oneohtwo

Yes that's done it. I thought it needed a drive to learn the values, and if I hadn't bashed the car in front trying to pull away, which was my own stupid fault, I may have been OK. Managed a short drive with a variety of speeds - difficult to follow the procedure in the wiki exactly around London, so had to do the throttle in 2nd and 3rd instead of 3rd or 4th, what with 40mph being the maximum around here, but I think it's all worked. Runs well, idle is absolutely fine. Drops straight to about 600 rpm and sits there solidly like a rock. Felt a bit better driving slowly in 1st. Sometimes used to bounce around a bit on the revs and feel jerky, but feels smoother. So success for the part! Just a shame I had to add a scrape to my bumper in the process, and now have deal with the neighbour...

Ah, thanks didn't know that was there. I thought it needed a bit of driving to sort but could barely get going and left it. Will see how that works.

Hmmm, disconnected the battery to reset the ECU and that's made it worse. Doesn't idle properly at all, sits there hunting stalling, hunting. It may settle down but then as soon as you give it some throttle to move off it starts again. Managed to knock the car in front as I was trying to give it a drive to see if that would help as it was uncontrollable so rounded off a great start to the day! I think it may be a no-go for this part unfortunately, and I'll have to put the old one back on.

I may have spoken too soon on this - moved the car a short distance the other day and noticed it had started hunting on lifting off the throttle. I haven't adjusted the dashpot yet as I prefer to try one thing at a time so I know what fixes what, so will look into that. However, as it wasn't hunting quite as badly on the old part not sure this would be the issue. I will also just disconnect the battery to reset the ECU - it might have been used to dealing with the old part not functioning perfectly.

Yes indeed. We're not all lucky enough to have a VSR though! How does the VSR get around the problem - I assume it uses the same throttle body? Anyway, fitted the part today, all works fine with a nice strong idle. Can't say if it is any better than before for certain but it felt like it settled down to the correct idle instantly rather than hunting around for a bit. Should be more reliable anyway! Really good find this, thanks fella. For confirmation, the two parts side by side:

It's arrived from the US! Hopefully will get a chance to fit it this weekend. Not expecting it to make any huge difference, as the stalling issue is pretty infrequent, but we'll see! Will be nice to know it is a brand new part as well.

I've convinced myself that the one on my car originally when I bought it back was the long thinner one. Interestingly if you search for that part number (starting 034) you will the replacement parts from other manufacturers look more like the new Bosch ones we both have. Only place I could find one not second hand that looked like it is here: (40) 111016 Electric Water Pump T4 91> – VWS Car Parts (vwsonline.co.uk) So it seems that particular design was stopped at some point. Almost tempted to buy that one just to see! I may have another go at stretching the rubber over the black plastic, although it seems to hold in place well enough for now - it just doesn't seem right to have to stretch it out of shape like that. Long term I like the look of the billet ones although that is quite pricey for a bracket!

Additional water pump vr6 VW Golf 3 PASSAT CORRADO AAA ABS Water Pump 251965561b | eBay Here's the 251 965561B which looks identical to yours.

Oh look at this. I did some digging around and found these: Genuine Volkswagen Audi - 034965561C - Auxiliary Water Pump (034 965 561 C) (ecstuning.com) Additional water pump VR6 VW Golf 3 PASSAT CORRADO AAA ABS Water Pump 034965561C | eBay Part number 034 965 561C not 251 965 561B. The ebay listing says it's for a Corrado, the ECS doesn't, just the Passat, but still the VR6. But you can see the plastic lower bit is much smaller, and there are no screws, so the rubber rings would slide all the way down the metal shaft, further than both the Bosch and old GSF one. That would make it fit as I remembered, so I wonder if that was what was on my car originally. Also makes sense about why the plastic GSF didn't fit properly either, because the screw housings were in the way. Maybe they sent out both parts on different cars depending on what they had available? Could your lower ring be bigger in the first place not just stretched. (Sounds even worse now! 🤣)

Hmm, yeah I see what you mean. Looks like you're right, and it's the same part number. But now I am confused in several ways! Looking again at my old GSF part, the all black plastic one, you can see that the rubber ring would slide all the way down to the where the screws sit, so the same place where it would sit on the new Bosch one if you got it over the black plastic. But the old one didn't fit properly either! And I am certain when I originally fitted the old black one I compared it to the one I took off the car and it was different, the one I took off the car being longer. Unfortunately it was about 10 years ago, and I don't have any photos of it, so I could be mis-remembering. I distinctly remember trying to force the rubber ring over the screw holders on the GSF one though... I did try to get the rubber ring over the black plastic on the Bosch when I fitted it, but it just would not go. I'll have to have another go!

Cheers folks, I was pleased with the steering wheel. It's funny I do these things and put them back on expecting it to magically transform the car, but by the time I have put I back on I have forgotten how it looked before so there's always a bit of an anti-climax! Good to know about the sunroof not sitting exactly flat, surprising as it doesn't look "right", but you learn something every day. I hadn't changed the sunroof seal, it's still the old one, but maybe it got a bit dislodged when I was messing about with it. I'll have to get the cassette down either way, and maybe look out for a replacement motor. Shame it'll have to be second hand as you never know if the replacement motor will be any better. The top one is tempting, even though it'd be completely hidden from view! I will think on that. The pipes sealed OK around the outlets even though they were smaller, but the unit had started to give up the ghost and was leaking through the plastic joint. Could potentially have taken it apart and replaced the O-ring or seal, but preferred to have a proper Bosch unit in there.

Finished a couple of small jobs at the weekend. Firstly recondition my steering wheel with the Liquid Leather dyes, before and after pictures below: I don't think the before picture shows how bad it was, but the top bit where it gets the sun was really bad. All worn and pitted and cracked up. And similarly the after photo probably doesn't do it full justice, but it looks nice and smart now. Had to sand down the worst bits on the top first, and there's still a bit of texture to it. Not perfect as it is still a worn and old wheel, but didn't necessarily want it to be. Wanted to sort the steering wheel pretty well since I bought it, and had the Liquid Leather stuff for a few years, so nice to finally get round to it. Slightly less successful was reattaching the sunroof headlining. Struggled to get the headliner out, which I think, now having put it back in, was due to it not being correctly installed in the first place. The little pins for the tilt portion of the trim weren't in the slots in the trim, but were underneath it somehow. So in wrestling to get it out think something else might have gone awry. It now makes a clunk when operating the slide mechanism, and whilst it seems to open OK, it doesn't go all the way back and it doesn't close properly. It slides a bit then stops, so you have to keep pressing the button and gradually it closes. It did this once before and was then fine, so don't know if that is the motor going. Either way I am going to have to get the whole cassette off I guess. I also noticed that at the rear of the sunroof the seal isn't sealing as there was a tiny gap through which daylight was visible. My sunroof seems to sit slightly higher at the rear than the surrounding body work, and lower at the front. Pictures of other peoples don't seem to have this, so I don't quite know what's going on there. Anyone else notice this?

Could be worth a try when I next drain the coolant. Didn't have any tape so tried the blue Loctite. Will see how that works out.

Yeah, I think that's the one I found also! £165 including shipping and taxes, so not that bad. We'll see if it helps out. Need to see about adjusting the dashpot as well.

Found one straight away on ebay for a good price, so snapped it up only for it actually to be out of stock! Typical. Only other source I can find is about £200 which is a bit steep seeing as you managed to find it for £90, but might still be worth it.

Hmm, I think I'll pick one up. Any obvious differences between the new and old? They look pretty well identical as far as I can see. If the electrical values are the same across all three, I can't see why it wouldn't work properly.

I think what I'll have to do is take it in to an exhaust fitter and get them to take the CAT off and have a look. I was taking it anyway to get a new exhaust as the current stainless one is too droney, most likely to Longlife. If they get it off and find it's duff then I'll have to replace it there and then, but if not they can refit it. Maybe I can then take the OE one back with me and try cleaning it, so at least I'll still have the original part.

Around the thread do you mean?

Interesting, I remember seeing some guidance in the Bentley on this, so will double check what the tolerance should be. Would that just have the effect of causing the throttle to snap shut suddenly, rather than a slowly close?

Fitted a new Bosch auxilliary water pump to replace the cheapo GSF one I fitted yonks ago, which had started leaking and making whining noises. Comparison of the two parts below for reference, Bosch on the left: Unsurprisingly looks much better quality, and the pipe fittings are a slightly larger diameter for some reason. However, neither fit in the rubber holding rings properly. I remember when I bought the GSF one years ago it was a slightly different size to to OE one, and was too short to slot properly in the top ring. I assumed this was because it was a pattern part, and gettign a proper Bosch one would sort the issue, but as you can see it's arguably worse, as the ring won't go over the fatter bottom section. I cheked the part numbers so I am guessing they changed the design at some point. It's not a major issue, but as below it's not neat: I also fitted the small non return valve that is pushed into the hose that runs between the throttle body and heater matrix. Had to cut it out of the old hose and push into the end of the silicon but it's an easy job that had been on my mind to do for a while, so nice to tick one off. It has stopped the sloshing and gurgling noses from behind the dash so that's that sorted. One thing while I am here, I ordered black silicon hoses from Roose when I did the rebuild, expecting them to be a really nice deep black that would make the engine bay pop but, whilst they look a lot nicer than the OEM, I have always been a little disappointed that the colour has been a little flat, and more of a very dark grey. Anyone else had the black hoses from Roose and found the same? They also made the little length of hose that connects to the expansion tank too long (oddly, as it's the right length in all their pictures) so the hose does not sit right, and rests on the throttle cable which is a bit annoying. Might have to just cut that to length.

I was wondering that, but thought the risk of it clogging something somewhere was too great. But crisis averted. Sat down with a cup of tea and the cricket to calm down, and then had another look and you can reasonably easily undo the thermostat housing end of the crack pipe and pull it out from there. Washer fell straight out. No just got to find a better way of sealing it. Maybe some blue loctite/threadlock would do the trick?

Ah, this is potentially a great find. How did you get on? I know my ISV has been sticking a bit, Stealth freed it up and cleaned it with some carb cleaner, but it's still not 100%. Do occasionally stall when pulling to a stop, so assume that's the ISV sticking

I've made a bit of a major error chaps, that could do with a bit of help on. Long story short, a rubber washer has got trapped in the coolant system, and I am not sure my best course of action from here? Longer story, I have one of the ECS billet crack pipes, but it doesn't seal properly around the drain plug they have provided. My plan was to stick a rubber washer in the hole for the plug to seal against. However, it turns out part of the reason it doesn't seal is that the hole is straight through, there's no base for the plug to seal against. It is no wonder it doesn't seal as it's only relying on the thread of the plug to seal. Very poor design. Anyway, in the dark under the car I didn't notice this, popped the washer in the hole and... it disappeared. And I couldn't grab it back. As the coolant was drained from the drain plug, hopefully it hasn't gone very far but I am now working through my options. All I can think is that I will need to get the front end off, get the crack pipe out and hope it's just sitting in the bit before the water pump and hasn't gone any further. Ordinarily I would just crack on with that, but I am parked on the road, so it's not ideal getting the front end off. Any thoughts?

Was it difficult to get off? I've got a hunch my cat is a bit coked up from when the engine was old and worn. The hunch is that the plastic trim around the gear shift can get warm, especially in slow moving traffic, and coincident with everything getting warm, there's a weird smell. It's only really where the gear shift is, which is just where the cat is. Heat sheild is all intact as well. I've read both heat and smell could be signs of a blocked cat, and there used to be loads of carbon deposits in the exhaust before the engine rebuild so it stands to reason, but I can't verify it. I have contemplated getting it replaced just to see if it makes a difference, but seeing yours, and testimony from Keyo about how good the Leistritz parts are, I am reluctant to junk it if it is in perfectly good order. I'd rather keep it, especially if it can be cleaned, than replace it on the off chance for an inferior product. Car is parked on road, so doing any work to it isn't easy at the moment.

Oh, interesting thought. I should have followed where all the other wires went, but the brown one did head off to the passenger side then up towards the boot. Not sure where they go from there as they definitely aren't under the boot carpet. Might need to do a bit more investigation, but at least I know it's not something OE.