jacko

well up for this! just down the road too and what a setting for some photos

get some coolent in there asap mate, i learnt the hard way that having only water in the coolent system is a bad idea when 1 of my core plugs rusted a little hole in it and i had to pull the engine out to replace them :(

maybe i should of looked about before i bought the 1 ive got!

you know you want the cordless 1 steve. how easy did it make doing the suspension?!! no wires to worry about either

I bought a clarke battery powered impact wrench for £110 and it has been fantastic. it did stop working once but machine mart were very apologetic and sent me a new 1 within a few days. its a very very handy tool to have!

So, a little update for you all... Last week on the way home from work in the cold and wet I noticed I had steam coming from under my bonnet and the temp gauge was rising rapidly, I was in the middle of nowhere and it was pitch black. I managed to coast it far enough to stop under a street light so I could have a look and see which hose had burst. After taking off and inspecting most of the hoses (and ruining my suit in the process) I discovered that they were all fine. Luckily, I always carry a 2 litre bottle of water in the boot just in case so I emptied it into the expansion tank to see it all end on the road shortly after. Somehow 1 of the core plugs had popped a 5mm hole in it, I’m guessing the previous owner of the engine didn’t put coolant into the system and just used straight water so it slowly rusted through. I didn’t think about changing the core plugs when the engine was replaced so it’s partly my fault. After spending several hours with screwdrivers, hammers, pry bars, bits of wood and a lot of blood trying to get the old plug out I gave up as there is absolutely no room to swing a hammer hard enough to make a difference to the shape of the plug to make it pop out, never mind getting the new plug in there. I thought, if 1 plug has rusted then the other 2 are probably on their way too so I arranged to borrow an engine crane and rip the while lot out and replace all 3 plugs. Started early Sunday morning, me and a couple of mates managed to get everything out the engine bay, replace the 3 core plugs and get it all back in and working again So here is a pic of the 3 core plugs... as you can see the 1 with the hole in it was the original failure which i made worse by trying to get it out the middle plug is close to failing too as there is a small hole at the bottom and the 3rd plug looks pretty new. It must of been replaced before i got the engine out of the mk3 gti. A job well done me thinks! 8 hours work for 3 little bits of metal that cost £6. Imagin the cost if i had taken it to a garage to get done!

Meth, is there any chance all the high res pics you were sent could be hosted somewhere on the forum? Id quite like some new backgrounds for my home and work PC as im getting bored of the pistonheads pic of the week selection i have at the moment Again, good work with organising this. its a shame there are only 12 months in the year!!

Good work Meth, Just ordered my copy and will order a couple more for presents after payday as i have no money now Edit: Good to see 1 of my pics made it!!

Tempted

count me in

i cant see where to make my payment too :(

A guy came up to me and offered £250 cash for my rado while i was filing it up at the petrol station. I politely told him where to put his money Yes it may have nearly 190k on the clock but its worth a lot more to me than that!!

Steve, any pics with the D90s on her? We should meet up again soon

XL for me please

I havent got a torque wrench yet (on the xmas list) so i just stick my breaker bar on it and put every bit of weight i have into it. smuthered it in thread lock too but it still falls out its bolt 10 in the pic. I was going to try and put a nut on the other end but its just not long enough

yeah pretty crap, i managed to cross thread mine in a rage when bolt 10 (in the pic) fell out for the 5th time :(

Ive discovered what the problem was. it ended up being a bolt that had fallen out of the bracket that bolts onto the engine mount. When the bolt fell out the engine moved enough to break the rad fan, bend the fan housing and ruin my reverse light swith Ive replaced this bolt about 5 times now over the last couple of years but they keep falling out no matter how much threadlock i put on there. Ive put a request in the wanted section as im guessing the thread is usless and is not holding the bolt anymore, i was thinking about welding the bolt in there so it will never escape again

Sorry for the vague discription but i have no idea what its called. I have a picture from ETKA so hopefully somebody can help me. Im after the piece of metal that bolts down on top of the front mount then bolts to the engine. Can anybody help please? Thanks

Hey guys, I just wanted to know your opinions on front engine mounts, the reason i ask is because in the last 12 months i have replace mine 3 times. The first 2 were cheapo £40 from euro that ended up bursting and leaking all their fuild rendering them usless so i forked out for a vibratecnics fast road mount. After fitting it i was amazed at how solid it made the car feel, i thought it was the best £130 id spent on the car. a month after fitting that and im getting a lot of engine movement again. when i come off the power i can feel the engine drop down where the rubber part has become soft. Is there any reason why this keeps happening? Its not like its holding down a stupid amount of power (only a 2 litre) and id expect the VT mount to last a lot longer than a month! Any suggestions? Thanks

ive got some in the classifieds. 10mm and 20mm adaptors Make me an offer Ignore me, mine are 4x100!

I was thinking maybe the sainsburys car park in burpham as its pretty big, ladymead will probably be full of chavs on a sunday afternoon!

Not a problem at all Steve, im flying off to Amsterdam sunday so ill use the saturday to pack and get ready instead lol

Get your flat mate to report it to the council before you report it just so you know it has been reported otherwise you wont be able to claim, take loads of photos of the hole and the damage and take ur car to the garage to get your suspension checked out. I hit a pothole last winter, blew 2 tyres, the rims worent damaged but the suspension was (which i am still thankful for your help that day) The Council refused to pay the full wack for 2 new tyres as they arent willing to replace brand new for part worn so only gave me just over half of what i paid for new. i didnt claim for the suspension tho... i really should of done! Let me know how it goes mate

Yes! Shall we just arrange it for somewhere in guildford? No matter where we try and host it there are always going to be unhappy people How does Sunday the 16th of October sound?

Nice pics! im glad you got the 'good side' of my valver!