RobinJI

The blurry guy with the beard, that'd be me If I'd known you were there, or I'd paid a little more attention to the MX-5's I'd have said hello! I got a lift over in the gold Mitsubishi Colt/Sigma on slot-mags. It was a bloody good turn-out. (P.S. Bollocks, just remembered I've got this idle valve in sat in the garrage waiting for me to remember to post it to you! PM me your address and I'll send it over if you still want it.) (P.P.S. Some nice shots there, consider your page liked. I've tagged a few owners in some of the shots, hope that's alright?)

Paul, are you wanting the engine more or less slanted? If you're wanting to canter it over quite a bit then make sure you definitely use an AEB engine as they share their oil pump and sump fitment with the earlier engines meaning you can use a sump and pickup straight off a T25 to lean it right over. Can't say how the head will deal with the oil being over to one side but it seems to work in the T25s.

What Nick said, it's awesome having a higher shifter. When I did my engine swap I had to weld brackets into the shell to take the shifter that matched the engine/box and as I had free reign for it's positioning I put them up in the air and slightly offset to the drivers side. I can change between 4th and 5th with my little finger while my thumb's still on the steering wheel, and whenever I drive anything else the shifter feels miles away and horrid as a result.

It's probably because you've got pillow-ball top mounts. Sadly, on their own pillow-balls aren't really free moving enough for the job as top mounts, despite being hugely common, they're not ideal for the job. The ideal is to also use a thrust bearing like cars do from the factory, so the pillow-ball only deals with angular changes and the thrust bearing does the rotation from steering. I've done this on mine using an A3/Leon/Mk4 golf top-mount bearing (about £4 off eBay) under the pillow-ball top mounts. (without power steering it was kind of important to keep it free moving) The steering feels great but the down-side is that they've lost me about 10 to 15mm of travel, which isn't great when combined with the top mounts them selves loosing me ~5 to 10 and my car being fairly low. If you've got plenty of travel then I'd definitely say it's worth throwing some of these A3 bearings on there. I'll get some photos of how mine all goes together next time I have a strut off (probably won't be long, I need that travel back.) Paul, with adapter plates it surely depends on the engine/box/flywheel combination. Sometimes the length can work out alright just through luck/research, but I've seen spacers between the flywheel and engine before to account for differences (although I don't like the idea of that much myself.) I thought that with the 924 set-up you tended to use the engine's matching bell-housing and then put an adapter between that and the torque-tube rather than messing around with bell-housings? In which case, you just have to make sure that the new bell-housing + adapter is the same length as the old bell-housing was. It also means you've already got mounts for a starter that will mesh with the 1.8t's flywheel properly. Do 924's run a spigot bearing on the input/prop shaft?

Dan, just measure the distance from the floor to the wheel-arch with your current set-up, bolt the coilovers on, re-measure the arch height and adjust them accordingly. Take it for a spin to let them settle and re-measure it again, then adjust it if necessary. Should be pretty quick and easy with them being 1:1 so you'll know how much to adjust them each time. They're very unlikely to be set right straight from the box, especially with you having aftermarket top mounts.

They'll be 1:1 ratio as they mount directly to the hub, so there's no leverage on them (well, very minimal due to the inclination of the strut, but that's really negligible) So 10mm thread movement will move the ride height 10mm. As the others have said they give you a possible range of movement greater than the recommended range. It'll also be to allow for the use of different springs, as stiffer springs will need the adjusters to be set lower for the same ride height, as they'll sag less from the cars weight. Softer springs will often need to be longer, as they tend to have more coils and therefore be be longer when fully compressed, so to avoid them going coil bound they need the adjusters lower to give more space, and a longer spring's used to bring the ride height back up. So basically, the reason they've given you more adjustment than they recommend using's just future-proofing. Hopefully. Luckily I don't need it to get to work now I've moved as I cycle in. Trouble is I don't really want to drive it far as it is and I'm in quite a nice quiet area now; I'm not sure how the neighbors will react to me getting a grinder and welder out on the drive! Might just have to apologise in advance and warn them of it, they're pretty nice on the whole and it's not that nice and quiet around here. Should be a relatively easy fix, it's a clean fracture and I'll probably extend a near by double skinned bit to bridge over the weld and take the stress off it a bit, along with adding a load of cross bracing that I've been planning to for ages it should end up quite a bit stronger than before. I'll hopefully have it sorted before christmas.

Mine's only been fixed at the bottom for the last 2 years daily driving with no sign of trouble. The bottom mounts are deliberately flexible though, so it's held by the pipework and can move back as forwards with the engine if necessary. That's partly because my intercooler to throttle body pipework's insanely short though, so I didn't trust there to be enough flex in it to account for the engine movement properly. In other news, turns out by 'bent wishbone' is actually straight, and the cause of the wheel moving backwards in the arch is a massive crack in the section of the shell that the front bush for the lower arm mounts too. bad times.

Are some of you actually suggesting that there's something wrong with driving slowly down a road covered in speed bumps? If so, what the (expletive)? They're meant to slow you down, it's not a race. The fact the guy was in a 4x4 so didn't need to slow down as much isn't the problem of the sports car that's got to go slowly. It's no different than tailgating a 4x4/truck on an open smooth road then trying a dangerous overtake because he's not going as fast as you could round the corners in a sports car. If someone going slowly over speed-bumps really causes you any agro, then you need to reevaluate the amount of time you're leaving for the journey, it's not the car in front's fault if you're running late.

I bent a wishbone earlier stupid crappy roads around here. I threw some new brake pads on yesterday (just in time, less than 1mm left of the old ones!) and went out to bed them in this evening. In the middle of a hard stop from ~70 I hit what must have been where a pipe/cable had been put in and the new tarmac had sunken a lot since. It wasn't particularly visible at night and I don't know that road that well. The force of hitting it with the wheels right on the edge of locking up was evidently enough to bend the passenger side wishbone back about 25mm. As far as I can tell it's an original wishbone, and I've already replaced the driver side one so it was probably due replacement. The annoying thing is I've got a new pair of wishbones sat here with the wide-track stuff I wanted to fit last weekend but couldn't because royal mail seem to have lost my track rod ends. The MOT runs out on Thursday so now I need to buy a new wishbone that I'll only run for a matter of weeks, to go with the new brake pads I'll only be running for the same minimal time. These missing track rod ends really have screwed my plans up. Edit: Nearly forgot, Mike, I found that idle valve yesterday! I'll message you on facebook tomorrow to sort out getting it to you. I need sleep now!

Ditto, any day's fine for me. That format sounds ideal Adam. I'm happy to help out with timing and things if necessary too and I'd love a few pointers from anyone willing to give them! I'll probably throw my camera in as well.

Bloody hell, I went away last weekend and have only just managed to catch back up with this thread as it's been moving faster than I could keep up with! Mike, yeah, it's me with the MX-5, sorry I've been slack on the ICV, the car's at my mums house not mine so it's not just a case of walking out to the garage, I need to head over there this weekend though so I'll grab it while I'm there. You've got me on facebook I think, if you want anything else off the car just give a shout. Jardo, I completely 'get' the Panda Cross, and I kind of want something similar myself sooner or later, although given the use and abuse nature of that sort of vehicle, I sure as hell won't go near anything newish! In your situation it makes sense, in anyone elses, surely buying a shiny new car specifically with off-road/adventure/outdoors/whatever-you-want-to-call-it use in mind is a sure fire way to loose money quickly? I partly say this because my housemate's just bought a cheap e39 525d touring to replace his mint e91 320d purely because it was too much of a pain worrying about the e91's value when using it for mountainbiking, road-trips, mileage associated with a long commute and other real-life things.

I put my key in the slot and rotate it when I want my car to lock or unlock. It's not much of a hardship. It always does what I ask it to and nothing more. It's batteries cant run out and if my car gets 6" of water in it, no control module thingys crap their pants or commit suicide. It works just fine on my house, and garage, and bike lock, and filing cabinet... etc. Shiny things arrived the other day:

I don't think it's a grey area. If they're designed to move, they have to do so correctly. If they're designed not to move, that's fine. There's no reason for rejection for a seat that doesn't move, the wording's "The drivers seat fore and aft adjustment mechanism not functioning as intended" if it's not intended to move then they can't really fail if for that, although I'm sure there's some arsy willy out there who'd try to.

I'd use PVA as a release agent, it works well and if you get the thickness right it should smooth out the mould surface quite well too. A quick squirt of a silicone based 'back to black' type product will probably help too. Silicone isn't tooo sticky anyway, it'll certainly be a lot easier to get out than polyurethane. A soft material will always be easier to release without hurting the mould than a hard one anyway as you don't have to release it all at once. Edit: Or yeah, wax would work nicely too, it'll just be trickier to get into the sharper corners properly.

I know your pain with leaks Paul, I've got interior damp down to a level where I think some sort of Pingi style thing would sort it, but last winter I had seriously soggy carpets. Mine was mostly getting in past the rear lights, might be worth a look on yours too. My next lot of plans for the Scirocco are starting to shape up. I've got a set of S3 uprights and breaks sat here and plans to get them bolted up before the MOT at the start of next month. In order to get them fitted I need to: Buy a pair of A3 driveshafts with CV joints. Buy a pair of A3 lower arms and sleeve the ends of them onto my Scirocco's lower arms, (to extend them to the right length for the driveshafts, and make an A3 ball-joint fit.) Receive the new S3 hubs I've ordered and drop them off at a local machinist to be re-drilled to 4 stud, then fit them to the uprights with new wheel bearings. Swap my S3 Disks & caliper carriers with a friends A3 ones as S3 brakes won't fit under my 15" wheels. Cut a few mounts off my coil-overs so they'll fit into the S3 uprights Fit the new adjustable solid top-mounts I've ordered so I can get the camber right. Replace my track rod ends with rose-joints and spend a while shimming them to remove any bump-steer. Then once that lot's all done I've got to work out how on earth to find an extra 50mm width in each wheel arch! That lot should level my wishbones out nicely, (improving the camber curve and roll-center) correct the bump steer and gain me a fair bit of caster. It's a lot of effort to correct some geometry, but it'll be really satisfying knowing it's all done right and should make a good improvement to how it drives. Plus it also gives me better brakes with easier upgrade options, tougher CV joints and wheel bearings, extra width without detrimentally big spacers or low offset wheels, and also the ability to fit a 6 speed with off the shelf drive-shafts. Plus, it means I get to have good geometry while still running the car low and wide.

I've still got it, but I don't know if it works as the car's been running megasquirt for a couple of years not using it. You're welcome to it for free/postage if you want to give it a try though.

It's an early UK car, so it is an MX-5 not Eunos, but it's the 115bhp engine. You're welcome to come have a look at it and rob anything you want off it, the postcode the car's at's TA20 if you want to check out distances, or I'll be in Bristol on the 21/22/23rd of this month. Just let me know, I've got a week off work in the run up to that weekend, so can easily unbolt stuff and bring it with me if I can get it in the Scirocco's boot.

Mike, I'm guessing a 1.6 is no use to you? I'm basically only planning on making any real effort to sell the go-faster bits off my MX-5, so any mechanical bits you want you can have for very minimal cost. Hopefully it is just the cam cover gasket and you won't need anything though! Nice pictures Nick and Jardo, looks like lots of fun!

Gas shocks can affect ride height, but you'd probably know if they were blown, I've seen the state of the roads around Bristol! The higher side poking out more could just be because of the ride height; as MX-5's get lower they gain a lot of camber, so the lower side's wheel will be tucking in more at the top. I guess it's not on coilovers? If not then besides tired shocks and/or springs, the only thing I can think of's that if the eccentric bolts in the lower arms are opposite ways round side to side (due to someone without a clue trying to adjust things/replacing things) then it can cause them to sit wonky because the arms will be at different heights/angles and the shocks mount on the lower arm. I've had an ask around with friends in Bristol and a couple of them have recommended FCM Motorsport for alignment. They might be worth a call, even if it's just to get them to check it over and give an idea if anything's in need of replacement.

If you need any bits then let me know Mike, I've still got mine sat here waiting to be broken for parts and I go up to Bristol at least once a month.

Haha, I'd pretty much agree, I might do the long version later too. But yeah, as Adam's said, chances are it'll mess with the handling in a way you don't want. I had an interesting drive last night. I went to collect the first parts for my next plan with the Scirocco that I'd bought on eBay, which were in Cheltenham, (about a 160 mile round trip for me). Popped to shell to check my tyre pressures and stick some fuel in and the Scirocco decided not to start when I went to pull away from the pump. After buying a small tool-kit (unusually I had nothing with me) and borrowing some allen-keys from the friendly guy behind the counter I traced it down to a loose crimp connector on the high pressure fuel pumps earth. Got going, got up to Cheltenham and pulled onto what I thought was his road, only the house numbers didn't go high enough. Parked up and jumped out then noticed the road name was 'something something drive' instead of 'something something road' that I was aiming for. Jump back in the car and the sodding thing wont start. I walked to his place and picked the parts up so as not to mess him around (I was only one road over). Got back to the car, played with a few fuel lines to see if fuel was finding it's way right through at pressure (the wiring's not easy to get at, and I didn't have any testing kit). I chucked it back together and gave it one last try and it just about fired up then seemed to run fine, so I cautiously trundled home not daring turn it off again and sitting behind a truck all the way being gentle with it. The plus side is I managed 46.5mpg on the way back as a result Started up fine this morning when I had to un-block-in my housemate, weird. I'll need to investigate this evening as it's still my only car, and although I don't need it to get to work anymore, I could do with it working reliably! (PS, Jardo, nice write up, it looks like it was a lot of fun. I'm really hoping I can join you guys at one of these sooner rather than later.)

What makes you say it's not the stat? I'd probably try a new coolant temp sensor first, just because it's a VAG car and they seem to like going, but it could well be the stat, especially if it's been changed for a pattern one at some point.

Legend, thanks for that, that's ideal. Within the range I was hoping for so that's good news , time to look into things a bit more seriously.

Seen that on a few cars Dan, I had to replace it the last time I did a front bearing on the Scirocco, luckily I was about 500 yards from a GSF who had a new drive flange on the shelf for about £20. Personally I'd leave the new upright you've fitted alone unless it starts complaining. I treated myself to a nice fancy soldering iron yesterday when I went to fix my bass guitars lead and found my old iron was knackered. Now I'm itching to try out a few electrical ideas on the car so I can use my new toy, but both involve spending money that'd be much better used on the suspension. Speaking of which, I don't suppose anyone with a mk4 golf based car would mind measuring the distance between the center of the strut tops would you? Considering how common they are, less of my local friends than you'd expect own anything mk4 based.

Count me in: 1. Dann2707 2. Tarty Adam 3. Pashley26 4. MikeRotch 5. Azarathal 6. Rainbird 7. Curtisrider 8. Pete 9. Spunky 10. Greg1040 11. SamKidney (Possibly) 12. Duncy H 13. RobinJI