dr_mat

Looks like the scale has jumped by 100bhp/lbft in the third graph to me. You telling me it's suddenly generating 300 lbft at 2000 rpm on 3 psi boost? Not likely.. I suspect a lazy right foot on the brake pedal during run-down bumped the drivetrain losses calculation up..

Changed at 112k miles due to stereotypical rattly noises. Top tensioner was riding on the rivets and the top of the pad was cracked and loose..

I'm told it doesn't always .. but mostly, yes. You may have to scan it before switching the engine off after a run.

Will have to look up my "blue wire" .. (must admit I've heard of this before). Symptoms aren't a million miles from what I'm seeing..

They might not trouble your alternator .. but 120 amps down those cables might make for an early bonfire.. ;) Knowing you you've done the right thing and uprated all the cabling too, of course!

Depends on cover, if you only have Relay they'll only tow you 10 miles or the nearest garage, no matter what the reason. If you have the full cover then sure, they'll tow it to the garage you tell them to take it to ..

The spoiler only really has a noticeable impact above 80 ish. That's why when they released the car in germany the auto-up didn't happen till over 70mph. Which the UK cops used as a license for ticketing people .. hence the speed it raised was lowered for the UK market. Or maybe that's just an apocryphal story? Either way I've seen documentation from VW stating that the aerodynamic design of the car uses the spoiler at speeds over 130kph. People with spoilers that can be lowered at any speed (i.e. broken ones) and "private racetracks" report that the car does feel a lot less stable at very high speeds with the spoiler down. But the effect isn't noticeable at 50..

If the crank sensor's not working, the engine won't fire, full stop. They're referring to the hall sender, aka camshaft position sensor. Without that the ECU will retard the ignition and the engine performance is known to get very flat.

So, assuming for the moment that it's not just something as stupid as wheel balancing not being right, you'd want to be checking all the suspension bushes, wheel bearings, shock absorbers, etc etc..

Sounds like something is shorted out. If you're flattening a battery that fast it's probably getting quite hot ...

Better give them a good write up then .. ;) FWIW it's a really weird feeling. I had two well worn out rear wheel bearings once and that was enough to make it feel rather like a shopping trolley..

You're unlikely to do a lot of damage with a couple of isolated warm-ups at idle, but it's a bad practice for many reasons. - the world can do without burning half a gallon of oil for no reason for a start, not to mention the local air pollution - as Kev mentioned - acid erosion (get some colgate?) - piston slap is much worse at idle (get 2000 rpm onto the engine and the pistons have enough inertia to avoid it, mostly) - prolonged rich running at idle means the cylinder head gets coked up more than it should because there's just not enough air flow to burn it all out - it's annoying as fook for your neighbours! :) Just charge the battery and leave the car alone unless you're going to actually drive it... :)

GSF don't have an alt for the VR6 listed.. :-\ I did fid a place in london ones who seem to be quite helpful. Should be able to get a refurbed genuine one for about a hundred quid (70 amp). He's also offered to sell me just the regulator to try that out..

Yeah, that's just it, the light is never on, no amount of blipping the throttle or dropping the revs will cause it to come on. I suspect I need a new regulator circuit. The prices are a bit eye-watering, particularly as the heavy engineering bit (the coils, brushes, and magnets) are presumably ok because it will charge at times. ECP have a Lucas alternator that works out at about £150 exchange (currently not in stock of course). I might try calling a dealer and see if they sell the regulator separately.

This is a new one on me.. anyone seen the following? The alternator warning lamp on the dash isn't lighting up any more on the VR6, even before the car is started. Odd thing #1. Initially I assumed that was because the bulb was gone .. Just now I took a voltmeter to the battery, started the car .. NO charge coming from the alternator (battery reads only 12.10 volts - the engine is running 100% on the battery) .. then I chuck the headlights on and check again .. the alternator starts charging .. 14.3 volts showing at the battery.. lights back off.. still showing full output voltage.. huh? Anyone got any ideas which component to blame first? :) Seems to me it's more likely to be the alternator's regulator circuit. As far as I know it's original, 140k miles. Thoughts?

Of course lowering can decrease safety.. the car was crash tested at a certain ride height, so if you're four inches lower than that all your side impact bars are going to drop under the car who hits you.. Not to mention the extra stresses on bushes etc when they're expected to ride at not-designed-for angles all the time (particularly the rear wishbone bushes, they must get screwed big time by riding so low permanently). Does it make a *significant* difference? Probably not, but it will make a difference to how the car responds in a major incident for sure.

Pretty sure this has come up before and the detailed examination of the law change shows that it's really not that big a deal. If you want to fit cheap untested safety-critical parts to your car (i.e. that don't have BS kitemarks or TUV approval) then you deserve what you get. Everyone else has nothing to worry about .. !

It depends how you use the car. I don't use mine much, but don't want to have to faff around rewiring it or refitting the battery when I do. I don't have a garage, so I can't leave it unlocked/unalarmed. If I leave the car standing, battery connected, for three weeks it won't start. Do that four or five times and you've seriously compromised the battery and you're likely to have to replace it the following winter. So I use a trickle charger (which cost me £40). With some luck this existing battery will now last me ten years instead of two, and I never have to worry about whether the car will start when I want to use it. Sorted!

I think the Ctek/Optimates are quite a bit smarter than that and more expensive of course.. (though either will do the job). Once the battery is charged (a constant current charge is delivered, not constant voltage) it drops to a maintenance cycle - trickle charge for up to 30 minutes as necessary, then nothing for 30 minutes. Rinse then repeat. This keeps the battery completely topped up (never, ever, drops to 12v) and prevents overcharge. Bearing in mind a lead acid battery outputing 12v is already half flat, I woulnd't want to rely on it starting the car in the depths of winter. And fwiw even the 0.8A Optimate of mine will fully charge my 64Ah VR6 battery from completely flat if you can leave it charging for a few days. The ring maintenance charger you mention looks suspiciously similar to the C-tek products ... The advantage of the more expensive C-tek model I mentioned above is it's one unit that does both jobs - bulk charge and maintenance. If you have only one car, it would seem to be the right choice!

Do come back and let us all know when you find out!! :)

Don't even bother with a solar charger, particularly over winter! I used to recommend the Optimate trickle chargers but can't really any more - they're better for bikers but they charge too slowly for larger batteries (and they don't solder their cable connectors, so they rot if they're outside). If I was buying now I'd probably go for a C-Tek, probably this one: http://www.mdsbattery.co.uk/shop/produc ... oupID=3108 Seems like a lot for a 4A charger, but bear in mind this is a plug-and-forget device. As mentioned above if you do go for a generic "4A" battery charger you're better off doing one full 24 hour charge then disconnecting the battery completely, otherwise it will over charge it and you could get gassing and ultimately a knackered battery (best case scenario!).

The fault status will be re-evaluated at ignition on, as far as I'm aware, so the fact that errors exist shouldn't alter the performance now. It might be wise to do an ECU reset though if you've changed the three most significant engine sensors ... And yeah the quick and dirty way is just to disconnect the battery for a while.

Potential dramas.. ? Your missus will run off with the guy down the street who has a -80mm drop? More seriously, the suspension just won't work as desgined. Will you notice the difference? Maybe not .. hopefully you'll have the camber adjusted so that it's right for the current setup and the current amount of suspension movement etc. You'll probably need a slightly smaller camber angle than defaults because the car won't lean so far on the suspension with such short travel. You'll be placing all the transmission joints under more stress because the drive shafts are constantly pulled up at an angle instead of straight out. Plus of course you'll drag the car's arse over every single speed ramp, pothole and surly-teenager-dropped mcflurry wrapper because there's no ground clearance any more. And you probably won't be able to get a jack under it to change a wheel when you have a flat .. ! :) Anyway, bit late to worry about that now! ;) Brake bias valve you MUST fix, or it'll be tail happy under braking like you wouldn't believe.

I'll have four please ... !

Also suspicious that the temp sensor was replaced and now it won't start .. If you're savvy with VAG-COM try to find out what the temperature sensors are reading, make sure they make sense.