Qubit

Had to get out of the way of an ambulance quickly and just clipped a kerb. On inspection i found this nick (less than the 25mm long that would be an MOT failure). Its not very deep, perhaps 4mm. So is it safe to drive?

Yeh, I looked and thought I might be able to fit a new belt - well removal looked OK but fitting I wasn't so sure on! Might give it a bash sometime soon (need to sort out the bloody secondary air pump first - and yes it does sound like i purchased a lemon! But so far im sorting it out cheaply enough so thats OK. Then it will be the brake whine/squeal when reversing after a journey! lol). Must admit I do like the car and part of me is tempted to find a nice one rather than my leggy/tired example! Idle does fluctuate a bit, definitely more than 10rpm i would say, but not massively and every now and then theres a little hiccup, which im guessing might be a misfire, but nothing logged (picked myself up a cheap scanner). I saw your unusual issue, sorry Im not able to offer any help! Hopefully you get it sorted soon.

Additional update. Car still miles better but still some occasional hiccups at idle (possible coil pack on the way out? - will try replacing - one of them seems to be 3rd party the rest genuine so that would be my initial suspicion). Another interesting thing is that Ive been having some serpentine/auxillary belt whine particulary when cold and i thought it might need replacing. It suddenly occurred to me that if i was previously getting oil fumes through the vents from the engine and that frankly the engine bay looks a bit covered in oil and that maybe the belt might need a clean. So Ive cleaned it up a bit and the whine seems to have all but disappeared! Well worth trying before taking to a garage.

My roof rack/bar trim on one side keeps popping up at one end, one of the white clip is broken, can these be replaced? (what are they actually called? Cant find reference to them anywhere!) If I cant find it ill have to try using some jb weld on it!

Update: Replaced the MAF today, didnt really seem to make much difference, maybe slightly, but probably not. So, moved on to cleaning the throttle body, it was frankly filthy, almost completely black on the manifold side, took me ages to clean it. Wow, its made a huuuge difference, car is now almost completely free of surge/hesitancy, definite result.

Been doing a bit more reading around, it would seem that unplugging the MAF places it into an open loop mode in which many sensors are ignored, so the MAF may not be the issue itself - perhaps one or both of the o2 sensors may be playing up? Will start with the MAF and throttle body clean. Yeh, found an engine diagram and it does look like the y hose that was replaced - probably could have done it myself! As it drives much better with the MAF unplugged is there any issue running with it unplugged?

Thanks for your help, much appreciated

Honestly not too sure, pretty certain its one near the front and it was losing oil, but Ill have to keep an eye on it. This weekend is fairly busy with family stuff but found a spare 10 mins to check out the throttle body, looks like it needs a clean just looking at the pipe side and I believe the other side is the one thats prone to getting dirty so definitely needs a clean. However, the real eye opener is that I ran it without the MAF on a 10 minute drive and it ran a lot better, certainly seems to point the finger in that direction! Is it worth cleaning the MAF sensor or is it really a new MAF required? Im in Newmarket, think ill look at replacing the MAF once the coil packs have been done under the recall (hopefully). And if that doesnt solve it Ill see if some local(ish) kindly soul will scan it in exchange for beer tokens as you say

Breather pipe and dipstick tube both replaced, fumes in cabin much better (although did think i detected some about an hour into a commute when crawling in traffic). Unfortunately im not sure the surging/hesitancy has improved much if at all. Hopefully the coilpacks might help although I suspect there may be other causes (o2 sensor is a strong contender i feel). How much would a dealer charge for a VAG com scan?

I could find anything myself so ive got it booked in to be looked at, hopefully fixing that might go some way to fixing the other issues too. Ill update with whatever they do/dont find. Got the car booked in to have skoda replace the coil packs under the recall as theyve never been done apparently. After that I guess Ill look at the throttle body and MAF.

Cheers for the reply and the welcome too - ive updated my Car details, thanks Smell only really comes through the vents when the fan/aircon is running and really only when stationary. Ill have a look around and see if I can find anything.

Hi all, does anyone know if a breather pipe leak could cause both cabin fumes and a jerky/surge/hesitant part throttle? Apologies if this seems like a daft question but ive got some issues with my vrs and Im trying to figure out where is best to start - cabin fumes seems best obviously! Im just wondering if the problem causing that might be at least in part causing my part throttle surge/hesitancy issues too ( i know there are a multitude of possible causes for that) cheers!