SEVrs

Never mind. Had it checked; it is DMF and at just 49K miles. Not a happy bunny at all.

Bilstein Streetline kit or Bilstein B8 shocks with Eibach pro spring kit. Add Whiteline or Jabba sport RARB. As you say, avoid cheap coilovers as most just ruin the ride and handling. You don't get something for nothing where suspension is concerned.

A knocking has just started at 800rpm idle which goes away if revs are raised to 1000 or clutch is pressed in. It's a 2007 registered BLT engine. At just 49K miles, I'm pretty surprised but could this be the start of the dreaded DMF failure tell tale signs? I am really beginning to regret buying this car as after just a month I've had to shell out on cambelt/waterpump, EGR cleaning, Intake manifold cleaning, replacement of failed switches., EGR delete (to avoid the clogging up of the intake again). The car was one lady owner (hubby was a former Skoda mech tech), and all signs are that it's been driven like Miss Daisy (discs all good, cloged EGR suggests not a lot of revs regularly given but could equally be lots of short trips or stop start town work). Question is, if it is the DMF on its way out, is it worth replacing both the turbo and DMF at close on 50K miles (as at some stage the KKK will need replacing anyway). I had planned on a PD150 Garret job at some point in the future and it seems sensible to do it with the clutch/flywheel and sell the original turbo to try and recover a little cash back. I would only do this if I thought that I wouldn't have to shell out for any more major expenditure for at least another 100K miles, otherwise the car isn't worth spending the hard earned on. Sickening really as the car looked, sounded and drove perfectly on the test drives and subsequent inspections which was only 400 miles ago!

RE OP: I doubt it will affect resale since those in the market for cheaper motoring will still be attracted to diesels. Modern petrol engined small cars will hold value for a fair few years (the newer ones) making them less attractive than cheaper used diesels. Just as diesels started to match petrol for performance, petrols are starting to match diesels for economy and this trend will only increase with hybrid technology development. I can see diesel emission controls being tightened up for newer cars but they cannot do much legislatively about older engines except perhaps alter the annual tax calculations to penalise them more. It's all a political mess. It was politicians and the barmy Euro legislators who shoved us all down the diesel route in terms of lowering emissions and for economy in the first place. All of us petrol heads were already aware that petrol cars were less polluting than diesels but the diesel agenda was forced anyway. Now they're back tracking and tightening up on current and future controls for diesel engines which has already led to huge engine complexity, increasing unreliability and cost of ownership so more people will probably revert to petrol . I know that we shall once we get the life from our cars. On the bike front, I've a few bikes, including a 1 litre sports bike. Insurance for both bikes combined is less than the Fabia. I can eek out over 50mpg from my 147BHP Aprilia with ease or empty the tank in under 80 miles depending on how it's ridden. It all depends on how the throttle and brakes are used. Ditto tyres. They can last 4K miles (rear) or I can get under 1000 miles with a trackday or two thrown in. On the whole though, sports bikes are more expensive to run and you can really forget cheap insurance unless over 30 years old and living in the sticks! Throw into the equation that its winter here 5 months of the year give or take, and any small car looks a more practical alternative. Commuting bikes are way cheaper to run though and I ran nothing but bikes for 10 years winter and summer, which was a great way to develop observation skills, read road conditions and hone roadcraft. Being more exposed to hazards means you have to develop these skills to stay safe so I'd say long term bikers tend to make better car drivers as a result (can of worms opened? :peek: ).

Thanks bubba...very enlightening indeed and you learn something new every day. I had no idea that civi officers could use blues and twos with the same exceptions as trained police officers nor that they had any powers of arrest that a guy on the street couldn't use (ie other than civil arrest powers). I thought that full arrest powers were limited to police regular officers and Specials. Whether the public believes it to be constitutionally "right" is altogether another matter, as it must not be a question of belief but a matter of fact.

Thanks...I'll do a little more reading as this is something which seems to have a few grey areas about it! I have not claimed (and I dont think any one else is claiming) that driving police vehicles per se is illegal as clearly it's been done for years in one role or another. It's the lone operator in a marked police vehicle aspect that interests me. I had no idea that this was permissible due to the corroboration/correct use issues. However, I stand corrected if that is (surprisingly) permitted.

I accept that and am trying to learn something here. My point however relates to lone civilians using police marked vehicles for police enforcement duties such as setting up speed traps, not police staff accompanied by police officers or otherwise using vehicles where they are not actively engaged in police enforcement duties. Can you point me towards the legislation which enables lone civilians to actively carry out police enforcement duties whilst manning marked police vehicles? I'd be interested in that not because I want to argue the point but because I am unaware of the enabling legislation and like others here, consider it unconstitutional. I would have a serious issue with the fact that any civilian could covertly pass themselves off as a police officer. Of course most of us realise that since 2002, laws have been changed to allow more civilian staff to undertake what were formally official police duties. I was unaware though that in the case of speed camera vans that the evidence presented by a lone civilian member of staff was de-facto since there is no corroboration for the judgement that someone must have been speeding in order to video them and similar such issues. Perhaps with modern tech and trained civilians there doesn't have to be, in which case it is a sad state of affairs where police employees are now carrying out official police enforcement. I am sure that the police would argue that safety partnerships free up their trained officers for more serious crimes and again, that is a reasonable argument. It's the lone staff issues which most concerns me, the corroboration of judgement and correct operation of the kit etc.

Because the Police Reform Act of 2002 enables uniformed PCSOs to operate under the jurisdiction of the Chief Constable and that includes driving marked police vehicles.

I can't see how any civilian operator can operate alone in a marked Police vehicle so will have to politely have to agree to disagree here. Checking this won't take long and if I'm wrong, I have no problems with admitting it. It would come as a surprise and something of a shock to think that this is widespread practice. As to the name "Safety Camera Partnership" my personal view is that if these organisations were serious about safety, they'd be lobbying to make the driving test harder, at least advanced standard, rather than taking income from speeding fines. Just because a SCP operative wet himself at the video does not make the issues raised go away. Don't wish to get into a speeding debate as there's no way you can justify exceeding the speed limit, however, speed is usually only one factor in most accidents which are more to do with a lack of hazard awareness, not being in proper control of a vehicle or driving without due care and attention/dangerous driving and I see precious little effort by so called safety partnerships into addressing these far more prevalent issues.

Back to the OP and the whole affair is frankly quite Ridiculous. The police in that film were a disgrace....very embarrassing. The catalogue of misguided decisions and frankly unlawful actions on the part of the police ought to have been taken as a complaint to the Chief Constable and to the local MP. The guy was not altogether right about his right to film the police in the manner that he did. The way the law stands, the gentleman was correct in that the chap in the marked police van should have been accompanied by or should have been a trained police officer. No civilian has any authority to operate in a police vehicle on the highway unless a police officer, a pcso, or a Special. That chap operating a police vehicle on the public highway and the apparatus inside may have been just doing his job but I would call into question the legality of it. At best, anyone caught that day could appeal and on a technicality might get their convictions quashed. Civilians operating un-marked traffic partnership vans, properly trained and using calibrated kit can operate jointly with the police and its for the police to then decide whether the motorists captured should be prosecuted or given a fixed penalty based on the evidence. No civilian has any authority to impersonate a police officer or to carry out independent speed checks for the purposes of gathering evidence for a prosecution...unless a new law has been passed? The collection of that evidence has to be beyond reproach so I'd argue that a lone civilian using a police van doesn't pass muster. Furthermore, the van was parked in a position likely to cause a moving traffic obstruction and was clearly a hazard to oncoming vehicles as it's location created the need for vehicles to cross the carriageway to pass it. That was compounded by the damp conditions and average visibility, so it was as likely for the van to have created an accident as it was a speeding motorist. A case of revenue generation methinks. Nuts. The guy did right and there's nothing that the police can do...that policewoman had no right setting foot in his house and that constitutes trespass which is a civil tort, not a criminal offence. It would have been a criminal offence had she forced her way into the house without reasonable cause, which she most certainly lacked, along with any brain cells, politeness and civility. She also tried it on and was about to use his "mental state" as grounds for entry (which the police can do if they believe the occupant is a danger to themselves or likely to be to others) but had second thoughts and had to do some back tracking rather quickly. Pathetic. The attitude of the chap is completely irrelevant. Apart from being a bit of an armchair expert with one or two flaws in his reasoning, he did nothing unlawful that I could see nor was he rude or disrespectful. Respect has to be earned and the police officers in that video didn't exactly qualify in that respect.

Perhaps, but fair play is all Lewis has ever been after and if it looks like that's not on the cards with MB then I wouldn't be surprised to see him move. Lewis in a Williams would be interesting...By next season, many of the teams will have caught up and perhaps MB wont hold onto such a large dominance.

I can't really see what else Mercedes could have done to be fair to them without penalising themselves, and they've scored enough own goals since Ross B and Bob left. In the circumstances, I think they've tried and succeeded in publicly having the drivers bury the hatchet...sort of...with mutual displays of grown up tolerant understanding expressed on their respective FB pages. I suspect that the hatchets will come out again and be buried somewhere else as soon as they hit the track and nothing wrong in that providing they don't have another "coming together". Rosberg cannot afford to be seen as the instigator of another incident, the fallout would be too great for him and I do believe that MB would have to issue a race suspension affecting his title hopes if it happened, rather than risk him taking both drivers out again, or at least not achieving the 1-2 finish that they're certainly capable of and should have got at Spa. The more pressing issue for Lewis I think is in whether the team can provide a reliable car for the rest of the season. He needs 100% reliability between now and the chequered flag of the last race if he is to stand any sort of a chance at rescuing this years title. It remains to be seen if Rosberg gets his share of "bad luck" on the reliability front. More likely that the race will go to the wire, so short of a DNF on Rosberg's side of the garage, Lewis has his work cut out. I can't see him staying with MB next season if they can't provide him with a reliable car.

I tried some variations on custom maps supplied by Quantum after they were supplied with my standard map to work with (they were TRD recommended, and that's a good enough recommendation for me) and learned a valuable lesson. Clean (or at least check!) EGR and inlet manifold prior to a remap! Mine were gunked up so badly, I'm surprised the engine ran at all, never mind when mapped! The 1st map attempt kicked out so much smoke, that pointed towards not enough air in the mixture, and that's why the EGR/inlet manifold was checked. We played about with various maps and until I have the inlet manifold off and caustic bath cleaned, I'm keeping the mapping close to standard (well, a little above at around 150BHP). One map we tried even with the gunked up inlet manifold was enough to light the front wheels up at 40mph in 3rd gear...monster torque. Won't re-map to that level when manifold done though as the power can't be put down and I suspect it won't do the clutch life a lot of good. Absolutely no idea of what the power output was but would guess close to 180? RE KKK...it's surprised me just what power that can be generated with that turbo, undersized or no. I think that whilst a lottery, you can improve your chances by keeping power hikes modest as that inevitably lowers stress on components including the turbo.

Smoking issue resolved. Whipped off intake manifold and, like the EGR, it's only got a fraction of the inlet area available to the airflow due to being completely gunked up...almost down to pencil thin intake area! The car must have been driven by Miss Daisy before I got it. Never, ever seen a car this badly choked up. Map parameters tuned down to cure smoke until I can get the intake manifold cleaned (caustic bath). Will report back when done but even in its present state (smoking to one side) the amount of power available is quite an eye opener. For anyone with smokey exhausts under power, it could well be worth checking out your EGR/intake manifolds, only dont be tempted to leave the manifold insitu when you remove for cleaning if you value your injectors and turbo!

eh? A joke right? You assume wrong. On both counts GPS confirms that my "spedo" was within 3mph at 60 so do the maths. It means at an indicated 65mph, I was doing around 62 and at an indicated 75, I was doing closer to 71 (allowing a similar percentage). If traffic wants to loon done the outside lanes at a ton (plus) it's their licence not mine. I am happy to drive to the legal limit and no, I was not being overtaken by everything as plenty of people drive at between 60 and 70 on the Mways these days to conserve fuel and because traffic is so heavy. I was travelling faster than the HGVs so happy enough not to be tail gated by any 44 tonners. Point is (which I guess you missed :yes: ) was that I wanted to see what sort of difference speed makes to economy and it makes a hell of a difference. you might have money to burn. I don't. :no:

Speed makes a big difference. I've found that the difference between 75 to 77mph and 65mph = 10mpg. I stuck at 65mph on a M/way jaunt a few days ago and averaged 74mpg. Could only manage 64mpg at an indicated 75mph on the same 35 mile trip. That was using ordinary diesel. I tend to stick at between 65 to 70 these days on M/way (traffic allowing) as over longer distances, with traffic, there's little benefit to fuel costs, time or to the licence travelling any quicker. 10mpg is quite an incentive!

Right ongoing (saga): Had the car re-mapped today ("economy map") and had Whiteline RARB fitted. Handling transformed so I recommend this to anyone thinking of it plus it doesn't ruin the ride. The car should be putting out a healthy 155 to 160BHP now and the wheels light up in 3rd gear so I have no idea how people running 200BHP plus manage to get any front wheel traction. One problem though is that when revved, it smokes like a trooper which it didn't do previously. Garage said "boost pipe leak?" but I'd have thought I could have heard that if it was leaking that badly. My thoughts are that there's a problem with the (custom) map and it's over fuelling. The turbo is fine and whistles gently at tickover and on initial spool up, but isn't that loud plus the car pulls like a train. 0-60 times are a genuine sub 7.5 seconds by my reckoning, so nothing wrong in performance. Any feedback on boost pipe issues? The EGR was removed and cleaned out. It was the worst I'd ever come across and at just 49K miles, there was only 30% of the bore left free, so incredibly, the car was running with at least a 70% intake bore restriction, that's how gummed up it was. That was all cleaned out and a blanking plate fitted between EGR and turbo manifold with EGR delete done on the map. Any other issues causing smoke with revs other than boost pipework leak somewhere or over fuelling? I did notice some oily gunk seeping out of the boost pipe where it joins onto the intercooler intake pipework, right next to the alternator and my thoughts were that if gunk is leaking out, then air is leaking in. Would that be enough?

Succinctly put and accurate. You can have re-maps and tuning boxes which add too much boost or too much flow and end up with smoking problems, or have both that are spot on. It's generally a safe bet to go either route PROVIDED that the manufacturer has invested considerable resources in development. Despite what's said about rolling roads, enough development hours behind a specific map to prove reliability, clean running and smooth, linear power increases more than likely gets a map close enough without the need to rolling road the car these days. For ultimate tuning and for track use, a rolling road may be seen as essential. For an everyday drive, it is always helpful but not essential as long as the map is a well developed one. If that weren't the case, decent tuning boxes wouldn't work as well as they do. One advantage going the map route is that your current map can be uploaded to the map provider who can interrogate the code and settings and make a custom map which can address things like specific power increases in a linear fashion, not deviating from the basic mapping too much but I'm pretty sure that some tuning boxes can also be tuned this way too. With a box of course, you can remove it and revert back to the standard map any time you like, or take it to your next car (with the same engine). I went the re-map route only because it better catered for the custom mapping I wanted.

That is exactly the point. The KKK is really an under sized unit as standard for that car if tuning is on the cards,it will shorten the KKK's life. It was Turner Race Developments who brought this to my attention first Of course the amount of boost and linearity of the mapping also plays a part (as it does for clutch life). Having said all that, mine's in with TRD now having a re-map. I've gone for a very linear map and +20BHP on the standard as a good balance of power and ecomomy/reliability. When the KKK decides to give up the ghost, I'll replace it (and the DMF) with a PD150 Garret unit. Couldn't be had with SMF conversions, noisy as hell plus the standard sachs DMF replaced with the turbo should be good for the life of the car.

I dont know what it's pushing but by all accounts, the BLT averages around 140 to 145BHP. I should have explained more. It's not a power hike map. It's essentially a re-flash without the EGR code (as I understand it the code cannot simply be switched off) which you have to do on the BLT if you want to delete the EGR (Blanking plate in place). That means essentially the standard remap or in my case, a custom map designed to give 150BHP, so no, there wont be any significant power hike.

Been looking into this a lot myself and the only word of advice if on a KKK turbo, is don't cook it too much by going OTT on the remap. The KKK can reputedly take 150BHP reliably with no ill effects, but upping it to 170BHP is pushing the limit (unlike the Garret PD130/150 turbos). I've settled on a 150 map for this reason myself as the car needs re-mapping for an EGR delete anyway. As the other guys advise, sticking with a reputable mainstream specialist map with a lot of development work behind it and you can't go too far wrong. Mapping increases power and torque. You can't increase power without more air/fuel so if you use your right foot a lot you'll get less mpg. The flip side is that the car will develop more torque at any equivalent rpm, so you can end up pulling a higher gear for lower revs without having to change down as quick (eg going up a hill), so saving on fuel. Drive carefully and you should see an improvement. I saw around a 10% improvement in economy with the last diesel car I had mapped.

Not to worry RE recommendations (none were made anyway LoL!). I have decided to do the sensible thing and simply replace the front speakers for much better quality units. The head unit should be good enough and thinking about it, I still have the CD changer, so all I need to sort is Bluetooth for the phone which I can do with a cheap aftermarket Bluetooth kit.

Well, another few hundred miles up and most of the teething issues have now been identified or sorted. The smoke on start up was the injector seals, so a new set of seals on their way;. Cruise control switch packed in and that's being replaced; Hats off to the VW Hub in Tewkesbury. Their customer service has been exemplary. So far, they have provided the car and under warranty/ for the sale have: Fitted 3 new tyres; put a years MOT on the car; given it a full service, are sorting the injectors; are sorting the cruise control; have provided a new luggage cargo net and tools; valeted the car; tested the coolant system for leaks; tested all electrics; replaced the rear wiper pipework elbows and continue to do this without a single quibble or argument as they want the car to be perfect. I have paid for a cambelt/waterpump service. Tomorrow, the car goes in for a Whiteline RARB fitment and for an EGR blanking plate/EGR delete and 150BHP remap. It's all starting to come together. The car did 70 miles today, mostly motorway, and sticking bang on the legal limit retirned 73mpg which is simply astounding (even if the trip computer is a little optimistic, that's still as good as anything made today except a hybrid). I have no hesitations whatsoever in recommending a Mk1 VRS to anyone curious. Get one with leather and you're laughing. In fact, get one without leather and you're still laughing!

History will judge him as the most undeserving F1 champion in the history of the sport if he wins it, however it is recorded.

Precisely, which is more often done using an under powered unit. I was sort of expecting most new head units doing away with CD, so I'll look for a used unit in that case.