bernd

Mmmhh Wickes car park seems like the right choice for a bunch of boy racers, no? Near Wallingford there’s also the McDonald’s, M&S BP on the A4074… Or with more ambience, there’s the Riverside car park in Crowmarch Gifford, and a pub “The Queen’s Head” which has if I remember correctly a large car park behind it.

How many would you consider a decent amount?

Some progress: The replacement towing eye cover has been sprayed and installed. Thanks to @Rickie all 4 wheel centre caps are in place. (One is the wrong colour, but hey ho, nevermind) Last weekend, I finally replaced the clutch slave cylinder, which should stop the break fluid leak. Fingers crossed! And yesterday, it had a full valet done. It’s so clean inside that I contemplated taking my shoes off before getting in…

Almost Oxfordshire... Definitely up for a meeting too

I haven't seen another GTI in the wild for ages. (This post is a bit of a cheat, as it was actually a planned meet) @Skajme funnily enough we both said that we really wanted a blue one, but there's never any blue ones for sale...

It was great meeting you @Rickie... and funny to see that guy in the black Lupo drive around the car park at the same time too. I don't think he even noticed though.

Hurrah! Springs sorted (clunky suspension noises sorted)… MOT done. Phew! I’m a bit baffled by parts prices though. The Sachs slave cylinder (which is the OEM part) is €37.95 from @mk2’s supplier in Germany. The identical part is £51.92 after discount from Eurocarparts. The parts guy from Marshall VW Reading, after bring particularly unhelpful as usual quoted £109.95 for the part. I mean Come on?! I have also ordered a door hinge off a Mk5 Golf from ebay in the hope of solving the dreaded door catch strap issue. Watch this space…

I’m gonna jump on @mk2’s bandwagon here… I would very much like to buy one Bathurst centre cover from the lucky new owner of this lot…

So, the Lupo has failed it’s MOT today because both rear coil springs are broken or fractured. Yay! As well as a minor exhaust leak as an advisory. I have also figured out what is causing the break fluid leak. It’s the clutch slave cylinder. So I shall get one of these too and I’ve got something to do over the next couple of weekends…

It has arrived... Now I just need to get a can of silver paint and we’re good to go.

That's brilliant! Thank you! I'll get on it now...

Cheers! I have seen the ones on ebay. I’m not sure how the right hand ones are three times more expensive than left ones. I don’t mind painting them. I haven’t actually done anything apart from a quick google, but I wonder if you can’t get them from vw directly?!

However, I’m a bit annoyed that the towing eye cover has come off at some point recently. The poor thing looks like someone knocked his tooth out. So If anybody got one going spare or knows where to get one, please let me know... cheers!

Spring clean... Look how shiny it is! 😎

It's not a Gti though, is it?

Ah, cheers! Well, I do like a good odometer picture. Luckily this one happened just as I was arriving home anyway. Usually I tend to miss the interesting number by a couple of miles, and nobody wants to see a picture of that.

We've hit 120000 miles earlier today...

At around 6 tonight, I saw a Y reg black Lupo Gti on Richfield Avenue, going towards Cow Lane. Of course, at that point I was not actually driving my Lupo but I was in the Skoda, typical... Anyway, I just wanted to say "Hey! Nice car mate!" in case you're on here...

Well, I don’t think this is a true representation. E.g I’m almost sure that the haziness in the picture is not caused by weather but by a terribly smudged camera lens

That’s the correct term I suppose @mk2 Also, I saw the guy in the blue Lupo on Portman Road on my way home, but he never waves back 😕

It was all fun and games until the Husky dog had enough of his personal space being invaded constantly and started a riot somewhere just after Brussels... They didn't lie in the advert though, that Polo was tough. I transported 30 square meters worth of solid oak flooring from B&Q in it and yeah, the suspension bottomed out then.

Ok, I admit the last time I drove the Lupo from Reading to Frankfurt was 10 years ago, so maybe I'd feel different now that I'm old and fat. One Christmas, we did the Reading to Frankfurt run with 3 adults, their luggage, plus the Swiss mountain dog and the Husky dog, all packed in the Polo, as all flights out of Heathrow were cancelled for several days because of fog, so the husband and one of his workmates couldn't fly to Germany as initially planned. That was not fun, but 1 or 2 people on a road trip in an Arosa, I can't see why not... (I've also driven that route in my dad's T4 a couple of times and I'm not sure if that's any more comfortable.)

I've driven many times from Frankfurt to Reading in the Lupo. That distance is not a problem at all. We also took the Lupo on a 2 week holiday trip to Norway, with the dog sitting on one back seat and the other one folded down for luggage space. Enough for 2 people and sort of still having use of the rear view mirror. And we went skiing in Switzerland, same interior configuration and a roof rack for skis. That one was a 1.0 50hp Lupo, and it was surprisingly comfortable. The Polo 9N I had afterwards and the husband's 13reg Fabia caused more back-ache on the way to Germany. As soon as it is at all possible, I'm going to drive to Germany in the Gti. Partly for some unrestricted Autobahn, but mostly to visit my parents...

That does make sense. However, shouldn't having a correct temperature reading make more difference when the engine has warmed up, because surely a cold start is a cold start ?? Geting to the throttle body is easy. You need to take the air filter and air filter housing off and there it is...

Did you check for Polo and/or Seat Ibiza parts? They are probably identical, and there should be more of them around if you’re looking for a used part.