Recent content by kevinkar

Mine is clear, not matte finished.

I bought one for my 2018 Golf R off Amazon from R Ruiya for $15 and it works great. While I can't say if it's worth it, I am pleased with its performance in terms of keeping fingerprints off the head unit's screen. It's easy to clean and, if I scratch it, I can just get a new one rather than...

If it's just an ancillary pump, maybe not too bad but I don't know how invasive that might be. Labor hours are ridiculous these days. I've never had a dealer's shop want to tear down a transmission instead opting for replacing it instead. Either way, I'm guessing $2k (with no basis for that...

Which is why carbon fiber is usually multiple layups of plies at various angles (0, 45, 90, 135) to provide strength in more than one direction. That plus each ply is typically woven in a 90 degree pattern so a single ply is strong in at least two perpendicular directions. But a lot of...

Yes, it's worked for me in the past so I wouldn't have suggested it otherwise. How much to fix? Can't tell as we don't yet know what's wrong!

Get an empty paper towel roll, put one end on your ear and start pointing it all around the engine compartment. Try to zero in on the hiss. Just start in one corner of the engine bay and go back and forth, left to right and back to front slowly. You should eventually get at least the right...

Uh, Golf R carts......

I run a 3D print lab and, unfortunately, had to go in every day to actually TOUCH the printers all during Covid while all my other coworkers were able to stay at and work from home. For almost 4 years I worked alone in the lab and only recently has everyone started coming back in! So I didn't...

You're neglecting the fact the 3 micron Coronavirus particles are not floating free and are instead suspended in people's breath, sneeze droplets, etc. THOSE carriers are way bigger than 3 microns and are what the masks were trapping and stopping thus preventing the individual virus particles...

I drive in Sport mode most of the time and I don't notice this behavior. But maybe I just got used to it over the 5 years I've had the car. I don't recall feeling S was ultra touchy though so this does not sound right to me but can't offer any suggestions on resolving it.

Ran K&N on a couple cars with no meaningful improvement other than I did not have to buy filters when it was time to replace them. I'm pretty sure the cost of the K&Ns and filter oil was likely as much as the replacement filters would have been over all that time so it was a likely a wash. I...

Yes, but on the "common platforms" and common engine components, they amortize the development costs over tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions of cars ultimately resulting in only tens or hundreds of dollars per car. So it's bound to be a relatively insignificant cost and change...

The reluctance to provide a proper non-leaking water pump is simply bad customer relations. Depending on the model, what's an extra $200 for a metal pump housing? Insignificant. Someone won't buy a $42,000 R with a metal housed water pump for $42,200? Yeah, right. The dealers regularly soak...

I guess you'll have to read through the warranty booklet that came with your car and see what it says. I don't recall mine saying they will only do one warranty repair at a time on any particular item. But, as the water pump and thermostat housing are an assembly and removed at the same time...

Never knew that.