Scirocco Register

Its a job worth doing as it should make the brake pedal feel a bit firmer and any improvement is good.

Any improving over dismal? Aha!

That's all that was pulled up for the last MOT, I had planned to do the CV boots too as they are a bit dodgy but may just stick it through now and see how she fares.

Just need to get it insured as I'm staying about 10 miles from my MOT guy...

Doh!

Couldn't get it in for an MOT this side of Christmas so decided to do a few more odd jobs, firstly the steering colum had excessive play as an advisory last time, so thought I would look into this, after speaking to a few people on here I thought I would dismantle the plastic around the colum and see what if anything I could tighten, and if not I would look at making up a new bush to go around the colum where it fixes to the dash.



I would like to think there should be a screw here... So I replaced the screw with a cap head bolt that I had in my tool box and much to my surprise the play has vanished... Well there is still a little bit but it almost looks and feels like the steering wheel is pivoting slightly on the boss, and I mean ever so slightly, maybe 1/8th of an inch at the full radius of the wheel... Nothing to concern me at all! (It was around 2 inches of movement before)

I have also had a leak coming in onto the fuse box so thought I would have a look at this while it was dry, pulled out the glovebox and could see a little puddle of water under a grommet, turns out this is for the heated wiper jets, once removed the grommet could be seen to have quite a big tear.



I just disconnected these for now and put some duct tape across the hole as I didn't have anything the right size :(



I also adjusted both rear wheel bearings as after a few runs around the block they had settled and there was a little axial play in the wheel, this just meant one or two notches on the locking cap and being re-pinned

My throttle pedal is quite a bit lower than the other two so decided to have a look at the bush, I know these are prone to self-destructing and sure enough mine didn't exist, well there were remenents but not even enough to recognise what may have been!

I decided I would nock up an acetal bush to push and glue into place, this should hopefully have a slightly longer life span than a rubber bush! I will fir it shortly and hopefully see an improvement in the peddle position.

Fitted the throttle peddle bush today, gentle persuasion to get it in with a g-clamp but it's nice and solid, only problem is that the hole had to be big enough to get the throttle cable through, so it occasionally pulls out! Thinking I may try and get an Eclip that will fit over the cable and behind the flange and then that should hold it in nicely.

Adjusted the handbrake cables, both were fairly slack and you had to lift 4 clicks before you could feel resistance on the wheels.

After doing the above I freaked out out a little because the handbrake light wouldn't go off, a quick google (that brought me back here) indicated it is also a light to warn of low brake fluid.. And indeed It was, break fluid was a little below minimum so I topped it up and it's back off, hopefully it's just because of air coming back up to the header tank and the adjustment of the handbrake cables and not a leak from a pipe I didn't do up well enough... Only time will tell!

Just have to wait till the new year when somewhere opens for an MOT!

May look at getting the CV boots done as they are a little worn but not quite split, and also looking to get the seal for the rear boot lock, pretty sure this is the only other leak in the car.

Thinking I'm going to have to get hold of a metal front and rear bumper for the scirocco... Really liking the look of them! The only question is do I go chrome or black... I'm not a great fan of chrome but black on black may be a bit much... Eventually I'd like to paint the car mint green (the old Porsche colour) but realistically that won't be for a year or more.





For ref... Mint green

Spent the day filling and sanding away a little skim on the patch that I welded in, want it nice and smooth so that it doesn't look like it has been patched, I'm going to paint the inside and outside of the car during the summer so just need to make it passable for now (so excuse the lack of masking)



Will give it a quick coat of gloss black and then sand back again in the Summer, I have 5L of a metalic black that I will paint the whole car in, it will be done at home so won't be perfect but will be done after any arch repairs or other rust that I find after the strip down and will make the car one colour again, unfortunately the paintwork is pretty rough!

The last MOT had many many advisories, two of which were corrosion on the brake pipes and also corrosion on the front lower arms, both are structurally sound so I just wire brushed them to remove excess corrosion and then gave them a couple of coats of black hamerite.



Also noticed that the middle exhaust rubber is broken so going to have to get another I assume this is an MOT fail!

Shall have a look on eurocarparts and see if I can get one this week.

Going to get parts to give it a service this week and try to get that done before the MOT, it runs really well now that I have brought the idle up a little, but it's blowing a little white smoke, there is no water in the oil and it's not using any water so can only assume it's water in the fuel... Tried to pull the fuel pump out of the tank but it was quite stiff and I didn't want to break something that wasn't broken! I may look at draining the tank through the fuller neck with a bit of hose!

It currently has about 1/4 of a tank of old fuel so not sure if I could just top it up with new fuel and it be ok...

T33stat wrote:Tried to pull the fuel pump out of the tank but it was quite stiff and I didn't want to break something that wasn't broken!

Unless things have changed since I had a carb car, there is no pump in a GT2 fuel tank, it's just a sender unit.

If it hasn't been removed before a sharp tap to get it started usually works, and I do mean tap not thump, I used a piece of dowel and a normal hammer when I did some work on mine. The rubber o-ring had perished and 'glued' the sender to the tank, it just needed a tap to break the seal then it came off by hand.

But if aren't happy doing that, a search will give you descriptions of some homemade tools to remove the sender. Either way, you will need a replacement o-ring.

You are correct about broken exhaust hangers being a fail.

If the brake fluid needed topping up you have a leak, adjusting the handbrake should make no difference to the brake fluid. Remove the rear drum and check the wheel cylinders as they are the usual weak point, pull back the rubber cap on each end of the cylinder but if fluid has been leaking out you will spot it as soon as you remove the drum. If it's bad you will see brake fluid dripping out the bottom of the drum before you remove it.
If the rear shoes are covered in brake fluid you need to replace them for new ones.

Hi mark, my thought was not that something inside the drums was leaking just that I didn't do as well a job bleeding them as I could have done after I drained the system (even though I did it 3 times)

I topped it up and went for a drive, have been pressing the brake pedal when parked up and it's still at the max, plan to monitor over the next few weeks.

Are the front pads worn? I've had this with ford transits where the pistons are out as the pads are nearly metal to metal front & rear so causes the sensor to put the light on even though not fitted with brake wear indicators. But if you have checked all the bleeder nipples and no leaks etc the fluid should stay where it is

Disks are all good thickness (conpaired to the Haynes) and pads are at least 50%, pretty sure it's just a repercussion of draining the system, it may have had nothing to do with the handbrake at all I just may not have noticed the light until then, well that's what I'm hoping anyway!

MOT is booked for the 4th ... :O

Currently waiting on euros to deliver me some service parts and the exhaust rubbers, they all looked odd in the pictures so brought a selection of mk2 scirocco, mk1 golf, Mk2 golf and Mk3 golf exhaust rubbers!

Good luck with the 4th - let us know how it goes!

First day back at work and the car is in for its MOT... It's going to be a tough day!

Decided to give the car a service, my local euros didn't have a few bits so the dizzy cap, rotor arm and ignition leads are on back order!



Car had an oil change, new plugs, air, oil and fuel filter and also replaced the broken exhaust hanger, bought a selection and the best fit was a rear hanger for an E30!



Did some engine bay cleaning and removed a few dodgy wires that run to a (I believe defunct) alarm, this will be removed in the not too distant future when I clear the bay, plan to move the battery and the washer bottle to the boot once I fix the leak!

As for the leak, it's coming in from the L/H side and pools inside the body of the tailgate, I'm thinking it's either the window seal or the holes for the spoiler, it's not the boot lock seal, the silicone hose for the window mech or the badge, but I'm unsure how I can distinguish between the window or the spoiler unless I just take the spoiler off and duct tape the holes temporarily! Maybe that's the next step.

Anyway, again I got rained off, massive storm!

I would avoid Euro car pars ignition leads. The ones they sent me didn't fit the plugs very well, May have been a duff batch they send though. All the best for new year and mot time

I have never had issues with euros to be fair, have heard horror stories from others but they have always done fine by me.

I spent a little time trying to find that pesky leak, it's pooling inside the tailgate and I have eliminated the lock seal and the badges as a source of the leak, it's weirdly only on the drivers side...

Anyway took the spoiler off



The spoiler looks like it has a few foam pads sealing it but also a lot of silicone sealant, so I guess this could be either a legacy leak that is leaking again because the sealant has just lived out its life or this isn't actually leaking...





I taped over the holes with my trusty duct tape, just to see if by covering these holes the leak goes, I can't say for sure as I only left it in light rain for a few hours but I don't think this was the leak, I will leave it overnight/the weekend and see if it puddles in the boot again :(

On another note, the spoiler off is good, but I think I need the smaller spoiler sooner rather than later! Although at this rate I may aswell just buy a new bootlid with a small spoiler on it that doesn't leak!!!



If this isn't the source of the leak I can only think it's water making its way in around the window seal...

You can buy brand new tailgates (and possibly also the spoilers) from VW Classic Parts, if you can't find one elsewhere.

Those seals don't look great to me.

The other places I don't think you've mentioned are the seals for the gas struts, where they mount on the C-pillar; the rear washer jet; the point where the tailgate loom comes through the body.