DieselMonte's 2012 Monte Carlo Project.

[AnnoyingPentium]

7 minutes ago, DieselMonte said:

Still not been up your way to meet you.

 

As always, give me a shout if you're across here again!

 

7 minutes ago, DieselMonte said:

Did you do skodafest? Must do it next year if it's on.

 

Aye, documented it just now on my own thread. About the guts of 13 hours driving from Ayr down to Newport via Largs, Castle Douglas, and Stoke-on-Trent.

[DieselMonte]

Thought i had updated this thread since but I guess not. Was hoping to avoid driving this since it's last excursion in the UK. Lucky had a spare damaged but still working foglamp to put in. Since poorly painted to match.

Lips still damaged and needing painted too.

Tyres are all on the limit and I do not want anything less than pilot sports on it now. Needs tracked badly also.

Right rear caliper is sticking slightly. Enough to make noise when you turn left. 

Timing belts still due and it's developed a slight tick. Sounds like lifter tick and I only hear it when the windows are down around town. It's slight.

 

Having said all this you'll be surprised to hear that It's been back in England. Retrorides was on and it was the event I have been getting the justy ready for. The justy was running perfect right up until I left town, then it wasn't anymore. Limped it home, dumped the luggage into this and flew down to the ferry terminal, no checks, no prep to it just went.

Fair play to it, it didnt miss a beat. Made me feel a bit bad about neglecting it in favour of the justy.

Some interesting stuff there, 

Not happy the justy failed but I still got there. And it was nice to be able to cruise at 70 and still get over 65mpg. Writing this on the ferry back so not done yet. Figure it'll have done just shy of 700 miles this weekend.

And even though I really have been trying to avoid driving it, for the time being I've been commuting in it. I'm temporarily doing a 50 mile a day commute, vs where I normally work being a 6 mile commute.

When I get back I'm going to prioritise getting this back to top shape before anything else. I think I have enough spares to get the justy going again, and the vRSDI I have enough to get it back together as it is.

 

[DieselMonte]

4 tyres ordered, won't be in to the 11th of next month. All my tyres are looking like this so I've put the winter wheels on it since.

New fogs bought and fitted.

Hella ones £45 each. Have the oe numbers on them and all.

Will still probably tint them again.

Much to do as always.

Nearly 150k on it so It'll get a full look over then.

[AnnoyingPentium]

Looks fantastic now.

[DieselMonte]

8 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

Looks fantastic now.

Thanks man

Not heard from you in a bit.

 

[AnnoyingPentium]

40 minutes ago, DieselMonte said:

Thanks man

Not heard from you in a bit.

 

 

Aye it's been a bit busy here. Fabia is still on the road despite being nudged into a ditch, and getting a lot done to it next week, which I'll update in my thread in due time.

 

Hope you're well.

[DieselMonte]

New tyre time.

4 new Pilot Sport 5's.

Like a new car again.

Then not long after the doors started locking and unlocking constantly.

So took the switch apart and found corrosion. Cleaned it up. Works fine now.

[DieselMonte]

Bumper off to finally fix the damaged lip.

Got a small fibreglass repair kit from halfords and set about fixing it.

Not too hard actually. Kit had a lot more stuff than I needed so I have lots spare for the vRSDI.

Only trouble I had was the resin set VERY quick. The way it was setting it was turning into jelly in the cup, so I ended up dumping that out in a lump and making more.

Did 2 layers, Seems to have set very hard. Looks bad, but the patches are behind the bumper and the bottom of the splitter can't be seen.

Gave it a clean waiting for the resin to set. Gave the intercooler and the spotlamps a good clean since I had access.

Also tightened up the intercooler for hopefully the last time. Gave it a good polish too.

All together.

I'll just paint it on the car. Everything behind the bumper is fixed so no point taking it off again.

 

[Paws4Thot]

10 hours ago, DieselMonte said:

Only trouble I had was the resin set VERY quick. The way it was setting it was turning into jelly in the cup

Too hot in the workshop and/or using too much hardener.

[DieselMonte]

10 minutes ago, Paws4Thot said:

Too hot in the workshop and/or using too much hardener.

Probably both

Place was a furnace

[DieselMonte]

[DieselMonte]

New map sensor installed. Bolts were rusted beyond recognition so had to take the pipe off and try remove the bolts. Ez outs worked pretty well.

New one in with bolts I had laying around.

Didn't fix the code I was getting oh well.

[DieselMonte]

New timing belt, water pump and coolant done end of last week. New accessory belt too, not needed but when all going on may as well

All Gates Kit too.

New Rear right caliper, refreshed the brake fluid too. Old caliper was beat.

 

[DieselMonte]

So due another service again. Ordered quantum oil online. Very impressed how well it was packaged, wrapped twice and boxed. Pretty cheap too, and quantum is genuine for VW afaik. Stepped up to 5w40, figure a thicker oil would be no harm given its getting up the miles.

Full kit assembled. Air, Oil, Fuel, Pollen, engine flush (why not) and Gear oil. Didn't get to do the gear oil as I ran out of time.

Used the engine flush as instructed and the oil drained like water.

Air filter rotten again

Serviced up, primed the fuel system with vcds and did some tweaks while I was in there.

Figured out how to get speedo readings on the radio, which was cool.

And said I'd try the needle sweep function.

 Ready to go another bit I reckon. 

[DieselMonte]

Also got some photos that were took coming over hartside pass on the way home. Think it was a guy called bikerphoto? Fun times.

[Paws4Thot]

3 hours ago, DieselMonte said:

And said I'd try the needle sweep function.

Meh...

[DieselMonte]

11 hours ago, Paws4Thot said:

Meh...

Cost me nothing to change it when I get bored of it

[DieselMonte]

So finally took the time to fix the splitter

Took a fair bit of sanding and filling to get the worst out of it.

Primed

Filler Primed

And Painted.

Complete rattle can jobbie from start to finish. So far from perfect.

I'd rather have been able to take it off. But it's a lot of hassle and I'd have probably broken it. Tape was less than stellar and got a fair bit of overspray. To say I'm rusty would be putting it lightly.

 That pic is of it freshly painted. Came out fairly well over all. Since wetsanded it and buffed it but there's a bit more to be done, anyhow. Better than paying 350 plus vat for one of the few NOS ones, and still need to paint it anyway.

Also have NCT soon so took some time looking it over. Stripped all the brakes, deglazed the pads, cleaned the sliders and rebled. Front discs are a bit low, would have changed them when I did pads only they got lost in transit.

Checked over the suspension, all seems fine but I have noticed an occasional knock. Which I can't figure out.

Changed the gear oil too as I didn't get doing it when I serviced it.

"Only" 50k miles on it from the last time I did it. Still probably fine I imagine but seems gear changes are a bit slicker and I've not gotten the typical crunch into reverse since.

Not much else. Imagine it'll fail on something stupid again.

[DieselMonte]

Update: It did fail on something very stupid.

And it shouldn't have.

Failed on front brake pipes fouling (they weren't) was told it needed a bracket (It didn't the bracket is on the shock), they failed it then your man took it BACK in for a retest on the spot because it didn't print an emissions reading. It passed that with flying colours.

Retested it failed again, so to appease the sour bastards I robbed some brackets off one of the Mk1s and cleaned them up.

Also got new brake lines which ended up not even working, would not seal on the caliper. So used the old lines which I am NOT happy about.

Did come out pretty slick.

Drilled a hole in the hub and ran a tec screw through.

Ended up finding an OE number so have 2 new ones to go on the SDI.

While all that was going down I wanted to swap the gearbox mount as it was poorly.

Then broke a bolt.

Was over Christmas, Ordered a new one and it didn't come to January 3rd. So was out of it for a week or so.

Sorted through other means but I now have a spare bracket brand new just sitting there.

Have to do another full test and that's in just under 2 weeks. Have to get 2 tyres on it Saturday as they're nearly on the wear bars. And I'll change the oil before I do the test.

[DieselMonte]

Broke the bonnet catch the other night somehow so swapped it over from a parts car. 

Central locking button went so swapped it, and it was boosting funny (why I was popping the bonnet ironically) so swapped the N75 too.

Now onto some more fun stuff.

Have gotten some very nice very cheap upgrades and bits recently.

First one being a sunglasses holder. New old stock genuine Skoda one

Believe it or not a fair bit cheaper genuine than on eBay.

Nice and cheap.

Swapped the top vents over to some less haggard ones too. No pics.

AND finally got an upgrade from my ropey Swing headunit.

Got my hands on an Amundsen+, so Bluetooth and satnav. Neither of which work currently as I haven't swapped the satnav aerial and I need to do some poking around with vcds to get the Bluetooth to work. And I THINK I'll need to put in a mic for the Bluetooth to properly work. 

Saying that it works well, still have my Bluetooth adaptor so using that. Nice to have a working CD player again too. Did want something Android auto but this is costing me basically nothing and is OEM.

Have an oil pickup tube and seal got too, want to drop the sump and some point and have a look see. Nearly 160k so curious to see how it's holding up. Suspect I have an injector seal weeping too. Plenty of stuff to be sorted to keep it in good shape.

So mixed start to the year but I intend on making the most of it. Lots to do.

[DieselMonte]

Bit of VCDS trickery and Bluetooth is now working. Ordered a new sat nav cable and microphone cable. Should be fully working as it should in a week or 2.

[DieselMonte]

So finally have nct now.

Needed a new abs pump so was done too.

And I got a deal on another radio so tried it out.

Not a genuine unit but fairly smart. New in the box, has satnav via a thing stuck to the window, all works. Bluetooth CDs etc.

Had an adapter loom with a canbus box so plugged straight in.

Has some interesting features including a calculator

Conversion calculator, alerts for speed cameras and road changes, has android auto but cant quite figure it out. Lists of speed limits and alcohol limits for every country.

And bra sizes.

Works well, nice and responsive etc. I'll stick with it as the Amundsen has gone into another car.

 

[DieselMonte]

So been assembling a couple of three things over the past while for this. Suspensions been annoying me with bumps and rattles, so decided it was high time for another mid life rebuild.

Ordered the Full meyle HD catalogue, and new shocks and springs. Got a VERY good deal on an ST setup, new in the box.

So this time it has received:

-ST Shock and Springs

-Meyle Rubber Top mounts and bearings

-Meyle Rear Top Mounts

-Meyle HD Ball Joints

-Meyle HD Track Rod Ends

-Meyle HD Inner Track Rods

-Meyle HD Drop Links

-Meyle Shock Boots Front and Rear

-Meyle Anti Roll Bar Bushes.

-Febi Bilstein Rear bump stops (Sports susp)

-Lemforder Bags of Bolts

-TRW Steering Rack Boots

-New Top mount caps (top of struts)

-Mk5 Golf Rear spring rubbers.

-Genuine Top Hats

-Genuine Top Mounts Caps

-Genuine Steering Rack Grease

-Genuine bolts (where possible) 

-Genuine Solid Rubber Bushes

-Genuine Air ducts for the Wishbones.

 

Did Rear suspension First.

Spent some time stripping away some rot and under sealing.

New Springs are Similar to the old ones in appearance, Might sit a hair lower due to the Mk5 golf top rubbers.

New Shocks too, top mounts and bolts.

Here's how it sits after. Basically the same to be honest. It should settle after some driving so I'll post a picture later.

Fitted solid rubber console bushes to some spare arms

Stripped the subframe, Wire wheeled and painted all. Used Scania Chassis Grey that I found in the shed.

Came on alright, hasn't really dried hard, hard to describe really. It's more like a thick coating than hard lacquer.

For 160K, it's not too bad, really .

 

 

[DieselMonte]

Painted all the suspension.

Stripped and regreased the rack with genuine grease, fitted track rods.

Subframe In

New shocks and springs in.

Also fitted some air ducts I found on etka. They were cheap and available so bought them 

Here's how it sits now. Again sits much of the same but will probably settle some more. Should still be a respectable height and with new everything should drive out great.

Not done much driving in it but first impressions are good. Want to sort alignment a bit more.

[DieselMonte]

Last few things to finish off the weekend.

One of my rear buckles has been missing a cover for ages. Got one off the parts car to fix it.

And got a hold of some red seats.finally. mostly in good shape but the drivers bottom bolster was wrecked.

Got a brand new seat base to do it

All in easy as. Had my laptop ready to clear any airbag codes but none came up. 

 

So aside from a proper tracking it's basically done. Well, the stuff that requires a lot of downtime anyway. 

Driven some more and have been VERY impressed so far. 

The new seat bolster feels fantastic and hold you in well. The suspension is still very confidence inspiring, it holds the road very well. No weird knocks or rattles, suspension related ones anyhow.

Forgot to mention I've replaced all but one exhaust mount, and that last one I suspect is causing the exhaust to rattle around too much over bumps. But other than that, great result.

 

Had hoped to polish it and fit some more genuine goodness I've been buying up, but that'll have to wait for a minute.