herisites

I've got one of them on my car! :D its a Down 'n' Out sticker which mine is so thought it necessary :lol:

Tell me about it! I just got the PDF bentley manual and set up my laptop in the garage with it on, its helpful but i found searching the forum more helpful and Toad helped me out a lot as well over MSN. But it was nice having the laptop there with the manual for bits i werent sure on, plus my desktop background cheered me up when i got a bit stressed :wink: :lol:

Most of my stuff was VAG but i got some parts from GSF which were good enough. I think the only things from GSF to stay away from are bearing and sometime bushes depending on what you get apparently :S I put new brakes on mine as well, i couldnt go any bigger because of my brocks so i went for Black Diamond discs and EBC greenstuff pads and they are a big improvement over standard. Dont get drilled though as there's no point for them and they just make the discs weaker, i went for just grooved for a tad more bite. The main ball joints are only about £15 and dead easy to do yourself, but you just need a ball joint splitter, i only had the type you whack with a hammer to split it but if you have one of them make sure once the new ball joint is on its on and you dont have to split it again as the splitter fcuks them up big time! You can get better ones that safely press the ball joint out which i will get next time but i only had the hammer type and i knew i was replacing them anyway.

I know the feeling! Hence why i booked a week off work last week and replaced most my drivetrain parts myself! Definately worth doing though if you can afford it and are able to do it yourself (which even if you think you are not you could do it, i did and i had never done anything like it before!!). I still have lots more to replace ideally, the worst being the rear axle bushes, dont fancy taking my rear axle off just yet! :lol:

Its not so much turning tightly but just turning the steering really, when i get in the car and turn the engine on and turn the steering i hear the clunking as the wheels are turning, i try to get the car moving before turning the steering but even when its moving slowly i can hear it. I thought it could may well be the joint, i will be replacing it soon anyway so i will see if that sorts it. I asked the garage to check the track rod ends etc when they were doing the tracking, they said that there wasn't too much play in them and should hold on a while longer yet so might not be those, although they may well still need replacing as they are still 12 years old!! Eventually i will change them and anything else under there, but only when needs must and funds allow, i certainly have the confidence to change them myself now anyway :D Oh and i was thinking of changing my PAS fluid as my steering is quite heavy! Would that help or will i need to change the belt as well?

My steering is clunking when stationary and at parking speeds and i have just replaced all front bushes and ball joints etc so im thinking it might be the rack :(

Ahh come on Michael no need to call it a shed its not that bad! :lol: I was gonna make that exact same joke yesterday. However, I thought better of it!! :lol: Haha great minds and all that :lol:

Ahh come on Michael no need to call it a shed its not that bad! :lol:

Looking good Neil! What were the guages like to wire up?? I have had a set for bloody ages but havent got round to fitting them yet, but i cant move my stereo as its a flip down one so i will be putting mine where the ashtray and fag lighter are and then relocated the fag lighter so i can still use it to charge things.

Thats a very good price! Im sure someone will take up that offer!

Yeah got it done Stan (see my gallery!), they had to do it 3 or 4 times i cant remember now lol. Every time they done it and took it up the road and back it settled more and had to do it again! Was a pig but now feels like a completely different car!!

its getting there, but no way the best lol Nah, its not got a a VR engine in it so it cant be the best :lol:

I want it! :lol:

Well today i sorted out my small oil leak which was in a good place actually as iw as changing the part that was leaking anyway!! It was leaking out of the oil pressure switch for some reason, so i changed the switch anyway as my oil light beeps at me occassionally but goes away again when i blip the throttle over 2.5k rpm so hopefully the new switch has sorted that out as well as stopped the small leak!! I was expecting this job to be a pig as the switches sit on top of the oil filter housing and Dinkus told me at Stonor that he did his and it was a pain getting to them from underneath as you cant get to them from above ... well i could thanks to my new mechanical knowledge :lol: i just jacked the engine up again and that gave me enough clearance to get to them from above!! Lovely jubbly :D

Yeah im really glad i did take it on mysel, as you say my confidence has MASSIVELY improved so i am really pleased with that! Even Simon said he had never hada driveshaft so hard to get out, he said it was a bit dodgy and putting it back together was a bit of a bodge job for now, but in time i will replace the joint, hub and bearing so its all good. I also asked the garage if they would mind me using their press and they were fine about it so in the future i will replace all the wheel bearings as well and just get them to press them in and out. Thanks again for your help though mate, i would of been bit lost half the time without it!!

Already dropped it again lol although not as much as the guy at the garage told me to drop it a bit, drive it and let it settle and then drop it more if i want etc so i dont disturb the tracking straight away! As i said though they did pretty much set up the tracking for the drop. I have put it only a bit higher than it was really so still fairly low, just not low enough lol. And for now i am going to enjoy the car for a bit i think, so leaving the speedies on! They are really nice to drive on and it dont look so bad :lol: i will put the brocks on for inters most probably and then back on speedies until the next show!

Well its friday which means my 'mucky mitts' week is over finally! Its been a long, frustrating but very educational and confidence boosting week! After my last post, which i believe was tuesday so we are now on wednesday, i replaced the passenger side wishbone but left the old ball joint on as i still had the CV boot to do and i only have the type of ball joint splitter that fcuks up the rubber! Replacing the passenger side wishbone took under an hour after tackling the drivers side the day before. But once i done that i tackled the ARB bushes (i am going to do a guide :D) which was a bit of a pig of a job really, taking the old bushes out was easy enough but the trouble came when fitting the new ones, because the clamp that goes round them is a bugger to get on. But i got it done in the end! Then yesterday (thursday) i set out to change my passenger side CV boot. Well that was an interesting job lets put it that way :lol: Split the ball joint from the wishbone, undone the bolts holding the hub etc to the strut and undone the hub nut so it was ready to remove the driveshaft from the hub ... well in theory maybe yes but would it come off? would it eck! I ended up calling on a near by forum member (Simon69) who was kind enough to come and lend a hand as he is a mechanic :D Even he couldnt believe how tight the damn driveshaft was in so we ended up having to belt it out with a big hammer which ofcourse distorted the end of the shaft, DOH! So we left that until later whilst we continued to remove the CV joint, which with the help of a dead bolt hammer came off fine, Simon then told me that my joint wasnt in very good condition as it had play, but as i needed it ready for its MOT today (friday) i had no choice but to leave it unfortunately (another job for another day :() so we replaced the boot ad packed it with new grease and then put it back together. Then came the interesting part which involved an angle grinder :shock: we had to grind the end of the driveshaft that we had whacked with a hammer down to the closest un-distorted thread so we could get the nut back on, this worked a treat and i would never have known what to do so Simon definately saved the day!!! FInally i got all back together along with my new brakes :D and i was ready for today! Today came and i went to the garage ready for the MOT, they checked round the main things first and i got told that i needed to get my rear indicators flashing amber as they flash red, DOH! And also my car was too low to get on the ramp!! :lol: luckily they are sound blokes and they didnt have much on so booked me in for a few hours later giving me time to go home, raise it right up (looks gay, see pics!) and try to get my indicators flashing amber. I tried green bulbs etc but nothing worked, so i cut thin strips along the indicator like Kev did and to me this made them shine orange! I took it back, they done the tracking first then continued with the MOT. Everything was fine, they said i had done a great job replacing all the bits underneath etc BUT they still didnt like my fecking indicators :x so in the end i lost them (see pic) :( oh well i will just get some more :D Then they tested the brakes, and the guy came back with a funny expression on his face and said it was driving like a piece of brown stuff that comes out your arse!!! So they tracked it AGAIN and it was WAY out still, the laser wasnt even on the bloody plates finally after much fiddling and adusting they got the trackking sorted out, although what they have done is set the camber dead straight so that when i lower i back down again it will settle to about -1 degree. I paid (ouch!) and then brought her home, and all i can say is WOW!! The car is completely different, it doesnt drive in one way similar to the way it used to, it feels so stiff and tight over all the bumps, the steering is VERY responsive and weighty again and is also no longer easier one way than the other, its perfect!! So overall a stressful week but the results are more than worth it! So now i wanna go out and drive some more :D Thanks again to Toad for all his help, you are a legend mate! And many thanks for Simon69 for going out of his way to come and help me out, much appreciated mate!

I hope you have deep pockets mate if you want your arches pulled! They have to pull them and then respray the whole rear panels etc so it costs quite a lot. I need mine doing and am going to get a quote with Bendy next week so i will let you know what i get quoted.

Cheers Tom, so far mate the help you haven given has been very helpful so thanks again! I had a look around the brakes and couldnt see anything so i think i will just give the wires a tug and that will be the end of that problem. Todays job is the passenger side CV boot, i have my Bentley PDF on the laptop ready in the garage but just need to find out if my dad did bring home the large socket set else im nackered! If he did and i get the CV boot changed then its all back together again complete with new discs and pads, give the brakes a quick bleed and take her out for a spin :D i also need to change my oil switches as my light beeps at me occassionally and the pressure is fine so i think its just the switch.

Nice one Stan you are a star mate :D

Cheers stan. I looked on ebay and there are loads :lol: so was just wondering if someone who knows can have a look and post up the link to the right ones. Im a lazy fecker :lol:

Cheers Jim, i was the same, i had the knowledge of how to do most jobs but didnt want to tackle them myself but i wanted to learn so i though sod it lol. Im really glad i did because i have learnt a lot, my confidence is massively improved, im even thinking of other jobs i could do now lol but at the same time following the advice 'if it aint broke dont fix it' lol.

Actually quick question to anyone who knows really. I got my new discs and pads and the new pads have pad wear connectors on. Where do these plug to?? My old ones dont have it so does that mean my car hasnt got the pad wear functionality? If not do i just cut off the pad wear sensors off the new pads and put them in as ordinary pads???

Yep ... Hit it with a big hammer :lol: I wanna do my rear axle bushes at some point as well, i was going to do them this week but not going to have time now plus i dont really fancy tackling them!!! I will do them another time i reckon, maybe a bank holiday weekend so i have 3 days and at the same time change the rear brake line and calipers for mk4 ones.

Thought i would update this thread as well as post about it in my gallery. I done it ... jumped right in the deep end, took a week off work, gathered all tools needed, got a big tub of copper slip, loads of plus gas and wd40 and jacked the car up in the garage on monday and now she's almost ready to come back down!! Monday - i changed my gear box oil first as i had to wait for new bolts and ARB bushes to turn up n tuesday. So i just went to halfords and bought 2 litres of Castrol manual gear box oil, a funnel and tubing and then followed the guide from the knowledg base. It was a piece of piddle and after a little drive it did feel smoother going into gear so glad i done that. Although 1st and reverse are still hard to get in at times so i think tomorrow i am going to adjust the gear linkages to allow it to move a tad more to the left. Tuesday - Lots of swearing!! I tackled the drivers side wishbone (with the sump in the bloody way!) which i admit did take me most of the day as i was a bit scared, had nobody with me and i was very unsure about jacking the engine up! But alas i soldiered on with some great advice from Toad (thanks a lot for all your help over msn mate, much appreciated!). I jacked the engine up by removing the front and rear engine mount bolts and SLOWLY jacked up the engine until i started hearing creaks etc which was scary, it lifted up just enough to get to the bolt! The bolts themselves were fine taking off, some harder than others but generally ok thanks to plus gas! So i replaced the whole wishbone, new ball joint and new ARB drop link as well as new bolts all greased up! So that was that job done. Today - Started well but then LOTS of swearing towards the end! I first off took off the wishbone, much easier this time only took about 15 mins :lol: then i wanted to take the hub off to get to the CV boot which is split, however i didnt have a large socket set at hand so couldnt undo the hub nut. Oh well i carried on, replaced the wishbone BUT left the old ball joint on as i will change the CV boot tomorrow so will need to split the ball joint and dont want to fcuk up the new one! Then once wishbone was back on i tackled the ARB bushes. Now with this again i was very weary as i needed to lower the rear sub frame slightly to allow the ARB to slip out. I put a trolley jack under the sub frame to support it, removed the 4 bolts holding the ARB in, then removed the 2 rear bolts from the sub frame holding the wishbone in and then just loosened the 2 main bolts that attach to the chassis. Then started slowly lowering the jack and this allowed for the ARB to come out along with old bushes. But the swearing came when putting it back together because of that FCUKING clamp that goes round the bushes, god that things a right cnut to get straigh enough to get a bolt in and its so fussy, you have to get it perfect else the bolt wont go in :x but finally with the help of a G-clamp i got the bastards on and then put it all back together. So thats the main jobs done really and so far i am really pleased with my efforts, i didnt have a clue how to do these jobs before, i had no manual really but did have help from Toad and searched the forum and got some answers, and got it all done. Tomorrow i should have a large socket set so i will tackle the CV boot which im not looking forward to. I also got my new brakes today so will fit them and THEN she's done ready for her MOT on friday, and also to get it tracked as its bound to be all over the place now!! A very happy (and tired and frustrated!!) Rob :D