Sev

It's not clear to me how this applies to collectors/restorers correctly using SORN, as it first states: Then Does that mean "you will not get a letter because you will be exempt from the new law", or "you will not get a letter initially, because they will be trying to catch drivers of non-SORN vehicles first" :confused:

If you're happy with steel wheels then fine. But by your rationale, aren't wheel trims also "unecessary and expensive add on's"? A humble steel wheel can look fine anyway if it's not dented or corroded and if the paint's intact. They're often lighter than most of the cheaply made budget alloy wheels out there too. But why then decorate it with non-functional plastic designed to impersonate alloy wheels? Especially if then detracting from the potential visual improvement by cable tieing it in place. Agreed, either illegal, or there should be a fixed penalty for cruising along with wheel trims which aren't properly secure all round. Say, 6 points on your license and £1000 fine?

Sounds like the window regulator clips then. The older clips were plastic and after several years go brittle and crack. Tends to happen at the most annoying time of year, because when it's coldest the plastic is most brittle, and made worse if you sit there repeatedly trying to open a stuck frozen window. There was later a metal clip that replaced these, which don't suffer the same problem, and VW used to replace these free if your car was less than 6 years old, am sure yours is much older than this now though so you'd have to pay for the repair kit. You could probably still get VW Customer Services to cough up some money on an older car as it's a common fault, but unless you've got full VW service history they probably won't want to know. It sounds like you've got away with yours not fully breaking yet, but don't be complacent, they will. Fo shizzle. Best keep a roll of duct tape / gaffer tape / carpet tape in the car ready in case it goes when you're out and about and need to tape the window shut to get home warm/dry, and whatever screwdrivers needed to remove the door card in case the glass drops all the way down. When it does go, this is how to fix it properly: http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1015107&postid=9506802#9506802 And here's a link to someone that usually sells the repair kit cheaper than the dealers, parts needed will be different depending upon whether it's for a 3-door or a 5-door car: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/VW-Teesside/Window-Regulator-Repair-Guide.html If/when you do need to get it fixed I wouldn't recommend using parts from a scrappy for this, unless you can see that they're the new metal type clips, otherwise they'll break too and you'll go through it all again. As for removing the seat, it's pretty straightforward, as per the top of this guide: http://uk-mkivs.net/forums/p/173654/1137505.aspx#1137505 or this one which has lots of nice pictures for you: http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=4167663 (ignoring the parts about rear seats and differences between seat types if you're swapping them). Just remember to disconnect the battery for 30mins before disconnecting the airbag plug under the seat, to avoid getting an airbag warning on your dash which you won't be able to get rid of without diagnostic tools.

For wireless sync with home collection you're talking serious amounts of time and/or money, and really means a car-pc for the flexibility you're talking about. I use a 2.5" USB drive setup on a half-decent stereo and this works well for me. Beware that the USB socket on that Sony you linked to is a front-input one, not a rear input, so won't really do the job you want, you'd end up with a lead sticking out of the front of the faceplate waiting to be snagged and broken. I wouldn't personally go with Sony for car-audio anyway, not that I've used one for years, so they might have got better, but I'd recommend Pioneer, followed by Kenwood and Alpine. http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/ and http://caraudiosecurity.com/ are good dealers and http://www.ukpassats.co.uk/ is a good place to start if you have questions relating specifically to the Passat, as is the info on http://www.nexxia.co.uk/Car_Stereo_fitting_kits/volkswagen/passat.htm (you don't actually need the harness adaptor though if mine and Saintoli's advice is followed, saving you money as well as making it easier to squeeze all the wiring back in when you fit it). You could get a single-DIN size blanking plate (which is usually taken to mean a cover), or better a 'cubby hole' (dash pocket / storage tray / whatever you want to call it). You can get a generic DIN cubby hole from Halfords, however the proper VW part will fit the locating lugs in your dash a bit better, so you might want one of these if you're fussy. Saintoli is correct about the permanent live and ignition live wires needing to be swapped on the new stereo's loom (on any head unit bought in the last decade there should be bullet connectors aready in place to allow you to swap these easily). I've got a spare sitting around that you could have but it would depend whether you wanted the stereo in the top slot or the cubbyhole in the top slot. The bit about removing the blue wire from the stereo connector is also true (although you don't need to cut any cables, you can leave the red wire in the car's connector block and remove the blue wire from the stereo's connector block). You'll also need to remove any wire from the stereo connector that goes to the location of the grey+white diagnostic wire next to this on the car's connector. If you want to retain decent radio reception you'll also need an aerial power supply adaptor such as the PC5-90 in the nexxia link above, this is because the VW aerial has an amplifier built into its base, and the factory stereo supplies 12V down the aerial cable, but an aftermarket one won't. You won't be able to get MW stations or weaker FM signals unless you use one of these. Is your factory stereo the retro-looking "Gamma" radio-cassette? And do you have steering-wheel controls that you'll be wanting to keep? I've done this all before (although closest being a Bora not a Passat) and have the necessary tools so give me a shout if you want a hand. Coincidentally I was planning to get in touch with you about php rates anyway... As for the USB stuff, beware of older USB units that could only support smaller size flash drives at the time. Newer models from the last couple of years should support FAT32 on larger flash drives and up to 2.5" hard drives. You may also want to check the tech specs for whatever one you consider buying, against the size/structure of your music collection, because most will theoretically support eg a 160GB drive, but then will only be capable of accessing eg the first 4000 files or 500 folders etc, meaning you oly get to use ~30GB if you're using 192kbps MP3s (figures plucked out of the air but they shouldn't be far off). So make sure you're happy with the limitations before you buy. It's worth bearing this in mind if you're considering going down the 2.5" drive route, as are both of the following: - use a drive with some kind of anti-shock design, as most hard drives aren't really designed for use whilst driving over bumps at speed - you may have problems with some combinations of stereo + 2.5" drive, because some stereos will only put the standard 500mA power through the USB socket, but some 2.5" drives draw more than this in order to spin up, meaning you'll need to use the shortest USB cable possible, and if this still doesn't work then you'll need to wire in additional power (straightforward enough), or try a different drive. I could have asked questions rather than trying to cover all this in one post. But that would mean paying my fiver.

http://uk-mkivs.net/forums/p/56052/425656.aspx#425656

Where was that, out of interest?

Are you hoping for proper ipod control via the Corsa stereo, or will 3.5mm (headphone-style) aux-in socket do you? As Stevo says, unlikely that it will have an aux-in socket on the back, but usually on modern factory head units there will be additional sockets besides the standard speaker+power connections, which are designed for connecting to that manufacturer's CD changers, amplifiers and other optional factory extras/accessories. Occasionally you can buy a 'break-out cable' that will convert one of these into an aux-in socket, if not then you can usually buy an aux-in or ipod adaptor that mimicks having a CD changer connected, that you can use for ipods or aux-in. These are usually ridiculously expensive for what they are though, and you're probably better off investing in a decent stereo if you care enough about what you're listening too. The D shaped things which Stevo spoke of are most probably these sort of din removal tools: I did a similar age Astra for a mate about a year ago, and yes these were the type of removal key required, so yours is probably the same. Vauxhall did change most of their models over in 2004, so an 04 Corsa could be either. Probably worth reading your model number off the front (will be either CDxx or CDxxx), and searching for that on some Corsa forums, rather than reading our assumptions on here though. Don't bother with the bent-up coat-hanger trick, it can work eventually, but for the sake of borrowing them from a mate or 2-3 quid down Halfords, it's not worth the risk of slicing your fingers up and scratching the **** out of your dash and stereo.

I hate to disappoint you, but Stu was still a bit worse for wear, so no wet-fish-slapping took place. There was even leftover food. You got yourself those pink boots yet?

Ok, consider me a yes then, but if it's any less than 4-a-side then I'm turning round and going straight back home!

Maybe

I'd assumed it was just the usual Sunday League trick of not updating your website after a crap result!

Put it up for sale whilst the ants are hibernating. Cunning plan.

Sorry, if I did come I'd have to leave after 45 mins, so no point.

3 games in one weekend might be pushing it, but after a shambles of a game this morning, I might return for a run around. Will let you know later as I've got plans for this evening and need to check if it's going to clash...

Two factors that don't appeared to have been considered in this scenario: - if you bought £108 million worth of tickets, wouldn't the prize fund increase? - even if you can guarantee you've got the winning combination, you can't guarantee how many others get it too.

Do you and Barnes both need lifts?

Due to lack of exercise throughout August, mine seems to be about 4 days, which meant I would have just about been ok for tonight's match had it not been called off, but since it has, I no longer have to have the following argument with the missus over the hundreds of miles I'll be driving this weekend: "My legs are ****ing killing me from football still" - "Let me drive then?" "No thanks, I'd rather take the pain" - "Stop moaning about it then" "Stop changing the music I put on or I'll leave you at the next services..."

Possibly, but if I was would I realise though? I think SRS just agreed with Robsk? Ta, wasn't fishing for a pat on the back tho. For the record, I work in a profession using the qualification I studied, and I never did any of the following when I was a student: - Thinking I was original and hilarious by bringing home traffic cones / roadsigns / shopping trolleys as beer trophies; - Going on protests/rallies whilst knowing next to nothing about the cause it was for; - Strutting around town in "[course/team/halls/uni/nickname] 2000" polo shirts thinking I was the dogs danglies; - Moaned that I couldn't afford something if it was my own fault for spending too much money on nights out, then asking mummy and daddy for additional handouts. Unfortunately the above behaviours were commonplace though. There were, and I assume still are, students capable of having a laugh without being sheep and resorting to such clichés, however these people rarely help to enhance the reputation of the tax-dodging fraternity because nine times out of ten you'll have no reason to suspect they're anything other than ordinary folk out with their mates.

I think you may have a point there. When I was a student it was ****s like Stu describes above that made me embarrassed to be a student, especially at first. Despite doing a geeky course at a predominantly middle class uni, I'd still expected to meet many more 'normal' people who'd had proper mates and some nightlife before going there, instead I was surrounded by middle class mummy's boys who thought they were big time, wetting themselves with their new found freedom. Over time however, I gradually met more and more students that weren't ****s, and some of the ones that acted ****ily in the beginning seemed to grow up and weren't so bad after all either. So I'd agree that it's a bit harsh to tar them all with the same brush. Or maybe they were still ****s but I just got desensitised and eventually became one of them

We were having a well organised, structured training session I'll have you know, not a 'kick about', so nah, that couldn't have been us. Ahem.

I'll be going, so you can swap me from the maybe list.

I should be playing in the morning, but will probably come along anyway as I need the exercise. I'll even put a ball in the boot of my car.

I can no longer make it today.

I could give you a lift there mate, gotta shoot off quickly afterwards though, so you'd need to convince someone else to give you a lift back.

I shall be back this week.