Skezza

Like I said, it's hard to find many cars more awesome than a Golf MK1 or MK2, the 3L included. If I had a bit more money, and a bit more time so I could actually do it properly, I'd buy a Golf MK2 GTi and tidy it up. My old football team coach had a Golf MK2 GTi in white in mint condition and I absolutely loved it. probably the first car I fell in love with haha. The second was my high school PE teachers 2.8i Ford Capri (to be fair, most of my peers were too busy ****ing over the models and Barried up Fiat ****o's in max power to appreciate good cars)

Sorry, didn't read the OP properly. My bad. Yeah, I imagine a decent service would help a lot.

I'm guessing the aircon would reduce the economy slightly though?

Oi hahaha! I just think the 3L is a car that should be appreciated more. I don't see how a bunch of modded Golf's (unless they're MK1 or MK2) are in any way more interesting than a 3L. Anyone can mod a Golf R32, if they have enough money, so what makes them any more interesting than the one to the left? In 30 years time when most people have forgotten about R32's and the MK1 and MK2 are the holy grail of VW Golf's, the legacy of a 3L Lupo will still remain. Ah well, just an opinion.

As others have said, I'd like to see this mechanics justification for why he thinks it's been thrashed. Head gaskets can crack for all kinds of reasons, not just because the car has been thrashed. If it isn't financially viable to fix, which is something you need to ask yourself, then as others have said, run it into the ground. However, the way I rationalize whether something is worth fixing: If the fix will cost less than the approximate cost + running costs of buying another car, then it is probably worth having it done. If the fix will cost the same or more, plus deducting any considerable damage from the resale value of your car, then it probably isn't worth it. e.g. If your Lupo is worth £900 and a new head gasket is, £400, can you get another Lupo that is in as good condition, with as good interior, that has been serviced, that's had the cambelt done recently, that's taxed, that's MOT'd for £400? I'd say no, probably not. If your Lupo was worth £900 but thanks to all the dents is probably worth only about £500, and the fix is worth £400, then you need to ask yourself whether it would be worth spending that much on a car that won't return you much in resale. If the car is worth £400 and the fix is £400 then I would say it's probably not worth it as your car's probably a ****ter.

OK, I'm guessing (only guessing though) that you didn't wire the dimmer in at all. Most of the time, the dimmer doesn't get wired in because the head unit has a secondary wire for it. Some head units, don't even support the variable dimmer, they just support bright and not bright, I believe that is based on the headlights being on or off. Anyway, the wire you want I believe is the orange one in the wiring harness. I believe it's a 12v line, so check the readings on a multimeter, and check what the stereo wants. As I said, some stereos (many in fact) have a secondary wire outside of the harness that is labelled with "DIM" or "ILLUMI".

Apologies for not getting back sooner, I've been out the last few days and my phone died as I was writing a reply. It should not be spinning in the hole, but if it is, then you should just be able to pull it out. Have you definitely loosened it or did it just spin to begin with?

As I've explained before on here, if your Pioneer is using bespoke Sat Nav software (which I'm guessing it is, because it's branded) then it'll perform like a bag of ****. The best Sat Nav software is ALWAYS off the shelf. It's software that has been developed over several years, the routing algorithms (can be one of a number, Dijkstra is quite common or A* heuristic search) are hellishly optimized and far more precise than software designed in-house by head unit manufacturers. It is one of the reason I'll quite happily recommend China Nav's and China Head Unit's (featuring sat nav) because they all use WinCE which has 4 or 5 major Sat Nav applications readily available. Android is fine for this too as most Sat Nav software has now been ported, but you should watch out for Software Life Cycle worries. Although if you go for a Nexus 7, that's something you'll never need to worry about.

That's a shame. You get someone turn up in a car listed in the Guinness World Record's and yet everyone is too busy jizzin over a couple of Barried Golf's I imagine.

Not sure I like that. Like he said... No vents ? What's happening back there?

Why? They're a rare car with historical significance? I can't see how 50 different R32 Golf's is special but a 3L Lupo isn't ?

A place I find is always mucky, but really hard to clean (so take your time) is the sink behind the boot lid. I'm not sure that is the correct term for it, but if you lift your boot up, just below the roof where the tailgate recesses sort of (just behind the 3rd brake light) there is like this sink where grub, and filth just seems to collect. I guess it's from dirty rainwater and muck that slowly makes it in. It's a really tough spot to clean but I always notice it when I open the boot lid lol.

He has just come from a 1.0 lol....

Y'know, depending on how brave you are, you could actually do this yourself. Obviously I'm not recommending this to anyone, because if you pay then at least you know they'll be done perfectly. However if you fancy a risk, you can do them yourself. This is the process as I remember it: 1. File down, using a medium-hard lovely person file, any excess metal that has been lifted due to perhaps clipping the curb or a stone. You should do this round the edges too but don't be too precise because remember you're taking material. Just remove any excess that really can't be done by sand paper. 2. Rub the wheels down using a heavy grain sandpaper. You want to take all the paint off them to leave the alloy material. Once the paint is almost gone, you could switch to a finer paper, but you should be left with an alloy wheel with no paint but a few dinks that are now fairly uniform. 3. Using inexpensive filler, go round and fill the dinks. Try and be precise, but don't panic if you make the odd little rough spot. Fill the edges too. 4. Rub the wheel again to take off any excess filler material. You need to use a fine grain sand paper for this. 5. Spray a primer coat as uniform as possible across the wheel. 6. Spray your base coat. One coat actually might be enough but I imagine two or three will give you harder protection. 7. (Optional) Spray a hardened lacquer designed for alloys. I think you can get this off eBay. 8. (Optional) Buy new VW badge to replace the old one, fit it. 9. Have a pint and enjoy your newly refurb'd wheel. This is a fairly abstract explanation of how to do it and there's probably a few tutorials on the Internet of how to do it better, however this is how I remember someone else doing it. In truth, you'll probably spend up to £30 on materials etc, so unless you're doing all four wheels, it really isn't worth it. If you are... good luck

My fault I'm afraid

A 3L or a Punto? I'm going to assume you mean the Punto lol. They aren't all that bad. Cracking little runabout cars in truth. Better (And safer I imagine) than a Citroen Saxo or Poxhaull Corsa. Worth **** all obviously (Even the new ones go for peanuts), but they give a lot of car for not much dosh. I'd have probably had a Punto if I wasn't so attached to Lupo's.

Piers, I thought you were loving your new Punto.

Apologies for starting WW3.

The microswitches are located in the central locking mech. Removing it is quite a job, but any VW specialist could do it for you in about 5 minutes (VW specialist near me had it off literally in minutes). I am desperate to try it myself but if you put it back together wrong you can cause the door not to open or destroy the lock or something. It's a bit of a scary thought lol! Geoff has done this, and others on here, but there isn't a proper step by step, it's a case of working on the MK4 Golf/MK4 Passat step by step and using a bit of intuition.

Like Geoff said, if it does turn out to be your CCM, it might not be worth it. @Paul, yours sounds like it could be the microswitches rather than the CCM, although it's strange how only anti-hijack works, and a pain I imagine. This http://forums.clublupo.co.uk/index.php?/topic/63460-how-to-de-lock-the-lupo-with-genuine-vw-parts/?hl=lock The delock guide might just give us a clue how to get the main barrel loose before having to remove the mech. It's a risky process I believe (me and Geoff have chatted about it before) but to do it, you must loosen this barrel off then, the two larger torx ones. I'm not very confident about this kind of thing, but I might have a try. Depends really. I fancy fitting remote central locking, which to be honest, is something I will do in the next couple of weeks.

I have a nasty one just above the grill (inches away from the headlight, so i was lucky) that is pissing me off, but I just remind myself that it's my daily and as soon as I get it fixed, it'll reappear, so i'll do them all some time this summer!

I can't help but say this... If it's that little why don't you just live with it? At least for the moment. If it's a big one then fair do, but if it's small, you are probably going to get more marks and more little dinks throughout your Arosa ownership. Why not wait until there's a few more and a couple of scratches too then take it to a pro and get them to do the full wing? There is a body work specialist near me who will refurb a wing with dents plus scratches for not very much at all. I would never drill a hole where there isn't one already. Just a recipe for disaster.

Yep, doesn't surprise me. A common fix on any car with central locking problems. Is it consistent? Does your boot lock? If you lock your drivers door, do all your doors lock, including boot? Same for passenger door? God knows about the windows going up and down, but that doesn't sound good. My worry would be that it could be linked to your CCM. 99% of CL problems on Lupo's are caused by faulty microswitches and bad solder which is cheap to fix, but when CL plays up due to a CCM problems, then you have a nightmare on your hands. They're about £50 to replace, but more importantly they're hard to get to. I believe you have to remove the entire centre console. I don't believe you have to code them though, so it should just be plug and play!

You've bought it then?

Lol sorry mate. You've kind of made yourself look a right mug there. You can't knock Nissan Micra's and call them ****, but then not know what a chain timed engine is As dblock said, no timing belt change after 4 years (save yourself £200), no need to change the waterpump so regularly either I believe? To be fair, my girlfriend drives a chain driven Ford KA with the Endura engine in, and it's absolutely indestructible. I reckon it will be going well into the late 100k's just because of how reliable it is. The bigger worry is whether the shell, sills, etc on the car rust away first lol. Ka's were right lovely persons for that.