DieselMonte

Been lucky I suppose my local ones been very patient putting up with me then

I managed it in my mk1 by disabling (read pulling out) the brake light switch fuse. Works but leaves the glow plug light flashing. Iirc you can snip and join two wires on the connection to the brake light switch and that works without triggering the glow plug light. Left foot braking is very useful, definately in that car. Bit of a shame the mk2 won't let me do it the same way, would be handy with it being turbocharged.

Did they not stock them or something? The only time I had a problem getting a weird part was ordering the cable ends, they only sold them attached to stuff so it would be 100 euro (talk sake) for a 5 euro cable end. Just tiger sealed mine up and carried on. The rest of the stuff, boot bump stops, vrs intakes, even that bit of the shifter I changed, not a problem, very cheap and came in pretty quick.

I do and the drivers side handle MIGHT be OK, the passengers handle I'm fairly sure I snapped off by accident. You'll laugh but the sport seats I got ALSO have a broken handle on them, been using a screwdriver to release that seat. Bust on the passengers side again. Does anyone know if the handles are side specific? I'll try remember to check my old seats next day I'm out. If I can get it off I'll send it to OP no bother. As above, if you have the part number the dealership will be cheap as chips for this stuff. Had great success getting odd to find bits from the dealers for a lot less than I thought they'd be.

Got a new negative cable made And done a bit of painting on the slam panel and some 232mm carriers. Really nice to have a working charging system for once int this car. No problems cranking it, and the battery itself is holding a charge just fine seemingly. A major annoyance with this car finally sorted.

Just updating bits I've done here and there. Front doors sound deadened Managed to find a way to refit the undertray with a bit of wood. I mean it works, will redo this to look a bit more proper, eventually. Fitted the Filled Hydroil mount too. 60 shore is as stiff as it needs to be, its slightly firm at idle but perfectly liveable like this.

Very late to the party here but... Guessing it's a Mk2 since it's in this section so it uses a front mount as pictured, NOT a side mount as the mk1 did. I got a cheap universal intercooler on my monte which has the same intercooler standard. The intercooler I got is slightly narrower than the standard unit. But a lot taller. I mounted it as close to the bumper as I could to maximise airflow through it, the standard ones shrouded a fair bit. I used 2 90° 2.5" to 2.25" reducer pipes either side with 2.25" joiners to connect to the old boost pipes. Its not a terribly technical job but I can absolutely see why someone would leave it off to be done. Here's how the stock intercooler sits on the car. Quite far back crammed in with the radiator and condensor. Pic of the New intercooler in its rough position. I chose to drill the crash bar to bolt the intercooler to it. This does fit behind the bumper ok, atleast it did on mine. Including this photo to show that it's not terribly noticeable on the car. I agree with Thomas in that you can get the same (or more) performance for a bit less money with a bit of work. This job cost me about 100 euro and it proved very well worth it over summer. I only did this to stop losing so much power from heat soak. I didn't expect to magically pick up 10hp from this, it just stopped me losing as much power from heat soak. Also should be noted darkside do their intercooler which is a similar dimension to what I have, but it has mounting brackets and elbows welded on (where as I used silicon joiners). Their one isn't cheap but I'm sure its a great piece of kit.

I assembled mine on the bench that way, but iirc when I removed the old ones I had to remove one stuck to the console. If it can be removed like that then it stands to reason it can go in that way. Found a pic of it in my project thread. That's how it came out of the car.

Uploading photos that'll hopefully give you some reference.

When I did my bushes I put the Wishbones into the consoles and put that into the subframe, as I built all up on the bench. The wishbone has a hexagonal shape where it goes into the bush, you need to get it roughly aligned, start pushing it back into the bush If you can get it in that far, I'd use a bit of bar, wedge it somewhere to push the wishbone backwards to fit the front of the wishbone into the subframe.

Went up to Kames on the Sunday to see some Rally action. Different classes of cars going around from 1l citigos... Evos Escorts And everything in between Only a small track but was spectacular seeing all the cars go round. Back on the ferry Sunday evening, have to say everyone was extremely nice, the food was lovely and cheap, the pints fantastic and far cheaper than what you'd get back home and aside from the average speed cameras, the roads are great too. Even though it wasn't much of a driving trip, this drove fantastic the whole weekend, all the changes done to it in the past week made a noticeable difference. Thanks to the sound deadening (and probably the increase in caster) its far more comfortable cruising on the motorway, its a bit better at taking bumps in the road, the K brace tightened the car up that bit more. Its still pretty underpowered but the intercoolers helped stop it losing a lot of power from heat soak. Wish the ferry was cheaper, its almost definitely the last time I'll be able to take the car over for a while. Overall a great weekend and even better seeing the stuff I did to the car paid off.

Took the ferry over to Scotland early Friday. Spent the weekend. Met up with some friends and spent the weekend there. An eclectic mix of cars. Went up around this castle, think it was culzean castle. Parked a way out and walked in. Some sort of mini car show there Big rocky beach near it.

Lmao I was in Girvan last weekend visiting friends. Took the laptop with me to show a mate the steering assist on the car but that never transpired.

Kph not mph maybe? Me of all people should know the difference. But yeah I got the cable and all for 50 Very handy to have

Replaced alternator this evening, Was very easy to do and there was plenty of access. Old alternator was missing its plug and the 8mm nut was missing. New alternator is in better shape, looks a lot fresher. Have a video of the old one compared to the new one. New Belt to go on aswell, old one looked a bit rough. All went back on very easy too. Also replaced the stalks, fixed the wiper problem but the new stalks are missing a few things, good enough for now but I'll need to get a different wiper stalk eventually. Needs to be put on the charger before I can drive it, hopefully the last time it'll need charged.

My car doesn't have it but iirc it'll lock over 15mph and stay locked until you open the door. Think Vag com will be the only way I got vcds for 50 euro not too long ago, and it works perfect...

Hydraulic clutch so it can't really be adjusted. Sounds like a new clutch to be honest, give it time to bed in and give yourself time to get used to it.

So done a few things since. Dogbone was too stiff at idle. Removed it and drilled a few holes in the mount which has done the trick, no more vibrations than the powerflex but a bit nicer changing gears. Also got this Painted it And fitted it Did a decent job trimming the boot trim, these are the spares I bought, originals are kept safe and sound. Would have preferred if it was tighter to the back seats but it's fine. The way this fits is bolts going into rivnuts that need to be drilled into the car. I think I'll replace the bolts with studs in the future, make it easier to refit in the future. Cars currently away for service and maybe getting the air con working again. And it's being tracked tomorrow. Did go back and re re align it myself, it drives basically perfect now but still needs to be done properly.

Dropped subframe to do track rods and caster increase bushes. Needed to reuse a jam nut off an old track rod, one of the new ones went missing. New vs Old wishbones Built all on the bench, keg even Regreased ARB Bushes and Steering rack bush when I had access. Back together. Did my best to keep the length of the track rods the same as the old ones, but with the castor bushes it didn't really matter. Drives straight enough for now, will be aligned ASAP Have a printout of the alignment before, so should be able to see just what difference these bushes have done to castor. First impressions are good, but I think I should wait until its aligned proper to say for sure just what difference these have made.

New dogbones done and installed Not the prettiest but anyway. Only realised swapping them out that a Mk1 dogbones different to the one originally on the mk2 In the car, it's very firm at idle Powerflex is a 65 shore hardness and mine is a 70. Think it'll need reliefs drilled into it just to take the edge off it. Off idle it is superb however. Filled the hydroil mount with 60 shore stuff. Should be a good balance I think. Dyed black even though it'll never be seen.

Rear doors done

Diy, I used a dremel to cut away at the flap.

Should be a straight swap, used a comparison website and the outer diameter looks to be basically the same as 215/40 17 which I'm running at the minute with no issue.

It sounds like you are describing stretching the same size tyre on a wider rim, which would probably make it feel "sharper", but I personally wouldn't have stretched tyres on a set of rims especially winters. Why? Having a bit of extra tyre gives some rim protection and a bit more comfort. Winter tends to create a lot of potholes, and a bit of extra tyre is very helpful in that case also. I know for a fact that a standard 17" Monte wheel with 215/40 tyres, and a Standard Mk1 vRS 16" wheel with 195/50 tyres will fit into the spare wheel well of a Mk2.

I ran 195/50 16s last winter and it was comical at times. Wheelspin in third on my 140hp tdi Was great when it was icy and the council didn't salt the roads, but under those conditions everyone else is driving that slow, having winter tyres didn't make a bit of difference. Nice to have them but this year I'll not bother swapping unless it gets very bad.