First things first, I completely forgot to bring the uprated camshaft and related bits for the GTI to Ireland - absolutely sterling work by me - pillock! I will upload some photos of both cars as well, as I don't believe I've done that to date. E28 - The brakes were sticking (lack of use), so a fluid change, new front discs and pads, clean up, and copper greasing of the rear brake shoes put that to bed, and all was good after that. The front discs and pads, through the lack of real mileage being put on them, were looking worse for wear - that said, it was probably 14/15 years since they were last changed. I'm still having an occasional issue with the brake pedal not coming fully back after pressing it, causing the brake lights to stay on - I have adjusted the brake pedal switch to its max setting, but there is just that 1-2mm of short travel. GTI - I cleaned the throttle body as recommended by the good folks here to see if that helped with the varying idle, but alas, it did not. I then took the car for a test drive, and I didn't get 100 yards before one of the tank straps decided to depart due to rot; inspection of the others showed that they were also on the way out, so a new set has been ordered but won't be here in time before I leave - 2024 job. The brakes did appear a bit poor, so the brake fluid was also changed, and it was manky. This helped, but to be honest, the rear brakes look pretty poor (not helped by crappy go-faster silver paint on them) so I will do the rear brakes completely next year - dust shields, flexible hoses, callipers, discs and pads. I didn't have the dust shields to hand or the discs, so this will go to 2024. I did install some soundproofing in the boot to help with the exhaust noise, and it has helped. I also did some fettling with the rear interior and that was successful. The rev counter and MFA were not playing ball, so I removed the clocks and found the vacuum hose hanging in mid-air, which sorted that gremlin. My first cousin (twat) was supposed to come over to assist with the full distributor change, but he has gone into invisible mode, so I have left that - what needs to be done in terms of timing setup before pulling one distributor out and popping in a new one? I'm presuming it's not just a simple swap. I need to do something with that back bumper - looks like some 'artisan' tried to paint it, and instead, I now have some form of urban camouflage pattern on it. The car also got an oil and filter change, and both cars, by some meteorological miracle, got washed and polished yesterday in the sunshine - that doesn't happen very often during my October trips
