SteveW

Mine lasted 6 years so nearly there, had to replace it last year. Got a Varta gold top I think. Good battery.

I can recommend the Megs metal polish works a treat, half did mine the other day

Well its a fairly simple question as I can't make my mind up and have found loads of recommendations for both of these by searching the brakes forum. So what are people's opinions? Best prices I can find on the internet are: PF-01 for £260 DS2500 for £183 I have been using yellowstuffs and think that for the cash they are an excellent pad. Really good bite from cold and can nearly last a full 10 - 12 minute session on the track, usually start to fade after 7 mins but the torque capability reduces as they get hotter lap by lap so initial bite drops. I do about 3 - 5 track days a year and a trip to the ring as well as some spirited country lane driving. My current set up is: EBC turbogrooves (to be changed for DBA when they die) EBC yellowstuffs (dead) HEL lines Brembo Calipers (OE type) Thoughts? Thanks Steve

So let me get this right (don't want to make them lower after all).......if I'm performing this alteration whilst standing leaning into the bonnet over the front bumper, facing towards the windscreen.....the bolt must be turned 1.5-2.0 turns clockwise? If you are stood at the front leaning over the bumper you would turn the spanner to the left i.e anti-clockwise. I did mine from the side of the car looking towards the front bumper thus turned the spanner to the right i.e. clockwise. HTH

Well winter is coming around again, cold nights, rain, wind, darkness and lots of dipped headlight driving. Well we all know how rubbish the dipped headlights are due to their height setting so here is a guide on how to raise the throw of your dipped headlights so you can see better where you are going. This may have been posted before but here it is anyway: Example is based upon the passenger light but it is virtually the same for the drivers light. 1) Pop the hood 2) Look at your light and just above halfway down on the inside edge this is the adjustor: 3) Now mark the original position of the 'click wheel' I used a permanent marker 4) Next using either an 8mm spanner (I used an 8mm halfords ratchet spanner) or a thin screwdriver turn the click wheel 1.5 to 2 full turns clockwise. This direction is relevant if you were looking directly at the hexagon of the bolt head it would be anti clockwise if you were stood at the front of the car and looking towards the windscreen. If using a spanner just put it over the head of the bolt. If using a thin screwdriver position it between the teeth on the click wheel and turn. It takes a bit longer if you use the screwdriver method but there isn't much space for a spanner so just use the tools you have. 5) Switch sides and do the same process to the other light. 6) test drive and enjoy being able to see where you are going. For information I have done 2 full turns which I think is the max you want to do. At 2 turns the light pattern gets to about the top of the rear bumper of cars you are following. Don't be one of those annoying drivers who has his lights shining in through the back window on dipped beam, that really gets on my nerves One other point you might want to note is that you may want to put setting back to normal for MOT time the adjustment might fall outside legal limits, you have been warned. As you can see in the second pick I have wrote 2 full turns on the inside of the light so I don't forget how much I've adjusted them by

Hi Mike, Yes you do get some reflection, its not much worse than the OE reflection but to be honest I don't really notice them.

Yes I suppose the orange is a bit love or hate, If I had a car that was another colour than black I would have colour coded them to match the paint. However, seen as black and the interior lights up orange I figured Orange would be a good trade off. The orange I've used is a 3 stage pearl and a right ball ache to work with! Nozzle gets clogged very easily from all the pearl!

Hey Folks, Does anyone know how to dismantle the dash ideally have a guide? I have some rattles which I have pin ponted but need to take off bits of the dash to sort it out but can find no guide in the service manual (hopefully I haven't missed it and am being stupid )or on the internet. Specifically my rattly bits are the two sections at the very end of the dash that meet with the A pillar trims and have the vents with the Z logo in that lead to the door air vent Both rattle like buggars on UK roads and its driving me crackers. I've had a look and a fiddle and can't work out how they come off, I managed to get the Z logo mesh off (Just clipped in). I think a bit of self adhesive felt would sort the rattle if only I could get in! Any ideas anyone? Thank you Steve

^^^^^^^ Yes I find exactly the same. My K1 is permanently bunged up due to the headache inducing noise it gives with them out. With them in I think it is a perfect noise, maybe a touch too drony on the motorway though. I also have had comments at trackdays asking what exhaust I was running and a few people saying I have the best sounding car on track. I the bunged K1 sound.

Next time the sun is shining, if ever, on it I'll try and remeber to get a pic the pearl paint looks even better in the sun!

Thanks mate, I am pretty happy with it Thank you for the info mate but I already knew. I took the button out first before painting it, was hoping it would look OK but not sure yet I might try going for brushed aluminium effect... Thanks mate I think its a trick of the camera or light, you do get a little bit of reflection from the orange on the screen of teh gauges but nowhere near as bad as it looks in the photo. But when its all lit up at nights it looks cool. Yes you have to sand the rough finish away before priming and painting. I think I used P240, into P400, into P600, into P800 and then a quick run over with P2000 wet and dry (all rubbing down done wet) to get it smooth. Also Halfords wet and dry paper is rubbish its not waterproof in the slightest and falls apart in a matter of minutes. In my experience paints4u.co.uk do the best wet and dry. It is awesome. To smooth off the centre console I used wet and dry and a lot of elbow grease! It took 2 hours to rub down the cubby door prior to painting and the rest took even longer. For the pre painiting rub down see above. Afterwards I used the following method for getting the glossy finish: 1) Rub down as described above 2) Wash part thoroughly ensuring no bits of cloth or dust on the part 3) Apply a thin coat of grey plastic primer (should still be able to see the base plastic colour through the primer but only just) 4) Hold upside down whilst it drys to prevent dust and crap getting stuck in the primer 5) When dry apply a thicker coat of primer 6) Again hold upside down until touch dry 7) Leave to cure for 24 hours in a warm environment, I stuck mine on top of the combi boiler 8) Rub down with 2000 grit wet and dry using luke warm water and detergent to get rid of any surface oils 9) Wash thorughly and leave to dry 10) Spray thin coat of paint on top again leaving it so you can just see the primer through. 11) Allow to dry upside down or until touch dry to avoid getting dust stuck in the paint 12) Build up coats of paint in thin layers until you have 3 - 4 coats applied. Now it depends what kind of paint you were using as to next steps. I used pearlescent paint so the next steps are: 13) Allow paint 24 hours to dry and give it a good wash to get rid of any rubbish on the surface. 14) Allow to dry 15) Apply thin coat of laquer 16) Leave to dry 17) Apply thick coat of laquer, make sure not to apply so much that it runs and buggars up all previous hard work. 18) Allow 24 hours to dry in a warm environment 19) Wet rub down the laquer with 2000 grit wet and dry paper until the laquer is flat and doesn't have any 'shiny' high points on the surface. You'll see what I mean as you do it. BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO RUB THROUGH THE LACQUER you will have to start again!!!! 20) Once rub down flat wash thoroughly and then break out the T Cut or rubbing compound again be very careful not to go right through the Lacquer the part will start to become very shiny and the fine scrathches will disappear. 21) Wash part 22) Polish and wax. 23) Install your new shiny bits If you are using a solid colour then you need to wet rub down with 2000 grit wet and dry between coats and after the final coat to get the paint super flat before Laquering. Apart from that its just the same. I haven't used any metallic paints but think I would follow the pealescent instructions for metallic unless anyone else knows differently. I am by no menas a pro and have done all this with rattle cans and no spray booth. Having no spray booth is the biggest pain because dust gets everywhere!!! Alsways give your part a dry wipe right before painting to get any dust off, there will be plenty!

Well after originally painting some parts of the dash board as an update to the interior I was left with what kind of looked half finished Here is what it looked like after round 1 of painting: The cubby door looked a bit stupid...... Well that has now been painted and the update looks 10 times better. Only bad thing is now the button looks stupid so must do something with that. Nearly there tho, thinking some Di Noc Carbon wrap on the button. Sunlight pics (apologies for focus, done on IPhone)

Its a right joke!! Looks like adrian flux are coming up trumps though knocked neraly £100 off sky's quote and lots of extra benefits.

Thats just what I thought mate!!! Another way they screw us over!

Hmmm another interesting thing I have just found out about insurance. I am currently insured through Sky Insurance and the policy is underwritten by markerstudy. I rang another broker for a quote and they asked who my current policy was underwritten by and when I said markerstudy they said they were unable to quote because they only use marker study. I asked the reason why and they said that markerstudy have recently said to them that they are not allowed to quote against a quote supplied from another broker using them as the underwriter because they don't want to be quoting against a quote from themselves, i.e. they don't want to give a cheaper quote if they have alrweady given you a renewal price from another broker. That seems very anti-competition to me

Wow!! I've sparked a right debate and agree with everything mentioned above. Statistics are useless if employed incorrectly or correlations used for statistical significance. Correlation doesn't identify causality and any company that thinks it does is a joke. Hi Chris (Marzman) I didn't get a second car in the end, it made more financial sense for me, when I actually crunched the numbers, to use the money I'd saved to pay off the existing zed loan so now the zed is all mine and not partly owned by the bank. I've spoken to Livingston Warman as recommended and had a pretty reasonible quote, the no fault 'incident' made no difference to my quote Additionally I've got a couple of other brokers to try so we'll see how I get on. The renewal quote from Sky came yesterday coming in at £837 which is about what I was expecting to pay this year but it seems they've taken off my Third party insurance to drive any other car and my modifications are no longer listed on the policy. Need to give them a call I think. Cheers

Well its that time of year again that we all love. Normally it doesn't bother me but this year I am steaming Basically last year someone drove into the back of me and caused about £300 of damage. She paid me the money to get the car fixed, job done no problem. Well so I thought.............. One of the conditions of my policy was you had to inform the insurance company within 24 hours of any kind of incident or accident even if not at fault. No problem so I did. Well now all my quotes are £400 - 500 pound higher if I declare this incident on this years policy That is just an absolute joke!!! If I take the incident off I get a reasonible quote put the non-fault incident on, and boom jumps by £400-£500. Wish I had kept my mouth shut and not informed the insurance company! Bloody scadalous!

I the sound of a bunged K1 its just a shame it don't sound like that with the bungs out

I've done quite a few trackdays with my K1 mate. My set up is: Standard Cats Japspeed Y pipe K1 exhaust. Based upon static tests at Cadwell, Oulton and Mallory With the bungs in at 3/4 revs I get 93.5 - 94.0 Db (Based on 4 trackdays) With the bungs out at 3/4 revs I got 103.7 Db (Based on 1 trackday) After the one day at Oulton I always leave the bungs in, my ears were bleeding far too much and I had a beast of a headache! You will have aboslutely no issues with a bunged K1 unless you have HFC's or de-cats at which point I can't help regarding noise level conformance.

Im in the same boat. I always service all my cars myself as i just do not trust garages and i know noone will treat my car with the same care as i do. Im just worried that those not in the know will frown on lack of garage stamp in service book. Get yourself an ink stamp of ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Personalised-Rubber-Stamps-New-Black-Ink-Self-Inking-/230634162479?pt=UK_BOI_Office_Office_Supplies_Stationery_ET&var=&hash=item7b68289bbe

I used to have one on my Celica Gt4 every oil change there were one or two particles stuck to it. However, on some cars usually newer ones there is a right tree of metallic shards attached to it

I do all my servicing myself. That way I know its been done properly with the fluids I want and to the standards I want. You also know then that some idiot hasn't taken your car our for a 'test flight' sorry road test. However, I do use a few garages who I trust after having good experience with them.

No problem, I might even do a little how to guide. Rubbing down is to commence this evening

Yes I have a v v v annoying squeaking noise coming from somewhere in the dash at the passenger side I can't work out it is that's squeaking so figure I must have a mouse lol. I also have one coming from somewhere in the back Well onto business cubby door was removed tonight intend to start the mammoth rub down tomorrow night Hopefully I'll retain my skin this time.... Will post up pictures when it's done as the final product. Cheers

Thanks folks, that was the look I was going for subtle but a more modern interior. I've also done it with pearlescent paint so when the sun shines on it all the pearl sparkles and it looks uber Yes mate, I hate that feeling, you just never can be too careful. Only thing you can do is mention it to the garage you use, a few years back when I had some really expensive rims on my Celica GT4 I used to get all my tyres from Wheelbase in Manchester. Worth the trip because in my experience they always looked after my wheels. Thanks mate, to get from the textured finish to the gloss takes loads of rubbing down! It took hours to rub down initially, I even rubbed all the skin off three fingers whilst doing it. They were sore as hell for days, Thanks mate, no these are the stock ones which I have rubbed down and painted. I've learnt so much about painting doing this, its cost me a fair bit in paint with mistakes and rubbing paint or laquer too thin and having to start again. Plus a lot of time and skin but well happy with the result. Now if I could only get rid of the mouse hiding in my dashboard