g-man85

Might not be 100% as this is for my mk2 Arosa: Fuse 27: Instrument panel (5 amps)

Used some fine fishing line to kind of 'floss' the glue off gently. Any residue remaining involved using a very tiny bit of white spirit which makes a bit of cloth damp, ensuring only the areas with the residue get touched by the white spirit. That is then followed by wiping it down with a wet cloth to get rid of any white spirit then polish that part to check all residue has been removed.

Don't quote me but think my brother paid around£45 for his N75'J' valve from the dealers and managed to sell on on ebay for around £38. I know on the 1.8T's there's some 'claims' of a 1-2hp gain, but the 1.4 TDI's are a different engine altogether so not sure how differently the valve types would work. Presume just to stick with the stock one as it seems to work ok with mine with the re-map with no boosting problems or too much spiking. You will get overboost spike naturally, think mine's around 2-3psi which is considered normal. Edit: Here's someone on ebay selling them for £49 posted http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VAG-1-8T-OE-N75-J-Co...7QQcmdZViewItem

Have to admit local RAC centre and guys on the phone were brilliant. They actually advised me to not replace the glass until MOT time or it cracks into my line of vision. However at £20 more than the local fitter, local fitter will get the job. Budget windscreens? Sounds ok to save £30 but not sure if a £30 saving is a £30 of a lesser job? Might investigate though as I asked one windscreen company about my glass being pilkington and they said ermm....we get as close to manufacture spec.....didn't convince me though.

Well the agove £163 all fitted funny enough is National Mobile Windscreens. One of the experienced fitters was the ONLY person out of RAC and Autoglass to notice a small chip on my windscreen could not actually be repaired due to a double impact (so so tiny but enough that it would crack under drilling it out.) Glad people give them the thumbs up as all I can go by is prices, which they win hands down already! Tigz: Are these the guys you mean as they're the one's i'm going to use http://www.nationalmobilewindscreens.co.uk/ Might ask national windscreens for a quote, thing is i know a lot of them tend to deal with insurance policys rather than those with TPFT lol

Due to a small chip on the very edge of my windscreen, its now spread within 24 hours into a nice large crack on the passenger side. Now due to having a TPFT policy, it means I have to replace it now. I've had various quotes.... One being £480 fitted for a original VAG item.... to £163 all in for a national based company. Prices inbetween include £188 for RAC and £240 for another mobile windscreen fitter. Anyone got any advice on replacing windscreens re brands etc as I know the window is being bonded in if i'm correct?

Well i've been deciding on my next car.......was set on the idea of a high power n/a engine but have to go for a turbo application for the torque, can't be bothered with cars that are flat as a pancake in the low revs haha

The thing is people with re-map'd TDI's vary so much in torque and power delivery, that not every remap'd TDI will be passed back on the drag strip. nfbr's made 117hp, others make 105hp. So bit generalised to say that a remap'd tdi would get its arse handed back. Also drag racing a TDI down the 1/4 mile has so many techniques. Some people belive short shifting to the higher gears works better, some red line all through the gears..... Lets not forget driver themselves! You see plenty of youtube videos of various cars drag racing, like Pug 106's beating Clio 172's.

However if Chris does have a very good example of a TDI, he'll get the best from a custom map instead of a generic so they can utilise the most of having a perky engine. Would be good to see his rolling roaded

Wonder if yours is re-map'd chris? Did you buy yours new? I know my brother just sold his Leon Cupra R to someone without telling them it had a Revo on it, and he was impressed so no one will actually ever know its on - lol

How much was it out of interest? As £180 a year tax seems a lot of money for what it is. My TDI went through the MOT emissions soooo easily without a CAT. Tester came out and said 'mmm...your emissions were so low we didn't get a reading' Also the 6 month tax option is blanked out on the band B cars on the tax forms, so £35 a year is the only option.

Can't see why a petrol should take longer to warm up, might be best to look into it. With my TDI its a tricky option; diesels warm up times do take longer which is a fact, so they use more fuel in the warm up process which is why some people say stick to petrol for short journeys. My diesel takes 3-4 miles of gentle driving to warm up, yes it takes a while but i'd rather use a bit more fuel than giving it more revs when cold just for the sake of warming it up as PD TDI's are quite reliant on the oil system. Heater does make a difference, my car just hovers below 90 if i'm driving slowly without being on boost and the fans on 1 or 2. Basically the TDI's do run efficiently and only ever had the fan on twice in my ownership. Some people on various sites say drive a TDI the same as if its was warm, i.e don't worry about having cold oil etc so it warms the engine up quicker and spends less time being cold. However other arguement is that more damage/wear is done on the engine by trying to drive it in a manner to try and warm it up. For the first few miles I tend to drive slowly changing revs at 2,500rpm at the most and not using full throttle so i'm not using full boost. This way i'm not loading the engine with the turbo boost at cold temps but essentially the only way to warm up the engine is to use the turbo boost. I've tried driving 5 miles without going about 2,000rpm where the turbo won't be used hardly and the engine never warms up. Stick a small amount of turbo boost around 2,000-2,200 rpm and this helps warm it up as long as done sensibly and naturally putting the throttle down aggressively will just ask the ECU to dump even more fuel and request more boost.

2 bucket method! That was one of the best advice i've ever picked up a few years ago, and never looked back. Also a good wash mitt is far better than any sponge i've used. When giving my car the tender love and care I use a fairly basic but effective method that isn't OTT. 1) Rinse the car with the garden hose to gently lift dirt off (not jet wash it incase the dirt/grit scratches) 2) Using the pressure washer feature and soap mixer, put diluted car wash fluid in the soap tank and cover the car with soap suds. 3) After a few mins soak, pressure was the dirty soap suds off 4) Using the two bucket method wash the car, ensuring the mitt gets dipped in the plain water bucket regulary. 5) Use the pressure washer to rinse dirty suds off 6) Shammy the car to a dry and clean state. After that its upto you for the tyre dressing and wax. Still need to clay a car sometime, as i know the difference is amazing!

Most cars that use de-cats tend to have this issue as was looking into a de-cat on my next car.

Don't say that guys please! I got rid of my old mk2 golf which wasn't a gti but had a mint shell for nothing and now good condition non-gti's go for £500 Don't want to make the same mistake again lol 63K is fine, mine's on 58k and i consider that low. In fact at least you know its been used as low mileage diesels aren't necessarily a good thing as I hear most VAG diesel engines don't actually fully bed in until 50-60K.

Snap! They get dirty so quickly and I hate the rain water marks But I have to admit the last 18 months of owning my car has been fun and a joy

Petrol engines Model Engine type Stroke volume Max output/rpm Max torque/rpm Engine code 1.4 Straight-4 SOHC 8V 1.4 L (1390 cc) 40 kW (54 hp)/4700}} 116 N·m (86 ft·lbf)/3000 ??? 1.4 Straight-4 SOHC 8V 1.4 L (1390 cc) 44 kW (59 hp)/4700}} 116 N·m (86 ft·lbf)/2800-3200 ABD; AEX; APQ 1.6 Straight-4 SOHC 8V 1.6 L (1598 cc) 55 kW (74 hp)/4800 135 N·m (100 ft·lbf)/2800-3600 AEE; AEA; ABU 1.6 Straight-4 SOHC 8V 1.6 L (1595 cc) 74 kW (99 hp)/5800 135 N·m (100 ft·lbf)/4400 AEK; AFT 1.8 Straight-4 SOHC 8V 1.8 L (1781 cc) 55 kW (74 hp)/5000 140 N·m (103 ft·lbf)/2500 AAM; ANN 1.8 Straight-4 SOHC 8V 1.8 L (1781 cc) 66 kW (89 hp)/5500 145 N·m (107 ft·lbf)/2500 ABS; ADZ; ANP 2.0 Straight-4 SOHC 8V 2 L (1984 cc) 85 kW (114 hp)/5400 166 N·m (122 ft·lbf)/2600 2E; ADY; AGG 2.0 Straight-4 DOHC 16V 2 L (1984 cc) 110 kW (148 hp)/6000 180 N·m (133 ft·lbf)/4800 ABF 2.8 VR6 VR6 SOHC 12V 2.8 L (2792 cc) 128 kW (172 hp)/5800 235 N·m (173 ft·lbf)/4200 AAA 2.9 VR6 VR6 SOHC 12V 2.9 L (2861 cc) 140 kW (188 hp)/5800 245 N·m (181 ft·lbf)/4200 ABV Looks like AEK or AFT are the 99hp rolling stones version

Will post the seller/link from ebay later as its blocked at work Only £40 delivered and touch wood its fine so far, no issues. Easy to connect, takes no more than 10 mins per side, hardest part is finding somewhere to mount it. Plenty of places on the petrols i think. Just wires into existing harness.

Another engine is the 1.6 8v Engine used in the mk3 golf....now these are identical to the mk4 polo 1.6's..... However the mk3 golf had a 'rolling stones' edition with the 1.6 8v engine that actually had 100hp and higher torque. Now that would make an interesting conversion over the 1.4 16v sport engines.....

Hi there, can you describe the exact leak location? I.e. near the fuel pump under the car on the left hand side (near the rear wheel) or actually within the bonnet (i.e. fuel filter)?

I'm still only 50% sure in selling it, i love the car and it does me well. But my thoughts are that i'm looking to get a house near the end of next year which financially i'll be tied down even more so less able to have a nippy car or sporty'ish Been looking to replace with a (takes out protection before he gets stoned) a Clio Renaultsport 172 phase 1. They're fairly swift and in the phase 1 form come with the nicer alcantra seats and A/C, which rarely appear to be chav'd up and look just subtle. Apparently most owners report around 38mpg on motorway runs which I can live with. Derv is very pricey as you say, but i'm also tempted to get a Peugeot 306 1.9 Turbo Diesel which i'll manually tweak the boost and fuel upto around 105hp then use that as a daily chugger running it on 100% biodiesel at 96p a litre then get a mk2 Golf GTI 16v as my weekend car for fun and games....but 2 cars = 2 insurances, 2 MOT's and 2 Tax's which you know of.

Drop powerflow/longlife an e-mail asking for a price, they pretty much have a set price as long as you tell them say it needs a sensor hole etc....

Matt; On the TDI's there's very little space as you know to mount them, easiest way was to mount them directly to the metal body work using the bracket (bending it) and putting it inbetween the front panel gap and the lights which bolt up tightly Have a look in this pic: Where the air box should be the ballast is mounted on the lights screw nice and tight, thats the only one which might be hard to mount with the airbox is place. The other side is mounted infront of the battery which leaves a few 'mm' gap but its a nice snug fit.

Getting the right TDI is hard and demand for them is increasing given new VED rates and current fuel prices. I'm been pondering about whether to keep or sell mine as they are cracking cars, and i'll be very sad to see mine go if I do sell it.

Custom exhaust place can do one for you, around £80 last time I asked for one a few years back. I know some other performance hot hatches use the standard exhaust system and use a de-cat, just to get a slight extra bit of noise and retain the OEM look. More issues tend to be around the sensors bringing up the management lights up.