Pasty's Diary

[PastyBoy]

June 8th

Spoke to Darkside and 2 blanking plates is essentially the pikey EGR delete

It can cause issues for the EGR further down the line due to it clogging as its not actually recirculating anything but it will save me having to buy a new turbo (and it's the cheap option too )

Blanking plates ordered and car back on the road middle of the week

Essential - EGR Blanking plates - £13.20

Try turbo centre uk for a garret pd150, I had a brand new one and they took my KKK in exchange for just over £500!

Thanks Josh

have emailed them to see if they'd be interested in 2 dead KKKs either outright or as collateral against a PD150

[PastyBoy]

June 9th

Garaged no movement

[PastyBoy]

June 10th

No movement but confirmation from Darkside my plates have been despatched

[PastyBoy]

June 11th

No sign of the plates but they were on a 48 hour delivery

[PastyBoy]

June 12th

Little jiffy bag arrived with some very heavy metal plates inside - woohoo!

I was expecting them to be a custom milled Darkside item but turns out they are a VAG part!!

Part number 038 131 925A to be exact

2 hours and a few more dramas (snapped thread on the turbo, suspension strut bolt dropped into the engine bay, deformed and infuriatingly difficult to reattach arch liner) and the car is back up and running.

We actually had to remove this EGR to turbo pipe completely

as if you leave the pipe attached there are no bolts on the end of it to attach the blanking plate to

one then goes under the EGR valve where the corresponding hole is and the bolts came out of

the other goes on the turbo

I have done a dozen miles to work this morning and no CEL light so i can but assume that as the vacuum pipes are all still connected the ECU isn't confused and isn't reporting a fault.

To be honest the only downside is that the airflow will be interrupted by the plunger and flap of the EGR which is no longer serving it's purpose, however the flap and plunger have always been there before so while it's not a positive it's also not a negative.

I can't say that i can see reason; especially on the ASZ engine where you have to mess about with cutting boost pipes or buying a new 90 degree silicone pipe; to pay £70 for a delete kit rather than £13 for 2 blanking plates.

Still whistles like a goodun but all seems to be back to normal.

Boost is strong and it still puts out a massive cloud of soot on full load so we're all good.

Essential - replacement turbo £300

Here's hoping that this one will last a little longer

Now to convince Mrs Pasty to let me do trackdays again

[PastyBoy]

June 13th

It has been said that I haven't had any luck with this one, howeve ri don;t think that is true.

The car has run absolutely flawlessly and not spent a day off the road for 4 and a half years and over 80,000 miles.

It has been remapped for the entirity of my ownership and in my hands it has survived 2 full on trackdays, a How Fast track event, half a dozen 15 minute sessions with Briskoda at Castle Combe, and many commuting miles in Mrs Pasty's hands.

Given the horror stories that get posted here for an original KKK turbo to survive 130k miles is nigh on miraculous even before you consider the life it's led.

A fact only reinforced by the fact our younger fitter sub-60k car is potentially on it's 3rd turbo already.

Personally i think i've done alright

Of course they may have meant not much luck with the repair, then unfortuantely I have no one to blame but myself.

I bought the turbo.

I rushed into buying it cos it was cheap and local and made an assumption rather than asking a pretty important question or doing some research.

It turned out to be the wrong part.

End of. No luck involved.

Well actually we were lucky it was able to be sorted with a couple of blanking plates and I wasn't forced into spending a small fortune buying a new "correct" turbo!

[PastyBoy]

June 14th

Back to the world of uninspiring commutes.

Although it may have been an omen that on my first drive back into work the traffic on my normal route was horrific so i doubled back to take the alternate route only to find that also blocked by 2 broken down vehicles!

Lucky i don't believe in signs.....apart from this one

[PastyBoy]

June 15th

Garaged and unmoved.

I did consider taking it out and washing it (it's still for flies all over the rear windscreen and the faces of the mirrors from being on the back of the low loader) but then it rained so i stayed inside and played xbox instead

[PastyBoy]

June 16th

Gave the car it's first "proper run" since it's resurrection - an hour long trip down the M5 to meet the inlaws for a father's day carvery.

Car once again performed faultessly, cruising at 70 without trouble and blatting up to a little more than that with ease (and a big cloud of soot) as always.

Did stop for fuel on the journey home and even with the (albeit very short) exploits on track it still gave an average of almost 49mpg.

I love it dearly and have a horrible feeling that the way my father-in-law loves his original mk1 Golf could be how i end up feeling about the little red Fabia.

Fuel - £51.54 - MPG - 48.7

[PastyBoy]

June 17th

Dull commutes to and from work

[PastyBoy]

June 18th

Yet more dull commutes to and from work

[PastyBoy]

June 19th

Test fitted the for sale Octavia half leathers to see how they'll look and help the advert

Desperately trying not to look at them too much otherwise I end up keeping them

[PastyBoy]

June 20th

Nothing of note on the trips to and from work

A colleague did comment abut the fact my car no longer had gold wheels and "had my pimping business gone under?"

Cheeky fecker

[PastyBoy]

June 21st

Longest day and mrs pasty out so made use of the extra light and free time and gave the cars a quick rinse.

Literally rinsed the dust of the black car, the polish and wax a couple of weeks ago is doing its job.

I just need the showers of rain to stop so it stays clean.

Then scrubbed the red car down.

Never had to scrub bugs of the insides of mirrors and off the rear windscreen before but I guess that's what happens when it's reverse loaded on to a car transported and does almost 200 miles.

Also cleaned the 'track' alloys for the first time in my ownership, took a co ole of doses of wonder wheels to get through the caked on brake dust but they've come up really nicely

Dirty

Clean

Really liking them now.

Might keep a little side hunt going on for centre caps (they were more than I paid for the alloys if bought new for the dealer) although that said if expose nuts is good enough for team dynamics it might just be good enough for me

[PastyBoy]

Did you have to do any work to the seat frame to get the headrest to fit right?

Nope no amends to the metal work what-so-ever everythign fits surprisingly well.

June 22nd

June 23rd

Garaged for the weekend

[PastyBoy]

time for a weeks worth of updates then

June 24th

Another Monday another couple of dull commutes.

[PastyBoy]

June 25th

Commute to work

suspension still creaking but have booked it in on Saturday for an investigation

[PastyBoy]

June 26th

Non eventful commutes to and from work but upon returning home could smell stupidly hot brakes as i stepped from the car

drivers side rear wheels was too hot to touch and stinking.

Seems i have a binding brake.

something else to be investigated on Saturday

[PastyBoy]

June 27th

brake still binding despite my best efforts to free it.

and by best efforts i mean driving out of the garage and off the estate with the hand brake on and pulling it on whilst driving.

nothing doing though still warm wheel upon arriving at work and home.

Warm weather has also made me yearn for a return of my air con.

i can handle it around town with the windows open but on the open road you can;t really have the windows open at 70mph without your head exploding.

I might start a small search for a new (and by new i mean second hand) compressor

[PastyBoy]

June 28th

nothing new

brake still binding, suspension still creaking

[PastyBoy]

June 29th

took the car to mt tame mechanic for some investigative work before he fitted a new ARB to Mrs Pasty's car.

Once up on the ramp the reasons for my 2 faults became quickly evident.

The rear brake was a wonky hand brake cable which was releasing the passenger side brake but not the drivers side.

Cable has been tweaked and its sorted for the time being although i'll have to invest in some Sharan return springs to make sure.

The suspension creaking could have been a CV joint, or a drive shaft, or a top mount or anything in between really.

upon investigating those things and working our way upwards we found I've actually got a snapped sprint on the front drivers side.

Given the suspension was changed from 120k originals to a second hand sent with half the mileage little under a year ago this is slightly concerning.

that said you never know what you are going to get buying second hand so i'm not pointing fingers of blame; although there was suggestion that is the top mount had been put in the wrong way it may have failed and in turn snapped the spring but who knows.

time to get on to ECP and GSF to find a new spring and top mount.

at the moment there does always seem to be something going wrong but after 4 completely fault free years I guess it's due.

[PastyBoy]

June 30th

 

Locked in the garage sulking

[PastyBoy]

July 1st

 

Uneventful commutes (with the rear windows open - top tip ) although did stop off at Tesco toput 20p's worth of air in my tyres as the front drivers side was looknig soft.

and indeed 24psi confirmed that it was.

Pretty sure that the part worn tyre man is pretty slapdash in his approcah to fitment hence both tyres he fitted looseing air while the 2 fitted by my tame mechanic haven't lost any pressire in over a month.

 

Essential - air 20p

[PastyBoy]

July 2nd

 

Almost hit 55mpg on the way to work and just short of 60mpg on the way home.

Potentially a new daily record!!

 

Spoke to the tame mechanic who has ordered in the top mounts, top mount bushes, new bolts and rear brake return springs.

Expensive couple of weekends

[PastyBoy]

July 3rd

New springs ordered from ECP.

See the end of that spring there.
Yeah it shouldn't end there!

Essential - Springs - £75