SuperbTWM

Does it make that noise all the time? Mine makes a similar strange noise briefly on warm up, my Dad has same engine in a Kodiak with about 8K miles on and that sounds the same, maybe for a few minutes if you were to start it and leave it idling. Just to be clear, are you talking about the loudest noise in the recording or the secondary rubbing/chirping kind of noise? The lesser of the two noises could be a sign that the warter pump impellor could be rubbing on the sleeve, thats pretty much how mine started unti i replaced the water pump this year and the sleeve had got partially stuck and was rubbing causing a slight noise. Not sure if the recording is making it sound worse than it is, but it might not be cause for concern.

If you are are 100% confident that every inch of the engine bay, and the underside has been checked and double checked the only way your car can be losing coolant is by burning it. Is the car still losing coolant at the same rate? Maybe they didn’t quite get all the air out?

I would start at the ignition barrel then. for reference the battery in the key is just for the remote locking transmitter. Cars with a physical ignition barrel read the immobiliser chip at close proximity.

usually a manual box is just fill to level plug. Make sure the car is level and remove the level plug first and see if any comes out, you can always feel for a level with your finger and also measure what comes out as a base line.

Have you confirmed the auxiliary coolant pump is operational?

That would be my guess, the car's ignition is on and thats why its complaining about there being no key in the car as it should do. The question should be, why is the ignition staying on/coming on by itself, not regarding the key warning, that part is normal. I take it this car is a keyless ignition type? whats the mileage?

Get a genuine one if you can, I rolled the dice on a cheap unit from Euro Car Parts for my Sister's Golf plus. The new pump was redicuously noisy, especially when the fuel level was low

You might have a boost leak, black smoke is a sign of a fuel rich mixture, its worth having a really good visual of all the hoses and pipes. You could try and unplug the MAF and see if that helps the fuel economy figures over a tank of fuel, if it doesn't improve things then there is probably not much wrong with the one you have. Also, what sort of lengths of journeys are you doing, 32 MPG is low but if you are only doing short journeys it could be normal.

I have fitted a couple of OEM ones before and they are incredibly rigid and thick, probably a reason why they last a long time That said I have used my fair share of stretchy ones off eBay as well and never had any issues.

It might be me, but it looks like more faffing with that puller than it would be spend another 5 minutes to just take the driveshaft out completely, put it in a vice and give it a good hit with a hammer.

I hope that has sorted it for you, please let us know either way!

The clutch not disengaging fully can cause issues, you can usually prove this at standstill by selecting say third gear and then putting the car into first or reverse as quickly as you can. If it always goes straight into first or reverse after being in another gear then the clutch is dragging. Another way to prove it is with the engine off, can you get 1st & reverse easily with the engine off?

IF you read the thread you will see that this dashcam is powered from a device that has a permanent live as well as switched and uses the cars battery capacity when the car is off until a preset voltage is met. There is absolutely no question that the dash cam was causing this situation being set at 12V which is way too low.

Under inflate the tyres and over torque the wheel fasteners, tyre fitting golden rules😂

Pre-cooler is just after the butterfly valve, post cooler is right before the cylinder head. Sounds like the control of the pump is working absolutely spot on. Every day is a school day 😉

Probably more of an interest for the person behind? 😂

A petrol model from that era would probably be a very very bad decision.

The guy is correct about the alternator pausing charging, in normal operation the battery only ever gets charged to around 80% to save room to harvest energy when coasting or braking from the alternator. Another reason why I don’t really rate the device you have fitted, it doesn’t give you much room to play with once the dash cam has sapped all the usable capacity and then the car may sit for a few days etc etc. factor in some bad weather and a tired battery and you’ve got yourself a non starter I can’t remember from memory what that voltage is likely to be and it may also depend on whether you have an EFB or AGM battery. I know some have monitored it and it has been discussed so somebody will know I would get yourself a new battery and try out the new 12.5v cut out voltage and you will more than likely be golden

I can remember on the mk4/5 Golfs and older Passat I had you had to turn the traction control off if it was particularly slippy as the traction was too invaisive. On my 2018 Passat I don't think I've ever seen the traction control light. Maybe both of our cars are broken 🤣

Modern VAG cars don't cut the power on wheelspin instantaneously like they used to and light the dash up like a Christmas tree, totally normal to be able to spin up a bit and not see the traction light, at least in my experience

https://pics.tdiclub.com/data/517/820433_EA288.pdf Pages 50 & 51 show the high & low pressure EGR circuits with their respective coolers. Physical location wise, the low pressure one is the one at the back of the engine, the high pressure EGR cooler I presume is somewhere on the RHS of the engine.

So manufacturers fit devices to cool the charge air just for fun? Exactly, nothing wrong here at all

If you have had some UV dye put into the cooling system it should be really obvious if the charge cooler is leaking. I’m not sure if you are aware but there are 2 EGR coolers on these engines so there’s always that as well. 🤣 Merry Christmas

Quite a few threads on it now on the forum somewhere Others like you have gone to the trouble of replacing the EGR cooler before hand for it not to fix the leak. If you are going to take a punt on these engines I would rather change the much easier to get to charge cooler first. What you can do is take out one of the temp sensors and have a look in with an inspection camera which you will probably see coolant and/or emulsified oil on the fins of the cooler, especially if you are using a decent amount of coolant

Charge cooler!