I have been clearing out some drawers in the garage and found I had a grand total 0f 39 tappet shims, dating from the time when I had a Mark 1 diesel Golf and a 1983 Passat. The system was that you measured the valve clearance, then if it was incorrect you removed the shim, did a simple calculation and then replaced the old shim with another that was a different thickness. Originally, you could go to the local VW garage where the service department would swap shims for free - however they stopped doing that because, they said, they ended up with a lot of shims that were the wrong size.

Thus I had to buy the things - German & Swedish used to sell them. Quite how I managed to collect 39 I am not sure - though I did knock up a big mileage in the Golf, which meant a lot of tappet setting.

Anyway: does anybody know whether these shims are still being used? I believe other makers used the same shims - including Saab and Daf. But that was a long time ago and all our cars have had hydraulic (self-setting) tappets since about 1994. It would be a pity to dump the shims if somebody could use them - but I haven't seen any 1980s VWs being driven locally for quite a while now. I could put the shims on eBay - but it is a bit of a waste of time if nobody is ever going to buy them.