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Are you wanting to film "out of the car" or "the car"? I've had a few ebay dashcams, and the video quality is surprisingly good especially for the price. Sound is universally rubbish though. I bought this a year ago: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/310752336819?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649here's some sample videos (click the settings and put it into 1080p mode) At night it takes much better video than my £500 DSLR!
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Is it a springy flap type? They are easy enough to repair. Pop the black cover off, then put a bit of a kink in the wiper so that the contact runs on fresh carbon slightly closer to the pivot. If the carbon looks OK and you are having flat spots you can try and gently clean it. www.gomog.com/articles/EFIflap.html
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Last Edit: Mar 4, 2015 22:38:31 GMT by cobblers
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Feb 26, 2015 21:39:26 GMT
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They are all shout and no trousers IMO, I've got one and tried to find a use for it, but other than the final dressing of welds right in tight corners (which would be better done with a proper die grinder) they are no use for bodywork at all. In fact as a general "DIY" tool they're mediocre at everything really.
If you are cutting a straight line they are hilariously slow, hard to keep a decent line, cumbersome and go through disks like nobodies business, just use a slitting disk in a grinder. If you need a tight internal radius just use a slitting disk to get close, eek a bit closer by grinding it then finish with a file by hand to get it perfect. If you need a small hole, drill it and file out by hand. Again, much quicker and more accurate than a dremel.
One thing to add though, if you are just wanting to cut things out delicately and put in small patches here and there, then you will just make your life harder in the long run. Just bite the bullet and cut out big chunks and the repair will end up better and longer lasting.
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Last Edit: Feb 26, 2015 21:41:28 GMT by cobblers
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Feb 18, 2015 22:33:35 GMT
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Drop in LED headlamp bulbs are absolutely useless at the moment. The cheaper ones (Sub £30) aren't anywhere near powerful enough to be used as anything more than marker lights, and the more expensive ones with the fans hanging off the back still aren't as bright as HIDS but have all the problems of curse word beam pattern due to the geometry of the light source being completely different.
If you just want to reduce the strain on your switches and wiring, just adding some relays drawing power directly from the battery (or alternator on a Mini) will do that, and most likely improve the brightness of your existing bulbs substantially by making sure they have a full 13.xV instead of 10 or 11v that they will be getting at the moment.
You can buy 7" light units you can buy proper full projector lamps that will take a HID bulb and give a decent beam pattern if that's a route you want to go down, but at the moment LEDs are not usable unless in dedicated housings.
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You're out of luck as far as slamming it goes! there's not enough suspension travel or room in the arches to get them properly low. I spent months cutting the arches out and fitting airbags to a mates van, but even when lowered so the wheels won't go round and the steering arms are being bent up against the chassis rails they aren't actually all that low. The top of the wheels here are sat hard on the top of the front tubs and the front wishbones would have pushed the seats up an inch on a stock van! ![](http://jonoxspring.com/img/images/forum/DSC08895.JPG) The lowest front springs I have found are the cheapo ebay "german red" ones. They are a bit soft though, and you will definitely need shortened dampers to make it anywhere near driveable. I have them on mine but I will probably get a set of brickwerks AVO -70s which are higher but drive nicer. They rears that come with the kit are too high even on a panel van so on a doka they would be way high. ![](http://i.imgur.com/nMyqw.jpg) The lowest I've found for the back are some rear "coilovers" for a t4 used without the adjuster ring, but they were too stiff and I was always spinning the rear wheels. People fit BMW e30/e36 lowering springs on the rear but they are not really up to taking any kind of weight, it's not ideal but I suppose it depends on how you are using the van. I presume you know the T4 wheels will need the center bore machining out before you band them? There are a lot of merc wheels (Vito IIRC) which are a better offset to start with and have a bigger center bore to fit over t25 hubs.
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Last Edit: Feb 3, 2015 21:47:23 GMT by cobblers
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If you are going to replace bushes, don't put anything other than OE stuff on it. The cheap curse word from EuroCarPrats/GSF is barely fit for purpose and will only last a year. Rear axle bushes are (if I remember right) the same design as mk3 golf which definitely wear over time and make the car wander. They are a swine to change though, as you really need to take the axle off the car and press replacements in.
Front wishbone bushes are straightforward enough, just buy replacement wishbones with them already in and bolt up.
I wouldn't recommend putting poly bushes on, True, they are easier to fit but there is little or no consideration to NVH when they are designed/made, so you will almost certainly end up with increased road noise. A lot of them don't last anywhere near the claimed eleventy million years either, again because of poor design.
it's bound to be due a set of dampers by now, Bilstein stuff is good value IMO. The springs will be fine. Once you've done all that you'll need to get the camber and tracking set up on the front - the hub-strut mounting bolt holes are slotted and allow a fair bit of adjustment. There is no adjustment on the rear.
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Jan 28, 2015 19:22:42 GMT
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Is there a load of curse word in the tank getting sloshed around when you fill up and blocking the strainer?
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Jan 27, 2015 20:18:48 GMT
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If it drives fine for 70 miles I wouldn't suspect the headgasket, more like a slightly stuck open thermostat not allowing the engine to warm enough to boil the combustion condensation out of the oil
Don't worry about the HG until you see mayo on the dipstick IMO.
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Jan 27, 2015 19:42:41 GMT
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Yup, we use those connectors at work. If I remember right, it's just the dies to fit into the tool that are £200. The rest of the tool is £1k+ In a pinch you "can" crimp them by hand but it's not something I would consider doing other than for repairing one or two wires, it's not reliable enough.
Depending on how many pins you need, consider using AMP/TE connectivity circular military connectors, they go up to about 40 pins IIRC. They are solder cup, so you don't need a crimper, but they are hard to seal the wire side of so maybe not ideal, it depends on what use the car will get. I wouldn't use them on a daily all winter, but in practice they are used on the gearboxes of almost every bus for the last 30 years.
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Jan 27, 2015 17:39:36 GMT
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In practice your splicing method will probably actually be slightly better than OE, so I'm sure you'll be fine. The wire diameter used for sensors from the factory is dictated by physical strength more than current handling, really so there's plenty of headroom, and running them individually right up to the ECU will actually improve things. Just make sure that stuff like crank/cam sensors etc continue to use twisted pairs or shielded wires if they do from stock.
Running two thinner wires in parallel to increase current handling works fine electrically, but in practice it's not ideal. For example, if you have a circuit fused at 15A, and use two "10A" wires to handle the current there is no problem. The issue is that if the loom is damaged (perhaps a chafe through the insulation on an steel edge) it's more than likely that just one wire of the pair will get shorted out, so you'll end up with the wire burning out instead of the fuse going.
Also, if one wire breaks/falls out of the connector etc etc, the other will bear the full current.
Ideally you need to fuse lower than the weakest wire on the circuit, irrespective of how it is connected. In practice a lot of stuff doesn't work like this, but if at all possible you must.
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Jan 26, 2015 20:04:09 GMT
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Sensors use almost zero current, so from a safety perspective, generally you should be OK to just tie into the same wire.
Depending on the sensor, they can be affected by any slight voltage drop on the ground wire so ideally you would keep the layout of the wires the same unless you really know what you are doing. It's unlikely to cause problems, but if it does they will do your head in and be impossible to diagnose.
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Jan 25, 2015 11:09:59 GMT
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IIRC this was just a roll pin that needed knocking out with a drift on my mini. There's a good chance its the same arrangement on an Allegro
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Jan 24, 2015 23:07:31 GMT
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Ahh curse word! Too late! I've been looking for somewhere tidy and secure for a while, I need somewhere to store my T25 camper and to do some electronic research occasionally as I've got no offroad parking and I need somewhere to tinker with laptops attached to cars, plus the occasional few repair jobs on my own motors etc.
Again, let me know if anything comes up because it sounds absolutely ideal.
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Last Edit: Jan 24, 2015 23:11:13 GMT by cobblers
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Jan 11, 2015 13:29:27 GMT
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A mate of mine does a similar repair fairly often on some modern vehicle I forget which.
He uses the same kit, but before he starts the job he drops the piston to BDC with both valves closed and fills the bore with grease from a grease gun which catches any bits of swarf and the "tang" right at the top of the bore.
Once the helicoil is fitted, he winds the engine over by hand which pumps the grease and any debris out of the plug hole. He uses a glug of engine oil down the bore to soften any grease that is left before winding the engine over on the starter a few times with the plug out before reassembling.
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Try them with the spacers if you have them first and if they fit then problem solved? or am I missing something?
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They're fine providing you have proper spigot location to line the wheel up.
You need to check that the bolt holes in the wheel are large enough and they are a conical seat. A lot of 4x4" stuff is for minis etc which tend to use sleeve nuts lo locate and will have a flat seat rather than 60" taper. Mini studs are really skinny so the bolt holes are usually tiny, so theres a good chance you won't have enough room to get the bolts through, let alone have enough space to allow the misalignment.
Also check that the wheel actually has a properly machined center bore to locate the wheel, a lot of 4x4" stuff doesn't.
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Last Edit: Jan 1, 2015 10:24:28 GMT by cobblers
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Dec 30, 2014 17:26:21 GMT
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Is there a spark to be seen? The coilpacks are really common as well. Cheap to buy and universal across mid 90s VW stuff.
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Dec 30, 2014 16:01:32 GMT
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The temp sensor is common to go on these, it causes the engine to run very rich and overfuel til it soaks the plugs and causes the vehicle to not start when warm. Cold starts are suually OK.
It's a sensor on the passenger side of the cylinder head, usually 4 pin connector and usually Blue or Green, but I can't 100% remember. Unplug it, then hold your foot flat on the floor and turn the engine over for 10 seconds, then try and start as normal (leaving it unplugged).
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Dec 30, 2014 11:18:21 GMT
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The overall volume of the box as well as the arrangement of dimensions all play a part in deciding which frequencies it will effectively "dampen" and which it will resonate at. I won't pretend to even nearly know the exact science of it which is why I reckon it's best to stick with a box similar to the original. But yes, a smaller box will absorb less and give more noise. However it's resonant frequency will be higher so there is a chance it will react with the rest of the system and leave you with a rasp or drone at certain RPM.
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Dec 30, 2014 10:31:51 GMT
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A middle box will definitely take the edge off things. I had a similar system on a MK2 golf, where the previous owner had removed the center box and it was absolutely stupidly offensively loud, even on idle. I put one back in, just what I found for sale cheap at an autojumble and it made a huge difference for what was only quite a small box. The original center box on your system would have been an absorption type (the ones you can see through that have a steel mesh tube surrounded by wadding). Ideally you want to get it as similar overall dimensions to the original as possible so that the resonant frequency is similar to design, but in practice you'll probably get away with whatever fits. MIJ exhaust on ebay do custom sized clamp on boxes for maybe £40-50 quid www.ebay.co.uk/itm/High-Grade-Stainless-Exhaust-Silencer-Box-4-5-6-Body-1-75-2-2-25-2-5-3-Inlet-/231404659787?pt=UK_SportingGoods_OtherSports&var=&hash=item35e0cae44b
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