CharlieWhiskey

We did this on Scoobynet about 15 years ago, mostly for Wales but I've also done tours around Scotland, Lakes, North Yorkshire and back home in the East Midlands My particualr favourite Welsh circuit is as follows: From Telford, A4169 to Much Wenlock. B4371 to Church Stretton, short hop down the A49 then turn right B4370 to A489. From here turn right and head west before taking the B4383 left toward Bishops Castle. Then take the A488 south, slow through Clun, to Knighton. Left/Right to continue south on the A488 to Penybont (watch out for suicidal sheep!) then left on the A44 to the Fforest Inn. Turn right here for the glorious A481, lunch @ the Hundred House Inn? Continue SouthWest to Builth Wells then through the town to pick up the B4520 up onto Epynt. Turn right (MOD permitting) onto the B4519 across the range to Garth. Left onto the A483, this is a great road all the way down Llandovery, but for this run turn right at Beulah onto the B4358 to Newbridge on Wye. Turn left up the A470 to Rhayader then B4518 to Llanidloes then pick up the same road north via Staylittle/Llyn Clywedog (rollercoaster of a road!) to Llanbrynmair. Various options from here but if heading back towards the Midlands A470/A489 via Newtown to Church Stoke, left onto A490 the right onto B4386 back towards Shrewsbury bypass. That should keep you entertained for a day!

I'm changing the head unit in mine (Stream MP3 to Pioneer AVH-3200BT) but I'll try this mod before and after and let you know the difference. Nice to see a bit of 'tronics and a few audiophile considerations on this thread

I had the dealer look at it as it was in for a service on Friday, the nozzle was completely clogged so I suspect the corrosion mentioned above. One £4.98 nozzle, which they luckily had in stock, free labour and it now works perfectly Thanks to Clock Garage, Spondon, Derby

One of my all time favourites, and a contender for the best road in Scotland If you don't know this road, do yourself a favour and click on the link below to get it up on Google Maps. Then zoom in and click on 'Earth' or put it into streetview and have a virtual drive along it Dukes Pass (Google Maps) It's not as good as the real thing, obviously, but once you have seen it I'm sure you will want to drive it anyway! :yes: If you do decide to drive it it's best done slowly at first as it is full of suprises, and try to avoid the inevitable tourists. I personally think the big coaches should be banned from roads like this! I thought the vRS may struggle with the ultra tight, twisty turns and blind crests, but it coped admirably

I've had my 07 vRS PD since June and I've been enjoying it immensly, driving cross country to work or pootling around the Peak District,. It handles nearly as good as my previous 3 Imprezas Today I have given it a special treat, the Dukes Pass from Aberfoyle to Callander and it didn't disapoint, despite being such a big car Quite a few more Scottish roads to chuck at it this week, but if it can manage that road then everything else should be simples!

Just be careful not to do this at too low revs as you can put a lot of stress on the engine, above 1250rpm should be fine,

LOL since when did a solid state (fully electronic, absolutely NO moving parts) SD card make any noise whatsoever! The reason a hard drive makes a noise is it has a rotating multi platter disk with multiple read/write heads on a servo controlled arm (hence mechanical noise). It's probably something completely different, but it definately ISN'T loading things from an SD card

Thanks for all the info guys, I will have a good furtle about and see if I can find any leaks and sman, I'll try that pump thing too, does sound like crap design if they are getting corrosion inside a washer jet :wonder:

Pump runs, nozzles clear... :S Anyone any ideas where to look first? Do I need to take the hatch interior off or is it more likely to be a fault somewhere else?

Insurance companies will do anything to avoid paying out, so if they can find anything, within reason, that you have not declared, they can invalidate your insurance and you may then be faced with the full cost of any claim, including 3rd party death & injury, I have unfortunately seen this happen to friends, one of whom died in such circumstances! Having since gone through all this dilemma on numerous slightly modified Imprezas, by 'anything within reason' I mean this does not, normally, include the replacement of 'consumable parts' with near equivalent specs, so better brake pads may be allowed, but beware if they are e.g. MINTEX 1155 Race Pads (not technically passed for road use but brilliantly usable) it would be best to notify them. If your car is NOT bog standard then you would be best advised, and best covered, to use a modified specialist like *Greenlight/Adrian Flux etc. and tell them absolutely everything, they will not charge you for what they do not consider a higher risk and it will make any claim considerably less stressful and problematic! Any BHP increase MUST be declared and any corresponding brake mods may actually help to reduce this effect. In my experience they are also excellent value compared to some of the cheaper options for 'modified' vehicles. I'm also quite sure that they wouldn't give a toss what wipers you have fitted as long as they pass the MOT They would, however, be very concerned about modified lighting! *I have no connection with the above companies other than being a satisfied customer

I've got an 07 Octavia vRS PD with a Stream head unit and it's frequency response is pathetic! I have had to set the tone controls to absurd values to even listen to it and it's still crap Bass is not too bad, treble is OTT but there is absolutely no lower middle at all A direct comparison with the same CD in the Golf will show up a myriad of deficiencies in the Stream head unit. I'm, in the process of replacing mine with a Pioneer BT3200-BT Double DIN unit, which instantly corrects most of the defects and sounds brilliant, static... Once I've sorted all the all the auxiliary & connectivity issues with the BT3200 I will post a blog and let you in on all the issues and how I eventually, hopefully, solve them... If only there were more weekends and less workdays! :S

On Saturday my local Asda had bare shelves where the Mobil 1 should be :(

I bought 2l of Helix Ultra ESP for £8/litre, off Fleabay yesterday, genuine stuff but not managed to get to my local Asda yet!

Nice Pics, and some of my favourite roads