Petros

Thinking about the other end of the spectrum for a moment... why do people approaching a motorway (or dual-cway) from a slip-lane feel they need to indicate right? It's not like there's anywhere else they can go is it? As with everythin in life, its either too much or not enough, never 'just right'!

Spot on. I find the proportion of new and new-ish cars that have some kind of body damage on them - from minor scratches and dents to serious holes and large cunks of trim missing - quite worrying. It's by no means a majority of cars (yet), but the evidence does suggest that very many drivers just don't care.

Just cos the kids are all doing something, doesn't make it cool 8) The 1.8T is a nice engine, and many swear by it (there some great threads with really heated debates between the VR and the 20v camps, fun reading!) but at the end of the day 4 cyls will never match the smoothness or mean torque of a 6 cyl (when both are FI, and of a similar cylinder volume). I understand people with 16v-ers and G60s upgrading to a 20vT, but swapping a VR6 for any 4 pot sounds like a down-grade, IMHO :-)

Kinda forgot about this thread for a while :oops: Still, feedback on Bedrock: Been there a few times now for various bits of work. They really do seem to know their stuff, and I don't think their prices were unreasonable - had a few cheap repairs done before putting the car in for some serious work. I put the car in to get new springs, dampeners, suspension arm, bushes, exhaust, discs and pads fitted and to have the injectors cleaned, a compression test done and a few other odds. The labour I was charged couldn't have come close to covering the number of hours they actually spent on the car. Not the quickest turn around in the world to be honest, but that seems to be down to availability of parts rather than the mechanics dragging their heels. All in, I'd happily recomend them.

Not a high enough resolution I'm afraid... was only a 2mp camera. Still, there's now a shiney new 'zorst on the car, its a little lower and the wheels are currently in getting refurb'ed. I'm sure I'll be back down that way over the summer (some really fast windy roads down, so its always a fave route) so I'll try and re-capture the scene with a summer sky and a more polished C :-)

I'd love to do some track days with the C... but slightly hesitant for two reasons: 1) most cars I've seen being tracked and cheap and nasty looking, and their owners don't seem to mind having the odd bump and scrape with each other. 2) It'd probably kill my engine! Still, if there were VW-enthusiast-only type days being organised, I'd be well up for it... and it might mean I get my new engine a little sooner ;-)

Shoot me down if I'm wrong... but all these N/A mods would increase top end power at the expense of mid-range torque, right? Hence making the car seriously fun when you're booting it, but a complete pain in the arse around town and in traffic (i.e. most of the time if its your daily driver) You could mod the engine for more mid range torque, but then you'd loose some top end power. If you want more performance at all engine speeds, super it. Then in a few years, add a turbo for some really silly power at the top end :-)

Probably cos most muppets on the road don't understand how your horn is meant to be used, and view it simply as a way to chastise people after they've been wronged rather than using it as a pre-emprive warning. You ever been a police driver or IAM/RoSPA member? From your comments you seem much too well mannered a driver to have only ever been DSA trained :-)

Hey folks, took a little longer than planned to get round to this, but tried again & with a little perseverance managed to get everything fitted perfectly. No DAB arial yet, but I now know that I can take the head in and out without too much bother so I'll get round to that some other time! Managed to track down & cure a rattle that had been driving me nuts at the same time, so time well spent by all accounts :-) Thanks to everyone who contributed, your advice was really helpful.

Just measured up, and its exactly 157x50x178, so in theory it should fit perfectly. I'll have a good stab at this over the weekend and post back my results/horror stories :-)

Thinking ahead now... assuming that I can get the head-unit fitted, next thing I'll need to do is wire up a DAB arial. These are typically an L-shaped wire loop embedded in stick-backed plastic. On my last motor, I had the arial in the top left-hand corner of the windscreen, with the cable routed up the A-pillar. How much of the dash am I likely to have to remove to get a cable from the back of the head unit to the left-hand A-pillar? (PS, don't worry, I've worked out that I should at least connect the arial lead to the back of the unit before fitting it - I doubt I'm going to want to fit the head twice given the grief 've had with it already!)

Thanks for the quick replies folks, much appreciated. I'll measure it up once I'm home and check that its a suitable size (tho from reading the comments, I'm pretty sure it will fit 'on paper') Assuming it measures up I'll have another go at fitting it and pulling the wires through. Like I said, I'm no expert - I didn't know if head unit were standardised sizes or just made roughly the same shape, and I didn't want to waste a whole weekend trying to fit a quart into a pint pot :-)

Apologies up front if this is a stupid/frequently asked question but... I have a JVC LHX601 head unit that I'd like to put into my Corrado. I claim absolutely no expertise in ICE, but I installed and removed the unit from my previous car, so I'm not totally incompetent (I hope!) :-) Anyway, the unit doesn't seem to want to fit into the C. There are a ton of trailing wires coming from the back of the unit that I have, as best I can, managed to tuck out of the way, after removing large chunks of the passenger side dash trim. Even with the wiring pushed as far out of the way as possible, the unit will not sit flush with the dash, its sticking out at least a cm or two. It feels like the stereo is pushed up against something solid - probably the metal support shelf. My questions are; do head units come in wildly different sizes? Will the unit I have simply not fit the C? Can the metal 'shelf' that the head unit should rest on be safely hacked about to make the unit fit? (Or is there someone local-ish I who can help me?!?)

Speedos are allowed to OVER read by upto 10%, IIRC, at speeds of 40mph and above. They are never permitted to under read. And as you were on the M25, the offence will be an SP50, not an SP30. Doesn't make much difference to the insurance mind, I've got one of each and I'm paying around £550 per year (4YrNCB).

If I were you, I'd get that replaced as soon as possible... My inner CV boot was split, and like you I though it'd be fine to leave it for a while, until I was next working on (or having work done on) the underside of the car - I was planning to replace a worn-looking ARB drop link around that time. Big mistake - a few weeks later the CV joint dried out and siezed up. In the middle of no-where. Had to get a tow from the AA back to civilisation. Ended up needing the whole joint replaced (for want of a cheap rubber boot) and paying a garage to repair it, as towing the car with the knack'd CV had damaged the end of the drive-shaft too. Luckily the garage was able to repair the shaft-end, or else it would have cost even more.

I thought that - I'd only ever seen one storm grey on the road before getting mine. Since that my friends keep seeing them and thinking its me. I've not run into any* myself, but I guess the probability of two Cs the same colour passing must be minute. * As in passed them on the road, not actually 'run into them'. Don't worry, I'm not trying to thin out the numbers to make mine more unique 8)

I'll get back to you on that one - the car's away getting a new exhaust, springs & dampeners right now. I'll post back with the paint code as soon as I get her back (can't wait :!: )

Cheers bud. You're right, we've got more than our fair share of fantastic roads about here. Need to get back out exploring some new routes over the summer - remembering a decent camera this time :)

Saw a dark blue G60 (didn't catch the plate) going up Hope Street in Glasgow, next to Central Station at around 17:40 yesterday. Looked pretty tidy. Was on foot, so didn't wave or flash ;-)

Saw a black VR6 turning south into Duke's Road (Cambuslang, Glasgow) around the middle of Saturday afternoon. Only half-waved as I didn't spot it until the last moment. No reaction. Anyone?

No, the wheels are standard - just a light coating of dust :wink: Now that you mention it, gunmetal might look quite cool... was planning to refurb the wheels soon, but I'll think about doing that at the same time now. Thanks!

Sunday was a nice day - for february at least - which prompted me to give the car a wash & polish before taking her out for a run through the Lead Hills (Lanarkshire). The sun was out, and the sky was clear so I took a few pics. Thought I'd share them here for y'all. Sorry about the low quality, I only had my mobile with me. Enjoy!

...or people who can't step into a car without first putting their muddy feet onto the clean door sills? :bad-words:

h100vw, I used a fairly basic multimeter, set to measure a DC voltage. What could cause an AC at the battery?

Just spoken to a guy at a local alternator specialists... In his opinion, it won't be the regulator because it's producing a steady 16 volts, irrespective of engine speed. If it was the regulator, he says, the voltage would increase with engine speed. He recommended buying a new battery as a first step. I'm ill convinced. Any thoughts on this advice? EDIT: Should mention, in his defence, he wasn't offering to sell me a battery, and he did give me the name of another local place that makes & tests car batterys.