gregozedobe

Sorry 'bout that Matt, I might be slightly to blame. Every time I see one I immediately report it so our great mods can delete them and ban the author. I sometimes wish I had a "nuke the bastard" button that would wipe their hard drive in 10 seconds flat to at least slow them down from being a nuisance to some other site. Not that I am vindictive or anything ....

It's available, just specify the (very expensive) power upgrade pack (option code RS3 ) ! 😂 😂 😂

I suspect the ones that don't work straight up were either past their use by date (these lithium coin cells do have a finite shelf life), and/or they were fakes. Unfortunately there are quite a few fakes around, and some are very convincing. That's why I buy Renatas, they are a good brand, but not well known enough to have people making fakes. I also have a good (ZTS) battery load tester, and whenever I buy a new lot of batteries I test a few to ensure they are OK. I have had to request a refund for whole batches of cheap batteries in the past, these days I don't bother with the cheapies, I just buy good brands. The sellers just refunded me without further question, didn't want the old ones back - I think that speaks volumes about the quality of batteries they were selling.

I guess the only way to find out is to remove the battery in your remote and see if you can still start your car. Let us know how you get on.

IMO it's a good idea regardless. It's a quick job to swap in a new battery if you need to, no special tools required. That way you are back in normal operation straight away and you aren't searching around for a decent battery that happens to be a slightly less common size (CR2025).

I haven't taken my wagon on a track (it's just not my thing, as I discovered on a VW Drive Experience day flogging their cars). I have tried mine out on a skid pan, where I discovered it has excellent grip, but if you push it too hard you mostly get dogged, juddery understeer. I could get it to oversteer sometimes, but it was hard work and wasn't very consistent. That was trying it with ESC on and off, and don't even think about using the "parking brake" - full ABS stop on all wheels.

If keeping illumination is very important it might be worth investigating the Mk 8 paddles. They are longer, but I don't know whether they are illuminated and whether they would fit the Mk7/7.5 steering wheel.

Sorry, I can't remember exactly where I read it, but it wasn't just one person whinging. Possibly a US VW site ? The best my addled old brain can come up with was that several people noticed when they changed to a different (non Edge) oil they noticed their engine was quieter more quickly from start-up, and I think a couple said their oil consumption was reduced as well.

The trade off for the extra protection is a reduction in air flow to the various raditors/heat exchangers. The smaller the mesh the better the protection, but the greater the restriction in air flow. I have decided not to put mesh on mine. One other benefit of mesh would be to stop bug guts (eg from locusts) corroding your thin aluminium fins.

Unless it suddenly starts to burn a lot of oil my R will only ever get VW approved 504/507. I'm currently using Nulon as it is made from a true synthetic base, not a highly refined crude oil base like some others. True synthetic oils can cope with high temps better than regular crude base oils. I've read a few criticisms of Castrol Edge, but unless you go to the trouble of getting your used oil analysed it is hard to know if one brand is significantly better than another for your particular usage pattern.

Take a wheel off and put it in the boot ? That should discourage some thieves at least. Sorry, I have no idea about wheel clamps.

I think I read somewhere that the new RS3 (or was it the new S3 ? ) was getting an upgraded Haldex AWD system. Haven't seen any mention of a similar change for the Golf R Mk8. I've also read reports that there were a number of changes to the Golf GTI Mk8 that have improved the handling significantly, but haven't heard of anything similar for the R Mk8.

Great to hear things are going so well Just remember to pace yourself so you don't overdo it . You want to keep on your upward trajectory

Is that you complaining about their noisy exhaust, or them complaining about yours ? 😂 I know where I fit on that bell curve (I definitely like the quiet life as far as exhaust noise goes)

That would be a concern to me if driving in a dusty environment