Luke Rainbird

Sam, that blows man. Gutting for the guy. Have you dropped the original lump back in, or are you going to be working on the rattly block trying to put things right? Are those panels the original paint code/colour then, Mike? If so it really shows how the rest have changed with age! Time to build a DIY spray setup and have a crack yourself, perhaps? In Leon news: Shimmed the gearbox to try and eliminate nasty drivetrain rattle. No dice. Found cause of overboost issue (which I think may be the cause of the hesitation/stutter on acceleration) - N75 nipple was broken. If it's going to be a pain, I may as well use the excuse to level up so new one ordered, and going to use the excuse to pull the turbo out and sort the snapped stud in the adapter and possibly an anti-surge compressor wheel to help down the line too while I'm at it. Edit; Apparently I didn't see this page before replying to stuff on the last. My bad.

Just get him the latest model of fleshlight and be done with it.

Lots of work, but looks lovely dude. Very well-kept looking little car

No need to clock, it's purely that the 2500k was the only one I could remember the name of

Overkill is good. Given they're cheap now (pick up a box for ~£120 or so) by the time I've thrown in an SSD for the OS/software (data stored elsewhere) and a basic graphic card to drive a pair of monitors (I have an old 4770 somewhere) it should be more than capable enough to simultaneously work/procrastinate for less outlay than a basic new office computer.

I could do with a new rig for work duties, which will sit in the office rather than at home and won't be subject to games etc. Current thoughts are to just pick up a used i5 (2500k/similar) build cheap, throw in an SSD, cheap graphics card for dual monitors and be happy with something plenty capable enough. Anyone see any reason not to/point me in the direction of something comparable for similar minimal outlay?

Bit of a catchup of the last few days. In the end I didn’t do a huge amount this weekend as I wanted a change of scene so spent time with family instead. Here’s what did go down: Messed about for a bit trying to get logging working properly. Starting to figure it out/work out a few kinks. Had a bit of help. Figured out where I’m losing some coolant. Flange isn’t sealing properly. Will get another one sorted - not sure if it’s the plastic housing or the o-ring that’s giving me trouble but they’re cheap enough I can just replace the lot. Picked up some larger spline bits - only really needed M16 for the gearbox but worked out just as cheap to buy a set, so I did. Note that for the drain/fill plugs on an 02m box you’ll typically need an M16H (hollow) rather than flat bit. Some were just a large allen head IIRC. I’d only lost a small amount of oil when moving the box about with no drive cup, so at this stage I just wanted to top it back up. The box itself is making a bit of noise so I’ll be giving it a complete oil change at some point, but this stuff isn’t overly cheap so I’d rather not use 2.5l of it just to drop again in a couple of weeks if needs be! Pr0tipz: A length of common or garden hose on the nozzle saves a whole world of mess - allows you to feed the new oil straight into the box without having to pull anything off the car at all (other than the fill plug, of course…) The fill and drain plugs on the box are found on the front and bottom respectively. Black caps seen here Fill until fluid starts to drip from the fill hole on level ground. Don’t forget there’s oil in the hose as it takes a while to flow down. I used ~300ml to top this one up, of which ~50ml or so ended up on the drive. Rookie error. Box topped up to the right level, I took the car for a quick drive to see if it’d helped quiet things down. It hadn’t. I’ve got a rattle which disappears as soon as you depress the clutch pedal at all, and a similar noise on overrun. As much as I don’t want to replace the CSC again, it’d be a darn sight cheaper than having to split the box and rebuild for a worn/dead input shaft bearing which symptoms point to. I’ve ordered a shim kit to see if it rectifies things from externally, but if that doesn’t help I’ll have to drop the box AGAIN and rethink. May throw stock box back in for a while, may transfer LSD across to the currently stock box instead. Car is filthy, but until it’s running right it’ll probably stay that way. Turns out being too lazy to reconnect your arch liners doesn’t pay. Oops… VCDS was reporting a misfire on cyl 1, so I’ve swapped coils between #1 and #2 to see if it’s just a coilpack issue. Not yet driven since to check. Have a fresh set of 4 en route but this’ll help diagnose for now. Not going to drive the car again until the box is shimmed to try and minimise any harm done. Very slight amount of oil in #1, but don’t think this is the cause. No major leak evident so likely just a touch through valve cover gasket, will keep an eye on it. Top of the plug itself is mostly clean, so may just have been a dab of oil on the coilpack when fitted that I missed. Despite running on actuator pressure (n75 unplugged) I’m currently seeing measured boost exceeding requested considerably. Need to get to the bottom of that - could be incorrectly plumbed (don’t think so!), maybe a dead n75 hose (potentially), could be an incorrectly set actuator (not sure) so more investigation needed. I may also have pre-emptively picked up another part to fit in that area, but that’s for another day.

Fun times James. Hope you're enjoying the circuit.

Looks fantastic Robin. Nice tight fit from the looks of things

Are you able to drive it there if you've pre-booked, or is that only when previous MOT has run out, rather than having been failed? Where are each of the garages, Mike?

Bike looks tidy, but can't work out what your graffiti is supposed to read. "Smab", "snwar", Ismwtatpp"...

Looks similar to an older BB5, though it's either been painted or is an unbranded caliper of the same style.

Enjoyed that, cheers chaps. Looks like a good group ride from the golden days.

Got home, had a little time to spare. Figured before I bolted up the last of the bumper/arch liners I should get some fluid in the clutch and make sure it wasn’t just going to hit the floor and not return again. EZBleed time. Didn’t seem to obviously piss out fluid, so I topped up the PAS fluid and threw the coolant back in (same stuff I dropped the other day, just until I’m happy it’s all ok at which point I’ll put fresh in and flush right through). Content that all systems were full of appropriate fluids, I crossed fingers and turned the key. Engine sounded a touch lumpy but otherwise good. Still no major leaks, so I span the steering left and right a handful of times to bleed out the last of the air from the PAS. Happy nothing had died just yet, tentatively pulled off the drive and down the road. Proof it left home under its own steam once more. Plenty of tidying up to do but hoping to do a logging run or more at the weekend. Here’s hoping!

Last time I had car sex was a few years back whilst training at BRNC. We weren't allowed off site, but I stuck my car in the married quarters just outside the wire and used to sneak out and drive to see the woman. One eve I didn't have time for the round trip so we met halfway. Was equal parts excellent and horrendous as usual, hence we haven't rushed to do it since Had an hour to spare while Soph was at Fire training this eve so got the car back together some more. Gearbox tapered piece arrived. They've sent the wrong one. Stuck in the old broken one. Lots of grease to help hold it in place whilst fitting. Got it in the box. Fitted a driveshaft to it. Stuck the dogbone back in shortly after. Popped in a couple of bolts underneath the car that I’d not yet done and torqued things up properly. Bumper loosely on and back on its wheels again. Looks like a complete car again. List currently looks something like: 2x nuts on bumper 8x screws in arch liners Refit TIP Check everything is torqued appropriately Refill/bleed fluids Fit battery Turn key Cross fingers Go for a drive

She looks to be enjoying her time with you, so I'd say the time/effort/money you've put into the car have been worth it so far Edit; Have just taken delivery of 3l Motul gear 300. All being well, should have the car back together over the next 48 hours then top up/bleed all fluids by the weekend. We'll see. Have been watching a number of Ben Rushworth's videos on YT recently, following Nick's recommendation. Well worth checking out if you get the chance

Jesus dude, that sounds epic! We're thinking of doing NZ for a joint honeymoon/30th Birthdays thing next March/April - hook us up with some details and I'll see if I can get something similar on the agenda

What's taken so long to get it patched up dude? Seems like an age since you handed it over?

I gave things a thorough flush through post-build, but obviously since running up to temp a few times it's helped free a few of the deposits that weren't hit by the hose. Have swapped out the coolant (and obviously with nothing connected at present it'll be getting fresh again this week) but throwing some chemicals in the mix to help ensure things are as clean as possible inside won't hurt. Once that's done I'll probably stick a clean header tank in there to replace the grotty one.

Nothing substantial to report. Rain stopped for 28 minutes yesterday, so I ran outside and got a couple of small jobs ticked off. Refitted earth on the casing. It was looking a little grubby so I gave it a quick clean, though realistically only a small ring in the center is needed. Went to refit the PAS line, spent half an hour hunting for the banjo bolt I’d put aside in a safe place to no avail. Eventually found it here. Refitted and new crush washers on the pump end whilst access was easy. Pulled the NS balljoint off and refitted drive shaft. Steering angle to make the drift kids jealous. With a few other minor details too, I should be about ready to stick the front end back on next time I get an dryish hour to spare. Cable tie needed for PAS line, evidently. Once the car is complete again (waiting on a new taper ring for the OS driveshaft) I’ll give it a drive or two to make sure things are in a reasonable state, then give the entire coolant system a good flush through. I’m happy that the charge line is nice and clean, but things were a little grubbier in the remaining stock coolant lines and it’s led to some discolouration of the fluid. Not helped by the galleries in the block being a little nasty either. Good flush through with some Wynn’s should help no end.

Managed to get it out without removing much at all, only the OS shaft being a pain right at the end. Going back in was a completely different story :lol: Once things are run in and working well I'll get around to all the little tweaks. Shall add that to the list in that case. Need to check size of fittings - think they were M10x1.0 off the top of my head but as always best to check, as if I buy those it'll doubtless end up being 3/8"... Any joy selling the S3 yet?

Where were we? Ah yes, mega close to having fun then it all went t*ts up. Of course. With the box out and in the garage, I was keen to give everything a quick once over in case I was able to spot anything I’d previously missed. I wasn’t. This is both a blessing and a curse, as I’d quite liked to have found a glaring issue I’d previously overlooked to give me that warm fuzzy feeling of having put it right. At the minute, no such luck. Checked over lines and fittings, all fine. On that note, I’ve seen folk removing/bypassing the clutch delay valve. Any experience of this here on UK-MkIVs? Whilst it’s not causing me any issues so doing no harm being there, I’m thinking about replacing the entire clutch line with some fresh braid and it’d be a good opportunity to remove it. It’s a common mod in the BMW scene but less so with VAG, which makes engaging/releasing the clutch a tad quicker. I suspect it’s a little too harsh for daily use so unlikely to do it myself, but would be keen to hear any experience from folk who have. DMF looking horrendous. It’ll be replaced at some point, but works fine for now for daily use. When it eventually goes I’ll fix it, but for now I just need the car driving again. Besides, I’ll be in no rush to pull the box again any time soon. Fly, PP and clutch plate given a thorough clean to ensure they’re good to go again. I bought a fresh seal for the gearbox input shaft to ensure things were as fresh as possible while it’s out. Received the wrong part and not in the mood for waiting so have left the existing one in place. It wasn’t leaking, so hopefully won’t have any issues. Bolted up the new slave and called it a night. Went to bed with loud rain outside. Woke up to much the same. With everything saturated, I wasn’t overly keen on getting under the car and the forecast gave heavy rain all day, particularly through the early afternoon. Still chucking it down, I admitted defeat and left the car. My parents arrived to say hi and watch the wedding video we’d just received, and on finishing that there was a break in the downpour. Dad had kindly offered to lend me another trolley jack to help move things about, and despite insisting that he hadn’t planned to help had a set of overalls in the back of the car. Good job too, as with an extra set of hands/eyes on things everything was considerably easier that it would have been without him. Thanks dad! Strangely, when we went to move the box back into place it became apparent that there was no way it was going back in through the hole it came out of. I’m not entirely sure how, but it seems I defied the laws of physics when pulling the box. We ended up disconnecting the clutch and PAS lines, removing the mount from the box itself and removing the OS drive cup too. Frustratingly the tapered bush on the cup shaft (if that makes sense) came out in more pieces than it should have, though I’m reliably informed that this is a common occurrence and it’s not an issue to reinstall like this. Second opinion more than welcome, though for now I’ve left it (not yet refitted regardless) as I wasn’t able to immediately track down an in-tact replacement. Due to rain and not wanting to stop mid-flow with dad holding up the box, I didn’t take any photos during the install. Here’s one to show the box back in situ though to prove I’m not making it up. Ended up using a combination of trolley jacks and the mounting bolts to get things roughly into place, before a big shove and nipping up the bolts to pull things together. A 19mm 12-point on the free end of the crank allowed us to check for resistance and make sure things were lined up correctly, and after a bit of a reshuffle we were content and nipped the bolts up fully. As a result, things now look like this. I’ve yet to reconnect everything else that’s currently off (PAS, clutch hose, ARB, ball joint, dogbone mount) but that’ll wait until it’s not raining. Or tomorrow, depending on how impatient I get. I’ve ordered a fresh 3l of Motul 300 Gear oil to replace what’s currently in the box (same oil, but has been thrashed around track for a couple of years by @Prawn). Shall swap that out once it arrives. Need to bleed things up and check all round, but with any joy the car should be just about back on the road by next weekend or so. Let’s hope it make it past the 10 mile mark this time round.

Good to see it's lasted a couple of journeys, @Tom Booth. Fingers crossed a good sign it'll stand up to general use moving forward! Here's another lengthy update on the Leon. Apologies if it's a touch disjointed, it's a few other forum posts combined. Any suggestions welcomed! Battery charged yesterday evening (not overnight as I didn’t know the state of things so played it safe). Checked the charger this morning and all looked good. However the battery itself had other ideas… Unconvinced as to whether or not this was going to work at all, I figured it best to just chuck it in the car and turn the key. As you can see, I made it off the drive and things were running so I’ll call that a win for now. I think the battery is on its last legs, but I’ll be popping in a smaller unit and relocating semi-soon, so it’s not the end of the world. Ignore the airbag light - still haven’t fitted my passenger side resistor after fitting the Corbeaus. Quick scan with VCDS pulled up a couple of niggles but nothing major. Also scanned with Torque Pro (for ease) and had a couple of codes relating to the rear lambda sensor (which isn’t fitted, so no biggy) and one suggesting cam timing was out. I’ll double check this, however having looked through photos I took during the engine rebuild (I documented a far what for this exact reason) it all looks ok. I’ll keep an eye on this. So, the engine ran, hadn’t blown up, and I’d made it off the drive. I’m going to call that a success, but not so much as I’d have liked for good reasons: I had virtually no brakes. When I say “no brakes” I mean “NO brakes”. Clearly I wasn’t getting servo assistance at all, so my very short (~2mi) test drive involved a lot of engine braking and some gratuitous handbrake useage. I think this is down to me being a ‘tard and sticking the check valve in incorrectly. Having revisited this is my thinking: Shall give it a whirl over the next week and see if it’s solved things. If not, I’ll pick up a new check valve and look to tidy up the pipework as it’s a mess anyway. Note that missing clips in photo above have been replaced! 2. I had no PAS. Pretty sure this is simply down to a leak though. I’ve ordered new crush washers which should be here on Tuesday or so. Fingers crossed that’s all there is to it. If not, it’s a good excuse to replace the lines with something new and to relocate the reservoir and tidy up the bay a little further too. It’s progress, Jim, but not as we’d like it. I may just be the first person ever to nearly drown from removing a gearbox. Utterly torrential rain last night made things somewhat fun, as did the fact it was dark but I was keen to make progress and get the box out so that I can order any parts ASAP. Stil, got there in the end. Note to self - don’t try and cut corners. It’s significantly easier to just remove the NS driveshaft and give yourself loads of room to haul the box out. It also means you don’t end up having to sort it out at the most inconvenient time when the box is hanging out, resulting in scraping the casing on the DMF This has resulted in what is effectively a load of very fine swarf, though I’m confident that it’s all from me being a mong rather than as a result of the CSC issue and should clean out just fine. WIll give the clutch assembly a good clean and blow through too to be on the safe side. Frustratingly, the CSC itself shows no obvious signs of being knackered. I’ve only had a quick look and will check it out more thoroughly over the next few days, but it’ll be getting replaced regardless. I can’t think what else it could be given the symptoms (pedal to floor, no other leaks visible, brake fluid dripping between bellhousing and block). Whilst I’m not one for replacing parts without knowing exactly what’s to blame, I’m also not keen to do this again! Didn’t get long last night to explore things, so in the end I just did a few small tasks. Replacement slave cylinder collected. Gave the bellhousing a good clean/check - all appears to be in order so happy with that. Gave the CSC threads a quick clean through. Swapped out the existing gearbox mount (iffy thread on one point) for another in better shape. Inspected the clutch assembly - happy with it all. Gave it a can or so of clutch cleaner in situ but will strip down and inspect/clean further over the weekend. Bits of casing in the flywheel teeth. Nom. Only difference between new CSC and the one I pulled out was this. Looks very much like a pressure relief valve though I don’t think this is the case. Doesn’t appear to be sealed up properly on the old one, though probably nothing of relevance. Won’t be getting refitted anyway. The hunt for dead (it’s nearly) October continues... Still can't see any obvious failure point, so I'm going to have a good look around tonight and see if I can find any other hints. Will give the master a good check, as well as the line (which I'd like to replace for peace of mind, but shouldn't really need it). Just don't want to have to pull the box again if I can avoid it, want to drive the bloody thing!