J.R.

From what you have achieved so far I would say you are more than competent to complete the job, you are not hampered by thinking you know it all like me when I was young and are asking all the right questions before taking any wrong steps. Its just such a shame that you should have to be doing this, I hope in the end it works out to be a reliable and still cheapish vehicle.

Someone has had to disc cut through a rounded off nut. Do you know why the vehicle ended up at Copart, was there any accident damage? Its a little concerning that sh1tters like that are being passed on to unsuspecting punters via Copart if they have not been written off.

That will be excellent then, far more solid than my Ali-Express one, bear in mind the probable rear projection though if you intend using the load space. Forget that, I see you have already fitted one to the other Yeti!

How many times will you be towing? You have an excellent twoing vehicle (everybody says so) and no lack of performance, a change of rear springs will make it worthy of its name! The A4 or another vehicle bought for towing might compromise the majority of your other mileage. It most likely is or would be if they had not decomposed as they like to do, they are not a virtually solid bump stop like the rubber ones between a leaf sprung axle and the chassis, on the Superb like all the other models they are a foam concentric bellows around the shock absorber spindle, much more progressive in action, they decompose all on their own but if they endure constant cycling like yours will at that lowered ride height they have a very short life, the first sign is usually a rattling or scraping as the dust cover drops down. I'm sure your ride and handling will improve both when towing and unladen with a pair of uprated rear springs and new bump stop sleeves, neither have a very long life on these vehicles because they are so undersprung, Carlston will probably confirm that your rear springs are a Golf fitment.

I was going to suggest that but thought that both were probably loaded close to the limit, now we have the numbers there is some room for adjustments and that is the obvious one. I am usually loading a flat load space with no rear seats so this is of no use to Swirly with the family but I try to put all the heavy items in the rear footwells and also the front passenger footwells, anything heavy as far forward as I can get within the limits of practicality, at the rear behind and over the axle is generally just my small backpack with clothes, the coolbox and coolbag etc. Another thing to check when the rear suspension is sagging like that is that when you couple the trailer look at the front suspension and not the rear, you may well notice that the front of the car actually lifts as the noseweight creates a turning moment about the rear axle, this I don't need to mention is very undesirable. All these things can happen yet the weights remain within the specified limits showing that a common sense approach is needed. With the stiffer rear springs on the Yeti and my penchant for a higher than normal noseweight the lifting of the front of the vehicle is very noticable meaning I have to redistribute the trailer load.

Agreed on all of those but the rear suspension is far too low even without the rear seat passengers, the jockey wheel is very low, maybe you can remove it, it will ground on say the entrance to a field or on traffic calming measures. The big concern will be the wear on the inner edge of the rear tyres due to the excessive camber change on the VAG setup. The problem is not the nose weight of the caravan but the settled position of the probably weakened rear suspension springs, they are already on the bump stops before the vehicle encounters any suspension movement or pitching from the long single axle caravan.

Helper springs worked well on my MK1 Octavia and were very easy to fit, I used Grayston ones as I had an account with them but all todays offerings are far too expensive and much more than the uprated OE ones from Killen or Lesjofors (made in same factory on same tooling). I eventually fitted Cop spec springs from a Police car in a scrapyard and they worked better than the helper springs.

Is it like the Jumbo box on Octavias? Its something that my car really lacked and I bought one from Ali-Express (thanks to a tip off by Mike The Thinker👍), it wobbles a bit compared to a proper Jumbo box but is easily removeable which due to the very restricted loading area in the Yeti I frequently have to do, only yesterday in fact for a box 1.66m long x 60cm wide which the octavia would have swallowed. Is your OE box removeable? Does it project behind the front seats? - Something maybe to bear in mind. I also modified an Octavia ashtray cover flap to cover the open storage cubby in front of the gearlever, it always looked tatty and unfinished and I did not like having the junk I keep in there Storecards, business cards, trolley tokens etc etc on show plus it filled up with dust. I also fitted a dashtop storage box from a higher spec model which gives a flush surface rather than the stupid recessed tray that gathered dust and stuff slid around in on corners.

And start chain smoking to have a matching headlining!

They are actually very strong but the bumper is remarkable for the amount of impact it can absorb and return to its original shape with very little sign of damage. My car has the original bumper unrepaired and only showing a few light scratches yet the impact bent the crash bar, set off the airbags (writing the vehicle off) and of course broke most of the headlamp tabs. I plastic welded mine before buying new LHD units for use in France, its not a string repair however there are stitching kits available from China that use an instant heat soldering gun which take staples that glow red hot that you create stitches with across the repair area before adding reinforcement of either glue or plastic welding. Those replacement tabs look like a good idea and would have saved me a lot of time.

The second photo shows that your rear springs are shot even without the noseweight of the caravan plus luggage, rear seat passengers etc. Unless of course it had a pallet of bricks in the rear! For my last 2 vehicles I have used the "rough road package" springs specified by VAG and made by Lesjofors, they have been excellent for towing, the standard springs even if they are not shot are appaling for towing or even just carying rear seat passengers, I suspect yours like mine will have broken spring ends.

Agreed but where for instance the mudulating valve is not actuating no fault code will appear. There is a measuring block called "Compressor shut down codes" which will reveal most reasons for the aircon not cooling. If the system is showing no fault codes or shut down codes and the aircon commanded with a compressor load and modulating valve current, (both of which are ficticious and misleading as if there is no cooling there will be no load or current, its just theoretical values) then the problem will be either a stuck modulating valve or the compressor hub shear plate broken (or stripped splines in the hub) which can be seen visually.

The other reason for the hidden dumb key is in case I lose my keyring away from the home, I have spare proper chipped key hidden inside the vehicle, the dumb key will get me in so I can retrieve the chipped key unfortunately with the alarm sounding. The other unfortunate thing is that I have forgotten where I hid the chipped key inside the vehicle

Re the dumb key. I have one which will open the drivers door but not start the engine, I use it to lock my keys inside (hidden) and then either put it back in its hiding place or take it with me in the small pocket of my running shorts. The problem I have is when I open the drivers door with the dumb key it sets off the alarm which draws attention to what i am doing and an onlooker might see where I stash the dumb key. The internal sensor disable function does nothing as the act of unlocking the door with a non chipped key sets the alarm off, I have tried all sorts of settings in VCDS, Thatcham etc some of which definitely say create a delay to the sounder during which I could put the real key in the ignition but none of them seem to work or even do anything. Does anyone have any suggestions other than disconnecting and coding out the alarm? I had no problems doing what I want on my MK2 Octavia which is the same platform.

Its all about perception and being aware of your surroundings, a challenge for those who spend their life staring at their phones. I would never want auto-locking and have disabled it on the cars that were enabled, they all have had a manual door locking button which I use maybe 2 or 3 times a year when I have to stop in an area that I percieve could present a risk, to date it has never been necessary, I dont consider myself to live and drive in an unusually safe area, I live at the epicentre of a very large and widespread gens de voyage community.

40cm longer than mine, no way would I want to tow a single axle version at that length especially with the long overhang of the Superb and an additional 400kg payload in the vehicle and with standard suspension. You are also way beyond the 85% kerbweight guideline, OK its not enforceable and I can't talk given what I regularly tow but the very short rear overhang of the Yeti is a great advantage especially with uprated springs. I had the brown trouser tank slapper moment of a lifetime on the M25 towing a twin axle removal trailer with the MK1 Octavia which prompted me to uprate the rear suspension.

Drive it like that and you will see the insides of your rear tyres disappear before your eyes to be replaced by shredded steel and canvas plies. Dont ask me how I know. These vehicles drag their ar5e simply with passengers in the rear let alone luggage and trailer nose weight, there are none showing in the photo but given the bunk beds in the caravan I am betting you have rear passengers when you tow. I have uprated the rear springs on all 3 of my Skoda tow vehicles, the unladen ride height may look a bit odd but the unladen ride and handling is unchanged, the laden/towing ride and handling is transformed and no inner tyre wear. I have done 45000 miles on the Yeti tyres and they were second hand when I got it, by carefully rotating them and tweaking the pressures all 4 now are evenly scrubbed with approx 3.6mm tread depth which will last a very long time, many more miles per mm than the initial wear and they grip superbly for the first time. The only problem is them being visible in the open wheel arches people keep remarking that my tyres are bald, they are not even down to the 3mm tread wear indicators which are nearly twice the legal limit, it shows that most people have to replace their tyres through uneven wear well before they need to, they think an evenly scrubbed tyre must be illegal! The very first job I did on the Yeti was to uprate the rear springs as even then there were signs of the inside rear edges wearing, had I not done so I would have had to replace them twice over by now as I have done tens of thousands of miles towing overloaded trailers and of course the caravan.

Your car is draggin its ar5e like a dog with worms! What length and weight is the caravan? Mine is a 6.4m twin axle, 1485kg I think, its static now as I am living in it during my building works, it only got towed here and will be towed to the next owner, all tyres well perished by the sun.

I have only quoted the initial relevant part which I guess is your answer to my question and not the diversionary waffle that followed. You would have had more credibility by saying "The Magic Money Tree". I feel doubly sorry for a dealer having sold a second hand VAG vehicle and 2 years later facing a claim for repair costs of £7.5k if the customer was of that mindset. I guess there is no point asking you to explain how forking out £7.5k for a gearbox fault that in no way is of their doing is going to cost them less as it's not your problem.

Is the "Illiterate Mickey Muppet Roadshow" acceptable?

Why diagonally? What if the tyres are directional?

But you will be remembered for them or the 100 and oneth time? "A pump problem is EXACTLY what it is"

Do cigarette packets no longer have the silver foil fuse repair liner these days? 🤣

Well done and a big thankyou to BreezyPete, its people like him that make this forum so great!

If your mechanic was aware of that and if it was the only key then he should never have done any of the needless work that you have been charged for. It absolutely is the immobiliser, that is exactly what it would do if a non recognised RFID key was used to try and start the engine, he does not know what he is talking about. TBH its sounds like your mechanic is way beyond his competence level and costing you wasted money. I believe a locksmith can only clone a working key, not create a new RFID key if the others are lost or broken, try around, I hope you will prove me wrong.