What have you done with your California today?

Daveb999 · Dec 30, 2025

Removed the solar panel and window deflectors in prep for getting my new van next week

willwander · Dec 30, 2025

pjm-84 said:
Changed the rear coil springs (on sat afternoon) ready for the MOT (yesterday) - all good, so worth the 90mins of grumbling........ The finish on the Bilstein coils is poor and they started to rust at 3yrs old. Now at 5yrs, it was time to swap them out......I hate the VW torque requirements .......120nm + 180 degrees.

F#cking tight

pjm-84 · Dec 30, 2025

Yep stupidly so. I got about 120-130 degrees with a 600mm long Snap On power bar and couldn't be asked to bring out the scaffold tube..... must have been 200Nm+ on the bottom bolt

sidepod · Dec 30, 2025

pjm-84 said:
Changed the rear coil springs (on sat afternoon) ready for the MOT (yesterday) - all good, so worth the 90mins of grumbling........ The finish on the Bilstein coils is poor and they started to rust at 3yrs old. Now at 5yrs, it was time to swap them out......I hate the VW torque requirements .......120nm + 180 degrees.

???? Which bit needs that ? Seems ridiculous for a spring swap?

pjm-84 · Dec 30, 2025

Bottom damper bolt. Pop the dampers off / roll bar / and drop the arms down - spring out / spring in - reinstall. They are stretch bolts but don't need to be....normal VW

pjm-84 · Dec 30, 2025

Let me rephrase that --- I don't think they need to be ..... VW on the other hand do.

sidepod · Dec 30, 2025

pjm-84 said:
Let me rephrase that --- I don't think they need to be ..... VW on the other hand do.

VW always use single use bolts. I’ve been using the same bolts on my 2003 Golf for donkeys without issue. I’ve tied on several occasions to get my head around bolt stretch etc but always end up glazing over! Normal torque spec is a good few ugga-duggas with the impact gun.
Sorted.

vmaxkiddy · Dec 31, 2025

Stretch bolts have exceeded the elastic limit of the material they’re made from.
Glazed eyes time …… https://www.fastenerdata.co.uk/fastener-grades

colintfcolintf · Jan 1, 2026

Washing the rear inside carpet mat - hopefully the coffee granules stain comes out! 8 minutes to go in the machine, so will soon find out - and it came out like new

sidepod · Jan 1, 2026

Drove from Lauterbrunnen to Maastricht. 6h 45.
Basel, Karlshruhe, Koblenz etc.
Pitched up. Beer. :cheers

clarinetbcn · Friday at 8:31 AM

Les Menuires/Val Thorens today. Two days ago the temperature in the morning was -18C and the van wouldn’t start. When I did finally get it running it went into limp mode. Even the stationary air heater had trouble running. The local VW shop plugged in and diagnosed frozen fuel, because I had last filled up in Barcelona with warm weather diesel. They cancelled the fault, I put in 70 liters of local fuel and all is well. A good reminder to fill up with local fuel if you’re travelling from warm weather to cold weather.