J.R.

Hear hear!

Hear hear!

Then you want to stick with standard discs then, all of the others will have some degree of increased dust and possibly noise, none of them have a greater coefficient of friction than a plain standard disc.

I will have to go out and get me one of them then without delay! NOT! Chief Brody says I'm going to need a bigger notepad for my list of reasons not to buy a newer car.

EGR takes pre DPF exhaust gases AFAIK.

no, its a very crude device in the hydaulic line that allowe you to disengage (foot down) the clutch as fast as you like but it limits the speed at which it can be engaged (foot up) if you bring the pedal up quickly or sidestep the clutch they in their wisdom decide it should slip rather than load the drivetrain. Even when my Yeti was only developing 108hp, less than that with the clagged up intake, a couple of times pulling away smartly I had clutch slip and wondered if I had imagined it, I expected that with a weedy engine and a 6 speed drivetrain rated for some huge torque I could dump the clutch like a Kevin with impunity but no, it would not have it. When the car was remapped to an alleged 184hp on the few full on test runs I did I got clutch slip on the upchanges from 3rd to 4th & 4th to 5th (I didn't go any faster to need 6th) which would normally indicate that the clutch was on its way out but in fact it was the peak torque limiter, a slightly slower gearchange and no clutch slip, the clutch never slipped accelerating at peak torque in a gear with the clutch engaged (foot off) that is definitely a sign thats its game over, by doing what you are doing, changing down to avoid the slip you can eke it out for a long time but it needs changing and if not particularly worn then it needs uprating. My pressure plate was dished giving contact only on the outer surface which had worn thin, not as a result of my 2 acceleration runs but I think it was a lease car with a young owner, I only refitted a standard clutch. There is also Torque Limitation as part of the engine management software, I have seen parameters for it in VCDS but dont know what it does and when but imagine it restricts the boost and/or fuelling under certain conditions but the peak torque limiter i speak of is a very crude hydraulic device. I did drill the centre out and it stopped the clutch slip on fast getaways and fast upshifts but I decided to put it back to standard with a new one.

An edge case meaning that you know its on the point of failing, or in truth has failed unless you nurse it? If so I agree with you, if you think it is not worn out and capable of the torque and only slippin because of accelerating in an inappropriate gear then I disagree. If a clutch does not slip when fully engaged (foot off pedal) in any gear then its only the future wear from slipping the clutch that would cause it to fail, drag starts, riding the clutch or fast upshifts mashing the throttle. Its the latter that I believe does for clutches after a remap, its natural to try a few maximum acceleration runs and natural in that situation to snatch the upshifts and get back on the throttle instantly however the clutch peak torque limiter AKA bleed block true name clutchburneroutersystem will slip the clutch to protect the drivetrain just as you are mashing the throttle with the turbo spun up, you can slip the clutch at a standstill say trying to reverse a trailer uphill etc until it is smoking and it will recover but a couple of drag racing upshifts in the higher gears will kill it in no time at all. On the rare occasions that I have to do a fast getway across a junction I have the traction with the 4x4 but have to feather the throttle to prevent clutch slip in 1st gear where but for the stupid peak torque limiter you should never ever get clutch slip because of the low gear ratio.

Try the test with the AC both on and off, (need to wait a while for it to change state) and report back if it stops or gets worse. I can barely hear it but if its what I can hear then it's what mine has developed.

Those brackets dont look home made, how did you make them?

Only of relevance if your strut does not have a reduced diameter on the part that goes into the knuckle, the OP's does have, its hard to tell from the photo if yours does or doesn't.

Deleted.

The missing piece of trim I can understand, the battery? Unless there is some small print stating expected lifetime then they should honour their warranty, sounds like they may need the definitions of "confidence", "total" and "honour" explained to them.

That is interesting, if the bulbs are not LED bulbs and are the correct wattage then it sounds like the system is passing too much current or a higher test voltage. I never knew my car had the system till I fitted a towbar and bypass relay, now when I switch on I can see the trailer lights flash, the small bulb test current is enough to trigger the high impedance towing relay and hence flash the trailer lights but I cannot see any illumination of the vehicle front or rear lights, to be fair I'm not usually in a position to see them when turning on the ignition but having checked when the I saw the trailer lights flash nothing was visible on the vehicle lights.

I would do exactly as you have done and would dispense with the unnecessary crippling achilles heel system at the very first sign of the slightest problem, I would not have been as patient as you disregarding the time and money spent. I'm sure for someone who really values the system, perhaps with a handicap, then resolving the issue would be worth the grief and money spent, not for me, its just another reason to add to the ever growing list of reasons for me not to buy a newer vehicle.

It will be the top mount bearing, no more to say.

I'm sure they will work, the difference in open height of the tailgate would be imperceptible. What is the pitch between the two sets of fixings?

All conjecture, the only valid one was the link to this analysis of a spring with the exact same failure as our vehicles suffer. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213290214000182 I would add the following comments. The article mentions shot peening and the difficulty of this process reaching the point where the stress cracking begins, OE springs have not been shot peened for decades except for race vehicles where the smallest lightest and hence most heavily stressed springs are used. Springs on modern vehicles are much lighter and made from a smaller secion than on vehicles of the past despite the fact that the modern vehicles are at least 50% heavier, the springs are more highly stressed so the risk of fatigue cracking from any stress raiser is much higher, were they shot peened it would not be an issue. The joke is that the springs are made from smaller wire which saves weight yet the vehicles never cease to get heavier and heavier, many components are getting lighter and lighter to counteract the weight of all the unecessary toys loaded onto modern vehicles. The real culprit is closed end spring design which has the double effect of wearing away any corrosion protection, rubbing of the coils creating its own stress raiser in addition to any corrosion ones and increased stress at the transition point between the active and non active coils. Does anyone know why manufacturers changed to a closed end spring design?

Yeti rear shock absorbers rarely fail. Yeti front shock absorbers rarely last a few years.

It has indeed if so much angst can be generated by the lack of a toy gimmick. First world problems.................

Painted or PDR?

The plastic housings usually have hollow steel inserts where the fixings go through, you can pretty much tighten them to what you want within reason and you wont distort the casing.

If perchance that option is available then I would have to remove the bypass relay or the additional bulb loads could not be sensed. I doubt that it is given there exists a canbus node towing module.

No the F216 and A10, but now I understand that it is the wiring diagram of the factory fitted trailer wiring option which would be a different loom I understand. Thansk for the VCDS coding, I will have a look sometime.