J.R.

You can tell which one has failed if indeed it is front wheel bearing noise by listening to the change of tone when you take a left or right hand bend which loads the outside wheel and removes load from the inside wheel. No point asking a bloke on a forum to tell you which one has failed. Yes and probably 100 times worse than that before any risk of bearing damage, it would have shaken you to death well before a bearing failed. What is genuine? Even OEM manufacturers like SKF sell various grades of the same bearing, those fitted in the factory and this is true of most parts, used to be the best quality so as not to cause warranty failures, I suspect this is no longer the case, even buying the parts from a main dealer does not mean you are getting the same quality of part being fitted on the assembly line to a new vehicle, batteries are a very good example, you simply cannot buy a battery as good as the one fitted in the factory even the identical product, part number etc from the main dealer. Once again I suspect that batteries are another area where they are saving money. Buying SKF or NTN bearings is about the best you can do but please isolate which bearing needs replacing.

I dont have my self study guide to hand to look at the hydraulic circuits but I believe that the hydraulic pressure in the braking system can be diverted away from a brake caliper on a skidding wheel with a corresponding pulsing and pedal moving towards the floor but cannot isolate any of the calipers, it is I believe a failsafe system for if the ABS unit fails or loses power. You should jack the car up and apply the brakes while someone spins the wheel by hand and looks at the caliper, it could simply be a seized piston. The other way to prove the hydraulic pressure is reaching the caliper is to press lightly on the pedal and ask your helper to release the bleed nipple on the caliper of the non braking wheel.

Smart thinking! 👍 Do saddle tanks have transfer pumps, twin pumps or is it a parallel feed system with some sort of isolating valve so that when the first runs dry it can suck the remainder from the other? Whatever it is will be overcomplicated and if the OP does actually have a saddle tank then I reckon you have come up with the most plausible solution, some sort of blockage in the balance pipe, transfer pump or whatever meaning that the vehicle was running on the left tank only, assuming that the filler neck is on the right. To the OP, a saddle tank is one single tank but with reservoirs either side of the differential and twin float guages, you probably do have one, all the other 4x4's do, VCDS would show a disparity between the fuel levels of both tanks.

Zinc inclusions.

You dont need to stop, you can cycle the ignition while moving, essential to be practiced at this for when it cuts out during an overtake.

Sticking variable geometry turbo vanes and/or actuator. 2 solutions,: 1. The main dealer or garage one of replacing the turbo at megabucks which my car had had done twice before I bought it and nearly bankrupted my chauffeur friend I bought it from. 2. Live with it for years as I did by knowing to do slow warm ups in winter avoiding full throttle loading and becoming expert in cycling the ignition rapidly before I worked out what the problem was (I have saved you that stage!) at which point I gave it an oven cleaner enema which cured the problem for at least 2 years before getting the odd limp mode reminding me to do another enema. Problem is an easy cheap fix if you work on your own vehicles, if you rely on garages then quite the opposite.

A pragmatic choice, it will make a good project for someone.

Your bearing failure was either just luck of the draw as many don't seem to last long, or was caused as a result of the impact and not IMO a buckled wheel unless it was so bad that the steering was vibrating beyond the point that anyone could cope with. You have 3 original 11 year old factory fit bearings and one aftermarket bearing only a year old, I would bet my house that the new one would be the first to fail.

Absolutely my sentiments, my first was a 98 Alhambra followed by a MK1 Octavia, may have been the same engine in each, very simple with only enough electronics to make best use of the fuelling and the turbocharger, but even then the achilles heel of a very simple EGR mechanism was showing itself.

Also check if your left trouser leg is wet 😄

If you are carrying points then carry a few spare condensors but dont be tempted to replace the original with one of them unless it fails (engine will start but not pick up revs or un under load), most new ones are either dead on arrival or only last a short while hence the advice to buy several. Also feeler blades in your toolkit which you probably already have, points shutting down was the major cause of old school engines going out of tune, it reduces the dwell angle resulting in a weak spark and retards the ignition.

Re the bumper sheen, all of the products have that failing, I still have a bottle of Back To Black gel sheen from the 80's, it is a black gel and leaves the bumper stained black even when the sheen has come off. It still has the original minging black stained muttoncloth wrapped around it for the next use, the product has had 40+ years to rot it but hasn't, in fact there is enough residual product on it to cover a small area, a scuff etc.

Not so, its the refrigerant gas (R123a not Freon) that gradually permeates through the flexible hoses dropping the system pressure not the PAG oil, its molecular size is too large, even when a system is degassed under vacuum only a tiny amount of PAG oil is removed as witnessed by the wildly differing volumes to be added for a recharge or for a compressor replacement.

Pump not needed when passengers disembark 😄 I have always carried a footpump in my vehicles since forever, I do now have tiny 12V pump which will probably self destruct after a couple of uses, it fits in my DIY underseat storage bin so if I need it for my one leaking rim/beadseal I dont have to remove the load carried to get under the boot variofloor for the footpump.

AGFalco should post that on a taxi drivers forum for maximum effect!

Why not, it will be the force of atmospheric pressure that would re-expand this mythical collapsed tank holding a partial vacuum which allegedly collapsed it. All that would really happen in that scenario is that the engine would suffer fuel starvation Also the contributor who suggested this scenario has overlooked the fuel tank venting system, in fact I bet the filler caps no longer have an air bleed hole.

I replied on the other thread. It could be a fluid leak, its difficult to refit the hydraulic pipe to the master cylinder and the seal has to be put on precisely, it can leak and be unseen. To confirm or rule that out take the cap off the brake master cylinder reservoir and look at the level, if it is part way down and just beneath the take off point for the clutch cylinder then you have a leak somewhere in the clutch system, hopefully the master cylinder connection. If you can see fluid leaking from the gearbox bellhousing it will be a leaking concentric slave cylinder although usually they take in air without leaking.

Agreed but there is a price to pay in fuel consumption which is noticeable in summer, when you need the heating in winter the air is first cooled before then being heated up again, both consume energy. I tend to leave my AC (non climatronic) on during 3 seasons, in summer I keep it off until the outside temp is above 26° then I need the extra cooling, we had 43° last year, this August is looking to be hotter.

Loosen the rocker cover screws 😄 Engines never used to have this type of problem! Owatrol oil by Rustol will seal the surface corrosion against moisture and stop any further corrosion, thats what I would do if I were concerned.

On what?

Nothing to do with the slave cylinder.

Change your reading matter, the pressure in the hydraulic system os a function of the load required to overcome the pressure plate springs to release the clutch driven plate, it is effectively a constant. The mechanic changed the master cylinder first because it is easier and cheaper than changing the concentric slave cylinder I bet your vehicle has which means removing the gearbox.

It wont be an air lock in a filler hose of that diameter. Something must be blocking the filler hose, think back to the previous fill up, did anything abnormal happen? Did you fill to the top of the neck? Was the pump nozzle hard to remove? Could something have fallen off of the filler nozzle? When you tried to refill did you get any fuel in like 1/2 - 1 litre or was the filler neck overflowing when you removed the cap?

No, removal of it will make no change to the battery or terminal 30 voltage, it is a shunt resistor, without it the system cannot monitor how much charge or discharge is going to/from the battery so cannot implement the regenerative charging strategy, it defaults to the equivalent of the older voltage regulated alternator charging albeit probably not done in the alternator but by the Battery Control Module.

The noise will increase when you take a left or right hand bend as the suspension loads the worn bearing, noise on RH bend = bearing on LHS, the noise may also decrease when you take the opposite bend further confirming the diagnosis. Front or rear wheel bearing? Well you need your MK1 lugholes to decide that.