So who will be first to take the plunge?

Cold weather and arthritis say probably not me, at least DIY.
I need to book the car in to investigate some knocking noises when cold (suspect catalyst or exhaust mountings) so I might get the part from our sponsors first and ask the garage to do it.

Maybe we should check price and availability first?

Jim mentioned the price earlier (£325), which is way outside my price range, so I've opted to 'try' the cheaper option first... our sponsors.

Having said that, cold weather and an extremely short fuse at the moment won't see me go near the car with tools :)

Will add it to the 'To Do' list when the weather improves.

Me too, I've sent an email this afternoon.
Better see what the price is and how many they have to avoid an argument! I'm definitely not going into a bidding war for the last one. :ROFL:

Well, I've been on eBay and made an offer for one, which was accepted. They may have others in stock that aren't listed on eBay.

I bought a second-hand instrument cluster a few months back, but phoned up about it so that I could get one with a mileage that was close to mine. That's another 'To Do' job, but that will have to go to the dealer to code the keys in.

Will just add this box to the others I have for the car.

I looked earlier but didn't see one, sure you got the right thing?
I can only see one in the USA for about $200.

Yes, the code that Jim listed is the same as the one I posted in post #17. I just remove the spaces when doing a search for it. Only thing to ensure is that it is a BD one, which is for petrol, and not the BC one for diesel.

As I may have mentioned elsewhere the knocking noises (loud!) are the catalyst, and it needs doing PDQ.
The hesitancy symptoms have got worse in recent days so I'll get the catalyst fixed first to see whether or not it's a factor.

I have also acquired a throttle pedal sender potentiometer (from our sponsors of course :cool: ) but will hold off on fitting that for now.
There are references online suggesting that the throttle BODY needs recalibrating (I have done that before while investigating this) after changing the pedal or sender (not 100% sure why) but is there any need or method for calibrating the actual sender on the throttle pedal (I can find nothing about that) or is it effectively "preset" at manufacture?

I drove my S8 without the OS cat for a few months. Wont hurt anything other than emissions. It was only when i changed it did i realise quite how bad it was - it was hollow, over time blew the monolith out the rear. :ROFL:

It could depend on age; mine is the later type with post-cat lambda sensors and I guess the readings from those "might" have an effect.
Either way, I normally follow the "only change one thing at a time" philosophy when trying to resolve problems. :cool: