J.R.

If you mean the chirping noise that I can hear then its the alternator pulley one way sprag clutch, you will see the auxiliary drive belt jumping bcak and forth in time with it. Your description also matches somewhat a partial failure of the aircon pulley shear plate.

Its hot here and I have brain fade! I meant removal of the calipers from the rear hubs, I thought for a moment that I must have said disconnect. Surely the CV bolts can be undone once the crossmember is removed to avoid struggling under the vehicle?

Positive crankcase pressure is normal but yours wheezing like a 40 a day smoker will no doubt be quite extreme. High tickover, high fuel consumption and fan running after shutdown are all indications that it is permanently trying to regenerate the DPF, have someone do a VCDS scan to find the soot and oil ash loads plus differential pressure.

It's probably a more sure way of replacing the guibo coupling without grief moving the engine forward, while its all out the bushes etc can be checked.

Thanks, a picture is worth a thousand words. Loosen driveshafts I presume you mean the outer bolts while you have the weight on the wheels and the handbrake/in gear to react against the turning moment. You have convinced me that your way is better, I like the caliper removal!

Its both, the former as a consequence of the heat build up and fire risk of the latter.

Nope, mine still started and ran after the collision albeit with a dashboard like Xmas tree lights. Nope being to the question and not Roots reply.

Yes I can, I did my first driveway 35 years ago and am still doing them. Block paving drains around the edge of every brick through the jointing sand, the stuff that has been mandatory for a long time now has big gaps between filled with granular calcaire (I think), it would drain a tsunami. Impressioned concrete is an impervious solid slab, no drainage whatsoever, if there is not a significant fall water will pool. It also fills every false joint groove and has nowhere to go.

Of course it holds more water than block paving, concrete is pretty much impermeable, more so with the impressioned or helicopter floated stuff, (you cannot print concrete), block paving is permeable, the newer stuff extremely permeable. The OP's car is now sitting on pooling water, before it was on drained paving. Unless the OP is an Octopus he is not going to be able to change his air filter while lying on his back trying to see brake discs hidden by a backplate to please you. At least this time you didnt tell them to charge their battery. If you want to see rust on brake discs you simply need to look through the wheel spokes.

Ask what? All I knew was that frequently when I looked out of the left mirror it was partially misaligned, I never made the connection that I had recently adjusted the other one. When you adjust one mirror you dont expect the other to lose its position and you certainly wont be looking at it, well maybe once in 12 years 😒 Also correcting the left mirror did not do the same to the right one. An absolutely stupid feature, maybe there is a reason for a specific user but it should not be the programmed default and in the case of the MK1 require VCDS to deactivate it.

There is no such thing to my knowledge, there is an airbag control module located on top of the transmission tunnel, this will either need replacing or sending away to have the crash data removed & the unit reinitialised, about £30 In addition to the deployed airbags which are well visible the pryrotechnic charges in the front seatbelt pretensioners will most likely have deployed, there are companies that will sell you reconditioned belt units with new charges in exchange for your old units. I found an Eastern European guy around Heathrow or maybe Hounslow, he did me a deal on airbags, seat belts and a remanufactured dashboard (airbag rips through the top of it!) but this was pre Brexit and he was concerned that he would not be able to import the parts from his EU country afterwards, ironic because all the RHD components like mine came from written off UK vehicles that were exported to his country for breaking and the parts then coming back via specialists like himself!

I'm working from probably a mistaken memory, I was thinking that the subframe contained the rear suspension, driveshafts, rear hubs and wheels, the whole rear end, from what you have said it now sounds like the suspension and wheels remain on the vehicle. So basically remove exhaust, remove propshaft coupling (easier said than done), remove driveshafts, release subframe bolts and raise car to remove subframe and diff unit? I know I have missed some details like Haldex connector, brake pipes etc.

Please update us with your progress, you are breaking new ground here for the Northern Hemisphere!

That is not enabled as a link, it looks like a file on your computer.

I'm not even sure that the rear tracking (toe in angle) is adjustable on the rear, what happens is the axle becomes misaligned and is not at 90° to the vehicle centre line (thrust angle) and the same can happen at the front, when its the rear its a very serious matter as one wheel will be toeing out making for snap oversteer. When its the front you just have to apply some steering input to maintain a straight trajectory. I made up a measuring fixture using a laser spirit level set to the wheel rims and measuring the distance to the B post aimed from all 4 wheels, the rear axle was very slightly out, the front by a long way, I could not apply enough force to the rear subframe retaining bolts to loosen them so had to align the front axle to the rear rather than both to the vehicle. Now I have a decent battery impact wrench they might loosen, they wouldn't for my air one. I like the idea of raising the shell from the subframe, thankks for the suggestion, the only drawback would be the vehicle would have to remain in place or sit on dollys, I think it will make the whole job easier though, some brake bleeding being the only drawback but as long as very little fluid is lost then the ABS block wont need purging.

We will see. Once the original one was coaxed out and the hole honed out fitting a replacement is a 3 minute job with the car on its wheels so no hassle at all to me. Now you have made me think of it I am going to order a couple of the real cheap Ali-Express ones to keep in stock.

Thanks Dilbert I will investigate further. Diff assemblys are very heavy these days, a Sierra diff was more than twice the weight of a traditional Ford live axle unit going back to the 105E days, the latter easy to remove on your back, the former really needing lifting support. The combined Haldex unit will be really heavy and I'd much rather not add the weight of the subframe to it as I will be working on my back. Also after removing the front crossmember to remove the gearbox despite marking the location bolts & washers with spray paint before removal the car crabbed afterwards & I could not realign it with my home made laser set up without springing it using a 3 tonne ratchet between it and the rear crossmember. Leaving the crossmember in situ avoids the chance of rear end steering.

Yeah, like I am ever going to do that! 🤣 It does work if you reset it on the move, the first time the light came on genuinely before the fault I stopped & checked the pressures, the front left indicated on the maxidot was indeed 3 or 4 psi down which impressed me. Not low enough for me to empty the load to find the footpump but I wanted a warning if it went down further so I just messed around with the button until it reset. I was doing it loads while driving when the LHR ABS sensor was playing up, more convenient and safer to do it straight away while driving to get back the AS and other systems that it disabled.

You reset it after having ensured the pressures are correct by pressing and holding the TPMS button while driving in a straight line, it should give a confirmation "bong" and the light go out if accepted. Given your having driven over a pothole I'm fairly convinced you will have cracked the magnet in the NSR ABS sensor, I have just replaced mine after having put up with the exact same symptoms for several months eventually losing all ABS, ASR, TPMS and whatever else functions, dashboard lit up like a christmas tree, I had clipped a kerb with the exact same wheel as you which takes some doing given as we drive on the other side of the road here! Sensor replaced and everything back to normality, they are dirt cheap, about €2.50 from Ali-Express, €10 from Ebay or add several zeros from Skoda! Very very easy to replace, you dont even need to jack up the car but it will make life easier if you do and remove the wheel.

I think you might get a nasty surprise when it is landed and could be asked to pay 20% VAT on the UK price, that could be why they intend removing the markings. I don't want to put you off as I would really like to see how it works out for you, I could take the same route myself. I believe Ebay have to take care of the import duties etc and you in turn pay them, its usually shown under the delivery cost so you should be OK unless a customs official thinks the value is significantly higher.

Couplings are available from many sources at wildly varying prices, yours looks OK, I mistakenly thought mine had seperated when I saw the split which shows well in your photo, the new one is exactly the same, try pulling the outer ring backwards and forwards, if there is only a small movement for a lot of force your coupling is fine. How did you find the Chinese diff unit and do you know if it is local manufacture? The assembly lines there may well use the same major powertrain components like engines, transmission & diffs from the European manufacturer but dont put the stupid mark ups on them that VAG do in Europe. It's crazy when you get the same component delivered half way around the world for 1/4 of the price.

Why the need to remove the upper steering cowl? I can release the airbag on my car without disturbing it and it looks to be still in place in your photo. Scrub that, the photo shows the top of the steering wheel boss and not the cowl but I still cant see what its removal aids, perhaps the airbag clips are different, on mine I have to push in a short screwdriver or drift in line with the steering column axis short enough to not hit the instrument glass (plastic!) Great guide which should save people loads of grief and money.

It took me 12 years to work out what the feck was going on with my mirrors!

A Chinese manufactured one is around £100 from someone like Maxpeedingrods.

Agreed but its low down enough to probably not be noticeable, I would keep the repair and fade out as small as possible so as to remain in the overhung section if that makes any sense.