dr_mat

Sounds about normal to me... No air flow = 100 degrees. No big surprise. The fans come on, sure, but they can't actually haul the temperature DOWN from 100, they just keep it from going nuclear...

I think most people will pay a fiver instead of a £50-er...

Cool colour, it looks kinda half way between blue and grey in these pics..

I was gonna say: make some more up, this is what happened to my switch too, and I suspect most people's goes the same way. This could save folks a lot of money! Plus, given that the replacement part is real metal, it's likely to actually last a bit longer! :) Top job! :)

See, the thing that strikes me about your original description is this: if the schrick valve was stuck OPEN, then you'd get a perfectly normal VR engine's response. i.e. 130lbft torque up to 3800rpm when all hell breaks loose and it climbs to 180lbft through to the redline. if the schrick valve was stuck closed, then you'd get a whacking great lump of torque between 2800 and 4200, and it would tail off after that. if it was stuck somewhere in between, you'd probably see mostly standard engine behaviour, with maybe a little bit of extra low-down torque. But you simply wouldn't see the engine dropping off a cliff at 3500rpm. That sounds more like they fecked up the chip to me, or you've a serious engine sensor problem.

Funny that there's a loss of power at 3500 - the schrick usually provides a big plug of torque between 3k and 4k. Unless they've set the switchover point to 3500 for some reason.. Also possibly it's being pinked to death in that range? Are they trying to rechip it at the same time or just using the standard ECU for now?

Safe ish, there's not a great deal of torque down there, so you're unlikely to do major damage, but it's better not to labour the engine like that, on the whole. Change down to 4th, it's much happier with a bit more mechanical advantage if you're around the 30mph margin...

I'm sure I don't remember ever stating anything about women being better drivers... Or perhaps babel fish is translating all my posts into flame bait somewhere between my keyboard and the forum database?

I'll have you know I'm a well qualified prat, and deserve some respect.. ;)

If the valve is stuck, then the idle will be steady. It'll just be wrong!

I had a spreadsheet.. but I gave up updating it after I got scared..

Well it's obviously not stuck closed, cos otherwise it wouldn't idle at all...

You can safely ignore me then. I only read it out the Bentley manual.

Someone told me the rears weren't adjustable too. But they were lying.. ;) Remove the split pin, tighten the castle nut until you can just about turn the thrust washer by finger pressure (or a small screwdriver) and then fit a new split pin. I'm sure other folks will confirm that this is all fine. Just don't over-tighten. It's worse than being slightly loose. Bear in mind it's going to expand slightly compared to when you're working on it cold.

LOL "rare" storm parcel shelf. I like it. I'm sure there's mugs on ebay who'll pay extra for it, but frankly, it's exactly the same as a non-storm parcel shelf, so you'll be taking the p1ss if you try and get extra dosh for it! :)

This is deemed "good" for various reasons (all the following are sweeping generalisation - exactly as used by the insurance industry!): - as you say they often drive less aggressively - they have less accidents in general than men (but men drive more miles) - they don't go in for tacky upgrades so much - the car is unlikely to have been molested or turbod or chipped or whatever in the past - they DON'T maintain their cars. It's ALL done by garages usually, so theoretically at least trained people are the only ones who ever opened the bonnet and tried to do something .. plus many others. Why do you think the women-only insurers exist? There has to be some statistical reason for it.

You mean you don't have a copy of the highway code at home, for constant referral when in doubt about the rules of the road?? ;)

Could be the brakes binding on the disks - particularly if you have grooved disks.. You can tighten up the rear bearings, but the fronts have no adjustment - if they've gone they have to be replaced. It's usually hard to tell if it's the bearings on the front, due to the drive shaft going through the middle, but you can usually feel some grinding or lumpiness as you turn the wheel if they've gone.

Hmm. Back end looks cool, but the front is a little too low for my tastes. I prefer the wheel in the centre of the arch, not buried up into the wing...

Do you have a VGI/VSR fitted? It's odd to get pinking at 3k rpm on a standard engine, whatever the mileage. It's equally odd to hear timing chain rattle (definitely not the same type of noise) at 3k rpm - usually timing chain rattle is most audible at around 1200rpm and quietens right down above 2-3k. The fact that it only occurs periodically, and that it goes away with better fuel, suggests that you're more likely to have an engine sensor out than timing chain probs (well - you may well have timing chain probs ASWELL, but that's not what you're describing here)... Quite likely a bad knock sensor, or MAF sensor possibly. Get the ECU scanned for errors - that's your first port of call.. Second- talk to Roger Blassberg on here he had similar and it turned out to be a dodgy knock sensor.

If the ISV is stuck OPEN then it'll run shite on part throttle, because there's unmetered air getting into the system.

Yup, idle limits not reached means you've either got a whacking great hole in the inlet manifold or your ISV is buggered.

VAG-COM it.

Yes I was going to suggest it sounds like a stuck/sticky ISV. That hose is unlikely to cause the severity of the problems you're experiencing... IMHO. That hose is the crankcase breather valve, aka the PCV for some reason I suspect..

I'm always right, that's because I'm a doctor... :-P