John Blount

Thanks Sean, I've replaced the radiator and stat only a couple of months back although I never changed the water pump as in fairness it's working fine although saying that I've not had the car long so I can't really talk from experience! I did notice a couple of weeks back when I took it to Stealth that if I stopped in some traffic for more than a minute or may be two the stage one fan I think cut in too cool things down. Admittedly it wasn't cold out but it wasn't that hot either does that sound relatively normal for a VR??

As per description, I'm after either a complete good condition black plastic cover complete with fixing pins which attaches to the tailgate covering the spoiler motor etc or just the plastic half turn pins on there own.

I will be only using my VR6 during the summer months and as we all know they can tend to get a bit hot but mostly on the water side rather than the oil although reading some of the posts on here it seems the oil temps can get into the 120's on some so I was thinking about installing a oil cooler. What's the thoughts on these and has anyone fitted one and noticed a difference in the oil temp for the better? I don't want one for track use etc but I just want one to help the engine out a bit as its 22 years old! I think if I was going to fit one it would be one with a built in thermostat that doesn't open till its 80 degrees plus as the oil would never warm up otherwise. Any positive or negative thoughts??

When I brought the car the Kenwood radio fitted wouldn't power up, I've got around to looking at it over the weekend but it's a bit unusual? All the ISO plugs are there and Ok and I've got 12 volts and a negative at the plug where they need to be for the permanent feed but there is no switched live from the ignition? Has any body had an issue with the ignition switch being faulty that's caused this problem? The stereo has a wiring loom that connects to the ISO plugs so I connected the perminant feed cable and the switched feed cable to the known 12 volt supply so that it gets 12 v to both cables and the radio springs into life and works fine but this then causes an unexpected issue! Once you do this the VW after market Conlog immobiliser dies and you can't start the car. I can't understand why it would do this. Any ideas? I think I'm going to get an auto sparky out any way and have the Conlog removed as it already has its ECU one anyway albeit basic plus the wiring looks a bit dodgy.

You can get one from a dealer or off the net for £24.00 or so but make sure you get an original VW part not a reproduction one as the quality of reproduction ones are questionable. Try cleaning the throttle body again and if not see if you can get your hands on another one and swap it out and try.

I had a simalar problem and Vag Com said it was the ISV but after changing it made no difference to my car. I later found out that if there is a problem with the idling it can throw this error up as a general fault rather than it actually being the ISV so it can fool you. The blue temp sensor can effect idling as this sends data to the ECU about thempratures but I'm sure someone will be along shortly who knows more than me. May be the throttle body wants cleaning?

Looked today and mine looks dry as well, certainly not flooded with oil..

Original VW around £160.00 worth I think it was, I know there are cheaper ones but I think he only fits VW branded ones for the quality which I'm perfectly happy with. It's actually the pressure relief valve that fails in the pump rather than the pump won't pump. When the oils cold the pressure builds up to over 7 bar and this pressure relief valve should open to return the oil back to the sump but mine wouldn't open so there was too much oil in the cam lifters. One way to test is start the car when stone cold and rev to around 4000 rpm then take your foot off the accelerator. If it cuts out/stalls try to start again immediately. If the engine spins really freely there's no compression which would mean in most cases the oil pump (relief valve) is knacked. I did know that my car did this although it had only done this once to me before as I don't tend to rev it that hard when cold normally but I didn't mention it to Vince as I didn't really think that would point to what was wrong, it was only today when Vince mentioned it had done it to him and that's when he "twigged" what was wrong that the penny dropped with me.... Could have saved us all a lot of time if I had mentioned it.

He has indeed..

Collected the car from Stealth this morning and from cold it started and ran perfectly :dance: who would have thought the oil pump would have caused this kind of issue! Vince has fitted new front wheel bearings and re-aligned the tracking and camber and with the four new tyres I have just fitted plus the new coil overs the handling is just as good as the modern stuff, well impressed for a car that's 22 years old. I drove it the 40 odd miles home and really enjoyed the drive, glad it's all sorted now though as to this point it's taken weeks and weeks to solve the issue. Just a body work and re-spray to do in June and its all sorted.

Exactly the same happened to mine, POR 15 treat the metal then coat it in Wax Oil but if you use Wax Oil out of a spray can make sure you put the can in some warm water for 10 minutes or it will block the spray head.

Update so far. Vince at Stealth has had the car for 3 days and it's had him thinking a bit! Feel really quite guilty that it's causing this many problems. Apparently the ECU has 4 modes of which modes 1 and 2 are mainly used along with 3 now and again, apparently mode 4 is almost like an emergency running mode of which mine is operating in all the time! The error code saying that the ISV is at fault is a bit of a false lead and must be treated with caution of which once you have discounted this like I have by replacing it with a new one and testing its operation in VCDS it still shows as a fault but why? The fault relating to the ISV is quite vague and doesn't nesersarly mean it's the ISV that's at fault but that there is an issue somewhere that's causing a poor idle etc so this may be worth noting for all of you that have a similar problem and changing the ISV didn't sort it. The blue ECU temp sensor was tested and was Ok but a new one was installed just to discount it but it made no difference. A replacement ECU was also tried but again no difference!! Well it seems there is light at the end of the tunnel as Vince is quite confident he may well have found the issue.. OIL PUMP. When cold the oil is thicker than when warm and this is creating poor compression until it warms up after a couple of minutes that's presumably why it runs Ok a few minutes in. Vince is getting me a new oil pump and gaskets etc and we will see. He's also replacing the front wheel bearings as there grumbling a bit so it's going to be an expensive week next week. Just want to say though Vince at Stealth has been fantastic and to all of you that have wondered is it worth traveling to get to him I can honestly say it is as I've been to a couple of so called experts local to me and it turns out I know more than they do and that's saying something that is.

Thought you might have one Chris... Yes it's the one that goes up the left hand side of the door (as you look no at the drivers door) and along the top.

Need a drivers side external window rubber that in ideally mint condition? I believe there is lead in side of which mines blown making it all lumpy, having a re-spray in June so need to get a replacement.

I've got one if your stuck... Have you tried the wanted section??

Chris, Arrived today and spot on... Thanks buddy.

The loom I've got is fitted from 20 amp fuses so I suspect Rayne have upgraded them..

Thanks mate but I've already brought some today...

Just thought the following might be useful to anyone who is thinking of doing the head light wiring upgrade to improve the poor head lamp brightness. There are loads of kits out there to do this but I've found one from Rayne automotive which is really good. There's no cutting of any of the cars wiring as the headlamp plugs on each side plug directly into the supplied wiring harness and then back into the back of each respective headlamp leaving just the positive and the negative to connect direct to the battery. Really easy to do and if ever it requires changing back to original you just un-plug the wiring harness and plug the original plugs back into the head lamps. Rayne automotive sell them on e-bay or you can buy direct http://www.rayneautomotive.co.uk I brought the wiring harness and headlamp kit which included two H4 Osram night breaker plus lamps for around £50 and the difference is amazing. Just need to buy some H4's now though to match up the side lights.

I've changed mine for the Lupo upgrade and it's well worth doing, pricy though at £190 but well worth it. There's a VW dealer selling it as a kit on e-bay which is where I had mine from.

I've been on about getting one for ages and I end up going a bit mad when researching stuff so I decided to go for a Road Hawk HD camera and to be honest it's great with an amazing picture quality. I also brought the hard wired kit for it so there's no messing plugging it in all the time. It was only about 6 months after buying it that while sitting stationary in traffic I was run into from behind of which the guy who hit me tried to make out I'd rolled back into him!!! Yeah right... I let him tell his little story then showed him the camera in the front of my car, funnily enough he went all quiet give me his details and drove off. Now you might say "well he run into you while stationery so it's his fault" but as we all know it's who's got the proof and knowing the luck I have the insurance would have portioned the blame 50/50 meaning a hit on my insurance so having this camera has already paid for itself. I hear what many of you are saying about if your slightly over the speed limit etc on cameras that record speed and location just as my Road Hawk does but when you down load it to send it etc you can pick what information you want to include or not as the case might be and as there's no legal requirement or standard that footage has to have its not a problem. I'm my case I gave the insurance everything as it showed my exact location via GPS, my speed which was 0 and of course the footage. Got him bang to rights.

Just an update really, still the same issues so I've hit a wall!! I've called Vince at Stealth and booked it in with him to have a look at on the 6th April to see if he can sort it. Tell ya what though I'll be proper annoyed with myself if it's something simple.... Then again thinking about it I suppose I'd prefer that so let's hope I've missed something.

Chris, just sent a PM..

Bank transfer please mate, PM me with the cost and bank details and I'll sort.. Cheers chap!!

Good man... Forgot to say mine black (don't know if they come in different colours) Are you up for me purchasing this off you??