Therusterman
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Posts posted by Therusterman
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Really like the way this is heading. Know what you mean about 'show' cars that have the nice bits hurled onto a tired shell, keep it up.
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Picked up the Hella Twins (this is apparently their correct name, not quads!) And guess what, loads of the white plastic adjuster fittings are fubar. Spent this evening stripping down one of the lamp units to also discover one of the plastic tabs is broken on the light cover and also has a small split coming from it.
I kind of expected to run into these problems so I've got another set of Hella Twins on the way which are missing the dipped beam lenses, but the covers are meant to be without cracks, and are already black, might need a little spruce up with some paint though.
Also read somewhere about fitting the aim adjustment motors, hopefully they fit ok. Also going to get the wiring as neat as possible and make it look close to a factory finish.
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New purchase;
Won a set of Hella quad headlights this evening. With the nights drawing in I'd been thinking about improving the head lights. The best way to do this I think is to go down the HID route, but this can't be done properly or safely with the regular light units. The projector lens in the Quads will stop the light refracting around the headlight and blind other road users, and be more effective concentrating the light beam.
I received the HID's earlier in the week, went for the 4300k rated lamps, as this isn't too bright and is in line with O.E outputs of this type. Having really blue and massively bright dipped lights isn't my thing, remember I aim to keep things within the O.E stable where possible.
On a side note, the error code for the air inlet temperature (0527) was down to a bent pin on the engine harness where it joins near the secondary water pump. Turned out the ground pin was bent and not seating properly, straightened it out and solved the problem, also refitted the original sensor for good measure.
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Small update. When I replaced the fog light bulb, I looked at the other fog lamp lens and noticed the absence of the Hella mark on the glass. Whipped it out to find it wasn't original;
Not a big deal I know, but prefer fitting genuine parts where possible. Found a used Hella part for £10 off the 'bay.
Got my sights set on some other bits to do with lighting so watch this space.
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What happened to the back box, looks like its making a bid for freedom!
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You won't find a black roof lining they never made them, you have to DIY it.
Was starting to think that, had an incling the colour concept's or the anniversary model had them. Happy enough with the black plastics now anyway.
Had the car Terracleaned on friday. To cut a long story short I would say its worth doing. Brings emmissions back down, biggest difference i've noticed is the engine feels much more eager and quieter when driving and feels like it wants to go more. £100 Well spent in my opinion.
If you are looking to get this done, you will have to contact Terraclean UK yourselves for them to provide you with the details of your local franchise. Apparently they do it this way so that work is fairly distributed between the franshises.
Noticed when I was doing my weekly checks on the car one of the fog light lamps had stopped working, popped it out to find the element blown. Headed to the local Halfords armed with the trade card and picked a new one up for just over £1, fitted and working again now
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Thanks Yakuza.
Today I got round to fitting the black a/b/c pillars i've had in the garage for a couple of months. Took about 2 1/2 hours with lunch, and i've got sore hands now, but very pleased with the result.
Ready to go in:
And all done:
I've been toying with having a black headliner, sunvisors and grab handles, bit think i'll leave these alone for the time been. Got another little project i'm working on for the interior too.
Also fixed a coolant leak i'd had since I did the timing chains. It was only after a long motorway trip I noticed how much the coolant level had dropped (about half way down the reservoir) that I thought I should really sort it out.
This involved getting the thermostat housing off, as I knew the leak was coming from underneath it somewhere. Got the housing off and took it apart. Guess who put the sealing ring the wrong side of the thermostat
This also showed traces of coolant leaking which also tallied up with where the leak was originating from. Put the seal in the correct side of the housing with plenty of sealent and no more leaks Also noticed some weaping from the 3 sensors in the front of the thermostat housing so replaced the seals with new ones which seemed much plumper and seal nicely now.
Got the car booked in tomorrow for a Terraclean service. Been reading lots into this so i've taken the plunge. I'll report back tomorrow and let you all know what I think.
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Needs a sound clip at least to hear this masterpeice
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Very impressive. Would love to do this to a VR, doubt i'd have the patience to take as many pictures!
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One other thing, as its lowered on coilovers, could you not raise the car back up to standard ride height? If I remeber correctly the vr6 is approx 20mm lower than a regular mk3 golf, just a thought.
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Get a couple of pictures up to give some perspective how much lower the car is. Regarding the potential chain rattle have a search on youtube and that will give you an idea of what it sounds like. As Luke says, doing the chains themselves is quite straight forward, its getting to them that takes the time.
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Get a cable off eBay, got one for about £9, you can download VCDS lite from the rosstech website
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Just keep on driving it, done plenty of work on mine this year so need to just sit back and enjoy it. When the weather gets a little cooler the winter wheels will come out of hibernation, have a few layers of poorboys put on them, then enjoy having grip in the wet again.
Got some black a/b/c pillars to git at some poin too.
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Remember seeing this on eBay, glad its gone to a good home, look forward to seeing how you get on with this.
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Been looking into this again last night, very tempted to have this done now. I always use premium fuel which is *supposed* to clean the engine internally, so would be interested to see how emmissions are affected.
I'm not expecting power gains, but would interesting to see how much difference it makes. Dropped terraclean an email last night, waiting to see who the local franchise is.
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Finally have this resolved! Found there was a short to earth according to vcds, traced the wire back to the main engine harness connector and found a bent pin. Guess what, this was the grounding pin for the air inlet temperature sensor, so straightened it out and have a working sensor again. Also put back in the genuine sensor as I prefer that to the patent part I replaced it with.
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yes and yes' date=' good tv coming back at last! just need a new series of Fast 'n Loud and we're sorted.
[/quote']
Amen to that.
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Right, got vcds lite installed on the laptop and have an obd cable. Looked at block 4, to check fuel trims is this 'tank vent op.mode (ACF)'? Getting readings from 0.99 up to 1.06, but have no idea what this means!
Also, the 00527 code keeps reappearing!!! I've replaced this sensor. On vcds the temperature shown by this sensor when the engine is off is -46.5oc (with ignition on) But when the engine is running the sensor reads as you'd expect-slightly higher than ambient temperature due to the location of the sensor.
Any guidance would be much appreciated
Edit: I found when the fault code was cleared, the inlet air temp sensor still read -46.5oc, then after a few seconds it bumped up to around 20oc, am i right in saying the ecu reads a default temperature if no reading is taken from the sensor? Vcds is also saying its a short to earth, think i'll need to pull it all apart and locate is there is a short in the wiring somewhere...suppose while its all apart I should whip off the thermostat housing and fix the small leak its got as well.
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Had a similar problem with my Miltek, used a mikalor clamp and loads of putty and its ok now but still leaks a bit, is very frustrating as you'd expect these systems to fit perfectly!
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Crank end oil seal is worth doing as you'll have the clutch off. Also maybe replace the plastic housings and seals in the cooling system (crack pipe, thermostat housing etc.) I'd also suggest replacing the o-ring seals on the oil cooler, these seem to leak and are a bit fiddly to do when everything's back together.
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MOT Time!
Took the VR for an MOT last week, failed on a leaky cv gaitor :-( I knew the off side outer was leaking a little bit as there was bits of cv grease spattered about. Got a new boot that same morning, and spent most of the day fitting it. Struggled mainly getting the hub off the driveshaft, it just didn't want to come off! In the end I sprayed on some WD40 onto the splined part of the driveshaft and left it to soak for a couple of hours or so, then put the hub nut back on and managed to hammer the driveshaft free. Getting the CV joint off the driveshaft took a little head scratching, in the end I used a slide hammer clamped onto the hub nut and it popped off without much trouble.
Having had the suspension components apart so many times, putting everything back together only took about 20 minutes, just wish it all came apart as easily!
I noticed whilst I was down there the rubber boot on the anti roll bar droplink had split (probably from when I replaced it.) So popped a new Lemforder replacement on there yesterday. To stop the rubber boot splitting this time I lubricated it a little so when the threaded part was wound into the anti-roll bar, the rubber boot didn't spin and split again.
One thing I did notice when removing the hub was a small amount of play in the wheel bearing. Unsure if there should be any slack in it, will keep an ear out for any noise from it.
Other maintenance items have included replacing the N80, or evaporator purge valve from the carbon canister. My code reader flagged this up a couple of times. Ordered a Bosch replacement from China (I know its probably a replica) but the code hasn't reappeared since. Was a simple fix and only involved removing the air box and disconnecting some vacuum pipes.
Another code that also kept appearing was P0527. When I checked my fault code book this was coming up with intake air temperature sensor, replaced it and guess what, still getting the same code. Looked further into it, and the code also appears to relate to the fan speed sensor. Managed to win an new genuine unit on the eBay, so this should resolve the code. I'm sure there is a way to test if this is working properly so i'll try that and hopefully this part is the culprit, then no more error codes!
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The new valve arrived yesterday and was fitted. But the code for the N80 valve hasn't re-appeared. Still getting the one for the air intake temperature sensor, leaning towards just replacing it now.
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I've gone for a Biltein B4 damper with Eibach Pro springs, little firm but very happy with them
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One thing I noticed with the miltek clamps is they don't tighten on the cat enough, had to get a smaller mikalor clamp. Look forward to see how this turns out
-!~~60_12.JPG)
This also showed traces of coolant leaking which also tallied up with where the leak was originating from. Put the seal in the correct side of the housing with plenty of sealent and no more leaks 
Oli's '97 5 Door VR6 Journal
in Members Rides and Event Photos
Posted
Thanks for the comments Pete, still a work in progress getting something figured out incorporating the HID's neatly.
Winter wheel prep
With the nights drawing in faster now, and the temperature dropping further, I'm getting the winter wheels out of hibernation. They were the original wheels that came with the car. They've been refurbished at some point, but the quality of the finish is poor, and the finish is starting to break through with corrosion-especially in the hard to reach places between the spokes.
The wheels are wrapped in Nankang Snow SV-2's in a 195/50 size. There was a significant jump in price going to a 205 profile tyre, and i'm led to believe the slightly narrower tyre is better in the snow. I ran them last winter and didn't have any problems getting about, also had a lot more grip in the wet.
I'm taking my time getting the wheels ready, aim to get one done a day (or when I can be bothered!) Products used were G101 APC, Bilberry wheel cleaner, Auto Finesse Iron remover, Autosmart Tardis, Autoglym Super Resin Polish and finished with a layer of Poorboys wheel wax-of which i'll be putting on a total of 3 coats.
Results;
The pictures make them look much better than they really are. All I wanted to do was to stop the condition of them getting any worse, and getting a few layers of wax on makes them much easier to clean and stop the road salt destroying the finish on them.