StevesTruck

Just a word to the wise, these love to seize up. Give them a good spray a day or two in advance and clean the bolt head up well before trying to remove it. The hole normally goes all the way through on VW group cars, so you can probably get in to spray the thread from the other side as well.

C+R Enterprises in Radford 👍

First things first - have you changed the pollen filter and checked there's no nastiness going off in it's housing? My old employer used to use the Normfest foggers in their vehicles, and it worked well. Personally, I use an ozone generator. Run it for an hour with the air con on recirculating, then knock it off and let it sit overnight before venting the car. Bear in mind the foggers and ozone are both toxic, so you do need to vent the car out.

Cost to insure would be no different, but they probably would try to knock you quite heavily on PAV if it were written off again. Some of the more expensive car history checks (car vertical and the like) will sometimes show pictures from when the car was in the salvage auction. I personally wouldn't buy a repaired car unless the seller was prepared to show me pictures of the original damage, so I can see where repairs have been done and check the quality of them.

Which engine?

Clamp the flexi hoses one at a time, see what it does to the pedal feel. That can help you find which wheel has the issue, or if it's a whole system problem (which would point to the master cylinder). I'm a big fan of pre-filling calipers before connecting them, and using a vacuum bleeder rather than a pressure bleeder.

That's a lot of errors for one system. I'd be checking all fuses, then see if there's any corrosion in the ABS module plug, after that, I'd suspect damage to the wiring loom.

That will normally be linked to the offside front wheel abs sensor, but without the codes, we're just guessing

From memory, it's a coding job on a pre-face lift, bigger job on a facelft.

Did they read the existing fault codes, or just clear them?

The O2 sensor on a 1.2 throwing a fault can be a bit of a bad sign, the rough path of failure is: Timing chain tensioner fails to take up tension quickly when the engine starts. Timing chain skips. Generally does the exhaust valves a bit of damage so they don't seal Shows an ECU fault from the emissions, or gradually kills the O2 sensor. I'm wondering if the chain's skipped a bit the other way making it run lean.

The only real killers of these cars is rust and the timing chain skipping on the 1.2's. If it's ok for these, and you like it, might as well keep it in my opinion. It's that old gamble really, if you bought another £1200 car, there's no saying it's not going to need the same amount of work in the first year. I have a rough rule for buying cheap cars, whatever you spend on the car, put the same aside for anything it needs in the first year, if you don't spend that, you've won. If the garage has got a poor attitude towards your car and doesn't want to work on it, time to find another garage.

From memory, the cat's on the downpipe on these engines, so I'm guessing that's a bit chunk of the bill.

I have used this site a few times and found them to be really helpful and not expensive - onlineradiocodes.co.uk

Sounds that way, I'd imagine the other end is one of the rear quarters, behind the side panels in the boot. Most likely the nearside.

Looks aftermarket, so possibly an amplifier or something. Careful reconnecting it in case the other end is sat against metal somewhere.

How does the EGR look inside? They love to get sooted up

There'll be a fuse somewhere, it'll just be shared with other things. I tend to just continuity test them all one at a time in situ

Check your fuses. The fuse will normally pop before the motor does. Also bear in mind that just because the top of the tank's thawed, the bottom might not be.

Probably worth giving it a scan if youve got the means to. If not, have a look at the wiring under the seats to make sure theyre plugged in properly and the wiring isnt snagged or damaged. Dont unplug the seats with the ignition on.

Try some silicon spray, or cheap furniture polish, on the rod, open and close the boot a few times, spray again until it won't take any more. Probably won't work, but it's cheap and easy for the odd time it does.

Sounds like an immobiliser/clocks fault. The snap on not talking to it might be a sign it's immobilised..... but, just for a quick check, take the breather out of the top of the fuel filter and have a look to see if there's fuel in the filter housing, just in case it's a faulty lift pump. You can get test rings that go around the key and flash when the key is being read, they're a bit cheap and nasty and far from perfect, but they can give you a clue as to whether the immobiliser isn't reading the key eBay UKCar Key ECU Test Coil Auto ECU Induction Signal Detection...Vehicle Testing Tools Car Key ECU ECU Test Coil Automotive ECU Induction Signal Detection Card Auto Diagnostic Tool. It applies to all cars tested with the use of [security] chip induction coil. Photo

If you like it, why not keep it? I wouldn't listen to anyone who tells you you aren't going to be able to buy diesel, it's what most commercial and large goods vehicles run on and there's no sign of that changing any time soon.

Leave the power on for about half an hour and it should go back to the entry screen. The procedure for entering the code is a bit odd, I can't remember what it is but it's in the owner's manual. I've used these for a few codes in the past and never had a problem https://www.onlineradiocodes.co.uk/

What engine's in it? Have you eliminated it being a leak anywhere, EGR cooler or head gasket failure?