Grace. SOLD

Show us yours....
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Stuart
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Post by Stuart »

It would be lighter I guess. Maybe if I ply lined the back.............Golf van?

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Jon
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Post by Jon »

Awesome news she's back up and running (& looking purposeful), Are you still attending Brands mate? Be good to have a natter :)

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Stuart
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Post by Stuart »

I'll be at Brands as long as the car keeps running :) I'll be there (think positive)

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Daniel
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Post by Daniel »

when is brands?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
If you need something shooting, or a payload to low earth orbit. Just ask. :rolleyes:

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Mr Fletcher
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Post by Mr Fletcher »

Daniel wrote:when is brands?
17th Dec Dan

http://www.bigpower.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=19144

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Stuart
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Post by Stuart »

Well, what a pile of shit Friday turned out to be.

A couple, well three, stupid things ended up killing my participation stone dead within 45 miles of home. Complacency on my part meant that I'd only taken the car for short blasts in the run up to the event, so none of these came into effect before the morning in question.

The heater not working was just daft and can be fixed reasonably easily, as long as I have diagnosed the issue properly. This should, I hope, just be two valves that control the flow of the water through the heater matrix being blocked. I have had a look online and spoke to Trev, and it appears that this happens quite a lot, so I'll try to remove the valves and replace them with good old 25mm copper pipes :)

The windscreen washers/pump/bottle was all disconnected and worse still, knackered! No chance of fixing this, so it will be a trawl of the ads on VW forums to source a replacement

Last one to sort was a misfire which was an easy fix; one of the plastic sections of trunking had come loose, and whereas it used to be held on with a zip tie, the mechanic must have removed it when he repaired Grace last time. Unfortunately he failed to replace it or if he did, it must have snapped so I put a proper stainless hose clip on and that's fixed good and proper now.

I still haven't given up on her yet. I reckon with a stereo, some heat and some better headlights (don't get me started on them :) ) it can be a great, cheap daily. I love the looks, I like the handling and the value for money compared to other cars that are comparable* is unreal.

Time to spend a few quid I reckon.

* I think the mk2 16v is pretty much the nicest looking old school hatch. Especially with wide arches and et12's :D

Feedback welcome :thumbs:

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RX7
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Post by RX7 »

stuart wrote: * I think the mk2 16v is pretty much the nicest looking old school hatch. Especially with wide arches and et12's :D
I do agree with you but you cant dismiss the Civic EK9 Type R with a nice set of bronze Volks on :)

Good news about Grace though.
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Gareth

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A2ON
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Post by A2ON »

Good luck with your plans mate.

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Stuart
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Post by Stuart »

Gareth= yeah, you have a strong argument there. Not likely to source one of those for my total spend though ;)

Thanks Arron. The heater seems, and I do stress the word 'seems', to be fixed :D

An hour or so undoing, swearing, labelling, more swearing, banging my head and cutting my fingers and voila. Heat in the cabin and warm enough within a couple of minutes to be quite comfortable! Unreal.

I noticed a few things while under there;

1) Several wires (could be sensors) are only attached at one end?
2) The passenger side carpet where their feet would be was frozen, so does this lead you to think that it's got wet under there or could this be the cold on its own. I have heard that a dead heater matrix can leak but I figured that if it was dead or dying

a) the leak would be at the bulkhead not the floor area
b) the heat would be non-existent

I'll check into this further when it warms up a bit

3) Trev recommended that I check the water pump is doing its thing by starting the car with the expansion cap off. If there is a trickle of water from the pipe that leads from the rad, then all is well. There was nothing. Nothing at all. Dead pump? Surely it would have overheated by now.............or maybe the pump is failing?

Any guidance on these bits will be great, but I am so pleased that I have some heat in there. So much difference :D

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mikeb
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Post by mikeb »

Stu i have heard of the propeler in the pump housing being a issue can be
come warn and not spin as efficent on its shaft as it should, water pumps are cheap and not that hard to fit.

And also worth changing the thermostat as well

If you need any help let me know.

mike
life rules

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