poiuytre111

On a related point - any detailers in the area around the M25 west of London - Slough, Watford, Uxbridge etc. ? thanks

Reading the description - the uv inhibitors preserve the life of the paint itself. I presume your intent is to preserve the life of the light fitting. For my part, I have sanded and polished a few sets of fabia lights but never lacquered them and they seem to survive ok - certainly for a few years If the lights cost more I might have looked for the uv filtering lacquer myself. reading the Halford blurb again I may have misjudged it - it does indeed claim to preserve the underlying "paint" or headlight, one assumes.

You can't really check the belt though it is easy to release a couple of clips and look at it - possibly a really old belt might show up - look for evidence that it has been changed recently i.e. receipt from garage. Most change the rollers and water pump at the same time as they are all in the same place and the labour to get in there is most of the cost. If the car has been run for a significant mileage with inferior oil it is too late - the cam will probably be worn.

I will offer some comment:- 1) Is it really low-maintenance? I think so - except for the cambelt which needs to be changed every 4/5 years or ~60k miles at price of perhaps 500 euro 2) Is it really cheap to fix? Good parts availabilty so I would say yes. 3) Does it really take only 5-6liters/100km? Yes - less than 5 for steady run on good road at modest speed 4) We have particularly cold winters(-20C), are there any problems with cold starts? Not if fuel is liquid- normally the fuel station deals with this. 5) Is it comfy? yes, I find it so These are the questions before considering to check one out. And then there are the questions that come with actually buying one: 6) What clues should I look for that might cause problems in the future? Need service history same as other cars, lppk out for water leaks - can be fixed 7) What should I ask the owner? has the correct oil been used in servicing = I think this is 505.2 or 507 - vital 8) What are the main problems with this car? wrong oil = worn cam, old cambelt = broken engine

...but did he have the "mechanical tapping noise"... I personally wouldn't run the engine at all until the belt is sorted.

PD engined VAG cars are so picky about oil to avoid cam wear (due to narrow lobes and aggressive PD profile) I would always want to do the oil change myself with the right stuff - doesn't help when buying 2nd hand though....

I don't think the extra hp/torque are the real issue here, the question is more about how much you want to spend on a car that has already done 200k miles. You can get a remap for £45 which makes more sense to me than £500 given the mileage. And, yes, it is very much worth doing

I would not class myself as an expert but, for what its worth, if you are planning to try a cheap generic map such as those from blacksmoke.co.uk I don't see why you shouldn't initially leave your current turbo in place if it is not showing signs of distress - I would be tempted to remove a pipe to wiggle the rotor to check for play. If you decide to change then I understand the standard turbo (kkk ?) is not felt to have the life expectancy of a garrett e.g. gtb 1749 etc. but at 200k miles already I doubt you will do enough more miles to wear out a replacement kkk. You really need to spell out what you are looking for e.g. target bhp as this will determine choice of replacement turbo.

I injected brake fluid into Mk2 cortina ball joints back in the early '70s for the same purpose....

These cars can do well over 200k - 300k miles it treated with respect - I have had (admittedly non-vw) clutch and dmf go well past 250k without issue. I would buy at this mileage but I would want to be extra careful, just as you are being. If the price leaves a bit in the bank as a contingency I would go for it.

This is crying out for a diy repair - most of the cost mentioned will be labour charges. You either need to roll your sleeves up and buy a Haynes manual Rachael, phone a friend or perhaps sell it so that someone else can do the above. I did my first head-off car maintenance aged about 18 with zero experience and managed to get it all back together in one piece - even if cars were simpler way back then. Once you have the head off it should be reasonably inexpensive to get someone to check the head over and/or skim.

I always remove the drain plug and do it that way but if I had a pump I would change the oil more often which reduces the creation of sludge = better outcome ?

I recently refit a set of essentially standard febi bump stops to the rear of my car - very worthwhile. I had understood that there were other types that e.g. were reduced in length to allow for a lowered car. Surprising how much of the "springing" is actually a function of the bump stops.

Flickering lights are strongly indicative of a large but intermittent load being applied to the car electrics - I haven't heard of anything else that causing this - what had you in mind ?

Agree - probably just need to replace the steering angle sensor and the flickering will go away and the power steering will be more consistent.

Indeed though removed by a previous owner - will often be the case.

Over time, air con systems can build up water extracted from the air in the cabin. This is no issue when the air con is running but if turned off I found that condensation on the windscreens would quickly follow.

I was also a bit confused as I understood the only fuel pump on the sdi is at the back end of the injection pump - presume what is being described as the pump is, as you say, the fuel level sender.

I changed mine last year and you need to watch out for the different types. I obtained a new replacement that was supposedly matched to the make of the pump I had but I believe that even then there are two versions. The sensor I took out was black plastic both sides of the bit that fits into the rack thus it surrounds both sides of the rotating vane in the rack. Most you see appear designed to fit to one side of the rack's rotating vane. Once I found one that looked the same as the one I took out all was well - actually came off a 9n polo.

BMW Compact 320 diesel - only 2 doors but rwd and handles really well - remapped to approx 200hp, 60 to 65mpg if gentle. I have a 2004 with leather and 145k miles and doubt it will fetch £1500.

I recommend Kingsway garage in Swansea (Gors rd) - garage is a mess but he has done 3 cambelt/water pump swaps for me on different fabias, last one a week or so ago - good price for quality job, only uses vw parts.

Recently changed the back box on 2001 sdi with about 93k miles - original did well at about 15 years from new. Diesel fumes are apparently easier on the exhaust than petrol due to the lack of sulpher (which creates sulphuric acid in petrol engine exhaust fumes).

Would it be feasible to run fuel pipes from the inlet and return sides of the pump end of the bosch fuel injection pump to a conveniently located "petrol can" holding 5 litre of diesel so as to bypass virtually the whole pipe/filter/tank arrangement - just for a test run. Replacing the injection pump is not a trivial matter.

Resurrecting an old thread as I have the same issue - most noticeable in traffic queues, once the clutch is fully engaged the engine judders until revs rise above 1250 rpm. Not talking about a lot of accelerator, just trying to trickle along. Does the sdi have an anti-judder device or is that the tdi ? recently changed the temp sender so I don't think its that.

A recent thread included a comment that 0.05 amps was the expected figure however even your 0.12amp figure would take 20 days to flatten a 60ah battery. I would expect that the sort of fault that leaves e.g. a boot light switched on might be intermittent so you might not have caught it. I agree with a previous comment that you should identify if you have a battery issue or a leakage current issue by fully charging the battery and then leaving it for a few days with one main wire (earth) disconnected - then see how it reacts whaen you later reconnect and start the car.