Noticed the dash illumination and number plate lights had both packed up recently. At first, I didn't realise they share the same fuse, so I wasted a bit of time messing around with bulbs with no joy. Got the multimeter out, no voltage then noticed a blown 10A fuse.
Swapped it for new, and the number plate lights came back on... briefly. Still no dash lights though 😕 Dug a bit deeper and pulled the stereo and heater controls. Turns out the dash light feed that runs behind the fan control was pinched between the dash trim and the metal bracket it screws into 🧐 Looks like I must’ve trapped it during previous faffing, which eventually caused it to short.
Freed the wire, wrapped it in some insulation tape for now, popped in another fuse and everything’s working again 😁. Got to love a quick fix, even if it was my fault in the first place. Definitely need to be more careful when putting stuff back together!
After the Ring trip, I noticed the brakes weren't quite as good as I remembered. At first, I put it down to being used to a more modern daily, but after a closer look, they're well past their best 😅
After weighing up a few options, I decided to stick with the setup that served me well previously – OE spec discs (Febi this time) and Ferodo DS2500 pads again. Briefly considered grooved discs, but in the interest of keeping costs sensible, I stuck with the semi-good pad + OE disc combo. Im told the pad is where the money is best spent anyway. Some of the setups I found would’ve easily doubled the cost and been complete overkill for how I use the car. Got a great deal on the pads DS2500 pads: £88 Febi discs: £50
Progress was the usual pace – one side per evening 😅
Also, on the way home from Germany I had a bit of a clunk and pulling issue that I finally got round to investigating. Turns out in my niavity I’d massively over-tightened my top mounts and bearings. One of the bearings had actually cracked, and the other was feeling rough. These were fairly new too, so definitely a case of too many ugga duggas 😳
Also noticed the deeper Powerflex mounts had been catching on the upper spring plate on the BC coilovers. At some point I’ll trim them down and refit, but for now I’ve reverted to OE rubber Mk3 top mounts.
Torqued everything down to spec and went for a quick drive. Initial impressions are good – feels smoother and no pulling so far 🤞🏻 That said, jacking the car up always makes it feel better until it’s properly settled, so I’ll report back after a few more miles.
2/5/25 – 5/5/25: Nürburgring Road Trip! Just got back from a amazing and tiring road trip — took Laura and the Mk2 to the Nürburgring!
We set off early Friday morning with a group of mates in a mix of Mk2s and Mk5s and a stray e36, aiming to reach the Ring by early afternoon. I'd spoken to Nige Pinder previously, who was already out on track that day. He’d kindly offered me a passenger lap for my first Ring experience, if I got there in time — sadly, his car developed an issue, so that plan didn’t work out which was a really shame.
Before setting off, I did a spanner and fluid check and packed the boot full of tools and spares — but luckily, the Mk2 was nearly faultless the whole way and none of it was needed. Not bad for a 35-year-old car doing close to 1000 miles!
Saturday: Track queues were mental. I got out for one lap late morning, but after that it just got busier and busier. As first time experiences go, I was excited but honestly a bit nervous too. I’ve watched loads of YouTube laps, and the standard of driving there is wild — serious speed, and the consequences of a mistake are high. That was definitely on my mind, so there was no ‘full send’ happening this time.
I took Laura out with me as passenger — her only other track experience was at Curborough at the national meet, so this was… quite a step up 😅. Lots of urgent co-driver calls: BRAKE! CORNER! 😂 In fairness, she kept me well in check, which was probably for the best.
I met a nice chap called Ethan This one looked a serious track weapon!
What shocked me most were the forces — the compression in the undulations and the grip through corners really suprised me. The car itself didn’t miss a beat: temps stayed in check, the Acceleras were fine, and the brakes didn’t overheat — all probably a sign that I wasn’t pushing hard enough!
In a lower-power car like mine, it really highlights the importance of carrying corner speed. I found myself moving over for a lot of Porsches and BMWs, and with a couple of yellow flags squeezing the cars together, I spent a fair bit of time checking my mirrors.
Later that day, a big thunderstorm rolled in and ended play for many — some of the lads didn’t even get a lap in. I’d already made plans to move on to Brugge after Saturday, so left the group behind. They managed a few laps on Sunday once things cleared up. Brugge I covered just under 1000 miles over 4 days, and the Mk2 behaved near perfectly. Only downside: I thought I’d finally sorted the slight pulling issue, but when almost home after reversing out of a space and hearing a clunk, it’s back — and worse at higher speeds. Typical really… the car survives a lap of the Nordschleife but pulling out of a car park throws it out 🙃. That’ll need some further investigation when I find some time.
Only minor update and back to the window stencil! I noticed that my boot carpet was a bit wet as was the sound deadening in the spare wheel well. I got my daughter to spray the hose on the boot whilst I was sat in the boot and narrowed the leak down to the rear washer jet of all places. Not taken this apart before so undone the lock and pulled the washer fluid pipe away Old one (temp fixed) with a blob of silcone and the suppose new genuine one Fitted and climbed back in the boot and hosed down again and seems to have solved and a nice simple fix🤞
When clearing my garage late last year i found a new coil still boxed which was a nice bonus! I decided as mine was looking pretty crusty and quite probably original, it was worth swapping as preventative if nothing else. I've kept the old Bosch one as a spare as it was still fully functioning, Whipped the old one off i noticed the earth strap was showing signs of wear copper earth bits were cleaned up and replaced the earth strap this 12mm blank on the bottom of 1 way valve was looking pretty holey and brittle! Not sure if i disturbed it or if it was already like this. Got a new silcone blank off ebay for a few quid I've been giving some more thought on where i want to go with the car in future as progress feels very stagnant these days. I am re-wondering what i can do to regain my interest without chucking loads of money at it. Something that seems quite sensible is a gearbox swap, something with either a 3.9 or 4.2 final drive to liven it up a bit more? My current box has a Quaife lsd and it would be a shame to go back to open diff but that creates a much bigger job than just throwing another box in. I might be tempted to temp fit something short term to see if i can live with the ratios before going to the extreme of ripping mine apart for the Quaife. Having said that not sure i would want to commit to doing this over the summer when i hope to use it a lot more
She quite likes it, except no parking sensors 🙄😂 ive ordered an android headunit with a reverse camera, so hopefully I can get that fitted before she reverses into something 😄
I started picking! Fortunately a bit of heat amd it peeled off easily except around the wiper and behind the spoiler I decided I prefer the wiper to be stood up in its factory position opposed to laying flat to made sense to reverse the "90s mod" Also orange lights, i fancied a change. Not sure of I'll stick with them Managed to get a quick was before it started to rain, still scrubs up ok! Almost a complete post on my window stencil 🤣 Laura's passat is needing some urgent maintenance (snapped spring amd coil light) so she will be driving my mk6, meaning the mk2 will get some use this week 🙂 it will be nice to put some miles on it and might reduce my commute time 😬
looks like i havent put any 2024 progress in here and we are now in 2025! So here is a bit of a catchup... I have stored all my spares and tools in a garage away from home since owning the mk2. This is my dads and he is moving to a new place, with no garage! With nowhere else to store stuff, ive been thinning out my spares quite drastically. A lot of what i own are contingency spares if the worst happened, panels, gearboxes etc. Stuff that i have owned for years and never used so i've sold, given away and thrown loads of stuff. The hardest decision was parting with my wheels, although not super special ones I had a set of RA's with road tyres as i always liked the oe look, BBS RX214 which i really liked and filled arches a bit nicer and the sebrings on r888s which i have used for track. I decided the sebrings would be hardest to sell/ worth the least so sold both sets of BBS and fitted some Pirelli road tyres to the sebrings and live with them ( the start of problems!)
Here is what i had to clear. Doesn't look much but it took ages to sort sell and get moved out. Months in the end. I sold loads on eBay so was forever popping down and wrapping and posting stuff and luckily someone offered to bulk buy everything i had left which really helped with the final push. Prep for national meet this year i noticed my timing belt hadnt been changed for sometime and had a indented mark down the middle of belt which convinced me it would be wise to get this done. Feeling brave i thought i can do this myself but then back tracked, i dont fancy sourcing a replacement engine or facing a rebuild! The best thing about owning a mk2 is mk2 mates! Dan offered to do it with me/ for me and i would help him which was great. I ordered a Gates kit with a new auto tensioner and to be honest it wasnt a bad job at all. I took a few photos but hardly worth sharing You can see the mark on the belt just about here. Not sure if the tensioner has caused this or the timing cover or something else has caught on it but definelty worth swapping plus it was 4-5 years old New belt on. We were a tooth out when we tenstioned it. In the end we kind of had to aim for a tooth out the opposite way and the tensioner pulled it back correct. Not sure if that is usual but we turned it over a few time and all of the timing marks were perfect. I'm sure there was other prep, i'm quite particular about doing an oil and filter and cleaning the k&n annually before the national meet. 2024's National meet i was much better prepared than 2023 which left me sleeping on a mk2 rear bench! I even got some fire wood from work for the camp fire loaded up ready for my favourite weekend of the year I always take a fair few photos of the cars but hardly any with the friends I have made there over the past few years. I managed 1 this year! Brilliant to sit round a fire with some food and a few drinks! Laura came over with the kids for a few hours, i always encourage her to go for a lap with someone. Last year i sent her out with Baz in his abf and this year Dan in his 400+ bhp 20vt. She had no idea what she was letting herself in for but massive smiles when she survived Dans mental car and driving! I love this photo of his car, this thing really moves and it was great to see it work fautlessly after having problems all weekend in 2023 I had an issue this year. I was warming the car up on the out lap and the inner CV joint snapped! I limped back to the pits to assess. I wasnt the only one who had done the same thing and fortunately Dan and Warren were already at the local motor factors collecting the same part for his car so picked me one up too. It seems like a potential weak point so have since bought a pair of shafts to carry with me in future. I was back in the track within about an hour-ish. A nice action shot One of the pits I was chatting the Chris about his Rallye, such a special car. I asked him if he would run me up the road in it as I've never been in one and to my surprise he chucked me the keys! Dave did the same with his BBM 3.2. Massive treat and great to experience to drive two very different but equally special cars. Sadly i cant find a photo of Dave's car but his has a build thread on here. Another big surprise was winning the modified class for a 2nd year running! I didn't expect to win it last time but to win it a second time was such a nice feeling and a massive shock. I havent won anything since i was a kid! It was made extra special to win when against so many great cars that I wish i could own.
With the national meet over and clearing my spares, tyre selection should be interesting for 2025. The r888's were now over 15 years old which has been a bit of a running joke in its self but were also very questionable whether i could really use them on the road. I decided to buy a set of road tyres- Pirelli P1. I wont go into too much detail as they weren't new and have ended up causing me massive problems! The car started to pull violently to one side. To cut a very long story short I have replaced loads of parts, multiple alignments, one of which was hideously expensive! rotated wheels and tried mates wheels and eventually It was fixed! this really tested my patience and my wallet but after chatting to mates for guidance I have finally got a car the drives in a straight line again Along the way, i tried to replace parts that might be more robust to avoid needing to be touched for a while at least Powerflex topmounts hopefully more substantial than the rubber ones Really pleased to have taken it on a long drive and be back enjoying my car just hope the pulling issue is behind me 🤞🏻
Superpro droplink bushes Accelera 651 Sport Xtra tyres Ive done an oil change and fitted and regular airfilter instead of the K&N. Not sure I can be bothered with cleaning the filter every year over buying a replacement for a couple of quid look at the holes in my airbox 😂 this was like it when i bought the car! Also replaced the brake fluid with some of this ATE200 stuff as i am planning on a ring trip in May!
Sadly my window stencil has had it. I think i am going to remove it shortly and maybe replace the taillight back to orange. Have you seen how much half smokes go for these days? It would break my heart if i cracked one! 😂
Aside from the mk2, i sold the T5 a while back so i need of a daily i was using a gold mk4! PD130 mapped egr deleted and what a car she was. my kids name her Goldielove 😂 After enjoying the mk4 i made a decsion that i spend too much time driving to be in a 20+ year old car with no working ac and generally wanting somethiing a tiny but more modern. I bought a mk6 GTD Not a fan on wind deflectors or the wheels especially. Its mapped to over 200 bhp, working AC, heated seats and a whopping 195k miles! It was reasonably cheap and got it off a mate so felt comfotable-ish with the mileage. I quickly swapped the wheels and fitted some eibach springs so its more my own. Maybe need a carplay radio but otherwise is making a really nice daily so far.
@Daz7953@al67 Meeting point: The Chequers, High St, Swinford, Lutterworth LE17 6BL meet at 7:45am and drive to show for 8am gives us a 15-20 min window to meet up and give out passes etc and arrive at show in good time
![](http://"https://i.ibb.co/vxKrs4KG/20240720-132754.jpg)
Along the way, i tried to replace parts that might be more robust to avoid needing to be touched for a while at least 
