StevesTruck

I've been pretty unimpressed with Brembos in recent years. Performance hasn't been amazing, loose fitment on pads making them rattle, definitely not what they used to be. I just fit something along the lines of ATE or TRW now, loads cheaper and they're basically OEM anyway. The eurocarparts brands (Pagid and whatever they call the cheapo ones) are just dog****. I always used to fit Mintex, only stopped because I switched parts suppliers, my brother still uses them and says they're decent.

I believe the filler neck detaches from the tank. Have a look on an online parts catalogue like 7zap and it should show you.

Reminds me of a Mitsusoka? Viewt where they grafted a jag front end on a Micra. I'm guessing it's a chopped MX5?

No specific knowledge of your car, but it's probably worth spraying some contact cleaner in the seat controls.

A lot of them do take them to copart, generally if it's clearly going to be an economic write off, rather than go to the lengths of sending the assessor out all over the place, when they can just walk down a row of cars in the yard, or use coparts own assessor.

My suggestion would be have a browse on copart's auction for a cars like yours and see what the PAV is listed as,

If you let them play that game they've got you against the wall to start with. I'd be adopting the "it's not going anywhere til it's been paid for" stance. They can send an assessor out.

We had to tell a customer on our campsite that - no, you can't "just" plug your EV in a "spare" hookup and charge it for free as whenever you want while you're on our campsite. 🙄

It's overpaintable stone chip. If you're not bothered about an exact match, you can get aerosols that aren't bad.

Check your ABS cables, particularly the one that goes down to the driver's front wheel, closely for any damage. Splits can hide on the inside of the curves where the cable bends.

That many sensor errors would make me think that there's a loose multiplug in the engine bay or damaged wiring.

Probably a sensible, if unfortunate, decision if you've got to get someone to do the work. There's a lot of labour involved in building the rear axle up on these, and you can't be sure how good the mount points really are until you drop the axle off.

I'd probably go through all the heater settings and look for something not working (hot/cold standard/recirc various output directions).

My guess, and it is a guess would be one of the heater flaps.

There's a few of the inside of the sump and bottom end on my build thread for my Polo over on clubpolo if that helps? https://www.clubpolo.co.uk/topic/359345-something-modern-6r-16tdi-3dr/?do=findComment&comment=2739562

Ibiza, Polo and Fabia share the hubs. Careful though, there's two sorts. Most fabias use the FSIII calipers so have the carriers built in the hub. The VRS uses a bigger caliper and a different hub. If you're getting them off an Ibiza, its a bit of a lottery which have which brakes.

There's various bits of software that can read the immobiliser PIN via the OBD port. On some more modern stuff, they have to take the clocks out and plug them in.

Hutchinson telecom? 😁

I tend to just go with an OEM supplier. Febi/ATE/TRW, they always work well and are cheaper than the name brands. I used Brembo a lot about 10-15 years ago, but I found they went off in terms of performance over the years, not sure if they became a Eurocarparts label? I tried Eicher a while ago because they were cheap in ECP, took them back off again and chucked them in the bin.

Keep it simple - if it's not leaking it, it's burning it. Check for signs of cross contamination, do a sniffer test (the kits are cheap enough). Did anyone mention it was smoking? It is possible that a joint's getting a bit poor and it's only leaking when it's being pushed hard, so it's work having a good look around all the pipework for any leaks. Does it get hot and/or spin it's fans when it's sat idling in the sun, or if sun's in short supply, idling with the bonnet down and it's nose up against a hedge? If you've still got a/c, does the fan spin when you stick it on full cold?

Pretty much. My daily's have a hard life, my toys get looked after. I'd love to have a preened, polished car that I drive every day, but the reality is they carry tools, materials, do 100 miles most days and get parked in public car parks. That aside, my point is I never heard of a head gasket going on a 1.9TDI or early PD. I've heard it happen on a few of the later ones.

Neither ones perfect, nothing is. I'd avoid the 1.6tdi just because there's no real reason to go for one over a 1.9 or 2.0. The later 1.9's aren't as good as the early ones, my 56 plate had head gasket failure. I still drove it for ages and it died at about 195k. The 2.0's tend to just have a lot of niggly problems. They're a tough old car, but VAG build quality isn't anything like what it was.

Depends a bit what you want from your 2 grand. My personal rule for bangernomics is spend half your budget and keep the other half in reserve for stuff going wrong. Were it me in that price range, I'd probably dodge the VRS and aim for something lower specced. There's nothing in particular wrong with the VRS, they're a nice car, they just tend to lead harder lives, that and the more basic Octavias tend to be owned by old people who are more likely to take stuff to a garage and get everything done that the garage quotes them for. Also, the more basic mk2's are tough old buses that don't mind getting used for things that would probably be more suited to your landrover. I dragged some heavy stuff with mine, carried all kinds of stuff, camped in it, hit some pretty big potholes and even had a couple of fun times doing a bit of fording.

That should self-rectify in about 4 years. 🙃

Or shine a torch down down the neck