Electrical gromets for use on a metal back box, excellent idea. 

 

Love the thread, keep at it. 

5 minutes ago, MikeTheThinker said:

Apologies; I misinterpreted your need and thought you were looking for a seal for the air inlet under the scuttle.

 

No worries, I love how everyone chips in to help on here👍

 

I can confirm that the 20mm grommets from Screwfix fit well in the whole next to the cabin filter, if anybody wants one I've got 99 left over😂.

I used gasket maker to help seal it up and did the same for the filter box.  Then I chucked in a new filter and jobs a good un.

I took the wiper mechanism out (not as easy as I'd like but I worked it out) and removed the cover on the driver's side to out gasket maker around the the edge of that cover too. Final I put some gasket maker around the bonnet release cable grommet 

Now it's all sealed up I can think about washing the outside and see if the paint will polish up.

 

That looks a lot better than it did & should keep the water out for a long while yet.

Thanks, I could clean it out better now, when I tried washing it out the other day the water was flooding in both ends of the dashboard. It can stay like that for now though I've got other more pressing issues to sort out like the sai pump mounts, ARB bushes and thus afternoon the EML came back on. It had a camshaft position sensor fault when I bought it and I reset the light to see if it came back. It looks to be a new sensor but I can't see it well enough to say what make it is. All I know so far is it has power and ground. I need to get hold of vcds to do a better diagnosis, I'm tempted to invest but I haven't got a laptop and it all ads up. I do know someone with vcds but not sure when/if I can borrow it.

Edited 24 February, 20224 yr by Ben99Felicia

I changed the knocking ARB bushes today, easy enough job. The hardest part is getting the drop link out of the ARB which requires the weight of the car so the thread isn't binding up in the hole of the ARB. Actually the hardest part is getting the bolt back in the bush bracket, the new bush is bigger than the old bush as it's not been squashed yet and it's a pain to start the thread, if the bolt was just a little long it wouldn't be an issue. Anyway it didn't need to be swore at too much before it gave up and behaved itself. I coated the inside and outside in grease but I feel like the rough rusty ARB is going to chew the new bush up 🤔

Thought I'd investigate the spark plugs and coils this morning, the plugs are standard ngk pfr6q, the gaps seem fine at 0.8mm

I've got three different model of coil pack, all of which look like aftermarket ones.

I'm going to put a new set of plugs in and change all the coil packs. Does anyone know if the red r8 coils are worth buying, they seem to be available for a good price. Otherwise what coil packs have you peeps got in yours? Carparts4less have 5 different brands, awesomeGTi sell the red r8.

 

Well it looks like I'm going to be busy tomorrow, the timing is one tooth out!..

 

So after looking at the spark plugs and coils earlier I thought I'd contact my mate with vcds, he said yeah no worries I'll be home from 630, come over and we'll scan it.   I started to do a little research into what we would need to scan and how to run the diagnostics properly. I found the fault code p0340 on the ross-tech wiki page which said check the wiring, replace the sensor or check the timing. I checked the timing, it's really hard to get the camera to focus because I didn't take it all apart but as the can see with the cam pulley timed up the crank pulley is miles out

So I lined up the timing marks on the crank pulley and re checked the cam pulley, it was one tooth out. I couldn't get a clear photo of it but I'll post some better pictures tomorrow when it's fixed

Sorted, it wasn't too hard either, the engine bracket is the worst part. Fingers crossed now there's no more EML and hopefully it runs a little better

Loads of fun and games today. I've replaced the thermostat because the car would only get up to 60 degrees whilst driving, that's all sorted.

of course the sai pump hose snapped straight away

shortly followed by the dipstick tube dropping plastic shards down the tube into the sump, a great design.

I've put new rubber mounts on the sai pump

I've ordered a new dipstick tube which was cheap and in the uk and I've ordered new hoses for the sai pump from China because they're £13.10 instead of £60. I'll delete the sai at some point but not yet.

 

Next weekend I'll be taking the sump off to clean the bits of dipstick out, I suppose I should price up a new oil pickup too...

 

Edited 6 March, 20224 yr by Ben99Felicia

Successful weekend, I've replaced the oil pickup, cleaned the sump out and fitted some new parts.

Lots of bits of dipstick tube/dipstick in the oil pan. I cleaned it out with brake cleaner and scotch brite.

I got my new oil pickup kit and crankcase breather kit.

I cleaned the windage tray and fitted the new pickup.

The old oil pickup had plastic in it, but it wasn't clogged and not looking too bad.

I fitted the new crankcase breather using some 19mm hose and a straight 19mm connection, I'll replaced the entire system with a catch can at some point.

Some broken plastic fell inside when I removed the old one so I vacuumed it out with a modification of the vacuum hose.

I bought a Mann filter and some millers oil, I went for 5w40 as it has a few miles on it now.

Another couple of jobs sorted out there. 

The pickup pipe looked remarkably free of debris but it's good to know it's sorted.

The crankcase breather replacement is interesting & I can see the sense in doing it that way to prevent more plastic falling inside next time.

I'm also using Millers 5w40 oil & it seems to be fine. I went for the Nanodrive NT+ just to see what it was like. I guess they're both very similar and I'm sure mine uses less oil since making the switch to 5w40.

Hi Skinnyman

 

I use 5w40 nanodrive nt+ CFS in my mini cooper s, it uses at lot less oil than when I used to put 5w30 in it. Next time I change the oil in the mini I'll put the same stuff as ive just put in the vrs because it's £42 instead of £58 and is made for road/track use rather than Motorsport.

 

Anyway yeah getting jobs ticked off and enjoying working on it.

 

By the way do you still have an interior for sale? My driver's seat has a hole in the bolster and I want to replace it.

23 hours ago, Ben99Felicia said:

By the way do you still have an interior for sale? My driver's seat has a hole in the bolster and I want to replace it.

 

Sorry, it sold on eBay a while ago. 😟

 

As for the oil, it was a bit of an experiment to go for the more expensive stuff, just to see what it was like. 

I thought it would be sold by now, I was waiting to see how much money the rest of the car was going to cost me to repair before I started looking for a replacement seat. I'm getting there now so I'll keep an eye out for some, I think I want standard seats to keep an original look to the car.

 

 

been a busy lad 

4 hours ago, dubDEAN said:

been a busy lad 

Yeah man, still got loads to do but I'm enjoying working on it.

I had the sai pump pipe arrive from China, it only took 10 days, not bad for £13.10. I also bought a dipstick from gsf to replace the one that's falling to pieces.

I replaced the broken air vent in the middle of the dashboard with one from eBay.

Whilst I was running the car up to temperature I noticed a vacuum leak from the brake servo hose.

I've wrapped some electrical tape around it 🤫 I know that's not gonna be any good. I've seen I can replace it for about £40 with the fittings but I'm thinking if the fittings are ok then I could just replace the hose. I'll have a think about it 🤔

Edited 21 March, 20224 yr by Ben99Felicia

This week the windscreen wipers seized, I read all about refurbishing them but decided to by a new one for £25 on eBay...that was my first mistake.

 

It turns out all the new wiper linkages on eBay are the left hand drive models. After fitting the new part I realised something was wrong because the wiper travel on the driver's side was to far. Even with the wiper parked at the very bottom of the screen it would travel way past the side of the screen and across the a pillar. You can see the difference in the picture, they main bar is bent on the left of the original and the right of the new part, the linkage is 10mm longer too. I tried swapping the linkage but that had the same result.

 

I'll refurb the old one then...yeah that didn't go well with me snapping the end off trying to get the spline out, it was very seized. I've ordered a used one off eBay for £30 which i will refurb before fitting to make it last.

 

I've also broken the scuttle panel, it tore when I pulled it off. I've had no luck finding one on eBay so I'll need to find someone breaking one.

 

Not the usual productive weekend 🤔

Great progress. I'm in the middle of tackling all the same jobs, just not as quickly as you!

56 minutes ago, a1topdog said:

Great progress. I'm in the middle of tackling all the same jobs, just not as quickly as you!

Thank you. Your car is looking really nice, I need to do quite a bit more to get it to the same standard as yours.

 

I've done some more this week, I've had a weeks holiday off work but had a bad cold so didn't get anywhere near as much done as I'd have liked to.

 

I finally got round to taking the stickers off and giving it a quick clean. I got carried away and forgot the before photo of the sides of the car before I started taking the stickers off.

The back one came off easily with the heat gun warming the adhesive and wd40 to remove the residue.

You can't tell it was ever there.

The sides also came off easy enough but the paint is a slightly different colour underneath if you look carefully.

I realised I had run out of car shampoo/snowfoam so took it to the local car wash, they don't do a bad job and I just wanted it "cleaner" to see what the paint is like

The paint is faded but if I compound and polish it it'll be loads better, before that though it needs decontaminating

It's very hard to get the camera to focus on it but the whole car is covered it tiny orange dots of rusty iron particles embedded into the paint. I did a test with some clay bar and it took a ridiculous amount of effort to clean a tiny patch, it's obviously not the way to go about it. Then I realised the wheel cleaner that turns red on contact with iron would be the stuff to use.   I've been meaning to get hold of some autosmart red 7 for a while so that's the plan...

Edited 9 April, 20224 yr by Ben99Felicia

9 hours ago, Ben99Felicia said:

the paint is a slightly different colour underneath if you look carefully.

That's a regular issue with decals like the ones used on your car.

 

Ref the wheel cleaner, try using that on an inconspicuous and small area of the car and not a whole panel!

https://www.autoglym.com/products/bodywork/magma this is safe to use on bodywork 

On 10/04/2022 at 12:45, nige8021 said:

https://www.autoglym.com/products/bodywork/magma this is safe to use on bodywork 

Just stopped to get my truck washed and bought some of this from inside the shop at the truck wash. I'll let you see the results..

I used it on my Touareg a while ago and it worked great,