GTAMADDOG

I'd do this, but it'd just be embarrasing really. I don't like reving my car too much either, so far the furthest I've taken it is about 3,500RPM, then again that is pretty much where peak power is and the best time to change up for moar torques, y0 :p

This sort of noise makes me a very happy man: PETROL Y U HAVE TO BE SO EXPENSIVE HERE!?!?

I've actually been looking at the TDI 105BHP for myself, insurance is cheaper than anything else I've tried yet, so I've been looking into them quite a bit, anything to get me into a Golf :p If I was to go one step further and look at the TDI GT 140BHP then I'd be looking at £1,900 for insurance, which is crap really, but not as bad as I was expecting. My mum has the 2.0 TDI 110BHP engine at the moment, which seems alright enough, but as with everyone she always aspires to have something better all the time, which you can't blame her for :p My mum would probably go for the proper GTI as well, but due to how far away she works and the mileage she does elsewhere a diesel is the only real viable option for her. The GTI is cheaper to buy as well, and they look marginally better due to the front grille and red pin striping. Speaking of GTIs, the MK3 GTI has had another stroke of bad luck. On Friday night someone smashed the passenger side wing mirror (which shattered the glass) but the mirror cover seems alright. They also somehow managed to put a dent in the top of the passenger side front wing as well. They must've done it on purpose, because my step-dad folds the mirrors in specifically so people can't hit them when driving past. That car is not having much luck this year, I have a strong feeling it might be its final year.

My mum wanted to go to a VW dealership yesterday to test drive a Golf GTD so I thought I'd tag along, can't really pass up an opportunity to see what a near-top of the range latest generation Golf is like. Car looked pretty sweet in my opinion, Indium Grey with Seattle Shadow wheels. Looked pretty mean on a gloomy day in Wales, but that isn't difficult I suppose. Took the car out for a test drive. Liked the interior. She's already got a MK6, but it doesn't have the black headlining, rear tinted windows or tartan seats that you get in the GTD which she really likes. In terms of the way it went I was pretty underwhelmed, I wasn't driving, but it didn't feel fast. I hate going on about the thing, but I reckon the Skoda would be quicker than the GTD. With the Skoda, even sat in the passenger seat, when you open it up you can tell you're shifting, you get pushed back into the seat and the surroundings just seem to turn into a blur. I was sat in the GTD on the test drive and we went full-throttle a few times and it just didn't seem to have the same get-up-and-go to it, you didn't get the feeling of torque and you didn't get pushed back in your seat. I won't divulge a speed that was acquired at one point, but when the speed was being read out as we were accelerating it honestly felt a bit limp. Considering they are both meant to have the same power I'd say there was something wrong with the Golf, or maybe the extra refinement over the Skoda just makes it feel that way. Didn't persue it in the end as there were a few marks on the interior and exterior which really shouldn't have been there considering the car had only done 11,000 miles, and my mum has had enough problems with the exterior of the MK6 she's got now due to laquer peel for reasons that VW can't explain. As a car overall, I like it, I like the way it looks on the outside, I like the interior, but to be really happy with it I'd personally need it remapped. She's looking at Sciroccos now (test drove one of those after the GTD), and I think she might end up with one of those unless a Golf GTD exactly like the one we looked at yesterday comes up on the VW website, minus the imperfections. Probably going for the same engine and colour, but it'll be a GT spec, and it'll get remapped. The salesman came out after the test drive and said they might have one coming in soon owned by a VW manager and that it'll be pretty highly spec'd with less than 6,000 miles on it, so my mum is going to wait and see what that's like now.

Gotta love it, well I do anyway :p https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pFJghMoOBk

By no means a detail, but I somehow ended up with my car being dirtier than it has ever been despite only being washed on Sunday and it was irritating me to no end. It's like the roads have been salted ready for snow or something, but the car wasn't even this dirty when the roads were actually salted. Before/After style, if I can remember which photo is which. Quick hoover on the inside + some naff dashboard cleaner, really should get some decent stuff. I'd also like to wet-vac the seats and floor at some point. Before (Love how my phone camera makes the seat and steering wheel look cleaner in the before photo) http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x104/GTAMADDOG/IMG_0181.jpg After (Spots/marks left on the seats are why I want to wet-vac them. Dirty looking areas on the floor mat are just wear from where my feet have been) http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x104/GTAMADDOG/IMG_0183.jpg Outside. Just a wash as it was only polished and waxed properly a couple of weeks ago along with Armorall Tyre Foam (which I think is rubbish) on the tyres, WonderWheels on the wheels, Autoglym Tar Remover on any tar spots, some back-to-black on the black trim and Autoglym Fast Glass on all the glass. Rinsed then washed with Meguiars Gold Class + Meguiars Lambs Wool Wash Mitt, then rinsed again and dried using my new Kent Extra Large Microfibre drying towel. Before http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x104/GTAMADDOG/IMG_0179.jpg After http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x104/GTAMADDOG/IMG_0186.jpg Before http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x104/GTAMADDOG/IMG_0176.jpg After http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x104/GTAMADDOG/IMG_0187.jpg Before http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x104/GTAMADDOG/IMG_0180.jpg After http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x104/GTAMADDOG/IMG_0190.jpg Before http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x104/GTAMADDOG/IMG_0177.jpg After http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x104/GTAMADDOG/IMG_0188.jpg Clean again, until it inevitably rains over the weekend. Need to find a pressure washer and snow-foam lance at some point.

Well, I don't drive them, but I have driven both at least once and you know what I drive anyway. One's been brought back to life after many years with a new engine and one is a trouble-some newbie. Pretty sure you can guess which is which. My step-dads Land Rover Series 2, completely stripped down and built back up with new original parts where necessary. Plus and a 'new' engine, a 200TDI from a Discovery and custom straight-through exhaust. Just needs a respray in its original colour, which is the green seen on most of it. It'll mainly be used for off-roading, as it should be: http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x104/GTAMADDOG/IMG_0161.jpg http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x104/GTAMADDOG/IMG_0160.jpg The one you may have read about in the "Bad Day" thread, a 2002 Renault Scenic 1.9dCi 'Privilege'. Crap pictures. I somehow managed to set the alarm off without going near it, lol: http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x104/GTAMADDOG/IMG_0171.jpg http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x104/GTAMADDOG/IMG_0173.jpg And just to balance it out, here's one of mine next to the Skoda: http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x104/GTAMADDOG/IMG_0185.jpg

I followed a Lada Niva Cossack 1.7 on the way to work on Monday, first one I've seen in years. That was the highlight of my week so far :p It did almost get wiped out by an oncomming car when the driver decided to over-take a lorry going up a steep hill to find that he didn't have anywhere near as much power as he first thought :/

...interesting. It was the only memorable part of the movie for me though.

This was the last WRC game that I bought/played/liked. Still waiting for a rally game with full length tracks ala Mobil 1 Rally Championship (there was one which was 20+ minutes long and felt like it went on forever which was awesome) instead of stupid little 3 minute long tracks.

I like the first one, really relaxing for some reason :p

Yeh, you can save it if you catch it quickly, but a lot of people just don't realise/care, and by the time anything really noticeable happens it's too late, as was the case with this one. There was half the space in the valve to what there should've been before it was cleaned out, but there was that much in there that the spring which moves the valve has probably bent parts of the valve when it was opening and closing. It's a nice enough reason to give your car some absolute Hell once in a while to flush it out :p

Thread makes me so jealouse :/

Following on from the engine fiasco, after getting a friend/French Car Specialist to look at the car, it seems as though it's the EGR valve which is to blame. Despite it being cleaned out as much as possible, it's just not clean enough, and the valve itself can't close properly due to the amount of soot/carbon which is stuck to the surface. It's enough that you can see daylight through it when it should be closed which means the turbo isn't getting enough pressure to work fully and it sends a signal to the ECU saying it's faulty which restricts engine power more-so. The MAF works as it should and there are no splits in the pipes. It's all because of the EGR valve, so a new one has been ordered and that should hopefully solve the problem. The other engine problems apparently cleared up after the car was left to run for a while yesterday (I wasn't around then), but the EGR is restricting the turbo that much that the engine doesn't have the power to even pull the car up my road (a hill). The injector wires have also been rubbing on the underside of the airbox which has worn away the sleeves so that'll be bodged with some insulation tape or something similar before they wear right through. So if you've got a diesel and you start losing power or get the engine management light come on, your first point of call is the EGR valve, and you're probably better off just buying a new one instead of mucking about with the old one. Oh, and a top tip (which I already knew): If you've got a car with a turbo, whether it's diesel or petrol, and you've been doing any sort of speed where the turbo will have been spooling fully, don't stop and immediately switch the car off. Even though the car is idling when you stop, the turbo will still be doing 100,000RPM, and if you switch the engine off straight away the turbo will still be spinning at near to those speeds, but without any lubrication for the bearing(s). Let the car idle for 30 seconds to a minute, even though it can be really annoying, save yourself a huge problem in the future. I usually cheat by driving the last few miles to my house off boost as much as possible, then let the car idle for 20 or so seconds when I'm home. Hopefully that'll be the end of that and I can get around to fitting my rear discs, pads and shock absorbers on Friday :p

Thanks for sharing that, can't get enough of their Death Dealers album at the moment :p

This is very almost me :( First year or so at secondary school I did pretty well. We had an exam as soon as we got there and that apparently determined how brainy we were and sorted us into 'sets'. I was in the second highest set so I was seen as one of the most capable students, but I think I let that fool me a few years down the line and I started slipping up, started playing too many games and didn't revise enough or try hard enough. By the last year I'd pretty much lost it and my English Coursework was laughably bad, and despite I.T. being my favourite subject I wasn't doing as well as I could in that either. Exams came in the final year and we had a part of the year come along called 'Study-Leave' where you don't go into school and you're left to revise for your exams at home. I didn't do that, because I thought the exams would be a breeze, so I sat at home on the computer playing Counter Strike and GTA. Exam results day came and I walked out of that school with probably one of the gloomiest looking faces to be seen on that day. Still got into college with my grades. I still hadn't learnt my lesson and carried on through college with a "That's a pass, that'll do" attitude, just trying to have a laugh. Towards the end of the second year I gained a bit of motivation and started aiming for merits and distinctions in some of the units as I had a month or so left before I left college. So I got a few merits and a distinction. It still wasn't enough considering the potential I had. I never wanted to go to university, but when you go to see a potential employer and show them your grades and they see that you could've done better, it doesn't leave a good impression. Every time I look back to what I did in college I wish I'd tried harder and aimed higher, instead of peeing the days away sitting at a desk listening to music on YouTube or playing 2D Team Fortress and CS 1.6. Don't follow my path, do your absolute best to come out with the grades that you want and make your future easier. Don't be like me and look back to years gone by with regret. I think the laziness is all part of being a teenager for a lot of people, they are the years when you're relatively care-free and you just want to have a laugh with your mates or you think that things like school aren't as important as having a good time. It's good that you've realised now, rather than later.

This new car isn't mine, my dad bought it so he had a car with a bit more space to move people about in. His girlfriend likes going places with her kids and they don't all fit into the same car if they all go, but if a few of them go then my dads cars usually end up covered in dirt and food because of the kids. It's a nice enough car on the face of it, a few scuffs and in need of a good clean, but it's alright apart from that. Has twin sunroofs, climate control, CD changer, six airbags and full leather interior. It would just be better if the engine worked as it should. It was bought from a used car dealership, so you'd expect the mechanicals to atleast last six months or so otherwise they shouldn't have sold it implying it was in full working order. My dad could take the car back, but it's a long way to go, whether it would get back there and what the dealership would say are another thing. I personally didn't like the look of the guy or place one bit, I seem to have a knack for sensing these things lately, but I just get ignored when I say something isn't quite right. Sisters boyfriend bought an Audi A3 from a town in the Welsh valleys a couple of years ago and I could just tell it'd be bad news, but he bought the car anyway and ended up losing a lot of money on that. The 1.9 TDI is reliable enough, but as with any diesel engine it needs a good thrashing every so often to clear the soot out of it. So if you spend a lot of time trundling around a town or city rarely going over 2000RPM, then you'll more than likely end up with a sooted up EGR valve or even turbo at some point. Clutches are a weak point, and if you don't let the car warm up before booting it or let the car run off boost for a minute or so before turning it off you run a much higher risk of losing your turbo because the soot settles and builds up while it's still warm and forms a blockage. All the fun comes to an end now though, as I anticipated, in the blink of an eye my ten days off work are over and I'm back at work tomorrow. Only felt like yesterday I wrote my post in the "Had a Good Day?" thread saying that I now had 10 days off and wasn't going to do anything. Turns out I had lots to do every day and I never got to catch up on some well needed rest. Don't want to go back to work, I mean really don't, I've been looking for another job on the internet today, but there isn't much out there. I'll see what happens, because my contract is up again at the end of April, maybe they'll get rid of me before it gets too busy and I completely lose my sanity.

This'll also be a long one.. Well, a few days after collecting the car, my dad is starting to fear the worst. When he got back on Saturday he said he was worried the turbo may be on its way out because it sounded like a police siren and the EML would come on occasionally and the car would lose power (Actually had a similar thing with the Skoda). So before conceeding it's fate he decided to have a go at cleaning up a few bits of the car just incase soot was blocking up parts of the system. Yesterday he had a quick look at the pipes just to make sure they weren't split or loose, and he cleaned out the intercooler as well, it did have a bit of muck on it, but not much. Cleaned that, then took the car for a drive, the noise remained and a couple of miles from home we heard a pop, which after I'd been looking at videos on YouTube it sounded like the turbo going. Car still ran fine and you could still hear the turbo whistling away, but there wasn't as much power there as it should have, it was like this before checking the intercooler. A few miles later and the EML came on again and upon acceleration a bit of black smoke, which coming from the Skoda and even my car you occasionally expect on acceleration. Forward to today and I get up to find my dad looking at the car again, this time he's taken all of the pipe-work off and the EGR valve, and he asked me to take the MAF sensor off. He was cleaning the EGR valve up and said one half of it was blocked with soot, so there was a glimmer of hope there. The MAF sensor was pretty clean. I also took the air-filter out and that didn't look too bad, but changed it anyway. Eventually put the car back together after double-checking the pipe-work and a final clean of the EGR valve. He starts the car and it sounds a little better, but not as it should. Then the big bit, he let the car idle and was about to walk away and the engine lost most of its revs like it was about to stall, but then came back to idle. Didn't think much of it, could be cleaning some crap out of itself. Then it did it again, and with that came a bit of black smoke out of the exhaust which wasn't too concerning seeing as we were hoping it'd clean itself up... then a knocking sound from the engine. My dad quickly looks around the engine bay, but can't see anything that could be making the noise, so he revs the engine a bit and the knocking speeds up. So now we're both fearing the worst because it sounds a lot like a big-end bearing has gone. He knows someone who is a French car specialist mechanic (changed the cam-belt on my car a year ago), apparently he's taken the car to him already and he's said everything looks fine and there are no fault codes, so he's going to get that guy to look at the car again, but it's really not sounding good. So, seeing as that car is a Renault, mine's a Peugeot (both French, both got something wrong) and the Skoda is partly German (but also has a problem). It turns out the car you would think to be the least reliable (Italian) is actually the most reliable, because the Alfa Romeo is absolutely fine and has never had a problem. Or, is that a testament to diesels being too complicated these days as mine, the Renault and Skoda are all diesels and the Alfa is a petrol.

There is probably one scratch on the roof which you can feel with a finger nail, which I'd guess is from someone resting a bag or something on the roof before getting in, but the rest of the swirls on the roof are just your standard swirl-marks, besides being stubborn as Hell. There is one large scratch just infront of the passenger side wheel arch which I can only assume is from the previous owner scraping it on a low wall, which I know I can't get rid of as it's down to the primer. Then there's one scratch on the bonnet which I know I can't get rid of through polishing either, because it's too deep. It's an old car, but I like to keep it looking as good as possible, because a lot of the 306s you see on the roads these days are either modified by jolly young BarryBoy or just complete sheds. It's nice to know I'm keeping one in relatively decent unmolested condition.

Yeh, I bought products specifically for the job but they have not really worked. The roof is the worst place for the swirls really, and there's a couple of (small) slightly deeper scratches elsewhere which I didn't expect to be able to sort out anyway.

I was recording one yesterday on my way back home (was going to be a timelapse video), until I got home and found out that I hadn't mounted the camera properly and for most of the journey it was pointing up at the sky even though it looked like it hadn't moved at all :mad: Would've been boring anyway I suppose :p

Ahhh, I see what I was doing. I was searching for the word "Cleaning" rather than "Washed" or "Detailed" :p I'd still give the wash and clay kit a try. The amount of crap that the clay bars pick up, even from clean or new cars, is silly. Oh, and it leaves your paintwork feeling silky smooth, especially after you've applied some wax to it. In my experience the wax makes it a lot easier to clean the car afterwards as well. I can't get the light scratches and swirl marks off my car, they aren't really noticable to everyone else as it's basically metallic silver, but I can see them from a mile off. I've tried loads of products and tried both hand polishing and machine polishing, but the buggers just don't go. It's really annoying as my dad basically just walked up to the Skoda one day, applied a bit of the polish that he had to hand, then wiped it off and he hasn't had swirl marks since. I don't know if it's worth the effort on a 13 year old car, but the swirl marks are just one of those things that bug you until they're gone.

Went to Wednesbury today to pick up another car for my dad. Half way up the motorway I knew it'd be a load of fun getting back as the motorway had been closed in the southbound direction due to a bad accident. So coming back, after my dad had already tried taking me down the M6 (following each other), we came to the junction where the motorway had been closed off. I turned off which took us into Halesowen, loads of traffic, hardly moving, I turn left at a roundabout as I know left is south and south is where I want to go. My dad follows until we get to the next roundabout, then he thinks he knows better and turns right, I can't follow because I'm in the left lane and there's still loads of traffic. So that was the last time I saw him until I got home (I beat him back). I carry on down a dual carriageway and notice signs for Worcester which I know is a lot closer to home than the way my dad went which was sign-posted Stourbridge. I carry on following the signs for Worcester, I don't have a clue where I am at this point, just blindly following signs. After a while I end up on the outskirts of Worcester and join the M5 at junction six. From then on I knew exactly where I was. I leave the motorway at junction 11 and join the route I normally take home from work to be greeted by a stupid amount of traffic for lunch time on a Saturday, it was like rush hour on a weekday. Absolutely knackered. Baking hot today, made worse by the fact that my air conditioning has never worked, if I have the windows down the wind is unbearable, the standard cold air output in the car is like being breathed on by an asthmatic. Consolation is I beat my dad home by 5 minutes. First time I've been on the motorway (yes it's really taken me this long). I also saw a 5-door version of mine which almost shared the same number plate as mine, we both smiled and nodded and he shot off into the distance as I held back for my dad :p Oh, and one of my rear shock absorbers is knackered, well not the actual shock absorber itself, but the bush. You can't just buy a bush, you have to buy a whole unit. tl;dr: An accident on the motorway made me get lost somewhere in the west midlands.

I got into the closed Beta and honestly didn't really rate it that much. As Ryzza said, using the website as a means of choosing your car, track and whatever else doesn't sit right with me. It was part of my issue with Battlefield 3 as well.

Did some more stuff to my car today (cleaning), decided to try out one of the Meguiars Clay Bars (cut in half, eco-mode, y0) that I've had for ages, and used the 'Quik Detailer' spray as a lubricant. The sides of the car were a lot more contaminated than the front and rear of the car for some strange reason. Here's a photo of my red hand: http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x104/GTAMADDOG/IMG_0154.jpg Then used Autoglym Tar Remover for the stubborn bits of tar that didn't come off with the clay. Then did the usual polishing and waxing, all ready for my unexpected trip up to Wolverhampton on Saturday for a random car purchase by my dad :mad: