boost monkey

Alright Harry, how did the degree turn out? There's a controller unit behind the OSR door card. It controls both the central locking and the electric windows. If you have no luck with the fuses and relays, this should definitely be your next point of contact. Pull the doorcard off and you'll see it right in front of you :-)

Sounds like you may be on to a winner there, Ray my man.

Remind me not to accept your help with any car jobs :lol: ;)

My 8v golf has a label in the fuel filler saying 97/98 RON only, but also a sticker on the slam panel under the bonnet saying that the ignition timing has been altered so that it can run on 95RON! :lol:

Hey mate, sorry for the delay. Yeah I completely feel your pain and know the bolts your struggling with. The little plate there is literally just a mud shield to stop the flywheel getting covered in crap (and therefore prob keeps the starter motor clean too!) If you're careful you could take it off, but looking at how dirty it is under there i'd recommend cleaning it all up first. That may help you get onto the 10mm bolt heads too. You should be able to get the plate off in situ but not 100% on that one.

tbh, I don't think it's worth buying new from a dealer as there are a fair few about (if you check ebay / breakers / other forums) but obviously your choice :D

Doug, are you able to use capture point and scan into a CAD format for computer modelling? What do you use at the mo for CAD ( I assume the ninja star by your TB was a CAD item!) Cheers, Jon.

^^^ agree. I think you will lose some of the "driver involvement" feel if you start adding electronic PAS or uber brakes.

Pure water will cool much better than 'coolant' or more correctly Ethylene glycol. The EG is really there for protecting the metal parts from rust, and also lowers the freezing point as the mixture is now a "solution", obviously with different properties than water alone. So, the water is best for drawing heat away (thermal conduction) but the EG is there to protect from rust and also ice in the pipes! +1 for the matrix. Why else would it mist up inside?

Might seem an obvious thing, but keeping the tyres pumped up will help a lot with heavy steering feel. I had a slow puncture on the plum and it always felt loads better when I dosed the rubber up a bit!

Thinking I could finish a resto through my overseas placement year and subsequently the last year of my engineering degree. The Plum is still sat on ProdigalSon's driveway with a tax disc that expired in January 2009, full new suspension, full new chassis and half replaced brakes! oh and it needs an engine. Other than that it's amazing.

as steve said, the mk2 is very close and will fit IIRC. I think the extra tabs are for stability and the weight is a resonance damper to stop the frame vibrating.

Cheers tony. It's official, my car is now averaging 36mpg based on the last 2 tanks of fuel. That's an increase of 4mpg up from 32, or over 10% increase! God knows how far my timing was out with the old belt! Also, got a funny noise coming from NSF. It's like a heavy click noise, but not repetitive. It doesn't happen when I go over bumps (so ruling out suspension) but DOES do it when I change gear and the clutch is in (makes me think drivetrain). My best guess is a bad outer CV or driveshaft? I think I had an advisory for that so I'll get it back up in the air sometime. If anyone would like to confirm/elaborate on possible causes that would be good.

My fuel economy has jumped 4mpg from 32 to 36 on average since I got the cambelt done. Shows how important it is that your engine is timed well, and as mentioned above shows that sometimes you won't be using the extra octane unless it's been modded too....God knows how far out my timing was with the old belt! btw this is on the Golf.

+1 for classic. You can up the annual mileage once you get close to your limit too. The max "limit" is 6000, then after that it's unlimited but you'll pay a bit more on the top if you got quoted/start a quote on a limited milage policy. My golf is getting close so i'm gonna call them up in a bit and get it put on unlimited.

Hello fella, yeah those two bolts are a nightmare! If you have one of those weird screwdrivers which can take cheapy sockets on the end then they work well, but as you have no doubt realised you can't get directly onto those two bolts, although you can get to them at an angle. So yes, you can get to them but they're really fiddly. IIRC taking off the small plates between bellhousing and engine block don't really help, but you might find they give you some more access. Post up how you get on too.

The MFA is a rough estimation at best. Here's how I calculate my mileage: Brim the tank, Drive for however far you like, the further the better as the average mpg will be more accurate, refill the car to brimming, note down the speedo trip counter for the mileage you have done between fill ups, using the petrol receipt work out the miles per gallon. I use 4.5454545454... for litres per gallon, then divide total mileage by that gallon figure. Hope that helps.

So why you asking Jay?

IIRC she's a VR Trooper.

is it cheaper if you offer part payment in cake? :lol:

Thanks tony, just the info I needed. I will probably stick with the 239s then as I can't be bothered with swapping hubs just for the daily. The mfa read about that today around 70 on the speedo so I'm glad it's a bit healthier! I thought I had a gerbil in my dash this morning, I could hear a scratching sound but I soon realised it was related to speed! I think the rotating cuff of the mechanical speedo cable might be catching on something. I will probably take the panel out and check it, which gives me the chance to swap a dead bulb in there also. I was dreading having to do the cambelt especially on a daily car, so I think it was reasonable that they did it for £120. IIRC they did the tuning/fuelling for £30 also.

Hey everyone, so I had the cambelt done on Friday and it went really well! I got the car back, and they said it was running lean also (could just be a digifant standard thing, I hea they do run lean) so they richened it up a bit and told me to inform them how it runs. Well.... the performance is back. it picks up a lot earlier in gear now. Noticably putting foot down at 60 in 5th, as it never used to pull well in 5th until 80+. So I guess the old 4th gear performance is now the new 5th gear performance... which is great! I still want to check the fuelling although it did 36mpg (calculated by me) on the tank we used over the weekend visiting family up in Leeds. So the performance is back and the fuel economy has gone up. I'm very glad I got the belt done, even though it cost me about 120 in labour. They told me they couldn't do the front brake pads as the caliper pin hex-sections had rounded. I'm thinking about picking up some 256s as an upgrade and swapping it all over. Yeah it means I can't use the pads(!) but it would be nice to do a small upgrade from the 239s. hey also didn't do the exhaust box as they said the rear box needs changing too, so no point putting just a centre box in. Fair enough, least they're honest! I'll keep an eye out for one of those soon. Oh and they forgot to do the stat after putting that side of the engine back together! Guess i have a few little things to do myself after all :-)

So the golf is in the garage opposite my work today. They're mainly doing cambelt, but i've asked them to put on new drive belts for alt and PAS and also swap the stat for me (with new housing and seal) as I have all the parts kicking about and if they have that side of the engine apart anyways they might as well do it at the same time! Shouldn't be extra labour really. As they will be retiming the engine, I asked them to have a little fiddle with the tuning (saves me buying a strobe and CO analyser) and if they come back saying the sensors are dead, then it's easy peasy for me :-) I also asked them to do the centre exhaust box and front brake pads if they have time, otherwise it's not important. So there it is, I'm officially a chequebooker and no longer know anything about cars :/ it's a bit miserable not having space to work on your own car, but even the Corrado is on borrowed ground at the mo! I will update later.

Just a quick one - if I buy a Mk2 Golf KR engine do I just need to swap the flywheel and clutches over to fit it into my Corrado or is it more involved than that? Cheers! Jon.