dr_mat

... which means they had to remove and refit the lambda probe, assuming your engine has one (you didn't say which it is!). I would suspect, in order, lambda wiring, then fuel contamination. There's no way that you'll need a rechip just for a decat.

Erm, occasionally...

"Recent legislation from the DVLA (August 3rd 2009) suggests that your motor swap with mates is now impossible." Note the emphasis on the word "suggests". This is conjecture. In fact the Individual Vehicle Approval process is one that has been asked for by many in the industry for some time because at the moment once you modify a car at all it has no real type approval at all, and insurers aren't obliged to insure it.

"Fuel consumption (urban) 29.8 mpg Fuel consumption (extra urban) 53.9 mpg Fuel consumption (combined) 40.9 mpg" Oink oink, flap flap..

I thought that was probably the case, but wanted to clarify the point..

Actually the emissions test SHOULD be based on the age of the engine, not the age of the car. So if the car that the engine came FROM would have required a CAT, then the test should be a catalyst test. Also note that in most cases the MOT doesn't require the car to actually have a CAT. It will be tested as if it has one though, and without one it is highly unlikely that it will meet the emissions target so it will probably fail.

Congratulations, you found a guy who didn't look very closely for your 2nd MOT.

What on earth is moody asphalt? :) Only the manufacturers know about transmission losses for individual components. And even then it will vary depending on what type of oils they use and how hot everything is. Big ask..

I do know of a local place that uses something similar to that ebay auction for their garage business. But I don't know if it's the same product, so can't say for sure. I'm sure it'll more or less do the job, but if you're sticking to VW/Audi as said above I'd go fork for the official Ross-Tech product and support. It seems to me to be by far the best product, probably easier to use than the official VW system.

The thermostat opens at about 80 degrees on a VR so if you are moving fast enough ( > 40mph usually ) the water temp should be rock solid 80 degrees. But it never is because the stat opens progressively, over a temperature range, and the sensor isn't that accurate, and the gauge isn't that accurate. Fans speed 1 should come on at 92, speed 2 at 98 and high speed at about 108 degrees.

Torque curve looks sensible enough, tails off at the top end a little but that's pretty normal. Do you think it feels down on power compared to other cars?

You put the bulbs in the wrong way round. The rear brake/sidelight bulbs are supposed to be keyed to only go in one way, but if you're a little ham fisted (like me) you can inadvertently force them in 180 degrees out.

"only works on full speed" is a failed resistor pack. "only works on fan speed 1" is a completely different problem, and is a very weird one at that. More details please!

Oo, you show me yours and I'll show you mine.. ;) My graphs are out there, on another thread somewhere...

Once again, in yet another "vr6 coolant temp" thread, I'd like to point out that if your temp guage EVER reaches 110 then SOMETHING IS WRONG. Even in 30 degree summers, on a rolling road thrashing the crap out of the engine in stationary air, it should NEVER go much over 100 degrees. You most likely have a fan control unit failure.

"nasty little rattle" .. Pinking? Running lean?

Of course, it *should* click once when you turn the ignition on .... and once again when you turn the ignition off .... Any more than that and it's either faulty or you have a dodgy ignition switch or a very low battery.

The thermostat opens when the temperature gauge on the dashboard reaches about 80. By this time the heater matrix will already be hot, so you should *already* have hot air. You don't need the thermostat "on full" when you're doing the filling up, btw, that was advice for very old cars where the heater matrix didn't get any water from the engine unless you twiddled the knob on the dashboard - all modern cars give the heater matrix a constant supply and redirect the AIR instead of the water. I might be inclined to think your heater matrix bypass valve has kicked in ... or your heater adjusters on the dashboard are no longer connected to the air guides..

I am starting to think I would rather keep doing my shoulder in bump starting it!! Heavy duty jump lead should be fine ..... :) This is of course assuming that's what the fault is. It might make no difference ..

You need a thick piece of cable to do this, use a decent quality jump lead or similar gauge cable. No kidding, this needs to carry close to 200 amps. Bell wire will burn through before you've had time to drop the cable, shout "christ that's hot", and jump up and down blowing on your fingers.

(though massively inaccurate since you can't take into account wind resistance and coefficient of drag..)

Yes, I've had everything from the uzi-like rattle of solenoid engaging and disengaging right the way down to the total and utter silence, all caused by low battery charge. You need about 11.8 volts at the battery to start a VR.

If you're going to buy additional maps they will almost certainly be cheaper as a bundle with the device up front.

Have to admit to being pretty impressed with the TomTom XL. The mapping is very good, and that's the key with these things. The missus paid a fair amount of cash to get the whole of europe maps right from day one, and the box isn't very expandable (no card slot), but it does what it says on the tin and in operation it's very slick. It also runs Linux you know... :)

No-one can know what the power output of a specific car is unless they've recently dyno-ed the engine. You can get a rough idea from a rolling road run. If the car is "significantly" down on power then it's faulty and you can bring it back to normal by repairing it ... Any VR should be somewhere between 180 and 200 bhp, but there's no way you can guarantee any specific numbers within that range, it depends on far too many factors (the weather, even).