markrtw

Jim, I think the clue was: autobahn :clap: :grin:

Make sure your lights have a good earth!

I'm 34, clean licence since 17, never made a claim, park in the street, wife on the policy too, 12,000 miles a year, either a £150 or £250 excess (I forget), all mods disclosed, £240 fully comp. Admiral Multi car with the wife's Golf GTI costing about £200 a year on it. I found it dropped with these events: getting to 30, being a home owner and getting married and have been told that having kids makes it cheaper too. It's to do with demographic markers in life that show you in the safer groups who are (statistically on average) more responsible and take less risks. The mother in law's insurance went way up when she divorced, as obviously she had become reckless and a menace to society overnight. You know what these retired single women are like in their 1.6 Civics!

Recharged the aircon - Brrrrr

Its worth sending a msg to bigpants baby as he often sells the whole larger brake setups (288s) with a set of part worn discs & pads for around £50. The later brakes are well worth it, the 288 setup is only 8mm but the swept area by the pads is nearly double the area of the standard 280mm brakes. 288s fit under the std 15" wheels (just). Any larger and you will need bigger wheels. I could not believe the difference when I upgraded.

The inside track?? I have never realily supported McLaren/Lewis, I follow my local teams: RedBull & Brawn as some of the guys who work for them live in my road & drink in my local (when they are not off round the world). Their opinions of him is that his talent is amazing and as a person he's OK but you just don't trust him at all. He's been well educated in what to say when to the cameras etc to give the right impression, but behind closed doors he has no scruples and will do anything to try and further himself. Personally I've not met him, so as long as he keeps the racing interesting he's OK.

Here we go from Martin Brundle from the BBC web site: Lewis being a bit of an idiot as usual then. A hugely talented driver who did way above expectation at the weekend and delivered a stunning drive, so why can't he just let that do the talking and stay clear of all this nonsense?

As far as I can read through it, it's about Lewis/McLaren's evidence to the official's enquiry of the incident either omitted key facts or was not accurate, and so was judged un-sportsman like (dishonest). It was not actually about what happened out on the track. I guess its a bit like the "bringing the game into disrepute" charge in football.

Spanked it - and it loved it!

I've just fallen in love again (just dont tell the missus!) I had lost the love. Niggling things not right. Rattles. Crap paint. Too much like hard work/not enough time/cash. Long list of issues and never getting near the end of it. Something newer would be easier, better. I have spent loads of time over winter mulling over the big exit issue - what to replace it with on a sensible budget that is not boring to drive, quick enough, interesting enough, economical enough and is not in tax band F (or whatever is the silly one under the new taxation system). Nearly bought a TT (couldn't face it in the end - just seemed a bit like a step down in a way (after all, people actually know what it is!)). Come to the conclusion that a mint low milage Corrado VR6 was the answer, but it would need to have leather & aircon (like the one I have) as I would not want to do without it now. The thing is, I already have a Corrado VR6, so why bother, and at least I know whats wrong with this one, My holiday year at work runs from April to end of March, so I was using up a few days holiday last week and finally decided to grapple the ongoing heater blower issue as it had deteriated to the point that I had no blower at all and some nights it can get quite cold in there! Anyway, after 2 days of sorting out these and a number of other issues around the cabin I am now officially in love with the silly lump of metal again! Everything in the interior (inc the things that have never worked properly since I bought it) now work perfectly. The seats are hot, the aircon cold, no rattles, blower works perfectly on all settings, the broken centre of the dash which had a spare sitting on the side for 2 years is perfect, no rattles (I have to repeat this as I am still in shock). It has suddenly stopped feeling so old and loose. I havn't been so into this car since I had it. It's just getting something started and accomplished, to make it your own. I'm going to keep it now and I think I'll overhaul the head/chains this summer (in a perverse way, I'm kind of looking forward to it). That will then only leave the paint... :) Spend a day or 2 sorting out bits on the car. Make a party/meet/BBQ of it. Give it a drive. Remeber what its all about again. Fall in love again. The easy/practical path is often not the most rewarding - or as Clarkson beautifully put it "you don't choose your wife because she is easy to wipe down"

From looking at your thread: "thermal fuse aircon replacement - with pics" the problem you had is different from mine. The coils on my resistor are broken. I can feel a call to my electronic engineer friend coming on to see if he can get/replace the coils. :)

I must admit I did run a search first - nothing much came up. Pesky machine's inability to read my mind and give me the desired results!

Hi, my resistor pack is knackered on speeds 1 & 2 and from taking a look at it, it has an old lancia part number on it. As far as I can find out this part is no longer available from Fiat. Any suggestions on a replacement that may fit or has anyone else come up against this? Or does anyone have one of these going spare? The std Corrado one is the right kind of size, but different fitting and different wiring connector. Thanks, Mark

The bearing race should be pushed in using something like the Sealey VS703 (that is what I have anyway): http://www.uktools.com/product_info.php ... 095944fdc3 (I have to admit the price listed here is very good). I personally would not use a screwdriver or chisle to push them in as it may flatspot or deform the bearing race. The pusher transmits the force evenly across the whole thing and is softer metal than the bearing race so should not mark or damage it. Its one of those tools that you dont use often, but once you have will last forever.

I have only ever had to fit replacement bearings when replacing discs (on mk2s, mk3, & corrados) and have always used whatever bearings come to hand from ECP or G&S (& other motor factors). I have only insisted that they are german. I think a lot of it is in the fitting and not over tightening the bearings (the large washer beneith the big nut should be able to be moved about with the use of a screw driver and afterwards the wheel should have a tiny bit of side movement). I was shown by an old retired mechanic years ago and at the time he said that if you over tighten them they will last no time at all. Also he spotlessly clean the axel first and would work grease right into the bearings before fitting them. There must be something in this as none I have ever fitted have failed (yet) - impending drive home has had fate tempted towards it now!

For safetys sake, as a minimum always replace springs or dampers in pairs (across the same axle) or you can have quite iffy handling especially in emergancy manovers. A set of springs can be had for £60 upwards (new) or you might find some on the forum.

You need to have a look through the wiki (I know its a mess at the moment with the server change) and follow the guide about replacing the timing chain & tensioners as you remove and replace the the gearbox & clutch as part of it. I would also suggest you replace the chain & tensioners while you are at it, as with the gearbox off you are already most of the way there (unless they are not very old).

Hi Damo, Loving your work - its good to finally see your car. Seeing Bally's on Sunday & now yours is embarrassing me into thinking about tidying mine up and sorting out the paint. I hope I can find some time & money by mid next year to sort it all out as I'm now busy with the new job. I'll have to catch up with you soon. Drop by after footie sometime. See ya, Mark

I typically get 340 miles at a thrash, 380 - 420 on average and best is 496 to a tank! It drinks while on the choke, but once warmed up and on the open road average 32 - 35 on std 15" wheels. On 17's I get 2 - 4 mpg less.

From another thread... " A VR6 will only stop if it receives no signal from the crank sensor or no fuel from the pump. Starting there is always a good start and then move onto the the associated items. Relays and the like. ""

Possible that if there was a load of crap in the bottom of the tank, that more has washed down into the system? It's a cheap/easy enough thing to replace. Redex will disolve deposits that clog up injectors, but it will not get rid foreign bodies in the fuel.

Blockage in the fuel filter?

Sorry, I meant £15 for the exploded damper unit - don't know about the pipe. My 94 VR seems to make them explode once in a blue moon when starting - I was thinking possible petrol vapour or ignition escaping from worn valve guides and seals as my head is in major need of a rebuild.

Last time I bought one off VW (earlier this year) it was only about £15

OK. I have finally fixed my problem. I replaced all 3 thermostat sensors as they were the only devices in the cooling circuit that I had not replaced and there was no difference (except the dash readouts are more accurate now), so I took some time out testing the wiring. Into the thermoswitch on the radiator there are the 3 wires to trigger the fan, so I switched on the ignition and did the age old test of bridging the Red (main live feed) and the Red/White (earth) wires and nothing happened (yet it has done previously). So I got out the multimeter and continuity tested the earth circuit to the battery which was fine. I then (after some forum searching) pulled out the fusebox, checked its fuse (19) and located the other end of the wire which (with the fuse box in place) is located (most conveniently) on the left hand side 3rd from the bottom and is quite obvious as its a thickish red wire. About 10cm from the fusebox it has a connector where 2 wires go in (from the fuse box) and 1 comes out (the thin wire is terminated here and connects to nothing). I pulled the connector apart and continuity tested the Red cable back to the radiator thermoswitch and got nothing. So I then traced the wires path through the dash and bulk head into the engine bay. When I pulled up the wiring (after removing the battery and washer fluid bottle) I found a tiny nick out of the wire's insulation where it passed by the suspension turret (just where the wrap of wires has a junction off to the fan controller). It was only a tiny nick in it and the fuse had not blown so I was a little unsure, but looking at it the copper was a bit green. What had happened was moisture had been getting in there for probably years and corroded a cm or so of the wire away. I cut out 2 cm and then soldered it back together and then continuity tested it again - OK. Then the fan test worked after I had rebuilt the car and remembered to put the connector back on the fan and replace the No 19 fuse! I can only guess that as the wire finally croaked it's last it would sometimes make a connection so when I tested it before it showed up fine. I hate electrics! Still, at least the cooling system is brand new/tiptop now!