My S2 coupe bit of a rebuild and repair thread.

[K Simmonds]

Thanks John it must be shorting out incorrectly through the holder, so it getting live rather than natural. It's the most likely place to start looking, and could save me a massive amount of time not having to rip out the console again.

Kit Tuesday is fine, as I say I'm not in a rush. These are all jobs to be ticked off the growing list. This car should be ready by Christmas, as everything I touch just adds another job to the list

Cool, well I'll put the jack screw into your growing parts package, see what else you need might need tomorrow, I have the most obscure of Coupe bits left over and having to try and find stuff is good for me as I tend to find other stuff I'm half looking for or have totally forgotten I have, often of significant value. Unlike IT which instantly enrages me, if I can't find something I'll just give up, might sigh a touch but nothing will get broken.

I don't like being told what to do by machines simple. I can barely order a McDonalds' without spazzing out, first time I had use one of those sodding consoles I literally had a panic attack and had to exit the premises immediately, then send a mate back in to get my order. Oh the joy's of being a Luddite with severe anxiety.

Wish I knew where my air-con stuff is, not just to help you, I really want know where to locate it. Problem is while I was totally broken my farther and the sparky had to shift stuff about down there, which is totally fair enough, but now I don't know where anything in the attic is. However, my arms are a fair bit stronger than when I last tried to have a look so I'll have a poke about up there tomorrow. I'm going be in the workshop rebuilding a K-jet warm up regulator for someone first thing in the morning anyway.

[B5NUT]

Thanks John it must be shorting out incorrectly through the holder, so it getting live rather than natural. It's the most likely place to start looking, and could save me a massive amount of time not having to rip out the console again.

Kit Tuesday is fine, as I say I'm not in a rush. These are all jobs to be ticked off the growing list. This car should be ready by Christmas, as everything I touch just adds another job to the list

[newsh]

That would make sense John, the bulb is duel polarity so it could probably find earth back through the positive which the headlight switch then cancels. Definitely the first place to look.

Or could be a bad ground coupled with carbonised fag ash

[K Simmonds]

Cig lighter light, ISTR the body of the lighter or one of the contacts can be moved so that the power to the cig lighter shorts to the bulb contact, cig lighter power is connected straight to battery, I plug my trickle charger into it.
Worth a look anyway.

That would make sense John, the bulb is duel polarity so it could probably find earth back through the positive which the headlight switch then cancels. Definitely the first place to look.

[newsh]

Just a thought.
The little bodge loom extensions, were they running to the cig lighter? Maybe they were to fix the issue of the light on all the time?

[K Simmonds]

LOL, I'm not sure if they do it in pot's to mix up mate, the aerosols are excellent, nothing like the rubbish from Halfords etc... Best bet is to see if the address on the can is current as it's probably ten years old and get in touch with them. I'd have faith in it working perfectly though, used some a couple of years ago and clean the nozzle properly afterwards. The tins 3/4's full still, it'll probably last me for life unless it corrodes through, that's going make one fantastic mess when it does go.

Had a tin of lacquer go pop last year, thankfully by chance I'd smelt something afoot out there, spotted the rusty tin in my box of aerosols and taken it outside, when upon being disturbed it promptly decided then was the moment to let go, killed some grass but otherwise I got off very lightly. Though I required an immediate shower and it's very lucky I wear glasses.

I don't see why I couldn't part with the jack screw I have as I very, very rarely use it and I'm sure I've probably got at least another two hiding in my conservatory alone, never mind the boxes and boxes of parts in the attic in my workshop. Sometime I simply use a bolt anyway, it's just happens to be living there currently.

Have found those clips for you, you can have a couple if you want.

Am going to be posting on Tuesday morning if that's okay with you as I have to go to the nearest little town to do a couple of errands and they have a proper post office as opposed to a crappy unreliable van. Who knows what other little odds and sod's you might find you need tomorrow, I literally have all the trim clips and screws etc from at least two Coupes left over having broken several as well three 80's, a couple of Corrado's/Scirroco's and I've honestly lost count of the MK2 Golfs...

[newsh]

Cig lighter light, ISTR the body of the lighter or one of the contacts can be moved so that the power to the cig lighter shorts to the bulb contact, cig lighter power is connected straight to battery, I plug my trickle charger into it.
Worth a look anyway.

Jack goes in a recess behind the spare wheel.

I see Kit got there already!

[B5NUT]

Do you know if they sell that in tin's so you can use your own spray gun's? My pet hate is rattle cans I can never get a good finish out of them. Plus why use some simple like an aerosol when you can spend time sorting out the compressor, making sure the moisture traps are empty, setting the pressure, sorting out the airlines, mixing the paint, setting the flow and fan on the gun, cleaning the gun out and finally draining the air & water. All for one simple spray job. I really should learn to use an aerosol

Forums are good and I much prefer them over FB groups. Think far too much good information is lost in FB groups as they are usually private and you have to joint to get access to them so the data never appears on a google search.

So I don't have the screw that holds the jack in place, anyone got one of these for sale?
1-scre.jpg

[K Simmonds]

This is the stuff I use to re-black trim parts that won't respond to heat etc...

That wing look pretty good, it's pretty much impossible to match metallic finishes perfectly without blowing paint and lacquer on to adjoining panels so I'd be quite happy with that.


Sent from my SM-A115F using Tapatalk

[K Simmonds]

I guess it takes a certain type of person to go to the trouble of looking after these cars properly, that's why I like Forums so much, I enjoy helping others as well as learning stuff myself, and one never quite finishes learning.

I can help with a couple of your questions...

The jack is fixed to the cars body, through a slot in the body of jack, behind the spare wheel with a long (roughly 75mm) M6 threaded bolt with a fairly large plastic head that designed to be turned by hand. I have one I use on my home trolley jack to fit the handle extension I could take a pic of if your stuck.

Can't help with anything to do with warning triangle or boot carpet as that was all long gone or ruined on my car and got binned with a lot of other stuff... My 3B ended up weighing 1350 KG's with nearly a full tank of fuel, in hindsight combined with full RS2+ spec this really was quite silly, but a lot of fun.

The paint you require for re-blacking the bumper grills is called 'Huttons Trim & Bumper Colour', it's a trade product and it's fantastic for this sort of thing, though no doubt there's other ways of doing it.

Tristan introduced me to it as he used it with great success on various parts of his turbo MK2 Scirroco that wouldn't respond to other treatments. I'm looking at a tin of it at the moment as it currently lives in my conservatory and I had to dig it out to remember it's name. Tell you what, I'll post a pic of that in a moment for you.

[B5NUT]

Only other thing I did today was to polish the wing I painted a few months back, The colour match is not too bad. Note that the rest of the car is dirty, it's never been washed since I got it! So it need a wash, full clay bar, machine polish and finally a ceramic coating. Not doing any of that until I know the leaks on the car are fixed.

1-wing.jpg
2-wing.jpg
3-wing.jpg

[B5NUT]

My post are most likely the same, as these cars are 25+ years old people will have seen everything I've done a hundred time before. Maybe some of my fixes or idea's are newish but most will be very old hat. I'll try and have a go at everything, but at some point the cost of the tools become too much for a one off fix. Would love to get some tracking tools be with not having a level drive it kind of pointless unless I have some custom stand made to level my car out.

So I have a few more questions I hope someone can answer.

Anyone know where the jack fits in the boot on the coupe? There looks to be a fitting location near where the spare wheel goes, but for the life of me I cannot remember where I got it from and how (if at all) it's fixed to the car.
1-jack.jpg

Also is this correct for the boot floor, found this loop of plastic and there is a slot in the floor of the boot so you can access the warning triangle
2-correct.jpg
Finally what have people done with the front plastic grills on the bumper. Ones on my S2 are almost white. Tried the heat gun trick but that did not work, and some back to black chemicals but again did not really make much difference. Thinking about painting them in a plastic primer and then 2K satin top coat.

3-front.jpg

[K Simmonds]

Cool, the main reason I felt I might need to say something is that it has been pointed out to me by my folks that sometimes I can come across as a bit of a know it all, this is not intentional, far from it. It's actually a side effect of my mental state, I can get bit OCD about stuff.

I like the two bit's of plastic with grease in between idea, that's good thinking, will probably do that myself in future if needs be.

Dave's method is also good, maybe not quite so accurate but much less hassle, he's made me think some tweaks I could make to my method that'll improve it, not going bore everyone with that now as it does start getting quite complicated and it sounds like you'll be able get it somewhere near anyway.

To be fair to VW I took my first couple of cars (MK2 Golfs & Scirroco's) to South Hereford Garages to have my alignment done and they always did a great job, got a proper print out the lot for £40, but that was expensive back then. Still, a MK2 Scirroco is a fair bit of work due the way the camber is adjusted with a cam washer each side of the top strut bolt, fair play they always set my cars up just right. However, God knows what they would charge now and I have no idea what your local dealer will be like, I guess the first thing to do is phone them and ask how much it's going to cost and if they're even prepared to do it.

I put an OBDII port in the lower shelf very like you've done, much easier on a 3B as that's roughly where the 2x2 connection's are anyway, save's having to fanny about with the adaptor cables every time you want to pull the codes.

[B5NUT]

Little mod done today. Taken the mod from another forum member who also hated the 2x2 connectors under the bonnet for diagnostic. Also sure this has been done many time by other forum members.

Started off by cutting the power end of the 2x2 connector, for the data plug I'm going to use the clamped terminals in the fuse box.

Got the OBD connector from ebay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/182121455551 MOLEX 51116-1601 Wire-To-Board Connector, OBD-II 51116 Series

Made up a harness with 4 wires and enough cable to easily lower the trim panel.
1-harness.jpg
As I don't want to hack into the cars harness in any way, power was taken from the black 2x2 connector and data from the two terminals. I could have done the same trick with the data plug but there is not much room in there, so felt this was neat enough solution.
2-connect.jpg

There is a nice little place on the trim panel to secure the OBD port.
3-port.jpg

Also the hole is already cut out. Not sure if this hole is intended for a footwell light or an OBD port originally.
4-hole.jpg

So far this is the extent to my modifications to the S2.

[B5NUT]

Thanks under the car is tricky as I would struggle to get it high enough. It's raised at the moment but at the front my nose rubs against the chassis so my head has to be sideward and any adjustment would be difficult to say the least.

I also don't have a digital measure. The WV dealership that I get some of my parts from is just around the corner from my house, so I'm tempted to take it there.. it's just a question of weather I trust them enough, and the cost involved..