Bodge

Thanks for all the responses guys. Decided to go the whole hog and got a new starter and battery-to-starter cable following comments on the cable crimps. The cable did look pretty tired at its ends after 175k of service. Got a new starter for £48 amazingly (connections!) but the damn cable was £39 from Skoda! Did half the job last night until I ran out of light and realised I don't have a deep 18mm socket! I have one now so will finish the job after work and report back. Can't wait to get back on the roads! Thanks again chaps

The one week I really need the car this happens, typical! Went to start the car, dash lights up as normal, bright and no flickering/dimming. Turn over and nothing. Tried 3 times then passenger noticed smoke from engine bay! Popped the hood expecting flames but was just smoke from starter area. Smelt electrical. The starter has been totally dead ever since and I've had to ask kind people to help me bump the car twice today! Embarrassing. Thankfully it bumps easily. No other symptoms or anything leading up to this, just sudden failure. Fuse box on battery ok and nothing obvious upon inspection. Ideas? Assume need new starter. Just what I needed with a 10 week old baby! Thanks in advance guys.

http://workshop-manuals.com/volkswagen/golf-mk4/images/golf-mk4-492.png Item 30 is the mass damper. You can clearly see the ARB and even the central bush in this image.

Incorrect I'm afraid! There is an internal ARB on all the rear beams as standard. It's welded in. You will see it if you go look at one. It's within the sort of V-section of the beam, with a bush in the centre of it. All rear beams will fit all cars, but they are not the same. Early vRS's didn't have the mass damper, but some later ones came with one for some reason. Check VAGCAT if you don't believe me. If you look under your car with a torch you'll see the ARB. So to the OP, just ask for the ARB diameter before buying (assuming you care). This came up many years ago on the forum and we all researched it then.

Rear beams are not all the same. There are a few options on bushes, ARB diameter and mass damper. Ignore bushes as you'd want to change those anyway. But the ARB is welded into the beam so can't be changed. Mass damper can just be swapped over/removed depending on what you have already. ARB is either 18mm or 21.7mm on the "sport" spec beam. Beetles all had the 18mm. TT's all had the 21.7mm. Octavia/Leon/Toledo/Golf/Bora/A3 all had 18mm and 21.7mm options. An "L" on the end of the part number means it's 18mm and a "J" means 21.7mm.

Just to close this off.. After fitting the relay and N112 back in place (electrically) but leaving the pump disconnected as before, it's sorted. Exhaust no longer stinks like hell on idle. I've run it for a week on the standard map to see what pops up and all I got was the "incorrect flow" error code and the CEL after 2-3 days of running. One other thing I noticed was that my map appears to deactivate the second o2 sensor. Presumably so I can run without a cat and not throw a CEL for cat efficiency. Which is nice to know! Not made up that connector/resistor yet, but got most of the bits. Putting the map back on after getting used to standard power again feels amazing by the way! Feels like a monster again!

Hazaar! Managed to get a connector and terminals, so will make my own!

Oh and fitting a resistor or leaving the N112 in place will not stop the error code popping up. There's no way to prevent that with just resistors, so you need to get it mapped out. It's been quite a few years since I first started messing about with all this stuff and always wanted someone to make a nice connector solution. Turns out loads of people are making these things now which is great. Unfortunately everything I've found so far is in the US or in Austria, so shipping is silly money for something so cheap. Will keep scouring the internet for the cheapest option, but in the meantime I'm reconnecting the N112. I'm going to have a dig around at work later and see if I can find some VW connectors, then I can make my own. Looks like they just have a rubber bung on the end with a piece of heatshrink to seal it up. Assume it's just 2 wires and the resistor inside. http://cdn2.bigcommerce.com/n-zfvgw8/yy0wvhk/products/1484/images/2092/yhst-11829566841086_2269_136975829__69874.1380907704.1280.1280.jpg?c=2 Someone should start making these in the UK! Where's Clive?! Sell me stuff!

Did a lot of forum searching last night and learnt a few things... You don't need to put a resistor where the motor was. The motor is obviously on a relay circuit, so the ECU has no way of knowing if it's connected or not. So you can happily leave the pump connector not connected (open circuit), but you need to keep the pump relay (marked 100) in place to keep that circuit closed as that's the side of the circuit that's required to maintain adaptive fuel trim control. This circuit also includes the N112 solenoid. So you can either leave the N112 electrically connected, or fit a resistor in place of it. So yeah, that explains why my cars runs rich on idle. I've not had the relay or N112 in place and it's deactivated the adaptive fuelling. What a wally. Luckily I still have all the parts so will connect both back on at lunchtime and should be sorted. Note that I'm only talking about the SAI system here. Not the N249 or anything evap related (I've left all that stuff in place as nature intended).

Forgive me forum, for it has been many months since my last confession... I haven't been using a resistor in place of my N112 and I should have been! So situation is I removed all hardware and had the SAI system mapped out years back. But the connector to N112 and the pump are just tucked away and not connected to anything. Not having a resistor seems to screw with fuelling, which cocks up the emissions test come MOT. Apparently you only need a resistor where the N112 was and nothing is required for the pump. http://www.vwforum.com/forums/f15/1-8t-sai-n249-pcv-evap-delete-thread-53800/ So, resistors. Found these very posh solutions: http://www.bar-tek-tuning.com/1-8T+sekundaerpumpe+entfernen+Widerstandsaddapter.htm http://www.urotuning.com/SAI-EVAP-Delete-Resistor-Kit-3-pcs-Mk4-1-8T-p/sai_resistor_mk4_kit.htm I know any 10W 330Ω one will do, but these look all lovely and neat! I wonder if just plugging the N112 back into the harness has the same effect (not plumbed in)... Thoughts/advise welcome

Ahh crap sorry assumed they would be green as the two rears I bought from them were! There used to be a hammerite colour that was a very close colour match to standard. As long as it's a close match you'll probably never notice. Assume Skoda/TPS will be extremely expensive. Well, more than £45 + a tin of paint anyway.

Yes! I have used these guys quite a few times now. Had two new calipers off them. http://brakeparts.co.uk/#!/ Excellent service and all the parts are OEM. Front calipers are much cheaper than I had expected! £45. Oh and they are the correct green too. I've used them via post and physically visited them too, so they're legit. Where a common caliper is used across GTI/TT/R32/VRS (like the rears are) you get the full choice of red/silver/blue/green too, if you're ever inclined to go mental with colours!

May have had a trial remap on it at some point. Suggest you take the car to a proper tuner that actually writes maps, like Shark Performance. I had the APR trial map put on by Awesome GTI. Then when I took the car to Shark a few months after we found the ECU was locked out. Luckily not a problem for Ben, but he had to whip out the ECU and open it up. (this was a long long time ago now so things may have changed)

I wouldn't bother with one mate! I fitted a michi can years back and ended up removing it in the end. All it did was act as a condenser unit, cluttered up the engine bay and I quickly realised it was a downgrade from the standard pipework and routing. Mine caught almost entirely water. Aluminium is obviously an excellent conductor and it's right at the front of the engine bay so was pretty efficient at condensing in the winter! The standard pipework hugs the engine closely and is made of plastic/rubber, so the water vapour generated by heating the engine oil stays as vapour and is used in the combustion process. Nice and neat and efficient, oh and it fits properly! Plus it's just another thing to service and more sources of possible leaks. Standard FTW!

I think Grizzle is talking about the steel cap/cover that you can't see in the image above, as it's on the end of the inner CV. So between the inner CV and output flange. You can only see it when the half shaft is unbolted. If it is that, then I believe it should have one. Fairly sure my car does, but it's been a while since I've had them off.