Dr.Chinnery

I wanted another key too for my M-reg VR6. VW quoted me £60 and said it would take a couple of hours. Just out of curiosity, I popped into a locksmith and he did me a new key for £30 and that works a treat. He had to use the original key to "code-up" the new key or something like that. Anyway, the new key works and was 1/2 price :-)

OK, I've got a quick story to tell, hope someone else finds the info useful or can explain what has happened. Be gentle with me tho, I'm not that techie with my VR6! Problem: I've got a M-reg VR6 with an alarm that I think (but not 100%) is a Scorpion 5000. After doing some work on the car (new wash/wipe motor) I re-connected the battery and found that the alarm was totally dead. Just couldn't arm the alarm. Solution: After digging around on the web I phoned up a bloke called Tony at Scorpian (01257 249928) and he advised that I remove the alarm and send it to him along with a cheque for £35

The Phirm fitted a GMAX kit to my vr6 3 weeks ago - total cost £450 incl. VAT. Car drives like a different beast now. Rear wheels (17" bbs) rub very slightly now tho under heavy load - will get arches rolled some time.

Parts were £600 (plugs, sump gasket, head gasket, head bolts, oil + filter, piston, VW injector cleaning, coil pack), Labour £450. total £1250 inc. VAT.

Got my VR6 back from the Phirm today. They only charged 10 hours labour for diagnostics, replacing the melted piston and fixing a few other things. The melted piston was attributed to an injector problem. Injectors were all cleaned by VW and put back in. Thankfully there was no bore or head damage. The Phirm get 10/10 in my opinion for their level of knowledge, competence and customer care. They even cleaned my car before giving it back and put 200 miles on her in road testing! Where else do you get service like that? It really is worth trekking across the country to the middle of nowhere to g

After wasting £200 at a garage in Plymouth who new nothing about the VR6, I had the car towed to The Phirm near Farnham. Tim and his magic spanners have been to work and diagnosed a melted piston (no.3). Bugger, but could be worse (head is OK). The worrying thing at the moment is that Tim hasn't been able to eastablish the reason for the melted piston (other psitons are fine). Will update this thread when car is on road. Just for the record, Tim at The Phirm is absolutely, 100% sound. I feel confident that my car couldn't be in better hands.

Thanks to all for the rapid advice - much apreciated. There is no visual evidence of oil/water mix in water header or inside oil cap. However, the car does blow white/blue smoke on acceleration and on idle and there was loads of condensation coming off the exhaust and there was a wet patch on the engine block 1/2 way down on drivers side. The oil level had dropped 10 mm on dipstick over last 150 miles. However the water level is fine, which is a bit confusing, but the serious smoking has only happended for the last 10 miles or so hence water level ok is maybe to be expected. I live in Oxford

My VR6 has been running great but its suddenly gone horribly wrong. I was on the motorway doing a fair whack and saw a bit of smoke so slowed right down and took it easy. About 80 miles later the car is smoking lots (white and blue) and can barely tick over and runs very unevenly with lots of power loss. After searching the forum, I see that valve stems could be an answer but I'd really appreciate some more advice. I had the car serviced only 6 weeks ago and the mechanic remarked what good condition she was in and how smooth she ran (talk aboput the kiss of death!). She's only done 54k miles.

Bell are part of Admiral but I dunno how Elephant fits into the equation. There is probably 1 uber company that runs everything! I've just had a Bell quote of