cobblers

It's pretty low, but not insanely so. And believe me, they have a letter from me on the way!

You might have heard about my shenanigans when my driveshaft fell off, anyway. I was stuck in the central reservation of a very busy dual carriageway with a driveshaft that wanted bolting back on. RAC patrol turns up, looks at it for 10 seconds and decides I need transporting home, then disappears, to return about half an hour later telling me because my car is lowered it requires a £100 "specialist towing charge" for the 2 miles home! He said I either pay that now or he's leaving me in the middle of this dual carriageway, and that the police would soon come moaning and want to charge me double that. He was on the phone to their head office at the time and wouldn't even left me try and find a mate or a cheaper tow company first, it was either you agree now, or you're on your own! I VERY reluctantly agreed, and waited another 2 hours for a tow to turn up, which wasn't specialist at all, just an everyday flatbed which scraped the hell out of my front bumper. Despite the fact that I pay extra for Relay cover too, they demanded an extra £100 just because the car is lowered and took it on their normal wagon anyway. Just thought it would be worth letting people know that if your car is lowered, the RAC are not going to be a lot of use to you!

I thought of this, and was just gonna stick some small indicators in the standard headlights. Putting GTi headlights in would mean you lose full beam (I think?) because thats what the inner lights do on the gti (Again, I think?)

haha, I just got this:

try the leads first, these engines are sensitive to them for some reason. Cheaper than a coilpack!

http://www.passionauto.co.uk/forums/all_th...r_with_pictures That is a reasonable guide, give it a read It's for a Civic, but the lupo is a similar process.

If you want to go low low you'll need to roll the arches, but you'll have to do that for any wheels worth having anyway! I DIY rolled my fronts with a chunk of nylon:

Yeah, they are mattigs with center caps, so not banded. Those specs are workable, I have 8x14 et20s on, yours will stick out 10mm more, but are smaller so leave more room before the arches. my fronts are flush with the arches, and the rears poke out a little at the back. You'll have more than this: (14x8 et20, 195/45/14) About the same poke as this: (15x8.5 et15, 185/45/15) but smaller wheels. Definitely doable EDIT: Oh you have a gti? Different arches then. Saying that, I don't think 13s will go over GTi brakes?

A lot of people look at the "Max" power ratings, which are essentially completely made up by the manufacturer - They generally have no relation to the actual output or handling capabilities of the stuff - I saw some "2000w" 6x9s, which actually hit the physical end stops running from a 2x45w RMS amp!. You need to look at the RMS figure of the amp to have any real idea of how loud it will end up. a "1200w MAX" amp is probably about 350w RMS, which is not earth shatteringly loud, but reasonably loud. Box design can make a huge difference too, as can the size of the sub, but you'd have to try hard to make 350w RMS not sound loud loud!

Shame they don't do the brembo max disks in tiny (1.4s ) size (Or didn't when I asked the other day) - I'm on my third set of disks and pads in a year because I keep glazing these cheapies over and setting the pads on fire :S

The plastic trims down the inside of the sills - pull the door rubbers off at the bottom and you might be able to just poke the wires down the gap, but I had to take the actual trim off to get the wires in because I'm using 4 guage cable.

Remove the sill trims and run the wires behind them, then up under the rear seats and into the boot.

Run wires up the sill trims (Run phono cables up one side, and the power and speaker cables up the other side) Earth to any metal in the boot (I used the thin gusset around the top of the spare wheel well) You might struggle to fit any speakers in the parcel shelf though!

if its an AHW, its a 75bhp S.

Philplops right, they don't count elsewhere unless the company doesn't realise they were from 10 month policies. They are designed to make you stick with the original company! Same goes for "We offer NCB for named drivers". Only valid at the company who issues it.

I've got 195/45/14s (on 8s mind you) but they are quite small, and do affect the speedo and ride height noticeably. Upsettingly, I get the same amount of miles to a tank now (245) as before, only now I'm reading about 6% more than I'm really doing!

he laughs like a car with an almost flat battery turning over.

It's not the brake fluid level light is it? A lot of cars share this with the handbrake light. Check your brake fluid!

plenty of little touches on it that I like, just my sort of thing.

As a cyclist, I totally agree. Every time I see someone on a road bike riding on the road "for fun" I wish they would just get a proper bike and get out of my bloody way! I've borrowed road bikes and tried them, and yes, you can do 50 miles without working up a sweat, but its like jogging only faster. The only pleasure gained is from numbers. Get something with tyres wider than your willy and get on some mud, do it properly! I ride on the road occasionally (to get to work) and ride where I'm out of peoples way, rather than riding side by side with a mate up a busy dual carraigeway wearing painted on clothes and moaning about how drivers are so inconsiderate as they stack up trying to get past, trying to actually get somewhere. On my old 106, I had the left washer jet aimed at 90 degrees to the left to get them. On the Lupo this isn't possible, so a flamer it must be!

It does worry me that someone will chuck a handful of pebbles down it :S Think about it, loads of vans have side pipes, Transit tippers etc. Would be ace with a diesel - If I had a decat I would probably rig up a home brew flamer kit for the comedy (If slightly chav) value. I should know better but fire is always good especially if it comes out of the back(or side) of your car

£35?

Thanks for the comments everyone always great to get good feedback! It's a proper MOT - I do know people who would pretty much do me an MOT over the phone, but I make sure to get a proper one done. I'm always looking around the car and working on it, so I'm sure I'd pick up anything unsafe long before MOT time, but a second pair of eyes is always good. The exhaust is perfectly legal, it doesn't protrude past the body line of the car, nice outward rolled tailpipe so it's lovely and smooth, so no reason to fail it. It would pass C&U regs and IVA/BIVA fine too Arosa lights are coming off tomorrow if anyone wants a set!

I used a 34mm for the hub nut, make sure you use a 12 sided socket. Came off fine. On most you can just take the philips screw out and give the drum a tap, it should come off.