dr_mat

Apparently VW will still sell the red Beru leads, but they cost ££££ so they also offer the "Quantum" ones. Cheapy quantum leads come as a set, whereas the Beru leads are sold individually. You pays your money, you takes your choice...

Ahem. But if the chains don't rattle it means they're not loose hence no danger of skipping a tooth, despite the condition of the tensioner pad... ;) Anyway, mine are done, so it's everyone else's problem now! Ha! ;)

How accurate? Depends how much fluid in the washer bottle... Amonst other things.. ;) Find a local weigh station? I've never seen an "accurate" figure, but surely a range 700-800kg is accurate enough for most things?

Approximately? Kerb weight *0.65-0.70, or around 750-800kg.

I had a nissan with a carb and a cat no end of problems as the carb would cut the fuel as it would knacker the cat and create what started to be a 'twin choke effect' that over time turned into 'kangaroo juice' at every road junction, Ah, the exception that proves the rule I think! ;)

It's not the temp sender, cos when sitting stationary, the gauge went up as normal. It's the 'stat.

Bet it's loud tho. And THD is probably about 48% at 1khz, too....

On the other hand, best of luck to the guy that sold all that stuff. I'd like to hire him as a salesman, no matter what...!! :)

Tell me about it. My father's got one. New Mondeo 1.8 SCi (or whatever ford call them). He's been getting check engine lights pretty much since new, and they've just recently managed to do a firmware update that they *think* might have fixed it. These things are clever. The direct injection means they can actually perform a controlled burn in just a small PART of the cylinder. The remainder of the cylinder is filled with exhaust gases via the recirc valves. That way they can run with insanely small fuel amounts without causing pinking. (The small part of the cylinder that *has* fuel when the spark fires is at a normal fuel/air ratio.) Part load economy is extraordinary on these things... Of course, they feel a little weird to drive, the switchover between insano-lean-burn and normal-burn seems to effect the way the engine pulls. But as you say, come 10 years time and 100k miles + these things are going to have dodgy engine sensors and all kinds of BAD, EXPENSIVE things will be happening!

My C used to trigger the central locking when you push the driver's door pin down, but it doesn't any more since I had the handle replaced. I couldn't be arsed to get the garage to fix it, on the basis that they fecked up the window mechanism first time they looked at it so I'd rather they just left it alone!!

Perhaps most engine designers choose injectors (or FPRs) with the right capacity/flow rate to allow a 1.5ms injector opening at idle? Perhaps all cylinder sizes require around the same amount of fuel to maintain tickover? Who knows? Who cares? Anyway, mine runs at 3.5ms at idle, according to VAGCOM. It'll drop to 1.5ms on overrun program. But maybe the engine wasn't fully warmed up yet? Variable inlet - well it's like the schrick for the VR6 innit. I refer you to the great docs about how that works elsewhere. More torque from delayed ignition timing only works when your ignition timing is too conservative. Most modern cars run pretty close to pinking, so fiddling with the ignition timing isn't going to help too much. Or were you actually taking the piss..? ;)

And fuel economy is actually important in F1, believe it or not, given the weight and performance penalty of an extra 10 litres of fuel. Carbs overfuel like mad, which covers your arse if the mix isn't quite right, but to get absolutely everything it's possible to get out of the fuel it has to be carefully metered. Also, the injectors can provide a finer mist of fuel in the air, promoting a better burn, and can do so right at the entrance to the cylinder (or IN the cylinder with the direct injection engines they're working on now).

Carbs pump in more fuel, end of story. That's why the increase in power. Another reason is an engine on carbs is generally running without catalysts, so the exhaust is more free flowing. Well, with all that overfuelling going on, the cat would die pretty quick anyway. It's no mistake that every car ever built with a catalyst has electronic fuel injection.

Not sure where it is on the G60, maybe one of the G60 boys can help you out. I doubt it's an expensive part, honestly, even if you replace the housing too you'll get change from £35.. But it would be generally better if your engine got up to temperature properly!

Your thermostat is stuck open. Replace it. The water will heat up significantly quicker than the oil, if all is working as it should.

I always liked Scotland. Pity it's so damn far away!

Nope. When my battery goes flat (once per year, when I go on holiday for more than 5 minutes!), the locks stay closed. If the clock has been reset, however, yeah your battery died for some reason.

But don't they have different brackets or something?

It's a different price for each car. They charge IIRC £350 + VAT to chip a VR. Not very "cost effective" if you ask me.. And the chipping game is completely different for forced induction. You get your money's worth with forced induction chips!

ISTR there was already a thread of people asking some german company (was it FK or Inpro?) to make clear headlamp lenses.. I suspect the reason VW are obsoleting all these parts is because despite the car's popularity and following in the UK, the whole rest of Europe (and most importantly Germany) really don't notice that it ever existed. Out of sight and out of mind. Now, really that means it's up to VW uk to push VW germany to keep making and stocking these parts. But if VW uk don't push hard enough (or maybe they simply don't have enough leverage), it just won't happen.

Good point, I guess I'd never thought about it!

** - But then I should point out that the VR has a pretty advanced engine management system, particularly compared to the 16v/G60 cars, so maybe there's more benefit to be had on the less advanced ECUs.

Interestingly, considering Kev's comment above, in a previous thread we've already heard that Vince@Stealth doesn't reckon it's worth chipping standard VRs. That does imply that AMD are taking your money for nowt... ;) But then if you really want to spend money, no doubt any of the tuners will help you out. AMD will go that one step further and give you a RR print out showing an EXACTLY 10bhp performance increase which, interestingly, all comes from the "rolling resistance" calculation... :roll: All my own opinion! ;)

All possibly true. But then you have to ask - is it worth the money? It's quite time consuming and therefore expensive getting someone to chip your car. If all you gain is a tiny bit of driveability and maybe a couple of bhp for your three-four hundred notes, is it worth it? On a turbo engine you'll get big gains pretty much all the time, but on a N/A engine it's questionable whether it's worth it at all. IMHO not. I had to have mine done to protect the engine from lean running with the Schrick installed, but that's the only reason I would have considered it.

And now, Phat's R32 is a completely standard R32 engine. Albeit in the wrong car! ;)