Today I.....

Just off the air ballon roundabout at Birdlip at the end of the a417 coming down into Gloucester you can easily get to 80 by the time you hit the duel carriageway at the bottom coasting from 10 mph start. The only problem is I have to drive up the bloody thing going the other way!!!!
 
Just off the air ballon roundabout at Birdlip at the end of the a417 coming down into Gloucester you can easily get to 80 by the time you hit the duel carriageway at the bottom coasting from 10 mph start. The only problem is I have to drive up the bloody thing going the other way!!!!
Good job your not having to pedal. ?
 
Installed additional engine earth cable, still getting dimming headlights when hazards are on/blinking. That's a new job on the list - cleaning all earth points :D
 
Having suffered an out of the blue alternator failure on the M1 last weekend, I'd be tempted to test your battery voltage too, especially if the earths are in good order. You might be lucky in that you are getting advance warning, unlike me.

A stranded car in the middle lane of slow moving traffic wasn't fun, could have been much worse, and I'd not want anyone else to be in danger.

Installed additional engine earth cable, still getting dimming headlights when hazards are on/blinking. That's a new job on the list - cleaning all earth points :D
 
Spent an hour or so today renovating a tatty centre tray the soft touch was peeling off and it was grey. Tried removing soft touch with acetone, but wasn't great so used kitchen cleaner and wire wool. Worked well. Then a quick wipe over with acetone and sprayed with lidl black Matt paint.
Here's the results, much better than I expected.
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Are you sure that isn’t a new one and you are trying to trick us? ? Seriously, best compliment I can give, top job.

Spent an hour or so today renovating a tatty centre tray the soft touch was peeling off and it was grey. Tried removing soft touch with acetone, but wasn't great so used kitchen cleaner and wire wool. Worked well. Then a quick wipe over with acetone and sprayed with lidl black Matt paint.
Here's the results, much better than I expected.
View attachment 83196View attachment 83197View attachment 83198View attachment 83199
 
Having suffered an out of the blue alternator failure on the M1 last weekend, I'd be tempted to test your battery voltage too, especially if the earths are in good order. You might be lucky in that you are getting advance warning, unlike me.

A stranded car in the middle lane of slow moving traffic wasn't fun, could have been much worse, and I'd not want anyone else to be in danger.
Just read your post on what happened :(, great that everything turned out ok.

I'm running 2 amplifiers and, to protect the battery, 1F capacitor with voltmeter.
Earlier this year I noticed voltage fluctuations and had alternator serviced.
It really needed the service, slip ring was nearly completely worn out.

I'm suspecting earth points as no matter engine running or not rear side lights are dimming when hazards are blinking.
 
Hi Edwria,
I still think that the only thing that would cause it to run hot as you say would be a leaking valve seat & is normally clearly visible as a burnt section of the valve head, the only purpose of the valve stem seal you say your specialist says is the cause is to prevent the oil from the cam/ rocker section entering the combustion side of the engine.
I hope they are changing all valve stem seals whilst it’s open as only cheap £0.60 each ish.
Hope that helps
Keith.

Indeed it’s a single valve stem, The others are fine and don’t need replacing, it’s an abnormal failure or the material.


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Today I. (Sat)
Decided to fit the Meyle HD arb drop links and look at what needs doing for the MOT at the end of Aug. When I got my first A2 a few months back the idea was to have a runner until October then take it off the road to work on it. If I could just get it through the MOT first. While renewing the drop links, wire brush in hand, plus gas, cutting wheel, yest it got that far. I came across a perforated O/s lower suspension arm ☹️.
I have some cast ones ready for the big stripdown plus two driveshafts, the idea being to replace all of the front suspension & new discs.

Does anyone know if the ARB came be threaded through with all of the above mentioned removed?

Onto the rears, the back end of the car looked like it was dragging it's backside alone looking low in the wheel arches @Robin_Cox said that on the TDI se with OSS the spring length 339mm I got mine out and they are 300mm ? plus the bottom seats were it tatters. I have new Bilstein springs on order from Spring-loaded but they are on a backfill delivery 6 week wait. I had to put these springs back in ?. Onto the rear brakes, N/s easy to turn no play in the bearing. Released with the screwdriver on the wedge but still a struggle and found a very set mess. O/s could just turn / binding (still been getting 54mpg with the Aircon on every day) again freed it to turn on the wedge but no chance of the drum coming off as yet, another go on Sunday. Look like Little Atom will be off the road until spring 22 ?.
Once back on it will be a timing belt & water pump kit quoted £360 and a new MOT.
I also tried out my rear lifting beam yesterday as we all know the jacking points and supporting areas are fee and far between.. very envious of @Tractor Dave set up.
Mines from 3mm 50mm box section with 120mm X 120mm X 3mm plates central at each end. The last bit of box was attached centrally so I can pack it to support the rear axle beam if & when I remove it.i glued rubber pads onto the plates for better grip but you could use cork tiles instead.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend whatever your doing, looking forward to the coming months outside in the wind and rain (Not).
At leas I can get to s vice, power and inside the garage if I move things first.
I'll post some images.
SAFETY
I did have it on axle stands once lifted.

Don't forget my question on swapping out the Anti roll bar.

Cheers Stan.
 

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Today I. (Sat)
..

Onto the rears, the back end of the car looked like it was dragging it's backside alone looking low in the wheel arches @Robin_Cox said that on the TDI se with OSS the spring length 339mm I got mine out and they are 300mm ? plus the bottom seats were it tatters...

Cheers Stan.
I am on the wrong laptop to be able to look the original rear spring tables I compiled up but 339mm is from memory the height of the front springs - I have one pdf of the front spring table on my desktop and 330-340mm seems to cover a lot of the non-sport or 1.2tdi front spring aftermarket options.

Having said that, a quick look on autodoc for springs, rear shows that there are two standard lengths commonly supplied - one around 305mm (possibly sport spec?) and the other 330 / 338 / 339mm long.

Is it possible that your car has inadvertently had the rears replaced with sport springs or the fronts replaced with SE at some point causing the visual imbalance?

New spring seats on mine raised the rear by a wee bit last summer so definitely something that needs to be done.
 
Spent an hour or so today renovating a tatty centre tray the soft touch was peeling off and it was grey. Tried removing soft touch with acetone, but wasn't great so used kitchen cleaner and wire wool. Worked well. Then a quick wipe over with acetone and sprayed with lidl black Matt paint.
Here's the results, much better than I expected.
View attachment 83196View attachment 83197View attachment 83198View attachment 83199
Morning Nod,

That spray job has turned out spectacular. Very well done. It’s amazing how fresh the interior plastics respond to a rattle can.

Off to Lidl now to see if they have any paint in stock as 250 could do with a few items tidied up.

Kind regards,

Tom
 
Morning Nod,

That spray job has turned out spectacular. Very well done. It’s amazing how fresh the interior plastics respond to a rattle can.

Off to Lidl now to see if they have any paint in stock as 250 could do with a few items tidied up.

Kind regards,

Tom

If you find stick of Matt black rattle cans in Lidl can you get me 6 please. Ever since I told you good A2OC folks about it my local Lidl never as it in

Paul


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Today I ..

Made a brief round trip Tavistock to Aberdare.

Was able to briefly greet Mrs. A2Steve through the window to let her know that the numpty in a face mask who tripped the alarm on the driveway A2 while shutting the garage door was actually meant to be there - please offer my apologies @A2Steve - but also many thanks for making the process pain-free. I don't know what it says that she seemed completely unsurprised to see some random in an A2 on the doorstep! :)

I also realised - in the last 10 seconds of my mobile battery mistakenly not plugged into the USB while running SatNav - that ....Dail and ....Deri are *NOT* part of the same street name ... otherwise I'd have been rooting around in someone else's garage and probably announcing 'Today I got arrested for wrongful entry'. The only reason I checked was that there were no A2s on the drive and the slope of the road seemed wrong compared to photos that Steve has posted before!
IMG_0935.JPG
 
Today I ..

Made a brief round trip Tavistock to Aberdare.

Was able to briefly greet Mrs. A2Steve through the window to let her know that the numpty in a face mask who tripped the alarm on the driveway A2 while shutting the garage door was actually meant to be there - please offer my apologies @A2Steve - but also many thanks for making the process pain-free. I don't know what it says that she seemed completely unsurprised to see some random in an A2 on the doorstep! :)

I also realised - in the last 10 seconds of my mobile battery mistakenly not plugged into the USB while running SatNav - that ....Dail and ....Deri are *NOT* part of the same street name ... otherwise I'd have been rooting around in someone else's garage and probably announcing 'Today I got arrested for wrongful entry'. The only reason I checked was that there were no A2s on the drive and the slope of the road seemed wrong compared to photos that Steve has posted before!
View attachment 83384
It's ok, she's quite used to random A2's turning up with even more random drivers :p She has very little interest in cars herself, but does like the socials.

I'm glad you didn't get done for burglary :)
 
Today I filled the FSI with premium unleaded for the 3rd time in my ownership. Once again it has done over 450 miles on the tank (470 with 20 left indicated on the DIS) and whilst I’m far less heavy footed than I used to be, I’ve been having fun still and making the most of its lovely Rev happy engine. To all you seasoned FSI’ers out there, is this normal???

I’ll be picking up Tonka next week from WOM and doing the seat swap (the original reason for purchase) of the heated twist leather sports/se seats between the cars. Still undecided if I’m keeping the car or selling and putting the money into further improving Tonka, but this lovely car has certainly muddied the waters!!
 
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