Trog's Mk3 8v - Parts from America!

[thai-wronghorse]

Pricks, I bloody hate garages and almost never use them unless it's essential and something Im totally scared or incapable of doing due to lack of specialist equipment required.

[neil1780]

got a set of springs for sale if you want them

Thanks, but no ta. Will b going down coilovers route after all. 

I did also mate.

That doesnt sound good mate some mechanics just dont give a fk or havnt got a clue what there doing.

[trog_nfs]

The tensioner on the cambelt scared me to be honest. I've swapped engines and stuff before on my old car, and thought nowt of it, but reading about how much of a fatherless son the later tensioner can be made me want to get a garage to do it.

And the lack of a 4 wheel laser alignment rig made a garage trip necessary  

[thai-wronghorse]

Having recently fitted a late type tensioner i can honestly say It was a lot easier to fit and set up with the correct pronged tool than id ever envisaged.

[trog_nfs]

Well thats certainly something to bear in mind for in 5 years time 

[trog_nfs]

Well the car went back into the garage today.

Apparently to sort the tracking, it needed two track rod ends and a mount. Hmm, funny how it needs them now. Any way, they replaced them for free, so bonus.

The cambelt is correctly tensioned, they tested it with gauge. Hopefully noise will go away with time.

And they sorted the weird whistling/buzzing noise under load as well. The intake pipe had worn thin at the union with the throttle body, so it slipped off even with the hose clip in place. Loads of tape and a jubilee clip later, its not coming off in a hurry.

Took them all day to do this, dropped it off at 8:30 and didn't get it back to 18:00. Think I got my moneys worth there.

Then had a mad dash to harpenden to top up the fluids in the HPLC which I supposed to do in the afternoon. (Garage had originally said it would be done by 13:00). Only just made it!

[trog_nfs]

Just like to say tierod on ebay is an absolute legend.

I snapped the end off my rigid breather pipe on my car. VW wanted £45 odd quid for it, and couldn't get it for several days.

Tierod had it for half the price and had it with me next day! Sent 1st class recorded no extra charge. Fan-dabby-dosie!

Just as well, as when I took it off, it snapped into 5 seperate pieces! Think it might have been knackered....

[thai-wronghorse]

Couldn't agree more, Spencer and the lads (Tierod69) have bailed me out of loads of potentially expensive VW related predicaments over the years. 

[LowlifeDubber]

Sorry to hear about your troubles with the garage mate. At least it's sorted now though.

Cant agree with you more regarding Tierod,i think between him and chubnut they are the best people for vw spares on ebay!
Im currently putting an order in for some trim clips etc.

Your doing a good job though mate,keep it up

[trog_nfs]

Hey chaps,

I wonder if I can get some opinions:


Should I change the number plate bulbs to white leds? I'm having to replace the light housing anyway as it split, and wondered if I should do the leds at the same time.


Also, I currently run white leds in my sidelights, and normal 501 bulbs in my indicators, should I swap those to white leds too? Didn't like the orange ones, was a bit multi coloured as I have bright yellow fogs.


Finally, I going to take my clocks apart and paint my needles with blue UV paint. I've got standard black clocks (which i quite like to be fair). I can use two different paints, both which will glow under blue under UV light. One is blue in colour, the other is white until under UV.

What are your thoughts?



Also, the passenger seat rattles when no-one is in it. I've had it apart and tightened all the bolts up and fixed the little tray thats attached to it, but it still rattles.

The only thing I can think of is the little runner clips are knackered and thus need replacing. Best place to get them?