I fitted IL Motorsport harder rubber engine mounts today, and it was a very straightforward installation.
I didn’t need to remove the shock tower brace, but it was tight when jacking the engine up off each mount (1-2mm clearance), with the plastic engine cover removed.
Very happy with the new mounts. There is a barely noticeable increase in vibration, but combined with the polybushed diff mounts, throttle response and gear changes feel crisper.
Also depends on how many stations you want to listen to on any one journey. I have a stubby, (aerial) 
Typically, we will probably listen to 2 maybe 3 stations, radio2 , Classic FM etc, and even on our recent trip to Norfolk, the reception was excellent.
I never listen to the radio in my car. I find the exhaust note far more entertaining!
Thanks RR…I looked but couldn’t remember the title of the chat to hopefully assist Teleman 
After looking at a number of stubbies on a group drive yesterday, I’m sticking with the original
My radio listening has varied over the years but so has the available options.
Going back a few years I listened to a lot of excellent commercial stations that were not in my immediate area so I needed to be able to pull in signals from 20+ miles away. Things have now changed and these have all been swallowed up into network branded stations.
Number one choice for me know is Greatest Hits Radio and there’s a local transmitter for that virtually everywhere.
It’s been a while since I’ve been able to put a post up in this section, because I haven’t had one, that’s now changed.
After missing out on at least three NC’s I was very interested in and one ND more recently I gave up a little on the search.
When they say it’ll come to he who waits, or something like that, I picked up this little beauty below last Friday.
Here we are on our first drive out today, well since the collection, lunch out in Staffordshire.
Great looking car , good to see you back in a 5
It looks like an elephant has tried to sit on the rear wing!! But it must be a trick of the light?
Welcome back.
Definitely not, although one may have tried to get in the trunk bum bum 
Our other car is a Qashqai which has the option of having a digital speedo showing in the centre of the dash. Really useful having it in easy view with all the speed cameras and such. Of course it over-reads like all cars but still handy.
I find the speedo on the ND difficult to read as it’s small, hidden away on the right of the dash and only has the even tens marked with numerals. Not very useful when you are trying to stick to a 30 or 50 limit.
Solution is a digital GPS speedo on top of the dash. Easy to see without looking away from the road and as it’s GPS it’s accurate.
eBay special from here -
Happy with that at £7.54. Lots of them about but be careful as they are available in km/h and MPH and sometimes not clear in the listings. They are not switchable. I got it wrong first time.
You’re starting to make me buy car things again, MX-5 car things.
That power cable would bug me but it looks like a good unit.
I use Waze for double checking speed as it is always displayed unlike Google which is only visible whilst navigating - unless I’m doing something wrong.
If I really need to stick to the speed, I use the speed limiter. In fact I don’t think I’ve ever used cruise control apart from trying it out when I first bought the car.
That’s the only bit of cable that’s visible. Would have taken quite a bit of stripping trim to hide it away behind the trim. Might re-do it next time I have to take things apart for anything.
It’s powered from a two output USB adaptor in the footwell socket that also powers the dashcam.
I’m a fan of the speed limiter mode of the cruise control of my ND. Keeps me alert to speed limits too as I look for when to set in to next 
Discovered that some lovely person’s had a go at my NC, I went to the shops this morning, glanced down at the rear drivers side of it and noticed one of the wheel nuts was missing and the others didn’t look quite right. I checked them and discovered they were all loosened and a couple weren’t even finger tight. Checked the other side and same story all the nuts were barely finger tight. Fortunately I had a wheel spanner in the boot so I was able to nip them back up until I got home. I’ve stuck in a random wheel nut I had lying around to replace the missing one and given the others a good going over with the impact gun to make sure they’re tight again.
The Mrs car appears to be untouched but it doesn’t use a standard size nut so that might be why it was OK.
I’m going to talk to my neighbours and see if they’ve seen anything (probably not) and let them know to check their cars.
People are scumbags.
I have used these on all my cars they work well
Its definitely a personal choice on size / style but i see lots getting Stubby fitted , i am in the camp mk 1 and mk2 metal long as fits the age / style Mk3 and Mk4 as newer more modern shorter but as i said its a personal choice how you want your 5 to look , one thing is certain they aren’t any faster with short Ariels fitted 
So on the way back from two track days, and about 40 miles from home, my NC decided that it didn’t like its belt tensioner any more and just let go entirely on the A1. Thankfully car was still running and I was able to pull to a controlled stop in a layby where the car was abandoned overnight while I considered my options.
I thought i’d maybe just do the fix at the side of the road, but no one local could get me the parts, not a single belt and tensioner in the scotland area. So decision was made to get the car recovered… and I’m glad I did.
Because on removal of the old tensioner, the bolts snapped off in the engine block and I’d have been absolutely scuppered at the side of a road. Thankfully, there was just enough sticking out to get a set of molegrips on them, and over the course of about 2 hours, only able to turn a few degrees at a time, i finaly got the bolts out of the block.
new vs old:
Bloody bolts:
I will not be defeated:
So new bolts are on the way, and while i was at it, i thought the idler pulley felt a bit crap, so i’ve ordered one of those as well.
I think the bearings on the tensioner have got too hot on track and melted the inner part of the roller, which has just let go on the motorway. It’s my own fault, i maintain the car myself and I didn’t remember to keep an eye on the belts.
Thankfully no harm done.
If you’ve not got AC there’s a third pulley that can be renewed, bottom right. I did all 3 on mine for around £100 including a belt. That’s probably all increased in price now but worth it.
