J.R.

Good call!

I have dealt with more rational chatbots than you 😀 Not taking the bait any more, the last word as ever is yours.

I cant really tell what it is from the photo but from the words I suspect its the angle drive gearbox from the FWD differential to drive the rear propshaft, they are known for developing leaks, very very expensive to have replaced by VAG but in reality it will be nothing more than seal or O ring. If I am correct and the photo was taken from the front of the car then stop driving before you cause any or further damage, if you will be relying on the main dealer to replace it then you can run it into the ground, the noise will likely become unbearable before anything makes a bid for freedom.

I'm happy to explain but surprised that I should need to as I was quoting your words which you now seem to have forgotten. "All I said was that I can only speak and comment on what happens in my local area" was not all that you said, what you said was: "Well, I think that is because, like you and the others here are doing, going by local events near us all. In this area the cars mainly seem to be Fiestas, Range Rovers, Jags, Mercedes Benz and BMW's that are the ones being nicked,"

Thanks I was aware of the law and I'm sure its the same in Europe, what I wanted to know is would it look odd with just the rear doors and rear window tinted and the factory clear untinted glass at the front?

That does look very good! I am tempted myself given how much the car heats up here in the summer even when parked for even 10 minutes, but I dont have any tint at all on any windows, would it not look odd with the rears tinted and the fronts clear? Yours looks like a reasonable transition.

There you go again, extrapolating your own beliefs onto others. There is zero crime where I live, I do not lock my doors or gates and have 3 Ifor Williams trailers visible from the road, yet there is massive vehicle, trailer and plant crime in every surrounding commune extending out for 100kms, in fact radiating out from my commune, here is the first place the Police look when anything is stolen. Were I to use your logic I would believe that crime does not exist anywhere because there is none here.

I've been working on these types of calipers since forever, all of my cars for as long back as I can recall have had this setup. In all that time it what you explain had never dawned on me, it makes complete sense and I'm amazed that as an engineering designer I had not appreciated it, thanks for teaching an old dog a new trick! I have never ever considered greasing them, when the pins have been really reluctant to come out I may have used a dash of WD whatever to reassemble.

Perhaps you are being confused by the incorrect description of it being a fan boost to maximum speed, it simply switches to recirculated cabin air, you may not hear the difference in tone on some vehicles, it would be their aim to make it indiscernible if that is a word. Also if you have Climatic as I have and not Climatronic it probably isn't a feature of the simpler system, that said it does some things automatically that I did not expect so it has some intelligence.

I cant recall the history of the recommission but do you perhaps have a non ballast type coil fitted on a ballast resistor wiring system or a ballasted coil wired directly? The original OE coil if still working will be a million percent more reliable than any modern replacement, ditto for genuine New Old Stock. Your outings with this vehicle and its capricious behaviour remind me of when I was travelling in New Zealand and was given a Nissan Prairie that had been converted for camping and had been off the road for a decade, the guy had converted it to carburettor fuelling from fuel injection using second hand parts and there was rust in the fuel lines etc, driving up the ridged ramp on the ferry to the South Island created such vibration that I knew exactly what would follow, sure enough within a few miles the progression circuit was lost and I had to keep driving on full throttle high revs until I could find somewhere to pull over. I didn't have any choice, I rolled off the main road and coasted as far as I could, it was outside someones house and he came out while I was under the bonnet cursing myself for not having equipped myself with the right screwdriver for the jet, the owner came out and I expected him to give me a hard time but no, it was anything I can do to help you mate! When I had got it running after explaining the problem he said "so its going to happen again then! keep the screwdriver, I will get another one!" I had so many similar experiences with the Kiwis and I love each and every one of them, I also had a real attachment to the Nissan Prairie and sold it to an incoming traveller and posted the money to the guy who gave it to me, the ex of a girl I had a relationship with there, thats how decent Kiwis are! He even let me stay in his house, use his workshop and tools and spare parts to get the vehicle running again. If the day comes that you have to part with that vehicle you will find it as hard as I did, I hope it will be to someone deserved. Its funny how I appreciate the Skodas I have driven for the last 18 years for their reliability but that does not create the attachment that an unreliable challenge vehicle does! Same colour as mine as well.

Cheap as chips has served me very well for the last 2 decades, always wear evenly without any ridging or corrosion. TBH a manufacturer could pay you to take their brake discs and they would still be better quality than what the factory fit! One caveat to the above, the brakes need to be properly used from time to time, not a problem for me now I am towing heavy loaded trailers frequently but in the years after finishing renovating the building when I was running the Apparthotel my brakes rarely were solicited and they would glaze, I had to give them the good news every few months to regain the stopping power or it could get to the stage when the ABS would not cut in on a full on emergency stop, that may have helped prevent the formation of grooving and rusting, in the end I started spending a little more money on pads after the first set which usually came as a bundle with the super cheap discs. I doubt that I have ever paid more than €30 for discs and pads, €60 for both ends but I only have ever bought one set for each vehicle.

I don't think you speak for most people on that one, certainly not people who have had their vehicle stolen, the vast majority are stolen because they are popular, the parts in demand and can easily be sold on, exactly the point Toot made about where did the (second hand) parts come from before the internet. For joyriding by an idiot perhaps, an idiot who doesn't realise that "drive it like you stole it" is exactly what you should not do especially with a desirable high value car unless you want to serve time, its been decades since joyriders have been easily able to steal a vehicle whatever their value. Frankly in the modern world I am surprised that even one person would think the above unless they have been living in a cave for several decades.

If you can select the temperature then you have the Climatronic system (lucky you! I miss it now I no longer have it) so you are kidding yourself if you think the temperature will fall any quicker, the Climatronic takes care of that and does a better job because it will adjust the flaps to keep the airflow concentrated on the driver/passenger making the temperature of their part of the environment fall quicker. Yes it will slow down the Delta rate a bit when it approaches the set point like my new kettle to avoid overshoot. Selecting "LO" will cool the cabin slightly quicker than the Climatronic but that means the whole cabin. What you are doing is akin to turning up a heating thermostat or thermostatic valve to a higher temperature than you desire because the system is not reacting as fast as you would like, it will achieve nothing, you need a larger boiler.

I'm sure that you realise that really does not make any sense, Pawsfothot describes how it works very well. You could say that had you driven with a lighter foot or taken a less hilly or less urban route (or whatever really) you could have driven 70 miles on the 5 litres or so of fuel that you consumed to travel 50 miles. Its done so that you are not going to set out on say a 600 mile journey having seen a range of 700 miles indicated and run out of fuel during the journey because you are driving faster or towing or whatever compared to your recent journeys. There is another thing at play in that you may get an accurate " 600 miles remaining figure" at a full tank if your journey profile remains the same and it will be spot on at 3/4 tank showing 450 miles, half a tank showing 300 miles but around 3/8 of a tank the remaining miles and the fuel needle will drop like a stone, this is to create a "virtual" reserve capacity of 5-7 litres of fuel when the needle shows zero and the MFD shows zero miles remaining, you will have covered in this example say 540 miles and you will be able to drive another 60 miles to the 600 mile point and some way beyond in complete security (assuming journey and driving profile unchanged) I have done this with every tank of fuel for 18 years now.

I've seen plenty of estate cars where the rear window is covered with an advertising mural although they might be the type with the small holes in and maybe its a French thing. I know there are restrictions on tints but given the good point regarding vans do these also apply to the rear side and rear windows?

Might have been Finbar Saunders, phnaar phnaar! Yep come to think of it I think it was.

I'm glad you wrote the final words Skomaz! I used to work with a guy like that, he drove everybody else mad.Yyears later there was a Viz character whose name I cant recall but it was him to an absolute T so there must be a few about.

Isn't it more likely to be a problem with liquid (as opposed to vapour) fuel contamination through overfilling?

Inside or outside of the glass? Hard to tell from the photos. If its outside they will say its been attacked by crows or magpies or an ice scraper, if its inside they will say its cosmetic damage, wear and tear and not a fault affecting the function of the vehicle.

That would be like replacing a blown fuse with a paper clip without asking yourself why did it fail.

The missing cap has a seal which would prevent refrigerant loss, if the valve is damaged it will be through having used a shonky top up kit non dry break connector but surely you should have been filling through the low side port? - You said "I could hear some hissing coming from the high side port and when I unscrewed it the gas was coming out." which leads me to that conclusion, perhaps I misunderstood. If you were filling from the low side port and the gas was coming out of a leak in the high side port it means the system was at atmospheric pressure = contained humid air, you should not refill it without first pulling a vacuum to evacuate the air and moisture which would have revealed the leak, if you replace the pipe then whoever recharges should do this and you should really replace the drier cartridge as well. However if you want to carry on the DIY approach you could have probably got the valve to seal by pressing and releasing the core while releasing a very small amount of the refill gas into the system, you should wear eye protection and insulated gloves to protect yourself, that will hopefully dislodge whatever schmoo is preventing the valve from seating, fitting a new port cap will also seal it but puts at risk the next person to remove it. Finally it is not unusual to think you have a leaking valve when you remove the dry break coupling on a pro rig, it is in fact the small amount of refrigerant sitting on the outer part of the valve, as it boils off it looks like a leak but will stop in a short while.

Took an immoral amount of money for stating the obvious, something which the OP already knew from his own eyes. Accept responsability for the upkeep of the vehicle, accept that sometimes merde happens in life and appreciate what the M stands for in MTBF. I hope you find a solution which you have confidence in as the car clearly means a lot to you, if you had any inheritance from your father you could rationalise that had it happened while he was alive he would have spent the money maybe even happily in the knowledge that he would be passing on a sound vehicle to you so in those terms you would not be spending your money.

Those words will come back to haunt you and you will be worthy of the schaudenfreude.

That was the first video of its genre that did not have me shutting it down within a couple of seconds like I do with all of the other annoying narcissists, I watched it to the end which is very very unusual.

With 144000 miles. Surely you are not being serious?