harryc

Lol, i've noticed how shite the handbrake is before as the car creaks when you look at it and moves easily with a push (unless handbrake is really tugged) but i didnt think twice as the car park has such a slight slope its barely noticeable! Its a gutting feeling when you poke your head out of the door and see the arse in the air with a wheel off the ground and the nose trying to un-earth a tree...

TBH i've never left the car in gear i've always just relied on the hand brake working, will try to remember from now on. How many 'clicks' do people usually pull their handbrakes? It seems the force thats required to pull mine doesnt translate to clamping power at the rear wheels....

Wondering if this has happened to anyone else and what the solution is... Parked my car outside work in the carpark on a very slight slop (barely noticeable). Handbrake was applied but not overly pulled up as there seems to be a fair amount of resistance through the handbrake after little travel. Annnnnyhow, popped my head outside to see the back sticking out of the hedge it was parked in front of and one of the wheels off the ground :shock: :mad2: It had rolled a few feet then hit a tree which luckily stopped it going into the road!! Towed it out to reveal a badly battered wing and a scuffed bonnet, luckily there was no damage to anywhere else but im really p$ssed off nevertheless. Anyone else had this happen and whats likely to have caused it?

Can anyone help me? Still no central locking, i've found a box in the passenger footwell with the same markings as the fob. There are a series of mini switches on it and a plug identical to the one on the fob...any ideas?

Clay bar'd the whole car, was absolutely amazed how much crud came off. Car looks brand new, cant recommend it enough! :notworthy:

Boring answer would be a full service, engine feels much happier and got an extra 4mpg whilst driving. Coilovers were a very good buy also, performance wise some second hand cams and a remap (done by me) should hopefully should good gains for less than £400 all in.

Hi oilman, i recently went with the motul 10w50 competition stuff and it seemed great in that my mpg jumped up by about 4mpg, was slightly concerned with my oil temps how ever. Driving on the motorway at around 80 with a high ambient temp of 24-26 my oil temps managed to reach 126. Is this explainable by the high ambients alone?

Just followed this guide above for use with vista and it worked fine (i think!!) didnt get any faults but was hoping for some answers as to my very intermittent missfire.

The spring compressors are only needed to assemble the strut and secure the top hat to the strut. Once the spring is compressed far enough to put the strut back together they arent needed..

What you dont want to do is put too much force on the bushes by fitting taller suspension to wishbones that have been tightened once preloaded at a lower ride height. If you dont slacken off the bolts and re tighten after the stock suspension is on you may risk eating through the wishbone bushes very quickly.

Have you tried slackening off the wishbone bolts at the subframe end just to allow the wishbone to swing down a little more? Never had this problem myself though. Maybe the wishbone mounting bolts were tightened at the old lower ride height and movement in the bushes was to a lesser degree. As i said fust slacken them off and see if that gives you a bit more movement

Spot on lads, the circlip wasnt sheared but somehow the thick washer was able to slide over it and allow the piston to shoot through the turret. Ill give ap or D tweeks a bell tomorrow and see if i can get a new washer and circlip. Very happy its nothing terminal!

Fitted my coilovers two days ago and have driven from kent to Oxford. I started to notice a rattle coming from the rear nearside turret. Had a look and the piston of the damper has come up through the turret with the topmount on top. Im going to have to drive the car back down to kent so i can have a proper look, just wondering if anyone else has had this problem? I know the piston at the top has a recess cut into it where a washer sits, then the plastic top hat and i ahve a feeling the piston has broken through the washer preventing it from stopping.... :mad2:

Cheers for the advice, new fuel filter seems to have cured the miss fire as well! :clap:

Thanks for the reply, i seem to get a lot of cr2p blowing through the vents, is this normal with no filter then? The guy at the motorfactor sold me a pollen filter for the car!

I've just serviced the car replacing all filters and fluids but had two problems; 1) When i removed the fuel filter and casing both arrows were pointing from the engine towards the fuel tank. This didnt make sense to me so i've refitted with the arrows going in the direction of flow (from tank to engine) is this correct? 2) I've had the footwell and blower out and apart and cant find the pollen filter anywhere. Unless im being extremely stupid the last guy that fitted the backwards fuel filter also never refitted a cabin filter..

Thanks for the link and all your help, had a look over it, do i want the VCDS Release 908 download?

Cranbrook Kent, i seem to get a mixed response from the laptops, the first time i run it it works the best. After that it crashes everytime. If i try on a new laptop again i get some progress like the engine data comes up (despite listing the car as a 2.8) but then everything crashes... Does anyone have another copy of vag com on cd they could send me or is the software paired with the cable type?

Saw a red rado in the garage by the old railway line in Bodium and another on the seven hills road just off the a3 in surrey, we flashed at each other :tongue:

It pops up with Vagcom is not responding or something like that and automatically closes it. I've once managed to get it to come up with a few details of the car at the beginning of the scan but then it crashes before the scan can be completed. After this it just crashes everytime i try and scan anything... Tried on 2 different laptops running vista about to try one with windows 7. :censored:

Wow looks like a great project! Best of luck, whats the engine output?

And then gave it a clean with Autoglym 3 stage makeover :clap:

Bought this and stuck it on;