LINCOLNSHIRESLUPOGTI

Since new my Gti has leaked water out from the passenger side repeater. The dealer has looked at the car many times and fitted a new expansion tank and pressure tested to cooling system but with no sucess. After a drive where i have either gone over 55mph or 3500rpm there are water marks tracing from the passenger side repeater down the wing and the door. Water appears to be coming from the inner wing and the only thing near there is the header tank and the 2 hoses to the header tank. There are dried coolant stains under the header tank so it must be leaking but i cant seem to stop it or trace how the leak occurs. The overflow from the header tank just seems to be a hole in the plastic about half way up and facing the passenger wing so maybe water is coming out the overflow...strange though as the car never goes above half way on the temperature gauge and i run the coolant level on min when measured on a cold engine. Anyone else having this problem or got any ideas please?

My Gti is lowered about 70mm all round and has no rubbing at all on standard wheels. Also when this low the 15's look quite big as they fill the arches much better. Dealer has notices mine is lowered (well they asked me "Has your car been lowered") but they didnt moan about the warranty.

Blah, blah, blah. I will be the lowest by miles, blah, blah, blah. Skegness was excellent as it happens. 800+ cars with some serious power on display. M3 evo's doughnutting, Pulsars 4 wheel drifting, 300ZX's doughnutting together, TVR's, EVO's etc. But just to proove how exclusive we are..not a single Lupo Gti (i didnt take mine).

Yeah im going with my brother (he came with me on rolling road day). We will be in his car though (New style Supra) as its got a removeable roof and were hoping its going to be hot.

Fin, Moving eh, that sounds expensive, no 18's for you for a while. ill keep an eye out for the Evo 6 though they are hard to miss, especially covered in stickers! I didnt know about the Yarmouth cruise but as its holiday weekend and we get the Monday off work i may just come for a ride down. I think Yarmouth is about 1.5 hours drive from me but its easy to get there as its pretty much 1 road. Keep me informed about this i am very interested. Maybe a few more of us could go and meet up there.

Butlins at Skegenss (well Ingoldmells about 2 miles away from Skegness) is holding an organised cruise this Friday and Saturday night. Butlins are allowing the cruisers the use of their carpark and offering cheap rates in their rooms so all the cruisers dont have to drive home after the late night activity. As this is organised properly there shouldnt be a problem with the bobbies (hope to see some boobies though) like at most cruises. I guess its abit far out for alot of you but thought id mention it, reckon ill be going to represent the Lupo.

Had my parts for my handles on order for 6 weeks now. Finally arrived so VW have agreed to fit them tommorrow. All parts required came from a Lupo (according to dealer) as they reckon new Lupo doesnt have passenger side lock so buy 2 sets of passenger side blanks. Fin: VW may be talkin rubbish but if the spacers they are going to fit to my car are for Lupo then it should solve your handle not opening problem. Loopy: Read you message and post. Cheers for the help but ive aleady been partly ripped off cos ive had the covers painted at £20. Part cost £8 as well. Could still save labour i suppose but they said they are also taking all the lock mechanism out the door and just leaving the electrics to lock and deadlock. This way there will be no linkage to force should and crook try to force entry.

It only really put a very thin scratch around driveshaft. ive raised the height by 10mm now and all is well. Was really worried when i noticed it and did raise it straight away. Only ground waway a build up of excess weld, nothing serious. Camber is about -1,2 degrees i think (done by trigonometry not by directly measuring angle). Not too worried about wheel bearings yet though they may proove a problem once the 17's are on.

Also make sure you keep the locks. Otherwise if ever you or then next owner wants them back in it could cause real hastle. New lock set=new ignition, new fuel filler and new keys+coding to match the new door locks you would need.

Mine is going in to VW this Saturday to be delocked. You need: 2 covers to replace the small part of the handle with the lock in it, £2 each (from new Lupo passenger door, fits both sides according to VW). 2 spacers to blank the lock hole off in the door. £2 each. Painting £24. Ftting £60 (rip off methinks). +vat (extreme rip off i am sure). Will let you all know how easy it goes next week, supposed to take an hour according to the chimps at VW.

Yeah im going to be bad and copy Fin. I want Kahn RSS as i cant have RS4's.

As i quick indication as to my ride height, Measure vertically up through the centre of the wheel hub to the arch lip. Mine was 21.5inches all round (from floor to arch lip) though now its 22inches to stop driveshaft rubbing. This equates to a sill height of 5 inches all round (5.5inches now).

Right guys, I am a designer for gas turbines so i am no mechanic but i do have a BIG INTEREST and a LITTLE UNDERSTANDING about cars so i was pretty confident about fitting cloilovers myself. I did them trouble free really apart from setting the height which took a few attempts. As an indication of how easy they are to adjust i raised all four corners of the car 10mm last night (to stop the driveshaft rub) and it took 45mins and i didnt take a single wheel off they are that easy to do! To gauge height i do what Fin does. Just count threads roughtly then on a level floor take the following measurements. 1...vertcal height through centre of wheel to wheel arch lip (side to side height though this does not ensure car is level front to back). 2...Once happy both front sides and both rear sides are level i measure with a vernier calliper that the sills are the same height off the ground at the very front and very back edges. Havnt had wheel alignment done yet. Tracking is spot on, im happy with my camber (that you set yourself when fitting the front struts). Front tyres are about bald so i will get 4 wheel alignment when i get 2 new front tyres or 17's...whichever i can afford to do first.

.....sorry forgot to add. Yes i feel the cost was well worth it as the ride is absolutally fantastic. I also thrashed it last night to test if the driveshaft was still rubbing (it is) and really nailed it around some hard corners and it is way better than it ever could be std. Very little body roll, very stable with none of the old mid corner bump unsetlling, and yet it doesnt crash through holes. Apart from clonk as driveshaft hits inner wing, but im going to adjust the height to stop this asap.

Sorry guys cant do pictures as i dont have a digital camera or the ability to even scan normal photo's! It is very low but the drivers side driveshaft is still rubbing the inner wing so im going to have to higher the front tonight as there is no way i can cut the inner wing away as there is lots of weld about so it must have some structural function. TBH im annoyed about this as it is only on the drivers side as it has a longer driveshaft. Dubsport posted them to me in 2 days (after i had waited 2 weeks for them to arrive at Dubsport from FK in Germany that was).

Hi, As i mentioned a while ago mate i looked into every brand of coilover on the market. Last week i finally fitted my FK automotive ones. These are top quality kit which are now set to -70mm rear (maximum drop) and -70mm front (with about another -50mm to go). Ride is better than std as it no longer rolls and bounces around. Shocks are koni adjustable which i have set to half way between hard and soft. Fitted myself in about 5 hours (including height fiddling and `re-adjustments`) and they cost £646 including VAT from Dubsport. They even come with a sealing spray to prevent them sticking once fitted. Only problem so far is that the drivers side driveshaft rubbed on the inner wing as my car is so low. Sorted with a wee bit of grinding. No other rubs what so ever though which is nice. Hope this helps mate.

Phew worry over, well for now anyway!!! My gearbox issue seems to have dissapeared just as quickly as it appeared. Whether this is good or bad i cant decide.... +cant show dealer whats wrong as problem has gone away, +problem may be self cured, -problem maybe manifesting ready to bite me when im miles away from home. Hmmmm

A worrying pattern may be emerging here. Ive had my Loop 6 weeks now and done just over 3000 miles. My 4th gear seems to be getting a bit notchy to engage just lately, maybe its me but im sure its wasnt this bad when new. (mines a 6 speeder btw).