A01

Roottootem, I notice your list of vehicles does not mention the citigo. For anyone who has not done this on a citigo or another vehicle with the similar (not ribbed, not tapered) sparkplugs and interference fit rubber boots you have probably never experienced anything like this. In these threads the guy who took it to a garage, the mechanic said he has never experienced such problems with plug removal. The OP on the Up thread said "that it was an understatement". I have been changing plugs for 30 years and never had anything like this. If you stick anything round cylindrical which is bigger into a tight round rubber tube you will always get this "locked in" effect like those chinese finger traps. https://www.quora.com/Why-are-Chinese-finger-traps-called-Chinese-As-a-Chinese-I-havent-seen-this-before hot plugs are essential to help removal. If these snap inside the well you then have to dig them out, it's not going to be fun. I will remove my boots again in the summer because I just realised, "doh!" "facepalm", I only have to remove the boots. I can leave the plugs alone. I'll find out if my talcum powder is the best solution. In the mean time, if you are reading this and are needing to change your citigo plugs and I have not updated.. and you want to know if you should use talc for refitting, then put a reply here asking me to update and if I see the email notification I will do my best to accommodate you.

Silicone grease is the same thing as dielectric grease. It boils at 200°C and will become a sticky mess. You could argue that the sticky mess is better than leaving it with nothing, as the boot might stick even more to the ceramic without it. But I'm not going to test the theory.

Would be interesting to hear how many of the people commenting have changed their citigo plugs themselves? freemansteve, emil, ronime? To answer that earlier question in the thread, the rubber pipe on the airbox is a pushfit. Use a flat screwdriver to push it off. There are different coils on citigo -skoda told me there are 3 types- there is obviously the type in the picture on page 1 here which I think is Eldora. Mine is Beru 04C 905 110 D if you google that you should find the type with the ridged boot. (incase the link here is not working in the future) https://www.winparts.co.uk/engine-parts-accessories/ignition/ignition-coil/c612/ignition-coil-0-040-102-067-beru/p575356.html Pretty cheap too if only they had them in stock.. £24 !! It's no use spraying silicone grease to aid pulling the boot out as the boots stick to the plug ceramic inside. It's not sticking to the aluminium "plug well". I have 45K miles / 72,000 km I bought the car I think around 20,000miles, 2.5 years ago. The other day on a frosty morning it failed for the first time to start. After a bit of coaxing it did start. For the remainder of the week it there were no issues with starting again. I decided to check and change the plugs on the weekend. I started out today on a cold engine to remove plug No.1 it was stuck like hell. I gripped the rubber boot under the coil with my finger/thumb and used my other hand to aid in the lifting. It did pop off after about 10 minutes. DO NOT use pliers to grip the boot it will rip apart. I could see inside the boot small white globes of silica and the ceramic of the plug was sticky. I wiped the old plug clean, reinserted it into the boot pulled it out again each time I did this, it came out sticky, I repeated this until it no longer came out sticky. each time pulling it out the plug was gripped hard and fast inside the boot and required a lot of strength to pull it back out (and this was with it off the car!) . Once it was clean it was only slightly easier to pull it back out. I coated the inside of the boot with the aid of the old plug with talcum powder. Slips and slides now with ease, so much so, that the spring inside the boot was now pushing it out itself. I moved on to plug 2 and this was even worse to get the coil off, it was stretching the boot so much I was concerned. I considered making a tool to slide down the outside of the boot to locate under the bottom edge of the boot and then I could pull it up from underneath. The plug ceramic diameter is 10mm so I decided the tool would be thin enough to go down the well but thick enough to provide strength. I decided I would get a strip of metal about 12mm wide bend it 90° (in) and bend it again towards the top about 20° to go around the coil and then bend again out wards to use as a handle to pull on. Drill a 10mm hole at what will be your lower end. Then cut through the centre of the hole, file it smooth. with luck this could work, if not it might be a case of having a smaller thinner 5mm wide version without a full half circle but maybe only a 5mm square lip at the bottom to locate under the boot. I put the new plug in No.1 and secured again all coils. Warmed up the engine. Tried again, No.1 came off easy with the talc. No.2 was still stuck, so I redid all and warmed the engine some more. This time No.2 was still stuck, but came off within 2 minutes with a lot of force applied. No. 3 also came off with a lot of force quite quickly. - tip of the day is to have engine warm and plugs hot. once the plugs are hot there is no need to make the whole engine hot. Again No.2 and No.3 had silica globules inside. and again I did my best to clean them until no more sticky was on the plug. Again they were very difficult to put in and remove until I was finished cleaning and applied the talcum powder. Replaced the last two plugs and reassembled everything. Used standard plug tightening technique. Finger tight, then up to a 1/4 turn and no more. All three plugs were worn out I have not measured their gaps yet but I estimate them to be 1.3 - 1.5mm (should be 1.0mm) !! My conclusions: I have no doubt, given how hard I had to pull these apart in my hands, refitting without a lubricant even 10 minutes later would have meant having to pull hard again to make it pop off pulling hard and stretching these boots is not doing them any good. So I decided not to have a control with nothing. It is as I suspected, silicone grease boils at 200°C the sparkplug tip operates at 500° - 800°C the end of the plug is all metal whatever temp is inside the cylinder the heat will easily migrate to the outside of the plug in the well and will also heat up the ceramic similarly. You put silicone grease on and 4 years later when you are changing your plugs it will hinder rather than help because it will be a sticky mess. So I did not want to have one plug with that stuff. Only attempt this on a warm to hot engine. Use talcum powder as your lubricant. I am considering removing these plugs again in the summer when the weather is nicer, to confirm that talcum powder is the best solution here. I reckon mine will now come off easily even on a cold engine. ALSO while you're doing this you might as well change your air filter. Need a T20 (torx) screwdriver/bit to get the cover off.

I think what I might do is do one new plug with silicone grease, one with talcum powder, and one with nothing, and I'll see what it's like next year when I change/check them again. Also wanted to say the reason the boots stick is because the plug ceramic is smooth - no ribs, so more surface area for contact with the rubber, silly design. Also although you can buy a replacement boot £12.50 without the coil, it might be better to spend that extra £32 and get a coil for £45 then you have a spare new coil that only cost you £32 to use as a fault finder if one of your coils goes bad in the future. If you have a bad coil simply put the boot from the bad coil on your new coil.

Although there may be a hump in the middle under the driver seat, once you get the carpet out you may very well find that the water can travel under the hump to the back. I recommend removing seats then carpets. Then refitting seats without carpets, dry the carpets in the house, then watch when it rains to see where the water is pooling on the floor (without carpets) and where it comes from.

Hi everyone, I will be changing plugs soon, thank you for this thread and the link to the Up! thread. My suggestion is instead of using dielectric grease is to use talcum powder. I had a vauxhall whose plug boots came covered in a fine white dust it might be a better idea. My concern with the grease is the plugs get very hot and it might become like a burnt glue. An engine spark plug will be up to 800°C and silicone grease has a working temp up to 200°C

Has anyone heard of citigo owners converting to discs on the rear ... what the donor car would be? Was any UP/citigo model released with discs like the monte carlo perhaps? They look like drums though https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1137437 GTi has drums https://www.motor1.com/photo/3164540/vw-up-gti-by-bb-automobiltechnik/ Even the &up apex has drums (watch the youtube video on the left) https://www.apex-nuerburg.com/volkswagen-sub7up/ If Misha hasn't done it then it must not be possible....although I do wonder what drums and shoes he uses.

I assume duplex is another way of saying duo-servo? Citigo rear brakes are leading/trailing as opposed to duo-servo. Citigo brakes could be sticking because they are not retarding back up the wedge as much as they should be and then rusting into the drum..... i.e. need cleaning and lube on the backing plate pads and the wedge.

Was there any chance of removing the shoes and springs without removing the cylinder and without removing the hub nut? Check the OP profile...he did this I think because his brakes were jamming ...and they would be jamming because they were not retarding properly on the wedge. And maybe because he was reversing...causing the different direction of travel to put a different force onto the shoes which had not retarded.. I think I would rather undo the hub nut than remove the cylinder. Got to get me one of those 12 point sockets...I think it is a 30mm - 12 point

Does anyone have any links to a rear brake adjustment - guide i.e. balance left/right for citigo? The left side is weaker than the right. either text or video Thank you. If not, then I will try to update this thread with my own findings.

Are there any front brake discs/pads change threads here or in VWup? I just changed my citigo front pads and that was the worst car I have ever worked on. The caliper pins are so difficult to get into the right position, I almost cross threaded one of them...whilst I thought it was cross-threaded and would need a tap, I set about looking to remove the caliper bracket to work on off the car to have more room and control for the tap. Then I discovered the caliper bracket is part of the hub! There is no removable bracket. I then had to clean the thread whilst under the wheel arch but I got it done. You locate the lower caliper pin and the top caliper pin is a devil to line up. You locate the upper caliper pin and the lower pin is a devil to line up. I did each side differently one side I did the lower pin last the other side i did the upper pin last. With the lower pin(last), I had to use a screwdiver to lever the caliper outwards to make the hole line up, then whilst levering insert the pin and hope it doesn't move in the process. For the upper pin(last) I pushed the caliper home as hard as I could but it would not go in enough, I ended up bashing it hard with my hands until it went in enough for the pin to be lined up. Then hold it as hard as I could to stop it coming out again. All other cars I worked on the caliper slides into position easy and holds that position on its own. with no force required, pins line up no problem and you screw them in no problem.

Yes, I tried both ends in all filters, and in doing so I created marks in the thread on both ends of it :( It only came out because the filter thread had jammed onto it. Just like exhaust manifold studs will come out if the nut has rusted onto it, or if you deliberately put 2 nuts on and lock one against the other.

Update: Today: A new spindle is £13 from VW (I didn't ask Skoda) I took my spindle to Eurocarparts I tried it on a MANN FRAM CROSSLAND It fitted none of the above. I went to VW and bought two 04E 115 561 H filters £8.16 ea The spindle went in as easily as it does into the VW filter I took off the car. It is really weird that MANN make the VW filters and yet they are definitely different thread sizes. I will write to MANN to ask them what their explanation is. I have now completed my oil change...with no further problems. Reply to Wino, >Reason it fitted the existing filter better than any of the aftermarket ones being that it had already 'machined' the filter as it was put on. The oil filter base plate is the harder material, it shreds the spindle to bits, the spindle cannot have any effect on the filter's thread. Reply to Vee Dubster You confirm my suspicions that mechanics even in the factory will just force the filters on shredding the thread as they do it. I think it could be that some spindles are slightly at one end of the scale of the thread size, such that all aftermarket filters will not fit, maybe most VW filters will fit it but from your account it even happens on some of the VW filters. I suggest to anyone to buy a spindle from Skoda/VW and take it with you when you buy your oil filter...even if you are buying genuine filter. Making the right choice in the shop is easier than finding out when the car is drained of oil and going nowhere until you get the parts that fit.

I'm going round the local factors tomorrow with my threaded stud, To try all the makes I can until one of them fits. I have a local Skoda outfit whom I will also try, they usually have to order stuff in though. VW is miles away in the next town.

Anyone here changed their oil.. and who would notice this....i.e. not just force it on. 2013 year The original oil filter on there was a VW 04E 115 561 H I got as a replacement what the factors gave me..I got two one is a Wix WL7503 the other a MAHLE OC 977/1 (the same one used on the UP forum service thread by user Tom in his pictures.) https://www.upownersclub.co.uk/forum/18-general-technical/6779-howto-service-up-basic-guide.html Took off the old one once loosened it unwound smoothly Put the new one on the WIX, I immediately thought it was cross threaded. I undid it and it took the threaded insert out of the engine block with it as it came off. I took the threaded insert off. and the new filter had chewed the thread a little but it was not cross-threaded it was just the wrong thread size. I put the insert back into the VW filter, smooth as .... no problem,, except the little chewed marks on the thread made some resistance (where before there was none) but with light pressure it would thread past them...along the whole screw length... I could also turn the threaded insert around and put the other end into the filter no problem....and the whole length of the threaded insert would run through the VW oil filter no problem. Try it back on the WIX and it would not go beyond 2 or 3 turns before stopping, and chewing again. Tried it on the MAHLE and same problem it will not go on and the MAHLE chews it a little. Back to the VW and it goes on no problem at all...winding all the way in no problem. Has anyone else noticed this..? Did you force on the branded oil filter? I don't want to do this because it chews off splinters of metal, and I don't even know what forcing it on would do or if it would be possible. I am also now thinking I want a new threaded insert and a VW oil filter. The MAHLE is described as replacement for OEM: 04E115561H And as having thread size .. 3/4"-16UNF 2B Does anyone know what the "2B" means? Does anyone have a link to the thread size of the original VW filter? Other filters: Bosch 0 451 103 318 gives thread size... (notice no suffix) 3/4" 16 UNF MANN W 712/95 3/4-16 UNF-1B