Andy T

This problem has just started on mine, does anywhere sell OE spec poly ribbed belts that are the right length for use with a 68mm pulley? My current belt definately doesn't have stitching on it. INA also make bushes & bearings, top quality.

The earth is good, last time I replaced the lambda I cleaned up the earth point on the plug bracket and ran an earth wire from that to the o/s chassis strut top - I did this because the earth through the engine was not great, too much resistance. m3Evo, sounds like a common problem with the lambda connector not sealing properly, maybe be worth everyone checking theirs for corrosion then sealing it up with silicone sealant? Cheers

The other week my '92 G60 started running badly the day after doing some cleaning under the engine. Found that water had got into the lambda probe connector, so I dried it out and cleaned up the contacts. The car now runs 'ok' but is overfuelling intermittently (slight black exhaust smoke and the idle sounds a bit lumpy. Some of the time it seems ok, and runs as it should on WOT. I tested the lambda as described on here and i'm getting a voltage reading that cycles between 0.1 and 0.95 volts over a second or two which indicates that it's working ok. So the question is, could it still be the lambda causing the problem? can they not work intermittently or not work properly even though they output a voltage signal? Could water getting into the contacts shorted the sensor out or damaged the heating element? The sensor is only about 12 months old so I don't want to Shell out over £100 again unless its definately dead. Cheers for any help.

Cheap lambda's won't work as well as the genuine VAG Bosch item and will only last a year if your lucky. They are different part numbers for each engine type, G60 is dealer only (was last year anyway)

they are nearly obsolete too. My dealer was surprised when they still had stock in germany

The Storm badges make it more desirable and worth slightly more (particulary to thieves) so yeah most insurers will put it in a higher group. If you had an accident for example the insurers engineer inspected the car, it could void your insurance if it was a non declared Storm. Maybe even putting Storm badges on a std. Corrado would have the same effect!

have you tried running with the lamda probe disconnected (safe mode) just to eliminate the probe and its wiring?

"I think" I've read it somewhere, may of been in the Haynes Fuel/Ignition systems book. When I checked mine it was 330 ohms so I left it at that.

330 ohms is stated in bentley manual I think. I thought 500 ohms was recommended by tuners for Tuned G60's, is this ok for standard engines? Does it really have to be accurate when its just for 'on idle'? I agree about the airfilter, I run a K&N element in the standard airbox, cone filters suck hot air from the engine bay too.

Exactly which bit am I talking sh*t about, mate? Have you ever done any bodywork repairs or painting/polishing yourself? I've never said that all repairs can be sorted locally, but 'patch up bodge jobs' are usually caused by either lack of skill or a rush job. Some Local repairs CAN be blended perfectly in to the existing panel if they are done right.

no makes no difference, 330ohms is the factory setting for all G60 engines and only affects the CO at idle, after that its done by the lambda probe... Looks like you have a warm air system on your airbox (we don't have these on UK G60's) the vac pipe operates a flap inside the airbox to let warm air in from the exh. manifold at very low temperatures, so it won't matter, just tape up the vac. pipe from the engine to stop crap getting into it.

somehow i can't see them managing to just take the clearcoat off without damaging the base coat...........if that was the case then instead of them re-painting a panel or car if the laquer is lifting which happens eventually they'd only have to re-laquer No I didn't mean they take the whole clearcoat layer off, just a few microns or whatever to expose fresh stuff. What I meant was that the basecoat can't deteriorate or loose its colour because it's protected by the clearcoat. Any dulling or haze is superficial in the top surface of the clearcoat.

Was just going to say blue temp sensor as it cured my 12% CO idle! at least you've ruled it out anyway!

get a multimeter an measure the resistance across two of the connector pins. turn it back until you get about 330 ohms.

Andy, i've had nothing but stick from body shops and my Pearl finish, if you don't wanna get the whole panel done they won't do it, not cos they want you to pay more, but cos they don't wanna put their names to a sh*t job. Why would they give you stick for having a pearl finish?! I can understand them wanting to do the whole panel because you don't have to blend with anything, but fading it in to the next panel is just being soft. What does the age matter when its a clear coat finish? once they take a thin layer off with a compound, it's as-new, the base coat doesn't fade or deteriorate.

£250 sounds a bit heavy. I think this 'blending it in to the next panel' thing is a cop-out most of the time, especially on metallic finishes, I had a crumpled rear arch filled and sprayed within a small area without needing to blend into the next panel, and once the clearcoat had been flatted and mopped over a larger area you could not tell where the repair had been, from any angle. The C was Dragon green by the way, the job cost £100 and the place who did it was nothing special, just experienced I guess!

You can modify early doorcards to accept late handles, I have done this myself, they fit perfectly apart from right at the bottom of the handle where the door card profile doesnt quite meet the handle, but it's barely noticeable. I fitted angled tweeters in place of the EW switch holes, but i'm not sure if late pods fit old cards (EDIT - yes they fit no probs!) ( i'm using audioscape pods). The hole for the old mirror switch is a problem i've not sorted yet, could either make a blanking piece from black plastic or fit a badge in its place. I will post some pics of my doorcards if you are still thinking of converting them.

'nanotechnology' seems to be the latest buzz word over the last year or two in engineering/technology, so yeah they might just be jumping on the bandwagon. On other forums ppl have reported that you get a great finish and that the paintwork feels like glass, but no one has said how long it actually lasts!

Has anyone used this? It costs about £15 and claims to seal paintwork on top of your normal wax for six months using nanotechnology, and is supposed to stop dirt sticking/prevent UV fading etc. I'm going to mop & wax my faded paintwork, but don't want to do it all over again in a couple of months time so this sealer sounds great, does it work and are there any similar/better alternatives? cheers

I'm surprised the rear disks have that little thread length, I never noticed that last time I changed a set, but the difference there is that the thread engagement/load will be in the middle of the bolt (end of the bolt will protrude inside the disk), with shallow adaptors the load will be at the end of the bolt/thread lead-in, it's weakest point. 8mm thick sounds crazy, were they not 'studded' lilke porsche hubs maybe, instead of being tapped so shallow?

Errrrr... the Front disks are NOT threaded, the hub/bearing housing? behind it is threaded a good 25mm deep or more. Rear discs are also threaded a good 25mm deep or more. Standard VAG Wheelbolts have a thread length of 25mm, and at least 18mm of that will be engaged in the threaded hole. 12mm isn't enough whatever material they are made out of, plus the fact the threads will wear & distort as there will be to much force on too little thread. I've seen hub threads stripped just because the wheelbolts were 5mm too short It's not worth risking it. His wheels can be re-drilled, just not inbetween the existing holes.

Back on the road again, everything seems ok! I checked the overflow pipe, it seemed to have a slight blockage so cleared it, ok now and water trickles out of it when the engine is idling. The bottom rad hose is hot when up to normal temp and with the new thermo switch the fan is coming on now at 95 deg. (probably never used to). There's no abnormal pressure in the hoses and the temp never rose higher than 95 deg. while driving or sat in traffic, cheers for the help guys.

Just what I was going to suggest, I've been looking into doing the same with my 5x114 pcd RS Splits. All you need is to find a company that does aluminium welding or brazing, then a good machine shop to accurately drill and counterbore the holes to suit VW radius seating wheelbolts. There is a wheel refurbisher in scotland that does both welding & pcd alterations aswell but i've not been in touch yet, they have a website i'll try and find the address. If it's done properly it will be as strong & safe as a standard wheel. I can't see 12mm adaptors being very safe at all, as a rule you should have a minimum thread engagement 1.5 times the diameter of the thread, i.e. 18mm.

I didn't finish it off, started doing other 'little' jobs in the engine bay then got rained off, will fill it up tomorow and test the overflow hose, good idea that mate.

Started work on it this afternoon, the front head flange had cracked in two places in the main bore and was mis-shaped, I think I must of overtightened it when I first saw it leaking :oops: it had also cracked between the two sender housings. The plugged outlet looked fine so the leak must of been coming from the bore cracks. The one I fitted today is from GSF as opposed to ECP, the quality does look better especially the sealing face. I also replaced the side water flange, the cyl head was quite pitted behind the seal so it must of been leaking for ages. I Checked my Bentley manual, all water flange bolts should be torqued to 10Nm (7 lb ft) only, my torque wrench can't access those bolts so I torqued another M6 nut to 10Nm to get a feel for how much force is required (not a lot) then used a spanner. I have been topping the expansion tank up every few weeks for last few months, could doing that introduced an airlock, and can airlocks cause pressure in hoses?