Stonejag

Location: Harpenden, Herts Price: 15.00 GBP Date added to Classifieds: 12th Jan 2012 Description: I've upgraded to 312s and Mk4 rears so my standard VR brakes are for sale. All are in good condition and as-removed - working perfectly until they were taken off last Saturday. Standard 280mm front calipers and carriers - once painted red but with a coat of black over the top, partially worn off; could probably carefully strip them back to red. Both standard rear calipers, all six standard rubber hoses, drilled front discs and four sets of pads (I believe ATE) with plenty of meat left. Payment by Paypal (you pay fees, please), cash or bank transfer Collection from Harpenden, Hertfordshire, or you could organise a courier. Stone

It's worth making sure it's properly clipped into the door frame too, the garage buggered up the fitting of my first one and the first time I lowered the window it mangled the cable :bad-words: If it's broken where the cable meets the handle you need a new one, there's no way to disassemble it that far... Stone

Typical, the post office lost it and it never got here :( Anybody else got one? Cheers, Stone

Fine today, was mostly on cleared roads (and I spent a couple of hours yesterday digging the top of our road to clear the junction which helped!) but no real issues at all - went a bit sideways entering an uncleared side road a little hastily but it was a doddle to correct with a bit of opposite lock and swearing. Happily trundled a few hundred metres uphill on packed snow and it was totally fine. And it's an auto! I have got nearly-new Proxes 4s (195/45/16) on the front wheels which probably helps, they're supposed to be good in the wet. Passed its MOT as well, it only cost me £40 and a box of chocolate biscuits :lol: Stone

If you ask your local indy VW place they'll usually have a pile of the wafers around - normally you reuse the springs and tumbler but if they're damaged you'll have to order new ones or nab some off a breaker on here. It's worth giving them a week or so's soak in WD40 first, jammed wafers get very very stuck! If necessary you can drive them out with a small screwdriver and hammer while they're held in a vice - I used an automatic centrepunch (carefully!) to get them moving the first couple of mm as the sudden shock helps shear the corrosion that holds them in place. Some of them will be beyond salvation but if it's totally stuck it will still turn if you can get the stuck wafer lined up with the tumbler - may not work for the middle wafers (you may not be able to get the key through it to the rear wafers, depends on how it's cut) but it does for the last one. It will be slightly less secure if you do this as you'll be relying on the other wafers to lock the tumbler to the barrel when no key is inserted. Stone

There isn't room for it under the gearstick cover anyway ;)

He could have washed it with the spoiler up - I know I do :) Just need to mop out from under it with a bit of rag before you let it retract to avoid any issues. There are a few places moisture pools on mine if the airflow doesn't disturb it when driving. Stone

Make sure you sit down before asking prices from VW - I was quoted £186 for the plastic surround :lol: Apparently the same part was used in some Mk3 Golfs - make sure you don't get 1H2863209C which won't fit. Can't find the number of the expensive one off-hand though, sorry...

Aha, well spotted. Would probably have worked fine if they'd used it when they first saw flames (0:10-0:15) but might well have been salvageable even 40 seconds later if they'd used it correctly! For the record - sweep it back and forth across the base of the flames: you're trying to cool down whatever's on fire until it's not self-sustaining any more. Giving the vents the odd toot here and there as shown above is pointless - they're mostly attacking the smoke which has come from somewhere else! They knew the fire was near the exhaust manifold when they looked in the engine bay so they should have just sprayed the lot in there - they might have cooled it down enough to save the interior from catching. Also note the dry powder type continuously leak pressure once the seal is pierced so you have to use it all up in the first 30 seconds or so, otherwise you may not have enough pressure left to use up all of the powder. No point wasting it , it's all or nothing :) Yes, they were probably panicking (I know I would be) but if you spend a few seconds thinking about it now with a clear head then you'll have a head start if you have to think about it in a flap later! Stone

Not on mine - could be something to do with running the software in a virtual machine though. I may invest in one of the Bluetooth ones anyway, would be useful to be able to tuck it away somewhere and leave it plugged in! Stone

I was actually considering getting my cat refitted tomorrow to help out with the MOT...(up on Saturday, gulp!) No idea where my decat pipe came from, it's tied into a stainless Magnex back box so it's not inconceivable it came from them too. Tempt me?

Didn't see one being used, did I miss it? Exactly - if you see / hear / smell fire in your engine bay then you pop the hood onto the safety catch only, and empty your dry powder extinguisher into the gap. What do you mean, you don't carry one? On a related note, I haven't seen ceramic exhaust coatings mentioned as an alternative to heatwrap. Looks a lot neater but is very expensive in single quantities - could be potential for a group buy, maybe? Stone

You could also splice into the key-transponder coil - then if you didn't have the switch in the right position it would behave as if it couldn't read the transponder (starts and cuts out after 2 secs). I like the idea of using a blank dash switch! Very cunning.

Yes - the paint covers the whole front face of the wheel (including the conical bolt seats). If you masked it off there'd be an edge to the paint around the holes and I reckon it would blister almost immediately - you're giving water five more places to get behind the paint on each wheel! The clear powdercoat covers the whole lot so it's very tightly bonded on, nowhere for the moisture to attack £200 including the dent repair. Top stuff :D

Nope, it's still intact...

Yep, that's how third party cover works - if an accident is your fault then your insurance covers all the costs except yours. In this case if you crashed your boss's car then any damage to it wouldn't be covered. I think they do the drive-other-cars-third-party thing to discourage you from doing it all the time! Your manager should probably set up a corporate policy worded as 'any employee of company x' (like the company I work for) or one with you all on as named drivers. It probably won't be cheap either - you need a company that actually specialises in company policies rather than trying to bodge it with a consumer one. Our policy is with Zurich, and worded as: "1. Description of vehicles Any motor vehicle the property of or on hire or loan or leased to the Policyholder other than: i) a motor cycle, motor cycle and side car or moped ii) a vehicle of the mechanically propelled plant type iii) a steam driven vehicle 2. Name of policyholder: [company name] 3. Effective Date of the Commencement of Insurance for the purposes of the relevant law: [date] 4. Date of Expiry of Insurance: [date] 5. Persons or Classes of Persons entitled to drive: Any person on the order or with the permission of The Policyholder. Provided that the person driving holds a licence to drive the vehicle or has held and is not disqualified from holding or obtaining such a licence. 6. Limitations as to use: a) Purposes in connection with the business of the Policyholder b) Social, domestic and pleasure purposes. c) Towing a trailer of a disabled mechanically propelled vehicle as permitted by law. The Policy does not cover: Use for i) hire ii) Conveying passengers for reward; iii) Transporting goods for reward; iv) Racing, pace-making, speed testing, participating in any rally, reliability trial or competition." The whole thing fits on a side of A5 (with some more legalese at the bottom and on the rear side) - they use Zurich but it may or not be a good deal. All you have to do is decide exactly what's excluded - you can thrash it out with the insurance co and the more you exclude (eg commuting / social / domestic etc) the less it'll cost. Probably possible for the car owner to keep his own insurance on it too so he's covered for commuting etc - not sure how it all works out but they can probably work something out for you :) HTH. Stone

D'oh! I may be able to cross-ref the connector with something else but you know what VAG documentation is like... There are some good scrappies around here with tons of Vauxhalls in (close to the factory...) so it would be awesome if I could get it working with something a bit more modern - should keep the supply going for a few more years, at least. A few guys in the states have been running VR6s with coil-on-plug setups from more modern VWs, but you have to use a standalone ECM if you want to stop using wasted-spark, plus they're too short to fit through the inlet manifold. So, if anybody is about to chuck a coilpack out I'd be very grateful if you could remember this thread before you do :) Cheers Stone

I have an auto, and I know a couple of others on here do too. They're a very different car to the manual versions - you have to drive them quite differently but they're still just as fun, in a different way. As well as the normal kickdown switch, the auto ECU uses pedal velocity to decide whether to go into sport mode or not, so kicking down hard will drop two gears instead of the regular one! Just driven normally the ECU wants to change up to top gear as early as possible (to activate the torque converter lockup, so the engine is coupled directly into the gearbox) - this happens at 31mph on mine, so if they're being driven gently then they can feel a bit slow. If you either control upshifting manually with the gear selector or learn how to use the kickdown effectively then they're absolute monsters - because the auto box is only 4-speed, each gear covers a huge range of speeds and gives tons of torque. In sport mode mine shifts from 1st-2nd at 15mph, 2nd to 3rd at 80(!) and 3rd to 4th at 110! With your right foot firmly planted you get pinned back in your seat as the power keeps spooling out - in a literal sense too, since the acceleration is quick enough to lock the seatbelt reels :D They do take a little looking after as most have been neglected; doing a fluid change is highly recommended as they usually have very little of the original 'lifetime' fluid left. There's a gearbox dipstick located below and to the left of the battery (looking from the front) - the level has to be checked with the engine running and gearbox in 'Park' so the torque converter is full, otherwise they over-read. There's a black plastic blob at the bottom of the dipstick: the ATF level should be between the two dots on the blob when the box is full, but mine was off the bottom of the dipstick! If the ATF is black/brown or has obvious metal particles in then it needs changing, or at the very least topping up (with a funnel, through the dipstick hole). You have to drop the gearbox sump to flush the fluid but it's not a hard job - I managed and I'm a complete mechanical novice :) If you notice jerky shifting, RPM drastically rising before it shifts suddenly or rolling backwards on hill starts, then a flush / refill should totally sort it. The ATF cooler is also quite poorly designed, and uses two extra coolant hoses which aren't found on the manual - after the flush and refill you may want to consider a remote ATF cooler in front of the radiator instead. This will allow you to use cheaper and more readily available hoses if you need to replace any, or even a set of performance silicon hoses, since they're only available for the manual. It's probably a better tactic to find one with a decent shell and interior since all the panels are getting hard to find - usually no problems with dash switches, engine parts etc since the VR6 was used in quite a few different places. They're also very rare in auto - one DVLA database search site says only 53 remaining on the roads! It was an expensive option at the time so how unusual it is may also attract you. I know I wouldn't enjoy mine as much in a manual :) Stone

Sounds like fun, I can shortcut through central London without paying congestion charge so it's only an hour or so from me :) Would be nice to meet some more semi-local people.

I would get them blasted, otherwise you risk the paint not sticking to the old lacquer. If it's a strong/gloopy paint that forms a thick 'skin' then the strength of the skin would hold the edges together even if it wasn't stuck down to the surface very well - but then the first time it gets knocked or a stone chip hits it then you lose a 'bubble' all at once. I vote for powder-coating everything, it's probably cheaper than you expect and it will last much longer :)

Some older high-compression diesels can run on high proportions of contaminated fuel without much loss in performance. The great thing is, when your local car hire company has a car that's misfuelled, it's almost always people putting petrol in a diesel car - they have to pump the tank out into a storage unit at base and then pay a licensed waste contractor to take it away. The paperwork trail only starts when the waste disposal people arrive, so rather than paying to get rid of it they may just give it to you ;) Since it's 95% diesel it still works fine as a fuel, and it's already had fuel duty paid on it so Customs & Excise won't come after you either! Big engines work best - I know a guy running a Russian Zil truck on 50% contam and it makes a huge difference to running costs. Lots of the military vehicle collectors use the same trick...plus if it has tracks you don't need an MOT Stone

Had to post something about these guys - because they're great! Their website is a bit pretentious and they have a silly name (:lol:) but they really know their stuff. They've pared their wheel finishes right down so as standard you get a choice of black or white powdercoat, a single shade of water-based silver paint and a thick powder coating of clear acrylic lacquer over the top. If you want plain black or plain white wheels they knock a tenner off and skip the painting stage out of the middle. My wheels were a set of 16" Ultraleggeras - they had a few scrapes, moderate kerbing to the edges and some of the lacquer had peeled to give the familiar cloudy effect. Worse, one of them had quite a big dent in the rim as well - it was only obvious once the tyre was off. Anyway, most of the companies I contacted wouldn't touch the bent wheel - they basically wanted a blank cheque for repairs. The guys at Max Powder have the prices right up on the website which was a nice bonus. They even warned me upfront that heating the rim to push the dent back out might crack it, in which case they'd just get it welded up - very can-do. I went with the darker silver (black undercoat) and here are the results! There was only one slight glitch - I have two Toyo Proxes 4 and two Toyo Proxes R fitted - they'd fitted both Rs as 'left' and both 4s as 'right' so both axles would have had mismatched tyres. Popped back, they were very apologetic; broke the bead, flipped the tyres over and refitted before rebalancing, all in under 5 minutes! Don't think I've ever seen anyone work quite so fast. Anyway, here they are on the car: The 312mm brakes are a very tight squeeze but they do fit, with about 5mm clearance around the caliper So, full marks to Max Powder for being awesome - please do show your appreciation by considering them for your next refurb. No, they're not paying me to say that :D Jamiehamy will be along in a minute with the 'before' pictures... Stone

Sorry, no, the 16" Ultraleggeras only come in 7j. They do look awesome fitted though! Was planning to fiddle with the stance a little but the second I got outside it started ****ing it down :lol:

Not sure if it was standard but I've got a very early mech in mine (stamped that it was made in W. Germany!) and the 'bow-tie' doesn't act as a manual override - it rotates when extending and retracting, but pulling on it it doesn't click forward like the old mech did to disconnect the motor. Pulling on it really hard just separates the plastic bit from the keyed metal shaft it sits on. Or it could just be broken :lol:

What difference do you think that makes? The ISO 9141 rise time is enormous compared to any distortion in the waveform - you'd have to have a very badly designed interface indeed to put that much capacitance on the bus. I have a transparent blue one and it works fine with the engine ECU, but doesn't work with the ABS one...though I might not have got the settings quite right. Stone