Akinesis

Spotted dark blue VR6 on A30 (somewhere half-way between Yeovil and Salisbury) around 3.30pm. L-Reg. Gent driving in a suit. Went to give a thumbs up but then realised I was in the missus' Focus and would have just got a funny look!

The floor

Ah, PhatVR6 - I replied before I saw yours. Yes, I have an iron bar that I will put in it's place. It'll be bolted in, but I can get hold of a welder. The subframes will also be bolted in, I didn't want to weld these. The passenger one will remain as it is.

Yes, they are both still there. It'll be the drivers side that I'll be cutting out, but it just happened that I took a picture of the passenger side. I do have an iron bar that I can bolt down there too. With the seat and the bar, it'll probably be stronger anyway I'd think? Or am I talking rubbish? :shrug:

There'll be a bucket seat mounted where it use to be would that not be a sufficient replacement?

I need to fit bucket seats into my Golf, but these are in the way! Are these structural, or can I get the angle grinder out?

Right - further progress! I found out that when I have my head-lights switched on my oil and water temp run high. Turn them off and they fall back down to normal temperature. When I was running along the motorway my oil temp didn't rise above 96C, turn the lights on and it jumps up to 148C. I'm glad I've discovered the problem, but now got to run through all the wires to see where the 'leak' is :( Also, in the same journey my back-box disintegrated. Pretty annoyed, because the guy I bought this system off said to me it's done about 3000 miles. Well, the mid-section didn't even fit, the mid-box had cracks in it (which I managed to get welded and they seem to be holding) and now the back-box is in two pieces. But that's another story... :bad-words:

I had that the other day on the M3!!! what colour was the bike? this guy was on a yellow Hornet 900.... it put a huuuge smile on my face! To be honest I really can't remember! I was a bit startled at first, because I thought that I had cut him up or something and he was about to put his fist through my window. I don't think it was a Hornet, I think it was a GSXR (or something of that breed), but I really don't remember. However, I do recall he had a heavily tinted visor! But, yeah, I couldn't stop grinning for ages after that, either :grin: My brother was passed out in the passenger seat and missed the whole thing! We were coming back from Lydden Hill after volunteering to be my cousins pit-crew for the day. He won his race, due to his awesome team of mechanics headed by myself :norty: Ben-B, I was supposed to be doing my pilots licence now, but cancelled it as I decided that I will emigrate to Australia. I'll pick it up again out there, so hopefully I'll see you in the skies at some point :D Both my cousins fly, but, like them, I want to do short-haul on small aircraft (no bigger than a Lear-Jet) as there is too much autopilot these days :bad-words: This is getting close to a thread hi-jack :lol:

I'm currently contracted to the Forces, fella. So unless you wanted a military career I don't think I would be much help at the moment :( I know they're not a great airline, but British Airways are good to work for in the engineering side of things. Virgin are are top-dogs, too! I'd avoid the smaller airlines like Easyjet and Ryan Air, though - not very 'nice' people to work for. Good luck with it all, though - it's a very rewarding career... and good money :norty:

I use to work with a compulsive liar! I have (and had) some friends who were the 'If you've got a black cat, then I have a black panther' type, which use to irritate the s*** out of me (unless you put them together, then it's hilarious :lol:), but nothing has ever compared to my old work buddy. Firstly, the guy was dangerous. I'm an aircraft engineer, which is a job that requires quite a lot of care and attention in everything you do, which I'm sure you will all agree (£18 million aircraft with up to eight lives inside - and it's my name on the air-worthiness certificate!). So, how this guy got through to be at such a position was always beyond me, but, suffice it to say, he is no longer in the job! Anyway, he, too, told so many lies that he forgot what he had and hadn't told, and how he told it. But it was constant BS stories. Constant! I even dragged him aside once and pleaded with him to stop with the lies because I was so sick of them. I thought it might be because he was a lot younger than most of us, and was trying to prove something. But I witnessed him lying to his family on the phone about stuff, so he was just a plain compulsive liar. Here are two classics: Me and this other guy were working on an aircraft moaning about work (as one does) and chatted about how nice it would be to win the lottery (as, I'm sure, everyone does). All completely tongue-in-cheek, we made a pact that if either of us won, we would help the other out. Anyway, this lad walks up to us and gets the gist of what we're talking about. The guy points out that you'll know who your true friends are when you come into big-bucks. This is true, and neither of us could argue with him about that. Then he went on to say that 'one of his mates' had won the lottery. Ok, this is possible, but unlikely. But he proceeded to tell us how his mate was a multi-millionaire now. Well, good for him. I asked him how much money he won, and the lad replied "fifty-thousand pounds". Hmmm, there is a big chunk of change missing between fifty-grand and several million. So when we asked him how he got several million from fifty-thousand, he replied "Oh, he left the fifty-grand in the bank and made it from the interest." Our airfield had a Hawk that helped keep it free of other birds, and we were stood on the hard-standing watching this thing being trained by it's owner. We were talking (again, all tongue-in-cheek - and, yes, we talk a lot of crap at work) about how the relationship between the hawk and it's owner was probably a selfish one, in that the bird most likely only comes back because it know's it's gonna get fed. This lad was with us, and proceeded to tell us that 'his mate' had a crow, which was captured from the wild, and trained in the same fashion as the hawk we were watching. So, his mate wanders around everywhere with a crow on his arm, which flies away and comes back when it's called. Hmmm. But the ultimate classic that makes him a legend: The story goes that he and 'his mate' were walking back from school one day and were passing a field. In this field was a goat, and apparently the goat was giving his mate a 'dodgy eye'. His buddy was apparently unhappy at the way this goat was looking at him, so he leaped over the fence, charged at this goat and delivered a flying-kick in the billy-gruff's leg. This broke the poor goats leg, and no sooner had he committed this act of cruelty he felt sorry for what he had done to the animal. So, out of sympathy, he picked this goat up (must have been a small goat!) and carried it home where he cared for it. During the day, when 'his mate' was at school, he use to let the goat graze on the local round-a-bout (how the goat stayed on the round-a-bout without wandering off was a mystery to me. The bigger mystery is how the goat found it's way too and from the round-a-bout every day on it's own!). Anyway, when 'his mate' returned from school, he would find the goat loyally waiting for him at his garden gate (!). One fateful evening, however, when the goat was returning from the round-a-bout to meet his new master, the billy-gruff was struck by a car being driven by no other than 'his mate's' dad! Anyway, the car hit the goat with such an impact that it's horns got stuck in the front bumper of the car, killing the poor animal. And the father? Apparently he's now doing time for goat murder. Sorry this is a long post, but I really wanted to share these stories with you guys. Even today, we reminisce of the legend that was this lad. I hope you enjoyed them. Any ways, my missus has a TDCi Focus. I won't deny that it is a fantastic car but, as mentioned before, it's a VERY different car. I'd never double-take the Focus when I park it up, but always double or triple-take at the Corrado when I lock it up :grin: Every model of Corrado is sort-after and a classic, the only 'classic' that will become of the Focus is the RS or ST, not the other models! The guys a fruit-loop :cuckoo: If I drive the Focus, it's to get from A to B. If I drive the Corrado, I take the longest route possible a get a tingle of pride when I see people looking or making comments (comments are usually: "Nice!"). I had a motorbike pull up next to me as I was hurtling down the M3 the other week. He slowed down to drop along side me, looked at me, pointed at my car, gave me a big thumbs-up and then carried on. Would that ever happen to me if I was driving the Focus? No, it wouldn't. Ever.

Just seen a green J-reg G60 with smoked rear clusters parked up in Fareham outside the cinema!

Will try this tonight :grin:

Wow - I have been seen off with the fuel filter!! £8 sounds much better! Will do that this month then!

Right, I drove back to Portsmouth last night and the oil temp did it's thing again. It went up to 158C at some points, but it spiked up there from 138 within around 20 seconds. Then a short while later it crashed back down to 138C. It bounced around like this the whole time, regardless of how the car was driving. During all this, the water temp stayed at 110C (when the fan should cut in). Occasionally the water temp dropped down to around 105C, and the oil temp reflected this changed and dropped to about 116C, but only for short periods before it would jump back up again. Because of this relation between the oil and water temps, I'm not sure the MFA is lying?? Does anyone have any thoughts on this behaviour?? Even at high temps, the engine seemed happy ticking over at idle.

Yup :(

Then I'm stumped. Unless it's a flicked filter/pickup that's restricting the flow?? I will still change the oil and flush the coolant to see if it helps.

Yeah, the fuel filter is next :wink: Got a price for just over £100 from GSF. It'll get done along with new suspension next month. I'm glad this is relatively 'normal' :roll: I plan to spend a couple of weeks dropping the wishbones, subframe, rear-beam, etc down and getting them sorted. But will probably be a winter thing :norty: Thanks for making me feel better about the car, guys :wink:

Ok, here is some picks of the underneath of the car: This is looking behind the front bumper: Drivers Wishbone: Rear passenger-side wheel Rear driver-side with heat-shield rusted through (it has fallen off and was knocking around the caliper). It has actually split the piston-boot on the caliper, so these will need changing soon :( Fuel filter: Fuel pump unit: So, is this normal for this age car??

Ok, I've booked up for the 17th for a full day! There are evening/morning sessions available.

Hey Pete - I used your screwdriver idea and it really does work a treat :wink: At one point I was using two screw drivers end-to-end and it still gave results :lol: Anyway, I've finally made some diagnosis progress on this. It is not the vernier pulley. I had the cam-belt cover off, ran the engine and everything was good.The noise is slowly getting louder, though, and now I am 99.9% sure that it is coming from the power-steering pump. I'm almost positive it's a belt noise, but I changed this the other week :cuckoo: So, could I have done the belt up too tight, or left it too loose :scratch: Or could it be that the pump has had it? When I turn the wheel the power-steering does whine and "seem" to struggle, but then I've never had a 'Rado before so wasn't sure if this was normal. However, my Mk2 Golf has power steering and does not make a noise (although, the Mk2 is a KR engine). Further thoughts appreciated :salute: Edit: the noise is not continuous- it's only when the engine is at idle, and is not constant. It's a "squeak...squeak...squeak...squeak", all in time with one pulley-revolution.

OK, had a look the other day at the connection on the sensor and it was pretty loose! I crimped it on tight and now I get a much more responsive reading. However, the oil temp still runs high. Went up to 144C the other day, but I think this is because the fan doesn't always cut in I think I'll be wiring a switch to the fan at some point! I was reading through another post that mentioned oil temperature running high when a cheaper oil is used. I'm using some stuff from GSF that cost me about £11. I did question the oil, but the guy (who I know anyway) said he uses it in his G60 and says it's fine. But when I first picked up the car the temp did sit around the 100C mark. So I'll be doing an oil changed for some of the pricey stuff next week for sure and see if this cures the problem. What oil would people suggest for a valver?

Saw a red 'Rado turning right at traffic lights in Dorchester's main-drag around midday yesterday (Sat 31st June) :wave: Didn't get reg or model as I was a few cars back in the missus' Focus 8)

By the time I got ther car back the temp was back down, so there was no blast of heat. The fan is working, yeah. But I turned the heaters on full-blast to help get the engine cooler as I was near home. I need to clean all the earths off because I have that lumpy tick-over problem. Looks like I'll be doing all the Earths. Hopefully grubbgy earths is the cause of all my problems - how nice would trhat be!! The engine bay is quite dirty so it could well the the cause. Here's hoping!

Was driving back to Portsmouth on Sunday when I flicked through my MFA computer. When I jumped passed the oil temp I noticed it was in the high 130's. I kept it on and saw it climb as high as 158C :shock: The hottest I've seen it was 138C when I was sat in crawling traffic for about 2 hours, and it normally runs between 98-108C. I slowed right down (wasn't going fast anyway!) to about 55mph in panic, leaving plenty of gap between the car in front so the engine got plenty of air. I was starting to think head gasket, or low on oil. I was about to pull over when it slid back down to around 120C. A carried along for a while and it stayed at this temp (still a lot higher than I like!) when it suddenly jumped back up again. These changes didn't seem to matter whether I was going fast, slow, up-hill or down-hill. The water temp was sat a little higher than normal, but was steady. But I thought it best to keep the speed down anyway (ended up tailing a caravan all the way :lol:) When I got back I checked the oil, which was all fine (only did a change about 2k ago anyway) and there was no mayo on the rocker-cover cap. The water still looked pink and exactly on the max-mark, but I couldn't get the cap off as the water was still hot - still need to check that though. I left the car running on the spot for about 10 mins, keeping a close eye on the oil temp. It climbed to 130C (which has been normal for this car at stand-still) and didn't move from there. Any idea's folks? Did a search but it wasn't fruitful. Just stuff about the temp sender, mostly (which I hope it is, rather than the head gasket or a blocked oil pick-up!). Anyone else had a problem like this, or am I going to have to embark on another journey of chasing my tail around the car?? :( I've assumed that 100C is normal running temp, 130C stand-still temp. I have seen people saying as low as 70C though, so I don't know what's right :shrug: As in title, car is a 94 2.0 16v Cheers, all

Thanks for all your replies, guys! It's been a good read. I managed to get the exhaust on. It wasn't a great fit, so don't think it was meant for my model, but it's on and it works. There's no blowing or rattle now, and it's a lot deeper sound than the other one! Need to get some short exhaust mounts, though, as it seems to want to sit higher than the old one?! :cuckoo: The rust is all on the subframes. The chassis seems to be alight. I have taken pictures of the underneath, which I will post sometime this week. At some point I will take the rear beam, wishbones and engine subframe off and clean and repaint/replace them. The coilovers don't look like they were too pricey! Replcaing the suspension is the next thing I will do because when I go over the small nasty speed-bumps the car bottoms out. The engine sump and brake-line at the back are taking a beating - not good!! :pale: I think it has been serviced by monkeys! And it's been looked after externally, but not mechanically. But, like AJ said, I can't fix everything at once! I've already spent about £600 on bits and pieces for it. I'm not complaining about that because I happy to shell-out on parts to get it running right. I will be sticking with it - I won't let it beat me! :wink: Thanks for all your advice, guys :grin: