coolrado

I'm running coilies and poly bushes on mine so the struts are a fair bit shorter, so you dont have to drop them too far, but you can do the same with standard suspension by just using a set of spring compressors to pull the top of the suspension down a bit while you swap the top mounts over, you do need the top plates on both sides removed though otherwise the roll bar will hold it up. I just lightly pushed the tyre down with my knee while holding the top mount up then shifted the top of the suspension to one side, then drop the top mount out, cleaned the cup and put the new top mount in.

There is no need to remove the suspension when doing the top mounts, just remove both top nuts, top plates and the slot nuts and then jack the front of the car up and put it on some tall axle stands, the suspension then drops down far enough to just remove the top mounts and put the new ones on, only takes 20 minutes per side. It was the lying on my back on the freezing ground to strip and re-paint the brake lines that was the worst bit :shaking: There is a note above each picture explaining what the knackered or good ones should look like, the top plate is yellow zinc passivate coated steel by the way.

Looking good so far, I was having a look around my mates one yesterday and the carpeting on the sides has made a hell of a difference, feels so much warmer and has cut the road noise right down, he has gone for the sheeps wool insulation on his and its so dense but surprisingly light weight. One thing i had noticed in your pics was that scotchloks have been used on the roof lights, if I where you I would change them for decent crimps or soldered connections, the scotchloks may be fine but i hate the bloody things, I have had to rewire loads of alarms and stereo's that where fitted with them, usually due to condensation corroding the contacts.

Yeah the bearings where completely shot on those, could feel the slack in them every time you went over a dip or bump in the road. Got the MOT on tuesday, so I needed to get a few bits done before then, but it's no fun doing these things outside when its so cold there is ice forming on my socket set :lol: My back is now killing me though :(

The question seems to come up on here quite often of how to tell if your topmounts are dead. If they look like this It's a good bet that they are FUBAR. climatronic wiring-Golf from May 01.pdfDSC_0275.JPG[/attachment:1ftxkoqc] those where genuine top mounts with about 15k miles on them, so it seems the coilovers really do accelerate the wear. New or good ones should look something like this. 2.8l 24v Climatronic system.pdfDSC_0270.JPG[/attachment:1ftxkoqc] It's a bit clearer with them removed. DSC_0278.JPG[/attachment:1ftxkoqc]

I call shenanigans! nobody could be that stupid.........could they?

I was overtaken by some halfwit in a vectra at about 5.30 this morning on the way to work, it was so foggy that you could only see about 2 car lengths, and it was reading -2 on the outside temperature guage and the roads where quite slippy, I caught up with him about 2 miles down the road sticking out of a hedge after a sharp bend :lol: I stopped and asked him if he needed a hand but he just gave me a gob full of abuse :lol: obviously has mental issues :cuckoo: Some people just don't think the weather conditions have an effect on how you drive :scratch:

A mate of mine has just bought the units, sideboards ect from a company called Norton conversions in runcorn, appearently they supply a few other companies who then add their bit on top, but you can buy from them directly and save a fortune. The guy to speak to is John Grice 6 Dewar court Astmoor. Runcorn Cheshire WA7 1PT tel 07850 747694

Is it actually a proper "rug doctor"? the upright one they advertise on tv? if it is they are no good for doing cars with as they only work on horizontal flat surfaces.

Yep had nothing but trouble with mine, even leading to the destruction of one of my chargers, I am slowly collecting all the bits to change mine back to standard as I stupidly did a part ex with my old pulleys when i got the toothed belt. I was running one plastic pulley on the tensioner bracket and one cambelt tensioner on the other pulley mount, with an adjustable link in place of the damper, as i was told by several people who supposedly knew what they where talking about that this was the best thing to do. although I am now running the damper again and have not had one belt failure since, they where lasting a couple of months at the most before that. And if you are running a Gates HTD belt get rid of it, and get a Gates GT3 belt, they are 30% stronger, and rated to higher RPM.

I can tell you are just looking for an excuse to get the castrating tongs out :doc: :lol:

If it has a rough wrinkly feel to it, its probably just this stuff Wrinkle finish paint It's been used on classic car engines and dashboards for years and does look very nice when done properly. Although the powder coaters that did my wheels also had some similar finishes to that on some display racking they where doing. I doubt very much it would be teflon coated, apart from being very expensive to do, it would serve no real purpose, teflon coatings chip just as easily as most paints but they resist frictional wear much more.

all what effort??? they took 20 minutes to fit and cost me nothing. your perfectly entitled to your opinion, but the title of the thread wasn't "what do you think of electric headlight adjusters?"

Might as well go for a genuine one although i have had genuine ones fom euro before, some of the vw dealers will chuck in a free filter with a tub of oil if you ask them.

I fitted them mainly because i adjust the coilovers quite regularly so its easier to adjust the lights to suit. It also comes in handy when you get stuck behind some tit with their rear fogs on. I just dont see why people feel the need to make idiotic comments like that. If you dont like it or think its pointless nobody asked for your opinion so just ignore it and STFU!

probably the most pointless post IMO^^^^^^ :fist:

yeah the pressures dont look too bad, when the heat exchangers first start to fail you ususally find coolant in the oil before you see oil in the coolant, when the coolant is hot and at full pressure it is forced through the fault in the exchanger into the oil, when they completely fail it all gets mixed up and makes a mess of the oil and coolant, so it sounds quite likely it could be your exchanger. Last time my head gasket failed the first thing it started doing was struggling to start or be very lumpy once started as the coolant was being forced under pressure into the cylinder once the engine had stopped, but once up to temp it was fine (well... for about 2 days until the dreaded plume of steam out the back).

only 1 wire goes from the pot to the G terminal on the motors, the - terminal on the motors is ground, + is fed from ignition, I will check the rest out tomorrow.

the 5 pins on the switch are probably 2 for the illumination and 3 for the potentiometer.

do you know if they do one for an early dash? I will try and double check the wiring on the car tomorrow morning just to make sure.

Really? apart from the many other engines I have rebuilt, the 4 PG blocks i have stripped down, 1 on 120ishk 2 on 145ishk 1 on 160k all of them still had honing marks which where fine on bores 2,3 and 4, but bore 1 showed uneven wear on all of the engines, also the big end bearings on bore 1 where all more worn than the others. The valve stem seals on all of the engines where brittle and worn out, although the 120k engine had been very mistreated. I didnt say his headgasket was knackered but its easier to do the stem seals with the head off which obviously means doing the headgasket as well, the original fibre headgasket can leak oil for years and not actually fail completely, but personally i would rather fit a new all metal headgasket for peace of mind. but as has aleady been said until a compression test has been done its all guesswork.

yeah I ended up just fitting a standard potentiometer in one of the switch blanks, and they work perfectly, i will have to have a look how i wired them up, as it was ages ago and i have a brain like a sieve. although i think i just copied the wiring for the vw caddy from the wiring diagrams on volkswagen.msk.ru how many connections are there on the motors? the caddy ones are 3 wire, (0v, 12v and signal in) if i recall, so i think it was just 12v to one side of the pot and the wiper connected to the signal in connection on the motors. also how much was the potentiometer from vw?

sounds like the signal wire from the ignition is disconnected so the MFA thinks the ignition is off and just displays the time.

climatronic wiring-Golf from May 01.pdfc30.jpg[/attachment:lvyj2xl9] + 2.8l 24v Climatronic system.pdfvw nova.jpg[/attachment:lvyj2xl9] = codatronca007 front.jpg[/attachment:lvyj2xl9] looks like something you used to draw in your excercise book in school :scratch:

If you do lots of short journeys, a little mayo in the rocker cover or on the oil cap isn't unusual, although if its never had a headgasket or stem seals done before at 145k it would probably be worth doing anyway.