andy

It is a genuine one, I don't muck arround with things as important as water pumps. 50 mins is pretty good, I have done a VR6 one before thankfully, I remember things being pretty tight! Mind you I managed to swap the gearbox mount in under 15 mins!

Solved the vibration problem, it was the Gearbox mount, its supposed to be a 1yr old VT mount but it was shot when I got it out, flapping arround with moderate hand pressure. Bizarre, now.....must fit that new main water pump but perhaps not in this snow! Cheers Chaps.

Cylinders 1 and 6 will generally be the worse of the 6, my number 6 is the worse generally. Really oily could be for the reasons suggested above, but a lot of VRs eat 1 and 6.

I haven't done this job yet. To be honest, I've got used to it, its my other halfs car and whilst she finds it more noticeable than me its really not bad enough to warrant the effort or expense involved in getting it out. The car has had full allignment and is a few other niggles sorted and its fine now really, I'm not sure I'd notice it day to day.

Cheers Kev, I have been wondering about the gearbox mount, I have a receipt for a Vibratechnics Gearbox mount, fitted prior to getting the car, do you think that a VT GB mount in isolation might transmit extra vibrations to the rest of the car, i.e. as far as I know the other mounts are standard squidgy oe ones? Failing that I had been considering flywheel inbalance, (unlikely I realise, but you never know) and possibly exhaust (possibly manifold) issues as it does sound a little loud at the rear of the engine.

I've got a magnex backbox and a eibach arb and they work fine together, it was a pig to fit though, very tight, fine once fitted, no knocking.

Cheers Toad :D Another thing elimated!

What should the engine module appear as when you connect to it? Mine says 2.8, 6 Zyl Is that correct, I am using the free version of VAG com but I would have expected it to say 2.9 rather than 2.8, also although I realise Zylinder is 'foreign speak' for Cylinder, is that how it normally appears? I'm just wondering if this is normal as I go about my fault finding on my latest aquisition! I'm wondering if I have a non standard ecu or chip possibly, not quite sure which part that info would be stored on?

Dark one on the M27 this morning.

I remeasured the compressions last night, with a different guage and got good results across all cylinders cold and hot, it must have been a dodgy seal on my original guage I think, its all a bit strange though as I did measure it repeatedly the first time, unless there was some crap on the plug seat thats been removed by me putting the plugs in and out again. So she seems healthy, mechanically at least, phew! I've taken it out for a spin, put some redex in the tank and given it a good hard blast, I've still got the fault codes and the roughness. Its a vibration really at 2k rpm +/-200 rpm. Not sure where to look next. When I fitted the MAF last week, (where previously it never had one, don't ask!) should I have reset the ECU or anything?

Hmmm cheers. Food for thought. I will redo the tests tonight, cold, hot and wet if necessary. That'll double check if I have a major problem. I have got a brand new MAF fitted, I am wondering, on the other front if that is dodgy, that could explain the fault codes in its own right.

Also does anyone know what code 553 means, I can't find it anywhere!

Funnily enough It does have bad fuel economy, however code 537 is showing as a lambda type problem on ross-tech. http://wiki.ross-tech.com/index.php/00537

Its cylinder 5, back right as you look at the engine. Good point about the oil, it just doesn't normally work like that. I've always had lower results when cold, particularly on cars with hydraulic tappets.I really hope it isn't wear, it shouldn't be on an engine of that age. :eek:

The codes I'm getting are 537 - 561 - 553 - I'm not losing any oil/coolant, its absolutely squeaky clean/tight in that respect. I have tried a good hard thrash (ye olde italian tune up!) but it just doesn't feel nice doing it.

Well .. maybe .. but does the car run badly? Why do you think you have a problem worth considering engine work for? The engine is running slightly rough. It still performs well but with a roughness/vibration uncharacteristic of VR6s. I do have several fault codes but I thought I'd check the basics with a compression check, whilst I was putting new plugs in. Its a new car to my fold (we now have 3 VR6s, one of which will be for sale soon) and I thought a general healthcheck was in order anyway. Its only got 69k on the engine from new but its definatley not running 100%, it could be the fault codes but I was very surpised to see a better cylinder compression result on a cold engine than a hot engine.

I think you might be thinking of another thread Dr, there was another one on here recently where all the results were low. Mine are showing 180-200 on most of the cylinders and 155 ish on one. Thats out of spec I would say using the 10% rule of thumb.

I'm hoping that's what it was, I did take the guage in and out several times and make sure it looked clean where it seats etc. I will be over the moon if that's all it was. I'm going to redo all the tests tonight cold, hot and wet(if necessary).

no one? :(

I have done a compression test recently on a VR6, one cylinder was low at 155/160, where the rest were 185 ish, this was with the engine hot. However I've done a cold compression test tonight and the dodgy one is up at 185, what could this mean? I've never had one thats better when cold. Any advice appreciated.

£250 -300 would be great, 2 of the tyres are Yoko Parada 'Track' type tyres with a fair ammount of meat. I might just do that then. Cheers.

Yes it does cycle, it does nothing up to 70 degrees, then it cycles above and below 1V as expected. I have started a cpmpression test on it, (because of the general uneveness, not the fault codes) and found one cylinder to be low, that could explain the roughness but could it explain any of the codes? Vagcom doesn't show anything else unusual afaik, there are no air leaks that I know of, I've had everything upto and including the throttlebody off.

Yes I'll get one of those tonight, there are odd numbers but they look a bit meaningless tbh. :) Great stuff, those could be the giveaway if there is one. I've just taken some pics but they're really not up to it, I need daylight, not dark and p1ss1ng rain, will work on it!

Yes they keep coming back :( I think the speed sensor one is just the standard one you get when the engine isn't running isn't it. ie the one Vag com reports as a fault but shouldn't.

Well I've wired the MAf in OK, according to your description, it all fits and looks good etc, the car idles ok, ie better than before with no MAF. However I'm getting three faults on VAG com relating to fuelling etc and the engine is not running right, its got a certain roughness to it. It still pulls well but has a vibration at lower revs that's uncharacteristic of a VR6. The codes are 537, 561, 553 and 513, I realise one of them is the engine speed sensor and nothing to worry about, however I'm not really sure where to look next. Thanks for digging out the colours Toad, very much appreciated! :D