sgtazza

This post is funny! My man name for the car WAS 'the red devil' (Cos its red and its a Devil (<- replace devil with swear word of choice) However some bright spark in Gravesend decided to permenantly borrow my rear bumper, so now I have a pea green replacment! thus my mates now call the car SHREK!

Thanks for the response Jon, The tyres are at correct pressure, I have 15' Wolfrace wheels w/Toyo 45/195 T1-R's. Wheels are tight. lol. Suspension/bushes etc are standard but in good condition. I failed to mention above that the free play is in existance even when at a stand still (with the ignition on/off) so im wondering if its the steering rack itself that has the movement in it? perhaps. The knuckle joint that is just about visible in the footwell is in direct contact with the steering wheel so I know the wheel etc isnt loose. I plan on upgrading to JOM coilies but dont really want to do that untill I get the steering sorted. (

Not sure if anyone can help me, but.... My steering seems to be a bit sloppy. I have enough freeplay in the steering wheel that when im going along in a straight line the car is able to weave slightly as its going over little bumps and lumps and the bloody steering wheel is sitting straight and not moving! As one can imaging this does sometimes induce a little sphincter flutter when one is getting a wriggle on! Any ideas what it could be? My girfriends new beetle doesnt have any free play and the steering is nice and firm and reasonably responsive, but mine is lacking. Other than vans I have no other real comparison to go on.

Hey mate Just surfing through as I havnt been on here for a while and I saw this post. I have the EXACT same issue with my drivers side window. Last year I thought bugger it I'll take the glass out and check the mechanism as the switch/relay seemed to be working ok. Was a really easy job.. glass out.. had a poke about... didnt see anything out of place.. put it all back together and as if by magic the window started working again. about 4months later it just stopped again.. and I havnt been arsed sinse to take the glass out again. I am proper confused as to what is causing the problem as I know it all works and the mechanism in the door seemed ok. Have you had any results yet?

Brown stuff hit the proverbial last night.. Just on my way out to go to Prept, got 3 mins down the road and the car cut out. Re started. Cut out again. restarted.. stayed running but this time it was as lumpy as peter griffins belly and smoke was constanly visible through the rear view. Im pretty sure the worse has now happened. Poo. ( I have a mechanic on standy by so fingers crossed it wont cost me the earth to fix it... well see tho. I'll update this thread when I have more info.. ( - do you know what was worse about all this.. I had to go to Prept in my missus's new beetle.. oh the shame. ha ha

Man! you lot are so helpful sometimes! ha ha

richie-guy - I have just recently sorted out the EXACT same prob on my drivers side window. its a real pain in the butt to do with the window fully up (which is where mine got stuck!) but let me know if your still having issues with it and I'll run you through step by step. I still dont know what the chuff was wrong with mine but can only assume it simply got stuck in the fully closed position, I literally had to remove the glass to sort the prob. its not as daunting as it sounds though.

nfbr - even the neck of the bottle without the lid fouls the mount. I think the solution here is to mill out a hole in the mount to clear the bottle. If that dont work then strut braces just arent meant to be.

im interested so long as it has a lambda sensor port. I had an ashley mani that lacked said port. So i sold it.

IceGeezer - No chance I want the glory on this one! mwoh ha ha nfbr - umm... ok. bit extreme. but do-able! wonder if i could get a LHD fluid pot... hmmm...

It wouldnt make any odds anyway, the pot would be in the same place, just on the other side and the mounts are also identical angles so same problem.

Im confued! LoL do you guys drink neat alcohol because almost none of that post made sense! made me chuckle though! Only joking! The reason for the brace anyway is my want to track day the car, I do it on the various bikes i've owned so why not the car! and the stiffer the better especially as the car is made from German Jelly It is an OMP, fixed width strut, supposedly for the Loop 1.4 Sport and Polo 6N (actually says it on the product lable) I do agree that it SHOULD fit but evidently OMP must have used an R&D car without brakes! The struts mounts have the correct shape cut outs etc to fit the suspension turrets, just that the drivers side mount is at too shallow an angle (see crude attached drawing) The only solution I can fore see it to modify the mount to fit. (or give up and sell it to some poor soul on eBay! )

Must say I only get the smoke under ''hard'' acceleration say 3750/4000rpm+ under load. It doesnt smoke at all other wise, not even cold. I seem to be free from piston slap, the tappets are a bit clacky cold, but the old girl makes good power and doesnt seem to have any flat spots even low down in the rpm range. It just confuses me ! I have noticed the oil blackens very quickly. Might there be a temperature issue? the guage says a constant 75/80degC Might explain the reason for its tendancy to cut out. Problem is im not 100% clued up on car engines so im pissing in the wind a bit here

Advice taken, looks like I'll be getting my hands dirty! Thanks for that funkycooljem. much Appreciated.

Ah poo! I hope not. Sounds it though. Funny, cos on the MOT it failed on emissions due to a faulty cat. Probably caused by oil contamination. Do you reckon it would be worth me popping the head off and taking a look at the pistons/valve train for any signs of excessive wear? What should i be specificly on the look out for? Appreciate your help.

Dudes and dudettes, My loop 1.4 Sport seems to have developed a smoking habit. Under hard acceleration (for a Lupo anyway) i seem to leave a nice dark grey/black cloud behind me. Not a thick cloud, but noticable in the rear view. Also it seems to cut out mid flight. i.e. cruising along an A road at ahmm.. 50mph.. in 5th Gear (as an example) the engine will simply cut out and bump start itself, which puts a massive jolt through the car and i imagine it does the gearbox no good. Im baffled as to what the issue might be. It will cut out at any speed, the above is merely a typical example. It will stall even when stationary, braking or accelerating. ALSO... when i return from a poodle in the loop, the rear bumper and boot lid are spekled with tiny black dots. Oil consumption however isnt too terrible! So any ideas peeps?

Hey Icegeezer, I do get that impression. Im going to have a look at milling a cut out section into the brace to clear the brake flud bottle. I'll repost if im sucessful! (or if im not!! )

Cheers Tigz appreciate it.

I hear what your saying Tigz, but the tank is mounted directly on top of the master cylinder. So am not sure what can of worms I could open trying to relocate the whole shabang.

Hi all, After a trip to Players meet at North Weild yesterday, I went home full of enthusiasm to get my finger out and finally fit my OMP Strut Brace. I have managed to sort out the passenger side brace mount... HOWEVER... I have a wee tiny issue mounting the brace mount on the drivers side on account of the Brake Resovoir beeing in the way. The reservoir look fairly firmly bolted into place and im not too keen on mucking about with brake systems. The issue is the tank/bottle sits too high up and it fouls the strut brace mount. So.. does any one have a solution? My only thought is seeking a lower profile reservoir tank/bottle? if so does anyone know of one that fits the loop? (Its a 1.4 Sport) Thanks Azza

Bringing up an old topic! Sorry!! I didnt even bother to fit the Ashley manifold in the end. although it was good Value for money i thought the workmanship in terms of quality to be pretty poor and it had no Lamda ports so that would have involved drilling and welding a nut onto it and frankly I couldnt be bothered. Ive been out of the scene for a few months (i have a new bike thats been sucking on my money!! boys will be boys! ) but plan on a raceland manifold and see how it feels with the rest of the system stock and if need be I'll upgrade the rest on an R&D basis. I will say if anyone does decide to get an ashley manifold they supplied mine with a decat pipe which was cool. No extra cost. Any thoughts on the above let me know.

Yeah, the cars well alarmed. Just not well enough by the look of it! Your right tho, im glad it wasnt a few k's worth of kit cos i'd probably have been suicidal.

Guys and gals, I had my rear window and passenger quater window smashed some time early Sunday morning. A theiving git who knew exactly where to go nicked my amp/sub. So if your offered an Alpine T-222 and a Alpine Type -E sub in a box, wired up with Autoleads pink/white cable by anyone in the welling, sidcup, bexleyheath area beware because it could be stolen.

Thanks for the heads up nfbr. Apologies for the europerformance reference. lol I think that given the massive cost involved with the uprated clutch, I may as well stick with an o.e. replacment for now. Its going to work out not being too far short of £500 to get the clutch and fit it! arghh. Thank you for the help as allways guys, at least I know where to head when the time is right.

Hi chaps, Does anyone have an opinion on Black Diamond clutches? My clutch has pretty much given up now and im looking for something with a bit more bite especially as I have some under the hood mods underway. I saw them on europerformance.co.uk Cheers as allways.