J.R.

It would be far better for both the piston crown and the valve train if the valves were angled, if they were they would bend easily avoiding damaging other components, with vertical valves something else has to give.

Fixed that for you!

Yes, add mass and/or stiffness to the panel that is resonating No, no difference.

I watched an impatient driver in front of me do exactly the same thing today trying to overtake 4 cars behind a convoi agricole (combine harvester), it was fairly obvious all of the 4 cars were wanting to do the same thing but hopefully waiting for those in front to overtake first, one moved over oh so slowly to look past, he was sat well back and the overtaker either didn't see him which is scary or decided to go for it, even scarier, he ended up in the ditch because his reaction was so exaggerated he lost control. Every weekend and Mondays for the last 19 years I see at least 3 or 4 cars in ditches or on their roofs in fields, there never seems to be any other vehicle involved or any skid marks, usually on dead straight roads as well. Be careful out there.

Yes they do a passive regen but no the emissions fix ECU software takes no account of it. I had done a 200 mile Motorway/autoroute journey back to back with a 500 mile autoroute journey towing a 3 tonne loaded large fronted removal trailer, large throttle openings the whole journey and high oil temperatures, 700 miles of non stop passive regen only for the car to try and fail to regen every day the next week on 20km journeys, and it did at least 2 active regens during the autoroute journeys because I logged them on the way back. That was the final straw for me, I paid to have the software rolled back to pre emissions fix, I have heard the fans running but once in the last year when my stop coinicided with the automatic 1000km regen.

The rear upper bearing is not a bearing and usually does not need replacing.

22km/h divided by the pitch of the concrete tiles equals the resonant frequency (or multiple) of the bodyshell or more likely the least rigid panel the roof panel.

VCDS

Are they still round and do they hold pressure?

My vehicle has the original cambelt, same age as yours and 129K miles, I do annual belt inspections and dont see any need yet to change it, I did my MK1 at 250,000 miles. What engine does your vehicle have?

Isn't your car 10 years old? How many miles has it done? Wait till the garage confirms the diagnosis and expected cost of repairs before making a hasty decision, if you like the car as much as you say then you wont begrudge spending the money but it sounds to me like you are looking for an excuse to change.

Yes I agree now things are returning to my brain, I remember using pull up or pull down resistors on my circuit designs, I think an open collector was something to be avoided for interference reasons.

Agreed. Also its time for a VCDS scan before theorising about pressure sensors, the fault is likely to be revealed and the operator can also force the operation of the fuel pump which will prove the integrity of the circuit, the relay (already tested) and the switching transistor of the ECU.

@Breezy_PeteWith the relay removed there should be no voltage on pin 2 as the relay coil has been removed, the 3.48v is probably a floating open collector voltage if thats the right term, I plumbing my memory banks.

The gearbox has twin baulk rings anyway so they never wear appreciably, your mecano is correct that their purpose is to aid gear selection not disengagement. I have occasionally noticed a slight stiffness in disengaging first gear in traffic and when it doesn't repeat I ask myself if I imagined it. Plastic collets could be guide bushes for the linkage selector shaft and its plausible that they could be gummed up with schmoo and the thermal expansion when hot makes things tighter, the shaft will be less worn in the first gear position so more susceptible, just a theory but some Googling might reveal more.

It cannot have failed due to "no pattern" unless perhaps the lights remain on full beam. What do you mean by "had the tag switched to eu settings" Is that perhaps a lever that changes the dipped beam pattern to a flat horizontal cut off? If that is the case then as long as no light appears above the line on the testers equipment it should pass.

Next time it manifests strongly if it is safe to do so brake to a halt then switch off the engine all the time keeping the clutch depressed, if it then comes out of gear easily your problem is clutch drag, if it doesn't then the problem is the gear selector mechanism. I suspect the latter, you should then reset the gear linkage cables but it sounds to me that the problem is internal with the synchro hubs or a baulking selector fork perhaps loose on the selector shaft. I hope that I am wrong.

I was very surprised to learn that there were any NSL country roads left in Surrey, some 26 years ago when the roads were my personal racetrack there was already far too much traffic on them for me to continue to indulge my selfishness, I took to getting up at dawn on Sundays to go for long blats in Surrey and Sussex (I lived on the border) one Sunday I was shocked to find that every one of my favorite roads had had the limits reduced to 40mph, all the signs were new so some guys had been very busy that week. Sussex at that time was unchanged but 40mph limits have pretty much crept in everywhere, even back in the day I could not find any NSL B roads in Surrey, very shocked to find there was one and that there was supposedly a gap in the traffic long enough to overtake 2 vehicles.

I made no mention of speed, in the context of the accident its not relevant, in the context of whether it was a risky overtake then the speed, the visibility and the distances are very relevant, the latter is hard(er) for me to judge from a selective partial video.

He was well back from the van in front in order to (in my opinion) have a clearer view of the road ahead before deciding whether an overtake was safe, it wasn't and it certainly was not so to overtake 2 vehicles. I appreciate that its difficult to judge the scene from a fixed focus camera and will be happy to be proved incorrect if the OP would show the video of the incident in its entirety and not cut off at a critical time, I somehow doubt it will be forthcoming. No doubt the insurers will take that position but one party being deemed to be 100% responsable does not mean that the other was whiter than white or blameless in this incident but hindsight is 20/20 vision. I think the vehicle that the 3rd party was driving is influencing your judgement and equally may have influenced the decision of the OP to make a risky overtake.

The car may only do 200 miles a year but there is no suggestion that is all the driver does.

Was that the same footage editted to end before the incident was concluded as you posted on here? Any chance of seeing the continuation of the recording? Am I the only one to have an open mind on what seems to be the accepted narrative that the Ferrari driver was attempting to overtake the van and not having a peek to see if it was safe to? If it was an intended overtake then his manoeuvre was far more gentle than the OP's he is not even accelerating or gaining any ground on the van.

I doubt that given your description of "it judders as if it's about to stall" Are you talking about a deceleration like a braking force?

Ferrari was untaxed and being driven while under a SORN declaration!!!!! The good news is he is unlikely to dispute your claim.

Having looked yet again its surprising how much detail is there which is missed because we were looking for something else. The Ferrari driver was quite some way back from the campervan so full marks for that, I speculate that he was edging out slowly to see if the road ahead was clear and a safe overtake was on the cards when he crossed into the space about to be taken up by a rapidly accelerating VRS hoping to overtake 2 vehicles. I agree that the Ferrari driver was more likely to do a safe overtake than the vehicle behind but was he in fact overtaking? - What do others see/think.