mk2

you can get to the lock cable loom in the passenger footwell. But with the door closed, it's no fun. The 12V method is the least pain. I'm not sure, but I think it's also the suggested method that Vdub stealers use, when 'tapping' doesn't work. The other whacky method which very rarely works, but worth trying is lock the car normally, all doors locked. Disconnect the battery. wait for power to die, then reconnect. If the controller thinks there's a problem, sometimes it chucks a pulse of power to all the lock motors to unlock all doors. The CCM (1CO 962 258 N ) is located in the drivers footwell. But I don't know which wires go off to the LH door lock motor. You could access the wires from there, by accessing the pins in the plug. That's an alternative I just thought of! You'll need a decent wiring diagram though. :)

I can ship it for you...

Fabulous! I shall endevour to achieve the same numbers. Very cheap motoring. I'm about to hit 100k with one of my SDIs.

If you can bypass the crankcase fume breather. You just have to do that simple mod.... you'll get 5% better milage straight away :) Gotta see a pic of it on the road amongst all the other big stuff where you live

Yeah, that works IF it's already unlocked (and not deadlocked).

Impressive. All your miles, or bought with lots already on? Go on, tell us what you've had to do with it maintenance/repairs....?

That just reminded me of probably the wierdest fault I'd ever come across. A (non VAG) car racks up to the workshop with the most awful noise coming from the engine when it was running. I mean bad. Worse than a gearbox crunching or thrust realese bearing having completely gone. The owners were just too scared to drive it one inch further. A really bad crunching, grinding rattling noise where everyone just had to stop and look.... wincingly bad. So it was engine related for sure. Checked all the usual, like water pump, alternator and anything that bolts to the block. Couldn't find it. Drive to the wheels was fine. Gear shifts fine. Clutch fine. Not gearbox related then. Pulled valve cover off to have a look. No problems there either. Had to be bottom end. Pulled out plugs. Turned engine over witha spanner. All nice and tight. No clunking or anything. Hmm. Not the mains, big ends or rods then. No real blow by gases either. Not rings or pistons. Completely stumped at this point after about 45 minutes and the customers waiting. I did notice however, that while cranking the engine on the starter motor, the noise completely went, until the starter switched off. Then that awful din started up, just as the engine kicked into life. Pull starter. Nope starter motor was just fine. But I did notice a fair amount of metal dust on the pinion gear. So with torch, into the starter hole i delved...yup, there it is. A loose starter ring gear! The thing was just hanging on, bouncing around on the flywheel. Five minute fix. Tack weld the ring onto the flywheel with equal amounts of weld to keep everything in balance. Fixed. Starter back in. Customers away in under 15 mins. yup, it's amazing what you can do through the starter motor hole....

By the sounds of it, you have an S spec car with central locking....? In which case the follwing may help. Not sure if I'm allowed to post this, hopefully the mods won't delete it, as the Lupo is an older car now. You can bypass (lock or unlock) any older generation VAG car by physically powering the lock motors. So normally the motor is powered/controlled via the central locking system, but it is possible to physically connect power to the motor (just like electric windows), to run the motor forward or in reverse, to lock or unlock the mechanism. You will need to access the power cables that go to the lock. Cut them. Connect 12V to the motor pair. Wait for the clunk. Sorted. Being the left side door, there are various places to get to them. The easiest would probably be via the top door card. connect 12v to the motor (trial and error which polarity- one way locks, the other unlocks). Don't leave power connected for more than 2 seconds or you'll burn it out. When sorted, reconnect the cables. But you will need to pull the lock out to clean the microswitches. Or leave the power off and use the lock as a manual one by pushing the button down from the inside or opening it by pulling the lever. like @Rich says. It's a pain. Just had another thought, FYI... google mk4 golf locks. There's loads on the subject....!

Spoke to the guys I know at our local Vdubs... in a nutshell, they have two rates. All set by VAG milton keynes. One for walk in general public and one for trade. The difference is only about 5%, and does vary depending on what's being ordered. For example, big discount on things like bearings, and mechamical stuff; minimal discount on stuff like wipers and coolant. I asked about the budget line, but they know nothing about it. Only what milton keynes dictate. So i dunno either...

@Rich suggestions? I'll phone the guys I know at my local vdub stealer and see what they say....

Is that a stock pic or did that happen to your clutch pressure plate spring thing....?

Yeah, and me please. Could do with new springs all round.... costs me £10 for a sand blast and powdercoat per spring.

You can get manual boxes from just about anywhere in europe, but it's not just that you'd need to do a conversion. Ideally you'd have a donor car right next to the one you're working on. Same goes for swapping the steering over, from RHD to LHD. Have you thought about buying a European car (germany/france/belgium/spain) as a scrapper? And best of all you'd have lots of parts to sell to anyone else in Canada.... the car could potentially pay for itself. And no painful registration process...... The company i use to ship globally globally are these people. Between the US and Southampton costs about £600 for a car if you do all the paperwork yourself. https://www.2wglobal.com/global-network/fleet/fleet-overview/

Took me about 4 months to get one. Now have two. There were a few complete junk cars that the owners thought were amazing. Not. Paid probably more than i shoukd have; 2k for an S spec with 60k miles 4 years ago. It was in v good nick. A decent one will still set you back about £1500. Av about £800, junk 350. With the EGR mod'd, breather bypass and fresh gearbox oil, you can easily get 75mpg. Like to the beach and back for a tenner for me and 3 mates. And cheap to insure being such a low spec car. And cheap to tax. Low maintenance. You probably already know all this which is why you're looking for one!

Me too. Ideally an Arosa SDI, but rare as... they go really quick if in good nick. Even I'm not fast enough to get one going cheap! They pop up every now and then. Probably the cheapest form of motoring in the UK at the mo.

Sell the old setup and get some money back... yeah, do as @Rich says

Yes you can. But i hope the auto transmission is ok. Without the engine running, the oil does not flow inside the unit. If you towed very slowly (<30kmh) it is probably ok. If fast, then it is possible you burned some clutches.

I get it. Uneccessary on a VAG car IMO. Our cars are manufactured to much higher standards. Useful if there's been an accident and something's been bent though. Or perhaps track work. But you'd need to run really low profile tyres to notice any difference in handling. The trouble is, the way a rear beam flexes to change the camber and caster when it goes up and down while the other side doesn't means it depends on rear loading too. Everyone lightens their cars when they do track stuff, so the whole dynamic geometry is out when on a circuit. Not having messed with rear beams much, I'd guess that not only would the static geometry need tweeking, but the dynamics too. That'd mean the entire rear beam and mounting points would need chopping about. Nightmare scenario! Lots of fun learning about every incremental change though.

Is it possible to adjust the rear beam on a gti?? Not seen anything that i could adjust on my SDIs.

From what the poor guy has been through, i don't think the process will be repeated.... the importing processing compliance stuff cost more than the car! I think it's just gonna be used as a letter delivery thing- RHD in a LHD country.

Yeah, the lacquer (yes, i can spell now!) will fill all those tiny crazings. They do completely disappear as the stuff melts into the surface. But they have to be bone dry without a trace of moisture (from rubbing back). Make sure you service that box. New fluid will make a big difference (two different fluids- amsoil atf and ep75w90 diff/gear oil). That's American gallons I'm guessing? Like 3.79 L from memory? 42=50MPG uk style. Should be better- like 65-75, but with a nice new air filter. I bet loads of people are stopping to have a closer look at the car?

I'll have it. Even have a spare engine! On my way... :)

You can't if the car is a modern fuel injected thing, controlled by a bosch ECU, with a cat. As a safety measure, the moment the ECU is switched off, all the injectors (and carbon canister purge solenoid) and fuel pump are shut off. If raw fuel went into a cat it just gets converted. Pete's right though- if you had a straight though exhaust and a software modded ECU you could program it to inject fuel without any ignition pulses. No flames though, just a big bang. To get visible flames (yellow), you need to run a mix of about 4:1 air:fuel. But you need to ignite it first, and 4:1 wont ignite with a spark plug. It's actually much more difficult than you think. A flame thrower concept might be easier........ (huge injector in the tailpipe). not that I know anything about this!

Never done it on a Lupo, but the only way I know besides having a factory alignment jig, or all the measurements and a tape measure, is by having another lupo for reference. Millimetres matter. You do need to be as precise as setting up steering alignment, or camber will be out. I'm just thinking that you might be able to assemble everything leaving the sub frame bolts just nipped up, complete with wheels on, and set it using a pry bar. If you have a flat, horizontal, slippery surface (glossy magazines), get the wheels about parallel with the weight of the car pressing down. Move everything till the camber of both sides are exactly the same. @Rich- what do you think?

Yeah, but it's a lot heavier than it used to be.