Henny

I know what you mean... My G60 C's all well and good, it's quick and looks great, but I miss my MKI 16V for the sheer look of horror I could get from other drivers when leaving them for dead from a standstill... :lol: I really need to get my ass in gear and get it put back together! :roll: 145BHP at the wheels (139LB/ft torque) through a 1600 gearbox in a MKI golf that had tatty wheel arches, dented doors and hadn't been cleaned in ages (I was a student in 95 when I built it and I wanted the car to be where I left it when I came back :D ) 0-60 was around the 5 second mark and you'd run out of gearbox at about 115mph... but when do you use 115mph in a city?!? 0-60's much more fun! :wink: Smug gits in porsches were always my favourite when they tried to cut accross from a right turn lane at lights to go straight on 'cos "it's only a tatty old golf" That soon turned into "but it was only a tatty old golf.... Where did it go?!?" :lol:

Right, I just got back from Santa Pod and have a few more goodies on the car and a few photos of it too... :D Unfortunately I haven't got any of the car going down the strip 'cos I didn't take my licence with me so couldn't try it out... :( :oops: I did buy (and fit!) some crystal side repeaters to replace the blue ones that I never was too sure about and a new alloy bee-sting to replace the knackered old original one... See what you think, I think that the repeaters are a vast improvement... please ignore that she's filthy, she'd just been driven (hard) for over 250 miles and had also been driven on the wet, muddy grass at Santa Pod... :roll: The first photo was taken just before I set off and shows off the new suspension height quite well, although it also shows up just how much I do need a chin spoiler now! :lol: The supersprint coil-over kit is fantastic, and now that I've had the car corner-weighted, she's unbelievably easy and fun to throw around corners and roundabouts... :lol:

I'd like a recent TVR, great styling, fantastic looks, great handling, and an engine that sounds just oh-so-nice... But I've got size 13 feet and can't press the brakes on most of the cars 'cos of the steering column! :shock: After I've got over C's (is that ever gonna happen? I moped after the loss of my first one for 3 years before buying another!) I think I want either a late 80's or early 90's Porsche 911 Turbo or possibly a new Boxter... Of course, if we're talking fantasy, it'd be a Shelby 427 AC Cobra, but there's a lot of money involved there that I don't have! :lol:

HOW could I have forgotten the RX-7?!? :roll: :oops: Fantastic car! First car that scared the utter be-jesus outta me when a mate took me out in one... 8) Add that to my list! :D 5 ) Mazda RX7

My cd changer at the moment has: 1 ) Linkin Park - Meteora 2 ) Whitesnake - Greatest hits (went to see them 2 weeks ago!) 3 ) Pink Floyd - Wish you were here 4 ) Pink Floyd - A collection of great dance hits 5 ) Dana Glover - Testimony (including 2 live tracks she recorded when I met her! :wink: ) 6 ) Kosheen - Resist 7 ) Daft Punk - Discovery 8 ) Prodigy - Music for a jilted generation I've also got leftfield, SKY and aerosmith kicking around in the car which were in there instead of Dana Glover and the pink floyd CDs, but I was in a funny mood and really fancied some floyd this week! :lol: I normally have quite an odd selection in the changer from classical thru to heavy metal via dance... Working in radio for the last 5 years has influenced and widened my musical tastes somewhat! :lol: 8)

I have a problem making a list as my favorite hot hatches are all VW group! :lol: The MKI golf GTI was the car that got me into fast cars, then my uncle got a MKII GTi... I've now had 3 MKI GTIs (still got one with a 16V engine that embarasses an awful lot of new VERY expensive cars when it's not in pieces!) 1 late MKII GTI, 1 Corrado 1.8 16V and my current G60... :D I think that the only cars that would make my list other than VAG are: 1) Pug 205 gti 1.9 (has to be the 1.9, the 1.6 was tooooooo slowwwwww....) 2) Pug 309 GTI Brooklands 3) Lotus Sunbeam, although I have a feeling they were 150BHP+ 4) Series1 Escort RS turbo (Phew, didn't use the 'F' word! :lol: ) The problem with all 4 of these is that the build quality sucked... not one of them felt as well built as the VAG offerings... :D

I've learnt my lesson and now leave my C in gear wherever I park her... I watched my old 16V corrado reverse down my parents drive, through the wheely bin, thru a fence, across the street, up the opposite drive, stop and come back down again to end up in the middle of the road... :shock: My dinner went across the room as I sprinted out of the house yelling about car theives and the like... I felt a right prat when I realised that there was no-one near the car and it was just the handbrake letting go after cooling down... :roll: Fortunately, apart from the wheely bin and the fence (which were totaled!) there was no damage to my C as the bin took all of the impact! :? :shock: 8) Sorry to hear about your C Tinsman hope it's not too bad...

D'oh! :roll: I didn't mean for that to sound quite as scarey as it did... It was late when I wrote that... :sleeping: VW engines are remarkably strong and reliable, I just happened to have bought a shed of a MKII golf that blew up in a pretty major way! I was trying to point out that if there's any doubt as to the integrity of your oil cooler, CHANGE IT! :lol: Hell, My G60 has over 200K miles on it and is eating 'em up at over 400 per week! :lol: She still scares the hell outta most things that try it on, looks great (when clean! :lol:) and is as reliable as I could ever want...

I think that this is quite a common fault on these cars... Mine used to flash on then re-set itself, or just stay on until you turned the car off and then back on again... (Wonder if it was programmed by micro$oft?!? :lol: ) Sensors on the fronts do get killed by heat, and the rotors on the rear disks corrode, open up slightly and then don't always spin with the wheel causing a fault light... (that's what was causing my faults...) Also, road debris sometimes gets into the rotors on the disks and stops the sensors reading properly causing the fault light to come on... If you've got time, jack up the car and have a look at the rotors to make sure they're OK and clean... Does anyone know if G60s have a VAGCOM socket? It'd be interesting to get mine on one to find out what codes are on it...

I had my full system replaced with a custom made stainless steel one. They replaced the lot from the downpipe back (including a small box where the cat should be!) for just shy of £400. That's got a lifetime guarentee on it, sounds brilliant, and looks awesome... 8) Have a word with VAG though, I seem to remember from when I had my 16v that their exhaust prices aren't as silly as you may think and you know that the quality will be spot on...

I wish I'd have had that advice when I fitted my MKI with a 16V engine and MK2 dash! :lol:

Biggrim, I've just re-read all of your posts... These may sound really rather patronising questions, but they're not meant that way... Have you checked your oil level? Is the plastic holder on the dip-stick broken? What grade of oil are you using? How many miles has the car done? I'll explain why I ask... The BEEP and oil light that you mentioned in your first post that I didn't pick up on initially is an oil PRESSURE warning, not a TEMP warning! :? :!: If your car was running REALLY hot :evil: then the oil thins out... and if you've had it serviced recently, they may have put in the wrong amount or the wrong grade of oil, or it may just need topping up... So, bear with me... If your oil level is low, your oil pressure will be low anyway and then the added extra thin-ness of the oil caused by the extra heat due to not enough coolant could cause you to have low enough oil pressure to trip the alarm... If the plastic holder on the dip-stick is broken, your dipstick will sit lower in the guide tube and read inaccurately so you'll have upto 1.5L too little oil in the car causing the same problem as above... (seen this before on a mate's car who then had to have a new engine because of it... glad he had a warantee! :lol: ) If you've a high milage car and the servicers have put in a REALLY thin oil (something like Mobil1) then you'll have lower oil pressure already and the heat from not enough coolant may take it under the low pressure warning threshold... If your car has 1000000000000miles on it, your oil pump won't be as good as a new one, cause low pressure and set off the alarm when the car gets hot... I know that there's loads of possibilites here, but I hope that one of these might just strike a note with you and make a :idea: appear! I think that you've several different slight problems here that just seem to be one big one... My theory... (note, this could all be rubbish, I'm not a mechanic, I'm just bouncing ideas here to try and help...) The fan switch broke and was replaced causing a slight lack of coolant. This causes the engine to run hotter than normal and the oil light and buzzer to come on due to a lack of oil pressure caused by something at the service... You topped up the water level so it's not running as hot, which cures the low pressure, but you're not sure how hot the oil's running 'cos you're going off an unknown VDO gauge in the dash, not the one on the MFA and you don't recall what the water temp gauge on the dash read so you don't know what your water temps were... So... Check oil level (and dipstick holder!) Check water level Take her out for a gentle drive and keep an eye on the Water Temp gauge in the main speedo pod to see what's happening... If the gauge reads very hot, take her back to where you got her serviced and ask for help if they're normally good with you, otherwise, get someone else's opinion... If the water gauge is OK, Junk the VDO oil gauge and buy one with a matched sender to make sure that it reads true... Hope this helps, good luck... and sorry this got a bit long! :oops:

My first C was an H plate 1.8 16V... I loved that car with a passion! :D My current G60 is a whole SHED LOAD faster both on acceleration and top speed than the 16v ever was, BUT she also drinks fuel lots more too! It's a swings and roundabouts thing... The 16V engine is relatively expensive and more difficult (IMHO) to get more power out of, where the G60 can be chipped and pulley'd pretty easy to get some serious extra power... But the G60 tends to cost lots more to run on services and fuel... Test drive a couple and see what you think... :?: If you're running something like a driver now, a 16V is gonna feel pretty damned fast in comparison! :lol: Insurance is the bit that will probably hurt you at 22 (that's how old I was when I got my first one) As long as you take your time and don't just jump at the first one you see (like I did! :roll:) then you should end up with a nice motor that won't cost you the earth to run... From the sound of your Driver you're not bad with a spanner so can probably cut out quite a bit of the costs by DIYing the normal service bits, and if you've spent your time looking wisely, and read a load of the posts on here :wink: then you could well end up with a C that you'll be really proud of without breaking the bank initially or in the long run...

biggrim, Dump the VDO gauge... Get the MFA working and see what that says. Did you fit the gauge, or was it already fitted? I think someone's fitted an old gauge and just used the existing sender so you'll have no idea if the sender is calibrated properly for that gauge... :? What does the water temp on the dash read now it's working? Should be around 90deg although upto 110deg on a SERIOUS drive, or stuck in traffic is still acceptable as long as that's the only times it goes that high and you're certain that you've got the correct coolant and the fan works OK... If your water temps are OK, I'd say that the VDO gauge is telling porkies... :?

Rik. Thanks for your nice comments... I feel quite honored (and slightly embarrased :oops: ) now... :D I'll get some more photos of her as the work that's being done gets done... I've a few interesting engine parts being made by an aero-engineering mate, so expect some nice titanium parts and pipes... :wink: I'll also do some before and after suspension set up shots... I will be putting a spoiler back on the front as soon as I can find one that's low enough profile to allow access into my garage without ripping it off every night, but allows brake cooling ducts to be tastefully fitted! :roll: :lol: She's also going to get a whole shed load of stone chips and scratches sorted out over the summer (hopefully!) so that the paintwork is back to A1 condition, and I hope to give the engine some kind of overhaul to stop her slight oil drinking habit...

Unless you're unlucky in which case the first sign is when it blows the cap off and makes a lovely coffee coloured oily mess all over your inner wing, the floor and everything else too... :roll: Oh, and it possibly takes your head gasket and bearings with it.... :cry: I'm glad I got rid of my old MKII golf... Cost me a bomb just 'cos of the flipping oil cooler... :mad: My advice? :idea: Get the oil cooler done if you've ANY doubt about it's state... They're not expensive, are relatively easy to fit and will ease your peace of mind and could save you a lot of pain... :idea:

Sounds to me like your thermostat has jammed closed so your coolant is never getting to go through you radiator... They're not expensive, but can be a bit of a pain to fit.... Always worth doing though... I did mine when I first got the car and it sits at about 90deg water and 103deg oil unless I'm REALLY hammering it on a hot day (touched 110deg water 120deg oil on saturday when it was HOT outside and I was trying to wear out my old tyres before having new ones fitted! :lol: )

Amazing what a good clean can do! 350+miles a week means that she often looks a shed between cleans... :roll: Oh, and the tyres were still legal, but only just... I don't think that they'd have got me home legally though! :lol: Well, you've got to make sure you enjoy the last few miles of a tyre and find out just what your car'll do without worrying about the cost of rubber! :wink: Cheers again!

It depends on my mood... Some days I think they look a bit tacky, other days I quite like them... :roll: I didn't fit 'em though, they were there when I got the car... I think I may swap them for a clear set at the next show I go to and see how they look... of course then I may have to consider some of the clear rear lights as well... :? I always said I wouldn't mess with the exterior too much, but I know she's not having the orange ones back on 'cos my old C (now departed after a meeting with some diesel on a wet corner) had them and I never liked 'em then either!

Cheers for the nice comments! I'm hoping to get the paintwork sorted out over the summer as there are more scratches and stone chips than I can count... Really should learn to slow down! :roll: AFAIK the late '92's had the later headlights, bonnet, grill, and bumpers but stayed with the older interior... I actually prefer the older style bonnet, I think the "up" style makes the front of the car look slightly fat and almost overweight... I still love it though! :lol:

I finally got my butt into gear, washed my C and took some nice photos... J-dub's an aqua blue late '92 G60, running on 16" Borbet C wheels with Supersprint height adjustable coil-overs... She's about 80mm lowered at the moment, but that's getting changed on Friday when she's being cornerwieghted and getting the whole suspension set up properly along with a 1" lift! :lol: She's had a Jabba Stage 4 conversion and has a JR induction kit along with a custom made (JP exhausts in Macclesfield) stainless exhaust with a small box to replace the cat... Nice noise and slight power increase too! I found out not long after getting her that the milage has been "tweaked" at some stage and she's not done 110K as now read on the clock, but 200k+ miles :shock: I'm not that fussed though, 'cos she's straight and I've replaced just about everything that goes anyway! :D *Edited due to photo-location becoming corrupt...*

Picked up my Borbet C alloys from CaiosG60 PWR yesterday and am well chuffed! :D They are exactly as described and no messing with price had to be done... Would happily buy stuff off him again... Cheers Cai... 8)

Lowered? Yup, mine is! :? I fitted a supersprint adjustable kit to the car last weekend and it's "settled" since... (I didn't mean to have her this low, it just kinda happened! :oops: ) I'm having the car corner weighted and castor/camber/tracking sorted by a pro motorsport place next friday and they'll be raising the car an inch or so 'cos it's a bit mental at the mo! Edit: photos re-sized to >100K http://www.randomlogic.co.uk/low.jpg http://www.randomlogic.co.uk/enough.jpg I just measured the height.... :shock: wheel centre to wheel arch (front) 295mm ground to bumper 145mm NOTE: Corner of bumper on wheel arch, not from the spoiler... I removed the spoiler when I got the car! She handles like she's on rails, but my chiropractor sure isn't going to like it! :lol: I'll update this when I get her set up properly...

...don't get me wrong, I'm not a total speed nut, I just dis-agree with the 70mph limit (and a fair amount of the other limits too!) :D I'm on my 3rd Radar detector now and they are only as good proportionally as the money you spend on them... Ie, cheap = hello fines/what trap?!? :?: : moderately expensive = good warning system :wink: I tend to use mine as a wake up to what speed I'm actually doing, rather than a get out of jail free card... Ie, beep beep = what speed am I doing?!? Whatever anyone says, you still can't beat common sense when it comes to speed traps and breaking the speed limit... (11years and 250K+ miles driving Golf GTIs and Corrados and still got my original clean licence!) Oh, and the cheque with pence over the amount requested thing doesn't work, it just tends to end up in a BIGGER demand hitting your doormat for time wasted...

Hi All! I'm running JBL 6x4 standard fit GTOs at the rear with JBL components up front. I've cut holes in the original dash grills to flush mount the tweeters and it looks (and sounds) sweet! I've also got a Jensen (cheap, but not bad!) 12" sub in a Rockford box in the boot with a 4x400W amp bridged (2way not all 4! :lol: ) to feed the sub... I'm playing with the idea of a pair of 6x9JBLs to fill the holes that the previous owner left in the parcel shelf and use the final 2 outputs of my amp...