Belt change is easy once you have removed the engine mount and lower crank pulley bolt , which is on extremely tight, it took me about 1.5 hours to change the single cam belt and that was with a new pump and a few cups of tea. On the twin cam you don't even need to remove the cam cover as the timing...

Driving in D3 should have no detrimental affect on the car whatsoever, I used to often leave mine in D3 if i was in traffic and while going up steep hills of which there are many where I live I would keep it in 2. I sounds like sticking clutch plates or worn plates, but if it was worn clutch plates ...

Try leaving it in D3 and drive it like that for a while, including high speed trips like on dual carriage ways, also put it in 2 every so often but not above 40mph, My old 416 was apparently not pulling away in 1st but after doing the above and giving it a good thrashing it now works better than eve...

Its almost certain that it will be the igniter inside the distributor, they are about £20, it takes about 30 min to fit, failing that it might be the brown fuel pump relay behind the center console, can you here a click when you turn the ignition on?, then a second click as the check light goes off,...

I'll try and get to this, I would have made the trip up to a meeting but I'm in Crewe all weekend, I could have my 416 Gsi available for it.

When is the show this year?

The Handbrake work perfectly, now I have noticed over the past few weeks that sometimes when the pedal is pressed it would drop a further inch or so, while there's pressure on it and that was before the pads and discs were changed. The pedal does firm up when the engine is off but it does sink slowl...

Thanks for the reply's, I've bled the brakes to an inch of their lives and still no difference, I've got a replacement master cylinder which I'm going to try when it eventually stops raining.

After changing my discs and pads I now have a brake peddle that goes half way down before it slows the car down, I suspect a failing master cylinder, does anyone know where I can get a re build kit or a very reasonable priced new item from, oh its 1993 416 non ABS model.

Thanks.

Fantastic article, it's more right ups like this we need