davidwort

should be fine, although the front springs, top plates and strut top mounts/bearings changed on the facelifted cars if you were thinking of using any of those bits, you can't mix and match those parts they would have to be all of the early or late type.

I think a fair bit of the premium is based on claims for and against for a particular model, not just the power/performance and type of vehicle/group. The golf 1.6 driver used to be very steep to insure, loads were being nicked for some strange reason?

if it doesn't affect your radio reception, don't bother, it's only there to help stop static build up on a large metal surface which can then interfere with reception.

I've gone for the cheap alternative a few times on a number of cars, sometimes it's been OK, like a cheap boge lowering kit on a mk1, but in general I've ended up buying the better more expensive kit later on as corrosion, leakage and ride quality have been issues with the cheap option, particularly on the corrado. In the worst case it'll end up costing you more going for the cheap option as you'll end up getting rid of them and then buying something decent too!

couldn't have advertised it with worse pictures if someone tried, nicely finished car in the flesh and the fastest thing I've ever heard spinning up stealth's rollers, I'd imagine a lot of time and effort went into preparing that car, worth every penny of 9 grand IMO.

outer pulleys need to come off to get the lower timing belt cover off, the alternator pulley on the crank can get pretty stuck, no need to remove bottom timing belt pulley (easy mistake to make as the two almost fuse together) but may need a lot of pursausion to get off. you can do the tensionner with a pair of angled long nosed pliers, just make sure the belt is just about twistable to 90 degrees half way between cam pulley and intermediate shaft pulley.

possibly, one of the symptoms can be revs sticking when you de-clutch, often a blip of the throttle will correct it. Not all 1.8 ISV's will recover from this habit even with thorough cleaning, worth a go though..

sounds like the adjustable part of the steering column Jim, if you're feeling that sort of clunk in the column it's unlikely to be part of the suspension causing it, mine does a similar thing every now and then, just keeping my eye out for a late 8v fixed column.

don't even need the form now as it's all computerised, I wonder if plod ever makes you do 'a producer' these days as they can check everything electronically, even the tax disk has a bar code. mine went through no probs yesterday :D

yeah, i had two old Pirellis on the back once and when they got really old and low on tread they made some pretty wierd noises, very similar to a bearing.

there's nothing new about this, VW have been making marzipan timing belt tensionners for at least 10 years now, my golf had one.

It's proabably best to use all the O2M parts, think O2M's have larger driveshaft flanges though, only the NA 1.8 20v and Beetles have the 100mm flanges. O2M would be 6 speed cars, Seat Leons, some late mk4 GTI's and the like, don't think you'd want the ratios from a 6sp diesel motor though, possibly too high gearing?

sounds like alternator diodes to me, similar thing happened to my old alternator, I could see from my dash mounted voltmeter that it read low until the engine was revved then it came up to near normal for the rest of the drive. It eventually went altogether though. Worth trying a new brush pack first.

just a standard multi spline M11 bolt, not sure of size, got one in a set of 5 that also covers driveshaft spline bolt.

battery? how old, has it ever been completely discharged, does it hold charge left disconnected

get a VAG genuine metal headgasket, not too bad a job, just that the inlet is in the way so top half has to come off.

all the vac hoses and crank beather pipes properly connected? leaving off the crank breather hose to the air box will cause this.

you need to check drain with a multimeter that can run in-line to measure current, should be really low like 0.01A if not, start pulling out the fuses until you find the circuit with the drain. Also, what is the voltage across the battery with the engine running, if it's under 13.5 volts one or more of the diodes in the alternator may be shot. It's possible the alternator is draining the battery but I'd have thought you'd get a red light on the dash with the engine running.

time to whip the head off me thinks.

The rear bearings run on two angled races, inner and outer, these are the ones that tend to fade in/out as you change direction, it can be difficult to tell which corner the noise is coming from but in my experience a rear bearing can make substantial noise when there are only very tiny pits in the surface of the race. Jack the rear up and spin the wheels, you can usually hear a bad rear bearing, if it's badly pitted, like this. Fronts are very difficult to tell until you strip the bearing out.

1.8's and early G60's at least, use the hook type hangars that are incompatible with the later cars bar type hangars(e.g. 2.0 16v), so you need a system designed specifically for the 2.016v

yeah, if the gaitor isn't on quite straight on one or both sides the tube will rub against part of the rack or mountings for the rack.

cream-cheese, no sorry, it's cast iron as said, just in one of those moods today. it's perfectly good as it is, even with a modified head all you really need to do is internally polish/remove casting marks. For the ultimate top end on a valver an all-in-one downpipe and mainfold may get you a few more horses, but for everyday noise, torque, reliability and fitment the OEM manifold and dowpipe is fine. IIRC heat wrap is only needed on a tubular steel manifold/downpipe, the cast iron ones are fine as they are.

Can't fault the VW ones, they've lasted 17 years and were still servicable, just thought I'd change them anyway as I was in there. The FEBI ones looked really good, made out of a plastic rather than rubber, felt really thick and strong, perfectly made too.

Thing about skodas for me is they're a brand aimed at a particular market, even though they're using the same engineering as VW's they're just not quite right. Brother in law has a new Octavia TDI fully loaded, but it's a four door hatchback and for me is much the same as a Mazda 6 or Mondeo, you know they're good cars but they're very average and uninspiring at the same time. A Hyundai coupe is great in many ways, but would you really want one over a VW(Corrado)? I was considering a mid sized estate a while back and £ for pound a new Octavia looks great, but for the same money I'd rather have a couple of year old A4 or 3 series touring.