J.R.

Even standard engine diff & Haldex oils swell the seals and make the plastic pump bores oval on both my vacuum and syringe type oil suckeruppers, the latter does not even come into contact with the liquid, they would not last 10 minutes with any cleaning solvent, I have yet to find a pump spray that can resist brake cleaner and carbon on an inlet valve would just laugh at that stuff.

I can only speak from a couple of decades of regularly decoking engines as we once had to do before detergent fuels, often there was oily carbon build up on the back of the inlet valves sometimes almost blocking the inlet tract, and whilst it was easier to remove than the grey coked on deposits on the piston crowns, combustion chambers, valve heads and the tulip of the exhaust valve I don't think any solvent would touch it other than a 48 hour trichloroethylene heated vapour bath. I used to spin the valves in my lathe or pillar drill and use a carbide scraper, walnut blasting unquestionably works and Mr Muscle oven cleaner works OK on turbo vanes but I dont think a brush and solvent is going to do it for you without mechanical scraping with curved spoon like tools with a cutting edge & then removal of the debris by vacuum. If you were able to get access to work on the back of the valve head you would most certainly need to rotate it to get to all of it, I'm not sure how you would achieve that.

Tailgaters I brake test systematically, not just a little dab but a full on stomp on the pedal, in the Nord the reaction was complete shock and often fear, they would hold right back or even stop, never an escalation as I would be prepared for in the UK. Now in the Sud Ouest a considerable number do become visually aggressive but in France it's only ever hot air, tailgating is far worse here than in the Nord not that I would have believed it possible! The other danger is the exaggerated "swoop" when they overtake, they change lanes so vigourously that many lose control in doing so, I have witnessed several from in front and behind, also by tailgating they cannot see the road ahead which means they either continue to do so when there is ample opportunity to overtake or they swoop out into the path of an unseen oncoming vehicle, I was the victim on the recieving end of this once, a long line of cars coming in the other direction when the second car back swooped out like a Scalextric car in a cross over chicane directly in front of me, luckily I had a lightning fast reaction and did the same onto the grass verge, he did nothing but if he did steer back after having unsettled the car so much it would have probably rolled. On a daily basis I see cars on their rooves in fields a long way from the road, always on long straight stretches, never ever another damaged vehicle or any skid marks.

Basic towbar from Ebay, high impedance trailer relay and wiring kit was about £115 from Ebay for my Yeti, it was identical to the one already fitted to my previous Octavia 2. Fitting very easy, about 90 minutes all in, allow double if its the first time you have done one. I agree with you that £750 is far too much for me, others are happy to pay for the placebo effect of believing they might one day have some benefit from alleged alterations to electronic stability sessions, I prefer to drive withn the limits of the towed ensemble and proactively avoiud any such situation. I have given you what you asked for "easiest wiring loom fitting advice and the simplest towbar to fit thats pulling a 8x4 Ft trailer" I apologise in advance for the flood of criticism which will inevitably follow from the evangelists wanting you to pay £750 and probably still end up with the same set up. You will also most likely see a groan emoticon awarded to me for this response.

Its a dry break coupling made for specific quick connectors, different sizes for the high and low side circuits. The couplings should have screw on dust covers, these if fitted and tightened will stop any leak, its not their primary function and many garages seem to lose them when they recharge, if the Schrader valves dont leak then it makes no odds but the dust that gets in usually ensures that they will leak after the next time a coupling is connected. Get some covers, screw them on and forget about it, with luck at the next recharge the valve will seal again. If you saw the bubbling after removing the caps that can be quite normal as a minute amount of gas will pass the seal and sit in the cap at system pressure, it wont boil off until the cap is removed. hope that helps!

The difference is that they are trims and not the bodywork, "trim" implys a cosmetic function and they can be removed and replaced, quite how far they could take that I dont know as front wings are bolt on, knowing VAG they would try! I expect if you look at the T&C's of the corrosion warranty it will have a definition for bodywork and what is covered.

How could you even think of telling Battery Man to forget about battery charging? You sound like a man whose battery charger is inappropriate and who needs to read his owners manual 🤣

A simple and usefull anti-theft tip if you are going away on holiday & the car and its keys remain at home.

Well done!

Sounds very plausible Ken in terms of the drag but the handbrake should be able to return fully even with a siezed cable as the compensator would just slide back over the cable inner. Does the OP have a "Big Box" type centre console with the sliding plastic tambour hiding the handbrake mechanism? This could be binding or snagging preventing the handbrake releasing fully.

That video has convinced me, I am going to buy and fit an OEM trailer module and code it in so I can drive like that in the wet with my laden 2750kg trailer 😆

Likely the former, I take it that you removed them one at a time? You may have removed one from a slot and replaced it into a vacant slot beside it, the vacant slots usually dont have any terminals in them, you could look to see if there are any vacant slots with terminals visible, they might even have bright metal where the fuse was inserted, if so then remove the fuses either side of said slot, if one of them does not have any terminals then you will have found the misplaced fuse. Someone with access to a wiring or fuse diagram will hopefully tell you what fuse or lack thereof is likely to be the culprit.

I agree with modern drivers who have never known any different and who are being groomed to accept driverless cars, constant examples of that on this very forum. I notice whats happening, I know what is happening, how and and why it is happening because I have invested my time to understand, I appreciate the benefits but I also know absolutely when I don't want these things to happen when they would be counter-productive, thankfully at least some of the systems can be switched off, unfortunately that is far more of a danger to the majority of todays drivers than it is a benefit to the few so will soon become a thing of the past. I did a days instructing at Croix en Ternois circuit (very sinuous with 3 180° hairpin bends) I used my MK1 Octavia to show people the lines and for guest Hot Laps. The car was not accelerating correctly out of the hairpins, important with a long straight to follow, the traction control was too aggressive for a circuit limiting the power, I could do far better myself modulating the throttle as I always have done (another skill lost to recent generations) however when I switched it off with the ASR (I think) button I found that I was no longer able to clip the centre apex on the corners with ease and was apexing early on exit, the car was understeering and adapting to it was reducing my corner exit speed, the cars trajectory control system even back then was better than mine, the traction control not so. So I do indeed understand and appreciate the benefits to the majority but towing a laden trailer is a responsability, the aim is to avoid any potential situation, you should never be driving anywhere near the limit where a vehicles stabilty control systems are solicitted except in an emergency evasive manouevre, the trouble is with these systems people don't even realise that their unladen driving is already invoking these systems as yoou cannot feel them and if they are looking at the road ahead instead of at their smartphones they will not register the momentary flashing of the dashboard icon. They are then likely to drive in a similar manner with a laden and perhaps negative noseweighted trailer. Like I say, not for me, others are free to make their own choice and do what they wish with their money, you wont find me telling them they are wrong or should do as I do, all I ask is that others behave in a similar fashion.

EGR valve? (Exhaust gas recirculation valve) Maybe a sticking actuator mechanism on the EGR?

Thankyou as ever for your kind words Graham. I have been fitting towbars and regularly towing vehicles for close to 50 years, I know what works for me and I don't try to tell others what to do, they like me can make their own choices based on their own needs. It would be nice if others were able to do the same rather than posting insults and awarding groan emojis.

Your car presumably is a diesel so will have glowplugs but not spark plugs. What is "Autonater on exost" or "Autonater sensor"? I am guessing you mean alternator and exhaust but the alternator will not be on the exhaust, it is the other side of the engine and to my knowledge does not have a sensor. If your vehicle is showing an EML light then it will have a corresponding fault code logged, what does the garage say that it is? Without that information your postings are hard to interpret. What parts does your mechanic think were supplied faulty?

I knew that would be not long in coming I dont have reversing sensors and on the last vehicle that did they were not set off by the towed trailer & even if they were I would have just ignored them as I did most of the time when they were reacting to side walls etc not in my trajectory. I do not want towing stability control, I have my own highly developed version refined over close to 50 years of towing that starts by avoiding the situations that I had already experienced and learned how to control, and that goes for general car control, reacting to and above all avoiding over and understeer, skidss etc, something modern drivers will never get to develop. If I am ever unfortunate enough to end up with a vehicle where a pigeon has spent a small fortune on the towbar I will disconnect and uncode the electronic module and replace it with a modern relay, the last thing I want if ever I get into a tank slapper from a poids lourd overtaking too close at speed is to end up fighting the computer like a Boing 737 max. Equally I dont want to be stuck laden a long way from home with non operational trailer lighting because "Computer says no!" nor do I want to have to use VCDS to see why something is not working, I carry the cable but not a laptop computer, my set up I can check with a multimeter.

The Rosstech help topics has one on clockprings, the functions that are supported vary on the various revision numbers, you should choose one with the suffix that supports the functions of your vehicle. It is the reason why when doing a cruise control or steering wheel controls upgrade the clockspring often has to be chnaged as well to a revision number that will support that function. Suffix number is probably a better term than revision number.

Towbar was the easiest that I have ever done and really cheap, IIRC £110 all in. Remove bumper, remove crash beam and discard, 2 bolts through each chassis rail & its done, OK a few bolts pre-assembling the sections on the bench before. The lower part of the bumper unclips so you can nibble out the cut out using snips (or even scissors!) bit by bit presenting it back in place to see if & where it needs relieving. The high impedance wiring relays work like a charm and do not load the circuit enough to disturb the bulb monitoring, the audible indicator warning is excellent and does not need faffing around spacing windings over a reed switch like in the past, it also changes pitch with volt drop so you can even test the rear lights and brake lights from the drivers seat by listening to the change of pitch of the indicator audible warning.

I meant buy one like I have not buy my one, it's not for sale, it's a keeper!!!!

If you are open to remapping then buy the cheaper asthmatic 108hp 4x4 variant that I have, it was transformed with a circa £250 remap to supposedly 184hp, I reckon its the 170hp map. I dont care what the ultimate power is, it now has the mid range and towing power that it lacked and which I needed, having a smaller turbo means it is more responsive low down, it will pull steadily from 850 rpm in top gear and with a wide open throttle from 1200 rpm, not that it is any way to drive it but it illustrates the torque & flexibility.

What does the dark blue and light blue represent? What does the red line going from 2015 to 2022 represent? Where does the data come from? My dog could have written the red & blue lines & the green squiggle, could you explain why yours would be any more plausible? Without the confusion of the graph you are speculating that used car prices will drop and I agree with you, your green line indicates a drop of 30% over 6 months? I can't see it from this editting screen, I cant see it being that quick but yes the correction should be of that order, used car stock is normally a depreciating asset.

I have one too and also a recent addition a twin axle dropside Ifor, both are very old, 33 years for one of them, the other not far short but aside from having been abused by builders all that time with zero maintenance the important bits, the chassis, axles & springs were all as new, brakes & couplings had all been worn out, seized and fallen off decades ago, it didn't cost a fortune to bring them back like new and they were worth it. The dropside is I think 520kg bare pluse the dropsides, ramps, spare wheel etc, both of them I have derated to maximum 500kg laden weight (go figure!) so as to avoid registration, insurance etc which would be impossible as there were no EU conformity certificates back then. I know what you mean, I still have to do that to a degree in my Yeti but a DSG would be a really smart choice if the clutches can take it, if they are oil bath ones then I can see no problem, there will be little load due to the torque multiplication in first gear and you will be revving a lot less than I have to.

That said 400kg is nothing compared to its towing capacity and ten times nothing compared to what it can actually tow and still manage hill starts. Your issue is the need to go very slowly and i completely understand, DSG is the way to go but it would be good to hear from someone that has had to regularly abuse theirs in a similar situation to yours.

I would definitely go for the DSG and actively avoid a manual gearbox with the 2.0TDi engine if I were in your shoes. Mine is a superb tow vehicle but hill starts towing fully laden with the very high first gear really burn the clutch and the smell is vomit inducing and hangs around for days. Mine really could do with a hi-lo range transfer gearbox like a proper 4x4.