Jim 123

On your sloping driveway can you replicate the creak by gently controlling the roll of the vehicle with the handbrake?

Service Schedule list is also available in the Owners Handbook, which can be downloaded from the CC website as a PDF.

I did oil and filter on my 270 self build at 1000 miles. It sounds like you are getting your dealer to do the 1,000 miler, if not, I can give you part numbers and sources for the Ford filter, sump washer, and filter removal tool which prevents an awful lot of swearing.

Have you tried dosing the bolt with lots of WD40 and leaving to soak so that it penetrates down into the thread (not easy with the wing in place). Then using a a mole wrench try to pull the bolt head outward whist turning anti clockwise. You will need to push the skin around the rivnut inward at the same time to encourage some compression bite. An extra pair of hands might just bring some luck. Anecdotally I have heard that you can reseat a blind rivnut if you can get a length of threaded steel into the hole with the threads loosely engaged, and then tighten up a washer and bolt on the thread from the outside which recompresses the fixing. Never tried it myself.

If you are uncomfortable about mechanical sanding you may want to try a paint stripper. Frosts do a product called Eastwood DeKote which claims to remove powder.

Kingsley do you get fuel spillage from the petrol cap with the flap removed under acceleration or during left handers on a fullish tank?

Lots of Waxoil or any other cavity protector that sets reasonably firm. I found that a basic £5 pump action oil can with a fine nozzle is pretty good for shooting lots of Waxoil into each hole.

There's a really good article on the sevenracing.co.uk website. If you go to the Build Diary for December 2012 the feature describes "setting the driving position and pedals".

No direct experience. Unfortunately a black gloss body colour is probably the worst for showing any surface imperfections. With the exceptions of the ding to the front of the bonnet catch and the loss of linearity on the skin horizontal to the rear of the catch, the other distortions look largely inevitable unless labour costs and repair time were no object. During the repair were all of the side skin fixings removed top and bottom as far back as the dashboard area?

Whilst I stand to be corrected, it looks like the lower wishbone will need to come off. You may get the old bush hacked out in situ, but I'd suspect that the new bush will need a press / a lot of force to get into position. Looking at your photo, it's not clear but do you have a large washer between the rear of the bush and the chassis?

Thanks for sharing the link Jonathan. I've just got to have one of these 2 - 24 Nm wrenches for my Toybox!

With the exception of the rear hub nuts that require an eye watering 270Nm torque during build, everything else sits below 81Nm. You may want to have a look at the Build Manual (around page 186) and spec a torque wrench that fits with what you would envisage you will need. I have a calibrated Draper 30 Nm to 210 Nm which deals with most suspension, wheel nuts, and and A Frame attention. It has a long lever arm which is great at higher torque setting. But a word of caution, for many under bonnet tinkering type jobs, that wrench is just too long given the restricted access. Also there are many jobs, such as sump plug etc. where you will want to set torques below 30Nm and have something that is short, light, and easy to manipulate. I use a short Draper 10 Nm to 80 Nm for this type of work and it gets regular use..

Re my original posting, photos of the vehicle are on the following link at a new price of £9200. https://www.gumtree.com/p/volkswagen/2014-vw-golf-bluemotion-with-16-months-vw-warranty-in-outstanding-condition/1268727840 1.6 BlueMotion 3 Door Mk7. Kept in immaculate condition throughout. With Manufacturer's Warranty until late Jan 2019. £ Zero Annual Road Tax. 26,000 miles.and complete Dealer Service History. The fuel consumption on this model is outstanding. Metallic Silver; Alloys; DAB Radio/CD; Factory fitted Alarm; Full size Spare Wheel and Toolkit.

Nick I on mine the nut is welded to the hood stick inner tube to hold it in position. If your's is not maybe a pair of long nosed pliers will get the thread started?

Good point Chris. I'm playing around with adjustments. The idea behind my post was primarily to give people a heads up that they may have the belt rubbing and wearing although all seems good when you look at the clearance and see a gap between the Tensioner and Column.

The following may be worth keeping an eye on.......... In the 270S S3 chassis, the gap clearance between the Auxiliary Drive Belt Tensioner and the Steering Column can be very tight. The other day I thought I heard the very faintest of squeaks at idle coming from the engine. Visual inspection showed the gap between the Drive Belt Tensioner Body and the Steering Col looked OK as always, with a god few m.m. clear space along the body of the Tensioner and the Steering Col. Closer examination further forward showed that the Aux Belt was rubbing (and wearing) on the Steering Col. With my lousy eyesight it did not look like this was the case, and the tell tale was a light ring that had started to polish on the Steering Col surface. It looks to me that the Auxilary Drive Belt has stretched a little, and the tensioner, in doing it's job, has brought the belt into contact with the Column. The factory torque spec for the Steering Rack Clamp Bolts at 11Nm may also have allowed a bit of movement in the position of the Column. All now fixed and squeak free, but I thought it may be worth mentioning to avert unanticipated blat curtailment for others.

Mat if you can get your hands on a load leveller as well you'll find this really helps when dropping the engine in.

Whilst it's not over critical for road use, both wheels should be the same and with a spec of 1 degree 20 minutes negative camber that is pretty fine. Your photos imply it may be worth a bit of a cross check. It could just be chassis symmetry is needing to be accommodated at the ball joints.

The Manual says for initial road use set up there should be 8 threads showing to protrude beyond the ball joint locknuts each side.

Thanks John just read the OP again. On my build I put a temporary short bolt in the LH side which was the same diameter as the mounting bolt. The mounting bolt slipped in easily from the right displacing my temporary fixing on the LH side without the need of hammer.

If you draw the problem bolt as far to the left as you can and then get your Dremel out again, will that mean that the remaining length of bolt is short enough to sit within the innermost faces of both metalastic bushes,and allow you to drop the diff, if you drift the remainder back to the centre? An alternative might be to get a short length of bolt that is the same diameter as the mounting bolt and pass this in from the right hand side until it meets with the current problem bolt. Then try to drift the problem bolt back out to the right. With a bit of luck you may get a clean re-entry of the problem bolt back into the right hand metalastic. In both cases the diff will need to be aligned and supported by a jack/platform. Best of luck.

Later spec cars have heat resistant mat along the transmission tunnel and bulkheads. I think Caterham supply pre cut panels. In my opinion this does a good job having covered many miles in Spanish summer weather.

I checked my Sigma this morning. Brake lights only work with ignition on.

I would guess that the area in question is where the aluminium sheet is cut to be folded around the chassis tubes on the wheel arch bow and the horizontal door sill. After the rivets go in, a narrow butt joint would remain and have to be filled with solder and smoothed off I suspect. Does the reverse side of the dislodged chunk look like smooth sheet ally or a plug of solder that may have been filling a larger than expected gap? If the crack is propagating you may need to drill a small hole at the head of the crack and then get the area prepped and filled with solder.

Are the hub bearings on both sides seated the same distance inside in their carriers. Also from memory the LH Drive shaft is the shorter of the two which may be worth a check. Is it worth attempting to simulate assembly with the De Dion, hubs, and drive shafts on a bench. You might see something on the bench that isn't apparent from the standard swearing position on the garage floor.