J.R.

Are you seriously suggesting that the OP tops up his tank every time it drops by 2 litres? What possible benefit would that bring aside from perhaps amusing you? He has a maximum of 15.5% petrol content and the car is running fine, it will be half that or less if he drains some to re-use later, if he chooses not to then topping up after using 2 litres will reduce the percentage of petrol by 1.32%. Following your advice would have the OP stopping to refuel every 20 odd miles to reduce the concentration by 1%, it will never get to zero so when would you have him stop playing your game? You must be having a laugh?

Earlier vehicles had a duct going down from the slam panel to a low air intake to collect cooler air, I think it might even be the case on the MQB vehicles if you look closely. But just behind the slam panel there is a chamber with a clip off lid, the clips break easily and often the lid is missing, this chamber is to drain out any rain mist of road splash that is drawn up with the intake air, its second function is to ensure that if the vehicle wades and the intake is below the water level the engine will draw air from the drain channel of the chamber at bonnet level and not suck up any water from below, air being far less dense than water the engine will happily breath through the restricted secondary intake and not lift a column of liquid. To hydraulic lock the engine of one of these vehicles you would have to wade to the bonnet depth.

Not a very convincing excuse on his part!

With my suggestion it wont actually cost you any money (long term) if you have a jerrycan, it will give you piece of mind and might actually save you money if fuel prices keep increasing!

Given your username I'm wondering if the guilty party really was your wife 😆

What capacity of jerrycans do you have? Ideally you want at least 20 litres, if you have 2 making 40 litres then you are laughing. This is the procedure I would use whatever capacity of storage you have, use the preceeding advice as to how to pump the fuel out. Pump out the 20 litres (for this example), drive to closest garage and fill tank with diesel. When tank drains down to 1/2 or 3/4 (your choice) refill it from the contaminated fuel jerrycan. Continue dosing like this until you have used all the contaminated fuel. I helped a friend who had filled petrol on top of a nearly empty diesel tank, I siphoned off 2 jerrycans of mostly petrol and he refilled with diesel, I tried the mix in a lawn mower but it smoked and misfired so I was adding it gradually to every tank of diesel on my MK1 Octavia which had an old school mechanical pump, I went up to 10% petrol without any problems, in fact it ran sweeter. Yours if it is a common rail diesel I would not exceed 5% so would drain out 20 litres minimum, if its an old school mechanical injection pump then like Pete I would go for it at the current ratio unless it is running or starting badly.

I'll have you know that I resemble that comment! 😆 Works better in the spoken word with an outraged voice!

I thought it was a pig of a job on the 4x4 variants?

I dont think that can be the case Mike, there are many circumstances where either the NS or OS front wheel would slip before the other. The Haldex coupling also pre-emptively engages in many situations, I often feel mine snatch as it releases when I drive out of a car parking space using left or right lock to clear the cars opposite, it is engaged in anticipation and then releases when no wheel slip is detected and also probably because I am driving very slowly (system does not know that it wasn't a junction i wanted to sprint across) but by that time there has been some transmission wind up, in other driving conditions I would be accelerating and not notice the wind up. No movement but were there revs and wheelspin from wheels without traction? It sound like no so its not a case of the coupling not engaging (although it may well not have) but something preventing or limiting the drive torque, I believe you have an auto or DSG? With a manual you would know and feel exactly what was happening.

Another fault code that says exactly the opposite of what the actual fault is! Glad to hear the engine is back on form and thanks for the info.

Would that be 30cm squared (sorry cannot do the uppercase numbers) as an area should be expressed? In which case your damage covers more than 30 cm squared. Are some of those rust damage?

On close inspection the locking nut cover will have a larger raised diameter tucked down in the wheel bolt hole counterbore. I can never see which is which unless I kneel down with my face level with the axle.

They all do that Sir!

The poster boys for drag racing!

I completely agree, for now I really appreciate the benefits of the system whilst realising that it is the engines achilles heel, at the first indication of any malfunction I will disconnect the connector from the actuating valve. The system is designed to fail safe, either the shroud becomes sticky mechanically or the actuating valve sticks or gets debris on the seating area, hopefully when I disconnect mine the shroud will be retracted, if not then it will get given the good news with a lead shot filled rubber mallet to persuade the shroud to retract.

The danger is that the problem is not the rack (more precisely the controller) at all and after shelling out all the money it still does not work and with the same fault codes, in that scenario its better that you have bought the cheapest replacement or would they then blame that? Have they tried to do the adaptation of the steering angle sensor and come up against a comms error?

If it is the case that a so called reconditioned rack has failed presumably fairly quickly should you really be looking to find the cheapest offering? I would be looking for an OE one from a scrapped car.

What oversight? What did they omit to do?

Buy the new one, you will see from the clips how it fits, then you can destroy the old one to remove it if need be. Or when you see the price of the new one you might decide scruffy (in your eyes) is not so bad after all.

I know how hard it can be, there are so many symbols on the self test and they go out so quickly, you have to know what you are looking for and where!

It sounds like they are worth their weight in gold! Another garage may have already been firing the parts cannon by the sound of things.

Steering angle sensor needs resetting is all that it is. The procedure is under basic settings in VCDS. Maybe now is the time to invest in VCDS, its a lot cheaper than a new steering rack which would need the procedure doing in any case and would thus show the same fault codes. Cheaper also than paying a mechanic with a multi-marque diagnostic software kit who does not really know or understand the problem.

Does the regen indicator illuminate during the self test when the ignition is first switched on? 💡 Someone might have been doing a bit of covering up.

For sometimes read always in any competitive national series. I have seen people decide to scrub their new tyres on the practice or test day before race day and during qualifying, it cost them dearly, not only did they look like they were standing still compared to those on scrubbed tyres new or old but they came close to several "offs" even trying to tag onto the novices at the rear, not only that but all they achieved was to wear the inside edge off the tyre down to the canvas or to below the legal limit and hence failed scrutineering and could not race unless they bought a new set of tyres from the series tyre sponsor support vehicle and then paid to have them scrubbed. So a tyre with 8mm nominal tread was dangerous to drive at speed yet far slower than the other identical vehicles on worn or scrubbed tyres, the tyres were rendered useless within one practice session, yet the vehicles shod with the exact same new tyres but scrubbed to 2.4mm could be a fron runner over several races and practice sessions whilst remaining within the legal tread depth, some would even drive to and from the meetings. One August bank holiday weekend I drove to Northern France on slicks to take part in the annual hillclimb weekend with a group of friends. There was no rain during the time. The hillclimb was on a closed public road and the park fermé was in the town square, the competitors were escorted between the two by the Gendarmerie so once at the campsite in the town driving on slicks was no problem as no different to any of the other competitors.

No, you have a dragging handbrake on the RH rear wheel. Even a bearing where the wheel is about to fall of will not generate any measurable amount of additional heat compared to that already present from the brake discs. But it's good that you have found the cause, it will be the handbrake mechanism on the caliper not returning fully which you can see from the angle of the operating arm, some people fit an additional spring that was a standard fitment on earlier calipers to overcome the problem.