A day in the life of a mk3 owner

Got up early to get over to Banbury & get my exhaust sorted - I had the giant swept tailpipe chopped, and a slash-cut stuck on - amazingly it's now even louder in the low revs, which I didn't think was possible - it seriously feels like I might need ear defenders between 2 & 3k rpm now . Anyway I get over there for opening at 9am and am finally all sorted by 1ish.

But the engineer now can't get it into reverse, so it has to be pushed out of the garage... I head off & quickly realise I've not only lost reverse, but 1st, 2nd, and 5th. So a 50 mile trip today with just 3rd & 4th. I'm glad I've got a bit of torque 'cos pulling away at a roundabout in 3rd isn't fun.

My gearbox has felt like crap since I got the car, just really loose & baggy, despite having only done 60k apparently - so it's not a total suprise that's something's let go in there - anyone got a clue what it might be, or how expensive? I've parked her up outside a garage I use, so it will hopefully get some attention this week

Mk3's always let me down, I don't know why I do it to myself, but I still love them Getting this one into 'reliable daily' status is proving difficult.

sounds like you need a new linkage kit including ball
all these parts get cooked by the down pipe or somethings seriusly loose in the linkage ??

i am assuming its rod change if its cable i know not

good luck

Yeah I think the box is ok, no rattles or grinding, so hopefully something [relatively] cheap like you say Dan - this is eating into my money for some 17's

i liked your periscope exhaust

Haha yeh I might miss it a bit too to be honest - although without sounding like a complete wuss, I couldn't help feeling that the pipe was a bit of a magnet for trouble - either getting pulled by the local plod or kids dropping stuff into it Now that's gone, and I've got a legal number plate, I'll be a lot happier driving it around day to day... although the noise still attracts some attention.

Gear change problem looks fairly trivial, there's a little metal linkage snapped at the end of a cable connected to the box, so hopefully a cheap one & my 17' alloy funds stay intact

i bet the local chavs had eyed it up to use as a bong as well.
result with the box.

mate your exhaust was the nuts

Don't suppose you live up by akeman street do you? Was always parking near a mk3 looked amazing but been looking relatively standard recently? I work at Tradesigns and have the white polo, appologies if not

Hello mate, yeah that was me sold up and I'm off the scene for a bit to save some money and get a few debts cleared until my next vr6 (supercharged next time I hope)

I See the polo around Tring quite a bit, I always spot a low dub. I'm in a black Clio 197 for now.

Take it easy

Ah I see sounds good mate yeah really liked that mk3 saw it scraping through the high street a few times, that sounds pretty epic look forward to it! Flash next time and I'll keep an out bud.

It's going lower soon aswell

And you pal