May 2007
Simple question, where is the oil sump on the MK 5 Polo?
Did the change on 1.9 mk 3 Golf, 1.0l mk 4 (early) polo, then came to do the 1.9sdi mk5 polo and got stuck!
Any ideas where it is?
Im thinking it is under the cover under the car, but dont want to removed it and check- its a little wet out there and i gotta lay down under the car to do it! Read more
Hello backroomers
I'm looking for some guidance about next year's new (to me) car purchase.
Mrs S6 has a plan - she swops her Yaris for a Golf/Focus size model, whilst I forgo the comfort of my S60 and enter the mid life crisis stage and get something 'a bit sporty'- her phrase. My budget would be between £9,000 and £11,000 (after selling the Volvo). At first I thought about a Honda S2000, but a quick look at Autotrader showed only a few imports from Japan and 2000 registered models (I'd prefer the new car to be 4 years old max.) Never been keen on BMW's, a Lotus Elise and MX-5 are too small, so I'm struggling really. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
S6 1SW
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mrs s6? what happened to mrs s5? and the former misseses?
It's a long story, and one that's probably worth repeating somewhere, but not here ;-)
Hi ive got a tigra and the Control indicator has just started to light up as i am driving along (the one that looks like a helecopter) the book tells me to consult a Vauxhall dealership to remedy the fault. Has anyone experenced the same problem ? on this model ? Read more
it will need plugging into a code reader of some desciption a main dealer or a good independant garage will be able to read the faults and advise you on any repairs
hi all ive just bought a vw polo 1.4 16v its my first vw so i ned a good workshop manual anyone reccomend one? i found this on e bay any comments?
tinyurl.com/3ys4z6 {Link to item on ebay shortened - DD}
also it needs a cam belt change asap anyone any advice who has done this job on this model
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thanks, however i am playing safe, which is why im looking for a workshop manual in which the info threin actually relates to the car in question, haynes manuals should subject to a banning order imho
Hi my neighbour has just been quoted £730 by Charters of Pangbourne to replace the cambelt, then been advised to change the water pump just in case at the same time bringing the total to just shy of £1000. The car has done 70k miles and is in good condition.
Does anyone know where he can get this done at a more reasonable price, we are located in the Oxfordshire area - in Wallingford?
Thanks for your help.
Rich Read more
A post elsewhere re a Clio cambelt change, with the water pump done at the same time while the engine was dismantled for acces, suggested that the price was arrived at by adding together the 'menu' prices for both jobs and ignoring the reduction in labour hours if they were done together. the price quoted to do the water pump at the same time seems steep.
Another delightful error by Local Government, 3000 tickets issued and revoked due to bungling Council Workers. I've driven this stretch of road, the signage is visible enough and it's had its share of fatalities over the years (Including an off-duty Police Officer a couple of years ago), it has become a lot busier of late and an 83 acre industrial/"leisure" park will contribute to increased traffic levels, remember that Gwynedd Council is a member of the "Safety Partnership" that run the camera vans, if they were a member of my partnership I'd have them out on the Golf Course. Highly embarrasing for them. I followed this story in the press and whilst I applaud the "get-out" as I said the signage is totally visible but playing the devil's advocate here shouldn't these 3000 driver's have noticed the signs or where they driving without seeing......IYKWIM. (which I'm guilty of now and again). Read more
I think I need to lie down for a bit...... ;)
LOL! If you want to hear me complain then lets talk about banks, mobile phone companies and my phone/cable/internet provider. A special place in hell should be reserved for them! My local council comes a long way down the list.
I have owned this car since 11000 miles and at first it was fitted with four egr valves in its first four years. Some brought on the engine management light (EML) some the dealer said were faulty and just changed them. The car has now done over 113,000 miles and the EML comes on when the car had done about 30miles or so. Sometimes its a quick flash that drops it out of cruise control, some times it goes into limp home mode. If you stop for about 15 to 30 minutes it resets and you can continue with normal engine power. It strikes me that the valves are too complex and precision for the job they do. I have the electronic system without any vaccuum conection, my question is can I remove the valve from the manifold and blank the port? How does this valve work is it temperature sensitive? If it sticks sometimes and I remove it from the source of the problem I reason that I can eliminate the problem. I can control emmissions by moving to fully synthetic oil! Any advice on this??
PS. I have seen the mass air meter mentioned in questions of loss of power, this unit usually causes the engine to surge, that is you put your foot down and there is a delay in the power coming on, a bit like gentle turbo lag. Take it off and clean in an alcahol based cleaner or replace it. Be careful its very delicate.
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Five guys all with pass outs for good behaviour and off on our bikes mid June to the south of France via photo shoot at the Millau bridge. Today was a planning day, so we all met chez SjB and then rode out to a Cotswolds pub for grub and the planning session. We've all ridden together before, both on rideouts and on holiday, everyone plays by the rules and applies their experience, and we all get on like a house on fire. The bikes are Honda Hornet 600, Honda Blackbird 1100, Honda SP2, Kawasaki Z7, and Yamaha FZ6.
Today though, we were joined by the next door neighbour of one of our party. He isn't coming to France - perhaps thankfully as it turned out! - but both he and machine stood out from the rest of us, our approach to safety kit, and our machines like chalk and cheese; Beard poking out from silver ROOF open face helmet and fighter pilot style silvered visor, Harley leather jacket and jeans, gloves I believe simply in deference to it being a bit nippy, and over 40 years riding experience behind him, he turned up on a 96 cubic inch (1.5 litre) supercharged Harley Davidson Softail custom!
The roots type blower is mounted vertically to the righthand side of the engine, gear driven from the crank. It's actually a very tidy and professional installation, even down to the paint finish and style of polished parts matching those of the engine. The huge Keihin carb faces forwards where an enormous chrome K&N filter assembly is attached. At idle - potato potato potato much slower than you read these words - the whole thing shakes so much that the filter assembly moves a good inch vertically. With straight through Vance and Hines pipes - I can't call them mufflers - the noise is deafening, the ground really does move, and I'm still describing tickover. I try to be a considerate human being, so goodness knows what the neighbours in my tranquil country village thought, but I'm sure the noise reached Growler so I hope he nodded approval.
For all it's venom, noise, thunder, and living soul though, it's actually a highly inefficient machine. Of course the handling dynamics are poor with the steering rake and weight that it's saddled with, and legs forward with body acting as a sail anything above sixty is very tiring work, but what surprised all of us was how hard that huge motor was having to work for a living. We were in no hurry, but the owner experessed surprise that it wouldn't even live with the two 600s or the 750 (less powerful than the Hornet and FZ6 600s) for acceleration. Contrast this; my rev limiter is at 14000RPM, peak power is at 10,500, and during typical overtakes today I'd be surfing along between 6,000 and 8,500 in a nice lively sweetspot before it all goes banzai. The Harley behind was being ridden flat out using peak power at.... 4800RPM! I'm told by those behind that on one overtake matey clipped the rev limiter at the giddy height of 5500RPM and let an enormous jet of flame out of the twin V&Hs!
Unfortunately though, for all my words telling the owner how impressed (and surprised) I was during a guided tour to find a spotlessly clean, quietly efficient, Harley factory at Capitol Drive, Milwaukee, his machine reinforced the common view of Harley workmanship; knowing our destination, I was leading the group, and at one point noticed only one headlight behind, not five. Sinking feeling. The two of us turned round and headed back towards Stow on the Wold, wondering what we'd find. As it turned out we found four bikes at the roadside, one of which was a broken Harley; the spark plug cap for the rear cylinder had fractured from the vibration. Repair was easy and involved jamming what was left of the boot on to the plug nipple and drawing tight with a cable tie, but it had to be the Harley not one of the Japs that broke, of course! To be fair though, our guest rider had fitted aftermarket plug caps replete with LEDs triggered by the firing pulse, and it was one of these at fault!!
Still a good day out though, and roll on France next month. Read more
My next door neighbour at the same time sadly lost his life on his immaculate
RD350 race rep hitting head-on a head-down learner on a 125 who pulled out to
conduct an overtake near Denmead. Any early loss of life is a waste but as
he'd been one of the heroes (though he wouldn't admit it) of the Herald of
Free Enterprise disaster and helped save many other lives to watch him leave but then
have a policewoman knock on my door instead of him for a beer hit home
very hard.
As they say, only the good die young!
25 + years ago a couple of guys I knew were two up on a 400/4 when another bike coming the other way pulled out to overtake, it was also two up, the rider and passenger on the other bike lost their lives, of the guys I knew one was unscathed and the other left disabled, I have lost contact so dont know how his is today.
Also in the late 80's I was a regular on the TT Dover to Ostend ferries on my way up to Denmark, crossed a short while after the Herald disaster, it was very poingant heading into Ostend on a sister ship.
I need to replace a bulb on one of my cars. I am currently using "Vision Plus" bulbs and find them a vast improvement over standard H4s. Has any one any experience of the new "X-Treme" +80% bulbs which also claim to be better in terms of optical allignment which would give a better beam with sharper cut offs and no dazzle or is it just marketing hype?
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Don't pay more than £22 delivered. Some sites are charging £39.99 + P&P!
A friend of my wife has a pop up headlight MX5 with 60k miles. A cambelt change is due shortly & she is thinking of changing it for a MGF. Although the MGF will be newer IMO the MX5 is a much much better car. I think she'll be mad to do this but I think she is attracted by how cheap MGF's are compared to same age MX5's
Any views on this guys? Read more
The Ring is a must do, avoid the mad Hun bikers though. Circuit knowledge is very important at the Ring, thus young whatsername can post epic times in a van; the fastest lap must still be Belhoff in 6.15ish, 20 years ago (?) in Group C car (Porsche I assume), but of course the track layout changes over the years. My guess is that the Spa lap record is held by an F1 car.
The Cadwell lap record is held by a ....... 250cc kart. The circuit is probably too extreme and short for testing a production car, with insufficient surface changes etc.
You'll enjoy karting, try it again. Perhaps a quiet day during term time to avoid the crazy school children.
As you say, you have to remove the tray. It's previously been mentioned on here that sometimes the garages either don't bother refitting them, or that they refit them so poorly that they fall off at a later date.