rhyso - dirty diesel power!

[Rhyso]

up next i tried some poly bushes in the dog bone

lasted about a month!! and then got Dave to fit me an R32 mount - much better

then in January i couldn't resist any longer and booked the car in for some Custom Code treatment 

[Rhyso]

some small mods

Golfgti plate holders


Audi TT short shifter




Beetle Sport Gear knob which cost NOTHING 




And an R Line rear badge

[Rhyso]

after my remap my clutch lasted all of about a month before the dreaded slipping began 

so began my search for a new one - putting a standard clutch back in wasn't going to be cost effective.  After a lot of reading on another forum i settled on a Sachs Organic Clutch

only problem being it wasn't cheap 

£468 for the pressure and friction plates
£210 for the flywheel (may as well replace it as its apart!)
£40 for the release bearing
£200 fitting



if only it went that smoothly - basically i was supplied the wrong flywheel    after a ding dong with the supplier, who insisted they had supplied me with the correct part, i managed to source another flywheel and thankfully had the car back for the weekend

got fed up running around the works van

[Rhyso]

and to aid things my passenger front spring snapped on me the week before my clutch fitting!







£25 from GSF and free fitting by Alan in work (ex-Land Rover fitter) and the car was almost back to full health

[Rhyso]

Richw911 also kindly sprayed up a Sharan rear badge for me

Old badge


New badge

[Rhyso]

after promising myself one for months i finally hit the Buy it Now button on Ebay and bought an R32 steering wheel





not cheap but well worth the money - feels nice and chunky but still giving plenty of feedback 

[Rhyso]

tried some Dodo Juice Purple Haze wax - love this stuff 

[Rhyso]

i also blame Rich for having Euro style lights on his car as it meant i had to have some for mine 



half and half


100% Euro

[Rhyso]

next up i decided it was time to finally fit the SFS Performance intercooler hose that i picked up in April (its now end of June in the scheme of things!)



i also purchased a larger screen wash bottle and using my newly acquired Halfords Pro socket set attacked the front end of the car 



Bumper off - little did i know how proficient i'd become in being able to remove this 




Old bottle out


New bottle in complete with pipe


Back together


See how narrow the old pipe is!

[Rhyso]

i was feeling fairly pleased with my Saturday afternoon exploits of fitting both the bottle and the pipe and celebrated with my friend Stella - obviosuly being a responsible adult this meant that i didn't drive the car that day.....................

So Sunday came and thought it best to give the car a go to make sure my work had been done properly 

i made it about 500 hundred yards before the pipe went 'pop' and came off.  Looked behind to see HUGE clouds of black smoke pouring out of the back so turned around and went back home.

Naturally the pipe didn't pop off from the EGR end as that would have been an easy fix - nope it blew off from the intercooler end which meant i had to remove the bumper etc to get at it 

refitted and tried again - made it a bit further this time and 'pop' (you can see where this is going can't you) - same process again, same test drive , same result.

It was now 5.30pm on Sunday afternoon and me needing the car for work the following day i refitted the old pipe, put it back together and test drove - it was OK!!  lots of head scratching followed and after a bit of research i thought the fact i was missing a couple of o-rings on the connectors might have been the cause - so ordered them.

Tried fitting again the day before GTI Festival in July and increadibly the pipe stayed on!! RESULT!!

So it was up early on the Sunday morning to meet up with Rich and GTI Matt - everything was going well, i was averaging 50+mpg at an average speed of 70mph  and then 40 miles in i heard the oh so familiar 'pop' 

Pulled into a service that i almost passed, popped the bonnet and thankfully it had popped off from the EGR; someone likes me lol, refitted and continued on my way.  Got a further 10 miles and yep same thing again.  Made it to Strensham services to meet up with Rich and Matt and set off.  I didn't make it off the slip road (that will teach me to show off  )



Refitted and managed to get to GTI Festival AND back home without any further issues.

All was well for about 5 days until it happened again on my way to work 

Got the lads in work to have a look and annoyingly found a simple answer to my problems - i had only hand tightened the jubilee clips with a screwdriver - Rob got a ratchet and socket on the clip and tightened it up. Result - hasn't come loose in 2000 miles - clearly jinxed myself now though