dr_mat

The chains don't break, except in VERY rare circumstances. I've heard of a few going, but that's not bad considering the number of VR6 engines out there with, like you say, starship miles on them. The tensioners don't "fail" either, unless you call wearing through the rivets and losing the tensioning pad as failure. The chain guides on the non-tensioned side have been known to snap though. You can drive the car on sloppy chains, no question, but there's been a few that skip teeth when the chains go slack, and that can be a whole host of pain to deal with. Best to replace the tensioners if nothing else, and let's face it, due to VW not thinking the job would *ever* have to be done, they didn't exactly make it easy, so by the time you've got the tensioner off, you may aswell replace the whole lot..

I did pretty much that type of damage to a really old Cavalier once ... That was a laugh, errr not.. Best of luck with the insurance...

Ah, of course, I had stupidly assuming that your A/F meter was working from a completely independant data source. Though how that would be, I don't know...?! :)

My completely standard late VR has never hit a ramp, even the stupidly tall ones... You have to take note when the ramp is pock-marked with gouges all along the top surface of the ramps... Apparently Golf 4 V5s were notorious for losing sumps, due to the standard lower suspension and a low mounted engine.

It's reading lean and using excessive fuel? Bit weird! What's excessive? Yeah, most people report that excessive fuel consumption can be fixed with new lambdas.

Agreed on the state of the roads. I'm wheel spinning all the way home these days, IN gear in 2nd and even THIRD, not from standing starts! It's so muddy too, on some of the country roads..

Bloody hell! :shock: I hope it's the pylon that snapped in half...

(Not a good idea if you can't unlock the boot with a key - cos if the battery dies you're screwed ... )

Yeah, if you don't sign it, they'll have to take you to court. And then you pay court costs too, even if they give you the minimum 3 points/£60 fine, unless you have a VERY good reason for not signing it...

This has been discussed a lot - hit the search, there's loads of useful pointers...

There's not many Cs about with headlight washers, actually...

So all that time tracing wiring and changing temp sensors was educational, great! ;) You should have just trusted the wiring (and us!) in the first place.. ;) :)

Try pornography.

Loom for headlamp washers?

Can you have another go at typing that please? For those of us that don't speak "m1cah"..

It's not a light beam, it's a magnetic sensor that picks up the position of the metal cage by induction. That's why it's so robust. It's likely that he damaged the cage though. And other people have reported wheel bearings as being a cause for this type of thing too. (Vibration at high speed.) The MOT testers are *supposed* to check that the ABS light comes on with the ignition for four seconds then goes OUT, and STAYS out. Therefore a "blown bulb" is a fail... But as usual, YMMV.

You top up till it spills out of the filler hole, that's all you can do. Presumably your 10 year old car just has a slightly worn gearbox, it's not unusual. Hell even brand new gearboxes can complain when shoved into 2nd gear at 2 degrees C. Unless it's badly whining, vibrating, or crunching all the time, just put it down to "old car syndrome".

It's still pretty outrageous. But yeah, I asked the dealer once and he said it was £46+VAT for each...!! Some guy was in there getting a non-heated mirror and even that was going to cost him £16+VAT, for a flat piece of moulded plastic with silvering on one side... :roll:

scrapyards are the only place that do them cheaper...

They have to be calibrated once per shift....

That's the 2.0 16v...

Ok, but is that each bolt is 100mm from the next, or are they all placed 100mm from the centre of the wheel? And how BIG are the bolts? Diameter wise. That's not accounted for in these figures at all... I'm pretty sure that if I worked for BBS I'd either learn very quickly or get fired... ;) ** Ok i checked out the links, very good.. I now understand PCD and ET. But those figures definitely do not define the diameter or thread pitch of the bolts. That's why it never made sense to me.. :)

Are they? Well it wouldn't surprise me - Vauxhall never made a diesel engine in their lives, IIRC. Certainly the 1.7d and 1.7td models were either Subarus or brand...

The biggest restraint is the health and safety lot, not the accountants.. Without them the world would be a lot more fun (and only slightly more dangerous..) :) Did you know my local cinema told me they're not allowed to turn the overhead lights off above the screens during the films for "health and safety" reasons? I pointed out that if I wanted to watch a film in daylight I would stay at home and leave the curtains open... There's another point though - to try to compare the VX220 and the Corrado is plain meaningless, they're completely different beasts. The Corrado was designed to be a sporty looking 4-seat car with boot space, comfort and economy in mind. It just happens that at the time the chassis engineers got to fit some pretty stiff bushes and some pretty agricultural suspension links that made the car feel alive at the helm. The VX220 was designed from the ground up to connect your finger tips with the front wheels, and your arse with the back wheels. Comfort and economy weren't even on the tick-sheet... Not that you did try to compare. ;) Comparing the C to other limited volume projects from main-stream manufacturers would be more reasonable... (Perhaps some of the other cars that came out of the Karmann factory, in fact!)

No MOT, tatty exterior, iffy leather interior, ABS light problems, and what else...?? £2k is rather excessive for that.. Worst case scenario on an ABS fault is a new ABS pump unit. Thick side of £700 new...