pcspinheiro

Thanks! So, together with a video I just saw, the seal would be part of the oily black plastic bit just behind the crank pulley on my first photo, right? As in this screenshot below. This is where I first saw oil, but there's a lot on the other side too... I need to take it to the stealership as soon as I get my wheels back from refurbishing. They'll likely say it's nothing, it's normal...

Thanks Sherlocks VRS! Excuse my ignorance but where is that located in the engine and would it be a warranty issue? Cheers!

How did this turn out in the end? Was it a leak and, if so, where? I just posted similar pics and concerns about my 2017 2.0 TDI. In my case it's definitely oil and it does not seem to come from spillover when servicing. There's a lot of it on opposite side of the engine (where the belts run), so could be a seal there? I'm taking this to the dealer. It will be another wonderful waste of time, but hey... If the car didn't have the plastic undertray I would see oil on the ground, so definitely not normal. I have a 21 yo car that never leaves a single drop of oil on the ground, even when parked for weeks.

Hi guys, So, yesterday I removed all four wheels to send them for refurbishing and took a look at the engine areas that were visible from the openings in the wheel arches. I was surprised to see so much oil all over! Considering that no spills are visible on the upper parts of the engine (from services, since I only ever topped up once myself, very carefully), could this be a sign of oil leaks? I'm beginning to think this car will be a well of problems not so far down the line, so much so because every thing I ever complained about during the 5y extended warranty was always "nothing we can see or hear".... Some pictures attached. Car has only done 75k km, should be as new considering my driving. It's soooo much worse than my 382k km, 21 yo petrol astra... The dark stain on the last picture is oil spilled on the under tray, can't imagine how much is soaked in the felt-like lining right under the engine...

Cheers for this! True, I'm a serene driver and reach for the brakes sparingly... I should have pushed them harder on the first few trips without stopping (to avoid very hot pads and discs to stay (and cool) in contact, i suppose. A mate of mine who's a car mechanic also told me just now that using the same pads may be to blame. Said they wore in a certain pattern and are now wearing the discs in the opposite way. It's happening exactly the same on both sides of the car, so I'll just try your suggestion of braking harder a few times on my commute.

Yeah, maybe the pads had worn more on the inside before I had the discs machined and now they contact more the outside of the discs... I did not think of installing new ones because everything was so unused. In either case, the car brakes fine, but I can again feel the slight judder when braking, which annoys the hell out of me and makes me wonder if something is wrong with the wheel hubs... I do still have the bent rim on the car (working on getting new ones ASAP), but I guess this would not cause the slight judder at low, almost stopping speed.

Sorry that I maintain this monologue but hopefully someone will chip in. Just wanted to add that this uneven contact happened on both sides in the front, and I did make sure the pads went in as they were before (inner/outer)

I meant "I've changed brakes before..." not brackets, stupid autocorrect on my phone...

Sorry for nagging guys... Recently I had my discs machined since I started getting some vibration braking and they had very little wear. I think I put things back correctly: put the discs and the holding screw, tucked the pads snugly against the discs, placed back callipers and carriers and tightened/torqued everything to spec, including the wheel nuts. Then, before driving, I applied some progressive and gentle pressure to the brakes to bed things in. Problem is, vibration is annoyingly back just a few weeks in and the front discs have a strange wear pattern: the pads made contact in a gradient so to speak, more on the outer edge and less toward the inside and it's obvious they still didn't make full contact closer to the center, as per the picture (you can see some rust under the edge of the pad). Car seems to brake fine thought. I'm scratching my head and wondering if I did something wrong, if the pads (that were reused due to very little wear) had worn in the opposite pattern before machining the discs, or if the discs were not machined correctly and were thicker going for the center to the edge... the rears still have too little wear to tell but they seem to be wearing uniformly (were also machined at the same time and place). I've changed bracket before on other vehicles but this is a first... And why is it vibrating again??? Could the shop that messed up my rims and torqued the lug nuts incorrectly have also affects the wheel hubs? I get so annoyed and obsessive with these things... 👿

Thanks for the comments guys. I'm having a hard time deciding on the new rims but I do need to swap them ASAP since running the car with at least one warped rim can't be good... I really like some of the more modern, diamond cut designs, but I don't know if they will look good in 16" with fat tires wrapped around them. Since my estate is in business grey, I think that silver will pop well, but I'm tempted by anthracite/titan colored ones. I like the looks of the CMS C22 in silver or titan, but i also fancy the "turbine" wheen in anthracite. I have, however, never seen any of them "up close and personal" to see if I really like how they look. I've seen a couple of other models both in the online 3D configurators and on cars in the street, and was positively surprised by some I didn't fancy online. Opinions are welcome! Right now, because of looks (and modest price), I'm tempted by CMS C22 (i believe CMS makes the original Orion wheels on my car) in either racing silver or titan gloss for about 340€ a set. they look good and won't break the bank + they are to OE specs: Or these "turbine" ones that i found in a French webshop that ships to Portugal for about 500€ a set (not sure who makes them, they're marked as "ACR" under manufacturer but it's been a challenge to find them elsewhere):

I think this is what happened to mine, I could barely see the impact but it caused the outer glass to start cracking and then off it went, probably with the thermal changes since it was over 35 Celsius on some days. Got I swapped at the local stealership under insurance but the work could have been a little more perfect, since I can see the black glue on 2 spots near the pillars... I'm a perfectionist and this annoys me... 😅

I don't get free coffee here in Portugal, but I do get a "free" car wash. I agree that I would rather have no amenities and, instead, have people that actually listen to my complaints and do their best to find the problems. I'm not a complete idiot when it comes to cars but this is how I'm treated when I go to the dealership. I've been complaining from suspension Boise from the right side but they can't find anything. On another situation it's come to the ridiculous of me showing a video with the cabin ventilation making a loud chirping noise (every colder winter morning!), left the car overnight in the winter and next morning they say they couldn't hear it... It's just frustrating...

I recently also had crack develop on the top center of the windshield, it then developed around the blacked out part where the rearview mirror/sensors sit and continued almost all the way to the side pillar within days. I could not see (nor did I realize while driving) a noticeable impact that could justify this... Just a teeny tiny ***** that I struggled to find, much smaller than other impacts that could be seen on the glass.

Wow, those look like scrapyard finds... Here in Portugal we never use road salt and these parts usually only get some surface rust. But what is striking is the way those wore, with such deep scratches and areas of no apparent contact. These are my rear factory-fitted pads after 70k km (the discs are out of focus but you can see they are in good nick): And the discs after resurfacing:

Wow, advised to change discs and pads at 12k miles??? Mine is 70k km and I just had all 4 resurfaced since they had almost no visible wear. I too was advised to change them since they said the discs and pads were too worn, but my inspection showed pads with 2/3+ of the material and discs with a barely noticeable lip from wear. I think driving style and road type is more important that the quality of these things in terms of wear. I do a relaxed and defensive driving and I suppose I reach for the brakes a lot less than the average person. I had them machined since I started to get some brake shimmer (likely due to badly torqued wheels), but it I reckon they would otherwise last me 100k+ km without touching them.

I agree, the car AC is under more extreme conditions, but leaking and needing refilling every year is definitely not normal. One problem with the "leak test" done by the AC filling machines is that they do this under vacuum, whereas the AC is under pressure the remaining 99.9999% of the time. I had this with my old Opel; the machine did the vacuum leak test and it was fine, because the vacuum was actually keeping whatever was wrong pulled tight against the leak, so it went on to fill with refrigerant. It was 100% gone the next day...

How old is the car? Why do car ACs lose refrigerant gas like this? I believe it has become "normal" to repeatedly refill the car's AC with refrigerant, but house ACs usually go on for many years - even decades - without needing more refrigerant. This means there's a leak somewhere, since the gas isn't consumed during operation...

That's the beauty of southern countries. We don't use road salt and those exposed metal bits are usually in very good condition. Some surface rust is expected, but I've never seen rusted callipers, or discs that look rotten to the core, like some I've seen in pictures here and elsewhere. A good pressure wash and some brush work to remove brake dust and you get shiny callipers again.

I did and it was about 3-4x the price of having them machined (for discs from known brands, there were cheaper aftermarkets). I only paid 10€/disc to have them machined, plus they had very little wear since I do a defensive driving and use the brakes sparingly. On top of that, I got the discs back the same day, whereas the prices I mention were on-line with 1-2 weeks delivery (auto-doc). I did not price them locally but suspect they would be a heavy bit more from known brands.

Also cleaned and polished with poor boy's ssr-1 mine last weekend at the inlaws, but i forgot to take the wax with me... That was the ONLY thing I forgot to take, damn it! I use Bilt Hamber double speed wax and that stuff is awesome, both in terms of effect and durability.

I've seen them too, though they don't seem to deliver to Portugal. I think they're german and Trustpilot opinions seem oK. Even though i may not be able to use them i like the realistic preview of who the wheels look in the car. Too bad about the limited car colors, but still much better than the cartoonish views on most sites. Edit: turns out the DO deliver to Portugal. I was looking at their French website version and the delivery was more limited. Good thing you brought this up!

Those look cool, what's the make and model? FYI, I found this french site that has a large selection of rims but, most importantly, allows you to see how they look in different sizes in a realistic view. It's velonity.fr

If this helps (can't find the car in business grey). Also, mine are 16" and depicted are probably 18" or 19". I know it's a matter of personal taste, but I'm torn. The last ones are significantly cheaper, whether in silver or anthracite.

Today (or rather, sometime last week, really) I managed to scratch the f**** out of my superb . Went to a car wash to just give it a pressure rinse (lots of Sahara dust in Portugal lately...) and, since it was sunny, I stupidly decided to use an old microfiber cloth I had in the car to just wipe off excess water (water is very hard and would leave stains). Well, the cloth must had been in poor condition since now, under direct sun, I can see the WHOLE car full of superficial scratches... So annoyed... I will have to give it a full body polish, but will try to do it by hand, as both exercise and punishment for my stupidity... On a separate note, following on the damages inflicted on all my 4 rims by some idiot at Norauto during a tire swap, I now must procure myself new rims while waiting for the court claim I made against them, since one of the rims is also bent... It started doing some "wooshing" noise at over 40 km/h after the second so-called "repair" (which was just slappin paint over paint over paint and looks total crap) and the dealership found a bent rim exactly where it seemed like the noise was coming from (rear left). How they managed this is beyond me, but on purpose comes to mind . Any rim brands to avoid? Any particular models you've seen and like in the superb? I'm not paying over 1300€ for original 16" Orion, not knowing the result of my court claim. Plus, I don't fancy them much anyway... Also, I want to keep my tires (almost new) and the comfort that comes with smaller rims/thicker tires, so 16" it is. Found a few that I like, but not sure they will look good in real life: MAK Wolf, MAK Emblema, CMS C22 (silver or anthracite?). Cheers

@J.R.Hahaha, this was both very helpful and made me laugh my butt off. Thanks!!!👍