Stonejag

Nipped out to Faaker See in search of some food earlier, it's absolutely heaving! What should have been a 30 minute drive took more like 2 hours... Anyway, have a few (!) more pics. Stone

More pics: [stupid arbitrary images-in-posts limit...] Golf's been behaving pretty well so far...totally fine on the autobahn but after a couple of hours at mid-throttle the cable is sticking, jamming the throttle linkage open so it won't fully close, which makes it quite exciting whenever you try to go through a town (hint: it revs at 3000rpm and it's an auto...) Other than that it's fine :lol: New gearbox fluid (again) when I get back! Stone

Where are you staying? Only going to be around the lake until Tuesday, then we're heading north towards Wolfsburg via Leipzig...we're at the Seehotel Vinzenz. Few pictures to get everyone else in the mood :) Seen 7-8 Corrados but they tend to be moving too quickly to get good photos! Will be heading to Reifnitz and the Faaker See later so there will hopefully be a few more static. Apparently brown is in this year :scratch: Having so much fun just cruising about looking at all the awesome. Shame I can't drink and drive though, the beer is really tasty! Stone

I've finally got around to taking the stereo out, and immediately wished I hadn't :lol: There's an...'interesting' adapter from the car's twin-DIN to the small Alpine connector - highlights include a random fuse holder, ignition live attached to permanent live with a wire link (perhaps why my battery kept going flat?) and all the joints made by twisting the wires together and taping over them :cowboy: Not sure how the load reduction relay would have coped with the two sides being linked together but I can't see it helping! Trip to Halfords tomorrow for a new adapter, I think... Stone

Mine does that - worked on 4 only, then replaced the thermal fuse and now it works it works at 3 and 1.5 :lol: You get used to it surprising fast... Stone

Take the cap off the hub? It's just a dust cover...or squash it a bit flatter. Wheels can protrude from arches up to 30mm provided no tread sticks out past the arch - but traffic police don't often know this so the further you go the more likely you ate to get pulled. Make sure your suspension has enough travel that the sidewalls won't hit the bodywork, or all bets are off... Stone

Yep, hand to change the barrel on mine as it was full of road crap and I couldn't get the key in! Pop off the arm from the central locking actuator, then two bolts to remove. Bit awkward removing the barrel, you have to press the button in and simultaneously remove the small brass retaining cross pin at the back. With the pin out you should be able to wiggle it free with the right key inserted. If you don't have the right key you''ll have to pick it... Not worth doing unless you're going to replace the rubber seal at the front of the barrel at the same time, otherwise it'll just lock solid with road dirt before you know it. Might be worth checking this hasn't happened with a good squirt of WD40 before getting too into it! Stone

My '95 VR6 passes its emissions test at the MOT every year. In my ownership it has never had a cat fitted. If the engine's healthy you can still be below the emissions limit without a cat fitted. Helps if you take it for a good run first ;) Stone

My money'd be on an intermittent vacuum leak - especially if it has the hard plastic type of intake elbow (back-left in the bay, between air box and throttle body) as they're notoriously bad for cracking in the corrugations - the rubber style is better. Also run your fingers under the vent pipe attached to the back-left corner of the valve cover on top of the engine (should connect to the air inlet via a small blue plastic joining piece with a 2-pin electrical connector on it) - if your hand comes away oily then this has split underneath and will contribute to poor running. Replacing it with standard rubber hose is a quick fix if so! Stone

Panjo is awful. Sorry :shrug: If two users have an issue selling and buying then it shouldn't be down to the mods to sort it out anyway - we're all adults. Just wanted to post a one-line plaintext ad, now we have to sign up to an external site that doesn't integrate properly and doesn't work on mobile browsers? Great. Ebay it is. Stone

Tried that earlier. Pulling and pushing it back a couple of times, if I slam it bow the drivers's side locks but not the passenger side...guessing it's an adjustment thing. New bonnet cable then?

Finally got this fault to show up consistently (30-00 Open or Short to Plus) - symptoms are exactly per Ross-Tech's website (occasional loss of power 'hiccups' when at part-throttle, occasional difficulty starting from cold, poor mpg, poor acceleration when cold etc). Previously when I've reset it it hasn't come back for a while - this time resetting it caused the idle to instantly rise ~100rpm before the fault code came back and the idle dropped again. This makes sense as a detected fault causes the ECU to use the default value of 80ºC, so it's using the default value and then tripping again. Am I right in saying that this is the two-pin blue sensor in the thermostat housing? Will have to have a look at the wiring harness, I think... Stone

Make sure you clean any rust off the radiator mounting brackets before fitting the new one. If you don't, the idiot fitters may well pound the old mounts into the slot on the new rad, permanently stretching the slots such that a regular bracket will no longer fit. Ask me how I know :bad-words: Stone

Replaced my flat battery earlier. Had a drive around to attempt an ECU reset (didn't seem to work, but never mind...!) and all was fine. Popped the bonnet to check everything was still secure (it was) and now every time I shut it it just bounces back open again :scratch: This is very annoying! Had my slam panel replaced recently - I know my bonnet release cable is slightly stretched as the body shop guy complained about it, it only opened on the very last inch of cable travel. Had it jammed shut in the past so don't much care to do anything permanent in case I can't get it open again...but, any ideas? I've seen a few people have replaced the lock mechanisms before - would it be worth swapping over the catches from my old slam panel? Cheers Stone

Awesome, glad I could help :)

You're right, when it's melted into a solid lump that glows dull orange it's almost totally silent. My swearing, on the other hand...not quite so silent :bad-words:

You might be in luck there, white paint means it was on their 'to fix' list. If they took more than 30 days (iI think it is) to sort it then they have to pay you... This is why neither of my cars is as low as I'd really like - it's just not practical to keep replacing tyres (and wheels, and struts...) There's one near me that disabled 13 cars before the police came and closed the road, recently... Stone

They do come out of the front, but you most likely won't be able to do it with the headlights fitted - just getting the glass off would be horrific and you're likely to break the top adjuster getting the reflector out. Mine were rusted too - I ended up pounding a really long screwdriver into the dead screw and just going really gently - then replacing the screw and plastic insert afterwards. Not saying it's impossible but it'd be a truly awful job. Personally I'd snap off the middle mount from the slam panel before doing it that way. Stone

Typical, another hard-to-photograph dark thing :lol: Let me know if these are OK.

Ultraleggeras are pretty light (hence the name) but fairly fragile - I've cracked two of mine :( Looked nice in 16x7 over 312s though. Stone

I'm sure you can replace the bearings, I just have no idea why you'd want to. The coolant system is already hopelessly overcomplicated, there are so many different points of failure that you've got little hope of ever having it all working at once. Plus, when it fails, it tends to do so in a way that endangers your engine (or your whole car), and even if you save the vehicle the parts costs are horrific. Think a set of genuine fans cost me over £400 with the VAT last time, never again! :nono: Stone

To be honest I've forgotten which one is which so I'll let you decide :lol: One has a higher gloss to it than the other (i.e. it's more shiny), but both obviously 'work'. Sump pictures - apologies they're not great, it's hard to take pictures of dark satin things! Stone

It's usually the crack pipe if you haven't checked that. Look for fractures where it meets the water pump. Also check the plastic elbow on the front right of the radiator - a hairline crack here will dribble down the radiator under pressure. Are all your senders in the stat housing secure? If you don't get the clip on quite right you can fail to compress their o-rings enough to make a good seal. That said these usually go by dumping a flood of coolant out the front and dangling on their harness ;) Stone

The worst that can happen is that it seizes and catches fire. No joke, it's happened to me twice! They're downright dangerous IMO. Bin it and replace with a single-stage Spal fan wired direct to the rad sender. Stone

Sure, will get some pics up later on. Yes, I can post it. Ruggy: are you after the complete headlight or just the reflector?