Therusterman
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Posts posted by Therusterman
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Cheers Pete. Think I read about that earlier. Is the similar connector on the thermostat housing? Just that I have brown, yellow and blue sensors, couldn't see a similar looking black connector.
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Well, i've ordered a replacement Bosch N80 valve. As for getting the plugs mixed up Pete, what colour wires should be going to the intake sensor?
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Hi guys, gave the car a scan earlier today, came up with fault codes for the air intake temperature sensor and the evap canister purge valve.
I have noticed sometimes when the car is warm, when starting the engine it stalls if i don't give it some revs, i'm guessing this is to do with the air sensor. Is there a way of testing the sensor to confirm this? So far i've only tested the resistance of the sensor and at 20 degrees i got just over 1600 ohms of resistance.
Also, with the N80 valve is there a test i can do on this, as this seems quite expensive to replace!
Many thanks
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I'm running B4's with the same springs, can't remember the part number off the top of my head, but should be able to find the correct ones on eBay
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Looks like part of it
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Update time, this time with pictures!
Finally sourced a highline handbrake surround, and i also finished restoring the highline gear knob. Fitted them both yesterday, took all of 15 minutes. Handbrake feels much easier to operate, does the highline handbrake mechanism differ to a regular mk3 one?
Also received some more Dynamat a couple of weeks ago. This was fitted on a nice hot afternoon which made it much more easier to mould around the contours of the bodywork. Noticed some reduction in the resonance from the Milltek.
Regarding the CD player, the one I won on eBay didn't have a cage or fascia surround. No big deal I thought, i'll order some of those. Sourced a new cage, but can I get the surround anywhere? Answer: No. So I've now ordered another CD player, of the same model, just for the fascia! That said, the amount I won it for on eBay, is more than likely the amount a new fascia would of cost anyway. The way I see it I'll have a spare in case one of them breaks.
Today I took the car over to the local Kwik Fit centre to have the air conditioning re gassed, since when I did the timing chains the system was drained down. I booked this online to take advantage of a £20 saving, which I then spent on an additional cleansing service. As most people seem to be, I was a little dubious of handing my keys over for my pride and joy, but, to be fair to them everything went smoothly. The service took a little over an hour, which is about what they said, and they kept me informed with how the service was getting on. I'm pleased I had the system cleanse done, as a fair amount of moisture and dead bugs :S were extracted.
Now I've got nice cold air conditioning, better than it has been, and no more damp smelling air after I've used it. So Kwik Fit Amersham get the thumbs up from me for getting this item serviced. Total cost was £69.99, plus they gave me a load of vouchers on other services they offer.
On a side note, with all this hot weather we're having, its nice to see all stages of the cooling fans working properly and hearing the aux water pump do its thing.
Some other new additions I've ordered over the past couple of days include a highline badge set which I got for a very good deal on eBay. (All 3, for less than the price of a rear badge from most sellers.) Reason I've opted for this as the rear VW badge looks a lot cleaner and my rear vr6 badge has gone AWOL. And I just think the highline badges look cleaner. However, on car insurance sites, the car does come up as a highline when I put the registration number in?!
Whilst on the bay of E, saw a Fischer CD holder going for a very keen price, so that was duely snapped up as well.
Suppose I'm only missing the black headlining, leather and a,b,c pillars and it's a higline right?! Unless the Recaro option was ticked
Talking of car insurance sites, had my renewal come through a few weeks ago. Gave Aviva a call to double check the alarm was shown on the policy (which it wasn't) and they kindly offered to reduce the premium if I chose to stay with them. Thought it'd be rude not to have a scout around a couple of price comparison sites...needless to say I was back on the phone to them to renew the policy. Only company to come close was Zurich, who wanted a huge excess. Aviva, you know how to look after your existing customers.
Also appears I've neglected to mention one other addition since I got the car, that's the Recaro interior! This was sourced from Caddyslammed after his car met an untimely end, what a shame it was to see his car after it had been in a ditch. I got the rear seats with head rests included, and all the bolsters are in perfect condition.
Future plans are to get the puddle lights retrofitted into the front door cards, and thinking about getting some paint done at some point. The corners of the front bumper has some battle scars, as does the rear bumper, plus a couple of small areas of rust bubbling starting to come through.
I'll leave it at that for tonight, here's how the car currently sits with its summer shoes on;
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Right, got a few things on the agenda. No photos in this update at the minute i'm afraid though!
Managed to locate the peice of under body trim by the rear bumper after a chance find on eBay. Still working on the highline wooden gearknob. I used some clear wood varnish but the finish was very soft and milky, looking for a better lacquer to protect it.
Also received another cd player in the post today. Went for an old skool Sony head unit which is much more in keeping with the era of the car. Ideally i'd like to retrofit the Nokia dsp audio system, but can't seem to find them over here, only in Germany. Someone please point me in the direction of the setup if you see it though
Plan on sound proofing under the rear bench still, waiting for some more dynamat after I stupidly threw the box away with it still in there. And i'm also still trying to secure a highline centre console, i've let 3 slip through my fingers now!
Will have my days off from work next week so stay tuned for some more updates then. I'll be at Gti International tomorrow so hope to see some of you guys there then, i'll be on the club stand
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I know the feeling, mine ticked over 100k a couple of months ago. Any plans in the pipeline after the surgery?
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Bit of a punt in the dark here...maybe the water pump?
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Given the car a quick bath for tomorrow, look forward to seeing some of you guys there!
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Yup, fast and loud gets my vote too
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Meh, I watched up to the star in a reasonably priced car bit, skipped that section then promptly lost interest. For me there's much better car shows out there now.
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Been a member on here a few months now, and thought it was time to get a journal started. My first car was a humble mk3 1.4 Ryder, totally poverty spec, but i loved that car, moved on from this to a 1.8 Driver which I had for a couple of years and went down the euro route with that...something i'm glad i got out of my system now. Then moved into the BMW fold and had an E46, then a E36, the later which i cherished and caught the oem/detailing bug on.
Which brings me to where I am now. I picked up my VR at the end of last summer. I'd wanted one ever since i had my first golf, but insurance was always too unreasonable to justify getting one, plus there were a few other worries I had on owning one, like the poor fuel consumption, rust, could i still service it myself? Then I went to look at one..............and the noise! That just made all my worry's suddenly go away.
Driving the VR back from when I picked it up was definitely one i remember, the effortless cruise down the M1, and having the power on tap like i'd never had before.
This is pretty much how it looked when I picked it up bar the exhaust;
I apologise now, there isn't a great deal of pictures of the work that's been done up until now, i've been more focused on the job in hand!
Within the first few weeks of ownership I got used to the car, replacing missing trim clips and fixings here and there, and binned off the crappy tax disc holder in favor for one from my local VW dealer.
Now, i'm not one to stray too far in terms of modifying my cars, I prefer to leave them as the manufacturers made them. My concept is what ever enhancements I make, at a glance or an untrained eye you wouldn't set it apart from any other mk3 golf-almost as if it was meant to look that way. An acid test I use is if the guys at work don't notice any changes, its within my tolerances!
So first thing was to address the ride height. I'm not talking about dragging the belly of the car across the asphalt or catching it on the camber of the road. i still want a practical car. What i mean is a subtle reduction in the arch gap. Cue some 'Rokkor' 20mm lowering springs, these reduced the gap, but highlighted a number of deficiency's in the suspension components.
In for a penny in for a pound right?! So, a set of Bilstein B4 dampers were ordered, top mounts, wishbones, arb drop links, track rods and bump stops. That was a fun few days, especially the bit when I had to remove the sump to get to the drivers wishbone and rounded a sump bolt! 8o|
After a 4WA the car felt much more stable on the road, even though the ride was a little harsh.
Then I spent a while trying to cure a misfire at low revs under load. So, new coilpack, misfire still there, decide to order new plugs and leads. Guess what, go to fit them and find a HT lead loose on cylinder 5.....yup i know should of checked! At least that was something else checked off the list of things prone to going wrong.
Ever since I got the car the boot still stunk of wet dog, despite been wet vac'd, so I replaced the wheel well carpets, boot mat and parcel shelf, this has got rid of the worst of it finally.
While I had my attention on the interior I found myself yearning for a Recaro interior. One was duely found and supplied by Caddyslammed on here after his car met an untimely end.
By now spring was around the corner. I'd decided rather than swapping winter and summer tyre's twice a year, i'd get a set of summer wheels. I found a set of Solitudes locally as a summer wheel which needed refurbishing. Unfortunately on the way over to collect them this happened;
Courtesy of this
Ended up driving home with one of the scabby solitudes, not a fun thing to change on a wet cold friday night!
The solitudes were refurbished at a local place called BJV Engineering, did a decent enough job on the refurb, but the attitude of some of their staff left a lot to be desired.
The next job caused a few months of issues. This was the exhaust. The original one was rotten;
Essentially, i bought a 2nd hand one of unknown make, which after much messing around never fit right on the car and around the cat. In the end I took the plunge and just ordered a new Milltek system after trying to get a used one off eBay, of which one popped up a few days after i received the new exhaust.
The Milltek fitted sooooo much better and i'm much more happy with the sound. Toying with the idea of getting a 6 branch and decat, but still undecided if this is the direction I want to take the car in.
The next major job to tackle was the timing chains and a cooling system overhaul. I could go on and on and on about this, but in summary the job cost be around £650 in parts, all genuine VW and a LUK clutch and took 7 days solid work. I booked a tour of duty off work and working on the car felt like a full time job in its place! Glad I did it myself as the labour quotes i was getting were upwards of £800.
And relax...
Whilst I had the car apart i also fitted some Eibach Pro springs, these have complimented the Bilstein shocks perfectly giving a much more compliant ride compared to the Rokkor offerings.
That just about brings me up to date with the car. I've missed out some of the finer points of minor services. Future plans in the pipeline are to fit a highline gear knob that i'm in the middle of refinishing and puddle lights in the front doors. Also got a new (old) cd player on the way thats more in keeping with the dash and the era of the car, along with some sound deadening to go under the rear bench. Also trying to source a highline handbrake console for a reasonable price, and possibly retrofit some bonnet lifters to the bonnet.
If you got this far hope this was a mildly interesting read, and i promise more pictures in future updates!
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oh wow' date=' that looks amazing
and some good expected power there! It's about time VW do something special again, the range has been a little bland since the R32 ....
[/quote']
Too right, I thought that VW had stopped making na 6 cylinders since the mk5, replacing it with the turbo'd 4 bangers. I'd love to see what could be extracted out of a modern take on the vr6 though!
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That would be pretty cool, but with modern emission and efficiency regulations, i'd be doubtful if this made it to the VW forecourt, but i'd be happily proved wrong!
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Good question, i've recently bled my brakes and they still feel spongy. I have read in some places the abs pump needs to be cycled to properly bleed the system. Anyone able to clarify this?
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1) Are we doing anything wrong? No
2) What is preventing you from contributing to the forum- My own perceived lack of helpful knowledge
3) What is preventing you from attending our events? Work, lack of own awareness in what events are happening
4) How are you making the most of being part of a Club? I feel i am
Pete, firstly i'm glad you've raised this point. I think you deserve a pat on the back, its obvious you put a lot of hard work and time into this forum keeping things going.
Of the forums i go on most days, this is the least active but has some of the best quality in terms of knowledge and information. I like coming on here, but often find a lack of new posts to comment on.
Some feedback I have on the website itself is that it feels a little less refined than most other forums i use, for reference include detailing world and the BMW e36 forum (bmwowner.com)
One reason why I think there is a lack of activity on here, is because a number of subscribers don't bother posting in here because they have noticed a lack of activity. Also, there is probably fewer and fewer vr owners as years go by, let alone those committing to an online forum, leaving just a core membership base. I understand there is 489 paying members alone, but how many unique visits is the site getting a day?
One theme i've noticed is around the location of events and the frequency of them. Is there a provision to organise regular regional and/or county meets?
Pete, I hope none of what i've said comes across negatively, please keep doing what your doing
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Yup, look like the wheels on the early 16v's
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I'll take a look at them when i start working on it next weekend, hopefully i can re-use them. But am i right in saying they're not stretch bolts i.e like head bolts are
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To be honest Dave, I don't even know if its leaking, will find out when I take the inlet off, just thought it would be worth doing whilst the engines in pieces and the gasket is probably past its best.
I'll just make sure the mating surfaces are nice and clean, and make sure the valve cover is torqued down properly
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Going to be replacing the valve cover gasket whilst i'm doing the chains etc, and the parts guy at my local VW dealer suggested also replacing the bolts for the cover at the same time, but at around £10 each this would be very expensive!
Was thinking of maybe putting a smear of gasket sealant on as well, has anyone else replaced the bolts?
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I've just received some Eibach Pro springs, they'll be getting fitted in the next couple of weeks so i'll report back what I think of them
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Where did you manage to get a cam lock plate from? I couldn't find one outside of US.
I've just received one from a seller from Germany on eBay, cost me about £16 delivered, just did a search on there using the vw tool number
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Right guys, i've recently replaced my shocks with Bilstein B4's, and put some 'Rokkor' eBay special lowering springs on. I'm looking at replacing these as the ride is pretty bad considering its only been lowered around 30mm.
I've been looking at mainly the Eibach and H+R alternatives, anyone have any recommendations? I'm only wanting to keep the car lowered up to 30mm, and also want to keep a comfortable ride quality.
and some good expected power there!
Fault codes 527 (G72) and 1247 (N80)
in Engine Maintenance and Problems
Posted
To keep this updated, the only code that keeps re-appearing is 527. Is it worth replacing this AIT sensor or can I check anything else, and as far as I can see its plugged in properly.
Still waiting on the N80 valve too.