nutters_uclan

I'm probably just repeating stuff you already know, but when I've washed the car in hard water areas, or when the weather is hot, I just do a small area at a time and dry with a really good drying towel. I bought a wooly mammoth towel about 10 years ago and it's still going strong. In Suffolk, where my folks live, I run the jet washer from their water butt to avoid the nasty local water.

Thread revival time! I've got this issue. Did anyone come up with a solid solution for solving this, beyond taking it off? It has been suggested to me that I create a wire clip that hooks into the holes and over the mount on the cat, but I'm not sure if that'd solve the rattle.

Started to clean the engine bay of general custard today...it was absolutely filthy! I just used Screwfix's No nonsense degreaser from a spray bottle, applying to a microfibre towel rather than the bonnet directly. I also used a hog's hair detailing brush to work the degreaser into more awkward areas. Beginning of the clean; Half way through; The end (for now!); Sorry about the blurry final pic!

Really good job, here, btw. I'm going to tackle this on "General Custard" soon, so this was useful to read. You're just up the road from me too, I see.

She rides (again)! I've not taken it on a proper run out as yet, but I think it was a loose sensor connection after all. I reconnected, cleared the code, fired it up and it sat ticking over beautifully for 5 mins or so before I drove it a couple of miles home. No EML and after another scan, no error code. I'll go for a longer journey tonight, but let's hope that's the end of the Great Cam Belt Fiasco of 2021.

Hey all. I'm about to refit a set of standard boot braces to a MK1 vRS. However, a previous owner has left a nasty surprise for me! The bolt has been sheered and the retaining nut has broken free too. What can I do to get these out? Cheers in advance

Just my regular wash cycle yesterday, but reapplied some Autoglym performance tyre dressing too. Thought the car looked lovely, so I took a snap!

Yeah, crank x 4 = cam x 2. I'm going to get it towed to a garage tomorrow. I think I've lost faith in my ability to get it right.

Funny you should ask, as I think I spoke too soon. Something's up. I'd line it up on the cam shaft and pulley, check it was good, release the tensioner pin, check it was good, rotate the cam shaft twice manually and find it out a tooth. Baffling. I repeated the process and it looked fine the last time. The car started and sounded sweet. I left it for twenty mins ticking over on the drive (to charge the battery, more than anything) and there were no issues. I set off today and 10 mins in the EML turned on. I stopped and it wouldn't restart. I then got the code P0343; Fault Control unit: 01 Engine Active faults: 0 Inactive faults: 1 System description: 1.8L R4/5VT 0002 Software number: 06A906032HN Faults: P0343 - Camshaft Pos.Sensor Circ. High Input static Mileage: 199690 km Date: 2021-06-05 18:06 Now, I've either disturbed the sensor and it's nothing serious, or I'm a tooth out and the engine is starting to hate me. Understandably so! I'm about to concede and hand it over to a garage. I think I've bitten off more than I can chew 😔

All sorted now and no discernible problems. Cam belt day turned into cam belt week! 🤣 I'm glad I changed the oil pick up pipe, too. I've seen worse, but there was plenty of gunk in there. The pic below was after scraping some of the build up away. The sump benefitted from a thorough clean too.

You're not wrong there matey!

Everything crossed here too, haha. It'll have to wait until tomorrow, or maybe Friday...I'm goosed doing that in this heat! Also changed the oil pick up pipe, oil, sparks and oil filter. It runs smooth for a bit, then the idle seems to alter and go searching, then the power dips right down and it stalls.

Start again. I'm a tooth out, possibly. I hope it's not caused any damage 😔

I think I may have ballsed it up!

Cambelt day - wish me luck!

I had no idea that there were boot braces, as standard, in these things! Mine are missing and lord only knows how long that's been the case. Replacements on their way...

It's been quite a few weeks since my last post, but fear not, I've been detailing aplenty. In fact, I've now got two Octys to stay on top of! Alongside the mk3 warrior, I also have a mk1 vRS in lemon yellow that I recently acquired. It's in need of some TLC, but it'll be a beaut when I'm done getting it up to spec (feel free to comment in my project log!). I'll tell you now, getting 19 years of grot out of a white/light grey interior is no easy task! This was probably the cleanest seat of all; A leak in the boot meant I had to take out the liner and floor out, so I figured I'd go the whole hog and take the carpet and interior out to give it a thorough clean. I can't imagine how hard it would be to do that in situ, and the underlay would become soaked from vaxing the carpet over and over again. Fabric/carpet process; Spray bottle: spread Screwfix No Nosense carpet cleaner to affected areas Work in to the fabric/carpet with a hogs hair detail brush Spray bottle: very warm water to help the cleaner flow Vax to draw up the dirt, spraying warm water as I go to help draw up as much as possible. Repeat, many times! For the worst stains, I used oxy action white stain remover (for clothing) and worked it in to the fabric/carpet as outlined above. Leather; A bit of a lazy 1-step wipe clean and condition with Turtle Wax luxe leather Here's how fabric looks during the first cleaning pass; Just one of the many filth chambers I emptied doing the interior. Disgusting! Even after several passes, the stains on the front carpet wells were still evident! A bit of a tidy up and wipe down of the floor was in order. No point putting a clean interior down on a mucky surface! And here it is, back together and looking lovely. Thanks for reading

That would be good. To be honest, there wasn't a great deal of interest even before the Indian variant took hold in the North West. I wonder if such meets are consigned to the past, now, sadly.

Yeah, I've cancelled it for those reasons. Shame, but best to be safe.

Thread revival time. It's astonishing that every time I Google an issue with my MK1 vRS, no matter how trivial, there's a Briskoda thread (or 10). Has anyone tried injecting glue through the fabric to solve this 'sagging' issue? Two of my door cards are doing this, so I may attempt it.

Did I goof? The Shell website suggested this was the correct oil for my MK1 vRS. It meets VW 502/505 spec too. However, no one in this thread seems to be using 10w40, or HX7 specifically!

Yeah, for the underlay. It's pretty sturdy stuff, anyway, so I can't imagine it will move far. Cheers

When refitting a carpet, did you bother with glue spots (as done in the factory)?

Is this a result of undue stress to those areas? I'm thinking excessive body roll, or pressure from a roof rack.

Thanks for the input @J.R....I'll give that a go. The stains are getting lighter with each clean, but they may outlive the carpet if I scrub it any more. I've managed to get a mk4 Golf black one for the princely sum of £12 today,s o I had a good backup option if the original continues to frustrate. I've solved the boot water ingress issue on one side (see above pics of dripping on the offside). Turns out it was a hairline crack under the roof plastic trim. I've since sealed it and there's been no water today after some solid rain (no surprise there). The cracks were on both sides, so I've done both to make sure. I've never seen anything like this on one of my cars before. I wonder what caused it? Most seems to be cracked paint, but at the end of the roof rail trim there's definitely cracks in the metal itself and this was letting water in.