Its been an expensive month!!

[jon_bousfield]

Hi folks. I feel I must start with an apology as although I've been an avid reader of this forum since I got my R a year ago, I haven't plucked up the courage to post!! The entertainment value and info is superb which is why I need your help now please.

After 12 months without a problem, the first big expense came a couple of weeks ago when I had a double puncture (both rears) after having to negotiate a suspect road in a particularly dodgy part of town in the dark. Upshot of this was neither could be repaired & needed replacing & 'you know you've only got 0.4mm of useable tread left on these fronts as well mate' meant it ended up being all four. Went for the Eagle F1 Aysymmetrics after the positive feedback of many on here and can report that 500 miles in and IMHO they're much better than the ContiSport2's I had on previously in both wet & dry.

That £450 was swiftly followed by insurance & tax renewal time so another £1200 odd notes left my wallet.

At the weekend I then managed to have a high speed disagreement with a big rock which flew up and hit the grill cracking a couple of the fins and then the windscreen leaving a nice chip. Windscreen has been sorted by the nice people at Autoglass but the question is whether or not to sort the grill out myself? I don't fancy having my eyes taken out by the Stealer on the labour - so is this a fairly easy job I could do myself? If so part no. plus approx. cost & pointers on how would be appreciated.

The final problem (at least I hope it is cos my bank balance can't cope with any more this month!) was an intermittent grinding type noise from the front far side wheel on the way to work this morning. Car didn't feel any different to usual just the noise. Anyway got to work and called the RAC to make sure I wasn't going to do any damage by driving it again. So sods law then that after a thorough inspection, when we went out for a test drive it wouldn't make the noise and seemed to be cured!!

RAC guy discounted any problem with the tracking, bearings or brake calipers and his best guess was that there might have been a bit of grit between the pad and disc which had now worked its way out. I'm fairly sure this is unrelated to the cracked grill (cos I would have noticed the noise before now) but then I'm a total novice with things mechanical so any logical explanations you fella's can think of would be of interest.

Anyway went for a run out at lunchtime to test the theory and it seems like whatever it was has now gone away so fingers crossed it stays that way.

[Tonsko]

Man, I feel for ya. I had similar - the 40K service, 4 new tyres (also F1's), brake fluid, haldex oil filter etc. etc. To be fair though it's not cost me anything in the last year until that, so it's not too bad.

[burble]

Is it a Mk IV or Mk V you have? I know from when I had to have a new grill for my Mk V (after some twonk reversed into it when it was barely 24 hours old) that the grill is about £240 from VW but, they can't get stock!

When my car went in for repair in early December the bodyshop ordered a grill and it hadn't arrived a month later. Worse was that there was no expected delivery date! I spoke to a load of VW dealers in the UK plus a few I know around Europe and the all told me the same thing - they can order the part but can't say it would would arrive. The dealer in Sweden I spoke to said that they had received one a few weeks ago that had been on order for 4 months.

Luckily I found a brand new one on eBay which I bought and gave to the bodyshop so that I could get the car back. Had I not done that I would quite likely still be without my pride and joy.

[jon_bousfield]

Its a Mk V. Never thought a bit of plastic would be that expensive or that hard to get hold of!! I'd better start saving up.

Is fitting it a job I could do myself? Paying VW labour rates on top of that would wound me to be honest..

[burble]

It's quite a big bit of plastic (see the attachment). I've no idea what it is like to fit but I would expect that the front bumper needs to come off as there are mounting brackets shown on either side of the lower part of the grill and those bits are under the bumper when it is fitted.

[mlhj83]

It's quite a big bit of plastic (see the attachment). I've no idea what it is like to fit but I would expect that the front bumper needs to come off as there are mounting brackets shown on either side of the lower part of the grill and those bits are under the bumper when it is fitted.

No, the bumper does not need to come off. It is very easy to replace the grill once you know the right screws to remove. It takes me less than 10 mins to remove the front grill. Took me 20 when I first tried. Sorry I'm on holiday at the moment and can't take pictures of my car to show you the exact screws.

The pix below correspond to the following instruction sequence:

1)remove 2 screws (red dots) securing each of the side black grills .

2)yank/wiggle out the side black grills with moderate amout of force. Preferably pulling on these areas (red dots). If you do break them, don't worry, they are very cheap parts.

3)Once you have removed the side black grills, remove 8 of the following screws (blue dots).

4)Pull with moderate force on the following areas (green dots), starting from the bottom and working your way up. Remember to squeeze out 2 flexible clips shown here (yellow dots).

[burble]

I stand corrected. Thanks for posting that - I need to remove the grill to my my CF front emblem on and didn't fancy having to arse about with the bumper.

[jon_bousfield]

Nice one. Great info - I think I'll have a stab at that myself.......assuming I can actually get hold of a new grille that is!!

[Sean_H]

Sorry I'm on holiday at the moment and can't take pictures of my car to show you the exact screws.

... Now that is *real* TSN devotion to be posting whilst on holiday!!

[burble]

... Now that is *real* TSN devotion to be posting whilst on holiday!!

Been there, done that