VWD

Something to be aware of. I had this problem many years ago on an old Vauxhall, and symptoms sound similar. Seals on the master cylinder were suspect, meaning that every time you applied brakes, fluid bypassed rear seals on master and fluid ended up in servo. Then drawn into engine and result was clout of white smoke. Test- apply brakes with vigour, then accelerate away checking for a white cloud in mirror.

Vaperlock- problem caused by fuel ( mostly petrol with a high % of ethanol ) and ( in my experience a mechanical fuel pump mounted on engine) , vaporizing and causing fuel starvation. The fuel pump will pump liquid, but fails with vapor. In the early 80s I worked in Zimbabwe out in the back of beyond. Often getting to a job involved a 2hour drive in at least 40c ( possibly higher). At that time "petrol" was a mix of local produced ethanol and imported ,refined petrol. After a short time on site, the van refused to start. There was a decent spark, but no fuel into the Carb. We found a temporary cure was to pressurize the tank( fancy way of saying stick mouth round fuel filler and blow) and eventually the engine would get fuel and start. A more permanent method was to add some diesel to the tank when filling, thus increasing the boiling point and keeping liquid to the pump. i don't know how many UK vehicles still use the old mechanical pump . But for those that still do , increased levels of E and higher temperatures might cause problems, and my cure on ye olde 80s style engines most possibly will cause problems to CATS and sensors in the exhaust. The cure- I'd suspect some sort of hot weather pressurization system for petrol tanks. or some form of vapour detection in fuel pumps, leading to a tank pressurisation to get liquid fuel to the pump. Food for thought?

OP- Not mentioned often is Glow plug flashing. Its a thing worth looking at. I'd suggest a check of rear brake lights. The brake light switch gas two sets of contacts. One is a make contact to bring on the brake lights, the other sends a signal back to ECU ( break contact). From my understanding either will trigger an ECU warning ( flashing Glowplug) . Simple way to diagnose is to check brake lights are on. if not ,remove trim panel over driver side pedals and remove brake light switch. One set of contacts will be open circuit with switch normal( NOT operated) with the other pair S/C. With switch operated, both switches reverse. If this is case, then switch is dud. If still no brake lights with switch in situ , then I fear you have broken/doggy wiring. or perhaps a bad ( perhaps water /damp connector).

Replaced both of mine a few months ago. Passenger side was easy, but on driver side I had to unscrew the outer wing bolts and lift the side with a screwdriver. Asper another post, I'd advise before removing the lower nut/plastic adjuster to tie a string around the nut as it can decide to fall out and lodge in the under engine tray. It as per the old addage" if a screw.nut/bolt can/will fall out, it will drop in the most awkard place to retrieve it from.

Two PC, one running W7 and another running W10. Close to each other- just run a CAT5 with reversals on the send/recieve pairs. Within WIFI RANGE, USE WIFI. On same PC- I have two partitions on same HDD, one for W10 and another for XP, with a separate HDD as a store ( all set up in NTFS).

A month/or so ago, I was happy with my Asus MB. It did what I wanted, albeit a bit slower than I'd expect. Then my son had problems with his I5 motherboard. I suspected a MB problem and bank of dad bought him a new MB. Weeks later, he had a chance of a free PC. Again it cost me for a bit of memory as an extra. Possibly to sweeten the deal. but a few weeks later I got a dads' day present. An upgraded I5 MB which ran my memory at full speed. Currently, running. And faster than I really need.

AP - I've posted "help" on another site I post on, and I've had a reply that "4/8/16/64 sizes from eBay. ".

Electronic surveillance is no substitute for deterrent. My alarm system is in photo below. Only 8KG of dog, part JRT, part Cairn. She can jump higher than most can. And with her Cairn pedigree, most large dogs give her a miss when she has problems.

Nice to hear it. As I posted, I've been using the place I posted for over 20 years and If I ever get a dud one, a quick call to MD gets one in post to receive the next day. TWENTY years later, I've only had one dud, when the MD lived locally. Reported at 1600, replaced at 1700.

For cooling- don't forget that a lot of Cases come with a large solid steel base. Sit an HDD on this, and it's a great heat sink. Then there's an easy 12v supply for fans, from the PSU.

TAM- I've got a 312G fitted up front. I've also got a "no name" one, I'm thinking of fitting in the rear window, after a reply from our Police team ,that "perhaps " I need a rear dashcam to detect tailgaters at 20 in a 20 limit. But I'd sudpect that I'd need the addition of a flashing light in rear window to wake this lot up. ( something big and blue perhaps)

CM- if the circuits of the cables are controlling vital circuits, then perhaps it might be worth looking at double switching the circuit paths. i.e. both legs of the control circuits are switched. Otherwise, you are at the mercy of unskilled/untrained blokes drilling into walls. Till then, in the words of one WW2 film ," You can teach monkeys to fly better than that".

Memory flash(yep, it's a pun). Many years ago, I did work for an IT firm and often got "odds & sods" they'd been asked to dispose of. One of these was an old Apple Laser printer ,that gone to meet it's maker. Another was a set of speakers I still use. Last, but not least, was an old PC , which struggled to run W98. The intention was for it to give my granddaughter a PC. The PC on last memory is sitting in son's place. If it's any help, I'll ask him it it's there and what sort of board is fitted. AP - might be a bit too old for you, but I've still got a copy of Norton 4.5 on my HDD. I found it great for sorting out floppy problems on the old 286 and even into W95, although it was better on older DOS.

Sorry - 486 a "bit" too advanced for me. But my suggestion, ask one of the "big" memory firms( e.g. Crucial) for help. Or an alternative is a car boot/market. One thing I've been told at this sort of place in days of old was that the type was important and that faster speeds would still work, but the speed of the slowest chip. Another place to look for help is "vintage" forums, where they have folks with older computers etc.

I remember tales from my apprentice days of thing the stores did not stock. Long stands etc. I remember the tale of one apprentice being sent round a BT exchange ,from basement to 2nd floor to find a soldering iron to melt Tinned copper wire". Many ,many years ago( sounds like a tale from Police Academy ?) I read in one of the old motoring mags about a garage tale that someone checked brake fluid and noticed the level was low. (Days of when brake fluid was green). "OH washing up liquid is green-that'll do " .Till brake failure. But I've found recently that an Eezie bleed ( or equivalent) does the job. Years ago I got a Quik place ( no not that one) to replace my rear brake shoes after MOT handbrake fail. They took out the old shoes and waited for new parts. Back at MOT place, I asked them to bleed brakes. These days, I have a son, who is mechanically inclined (as the old joke goes, he's got a few kids), but in his younger days he went on work placements to some not so good places. But he's amazed at how easy it is to sort out brake line problems with Eezie bleed. I used to swear by self bleeding nipples in the days pre ABS.

I have seen ( only once) and it's easily identified by clouds of white smoke from the exhaust. It was failure of one of the seals in the master cylinder and fluid was seeping into the servo and hence into engine and being burnt. It wasn't strictly a servo fail but more of a very brown pants moment.

Euro car parts or carparts4less (same firm). I always buy two(one gone, the other is often not far behind), and sometimes it's worth ordering a complete set of spares as the cost of bulbs is often more than postage. Another place to look at is Aldi, who occasionally sell sets of spares. But beware, as it's a store where bulbs often get "liberated" from the packaging. So check that box has complete set. Add to TMB post about touching glass. I always clean any Halogen bulbs (car/house/security) with meths before fitting, as you never know who's handled them before you. On the dip beam(H7, outer in lamp array), check the connector for signs of heat damage. I've had both sides suffer from heat due to poor connection with the plastic connector melting. Spare connectors are available, but if you've no experience it can be difficult fitting them . As TMB says, passenger side dip /main beam poses little problems. But depending on model, you may have to take the battery out and remove the battery sleeve to get access to the main beam one.

Is that the clip on the rear suspension arm ? After buying one from VW, I found that it's possible to "repair " it by bending the locking device. But I've also been told by my MOT man, that my "Temporary" repair to stop the cable dragging was OK with MOT rules ( I simply cable tied the cable to the rear arm). I've got a new clip, but as I've already had one cable fail due to the clip causing corrosion, I'll leave it be, as not broken, don't fix it.

OP- On a technical point for removal of battery terminals.( From my days as a Telecoms engineer, with fore runner to BT, in old days when we had to maintain our vans and had to go through a safety brief with garage manager). To remove. disconnect the Black lead first. ( Battery negative), This breaks any possible circuit from the +ve to the body of car. Meaning that ( after negative is removed) the +ve terminal is left floating with no reference to the car body. To replace Connect +ve terminal first. Doing it this way means that ( once negative lead is removed), if your 10mm spanner( on the positive) touches body ,then there's no chance of a nasty surprise ( as in sparks and burnt metal). Ideally you should use an insulated spanner, but I've found on my 1.4TDi that a ratchet spanner from the likes of ECP is too short to cause problems. For the clamp bolt ,I use a long extension bar, but cost wise it might benefit you to buy a few short ones . Price wise, you may pay a bit more going to GSF, but I'm looking at an 096 battery prices, where they deliver free and for a Yuassa, with higher everything than one for a petrol car. First time I changed a battery on this car, I noticed a spark and was worried so I removed lead and checked the current. The spark is caused by ( what I'd suspect) is start up current for electronics starting up and reduces rapidly in less than a minute.Nothing to worry about, and as said, no chance of a shock.

@mac - found that out last time I ordered parts from car parts. Main office for both is in Tamworth , a few miles up the road.

AP- something to aware of is that RAM comes with speeds. I've found that certain boards require RAM to have a set speed, but if the RAM speed exceeds the speed the board needs/ the other set is slower, then the board will run at the speed of the slower one. e.g. I've uprated my system from an Asus A55 to an Intel A5, but with same RAM. Old board would only run RAM at 1330, but new board runs at 1600. Results is that FSB runs at faster speed. Meaning faster processing.

Thanks, Pete. I've gone back through posts on here and found the origonal one https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/496820-parts-numbers/ But I only used the first part of their name. As in Energised. As in https://www.energizedcustoms.co.uk/ Great folk to deal with. As I said in my post re Carpparts & ECP, neither could tell me if their parts fitted. Perhaps it's because this firm is "local"-as in 45 minute drive from me if M6 behaving , but they also excel on delivery time.

From my experience, the older set of dealers were very good at handing out info on parts etc. When I was looking at how to get remote locking on mine I recieved great help ( and parts free) from one dealer in Coventry, and great help from another in Rugby. Sadly this sort of place has vanished to be replaced with bigger firms who see us owners as a cash pot. Sadly even TPS has gone this way. Witness a quote to replace the flexible 6inch flexible pipe from fuel pump return on mine of £160 for parts and same for labour, when TPS told me it was "flexible fuel pipe cut to size". Cost at motor spares place =£0.5.

I've changed both sides and posted on MK1 Fabia about the place I bought mine from( DEPO ONES). I'm trying to find the post /remember the firm ,but their price was a lot less than Carparts4 less. TMB might remember the post as he helped me finding the right ones and a few others liked the price. ( post was circa OCT last year as I changed both for MOT) . ETA - before removing /replacing bottom bolt ( the one close to bumper) I found it usefull to tie a bit of string round the bolt ,as it's only too easy to drop it . And playing with the plastic spacer thing on same bolt makes it easier to fit bolt a space is limited. ( saves messing around with bumper fixings.

That's was our findings some 50 years ago. These days I'm finding I'm more susceptible to lower frequency problems, but I put that down to dust in ear problems , caused by years on track watching ballast being dropped and dust rising. It might a word of warning ,MAC. Get those ear plugs in and keep the dust out.