Stonejag

He won't tell me anything - even went so far as to say he couldn't tell me who his solicitor was because it was his personal details, though he was fine with giving him my details! You're right about it being in the system now - luckily I already have the parts so buying labour to fit them will cost me the same as just sorting it privately, I just don't get why he went charging off after I said I'd settle :( What's the book value on a 96-reg VR6 these days? Keen not to put it over the wrong threshold by accident... Stone

So, £450 was legitimate (even though ridiculous!) as it's leased from the dealership so apparently has to be repaired to their spec. So after telling him I had arranged to pay for the repair, why did he ring me up today to tell me he'd given it to his insurers and a solicitor?! Apparently I now have to wait all day for him to ring me because he refused to tell me who his solicitor is :shrug: Can't see any way of sorting it without insurers now, there went my premiums...

All received now, luckily! Now I just have to hammerite all the rust away and fit the bloody thing...

25% failing on brakes and 24% on lights, no surprise there then :lol:

Yeah, my excess is £450 too so not going through the insurers unless I have to. Traced them as far as an accident repair centre in Luton (groan) so I'll see what's on the invoice when they get in tomorrow...

Good news: got some headlights, a grille and slam panel (sherry pearl, but close enough). Bad news: bloke rang me up and wouldn't tell me who he hired it from but they apparently want £450?! Looking like cat C is looming :(

I didn't spot it until after the pics, god knows how long it's been there! Top man, thank you. PM sent :) Anybody know if I can use any slam panel or does it have to be VR6? If all the late ones are the same it would help a bit! To add insult to injury my driver's door handle has decided today would be a good time to give up the ghost :( Won't open from inside or outside, might be rocking the handle-less look again for a bit if I can get the door open...

Need both headlights, a grille (pref debadged) and a slam panel due to my earlier incident :( If the slam panel was blackberry that'd be a bonus. Anybody not too far away that I could collect from tomorrow? Cheers Stone

Pics: [ATTACH=CONFIG]62165[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]62169[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]62173[/ATTACH]

So, I was driving home from work and a lady driver panicked when a bus approached the humpback bridge she was crossing. She did an emergency stop, the guy behind her did an emergency stop, I felt the ABS go off and crunch. She then drove off. :censored: The guy in front was driving a hired Toyota Avensis - I was only going about 20 and he had huge rubber bumpers so other than a couple of nicks in the paint, no damage at all. He's going to try returning it to the hire place to see if they notice... I, on the other hand, have all the clips ripped off both of my headlights, passenger's side front glass smashed, grille ripped in half and two of the mounting points and two spot welds torn off my slam panel. It even smashed my VR6 badge :( Obviously I can't stick it through the insurance since it was automatically my fault... At the least I need a grille and headlights, might be able to reuse the slam panel but it'd need to come out for welding and it was bent before... If anybody's got any bits (especially a blackberry slam panel) please shout, still got the Cabrio so at least I can come out and get them! :bad-words: Stone

It's £45 for the barrel! Keys are extra... Undo the two nuts holding the boot lock on and pull the linkages free from the two white plastic pieces (they just pull straight out, push hard to clip them back in). The boot lock comes away as a whole - you then drive out the pin holding the cylinder into the lock mechanism/surround and it will come out with the correct key inserted. If you haven't got the matching key you have to pick it - or you may get lucky by preloading it slightly in one direction and forcing a non-matching key in and out to 'bump' the tumblers up and down. When the key is not inserted the wafers are pushed by their individual spring and should stick out of one side or the other of the barrel, which blocks rotation. When the correct key is inserted the wafers should all line up flush with the barrel. New wafers and springs can be had from VW for crazy money (sold as a kit with many of each), or you can reuse old ones or make friends with a local VW place who may just give you some ;) If they're stuck, which is common with the boot locks, try soaking the cylinder in WD40 for a couple of weeks, or convincing them out with an automatic centrepunch, or both. You can leave some wafers unpopulated if you can't find matching ones, but for a corresponding loss of security as more keys will fit the lock. Experiment! :) Stone

Just to correct this: you can't retumble an ignition barrel - they're made fitting one key only and you can't change it to fit a different key. What you can do is pull it out and replace it with a different lock cylinder - which is what you're doing when you drill the hole in the housing and push the spring-loaded bar on the cylinder. There's no way to make one cylinder fit a different key, you have to buy a new one coded to the correct key combination from VW - I checked the prices yesterday and they're £45... All the other lock barrels can be retumbled, so normally to make them all match you have to get a secondhand ignition barrel with key and adjust the door, boot and glovebox locks to match the ignition. Also you don't need the matching key to remove the barrel after drilling the hole to access the locking spring, any AH pattern key will do. I did it last week with the fixed column I picked up in the scrapyard :) Stone

Spotted a dark-green VR6 reg N*** OUL outside the VW dealership in St Albans at around 13:00 yesterday. Could have been Roger's?

Did I spot you again this morning, driving a Mk3 between Westoning and M1 junction 12? Stone

It is, if you like cars that look like they've been sat on. Can't believe this, half the enjoyment factor of mine is seeing it emerge when I put my foot down (at sensible motorway speeds). But enough about me...;) Stone

For once there's actually a sensible purpose behind the new rule - HIDs fitted to light units designed for halogens give a beam pattern that is too bright immediately in front of you (giving the illusion of much greater light output and damaging your night vision) and too dark at a distance, while creating excessive glare which dazzles oncoming drivers. They are dangerous and using them on public roads is irresponsible, illegal and will void your insurance. If you don't believe me, listen to Auto Express's report, which includes a statement from the Department for Transport. Note that there's absolutely nothing wrong with retrofit projector headlamps - but HID lamps fitted to an H4 base are simply a cynical exercise in taking your money. Don't buy them. Stone

I think we did OK :D Rain let up after an hour or so, so we still had a chance to do the engine-bay tour. The locals seemed a bit confused :lol: Stone

Mine are :) Think I'm ok for coolant, thanks for the offer though. That said, if someone could demonstrate the ninja no-drain quick-swap method on my yellow sender I'll buy them a doughnut! I've got a new one but am not dexterous enough to take the shortcut... Stone

Also, check your fans are working properly - mine overheats when stuck in traffic and the pressure (and water) escapes through the safety value on the expansion tank.

It's a good idea to get a spare key if you haven't already - mine took the locksmith around 5 minutes cutting the physical key and 20 minutes of rummaging in his box of transponder chips to find one that matched the code :D Cost around £25, well worth it! Stone

If you've checked the resistance between the coilpack pins then it'll be wiring or a duff set of coils. You should be able to find the pairs easily enough (one pin attached to all three coils - the 12v one - and then three more for the other end of the coils). If you get the non-common wires switched around then you'll be able to make it work by swapping the ignition leads around, at the risk of confusing yourself! From memory, from the front the coilpack lead order is (plug) 6/4/2 1/3/5 My money's on your wiring. The Chavalier one I bought measures 0 Ohms from any pin to any other pin so it's shorted internally and useless :(

I'll try and be there, knackered after spending all day in the scrapyard though! Need to drop past GSF first as I seem to have acquired a fairly substantial coolant leak...again... Stone

Depending on year, Mk1 and Mk2 Golfs may need the smaller sized spline; VW changed the type in about 1989. Fret not, all Corrados use a small splined steering column, with an adapter ring that turns it into the large size :) Simply remove the adapter and off you go - they're very tight so you'll need some WD40 and a gear puller, but they do come off. Alternatively, cut it off and buy a new one from VW if you go back to an original wheel, it's 191 419 514 and should be under a tenner. Since I've lovely (and I had a steering column to hand!), here's a picture: Stone

Just spent six hours removing both quarter windows and got thrown out as they were closing :lol: Sorry Kip, didn't see your message until just now. The hoses were still there when I left but I didn't make a close inspection so couldn't tell you what state they were in. Although it did once have manual windows the mechs have gone, as has the headlight switch (I can recommend the reproduction ones on the forum though). Stone

Again again...immobiliser! ;) A while back, just for fun I tried mine with a new key I had cut (without the chip in) and it would start and run, give higher revs with throttle etc, but die after 2 seconds when the ECU failed to read the chip, exactly like yours. It even throws an error code on Vagcom when this happens so you can try starting again and watch the screen, it will tell you! If you're dead set on replacing the cam position sensor I do have a spare I'd part with if you offered me enough money ;) Stone