It's about time I tipped some more stuff into this thread. The main annoyance right now is that I have a CLUNK.
It's coming from the front nearside corner of the car and happens.... well let's just say a lot.
I thought it was the G3 top mount, so I clamped down the spring and swapped that out yesterday (woo for not screwing the geometry!). I then took out for a test drive with my glamourous assistant (2 1/2 year old daughter) who declared it 'too noisy'. I thought it was too noisy, as the b-stard CLUNK was still there.
So, after getting it up in the air and getting properly nasty with the wheel to try and figure out what the hell it was I've come to a conclusion.
It's the Bonrath polybush at the back of the lower arm.
When this was fitted (last May, in Nurburg) the guy fitting it refused to dunk it in hot water for 10 minutes before pushing it in the arm. When it went in it tore off the lip on the side that was pushed through. I was pretty pi$$ed at him at the time and now I'm even more pi$$ed about it. For the second one I went and got a jug of hot water and sat the bush in there, before he pushed it in. It went in much quicker and didn't f*ck the bush on the way in.
So, the lesson remains the same: if you want it done properly, do it yourself (unless it's something to do with engine management, in which case find someone who doesn't have The Fear on them about wires - I recommend DannyP). At least if you do it yourself you've only yourself to blame when something f*cks up. Shame I was about 600 miles away from my press when the bushes went last year.
On a more positive note, I have the Golf down on the IOW to use for work this week. To make it slightly less greedy on fuel I've put a 3bar fuel pressure regulator in it, although this noticeably takes away quite a bit of grunt north of 6K.... so if I go out for a hoon one evening I think I might bob the 4 bar reg back in there.
As a footnote/placeholder on the management side.... we spent a day trying to get the MS running on the existing engine loom, but it wasn't having any of it, so later this year the whole engine loom will come out and have a MS-specific one fitted. The WBO2 kit also wouldn't play ball, so that's out of the car at the moment. When Danny took it home for a good talking to, after it messed us about it turns out the destructions were missing three capacitors. These have now been fitted, so the box and sensor will now talk to the laptop.
The only other thing of note is that I've fitted Foamalux doorcards to all four doors. This stuff costs about £20 per 8'X4' sheet. One sheet will do all four cards, if you're careful. It's really easy to work - you can use a Stanley knife, hacksaw, rasp and sandpaper on it. When I fitted the cards I was able to remove quite a lot of material from the inside of the rear doors. If you drill a large hole in the rear corner it's possible to rear the lock mechanism, so it's still possible to lock and unlock the rear doors, which is good. I've left the front doors alone, as they still have the winder mech in them etc. The next thing I need to get sorted is a pull strap on both front doors. Once this is done I'm going to cut and re-weld the winder stubs, as they stick out a LONG way without the bulky door cards. When I've done this I might bother taking photos.... no rush though.
Now all I need is life to settle down a bit and I can crack on with getting the seats/cage/harnesses in. Sadly, the way things are going this isn't going to happen until this winter at the VERY earliest. It's been an incredibly frustrating year in many ways.