craigowl

phatvr6 said Old? What's wrong with old? The Corrado is old and York, where you live, is very old.

Am flattered, Musicman, having seen your excellent pics. You have PM (re Bus) sent yesterday.

STORM 2 said Well spotted. Forgot about them. 99% standard externally, then? I got my local garage to fit them - they advertise the service and I was shown a set on a couple of cars they had just done. Not the cheapest set at £250 fitted. Feel happier with them, though - never knew how far to reverse without them. A definite plus, but will I have to spend nearly £1k on a new bumper to bring it back to standard?!

About time I put pictures of my "bus" (as an old Yorkshire neighbour of mine calls it) on here. However, as it is all standard externally, I feel that once you have seen the brochure, you have seen all 250. The penultimate picture of the series leads to the theme - "Why did I never take a proper picture of it?" It is one of the 2 pictures I have of the Opel Manta 1.6 Series A we owned from 1972 until 1978 when I sold it (fool!) for £975 - a depreciation of 30% in six years. The pic was taken in 1972 below Ben Ime. I am in the middle with typical 'tache of the era. My wife on the left was with child and my best friend from school, on the right, has an engineering background. Despite being an engineer, he bought a new Allegro when they first came out and ran it until his wife put her foot through the permanently wet, rotten floor when putting one of the children into the child seat in the back! It ended up in their drive with a clematis growing over it and even through a rust hole in the wing. A guy eventually gave him £10 for it. (The car, not the shrub). Now he runs second hand Toyotas (Carina then Corolla) and never has any mechanical trouble. I am working on getting him to go for something more exciting next time - like I did when I retired.

Musicman - PM sent.

My personal view is that the batteries in our VR6s are not ALWAYS to blame. The car is renowned on this forum for draining batteries when sitting around for a few days not being used. I blame current leakage due to poor electrics in this car. I dispensed with a - probably perfectly good - Varta battery in the car when I got it, suspecting it was needing replaced. I paid about £50 for a new Quantum 62Ah replacement from VAG dealer, only to have same kind of problems return. One of our experts on forum said Bosch Silver and Halfords calcium are good. I believe that, but dont go throwing money at a new battery before you have had your current(!) one tested by someone who knows what they are doing. Some auto parts places will do this for free.

I'm lucky enough to be able to keep C in the garage during wet/snowy/salty/gritty conditions. Not always, though - sometimes the missus and/or my daughter conspire to leave me with only the C as an option. Its a tough life. I always hose salt off right away afterwards, though, and try and dry car before putting away in garage. On days when the humidity is less than about 80% I open the doors of the garage front and back a bit and let the breeze blow through. (I dont wear an anorak and note down train numbers for nothing , you know.) Poogoat 205 diesel (14 years old this month) takes all the muck in its stride. I am afraid to say it, but the French got most of it right first time with the 1.8 non-turbo diesel engine and the 205. However, I would not buy one of their current allegedly temperamental models.

I have Dunlop Sport on mine. Seem OK but Im no Finnish rallier. My son fitted Michelin Pilot when he had VR6. He said the reduction in road noise was impressive, but they are expensive.

Storm warning said Yes I use these too. Apart from the nasty niff (Autoglym stuff usually smells good enuf to splash all over!) works fine.

Craigowl pix

Craigowl is highest hill of Sidlaws a few miles north of my home town Dundee. The hills were visible from the window of the tenement where I lived for years as a boy. Dundee was, and still is, a hard city, but its rural and coastal environment is brilliant and I still love it though I live 65 miles away now. Photos to follow from 1965 :oops: show: 1 - Dundee and River Tay from summit of Craigowl 2 - Black and White - Craigowl is visible between houses at left at front of bus (chopped vehicle was for for "L" drivers if there are any trainspotters out there interested enough!) Craigowl is partly covered with May snow. 3 - Same view with "proper" bus in colour. Craigowl snow covered - December 1965.

Just pulls out. Gently lever it out with small, flat screwdriver applied at side of plastic switch housing.

tafkadm Seen your new avatar - Have you got a deposit on your car, or is it fully paid for? Hope you got that salty muck hosed off sharpish!

3 Polos from new :oops:

Our own excellent "oilman" wrote this just the other day! If you want to look at technical data on many VW Approved oils then click on the Fuchs logo here: http://www.opieoils.co.uk/lubricants.htm Fuchs do 15,000,000 litres factory fill for VW per annum! Cheers Guy

kevhaywire said No 'tweren't that one. I bought it because I was impressed with it when I borrowed it from someone - felt it was better than the one I had. Speaking of tyre pressure gauges, I once took delivery of a new Polo CL from a local VW dealer and found that the tyre pressures were all about 57-60 lbs/psi. I checked with another gauge and confirmed it. I phoned up the garage and told them. He said "Never! - No chance!" I insisted he would be best to check it out. Later in the week he phoned back and told me that the gauge in the workshop had been faulty. What would the "auto experts" we buy our cars from be without the customer with a bit of technical knowledge? Of course, forums like this with the pooled knowledge and expertise of the many clued-up people on it is making the customer sometimes more informed than even the franchise technicians and, most certainly, the many charlatans in the motor trade. May the force be with us. 8)

Renfru quickstu said Often seems like it. We're slowly catching up, though. nearly every month of the last 2 years has been warmer than average. The grass out at the back looks like it needs cut, too! You never saw that a couple of decades ago. Regards, Iain

Good one. A bit different too.

ghee60 said A pity this, as without a doubt they stock a vast amount of great stuff. I have been shopping in Halfords since about 1963 :oops:. Many of us on the forum will probably spend a lot of time in there regardless of the knowledge or competence of the staff, because they carry such a vast amount of stock. I suppose they know they will always sell plenty regardless. Believe it or not, I bought a Honda 50 motor scooter in Halfords in Ayr in 1968. They were just sitting out on the floor on display like any other item.

We know a 90-year old lady (originally from Belarus) who was a nurse in various parts of the world including Lebanon. She says it has the best climate she has known. Lucky you. 8)

In Halfords last week I heard the customer in front of me at the till complaining about the price of something and saying he would be in touch with the manager. I handed over the digi. tyre pressure gauge I was buying having picked it at the rear of the shop where they were ticketed at £9.99 - I had noticed the same gauge was £12.99 at the front of the store - when she charged me £12.99 I told her it was £9.99 where I had picked it up. "Show me where" she said. "Certainly" I said. When we got to the £9.99 ones she feebly muttered something about someone not changing the prices properly and I walked out with the gauge for £9.99. The staff there never fill you with confidence.

Best to believe in routine servicing and preventative maintenance. I dont let original coolant hoses go past 100-120k miles for a start. In this era of mobile phones, though, it is not so imperative that you avoid a breakdown at all costs. Hovever, on a sleety, winter's night, on a busy highway, still a scary experience best avoided, whatever your gender. I always have a good look at as many things on my daughter's car as I can when she drops in.

Thanks oilman. I am sure I speak for many when I say this will be useful for frequent future reference.

Far to clever, this, for mere men like me to have figured out!

skimask said Yep, they were best for me. They like a few years of NCD, though.