Stonejag

Up for sale: one OEM VR6 intake elbow - worked fine until removed yesterday. Unusually I can't even find any splits in the corrugated bit! The dummy heater element and the 90º elbow for the ISV hose are included. Pic: (click for bigger) [ATTACH=CONFIG]59449[/ATTACH] £25 posted, or come and get it to knock off a fiver. Stone

Just thought I should share - I'm using Admiral with all mods declared, I signed up in Aug 2011. Alternatively you could try Bell who use the same underwriters (and callcentre!) but have slightly different rules. When I get my 1 year NCB in August (fingers crossed) I'll have to start the whole parade again :) Stone

Water temperature light? There isn't one, if you mean the red flashing one at lower-left of the clocks below the MFA then that's the coolant level warning, which runs off a different sender (plugged into the top of the expansion tank). Stone

Top man, thank you. I had thought about doing it that way but I've got a dodgy back and doing them by length means I can make them up on the sofa rather than bent double in the engine bay :) Unfortunately I only have five plug ends so I have to grab another one before I have a full set - if anybody else is looking at making their own, you can get the correct connector from Just Kampers. The 7mm orange cables came pre-terminated from Vehicle Wiring Products - it's good quality silicone cable so you just slice the end off flat and twist the VW connector on instead of the supplied plug end. The crimped connector on the coilpack end will fit a VW pack but they're straight so I'm swapping them for 90º ends from the old set of leads I had. Much easier than I thought it would be and they'll only owe me £30 or so! :) [edited to add: JustKampers stock the wrong kind of connector - and what they sent doesn't match their website picture! You can file two slots in it to make it match the VW removal tool but it's not the correct part - you need 021035255E. Get some from VW instead.] Stone

Neither actually - I didn't even have a PCV valve (someone had removed it in the past and replaced it with a huge tangle of dodgy vacuum plumbing) so I just used the silicone breather that came with my hose kit and ran it direct into the intake elbow, losing the dummy heater element in the process. The 42draft elbow came with a length of vacuum hose to run from the head takeoff by the throttle body direct into the blue carbon canister valve. Doubt it works anyway but at least I won't be leaking vacuum. Much neater, anyway! The next job is to finish making the other 5 of these :norty: Stone

Last question (honest!): Stated lengths are cable only before connectors are added, correct? I know that's what the diagram shows but VW only appear to sell finished leads these days and it would be no more than their average level of perversity if they measured including the connectors :) Thank you!

I cracked and ordered a 42draft inlet like KADVR6's :oops: :grin: I think it's sexier in chrome! Stone

I forgot to mention someone pulling the rear VW badge off while trying to open the boot :lol:

I'm thinking about it but not quite sure enough yet to say for definite. Depends if my gearbox plumbing holds up! As my neighbour says, "If you want to hear the sound of God's laughter, tell him your plans" :lol: Stone

Yes, but it won't fit if you've got the wheel the wrong way up, maybe that's it? You want the outermost side of the space-saver to be closest to the ground so the hollow bit is facing upwards, I've found the AA mechanics etc tend to put them in the other way up so there's less travel on the wingnut that holds it in and they spend ten seconds less doing it up :roll: Stone

Second this - in particular check the floor pan is straight near the jacking points as jacking them in the wrong places cracks the underseal/wax injection and they corrode from the inside. There's a spot where the sills meet the rear of the front wheel arches which gets all the road dirt/water flung at it, they often rust through. There's supposed to be a bolt there going vertically into the outer wing, if the rust is severe the bolt will spin freely like on mine ;) If it has an alarm then check the fobs and central locking work - many go bad over time (or are shoddily installed!) and it's a dash-out job to remove and replace one. I took the checklist with me but didn't really know what I was looking at so ended up buying a doer-upper ;) Worth taking someone with you who knows cars well if you're not 100% sure. Having sorted so much stuff on mine I reckon I could spot 90% of the faults if I went looking again, but only because I've been there once... Stone

Nobody seems to be able to work the interior door handle either, they pull it and the door doesn't open so they pull harder and harder...apparently pushing the door open is too complicated :roll: They get a telling-off from me as it smashes the edges off the wheelnut key. That said I'd rather they gunned them up than leave them loose like the garage round the corner! I do that :lol: Stone

Have you had the window open since you took the handle off? The reason I ask is that if you haven't clipped the central locking cable back into its place in the door frame then dropping the window can mangle the cable - when mine was shorted internally it behaved just like yours, and would also randomly lock as I drove along! If it is the central locking cable falsely sending a 'lock the door now' signal, then disconnecting the battery should stop it from re-locking itself. If that works then you can cut the cable off at the door handle (then unplug the other end and chuck the remains) - all you lose is the hold-key-in-lock-to-shut-windows function. Stone

If your coolant circuit isn't 100% then it'll push the oil temps up because the oil cooler won't work as well. I'm 90% sure my yellow sender being broken is the cause of my radiator fans not running and if I get stuck in traffic the coolant temp gets alarmingly high, followed by the oil a short while later. I've got up to 132 being stuck behind a bus for a few miles before :shaking: On the bright side it drops again if you cane it for a bit ;) Stone

1: Remove guardrail x 32 2: Supply and install guardrail x 32 3: Pull out Guardrail posts x 4 4: Supply and drive in guardrail posts x 4 5: Personnel (Sundays / public holidays) x 1.00 6: Oil absorbing material x 30 7: Use of vehicle routes x 0.5 (not sure on this one?) 8: Construction grant (flat rate) x 1 9: Administrative costs (flat rate) x 1 Probably not as exciting as you thought ;) Looks terrifying, no idea how you lot have the stomach for it! I'd be quite satisfied with one of these :lol: Stone

Just to stick my oar in, it's not like anybody (other than us spotters? :geek:) would know the difference anyway. At my third changeover while being towed back from Leeds on Monday the first question from the AA man was 'Nice...is it a Storm?' to which I had to reply 'No, it's purple' :lol:. Get one that has nice bodywork, the mechanical stuff can be sorted by most anyone but decent body shop jobs are pricey...

Passed a late-model Classic Green (Storm?) in Flitwick earlier - driver was wearing sunglasses and I was in the Mk1 cabrio so I don't think you saw me wave :)

It changed with the newer ones - but mine has a dipstick :) No drain plug though (might tap one in when I have a chance), you have to drain it by taking the sump off... I was pretty sure it's in the service schedule as something ridiculous like at 50,000 mile intervals - by which time all the fluid will be long gone or burnt to a crisp. It really needs checking every couple of weeks or when you do engine oil! AFAIK everything beyond the 01M is checked by the overflow method as you describe. I only know about 096es :) Stone

You can just pipe straight from the PCV vent into the inlet manifold (via the little blue dummy plug that is a heater on the cold-climate models but just a placeholder on ours) - I don't have a PCV valve fitted at all...worth giving your ISV and throttle body a clean from time to time if you do this as the oil vapour can foul them a little when the engine's cold. I have a sneaking suspicion that you're trying to describe the vacuum feed that operates the carbon canister valve. You should be fine just substituting a piece of standard vacuum line direct from the vacuum port on the inlet manifold (near the throttle body on the opposite side to the throttle linkage) into the carbon canister's valve, which should be a blue item attached to your offside suspension tower and piped into the carbon canister which lives under the airbox. Stone

There's a knack to getting the spring back where it should be, the secret is to start off by squeezing the two pointy ends together, then it should be a bit more obvious :)

Was trying to get there when my gearbox failed :( Take lots of pics for me!

How does that seatbelt arrangement work then? :shrug:

I assume no dipstick on this box? Low fluid usually causes the feeling of being in neutral for slightly too long when moving off - usually the revs rise a little as you accelerate and then it slams into gear. VW claim all their gearboxes are sealed for life (a huge fib!) so it's usually quite awkward to change or top up the fluid - it also needs changing twice as lots of fluid stays in the torque converter when they're drained (unless it's a dual-clutch box in which case it hasn't got one!). A stuck valve may or may not show up on the OBD - acutely low fluid can cause the clutch packs to break up and shed big lumps into the fluid which can clog the tiny hydraulic circuits in the valve body. It's usually compounded by VW's crap advice that they can't be refilled (because they want to sell you a new gearbox!) which is a pet hate of mine... Usually on the later boxes there's a drain/inspection plug which overflows when the level is right - this only works with the fluid at the right temperature (70 or so, Vag-com will tell you) and with the engine running. You could try topping up or dipping to check colour - it should be clear red with no lumps or metal particles. Try not to drive it in the meantime. Stone

The top hose and the hose from the bottom of the thermostat housing to the block and expansion tank each have an extra branch for the feed and return from the (rubbish!) auto box cooler. The manufacturers don't spec its properties beyond 85 degrees but VW don't consider the fluid overheated until it's at 148 degrees which is why the autos are usually so shagged out :lol: When the silicon hoses went on I plumbed the cooler fittings into a small (half-width, 16-row) Mocal in front of the radiator, which keeps the fluid much cooler. Hopefully it will last a good while :) Stone

The rear ABS cages are very cheap to replace (mine were around £8 a side) and simply clipped onto the brake disks so easy to change. Could consider changing the wheel bearings while you have them off. Handy trick for MOTs is to force the ABS light out by holding the brake pedal as you turn on the ignition - should get a clunk from the pump and go out. If it won't go out (usually clunks immediately rather than after a short pause as the light goes out) then it will clear if you go for a drive - half an hour normally sorts mine. The light will stay off until an error is next detected (usually incongruous wheel speed reading caused by a duff rear sensor) so even with a short test drive it won't betray you! If the light comes on immediately every time and won't clear then start to suspect pump or ECU, if it stays off for a while then it's more likely a sensor. Good luck with the test! Stone