StevesTruck

Assuming your door seals look alright, I'd be saying it's time to get the carpet out and look for water traces. Not a fun job, but it sounds like you've done a decent job of exhausting all other avenues.

It might be the hard water round here, but I used the tablets it they clogged my jets up on a mk2 Octavia.

They have electric power steering, so not far.

Much as I'm sure it's head gasket between a coolant path and a cylinder, there's a couple of extra things you can do to be totally certain. I might be being a bit unfair, but I do tend to associate LPG with head gasket failures. -:When you turn the engine off, the header tank may bubble quite violently as the compression pushes through into the coolant. - Perform a sniffer test. - Give it some pedal and see if it steams out of the exhaust. I caught myself out recently on a car with a faulty egr cooler looking like it's got head gasket failure. There's nowhere on these where the exhaust and coolant run through the same component is there?

The parrot kit is most likely plugged in inline with the normal wiring. You can get an aux in adapter, but you'll normally have to unplug the changer to use it. It doesn't matter that you haven't got the MP3 head unit, they literally just take the audio signal from the headphone socket on the phone, so you can't skip tracks from the head unit controls or anything like that. I just have a Bluetooth speaker that I keep in the car, it's not amazing, but neither are the standard speakers.

In my experience, diesel in the oil on a PD that's running ok is more likely to be caused the o rings on the injectors leaking than the tandem pump failing. Worn cam would show as a rough idle, and be reasonably easy to spot if you take the cover off and have a look. If it's had decent oil it's whole life, there's not likely to be an issue.

I'd try to avoid having to do a significant repair on an aluminium engine, it just doesn't normally go well, especially if they've been overheated. I'd spend the time finding a second hand engine and getting it ready to fit in time for when the inevitable happens.

If you're going to run it til it dies, throw some "Steel Seal" in. It's expensive, but it works well. We've had some in one of the vans for months.

We've got cupra bushes on dad's 1.9 SDI, no cause for complaint at all with them. I've got polybushes on my VRS, and if I didn't need them for the adjustment they have, I'd have taken them off the day I fitted them.

Could be a brake disc, likewise, it could also be a tyre or a driveshaft. It might be worth swapping the back and front wheel round, one side at a time to see if it lessens the issue.

Check the MAF wiring for damage (it's pretty exposed) and make sure the sensor is getting power. Which engine does the car have?

True enough but I'd keep it topped up to hedge my bets as the contents of the tank move about as the car does. As I say, the only way to know you're totally safe would be drain and refill, but I wouldn't part with 50l of diesel that easily at todays prices Although if he did, I'd be happy to give it a home!

Just occurred to me that I think these engines have an egr cooler.

I haven't compression tested it, but it's failed a sniffer test (Hydrocarbon gasses in the coolant system). It pressurises the header tank and forces the coolant down over my 40 mile run to work. If you don't let the gasses out at the end, it starts loosing the coolant (guessing it pushes it back through the leak when the engine's off). Yeah, keep on running it's an option, but the heater goes cold as you drive it. K-seal and the like, I think it had some put in before I bought it, and I've got a new rad and heater matrix on it, so I don't really want to be dumping sealant into those. I'm happy to spend what needs spending on it, so I'm not necessarily looking for the cheapest option. I'm not adverse to going out and buying another cheapy (no point having a decent car living where I do and doing the mileage I do), my rule there is spend a grand and then put another grand aside to sort out any problems. The question there is would I be in a better situation than I would be if I fixed it? That and I'm having trouble finding anything diesel and auto in the budget that looks like a decent prospect.

Still not working for me, so I'll throw a stab in the dark - Have a look under the back of the car and see if your exhaust heat shield has come loose.

So, a year and a bit and 40k after buying a cheap Octy with a bit of a coolant problem, I've tried all the other possible reasons for the fault and I'm getting back to blaming the head gasket. It's a 1.9TDI 105. I'm not particularly attached to it, but it does its job well, and is good on fuel. I need a diesel because of my mileage and could do with an auto because of a shoulder problem. I'm fairly sure there's nothing else seriously wrong with the car, except at 200k, it's probably getting on for wanting a clutch pack doing. Do I: - Sell/scrap it for a few hundred and buy another banger for a grand or two? - Get the head gasket done? Anyone able to give a clue as to costs on this? Do they normally go back together OK? - Get a scrapyard engine put in? - Get the engine refurbed and a new clutch pack fitted while it's out (Seems to be about £1500-£1800)

I'd say drain the fuel filter out into a jar and have a look what's in there for signs of the diesel floating on water or any weird colours from the car wash detergent (they'll probably sit in or on the diesel rather than mixing with it). From there on in, it depends how cautious you want to be. Full blown worried, would be drain and refill the tank with fresh diesel. Not mildly concerned would be just carry on and see what happens. I'd probably just keep the tank topped up as much as possible for a few thousand miles. If you did North Wales to Essex since you filled up, I'd be inclined to say that anything really, really bad that was going to happen would probably have already happened, but then I'm a bit of a fatalist.

Pop the diesel filter open and see what it's like in there. The lift pump slowly died on mine and when it finally went, it would run until the filter emptied, then if I refilled the filter, it ran fine for a few minutes until it ran low in there again.

My guess, and it is only an unqualified guess would be that they leave an electrical load on as a matter of course so cars with Stop-Start assist don't turn themselves off while they're in the air. You need the engine running to look for leaks in the exhaust system. The other reason they want the car running throughout is to make sure it's warmed up for the emissions test.

The cigarette lighter normally runs all the time on VAG cars. The normal way of wiring the camera in is to use an "add a fuse" in a spare switched circuit. A dashcam can drain the battery down surprisingly quickly.

The 1.6 is the AEE, the more common version is AEA, found in rusty MK4 polos, which is single point injection (the AEE is multipoint). The basic engine is the same though, all the injection system is on the inlet manifold. Careful if you're buying one out of a golf, some have the same 1.6 as the polo, others have a taller block. A few people have fitted the 1.4 16v polo engine.

Turned out to be a massive coincidence. I changed the air flow meter, and the lift pump died a day later

So, none starter at the minute, so I couldn't get a proper read, but I did a little live data while I was cracking it over... No fault codes from the engine, but like I say, none-starter. MAF showed data, seemed to move about a bit as the engine had a splutter. Throttle pedal sensor's working fine. Throttle position sensor is saying 100% all the time, even which the throttle body cycles as I prime the ignition and then turn it back off. Is that TPS figure normal? Is there a lonk between AFM and TPS?

So, it wasn't that simple.... Drove it to Nottingham yesterday. When I went to come back, the engine light was back on. Drove back fine apart from one little sort of flat, misfirey moment between 5th and 6th. Rough to start this morning. Then as I was going up hill a few minutes from the house, it misfired then cut out, wouldn't restart, or would restart briefly while the pedal was down. Pulled the AFM plug, no different. Pulled the fuse out (none blown), no different. Managed to get it started and drive it briefly, but as soon as you come off the pedal, it cuts out. Starting to work round things that I could roadside with the very basics. Throttle stepper is actuating fine and looks clean. Smokes when it's cranking but not starting, so I'll say it's getting fuel. Just waiting for recovery to drop it off, then I'll try and get some fault codes and live data at least.

So, the AFM wasn't getting power, so I bodged a temp feed to it. The car ran rough for a few seconds then settled down. Checked the fuses, blew my tiny mind on the left to right mirror because the diagram's for a left hand drive. Got set right by Nige - big thanks for that. Stuck a fuse in 29 (didn't have one). Drove down the lane, the fault light went off and stayed off for my ten minute drive home. I haven't had chance to scan it again, but I've got a couple of hundred miles to do tomorrow, so we'll see what catches fire between now and me getting home.