J.R.

They are accessible, you can get a spanner on them, whether you could apply enough force to loosen them is another matter, under a ramp maybe, on your back I doubt it. And then is there sufficient space to remove them from above or lift them enough to release the threads? The latterv possibly, the former no. Thats why I am hoping there are some access holes or the bolt positions are such that making some is possible. I would really appreciate it of someone with a clear boot could lift up their carpet and look for me.

The first few seconds made me want to abandon the video instantly, but for my interest in the subject I should have done, I managed 3/4 of it and now need to sit down in a dark quiet room for a long time. How does the guy manage to breath? Imagine having no choice but to spend time with someone like that

I have done some exploratory probing but from on my back, the diff does bolt in from the top (upper bolts) but if the bolts can be removed from above it should slide forward and out. I could not see or feel if there were access holes with plugs and the space under my boot vario floor is too full of tightly packed breakdown & survival stuff for me to dig it out and see. If you can get your car up on a ramp you should be able to see if it will come out, I reckon there is space if the bolts can be accessed and removed

It does not have a clutch. I have used one of the Ali-express shear plates and it failed in about 6 weeks, the splined hub was made of cheese and stripped out, if I replace one now I fit the hub with a high strength Loctite. You did not say what your failure mode was. I was correct about my bad regrigerant filling having stressed the shear plate, it failed about this time last year, I used the spare hub drive that I had, the ali-Express one with the spare pulley that I had as it was compatible, what I didn't know was that the bearing was rumbly. My shear plate came from Eastern Europe without the pulley, I might try to source a compatible Ali-Express one with pulley and try that, do you have a listing suitable for the VAG pump? That one does look identical.

A noisy wheel bearing will not usually show any play unless it has been ignored for a very very long time. Not necessarily true, they will spin the wheel whilst listening for a rumble, often putting a finger on the hub carrier to feel it, quite a task with the resistance of the driveshaft and brake disc but it would certainly result in an advisory

You (and I) missed out on the payment of a couple of grand had you registered with the ambulance chasers, too late now.

More blithering verbose nonsense, the alternator will give the battery a full charge just like the other 1.4 billion vehicles on the worlds roads. The OP should be thankfull that you are in Northampton.

He is talking out of his rear orifice, your vehicle has a minimum of a 140 ampere alternator, that is over 2 horsepower, driving for 10 minutes will be more than adequate, dont leave it too long before going for the drive because the vehicle has started once now on a warm battery depleting it somewhat, as it cools the cell voltage will drop.

None of my scans since 2021 have found there way to the folder even though I have clicked on the icon "save results", the folder is a seperate icon on my desktop which I think Mike the Thinker may have done for me or perhaps it was automatic. In any case I cannot save scans or if I can then I cannot find them, I'm nul when it comes to computers, can anyone advise? It is a legal version of VCDS bought from Gendan and has the latest software revision, my gut feeling is that the function was lost during a software upgrade to a "new and enhanced user experience"

I ordered the wrong sensor by mistake, got the correct one today and all warning lights now extinguished 👍 It's interesting with regards to the parts prices, I did not return the incorrect one even though it was allowed because the cost of me returning it and of them sending it out in the first place would have exceeded the value. The new one was only €9.46 and the sender, a business sending out thousands of auto parts had paid €7.40 for postage as witnessed by the stamps used. The part and jiffy bag weighed less than 20 grammes, no wonder my country is in such a state when they screw the citizens and businesses to that degree but allow special low postage rates for Chinese imports, I could have made 5 seperate purchases and recieved 5 deliveries to my door from China for the same price. The seller will not have paid any more than 50cts - 99cts for the part, how much do Skoda shaft you for? Breezy Pete will know, the correct part number was WHT003857

They wont be too bothered about being the laughing stock of a small group of anorak fanboys. Remember all the derision about Japanese motorcycles and cars in the 70's, Jap Crap etc? They were the laughing stock of the ignorant then but who had the last laugh?

For the cost of someone to check it over you could buy a set of guages and a vacuum pump if you can find a source for the gas, it has expanded my knowledge. The VAG system measures the high side pressure which equals the low side pressure when the system is not running. The modulating valve can be replaced but you lose the gas unless you have the means to recover it.

They are not bolts but rivets as I explained, I could have drilled them out and fitted rivnuts but I really needed Hank anchor rivet bushes to have the same strength and my stock was in a different country. Never in a million years would I have considered using a nut & bolt like the Polish outfit suggest, the clearance holes for the rivets are too large and it would shake to pieces, my solution was to use another pulley that I had which had tapped holes compatible with the shear plate that i had bought, like the X8R one you illustrated.

Who did a regas? How and for what reason?

It is a meaningless figure all it is telling you is it thinks it is pumping because the modulating valve is being pulsed and that is what the calculated current would be, it's not even measured. That you have no cold air tells a different but true story. Why do you say that 5 bar refrigerant pressure is fine? That would correspond to the low side pressure at circa 23°c without the system running, the system measures the high side which will be in equilibrium with the low side when not commanded = not pumping or cooling. The high side should rise to 10 bar at which point the fans will cut in, the flow is then regulated by the modulating valve till the high side pressure stabilises at around 6.5 bar, the low side pressure (which you cannot see) will drop proportionately. It sounds like you have a near fully charged system, my guess is the modulating valve is sticking or the shear plate has gone on the pulley, the latter can be checked visually. Most of the VCDS measurements are useless and simply calculated values, the compressor shut down codes are very usefull but I'm not sure if you have access to them, most of the time VCDS will say it is working, ie commanded and no fault codes yet the evaporator temperature tells a different story, at that stage you need someone who knows how to work with their hands and eyes and a manifold set and not a computer or smartphone.

I looked to see what engine the OP had but all his profile said was VRS.

Straighten it!

EGR cooler.

The shear plate in the photograph will not fit on the pulley that you have, been there got the T-shirt, those hex bolts are actually rivets. I had bought one so had to dig out a pulley of of an old compressor that had the tapped holes for the shear plate, problem being is that the bearing is noisy. Bearing assembly comes away easily when the large circlip is removed, the problem you will have is removing the bolt holding the shear plate hub to the pump shaft if the shear plate has detached itself, an impact gun may help, years back I ended up wrecking a compressor by trying to lock the shaft to remove the bolt (think it was a nut then) the shaft was thinner than I thought and it bent, be warned! Editted, not a problem now I look at the photo, you have plenty to grab hold off, the one I broke was a MK1 Octy with the electro-magnetic clutch.

"Heavy Duty" as written on every car battery sold for the last 40 years regardless of its capacity! I would be really surprised if your vehicle is overdamped on bump travel, they usually only change the rebound valving for different spring rates. The sprung mass of your vehicle is the same whether it has standard or so called "Heavy duty" suspension

Tywraps then, or for double security tywraps and gaffer tape. Just dont carry anything with the rails 👍

How did you get the car open? Were the keys made by VAG? If not then I don't understand how they could have programmed the immobiliser chip. I just did a test on my 2015 Yeti, the results might give you some knowledge. I have a dumb key with no chip that I use to get in the vehicle after I have been running, I removed my main keys from the ignition (it had been switched off for an hour) and used the dumb key, the instrument panel lit up and the maxidot said "key not found" or similar, engine would crank but not fire. Sounds like you are correct to start checking the fuses.

Your old shocks were knackered, of course new ones will give a more controlled firmer ride.

You have inadvertently knocked the stalk switch to the forward position? Happens frequently on mine, I think its a warning and my first reaction is always to return it to the off position.

It won't happen.