a common problem with eibachs is front/rear balance, next week I'm taking my koni's off the back and having another spring base plate retainer groove cut into the leg, that'll raise the back by 10mm to make my car more balanced an give me a bit more suspension movement before I hit the (cut down) bumpstops, some koni's have 3 grooves for the baseplate some 5, I think it's a top ajustable/off the car ajustable thing between the two types of koni rear dampers.