dr_mat

Not entirely convinced that makes sense, but hey, I never did figure out how it maintains constant pressure under such varying input rotation speed...

The only other question to ask yourself about these steering issues, monVR6, is what were your engine revs at the time? It's possible that the PAS pump is not maintaining consistent pressure, and over-pressuring at times. Worth a thought. But it's most likely the rack, imho. That said, the PAS pump is quite a lot cheaper than a new rack!

The only thing that could improve that car are: a) metallic grey paintwork. somehow that just looks *right* on those cars b) the 3.0 V6 engine.. :) ..though the reviews of the car all state that the 2.2 HDi is a cracking engine anyway, "for a diesel". Unless you're a complete petrol-head it's the best of the lot, even the V6 isn't much better. The v6 WOULD be a worthy replacement for the Corrado. I really like the 406 Coupe. But it's too long, and parking it in my street would be impossible... ;)

The guy who sold Kev's rack doesn't have any more. It was a close-out at a dealership or something. All old stock being got rid of. I asked.. :)

Already discussed.. :) Anyway, the scarcity of such cars really does point out that it was never a good idea, on the whole.. :)

Kevhaywire posted the part numbers in a thread a while back. Use the search, should be locateable. Yes, you need a tensioner bolt that matches the new tensioner, you can't use the old style with the new, and vice versa..

It's not that hard. Have a dig around the search, but people seem to suggest it's about an hour's labour, 2 at the most? You've got to jack the engine up slightly to get access tho.

Great thing about the VR is that 3rd will do you fine for pulling away all the way up to 110mph ... :-D As long as you never need to go backwards, you're sorted! :)

The day diesels get CVT gearboxes that work reliably, petrol engines are screwed...

The aux belt runs across the water pump (in engine block), the pas pump (lower external), then alternator (external), then the belt tensioner pulley. If you have air con there's an extra wheel in there, but I'm not sure which order it comes in. By the sound of your description you *may* be talking about the water pump...?

The book procedure for replacing the alternator is to remove the rad, which according to the book procedure requires removal of the front bumper and the slam panel... :( But I am reliably informed that a resourceful garage can do it in-situ.

I knew he was taking the piss! :) Did we pass the test, frank? Do we get certificates?

All sounds perfectly normal to me. Apart from the 100-110'c water temp... If it's really that hot it'd be blowing out the top somewhere, not good to sustain those temps.

Heh as long as you don't blame me if it's pants! :)

Well now I've heard of it. :)

I don't think I've ever heard of anyone reporting that VAG-COM shows up Engine Speed Sensor problems, to be honest. It's a bit pants like that, the ECU doesn't seem to be very good at diagnosing problems with that most important of sensors.. :( I suppose if the cables were broke it would be clear, but in cases like this it doesn't seem to report anything useful.

Yup, I was winding him up.. ;)

Good job you don't have to work with them for a living then! Oh, wait!! ;) Anyway, bet we ship bigger ice creams than your company too.. ;) :)

The one in that press release doesn't get built till early '07, so can't do that I'm afraid. We do have other big machines tho. I can't login to Nasa, unfortunately, otherwise I could show you the hinv from a 1024-CPU node in a 10,240 CPU machine... :) I can get the following though: > hinv 512 400 MHZ IP35 Processors Main memory size: 524288 Mbytes Total storage is something over 7TB on here, too. (Geeky I know, but I can get root on here, too.. :) )

Hehe, I surf the forum on a pentium 3. The big box is just for playing with. It runs a good game of Quake in the reality centre though.. :) Apparently Kev is bored. Sorry Kevbot, but jealousy doesn't become you. ;)

Ah, you're at Warwick, but you live in Coventry. Wrong way round, man! ;) Hey, if there's anything I can sell them, let me know, I'll split the (miniscule) commission! :)

http://www.sgi.com/company_info/newsroo ... r/lrz.html Our latest toy, Jim. I wonder how many departments in Coventry uni would kill for that kind of compute resource? :)

Nope, currently that's three racks.. :) But that's old tech. We'd get 128 CPUs in a single rack with the new kit. Yes, 64 CPU in a deskside.. ;)

48 cpus? We have a machine in the lab bigger than that... :roll: ;) 56 400 MHZ IP35 Processors Main memory size: 26624 Mbytes :) And *that's* just a baby cos they won't buy us machines that are representative of customer installs... :(

The typical chain rattle noise that we're all petrified of appears to be caused by the chain being loose and clattering against one of the guides, or against the tensioner itself. Probably the tensioner wearing down isn't the only effect that causes it - probably it's chain stretch too. IMHO. ;) No, I doubt that anyone would notice that noise of chain-to-rivet grind over the general noisiness of a VR6 top end, but I believe the clatter is caused by a loose chain, not necessarily a worn tensioner. After all, if the tensioner is worn, but the chain is still kept taught, what's there to rattle?