Kevin Bacon

204bhp with 199lb/ft torque + 4WD as standard.....they shift. That 24V engine sounds so much crisper and meatier than the 12V. K

See my post above about the Throttle position sensor. Seems to have cured my cutting out problems. Someone else also mentioned replacing relay no 53 on the fuseboard. Give those two a shot. Kev

You need to jack the engine up quite high to get the mount out of it's socket on the front cross member, so check you're not going to stretch any cables before hand! Kev

I've used Quantum silver in all my VWs, 8V, 16V, 16V Turbo and VR6. It's good stuff. Kev

With the exception of the cutting out, the other two are easy to sort and I think pretty much all VR6 owners have suffered a cut-out at some point! K

I'm interested in a VR6 cat back also. Does anyone know the dimensions of the rear box because I have an uprated ARB at the back and if the box is too big, it will hit the lower shock bolt. I've had to have an indentation pressed into Supersprints in the past as the clonking used to do my head in! Would rather not have to resort to that on a nice Magnex! Kev

Cam position sensor is the correct terminology as it sits opposite the cam picking a signal from a magnet. Hall senders traditionally live inside distributors, but their job is the same. Just being nit picky :lol: Dr_mat, indeed the ECU can flash an engine issue light, just ask our American friends. They got such a light on their cars. You can buy a nifty gadget called SECS which monitors all the ECU functions on a backlit LCD panel. Currently it's for Subarus but the manufacturers of it have made them for VWs though. Kev

Sounds like the MAF is dead then. A healthy one will cause the engine to almost die completely when disconnected as the ECU reconfigures itself to use the TPS. If you disconnect the MAF and nothing happens, the ECU has already bypassed the MAF. Kev

I think his ABS light has flickered on and off a few times recently but stays off the majority of the time. I've not seen that code before, you usually either get pump outlet failures or faulty wheel sensors, not seen a Diff lock error before! If it does come to a new pump, maybe one off a Ford Galaxy or Golf VR6 would be easier to find in the scrap yard? Kev

My apologies, yes they should be 2K2! I've edited the above post accordingly! Thanks for spotting that. 2K2 incidentally sets the reference point to be 0.1V per LED segment and the other 2K2 sets the LED current. You can fiddle about with the latter's values to alter brightness, or simply exchange it for a pot. One other thing, try also a 2.2 tantalum cap across signal and ground to smooth out voltage spikes from the probe, makes the meter a little smoother :lol: Kev

I used to have that exact same meter on my 16V Turbo. It's a good one :lol: Sorry, yeah to test the probe you can use a meter, but it must be a high impedance (10Mohm) one to avoid damaging the probe and also, most meters (except dedicated Automobile meters) can't keep up with the change in voltage, but it gives you an indication if it's working or not. Kev

That's the vehicle speed sensor (G68) alright, towards the rear of the gearbox.. A largeish black fella with the plug pointing toward the engine block. Check you didn't bust the wires when the tranny came off. Kev

Redline MT90 is about as good as you can get to be honest. I use it my VR with Slick50 gear additive. Nice and sweet change :lol: Kev

If you've got an airlock, you'll get bubbling and hissing noises from the expansion tank and some coolant will be forced out too, spraying the engine bay. The engine will also overheat. Sounds like you're OK. A top up the next morning is perfectly normal but it shouldn't go down anymore thereafter. I think you're OK mate :lol: Just keep an eye on the temp and level for the next few days. Kev

In front of the radiator fan on the block is a black plastic box with 3 sensors on it, that's you're thermostat housing and inside it lives the thermostat. You have to remove the whole housing to get at the stat. You may find it easier to remove the coilpack first so that you can get to all the hoses attached to the stat housing. When you get the replacement stat, get a new seal for it and also a housing-to-block rubber O ring. Does the car misfire when wet? Could be the coilpack. If not, it'll be crank sensor, cam sensor, MAF sensor or O2 sensor! It really needs to go on a diagnostic machine to isolate the fault. Cheers Kev

They are indeed one and the same thing. It tells the ECU where TDC is and how fast the engine is spinning (rpm). The crank sensor is on the block to the right of the heat exchanger. Follow the cable on the engine mount with the white plug. No point cleaning it unless it's caked in swarf. They just tend to lose their resolution over time. If you've got an oscilliscope :? you can monitor the square wave it kicks out, but how many people have scopes in their living rooms? When they die completely you get a "G28 - No signal" error in VAG-COM. When dying, you get "G28 - Implausible signal". Yes it is expensive, £140 last time I got one :x K

Stick some Osram Silverstar bulbs in :lol: Pringles, get some thin nose pliers and pull the round base of the sidelight bulb holder, it'll come out! Kev

Yeah, use G12+. No need to use flushing agents, the VR6 engine is not known for producing lots of sediment. Some agents can be harsh on seals etc. Kev

Put your hand above the oil filter housing and grab the long plastic tube 16VG60 described. Slide your hand along and your fingers will land on the drain plug. It has a knurled ring for removing by hand, about the size of a 10p. Don't forget to put it back in before the refilling with coolant - via the top hose :) Kev

Are you sure you actually have a leak? Hot air will naturally condensate on a cold surface. My rear window also steams up when I get in it on a cold morning but 1 minute of the demister, and it's completely gone. I also have the window open all year round, so the temperature inside the car equalises quicker. My car is a bone dry inside and that's the only theory I can come up with, sorry if sounds stupid or teaching you to suck eggs! Kev

In that case I don't know what the problem is. K

Same here mate. I've been an Alpine fan ever since 1992 when I nearly bankrupted myself buying a chassis removable (face plates rare in those days!) Alpine cassette player. It was solid, reliable and sounded awesome, which came as no surprise given Alpine is the sister company of Nakamichi. Anyway, in 1994 I moved onto a 7514L (face plate job) which was utter rubbish structurally, but still sounded good. Then in the mid 90s, Alpine told Halfords to get knotted when they were keen on selling their products in their superstores. Alpine sales then flagged (due to their snobbery) and once the carrot was removed from their arse, they got with the program and started knocking out a larger and cheaper range, but at the expense of build quality. And to make matters worse, they moved away from their 'less is more' ethos and started producing for the 'more buttons and lights is more' market. A shame, a real shame. This is why I love the Pioneer. It's an Alpine of old and Alpine just can't compete (at the moment) with Pioneer's superb Mosfet output stage, or their reliability and build quality. Just my thruppence worth... K

No don't do that mate. You'll be putting the entire load of the meter through the probe, which it won't like. The meter must be earthed to the battery or the chassis. If the meter isn't moving much, either the probe is dead (sits at 0.4V) after preheat mode has expired or you've used to high a resistance on the reference pin of the chip. Kev

Good points mate and very valid. I thought about installing a second probe (wideband) for the sole purpose of running the AF meter but couldn't be arsed! I'm not terribly interested in ultimate accuracy, all I want to see is when the probe is dead (stuck at 0.4V) and 0.7V at WOT, hence the simplicity of my meter (red light over 7th bar). For you forced induction boys, then yes I would probably go for something more accurate, but for NA, it's just a rough guide, which suits me :lol: Henny, you can substitute one of the 220K ohm resistors for a 4.7K ohm variable pot and adjust the LED brightness manually :lol: Parts list is as follows:- 1 x LM3914 Chip 1 x 18 pin IC holder 1 x 10 bar LED module 1 x 2.2uf tantalum bead capacitor for probe voltage smoothing. 1 x 3mm 12V red LED 2 x 2.2K resistors (or 1 x 2.2K & 1 x 4.7K for LED dimming) 1 x 10Mohm resistor - for the input, high impedance ensures minimal, if any, current drain from the probe. 1 x 2.2uf electrolytic capacitor (smooths the car's 12V supply) Some heatshrink Lengths of white, red and black wire Some thin solid core wire for the LED module Some preformed circuit (aka breadboard) I've lost the circuit diagram unfortunately, but I'm sure Stormseeker won't mind forwarding the one I sent him. But you can also try a google search on 'Air fuel meter' as there is plenty of info on them online. Meter Behaviour:- At idle and driving at moderate speed, the meter will flick up and down constantly, indicating the ECU is in closed loop mode and hunting for stoichemetric. The meter jumps up and down because the ECU is using the probe to monitor O2 content and pulses the injectors 2-3 times a second to lean and enrichen constantly, for economy/emmisions more than anything else. At WOT, the ECU goes into Open loop mode and enrichens the mixture. During OLM, the probe is not consulted, the ECU just blasts that old motion potion in :lol: When you back off the throttle, the meter will extinguish all it's lights, indicating the ECU has shut off the fuelling for over-run. If you get all that happening, the ECU is doing it's job and passes with distinction. Hope this helps Kev

Yeah hook it up to VAG-COM. If you're lucky you may get an "Implausible signal" or "Intermittant short to ground" or just a plain old "No signal". Historically, the MAF rarely throws a code but they do operate out of range when fooked, which the ECU seems to ignore, from a coding point of view. I'm sorry to say there is no definitive way to check it, I had one of mine checked on an Oscilliscope by a local Bisch Basch Bosch agent and it passed the waveform tests, but the car still drove like a bag of squished turd. They say this always happens with MAFs, Beetles, Golfs, Subarus, BMWs you name it. They just go without warning with no clue as to what's up with it. Only cure is to replace it. They did me a recon one for £150, which is basically new innards inside a used plastic housing, but when you look at the one they send you, it is infact new anyway, so go for a recon one. You are correct in saying the ECU uses the TPS as a substitute, but TPSs aren't very accurate and it's a crude method of fuelling, hence the jerkiness and flatspots you are experiencing. You might also want to have your ECU scanned for Cam and Engine positon sensor errors. Kev