kerrinmay

So are you taking orders for knocking up a load of leather interiors for us guys on here? :D

Anyone considered having a go themselves? I'd love to get my car retrimmed in leather but I first need to swap my rear bench for one with the centre armrest. So was thinking that would be a good place to start if I had a go myself as I wouldn't need to rush with the back seat as would still have my original in the car. On second thoughts it's probably not a good idea to try this myself. I'd actually be quite happy for now to just replace my rear bench with another cloth one but one with the armrest, but I believe they didn't do one in the same cloth as the rest of my car as it's a 2.0 16v, so I won't be able to get one to match the rest of my interior.

I think I'm ok with access. You can definately get to the bulk of the main dent from behind, although I know it is close to the bracing so will have to check again, and I'm not sure about to two smaller dents. I do hope it can be sorted. How much is a new bonnet (late style)?

Has anyone used 'Dent Devils' before? They quote from £75 per panel. Thinking I might try them so I've requested an online quote.

I'd say that looks pretty much like mine is now. When I got my tape measure out yesterday, I worked out that by dropping it down by 40mm from what it is now, it would close the gap above the wheels by just over half.

Well if mine has already sagged then I dread to think how high it would sit on new standard suspension!! It currently sits pretty high up in the air and if it was to go up another 30 - 35mm then there would probably about 10cm between the top of the tyres and the wheelarch! Can anyone else confirm if 40mm will make much difference?

Bringing this subject back alive, I've just had a look to see what price etc you can get H&R springs and koni shocks for and it doesn't look like they do springs that will lower by 40mm. Can anyone help advise? It was really 40mm I wanted to lower by. Does anyone recommend SPAX springs and shocks? You can get the SPX-V7815-40-40 for about £255 + vat and they claim to lower by 40mm. And I don't really want to pay anymore than that.

Cheers I might give that a go later. To be honest you do have to look quite closely to notice the dents, they really are quite shallow.

Not even sure when it happened. I didn't take the car out yesterday so can't be sure it happened last night. We normally wake up when there is rowdy behaviour outside in the street at night, but last night our dog slept in the kitchen and we both slept right through the night which is unusual for us so it probably did happen then. Hope the dents can be easily 'popped' back out from the underside, although guess the sound insulation will have to come off for that, so I'll probably also have to buy some more of that.

Was just reversing into my parking space at work this morning and noticed that the light seemed to be bouncing off my bonnet in an irregular way. Got out and found the thing has been dented :cry: There don't appear to be any marks (well nothing really noticable), and judging by the size and shape of the dents I'd guess they are as a result of someone sitting on it. Think there are only about 2 actual dents and they are quite shallow, and based on the fact that the main one is pretty much in the centre of the bonnet I guess that whoever made them must have launched themselves onto it, unless they must have very long legs to get their bum over there! Most frustrating as the bonnet is (was) the only panel that I was really happy about as it didn't seem to have so much as a stone chip on it.

Was considering buying the part and replacing it myself, should this be easy to do?

Clutch pedal started going a bit again yesterday (i.e. stopped returning properly). I'm thinking 'Andy T' that it might well be the same as your problem. Is there any easy way to tell if the Master Cylinder is on it's last legs? Perhaps I should just get a new one and change it. Is this a difficult and time consuming job to replace? Any ideas on how long it should take and will I have enough access to it if I put the front of the car up on axle stands?

I'm seriously thinking about doing my own servicing. I serviced the first three cars that I had but then I stopped when I bought my previous car (E36 coupe) as things started getting more complicated with fuel injection and engine management systems etc, plus I wanted to keep up the service history. But with my recent experiences I'm thinking that I might be better off doing it myself, the only problem is that I don't have a driveway or garage to do it in, so would end up in the road which isn't really ideal.

Thanks. Don't think I'll worry too much then, as it's just stiff when cold and I don't get any noises from it. Just spoke to the chap at the garage and he doesn't know what gearbox oil he used, just whatever was listed for the specific vehicle! He said to pop by with the car and he'lll take a look but don't think I'll bother. They don't really inspire me with confidence in there!

Maybe I should let it settle in then, it doesn't feel graunchy or anything and I'm sort of thinking it feels better than before, but just a lot stiffer. Don't think my old gearbox oil had been in there for 100k miles as my C has only done 86k :wink:

The £12.87 + vat that I was charged for my gearbox oil is starting to sound very cheap!

Is the oil easy to change and easy to get to the right parts to do the job on a 2.0 16v do you know? I have a feeling that I will be having to change the oil again myself to something more suitable.

Just rang the garage to ask, and the chap is at lunch that did the work so I have to ring back later. Although they call themselves VW specialists I do wonder...they seem to mainly work on air-cooled vw's but say that they do watercooled as well, but the chap I just spoke to called my car a Passat, I had to correct him!! Also the chap that worked on my car told me when I took the C in that he'd never really liked them, didn't like the shape and he was more into the MK2 Golf. Interestingly I just checked my invoice and I was charged £12.87 + vat for the gearbox oil itself, not sure if this sounds about right or not?

Wanted to see if I could get a smoother gearchange so asked the local VW specialist to change the gearbox oil, the problem is that it is now very stiff to change gear when cold. There is no noise from it, it's just really quite stiff. Any ideas? Is it possible that they used an inappropriate gearbox oil?

I removed the electrical plug from the cold start injector and the car really wasn't very happy. It struggled to start so I subsequently plugged it back in and she's back to her normal self now (i.e. firing up but just needing a few revs to get her idling). Think I'll just put up with this for now, although I'd welcome any suggestions as to if this is the problem?

So can I just confirm if it is safe to just leave the electrical connection to the cold start injector disconnected until I get a new one or will I experience side effects or will I be ok with the warmer weather?

Sorry...I'm confused now! What's this about the ISV? Aren't we just talking about the Cold Start Injector? I don't want to be unplugging my ISV, or are they both connected together or something?

Is it safe to just leave it unplugged if that does the trick?

Is it safe to just leave it unplugged if that does the trick?

How is it intended to work? When it's cold it puts a bit more fuel through? If I disconnect it won't I get a problem with not enough fuel going through when it's cold? What symptoms might it give me? I'll definately have to try this later as it's bugged me since I got the car in October that it hardly ever starts properly.