Toad

Yeah, when I get on the pedal hard it is solid and I stop in a good straight line, but the inconsitent pedal travel varies over fairly short distances on single journeys. Lots of travel to start with, followed by little pedal travel after braking very hard, then going back to a lot of pedal travel. It makes me sad :( I think I'll look at replacing the master cylinder seals around the time of the MOT, as it will need new solid brakelines then anyhow.

Yeah, Stu will sort you out I'm sure... I believe there is a button to press to set the lower, then upper limit. Where in Winchester are you anyway? I live in Bishops Waltham now, but my parents are on Sarum road. Come along to the South Coast meet next weekend... There's a thread in the events section. Edit: here...

Try asking Mr Beige, I'm sure he'll know.

I've bought GSF parts for years without problems, mainly on my 205GTi but more recently for VWs (various). I've recommended them to loads of people too, they've saved me loads of money. However.....in the last year as I said earlier, several wheel bearings (fitted by me...correctly!) and now a CV Joint kaputt. When I was swearing and cursing trying to remove my driveshaft it dawned on me how much time and effort I have gone to replacing sh1te parts lately. I'm only speaking from 1st hand experience, for me, now I won't bother with pattern parts. GSF sell plenty of Bosch parts etc (which I'd happily buy) much cheaper than the dealer and they'll still get my business for them. I spoke to VW today about a replacement joint, only £20 more than GSF....but they don't have any stock of them in the country. At least 4 or 5 weeks they reckon. So I'm going to fit the GKN one I got the other day, I was reluctant to fit it after the premature failing of the last one but if you guys reckon GKN are OK then I guess I got a bad one last time 8) The joint was off side Kev, so nearest the exhaust, maybe the grease was duff.... Cheers all. GKN are a massive bearing supplier, you should have no problems... Out of interest, there has been a recent influx of very cheap chinese bearings which are supposed to be pretty crap, but generally chinese bearing manufacturers are of reputable quality.

Also worth noting that grooved or drilled disks will consume brake pads slightly quicker, neither do it for me, as I know I'm not going to be using my brakes to the maximum of their abilities on British roads, anyone who tells you that they do, is probably a liar and a to$$er. Personnally I would stick with normal disks, and have used the Brembos supplied by GSF in both 256 and now 280mm size and am quite pleased with them. I liked my old Pagid fast roads, but my current ebc greenstuff pads are pretty good too. I can't see how one brake disk can be better than another... They are both steel at the end of the day so the coeffiecient of friction isn't going to vary a lot, the only difference in disks being the rate at which they wear (related to the hardness) The main difference in my eyes would be the pad material.

I did my inner CV bolts up quite tight, I'm sure they are a fair bit more than the reccomended torque... I'm not too sure about this massive GSF downer people seem to be on, a lot of parts seem to be genuine OEM, and those that aren't can't be THAT bad.... Most of the 'cheap' bearing manufacturers have been building parts to proper spec for years, so I can't see premature failures being down to that, I just wonder if the garages fitting them just aren't doing a good enough job... Hmmm. Just a thought anyway.

I seem to remember that when a car is idling a lot and fairly cold, such as in town, the catalyst isn't as efficient, and stuff(Technical term there) builds up in the cat until it is run hard, and the cat warms up and burns all the sulphur based stuff off, hence the eggy smell. I can't remember why, or what builds up, apart from that it has a high sulphur content.

Yay! [in joke]Would that be considered worse than smoking outside the front door??[/in joke]

Try people like snap on dealers or local agricultural dealers/equipment suppliers. For anyone in Hampshire APM in Kings Sombourne are very good for kit, but aren't open on Saturdays.

Anyway. Hasn't anyone else measured their distances yet??

I like that look... Good work.

The mileage is in the clocks. There should be two connectors to the dash, one for any temp/level gauges and the other for lights, have you checked both? Also check your earth connections are ok. My dash twisted out once, but was fixed by unplugging the battery over night.

Any ideas anyone??

Went to a stag do yesterday, painbtballing then meal, drinks, table dancing. Today I'm wandering about maoning that I'm really sore and can't walk properly, and I spent £230 :( :cry: Tommorrow I'm hoping that my legs work enough to get me to the Bath/Bristol meet.

Can be done at home fine, if you have the tools... Undo the hub nut. jack car up and remove wheel, undo steering arm ball joint, undo bottom ball joint, remove brake caliper and carrier(optional) undo the two bolts holding the hub to the front strut, and she's off. You will need the alignment checking afterward though.

Have a look around, there might well be someone local who could VAG COM it for a pint. If there isn't anyone local, there might be someone at one of the upcoming shows who could help you out.

Did the bolts get loose enough for the grease to get thrown out of the joint? You should see very little play in it. Are you sure it wasn't play in the gearbox? It might be knackered and the vibration caused the bolts to loosen in the first place. .If you're really unsure replace it... It's not that much money (£40 from GSF I think) You'll get new bolts with the kit, and you'll need a big socket to drive the circlip home...

No doubt it'll be added to Walesy's collection of girls leaning on VWs....

I'd go with the hammerite too. but make sure you eave it at least 24 hours to go off before you fit them, otherwise it's still a bit tacky and you end up with finger prints all over them. :(

Yeah.. I'd like to see/feel the difference... The brakes have been in the same state for the last 2 MOTs and it's passed fine... They won't lock so easily on the test stations rollers as there isn't the weight transfer from the rear to the front of the car I believe. Id have thoughtthat other people would have gone and had a go at this by now... Someone must have some distances to compare mine too....

That's a good point... shall we just add everyone else in the list, so that, a, we all look more popular, and b, we have more people's friends to perv at??

It's cable tied partly open... I know some people will tell me that it's not safe etc, but my rear brakes never used to do anything, the disks stayed rusty, so the front would lock and trees would try to mount my car. I found that by jamming the valve slightly open, the brakes were far more efficient, although the back end could get a bit twitchy when really hitting the brakes hard on rough corners. Now with the bigger brakes up front it's quite nicely balanced, the rears work quite hard, and although there was some lockage(I was pressing the pedal bloody hard), I stopped in a nice very straight line. I'm happy with my setup, and I think I've got a pretty good feel for what happens when the rear wheels do lock up now.

Lol. 170mph would frighten me if I was in the drivers seat, let alone riding with someone else! 75meters is just the braking distance from the highway code... I've discounted the thinking distance, as I had a marker where I rammed the brakes on...

Afternoon... I was playing with my car the other night and wondered what distance it would cover when braking from 70 to 0. The answer was about 46 yards (Braking distance in the highway code is 75 meters) I was just wondering if anyone else had tried it or knew what distance they covered? Would be quite interesting to compare it to other cars. For the record I've got 280mm front brakes (G60) with EBC Greenstuff pads on the front, standard rear brakes with VW pads, front Goodridge hoses, and I reckon I could have hit the brakes harder, as the fronts didn't lock, but the rears did (I've got a fair bit of rear brake bias)

You should be able to pick up a seal kit from VW just fine. it would be worth getting new boots for the sliding pins too. You should be able to remove the piston with an airline loosely connecting to the brake pipe (be very careful) or by getting an assitant to pump the brake pedal. Personally, i would use compressed air/ pull it out with water pump pliers...then clean up the piston and bore, being careful to remove any contaminationbefore you refit the seals and insert the piston back into the caliper. Yes, you are correct in saying the the piston just pushes in too. Hope that helps. Tom.