Rave's Motors - 12/4/19 ST170 Step 1: MOT Step 2: Profit

[Rave]

Cheers Dave! Woolwich isn't too far away, a bit under 30 minutes by bike. Plenty of big hills there, which I used to think was a bad thing...

 

Its about £6 for track rods. You don't have to change the rod, just use the but! expensive nut though. Clean up the thread really well and grease so the ball itself doesn't turn when you do it up.

 

Ended up paying 12 quid for one from ECP as I needed it in a hurry, they'll post me the same one from CarParts4Less for 7, which is irritating, but there you go. I figured I might as well use it since I'd bought it, there didnt seem to be anything wrong with the old one but the new one should be tighter still. Edit: and obviously has a lovely new thread on it...

 

Anyway it's all bolted up now; I'll run it down to my local tyre shop when I roll out of bed tomorrow to see if they can straighten it out just by doing the tracking. Not sure what I'll do if they tell me a wishbone or something is bent, probably just get them to straighten it up as well as they can and do a proper fix when I get back from my little trip away next week. I reckon that I could probably do the wishbone without having to undo the hub nut if I jack both sides up as previously advised...

[Split_Pin]

Good progress there, nice one!

[Rave]

Drove it down to the tyre shop just now, who straightened up the tracking and then gave it a clean bill of health. Paid, jumped back in and...still pulling quite hard to the left .

 

It seems to drive OK, doesn't feel like it's crabbing down the road or anything, just that as soon as you let go of the wheel it veers off. I could see the laser dots on the tracking kit seemed to be hitting the ruler on the other wheel dead centre, so I can't see how any of the suspension could be bent. Suppose I'll check the tyre pressures next just as a last ditch measure. The tyres are old and cheap, could a failing one cause those symptoms? Really stumped as to what do do about it now . My CV boot is still on, so that's something I suppose...

[Rave]

Right, well here's a turn up for the books. After one last desperate google for what could be wrong I figured there was no harm in swapping the tyres about just in case. I would have swapped them side to side at the front, but three of the tyres are 'Classe' and marked with a rotation direction. So I swapped them all front to rear instead. There's a bit more tread on the rears anyway; not much, but worth rotating them in any case.

 

And...the pull to the left is completely gone! If anything it goes very slightly to the right now, and the steering is a bit heavier, but the 'Wanli' that was on the OSR and is now OSF looks a bit flat so I'll give it a top up and see if that improves matters. So basically, we're sorted. I had to empty about a litre of water out of the boot as the seal had come adrift, dunno if that was be being clumsy or if she knocked it out when she dented it, probably the former. It could also be coming in through the cracked light I guess, I had better put a saved ebay search on for a cheap one. But it'll do for now.

 

Cheapo tyres are crap eh? Who knew...

[J4mes]

Good effort getting sorted in the end! We have all had these relatively simple jobs turn into what seem at the time to be absolute ballaches, the next cv boot or anything that you removed to get to it will be an absolute breeze next time.

 

James.

[Rave]

Jobs that are probably simple if you know what you're doing and have a lift and an assistant part 153: replacing an exhaust.

 

Rushing over to my mate's house the other day I got stuck behind a learner rigidly sticking to the ridiculous 20mph speed limit on a wide major road. Thanks Lewisham council! Anyway as I was in a rush I thought I'd nip past them using the not-in-operation-at-that-time bus lane. Unfortunately the bus lane has speed cushions on it and as I attempted to straddle one in the very narrow 106 at about 25mph there was a pop followed by the sound of something dragging along the road. So I pulled over shamefacedly and got out to find the exhaust pipe had come apart just in front of the front box. After considering calling Auto Aid, I decided that I should just try and pull the fucker off and carry on with a very noisy straight pipe. That turned out to be easier than expected, as the joint between the centre pipe and the back box was also completely rusted out and fell apart as soon as I started tugging on it! A helpful gent across the road came over with a hacksaw that made very easy work of cutting the centre pipe in half so I could stick it in the boot, and I proceeded on my merry way making a hell of a racket at anything over 1/5th throttle.

 

Some investigation revealed that ECP would sell me a new back box and centre pipe for a smidge over 45 quid. As I'm off with a friend this evening to visit another friend 70 miles away, a trip for which I know a return train ticket is about 25 quid each, I figured I might as well give it a pop even though the 106 is going to need some welding for its MOT in 6 weeks. So a very noisy trip to ECP in Woolwich was undertaken yesterday morning (it was out of stock at the one that's a 10 minute walk away, of course).

 

I had thought that the main difficulty in doing the job with the car jacked up at the side of the road would be the bolts holding the remaining stub of centre pipe to the downpipe being seized up. Actually, it turned out to be getting a socket onto the back of them to stop it rotating; one took a good heave to get moving but then came apart easily enough. What I hadn't considered was that there might be some sort of gasket in there, and even more annoyingly, that there were some insert things in the centre pipe flange which the bolts sit in. So I pulled the gasket off the old pipe and smashed it over the new one with a lump hammer, with a good coating of Gun Gum for good measure. Slightly damaged it as it seems to be made of compacted wire wool, but never mind. Then I turned the attentions of the lump hammer to the inserts, which soon yielded, and went into the new pipe easily despite being rusted to buggery.

 

So then it was time to try bolting the new one up. I hung the centre pipe from it's rubber and attempted to attach it to the downpipe, but there was no way I could get enough torque on it to rotate it to the correct orientation. So then I figured if I put the back box on and bolted them together it would hold it in roughly the right position. So more gun gum between them, bit of copaslip on the clamp bolts, and it was on lovely and tight.

 

Unfortunately, the centre pipe flange was still a good 20 degrees out from where it needed to be. In the end, loosening the clamp, rotating the backbox, and using the lump hammer to prop up the centre pipe mount up at the rubber got it to within about 10 degrees and I did the spring bolts up at the front up good and tight before nipping the clamp at the back up again.

 

 

So there it is. The pipe isn't resting on the centre rubber at all, but I'm not sure what I could possibly have done any different. I can only assume the flange is on the pipe at the wrong angle, because in every other respect the pipe fitted perfectly, which was of course a very pleasant surprise:

 

 

Here's the front mounting out of alignment with the downpipe. Also (possibly) visible, a couple of patches of gum I put on the holes I found in it, not sure if they will hold, but worth a go while I was bodging the rest of it:

 

 

So will I make it to the middle of Hampshire in an hour's time, or will it leave us stranded at the side of the M25? Place bets now!

 

Edit to say that, in case anyone wondered, I did have a pair of axle stands under the sills when I was working under the car.

[Rave]

Now I've got my trade insurance policy I really have no excuse not to get the rest of my cars fixed up and driven/sold. So I popped round my mate's house tonight where the Focus ST170 I got off RobT's neighbour last year has been mouldering. It was sold to me as having overheated, and then taken to a garage who apparently did a crap job of trying to fix it, and messed the previous owner about so much he gave up and bought another car. It actually seems to start up and drive OK, we got it on and off the beavertail fine when I paid a guy to move it for me, and it didn't overheat when I left it running for a few minutes.

 

Looking under the bonnet it doesn't appear that the thermostat housing has been touched for years- surely that's the first thing you'd try? Rob was kind enough to give me a thermostat, so I'll definitely try that first. However, there's something that looks a lot like a temperature sender just dangling loose under the bonnet:

 

 

Here's a wider shot to show where it is:

 

 

I can't see anywhere on the head, block or coolant system for it to go in. The wire for it joins into the battery positive lead by the looks of things, so I wondered if it might be something to do with the Smart Charge system, which I assume a Mk1 Focus will have?

 

Actually, having written this post out I thought I'd do a quick google, and the consensus is that the sensor isn't supposed to be plugged into anything, it's fitted by Ford to monitor underbonnet temperatures and kick the fans in if they get too high. So I've sort of answered my own question. Anyone know anything more about it? Is it likely to have anything to do with the overheating?

 

I gather that ST170s can also overheat if the variable valve timing on the exhaust cam goes wrong in some way, so I hope it's not that. Eliminate the easier possibilities first, I reckon...

[Rave]

Had an unusually successful couple of days fiddling with cars by my standards, although that's not saying a great deal to be fair. Yesterday I went back round to my mate's and had a go at changing the thermostat on the ST170. I was expecting the bolts on the housing to be a massive pain to get undone, but actually they were fine. I then found out why:

 

 

Cheers whoever did that, good fix I'm sure. I popped the replacement in no bother, anyway:

 

 

...that is the right way round, I hope?

 

I bunged the pint of neat pink coolant I'd taken with me in but it got nowhere near filling the expansion tank, so I didn't risk starting it up. I'll pop back later this week and put some more in. The coolant mixture that came out looked a bit piss weak and there was a load of rusty grot in the thermostat housing so I'm tempted to just fill it up with de-ionised water and radiator flush for the time being and run it like that while I see if it still overheats, and take it for an MOT if it doesn't. Then if/when it's road legal I'll drop it out and do a proper refill. Does that sound like a good plan?

 

I popped the freshly charged battery back in the Clio while I was there, and tried to start it up. It turned over like the clappers but wouldn't fire. Being curious about the flashing light that looks like a scope trace on the dash I read the manual and found that that was the immobiliser warning light. Disabled it with the plipper and boom, straight into life, smelling a bit petrolly though. It runs OK and started to warm up fine, but after a couple of seconds of idling it goes pretty rough and pulses the speed up and down a bit, maybe 2 1/2 times a second, so quite a fast fluctuation. Not sure what that could be. It failed the previous MOT on emissions so I hope that doesn't stymie it this time round.

 

Today I bimbled round to my inlaws to have a go at the Mondeo that has been sat on their drive for nearly 8 months with a leaky coolant pipe. I think the story is a few pages back but to recap, the pipe that comes out of the bottom of the water pump split, and Ford will only sell a complete assembly for £lots. I tried using a bit of straight rubber pipe but it was too big an internal diameter to seal over the bottom bit of pipe it connects to, however tight I did up the jubilee clip. So months ago I'd ordered a bit of silicone reducer hose; today I bunged it on with surprisingly little trouble, had to trim about 1cm off it and be fairly brutal shoving it over the barbs at each end, but it seemed to fit well once I'd done it. Filled the expansion tank and pumped the radiator top hose to get things flowing and left a washing up bowl under the car to see if it's still leaking. The battery is currently in the hall with my old dumb charger manfully trying to throw some volts into it. I suspect after being left completely flat for 6+ months it will be kippered, which is a bit stupid of me, but it came with the car in 2012 and has had a fairly good innings given it's far smaller than the one Ford fitted originally. Will stick it on the smart charger in a bit and see if it can work its magic.

[mrbenn]

Good efforts there! Be interesting to see how they both get on when you fire them up.

[sierraman]

Taking the thermostat out, obviously to cover a different problem up. Have you checked the radiator or if the pump is making any noises.

[bigfella2]

Taking the thermostat out, obviously to cover a different problem up. Have you checked the radiator or if the pump is making any noises.

As above, might be worth checking the pump, hopefully ford didn't do a vag and make the pump spinny thing out of plastic that doesn't spin when the pump shaft spins.

[Rave]

It's months since it last ran but I'm pretty sure it got up to halfway up the temperature gauge last time and stayed there, fans kicked in etc.- but that was just idling on my mate's drive rather than being driven hard. Rob told me after I'd bought it that his neighbour had been racing a BMW up the M4 at a little bit more than 70 when it overheated, so I'm certainly not counting my chickens yet. A failed thermostat could presumably have caused it though? Apparently ST170s can also overheat if the exhaust cam sensor fails and mucks up the valve timing, which is certainly a possibility in this case. I plugged my OBDII reader in and got nothing...but the battery had been flat for months so it might have just forgotten.

 

My plan is to top it up with rad flush and de-ionised water, start it up and see if it maintains temperature, the fans come on etc. If it does then assuming the brakes aren't seized on I'll book it in for an MOT at my usual place, about 4 miles from where it's parked up. I should be able to get away with a couple of cheeky pulls in between two roundabouts on the way to see if that upsets it, traffic permitting.

[Rave]

Small update. Yesterday I bunged a bit of pink coolant and a couple of litres of de-ionised water in the Focus...and it immediately all pissed out of the thermostat housing. Apparently I'm missing a seal, I've no idea what happened to it but they seem to be 3 quid from ECP so I'll buy one and try again. I hope the stat housing isn't otherwise leaking, they're apparently known for it. You can get a replacement Chinese one for 13 quid but they don't have a hole for the temperature sender, so, erm, what's the good of that then?!

 

Today I bunged the old battery in the Mondeo after having left it on the smart charger for three days. Turning the key sent the instruments haywire and the engine turned over at about 30rpm but before I could release the key it fired! No obvious leaks from my replaced pipe so I topped the expansion tank up and let it get up to temp, it all seemed to be fine.

 

Annoyingly the engine management light stayed out for the whole time I was letting it run up to temp, but then when I restarted it one last time it came on as usual. It's been on since I got it, one of the Lambda sensors has failed, I'm convinced it's a post-cat one as it clearly has about as much power as it should have, returns the MPG you'd expect and passes emissions tests no problem. However as of May it's an MOT fail. I think I'm going to do what I did the first few times I took it for MOT (before I realized that it wasn't a failure point previously), which is to leave my bluetooth OBD reader in and sit there spamming 'delete fault codes' on the Torque app on my phone. The tester did once ask me what it was as it sat there under the dash blinking away. I reckon I'll put a bit of duct tape over it. I guess if it fails on that I'll see what they quote me to do the job; there's a seller on ebay offering apparently genuine Ford sensors for £32.50, but I haven't got a scooby where it goes or how to go about replacing it.

 

Before it got parked up there were was a bang which sounded like the front suspension when I took it over speed bumps, I think it's the ARB as it's much worse if you drive over a speed cushion with one wheel and put the other wheel through the gap in the middle. However when I took it to the garage who do my MOTs they poked all the suspension and couldn't see anything wrong so I'm hopeful that won't cause a fail. I did notice that one of the exhaust rubbers has come off when I had it up on the stands to replace the bit of pipe, but I couldn't get to it without re-jacking the car, which I couldn't be arsed with, I'll try and do it myself or get them to do it while it's in the air for the MOT. I'm not hopeful but if that cures the bang it'll be a nice easy win...

[sierraman]

You have to make the hole in it, which is easier said than done. That's assuming it has the temp sensor that is held in with a big clip, if you take these out you often find you'll also need to replace the O ring. Mine still pissed out so I'm guessing I fucked up making the hole. In the end I just used some RTV sealant in with the clip and it held. Unless the housing is cracked I'd just swap the seal out but use some Blue Hylomar or equivalent to seal it as well. I've had more success actually just using K Seal in this situation. Pour in and it works. Job done. Its not a difficult job at all its just compounded by the shit parts you get that make attempting a good seal quite difficult.

[Rave]

Today's update:

 

 

Get in! The tester initially commented that the back brakes were pulsing a bit, I thought he wasn't happy with them. But actually they apparently provide enough force. He was pretty unhappy about the state of the front pads, they are apparently right on the limit of what's acceptable- but said that, as I'd replaced the rears myself he trusted me to do the fronts. Which I will very soon.

Unfortunately I can't find the V5 having turned the house upseide down, so it's £25 and a V62 for me tomorrow, plus whatever extortionate amount the tax on the thirsty bastard is now...£310 or something? But at least I've got one road legal car going forward.

 

Re-attaching the exhaust rubber hasn't cured the bang from the suspension. So there's hours of swearing trying to replace the ARB bushes without dropping the subframe to look forward to at some point as well. If it's not that, I can only think it must be the top mounts, and I gather from twosmoke that Mk3 Mondeo struts are a pig to get off. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

 

Focus next. Bought the gasket yesterday, heading round my mates for the footy later, will try and get it fitted before kick off.

[egg]

Which seal do you mean Rave on the Focus? Is there one between the stat housing and stat housing cover? Mondy silver top doesn't have one there.

 

Edit: here is a pic...

 

[Rave]

Yeah I'm hoping it's the one marked HR2 in your diagram. Pretty sure there wasn't one there when I bunged the new stat in. I'll find out in a couple of hours!

[sierraman]

The Mondeo has a big O ring where it meets the cylinder head. You can buy this separate, there's no seal as far as I can remember on the cover for the thermostat.

 

HR2 looks like the actual thermostat seal, best to get the thicker ford seal. It sits on the lip of the thermostat. Don't forget to fit the stat with the bypass valve at the top.

[Rave]

The coolant was all coming out from between the stat housing and the cover- the bit on the front you remove to actually get at the stat itself? (forgive my ignorance of stat related nomenclature if I've got it wrong ). The seal I've bought from ECP for 3 quid looks the right size to go in there so I will try it. If it doesn't work, I will have to sack it off until I get back from France a week on Saturday, I guess, no biggie now I have the Mondeo working, and I can stick the Clio in for MOT in the meantime if my mate complains about continued pisstaking use of his driveway and side alley.

 

The stat itself goes in with most of the gubbins facing away from you as you look from the front, like in the diagram?

 

In other news, CarParts4Less want 80 quid for Pagid discs and pads for the Mondeo, over 10 quid less than ECP who seem to be jacking up the price of everything recently. So I'll get those ordered, I doubt I'm going to save more than a few quid by waiting.

[egg]

Yup, you have it the right way round. Here is an example OEM stat and OEM rubber seal that I have in stock for the Mondys.

 

Just thought, your engine has almost twice the power of my 1.6 base. 170 v 90!

 

[sierraman]

Easily solved if its between the cover and the housing. A bead of sealant and away you go. Flange could be warped.

[Lacquer Peel]

CP4L and ECP are one and the same.

[sierraman]

Sometimes CPL are fractionally cheaper, only by a pound or so. Had excellent free sane day delivery yesterday from ECPr

[Rave]

Last few items I've checked, CP4L have been substantially cheaper. There's an ECP shop a 3 minute bike ride from my house so it's a bit of a shame but I daresay they will come back into balance sooner or later. I've heard that ECP staff have considerable licence to drop prices if you haggle with them so I daresay that waving the CP4L shopping basket on your phone under their nose and asking them to match it might be worth a try if you're in a hurry for the parts. I'm not in any tearing hurry for the brake discs though and if they're offering to drop them at my door for free as well then that saves me wobbling home with them in my rucksack, I daresay the big front discs on a Mondeo weigh a bit.

 

I filled in a V62 at the post office today, and got the Mondeo taxed. I first had to convince the lady behind the till that she'd typed the number plate in wrong, entering BG050BR instead of BG05OBR- I'd seen her hit the flipping zero key on the keyboard twice but it took a polite but firm intervention from me to persuade her to try again. When she did, up it popped. It's not showing as taxed on the database yet so I'll leave it on the in-laws drive till Friday- as a self-righteous twat I would quite enjoy it if it got clamped by DVSA contractors and they then had to come back with their tails between their legs, but I need it the day I get back from France so probably best not to invite trouble on this occasion.

 

So, anyway, on to the ongoing ST170 saga. Went back before the football yesterday with my newly acquired seal. Undid the stat cover and offered it up, and it didn't look as if it was going to do anything useful if I put it in behind the stat, there was nothing to stop it slipping into the radiator top hose. So I decided as it was otherwise useless, and not worth returning for a refund of 3 quid or whatever it cost, I'd improvise, and put it round the outside of the inside flange of the stat cover:

 

 

I daresay the stat is not now held in place particularly well, and coolant can probably get round the outside of it quite easily, but never mind. Bolted it all back up, did the bolts up pretty tight so it was all nicely squished in, and poured a load more de-ionised water in. Success! No leaks at all. So, time to start the engine and see what the score was. It started fine and sounded good. No further leaks from the stat with the engine running. It got up to temp quite quickly and the fan kicked in when the needle was halfway up the gauge. I left it running for a bit and all seemed fine, needle sat in the middle not going any higher.

 

So then I decided, as the engine (and the oil, according to the extra little gauge ST170s have) was up to temp, to hold it at 3000RPM for a bit. And oh dear, rapidly rising temp gauge:

 

 

...and oil gauge:

 

 

(I think that second pic was taken with the engine off, the pressure gauge behaved normally with it running). Releasing the throttle and letting it idle again brought the temperature down slowly.

 

So I'm thinking it's probably the water pump? There's one detail that gives me pause for thought, though: in my enthusiasm I'd slightly overfilled the header tank, only by half a pint or less, but enough to bring the level up to where the two little return pipes go in at the top, and there was clearly some quite vigorous activity going on with water, or possibly steam, coming out of one or both of them. I guess that could easily be steam from the fact the engine is overheating? The radiator top hose got plenty hot, so water is obviously circulating in the system somehow. Could the pump fail in such a way that it's still circulating, just at a greatly reduced flow rate?

 

I think the pump is driven off the cambelt on these? A cambelt, pulley and pump kit was £75 on a very brief google search, so not a huge expenditure, and I might be able to get one even cheaper. I've never done one before, but there's a first time for everything right? Should I prepare myself for a long sweary day stood in my mate's driveway, or is there anything else to try first? Is there a way to test the pump, maybe?

 

Edit: for the second time in a page google is my friend, apparently the water pump is driven by the alternator belt, and you can do it without removing the cambelt, so I guess for the sake of 40 quid that's definitely the next thing to try. This car still only owes me less than 400 quid so well worth a go I reckon.

[egg]

That's right, on these later 'zetec' engines like my Fusion, the water pump can be changed without changing the timing belt. However, on the Mondeo MK1 it is the other way round, you have to remove the timing belt.

[stuboy]

ive never driven a st170 what they like or shall i save for aRSe focus

[Rave]

No idea Stu, I've only driven it onto the recovery truck so far. Magazine reviews reckon they're a touch heavy and underpowered (at least compared to the Mk5 Golf GTi and Civic Type R) and the gear ratios are a bit odd, but they handle nicely. I only bought it to try and flip for a profit, though if I get it running I'll smoke about in it for a bit for a laugh. It's tempting to try and store it as an investment, because old Fords are better than money in the bank etc. etc. but it's a 5 door and not a particularly high spec one so I doubt it's going to be worth megabucks any time soon.

 

Any reason not to get this, lads?

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ford-Focus-MK1-ST170-Genuine-Fahren-Water-Pump-Engine-Cooling-/361584533071

[egg]

Well, it seems pretty cheap, and if you plan to move this on then go for it!

 

I had an aftermarket water pump on my Fusion, only lasted 2 years before it started leaking, then went OEM.

[Rave]

So with the Mondeo having passed its MOT, my brother called up and asked if he could borrow it as he'd been let down for a lift to Bike Park Wales. So I cautioned him about the brakes and warned him off doing any rally antics on Welsh back roads (he is quite a fan of it, as it makes his 2.0 Auto CMax feel a bit tame), and off he went. All was fine until he got in to set off home again, at which point it wouldn't start. He figured he might have left an interior light on or something, so he got a bump start and made it as far as the M25 or somewhere like that where he had to stop for fuel, and it failed to start again. No bump or jump start was available there, and after a 90 minute wait for the RAC he limped it back to mine and dumped it under a tree on the road outside my house, where it has sat since, fortunately not acquiring too much bird crap in the meantime. I now have the ex-HMC TDI Passat to smoke around in, which does more or less twice the MPG that the Mondeo does, so haven't touched it since, other than to remove the battery and discover that having looked like it had survived its extended period of complete flatness, it had then shit itself, probably by shorting a cell, it would not get over 11V however much charging I offered it.

 

However it's the only car my mum is insured to drive and we need picking up from the airport next Wednesday, so I've had to sort it. The now-dead battery was an Exide, considerably below the size specced for it, but it had always started it absolutely no bother. My original plan was to pinch the similarly sized Bosch S4 battery that I know is still in my father-in-law's old Megane, which is now languishing in my wife's friend's garage on death row with a broken water pump. However efforts to arrange a time to get over there and get it have so far come to nothing. So anyway, I've had a big Lucas battery sat round the house for the last 8 years or so, it was put into our old Clio diesel not long vefore we scrapped that, so I pulled it out again thinking it could be useful one day. It has been used for one or two jump starts in that time, but mainly I've just kept it topped up every six months or so. It's an 096, and the Mondeo apparenly needs a 100, but the tape measure reckoned it would fit, so I gave it one last charge and slung it in today. The terminals only just reached over the top, and don't seem to go all the way down the posts, but they seem perfectly secure once tightened up, they can't really go anywhere as the cables are holding them in place anyway. The car started up no bother and I've just given it a drive round the block to free off the brakes (and the gearlever, which always seems to go stiff and get grumpy about finding reverse if I leave it for any length of time).

 

The Mondeo has a 'Smart Charge' alternator, and so claims to need a calcium battery. I had thought that this Lucas was a bog standard cheapo, and so fitting it was only going to be a temporary thing while I tried to get my hands on the decent Bosch. However having looked at it more closely, it claims to have 'calcium tecnology':

 

 

...so actually I should be able to leave it in there if needs be, right? I might fit the Bosch anyway if I can get my hands on it and it fits, just to save about 5kg of weight in the already heavy nose, but knowing me that could take months to sort.

 

Once I get back from holiday I'll replace the front pads (which I've already bought) and investigate whether I'm going to be able to replace the ARB bushes without dropping the subframe. If I manage that and it fixes the clonk it'll be back to as close to full health as it's ever been in my ownership. And then I'm not sure what to do with it . I have the Passat for estate car duties and the Jag for 6-cylinder powered cruising/hooning. I might just SORN it and park it up somewhere for the day that the Passat dies (I think the gearbox is on its last legs TBH), but I could equally be tempted to part with it if anyone else wants to give it a loving home.

[sierraman]

Any suitable battery will be fine.