Stonejag

When my fans went up I was sufficiently on the ball to use the extinguisher, it was the rummaging in the tool bag for the 10mm ratchet that really gave me palpitations! The second time I had a spanner in the door pocket...fool me once ;) Didn't need the extinguisher that time as it wasn't well alight, the smell warned me! Dry powder makes a hell of a mess (you only know this once you've tried to clean it up) but it's a huge improvement on the alternative. Hope Verity is ok! Stone

I bought a bumper off vortex and got the guy to cut off the sides and trim down the centre to the numberplate area only. Flogged the centre section to a mate wanting to smooth out the recess, which offset the (slightly stupid) cost of shipping. Then I had a shunt on the motorway and needed new paint to both bumpers, so persuaded the body shop to help out ;) I reckon it came out pretty good... You don't need much of the bumper - I got both sides up the corner, but they cut out the recesses with about a half-inch margin before flushing them in so you could easily get away with way less. Don't recommend just cutting a hole in your bumper though, they really don't look good when they're proud of the surface... Be aware you will need very bright bulbs if you go for the aftermarket smoked lenses like I did - regular ones don't really cut it and they're almost invisible in daylight. High-brightness LED ones are the answer :) Stone

I always keep a hot-wiring cable in the tool kit - 4 terminals to get it going but 5 if you also want the radio on ;) You still have to have the key in the ignition to disable the steering lock - please don't forget as it's bloody dangerous having it snap on as you back out of a parking space! (ask me how I know...) Plus on later models the immobiliser coil has to read the key in the ignition to permit use beyond 2 seconds - so nobody's going to run off with your car without some serious effort still... Stone

Hi Roger, Here you go. Try to ignore his horrible carbon fibre control cover! Let me know how you get on - was planning to do this to mine this month but my brake pipes have rusted through so it's on hold :( Shout if you need a hand fitting it! Nick

A set of HT lead holders for those of us who hate the engine plastics would be nice... ;)

Hello mate, can you post front-to-back lines yet? Had an advisory about corrosion early this year, got a flickery brake warning light on Fri (found fluid below min so topped it up) and now the pedal slowly sinks to the floor under pressure and can't be pumped up! So I think I have a leak...not ideal in an auto :( Would be after a full set PDQ as I don't know where the leak is and my other car is off the road with a dicky fuel pump :censored: Thank you! Stone

Auto Refinishers in Bedford did a great job on my wings and bumpers after some accident damage - including welding up the side repeater holes and flushing in my USA side markers. Colour match was excellent. 01234 211210 - ask for Piero. Stone

B3/B4 Passat rear handles fit if you want to de-lock- they're also less delicate. I've seen Porsche (924?) handles on them too but I suspect they require mods to the mounting points because Mk1/2 Golf handles aren't a straight fit...

Picked mine up earlier, thanks Steve! It's very unobtrusive and a good colour match - red could be a little brighter but if it bothers me once it's in I'll just peel the white filter material off that segment. On the rear part of the controls, does anybody know which pin is which on the illumination plug for the centre spot of the dials? There's just enough space to mount the inverter on the rear of the panel between the temperature and fan-speed dials, and there's good access to solder onto the two bulb wires so it'd be easy to install without any wiring mods. The output cable can dangle down the right edge where the fan-speed harness plugs in and then be tucked up once the front panel's fitted. I needed to change my controls over anyway, so... :D Stone

Cable came from Vehicle Wiring Products - I used their prefabricated leads and cut the ends off as they were the only people I could find with orange silicone wire to match my orange hoses... For the ends I had a set of Beru cables with screw-on terminals so reused those - they have a small brass self-tapping point in the bottom of the connector, you just cut the end of the wire square with a sharp knife, feed in the cable until it stops then turn clockwise until the screw is fully seated into the conductive core. A bit of WD40 helps, whatever you do don't take the rubber boot off the connectors as they're overmoulded at the factory! I only had 5 of the spark plug ends so got another couple from Just Kampers (this one, I think). Be aware these don't have the two notches in them that the factory lead removal tools hook onto so you'll need to add them with a small file. It's so easy to do that I bin the cables when they look a little rough (the silicone does accumulate grease stains, especially on bright colours) and just make up new ones with the same connectors. I'd have to make 10 sets before spending what I would on the 'specialist' leads... Of course, you could get a crimp tool from VWP and make them even more robust instead, the connectors aren't that dear. Stone

Make your own - cheap as chips and work just as well as the expensive snake oil ones. Plus they'll fit in the OEM clips! Full set cost me less than £25 in parts (for a VR) and I have plenty of spare wire left over for if any of them go dodgy. Would have been under a tenner if I wanted a standard colour like red or black :lol:

If you fit cruise control then it plugs into the cruise ECU harness, otherwise it just dangles unused. Really need to get my cruise install sorted, I've had all the bits for ages... Try not to get it caught on anything, as if you ground it out the spoiler will stop working. Stone

If it's not a powered crossover it's almost always just a pair of small RLC networks to form two simple passive filters. One filters out high frequencies (to feed the door woofer) and one filters out low frequencies (to feed the tweeter) - both are just fed from the amplified output from the HU. The standard speakers have fairly narrow frequency response so they form their own simple crossover by just feeding the same signal into both - if you use better speakers than stock (or very high volumes) then you may not want to feed lots of bass into a tweeter because its attempt to output it can interfere with the sound produced by the dedicated bass speakers, and vice versa. If you use an external amp you're putting an unamplified line-level signal from the head unit to wherever your amp is and letting that do the job instead of the amp built into the HU. You can get a lot more power output (or another way of thinking about it is that you have more overhead before the amp saturates so that you don't get clipping) BUT you have to run power and audio into the boot, and a long run makes it more likely to pick up interference since it's not amplified... Some argue that corners are cut in making an amp that will fit into a single DIN slot, so an external amp will give higher quality - and they're not entirely wrong. That said in any modern stereo it's all done digitally so provided you're not at crazy volumes you won't get clipping or distortion anyway. Decent speakers with a crossover matched to their frequency response are more than adequate IMO - I actually have Rainbow tweeters and crossovers which I got with the Audioscape pods and never bothered fitting them, as the improvement just from having bigger door speakers was so marked. Suck it and see before you sacrifice your boot space! The one big improvement from an external amp is for driving a sub in the boot, and most decent head units have a dedicated unamplified sub output for driving one anyway. Do use decent spec shielded cable because crackly bass is really irritating. Stone

Bump - still got most of this. Bumper's provisionally spoken for, please come and take the rest away...

I've got 3-4 headlights worth if you need some? PM me your address and I'll whack a set in the post :)

I'm surprised you would need more than the 25-45W per channel you get out of a decent head unit. Does it really make that much difference? I'm using Rainbow 6" drivers in Audioscape pods with 3" speakers in the dash and stock rear speakers with an Alpine HU, and my ears would be bleeding long before I get any distortion from the internal amp. Stone

If you cut keys from existing keys (not from the car's code) then they will always be a sloppier fit in the barrel. That said, how hard it is to turn is determined by the switch, not the barrel - so you may want to change it anyway! If you don't mind a little extra effort, you can reverse-engineer the code and have a new key cut to spec rather than the old key. Remove one door handle, then take the striker arm, spring and small rotation-stop plate off the back of the barrel. You'll then be able to insert your key and turn the barrel 90º to remove it from the handle. If you then pull out the wafers from the barrel with a pair of pliers (one at a time, and mind the tiny springs!) you'll be able to read a number 1-5 stamped into each wafer. Write this code down and give it to a competent locksmith and you'll get a key that's to the original spec...if this operates your ignition OK then happy days! If not you should probably invest in a new barrel as well as the switch - which unfortunately means retumbling the locks on both doors, the boot and the glovebox to match your new key, but it will definitely sort it for good. I was fortunate enough to find a crashed Corrado with a fixed steering column in a scrapyard last year - so when my ignition switch went faulty I was able to put my new one into the fixed column while it was out of the car and then swap the two over. I got a cheap crosshead screwdriver and heated it to cherry-red with a blowtorch before putting a 90º bend in the end with a pair of vice grips: now it's useless for anything else but it's dead good at ignition switches! :lol: You have to drill a small hole in the steering lock assembly to be able to remove the lock barrel (it exposes a spring-loaded lever which you depress while turning the key and pulling) - instructions are on page 48.5 of the Bentley manual. Stone

The wings are single skinned so will pull out relatively easily. If there's not too much paint missing you may be able to get away with a few coats of colour-matched wax - there's one Halfords do that comes with a crayon to fill the scratches before you wax it and I know they do it in purple. Worked pretty well on the Lupo my ex kept rubbing against things!

Remember one of these from 2006, it was in Crawley. They did check the local A&E admissions just in case but apparently they didn't want to admit it... Guy died in Germany doing something similar but with duct tape, rope and a BMW... Stone

Please sort the rad fan first - when the bearings go they can seize, and I've had two catch fire so far... Misfire is almost always the coilpack - GSF do own-brand ones for about £60 if that helps? Stone

Just got my VR up and running again (for now...it keeps eating batteries!), would be nice if I could make this. Fingers crossed! Stone

Three over the weekend, one from a (slightly pished) guy at a work do telling me I have 'great taste in cars' - he drives a Caterham so well pleased! One from a new owner I had to rescue less than 100m from my house - just bought a 16v and one of the wheels had fallen off - and then one of my neighbours tried to buy it off me this afternoon. Not bad for a car that hasn't budged in weeks which keeps flattening batteries :lol: Stone

You're welcome to send someone over - though man-with-van is preferable to courier because the latter tend to refuse anything not wrapped up. Wrapping the rear bumper took loads of time and material and I can't really be arsed ;) The glass is stupidly fragile, they're almost impossible to remove intact so I wouldn't use anyone you're not 100% confident of... Stone

Parts clearout - everything FREE! Need some space cleared. Please come and collect some of my excess bits before I run out of living room. Front bumper (late style). Painted Blackberry (LK4Z), few minor scratches / dings VR6 slam panel - Sherry Pearl (LC2U), small dent to front edge Brackets to hold rear bumper (2x) B pillar internal trim piece, driver's side (535 867 286B) Passenger electric window mech - bit sticky but runs, could do with a grease Rear quarter glass x2 (1 of each side) - seals cut but would keep the rain out! Windscreen trim x2 - 535 853 845 and 536 853 830 (sorry, the third one snapped on removal) VR6 exhaust heat shield (from the manifold, not one of the under-car ones) Everything free to collectors - I'm in Harpenden (M1 J9). Welcome to poke around in my other spares while you're here :) List Date: 6/24/2014 Location: Harpenden, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom For more info, click here to view the original listing: Parts clearout - everything FREE! -------------------------------------- On Sale For: ?0.00 (Local Pickup Only) -------------------------------------- Mobile friendly version: Parts clearout - everything FREE!

Get it down nice and low so they can't tell? ;)