1990 Golf GTI 16v

[JC]

That sounds more appealing than on the drive at home

It'll hopefully be after xmas but before the MOT. Did the car go through it's MOT with the current suspension setup, or were the springs different back then?

different - i think, it had a few changes 

as and when you want mate, i got a golf cab in here sunday, and all the tools you need impact gun wise

[Mew]

Need more power, a mk5 tdi nearly made me look silly earlier (after being silly himself)

[Mew]

I've fixed the sunroof today. The front left has always sat slightly proud of the roof, and when on the motorway quite a lot of noise comes from up there, as well as a draft. Well it turned out that the sunroof panel was only attached to the rhs guide, and was actually sat on top of the lhs guide, so wasn't really secured at all on the left. I had a fiddle and put the runner back in the guide and adjusted the height. It's not perfect, but it's pretty much spot on and there is no noise from it at motorway speeds now

I also took apart the throttle mechanism to give it a clean up, as it wasn't returning fully and as a result the idle switch wasn't being activated. That is all done now and a hell of a lot better, but the action when flooring it still doesn't feel quite right. I also managed to lose the throttle cable clip on a gravel driveway, one is currently on order with VW.

I'm also starting to doubt whether or not the osf wheel bearing has gone. It hasn't got any worse since owning the car and earlier i noticed there is a sort of shield that seems to be bolted to the back of the block and covers about 4" or so of the os driveshaft, and there is a little bit of play in it. I'm yet to investigate that though, and i'm going to Doncaster and back this weekend so i'll leave it how it is for now.

[Mew]

Oh, and the biggest revelation of the day:

It will cost me £21.34 on the insurance if i add megasquirt

[Mew]

I finally swapped the spot lamps back to the originals today and the front end looks much better now.

I have also found that the exhaust is leaking where the downpipe meets the manifold. I'm unsure if its the joint that's leaking or if there is a hole in the pipe so I'm going to go down to kwikfit in the morning and see if they'll put it up on the ramp. I really hope its something simple like the bolt is loose, but I doubt it.

[Mew]

It failed it's MOT test last Thursday.

The grumpy sod of a tester shook his head when i went in to pick it up, telling me "you've got a few problems with this one".

What he meant was:

Play in the os lower balljoint
Brake compensating valve seized
Leak in downpipe

A balljoint was ordered from Matt (Beavis) and promptly delivered for less £££ than anywhere else, a can of penetrating fluid has been bought for the brake valve and 2 new downpipes have been bought, as well as a decat pipe, for which i will explain below....

I have bought a standard 16v downpipe, but in order to fit it the subframe apparently needs to be dropped due to the resonator box. This could be a right b!tch of a job without the car on a lift (or costly if paying for labour), so i looked into a mk3 downpipe and a decat. In theory the mk3 downpipe can be slotted down from above, and then once bolted onto the manifold the decat can be bolted onto the downpipe from below. Much easier!

I've done a fair bit of research into this and i'm positive that the parts that i've bought should bolt straight up to the mk2 system with no problems. However, this is me, so the standard 16v downpipe will be the backup plan.

Hopefully the car will be on the road by a week this Thursday, as after that i'll have to pay for a retest.

[Guy]

hope you get it sorted.... just had a thought... do you have any of those garages near you where you can rent a bay/lift for an hour at a time?

[Mew]

hope you get it sorted.... just had a thought... do you have any of those garages near you where you can rent a bay/lift for an hour at a time?

As far as i know there is only that one place, in London?

[Horney]

I wish there was one of those in basingstoke.

Good luck with it Ben, sounds like you've got it sussed.

Nick

[JonLeeper]

I wish there was one of those in basingstoke.

Good luck with it Ben, sounds like you've got it sussed.

Nick

You need a friend with a large garage, full air set-up, lots of tools and a 4 post lift!  It currently has 2 x mx5's (one various states of becoming full spec race machines), a TVR race car, a 996 and a GT40!  There was still space to get my 8v in and on the ramps.  Nice when I didn't know he was into cars until his wife was round our house dropping the little ones off and she mentioned that he had just sold her Lotus 21 and she was having to drive the GT40 on track days!!!!!!!!!!!!