July 4th

Tame mechanic has the top mounts and the springs have arrived

Shame they aren't coloured fancy lowering ones but I really can't be arsed

July 5th

 

Car dropped off with tame mechanic so he can start work after hours and not waste an entire sunny Saturday.

July 6th

 

Work finished and car left locked in VW impound safe and sound

July 7th

 

car remains locked at VW

July 8th

 

Lift in to work and across town at lunchtime to collect a repaired car.

 

Shiny new springs fitted along with equally shiny top mounts.

Drivers side spring was defnitely snapped and both top mounts were shagged.

A little disappointed as the entire assembly was changed under a year ago, but it was changed to a set of standard suspension which had already covered 60k.

There are also rumours that the garage that did the work ma have not checked the orientation of the top mounts leading to accelerated failure whichwill ahve then snapped the spring.

However it's all guess work but it's fixed now.

No more creaked or smcking over pot holes. Ride is smooth as you like.

 

Also now have the Sharan handbrake reset spring on the back which shoudl hopefully mean i avoid any binding brake/hot wheel combinations in the future.

 

Was also warned to be caeful when changing my wheels as I'd fogotten to fully tighten a couple of wheel nuts when i swapped from gold wheels to track wheels over a month ago!

Lucky there are 4 others per wheels which I had tightened up!!

 

Essential - New front suspension springs & Top Mounts - £170
Extra - Handbrake return springs - £10

July 9th

 

Quiet commutes to and from work although was ina rush to get home in the evening plus spent ages sat in traffic so had a low mpg for the trip home

well i say low it was about 40, which is still beter than i ever saw in my old Ibiza GTI 

 

Did manage tokerb a wheel when parking outside my house though.

Nothing serious just the normal scrape for a couple of inches on the outer rim.

They are only track wheels anyways so no biggie.

July 10th

ok so the day isn't over yet but i though I'd do a summary post as it's been pretty much 6 months.

Obviusly none of this is going to be an exact science as i'm sure there are costs i've forgotten and track work may have caused issues (such as turbo failure) that may not have come up if i was boring dull sensible but here goes:

The cars odometer sits on 129880

and at the start of the year it was on 126300

so i've done 3580 miles in the last 6 and a bit months

Essential Costs

Bulbs @ £17.99

Air @ 30p

More Bulbs @ £12

New Aerial @ £6

Air @ 20p

Oil Service @ £85

New Turbo @ £80

Turbo Gaskets @ £38

EGR Blanking Plates @ £13.20

Turbo swap labour @ £200

Air @ 20p

Air @ 20p

New front springs @ £75

New front top mounts @ £70

suspension repair labour @ £80

New brake springs @ £10

All in gives £688.09

which equates to roughly 19p per mile

Extra Costs

Cadwell Trackday @ £79 cancelled so refunded

Trackday Nonrefundable Travelodge @ £19

Track Wheels @ £50

Track Tyres @ £30

Recaro Interior @ £57

Fabia donor seats @ £85

Orignial VRS Seat Sale @ -£130

Recaro seat upholstery amendments @ £60

CombeTrack Session @ £30

How Fast Event @ £90

Giving a total of £290.64

or roughly 8p per mile

Fuel Costs

(thank you fuelly.com!!)

£50.58

£51.22

£52.39

£51.60

£55.95

£52.50

£55.30

£49.10

£51.54

total @ £470.18

or approx 13p per mile

giving a average MPG of 46.8

Obviosuly not tracking any other car i dunno how these fgures compare to other vehicles but they seem ok to me!

They could have been much smaller if I hadn't had such large repair bills for a turbo and suspension but given the car is almost 130,000 miles and 9 years old to only have done these things the one i see as a blessing.

Some scary math though.

Even without all the superfluous costs just maintenance and fuel means my 7 mile commute costs me £2.24 each way so i spend £4.48 per day JUST TO GET TO WORK!

wowzers!

July 11th

Nothing doing.

2 dull commutes.

I have however learnt that I can do an entire commute with the fuel light on

July 12th

A commute and a half with the fuel light on was more than enough for the nerves so went to to work via Morrisons

Fuel - £52.71 - MPG - 50.9

Pretty good and seems the EGR valve blanking may have helped, either that or the traffic has been favourable of late.

That said today's return home was my best ever

Been a quiet week

 

July 13th

 

Locked away for the weekend

July 14th

 

Locked away broiling in the garage

July 15th

 

Quiet commutes nothing doing

July 16th

 

all quiet on the commuting front

July 17th

 

How priorities change

no longer do i concern myself with how quickly i can get to work or how near the limits of handling I can get but more how high i can get my mpg on the journey's to and from work

 

to work is uphill so if i crack 50mpg i'm happy

the downhill return leg I will crack 70mpg all i need is favourable traffic, the patience of a saint, and a super light right foot

July 18th

 

commutes to and from work with a diversion on the way home to pick up a bicycle.

no way it was going in complete but once the front wheel was popped off it slid in no problem

July 19th

Big birthday on the morning commute

July 20th

 

Overcast morning so both cars got a wash.

I was tempted to put the gold wheels back on ready for the Megameet next weekend but then the sun came out of the temperature rocketed so the last thing i wanted to do was wrestle a jack and breaker bar.

July 21st

 

tooled aroud running errands and over to a friends for a barbeque in the evening.

Mrs Pasty drove home as i'd had a coupe of beers and nearly put us through the windscreen the frist time she braked.

love my 312s

July 22nd

 

dull commutes to and from work, collecting my freshly serviced bike on the way home.

July 23rd

 

Dull commutes made slightly better by the lack of traffic now the kids are on holiday.

Hopefully i should get a clear run and hit 70mpg on the way home!

 

 

On a side note it's also been a birthday for the black car

 

 

Considering we collected it April 2012 with 38k on the clock we have certainly piled the miles on the poor thing

July 24th

 

Quiet on the roads but have prepped fot the mega meet byt sticking the "proper" wheels back on

 

As much as i'd grown to like the Seat wheels I do love the goldness 

 

July 25th

Nothing doing. Quiet commutes and nothing more

July 26th

Well I've only gone and bloody done it.

Killed another turbo?

Bought a hybrid?

Finally ordered some low?

Nope bigger and better than that!

Get in there my son!

July 27th

 

A weeks worth of dust rinsed from the car and a quick polish and wax carried out ready for tomorrows National Meet.

I have learnt that wax/sealant dries incredibly quickly on hot paint or in direct sunlight and then requires a massive amount of effort to buff off.

Never mind was worth it as the cars never been so shiny.

 

Ran out of time to do the wheels though which as a glaring oversight.

Planned to do them in the evening but the thunderstorms and torrential rain somewhat put me off.

Meh no one will notice the Pasty Wagon at the meet anyways.

July 28th

 

National meet arriveth.

 

Considered an early start to join the South West convoy as it passed the door at around 7am.

Decided it wa a good idea when i woke up at half 6 but jsut 5 more minutes.....  Bam..... it's 8 o'clock - whoopsie.

 

A swift drive up the Fosseway had us arrive at the meet around 10am.

Day was great, put faces and voices to plenty of avatars and vehicles, caught up with plenty of people previously met at Combe and at How Fast, and again am impressed with the community.

People are always happy to talk be it about their cars, your car or just shoot the breeze.

 

I personally think we need more activities next time though.

If you're not into "the scene" side of things it does quickly decend into just wandering round a car park going "oh look that one has black wheels. That one has grey wheels. That one is super shiny"

Still a great day though.

Convoy back home with J3NKO in tow as both of us left at around the same time and were heading back to Gloucester.

Plenty of Sunday afternoon drivers out in the sunshine did mean pretty slow progress but managed to get to 60mpg for the entire return leg.

I reckon the blanking off of the EGR following the turbo change means the car is running super efficient now it's not burning an air/exhast gas mix meaning better economy.

Either that or i'm just getting older, gentler, and less heavy footed (or i REALLY don't want to kill a 3rd turbo in a year!)