RobinJI

Luke, the transponder's for the immobiliser, rather than the locking, if the car starts then it's present and correct. Afraid I can't help with the central locking, never had a VAG car with it from the factory. Skoze, what sort of condition are the heads in? were they used before your dad got hold of them or are they new? Personally I'd remove the valves to check the stems and guides look in good shape, then if all's well find a local machinist/engine builder and get them to chuck them in their acid bath overnight and pressure test them. That should get them clean and confirm their condition, for fairly minimal outlay. Co-driving over the weekend went well, we managed 9th in class (out of 30) and 27th overall (out of 101), and Ben got an award for 'best under 25'. The car was mostly faultless, a sticking clutch made getting to the start line a little interesting, but was fine when being pushed on stage, and we managed not to put a mark on the car despite over 1/3rd of the competition dropping out from breakdowns and crashes in the awful weather, only 63 of the 101 entrants actually made it to the finish! Our times over the last couple of stages where we were getting into the stride of things properly were a good few places higher too, with a couple of times in the top 20. I've got a few pictures in my work e-mail that a college took, which I'll stick up here when I get a chance, and we're waiting for a CD of photos to come through from the event organisers. Going back to what has been said about the obstacles used on the courses that greetings competes on never being allowed in the UK, we were faced with a warning that the course had been lined with concrete filled oil-drum and large rocks, or if you were lucky 1/4 ton hay bails the help prevent damage to the land-owner's property! They took out a fair few cars but luckily no one got hurt.

Luke, from what I can tell, rods will become an issue before the small-port head will. It kind of depend what turbo you think you'll end up running in the long run. Bill's just got some pretty crazy figures out of a hybrid k04 on a small-port head, with one of his exhaust manifolds on there, more than enough for the standard rods! (~370ish bhp iirc). Yeah, it's got a 6 speed sequential sadev box in it, straight cut gears with dog engagements and flat shift. Basically the clutch is only needed to pull away. (Although downshifts will take some more practice on Bens part to get clutch-less.) Sadly shifts like that don't come from a gizmo stuck on the side of the standard helical box!

Should be interesting Dann. Just got home from preparing the rally car/service van for this weekend. We went out for a quick spin to scrub in a new pair of tyres and set the brake bias. I need a sequential gearbox in my life, this is just insane, we think the car has around 180bhp and weighs about 1000kg, but the box shaves soooo much time off the acceleration, this is roughly 0-100:

Sort out a compression test and/or gas test the header tank. Only real way to be sure. Just been told we're not allowed to film at the rally Shame, I was looking forward to having some good footage.

Sadly Q-drive are a bit cheap and not overly cheerful, if you're saving then fair enough, they'll fit fine and work alright for a while, I just wouldn't expect them to last more than an MOT or 2. If there's a higher quality make for a sensible amount extra I'd go for the nicer ones. Kind of linked to this and the subject from a few days ago of locking nuts, I bought a new SKF wheel-bearing for the Scirocco last week, (bought from ECP having gone to GSF only to find they could only get a Q-Drive one.) and I was pleased to see it came with replacement nuts for the track rod end and lower ball-joint, which are both of the 'k-nut' style squashed top half type, and a sachet of assembly lube. (As well as the hub nut and the cir-clips to hold the bearing in the hub, which I'd expect anyway). Nice touch, I do like high quality parts, well worth the extra £8 over the Q-drive one when you consider the bearing its self should be much better quality too. You can see how the top section's off-round to make them deliberately bind:

My economy's been crap the last few weeks, pretty sure my exhaust smashing incident's killed my lambda sensor, just waiting to get paid to replace it. I'm kind of curious to see what I'll actually get over my new commute once it's sorted, it's bloody steep and a bit too fun to get particularly good economy. The best I've seen with the 1.8t in mine's been 42mpg on a few motorway trips, I was averaging 36ish with and could easily get 40 on any trip over about 10 miles if I was being sensible/careful. Since smashing the exhaust I've been getting high 20's regardless of whether I'm sat on the motorway or flying down back roads. Really hope I can get this MX-5 at the end of next month, already been playing with colour changes on photoshop. Not really sure what I want to do with it looks wise. Oh, and our first competitive rally of the season's next weekend at Brean Stages. Really looking forward to it! We should have both a GoPro and Sony Actioncam on board, the GoPro will go on the cage looking out the front in standard 'on-board' fashion, but I'm not sure where to put my Sony. Any suggestions?

Shouldn't be a hard job to do, just give the nuts/bolts a good soak in something like plus gas first to help ensure they're not seized. Only vaguely specialist tool you may need's a ball joint splitter, if the old arms going in the bin then the fork type's probably easiest, but I've split plenty of ball joints with nothing more than a lever bar and a hammer in the past. Make sure you get half decent parts though, nothing more frustrating than replacing the same bit again the next year.

Pretty much my thinking too, I'd be able to help/advise a lot more if you (jake) were local! Be careful of the welding, being good to deal with when servicing a modern car has basically nothing to do with being good at welded repairs, and they're something that's much harder to rectify when done wrong than a bodged mechanical repair. Hopefully they're a decent place, but if your shoes I'd show my face there fairly early on and check they're doing a decent job of it. Alan, try lowering the front a touch, a little rake will help the front end aero. When I first got mine it did what you describe, but it was level/nose up, after a while I adjusted it to sit slightly nose down (basically because I prefer how it looks) and it's perfectly happy and stable feeling at high speed. Other-wise, as Nick said a splitter's the best bet, but a bit restrictive on the road. I'd be tempted to compromise and just do a full under-tray under the engine bay.

What sort of stuff is it that they're saying's wrong with it? One thing you'll learn quickly with cars, (especially old ones) is that most garages are crap, and have little to no interest or knowledge when it comes to fixing up old cars. That said, there are good ones out there, but you need to find them first and the trouble is, that garage that's genuinely great for Mr and Mrs Average with their bland modernish a-b runaround is often really not the right place to take an old interesting car for a bit of restoration work. Luckily for you caddy's are simple old trucks and there's really not that much you can replace before most of the wear and tear bits are new and it'll start getting perfectly reliable, just make sure you use decent quality parts. Welding's a bitch, and unfortunately is perfectly capable of being too big a hurdle to overcome, but assuming that £6-700 quote's from a normal 'highstreet' garage it's probably perfectly savable, especially if some of that's for mechanical work. Really you need to go somewhere a bit more specialist. I'd suggest signing up to Retro Rides forum, introducing yourself and asking about local places that could be good to take it to be looked at. To be fair to the previous owner though, if he didn't know about it it's not really his issue, if he's a decent person he'll feel a bit bad about it, but you can't really expect help from him with it. It's the trouble with buying cars from friends, they can be genuinely oblivious to the issues that you'll later hold them accountable for in your mind, no mater how much you tell your self it's not really their fault.

Like what? I'd have said a car you'll use and enjoy every day's a pretty damn good thing to spend your money on. It sounds like this guy needs a new car soon either way, and even if he doesn't need one, then it's not like he's blowing a load of cash one something expensive and flashy just to show off. There's no real downside to a mk2 MR2 over a normal hatchback other than luggage space, (but I'm guessing if he's looking at them, that's probably not much of an issue.) so why shouldn't it be a serious contender to replace his city rover? If he'd said he was going to buy a normal hatchback with it you wouldn't have batted an eye lid at the idea of someone spending inheritance on a car, but because your own opinion's that an MR2's a 'poor excuse for a sports car' it's suddenly irresponsible and short sighted, despite the fact that if he buys well he'll loose very little on a mk2 MR2 because they're pretty rock-bottom as it is.

Basically this, unless it's local, in which case it's 'over' to the next town, 'down' to the coast or 'up' to the hills.

Pretty much everywhere's up for me, although I'd say down for basically anywhere in Devon or Cornwall, even though a lot of Devon and a little of Cornwall's north of here. Also, it depends where I'm going, for instance I'd go 'up' to the hills, and 'down' to the coast, regardless of whether they're north of south of where I am. I'd generally say 'across' to London/the south east too, even though they're quite a bit north of here.

For the record, Photoshop CS-2's available for free now, completely legally.

I've tried and liked Sparco Sprints, Corbeau Pro Series and Cobra Sebrings (I think Prawn's are sebrings anyway, they're definitely cobra 'Pro-fit' seats of some sort.) But that's not to say there aren't other good choices, those just happen to be what I've tried out. The Sparco Sprints are a bargain, but the Corbeau Pro Series is very nice too, and are a step up in quality, although a touch over your budget. Really you'll need to sit in some to check they suit you though, a seat 'fitting' your body shape will make a big difference. I'm 5'9" with a 34" waste and not overly broad shoulders, and those are what suit me. Prawns Cobras are lovely, but I'm a fair bit smaller than him and even though they feel very nicely shaped, and very comfortable, they don't feel quite so nice and snug as smaller seats do for me.

Comfort, support, strength and weight really. FIA approved tends to speak for the strength of them, composite construction tends to drop the weight a lot, and in most cases make them comfier. It's bloody hard to say without sitting in them really, there's plenty out there than should be good on paper, but actually feel crap to sit in.

You'll probably find the 540 ones wont go under the arches, the offsets are quite different between the 3 and 5 series. The new car looks nice. Definitely don't scrap the old one, if you don't fix it, it'll sell fairly well anyway, even if it's just for someone to break it. I was hoping to have some nice on-boards from the rally test day today, but pulling in from our first shake down outing (that we didn't have the cameras in for) we found a snapped wheel stud, and lacking any replacement or ability to get the remains of the old one out of the hub, that put an end to our day. Pretty shit. New studs were in the post as we knew these ones were a bit crap, but didn't expect them to go this quickly.

Oh yeah, my Race Suit turned up today, fits perfectly which I'm pleased with! It's an EU54 size, which their size chart said was for 6' to 6'2", but it's a perfect fit on me at 5'9", lucky I tried a couple of mates on before buying! Very pleased with them for the money too. Link in case anyone's interested in some fireproofs. Edit, yeah, as Adam says, the tops ovalised so it pinches on the thread slightly, they feel pretty much identical to nylocks to use but they don't get slacker after 1 or 2 uses like nylocks do.

I'd go along with this. Get a new nut on there (as a minimum, preferably a ball joint, which will come with a nut anyway) and then keep an eye on it, if it's ovalised the hole in the hub it may well reoccur pretty quickly. Personally I'm a fan of K-nuts on this sort of stuff rather than castle nuts or nylocks, self locking, reusable, smaller spanner size helps access and they're lighter. Just a shame they're less common/cheap.

It could well be in the steering too. Have a good check for play, especially in the inner track rod joints, make sure any slack's adjusted out of the steering rack, make sure the rack's mounts onto the subframe are in good condition and make sure the subframe's secure and it's mounts are ok. It seems weird that the bearing was able to come out like that, surely there should be something holding it in? A Circlip or something. Greetings, your car does seem to be set up harshly for the type of events you do. I'll join the club of wondering why it brakes so much though. It does seem to be getting used very hard. Things like all the corner cutting in that video above will give the suspension a hell of a pounding. I've got my first co-driving Rally even this weekend, just an air-field test day to give the car a good shake down and the 2 of us a bit of practice. I'm sure I'll get some videos up after as we'll have 2 cameras on board.

Jake, yeah, filler and paint would be fine for the MOT. The main thing's that it's structurally solid. In an ideal world there wouldn't be those holes in it, but then I've seen garages do a lot worse, at least there's a couple of holes blown, rather than weld that's not actually stuck properly all the way around. You will need to be fairly aggressive in removing the rust that's reappeared though if you want any chance of it lasting, don't leave any darkened/pitted metal behind, make sure it's all sanded/ground off to a nice uniform shiny surface. before you go ahead with the filler. This is why flashes exist. Go on..... Speaking of buying toys, I've pretty much decided that I am going to buy back my old MX-5, pending going to have a look at it and double check I'm happy with it. Sadly the soonest I'll be able to buy it will be the end of February, and I probably won't be able to put it on the road until the end of march at the soonest.

If you're happy it's stuck well smear some thick seam sealer over the welds, it'll seal them up and help them last, as well as covering up what it looks like, then it'd probably be worth chucking some paint on to keep it rust free.

Yeah, you can drive without tax or test to get to or from an MOT, and/or place where work is to be carried out for an MOT. It needs to be pre-booked at the garage though, so should the cops pull you over you've got proof that you are on your way to where you say you are. Obviously it has to be in a 'roadworthy' condition though, but then that goes for using any car at any time. As for the weld, do you mean it's had welding done, but that the bare metal's now starting to rust from being outside? If it's solid metal then surface rust doesn't matter, I'd be inclined to just give it a good clean up with a wire brush to get the surface rust off, then after the MOT fill/paint it how you'd like. If it's an actual hole, then yeah, they're not allowed to dig around, all they can do is lightly tap it with a really small hammer, any repair (or partly rusted metal) that will still withstand this is ok from an MOT point of view.

Ah, well I may be remembering wrong then. I know they're not a true handle, I was just using the wrong word, but it looks like there's no links there. He definitely had the boot button/handle-thing break on his B5.5 though, I'll see if it sounds similar to yours.

I'm pretty sure I remember a local mate having this same issue with his B5.5. It was a little while back, but if I remember right it's down to a tiny plastic link in the handle that's really fragile. A bit of a bugger to replace apparently, but not expensive parts wise.

Dan's rear ARB absolutely will make a difference. I think you're getting confused between a live axle and a torsion beam axle, they're different things. On a live axle you'd be right that you'd need to bridge to the body for it to do anything, but despite how it looks a beam axle is technically 'independant'. On a live axle the wheels are placed either end of a rigid bar/tube, so they always remain perpendicular to the axle tube, this isn't independent because when one wheel moves upwards, the beam is placed at an angle, so the opposite wheel tilts to remain perpendicular to the tube. Also the springs/shocks have to be mounted inboard of the ends of the beam, so when one wheel moves up, the other is pushed down, as the axle pivots around the spring/shock. On a torsion beam axle, the wheels are mounted to trailing arms which are linked by a beam that can flex down its length. Because this beam is near the pivot point of the trailing arm, not the wheel, when a wheel moves upwards, the beam flexes and both wheels remain vertical. The beam's stiffness in resisting flex will try and pull the other wheel upwards too, basically making the 'beam' part of it a big ARB. What dan's done is increase the beams stiffness to resist this flex, giving even more anti-roll. The mountings are a tried and tested method which works just fine. As for Adams point that they don't necessarily add grip, it's true that in a lot of cases adding anti-roll won't increase the overall grip levels, but not in all cases. They can be an effective way of balancing a car, so adding or removing anti-roll from just one end of a car can fix understeer/oversteer issues. Also in cars like most people have been talking about in this thread, with torsion beam rear suspension and mcphereson strut front, the wheels will pretty much always remain vertical in relation to the cars body, not the road, so if you've got 5deg of body roll (which doesn't seem like a huge amount) you've got 5deg of camber on all 4 wheels in the opposite direction to the one you want, which is a LOT especially for wide low profile tyres like most of the VAG cars in this thread are running.