muppetlab

I am contemplating a road trip down to spain. The question is do i take the rado or hire a car? Over the last year i have sweated blood and money to keep the ole gal on the road and now consider it reliable, but i just dont know if its up to the trip. My mates reckon i am mad for even considering it but i have been further in an old vw camper and it did not miss a beat. Am i worrying unnecessarily of should i just go for it. I would love to do the trip and would obviously make sure it gets a good service before the trip. Has anyone had any problems on long road trips. Will the ole Vr take hours of fast motorway work, she has 160k under the belt now. I hope to soon get a godspeed radiator to help with the summer cooling which will help on the long trip. Any tips or words of encouragement welcomed :D

The gunk is essentially water and oil emulsion. Its either from condensation or coolant. I cant see any other way water will get in unless its poured in the oil filler. If the coolant has not dropped in 2 months i would guess its not head gasket as you would notice a drop surely? Which is why i suggest condensation. I am no mechanic though. Keep an eye when you change the oil. see if it looks like oil or sludge. The Gunk in our old van used to go after a good run to get the engine nice and hot. Maybe you need to get it warm, short journeys in this weather wont get it hot i would doubt. If you have not checked the oil since sept do you know when it was last changed?

We used to have a works van that only did local trips and never got properly warm and that had mayo under the filler cap something to do with condensation i think. The dipstick is slightly more worrying. The fact that its had hardly any oil in wont have helped but i would say drain the gunk and refill with fressh oil. Pretty cheap and easy to do. Do you use the car much? Any Oil in the coolant tank?

I might contact them as looking at where the bolt snapped it looks a bit pore marked like a rough cast. not what i would have thought high tensile steel should look like. Might have been a faulty bolt. Will see what they say. Unfortunately i dont have a receipt as i bought it of this forum as a brand new unused item. Still i would have thought they might be interested from a product development perspective.

Having changed all the engine mounts i was very annoyed when the knocking returned recently and the bonnet began to look like a banana again. On closer inspection turned out the front mount which i replaced about 4 months ago has broken. It was a brand new vf mount and the bolt that goes through the top had snapped just above the poly bush. Fortunately i was able to take it apart and using a stainless bolt i had about mend said VF mount temporarily. I assumed that the bolt that snapped was maybe 8.8 tensile but turns out it was 12.9 which is pretty strong. Has anyone else had this problem? I only use my car on the road and although i give it some beans now and again i thought these were racing spec mounts :( Is there anything stronger than a 12.9 bolt or should i just drill out the mount and brackets and go up a bolt size? dont want this happening again. cheers jez

Nowt you can do i am afraid. The law in this country is so concerned with the rights of the criminals that the victim is forgotten, until the victims take it in their own hands then find the law comes down on them 100% and the criminals are compensated. Crazy :cuckoo:

Years ago we used to treat the chassis of land rovers with used engine oil and grease. Never rusted :lol: Not so good for the environment or your skin though.

Did you get longer bolts for your spacers or were the spacers not wide enough to need them? I put 15mm hubcentrics on front of mine and needed longer wheel bolts.

I have always looked at rust as a cancer. It starts from the inside out. If you see rust on the outside its worse on the inside. Although treatments work for a while the rust will 99.9% come back as its somehow in the actual metal. Cutting it out and welding in good metal is the only real cure.

I bought a rusty old camper few years ago and after thirty years of rot the underside of the chassis was in perfect condition under the wax coating. Not sure what it was but it looks like waxoyl. Considering the state of the rest of the bus i was convinced it works and have treated every vehicle i owned since. Injected into sills, doors under the floor pans basically every where. This year i used a waxoyl underseal type goo for under the arches on the rado as it sets a bit harder and so far so good. Only thing to watch is that i think waxoyl is not good on rubber. So watch overspray onto tyres, cv boots, brake pipes etc. Definitely worth the effort and the mess though. My tip is borrow a compressor with a shultz gun. its so much easier and much less messy than brushes or crappy pump up cans.

Which is why i spend on my daily as then i get to enjoy the fruits of my labour and hard earned folding. Oh and the fact that a rusty bay camper absorbs the rest of my money :D

After an incident with a wheel arch and tyre at a multistorey car park my wing has cracked on the arch edge and is sharp and needs tidying. It was bent under the arch and had to be pulled/hammered out so is a bit bent to say the least. I was going to fill it and had some rattle cans made up but am trying to decided if it would be best to use a fibreglass resin for strength or to try a more flexible filler so if the tyres rub again it does not just crack the filler off. Any advice would be good, i have a huge tub of easy sand upol from a camper project but wondered if theres a really flexible body filler available. cheers :D

They look okay to me, mine has far more less offset and a wider rim and i only just get rubbing on full lock or if i try a multistorey car park. You will hear if it rubs when you corner, and on the inside put your hand through the wheel or arch and see how much gap there is between the strut (or coilover). To be honest i would not have thought you would have a problem with et 37 on a 7 rim as its pretty tame compared to what some folk run. They look nice, bit of a bargain too it seems :D

Daily driver for me, although the miles have taken their toll and it seems the last few months have been a bit heavy on costs but hopefully now nearly all the running gear is new it should be okay for a few thousand more yet. :D I remember a few years ago me and some friends all had lotus elise's. Mine was on the road all year same as another mate. The one who took his off the road for 6 months in the winter was always the one that broke down or had problems and it cost him far more than the ones that were used often. In my opinion it does a car no favours to be stood for any length of time. They are all going to rust eventually even the nice shiny ones! Mine gets a good whipping when i have the chance, just love the howl of the VR when its winding up. Thats why i bought one, to drive.

Be prepared for some swearing. Unless calipers have been off before they are going to be a bitch to get off. The abs sensor will be welded into its tiny hole so the chances of getting that out whole are very slim. But at the end you will have wau better brakes even if just refreshing the standard stuff. Obviously an upgrade is nice but can get costly especially brembos etc. Good luck. My top tip is get everything new in advance. Chances are bolts will round, brake pipes will be corroded etc so make sure you have everything to do the job. Nothing worse than getting started on a weekend only to find the bolt you had to cut off is specific vw and you cant get one till monday. :D

Inner track rod joint?

Driveshaft loose? i had one that was loose and threw a couple of the bolts at speed ripping a hole in the gearbox. Would knock under acceleration and braking. They kept getting loose so i ended up putting spring washers under the bolts and so far so good not a loose one yet.

God what a mess, how to take one excellent lambo and a reasonable mustang and turn both into a huge big pile of cack :gag: The finish does not even look that great to me, what a waste of money. :epicfail:

You can loosen the handbrake cables at the end of the handbrake lever in the car, this will give you about another inch of play of you dont completely undo it. there is no way i could have attached my handbrake cables on the Vr without getting some more slack and then it only just reattached. Hope it all goes well.

Wow thanks Bruno thats some great info. I know the abs works as a quick thrash along the back roads near me had the pedal pumping and it stops a treat. Did not realise the bulb was 3.2v, that might be why when i put a 12v led across the terminals it did not light? I can hear/feel the pump doing its checks on ignition turning on so its all okay so must just be the light. Brilliant tip with the copydex, will try that will be good on those new unions. Will try and get a replacement light and try that. Many thanks, i am just relieved to have it back after the nightmare of brake bleeding. They really do feel brilliant now with fresh fluid and braided hoses all round. Felt good to be back driving it again after a week without it. Made me realise i would miss it if i sold it and that it was worth the frustration and effort to get it back right. Cheers Jez

Thanks i already tried across the bulb terminals but i got about 10v and the bulb wasnt lighting. Tried an led instead but it wont light up? There is power to a couple of the plug terminals. The abs actually works just been out and tried locking the wheels up. Will try a replacement light, maybe the circuit board is buggered or something? cheers jez

After months of having the dread light on all the time i finally cured the faults and managed to get the abs to work. Unfortunately this was not before the mot so the light was disconnected for the mot. failed on a brake hose anyway. So sorted all out and went to plug the abs light back in and now it wont light at all even with just ignition on. does anyone know what the wiring for it is, there seems to be some sort of circuit board in the switch but i am not sure how to test it? Are there any pins on the switch i can bridge to see if the bulb has gone? Also if the light is faulty would this disable the abs? thanks for any help.

Well after a very early start this morning and 4 litres of brake fluid i have what can only be described as brakes! Only took 4 days and a lot of swearing. Finally got it running and on its wheels again to find that the abs actually works now i have fixed all the sensors. Think i even have traction control as when i went to light the front wheels up today it was hopping all over the place. And as an even better friday present it passed the retest so i have another years ticket :clap: :clap: Although now i have plugged the abs light back in it does not want to work. As my abs has been faulty since i owned it i thought it was supposed to come on with the ignition but now nothing. it used to be on all the time. Strange as the abs actually works now?? If the light is faulty would it cause an abs shut down or does it not check the light? have tried another bulb across the contacts and that does not work. is there anything on the abs circuit to actually break just looks like a bulb to me? Anyway i am going to have a few well deserved ales this evening and ponder some corrado spend now shes back on the tarmac. :D

Well i am having a mare with these brakes. for the last 4 days i have been crawling around under the damn car, nothing was easy. The middle hoses are a bitch and had to replace two sections of copper pipe due to corrosion. The front porsche calipes were a bitch as i was sent the wrong banjo bolt which then snapped off in the caliper and now to top it all off i have bled nearly two litres of fluid through the brakes, master and abs pump and they still feel soggy. I am about to cry as its been off the road for a week after the mot fail and i need it back on the road. The Brakes have felt poo since i put the mk4 calipers on, is this a common thing are they a bigger piston or something as i just cant get a hard pedal :shock: Have tried 30psi in my eezibleed and still not getting any air out of any where since the initial first bleed. :censored: car i am about done with it, its really annoying me now especially as its probably going to fail the retest for soft pedal. :bad-words: :bad-words:

Glad you got it back in relative order. Hope you can fix it up, can you get away with a little filler in the rear quarter. The reason i say is bodywork and spray work soon gets expensive and insurance companies might write it off once it starts getting expensive for them. Are you definitely going to claim, not sure if you have to tell them either?