So four things happened yesterday.

1 - Oil and oil filter change.
2 - I got a de-badged bonnet and smoother fiberglass grille.
3 - Fitter a new Temp switch (brown one)
4 - whilst running the car up to temp to see if the fan switch solved my fan/ overheating issues the radiator started spurting coolant from the cap. Took the cap off and the seal had sorta of half disintegrated. Managed to get a new rad cap and drive the car home then to work today.

Now since all that - My car seems to be driving much smoother (still getting hot but seems to be taking a little longer) but the main benefit i am noticing is that when driving and slowing down changing gears for traffic lights/ junctions or traffic. When I dip my clutch previously what used to happened was my rev counter used to drop pretty fast and sometimes drop way below standard idle but then pick back up, other times it just to drop and stall.

Now since the above when I dip my clutch the revs are dropping much slower and tend to remain around idle point.

Oil filter and oil change - never effected this so far so that ones ruled out.

De-badge and grille... Ruled out unless for some reason my car cannot cope with the extra little bit of weight. which I cannot imagine.

Which leaves me with either replacing the temp switch or fitting a better sealed rad cap which is aiding this.

I personally couldn't imagine any of these having said impact because the issue was only when slowing down/ stopping and not at any other point when driving.

Anybody got any thoughts around this. - I haven't touched the ICV yet so cant put that in as a factor.

One thing is for sure though... I much prefer the look of a de-badged bonnet

Before


After

Its not fully fitted yet i.e. the grille is held on with cable ties as my previously grille was bodged and I am guessing the people misplaced the proper screws and instead drilled some small holes through the grille and in to the slam plate to then use some normal small screws to hold in place.

The guy I got the bonnet of is also selling, a smoothed tail gate. Full leather black and blue seats in near mint condition as well as I few other pieces I am tempted to go back for.

Fortunately for me (unfortunate for him) after buying a shell in April and spending 4k doing it up to take to FCS 2013 his dturbo shot some pistons and he is now breaking.... Very nice car too so hopefully I get get some more extras on mine.

But what about the idle/ cut out issue? Any guesses on that? Was speaking to a guy at work that reckons it could have maybe been the ECU detecting there was a breach (i.e. the leaky seal) and taking action to shut off the car to prevent further damage.

Could this be a possibility?

welcome to team De-Badged! now just sort that bumper out

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Proud Member of the ASTOR Owners Club

Yep, smoothed/debadged isn't for me totally ruins the front end imo

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Red Rallye - Rolling "restoration"

Wishbone Polybushes available

do that there's an faq on the bumper removal from a lad called Welly if you're not sure how to remove yours

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Proud Member of the ASTOR Owners Club

Exactly the same.

How old your icv, pas sensor, lamba sensor?

Check engine oil? Thinking you may have a hg failure starting?

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Rallye build: 11 November 1998 - a Wednesday
Team rallye,built for track
----Click this if you like rallyes

Rallye dead
Secret Team Astor...

You mean head gasket? I dont think it would be that to be fair the issue has been happening for quite some time (atleast a year) but ive never had time/ space or money to look in to it until now.

I get around the issue by when im changing gear quickly release the clutch i.e. dont hold the clutch down too long and take ages to change gear. Or if I want to hold the clutch down then sort or double dip it. i.e. dip it change gear and lift of a little then dip again.

Doing that I have no issues at all which leads me to thing its more a sensor or ICV issue rather than HG.

But happy to take some pointers/ be corrected and all that

Badged bonnet ftw imo

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''Oh, it does handle like a golf!'' Why drive a Golf....when you can drive a GTi-6?

Good New i think - I had my clutch changed over the last week and had a new VSS fitted whilst the box was out as my speedo used to be intermittent.

Since getting my car back on Friday my speedo has worked all the time and so far no cutouts/ stalling so hopefully that was the cause of the issue..

dunno if this has been suggested.......but reset you ecu under a high electrical load.

this helps counteract/stop your revs dipping below idle when letting off the gass pedal

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the world is changed by people in sheds

Jimmy it looks like the VSS has solved the issue. I dont know but I would guess if the ECU thought it was not moving due to the VSS not working them I am guessing that would be triggering or not triggering as the case may be other re-actions and hence the drop in revs/ stalling.

But so far Ive had it back a week and half and no cut out issues.

I'm not really a fan of de-badged front ends. It looks try-hard IMO and I keep wondering if all the filler is going to fall out.

Still, each to their own.

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Cherry Rallye SOLD