Posts

Showing posts from 2016

Pipes

Image
Whilst fitting my floor rails I had to remove my exhaust which I noticed was pure grot. So I thought "whilst I'm here" and got shopping for a replacement. Well the exhaust isn't really that bad but whilst I was struggling with a ropy fastener on the mid section pipe coupling I  thought it might be a good idea to get a replacement exhaust for when I came to the refit. The current exhaust might be good for another 80,000 miles for all I knew but the thought of refitting the stock when I could fit something new didn't sit well. Also I wanted the new shiny thing. A new exhaust was only abut £325 and some posh looking 4 port stainless jobbers would improve the look of the car whilst being freer flowing. I opted for the Cybox DPF back system for it's mandrill bent corners and nice looking slash cut pipes. They arrived a bit after a couple of weeks after buying them (good job I wasn't in a rush) so tey were ready for fitting once the rails were

Getting a handle on the handling.

Image
Intro I bought this van with a rather pimp set of Rangerover Stormer wheels and a set of V-maxx coil overs helping the van drag its belly everywhere. This all looked very bloody cool but the van handled like crap with a tendency to bottom out over sharp bumps then proceed to bounce its way down the road as the dampening failed to keep the springs under control. This would result in various items removing themselves from compartments and in extreme cases bits of trim jumping off of the van to join the party sliding about my van floor. This was more noticeable from the front end. The back, with less weight on it, seemed better behaved. Work with what you got The first way I went about remedying this problem was to try hardening up the dampening to stop it wallowing as much. Unfortunately this was already wound right in (the previous owner had claimed he found the ride harsh so had set it to fully soft, turns out he did the opposite) so I wound it out a bit to see if it made an

button podging

Image
A few months ago I fitted this rather lovely multifunction steering wheel from a mk6 Golf GTi. Most would be content with this much higher end piece of kit being used for the simple but important purpose of steering but not me. This thing has bling buttons and I want to use them as reaching half a meter across to the head unit is clearly far too hard for me so I started the job of achieving the "impossible" and tried to convince my T5 it should chat to a golf steering wheel. Before we get started though I'd like to point out that I have written down my whole process to achieve this job. As such there are some false turns and dead ends so make sure you read the whole thing before going shopping yourself. Alternatively just skip to the end and use the shopping list there. I have done this so others can carry on from where I left off should they wish to try an alternative root. Right research head is on! First off I picked up a multi function steering wheel conv

On The Rails

Image
On The Rails This was a big job, where a lot has happened, be it good or bad. I haven't kept this to a simple check list but have presented it as more of a story. You will find plenty of other people who have carried out similar modifications, to different platforms, in mildly different ways so please excuse the slightly rambling narrative as I try to build on this and hopefully entertain along the way. I have tried to put headers at pertinent points to help you get to where you want to be if you are looking for a particular piece of information. Otherwise I hope you enjoy the ride. From the top I bought the van with a fairly nice day van interior that you can see over on the right. It comprised of an OEM leather tripple folding bench seat from a Executive Shuttle, properly mounted and a table shaped like a surfboard. The chequer pattern floor was made of vinyl tiles and the walls were fully insulated and carpeted as individual panels which made for a pretty good quali

Braking bad to braking good

Image
Braking bad to braking good With an MOT rapidly approaching I decided to clean up the lip on my brake discs. However on measuring I noticed that my rear discs were beyond their minimum limit and the fronts weren't far off either. Pretty frustrating when the pads are virtually new! I opted for Apec Discs  and Pads  as a cost effective but high quality replacement. The linked items are for the rears that I bought through eBay. The fronts I managed to get from Halfords. The new front discs came unprepared so I picked up a tin of heat resistant paint and sprayed the outside edge and hub to make them look a bit smarter and hopefully protect them over the long run. Any over run onto the disc surface isn't a problem as it will rub off anyway so there was no need for masking. The rear discs came prepainted and so I left them as they were for now. As the rear discs are smaller the mismatch in colour between front and rear doesn't really matter. I hope to

getting side tracked and my wires crossed.

Image
Intro During my window fixing escapades I was sat, with a cup of tea, reading what other people had done with a similar problem. Well this didn't take long as it happened as most peoples experience was subtly different from the last. So I just kept digging to see if I could find anything relevant else where. As the windows on my 2007 van are controlled by the comfort and convenience unit (CCU), I was also playing particular attention to anything else that went through the same box. So here I was reading a central locking blog. For once everyone was unified in agreement. It was caused by one crimp on a wire coming out of the module and it went wrong ALL THE TIME! "Interesting" I thought to myself. As it happened I had my CCU on my desk so already had access to the offending part of the loom and was quite frankly out of ideas with the windows before I had to start buying parts. So what harm could a little win do? Symptom The usual reason for you to start this on

Getting wound up by windows

Image
Hand cranking your windows open and closed  is a massive pain in the bum and is surprisingly distracting, something you only really notice when you go back to them after years of button podging. Well I'm missing that little hand crank now as my windows remain stubbornly closed. It all started when I went out to my van to try and add a new key remote to my van as the range was terrible at best. I started the procedure and realized I needed the window open but when I tried to open it they wouldn't budge. Neither window wanted to move in fact so I had a poke about at the fuses which were fine. There was no relay click either which got me thinking that I might be missing a hidden fuse or some such malarkey but no joy. My next port of call was to hit everything with WD40 to push out any water ingress and clean the contacts on plugs. Again though I was greeted by silence from my window motors. I read my Haynes manual which wasn't very helpful and the forums were the us