J.R.

Excellent, a man after my own heart he who dares wins!!! I bought my MK1 Octavia at 3 years old, used as a chauffeurs car, looked like new but with 188000 miles. I did the cam belt at 250000 (it had never been changed before despite my pal paying for it twice) as I could see the cords becoming exposed at the edges, I then took it up to 325000 miles. A PD cam belt transmits a lot more load.

Clearly if you are spraying a whole panel or blending in then mixing 1l gives them a much better chance of arriving at the precise masses of each colour and the base, I have 400ml 2 pack aérosols mixed to paint code, they contain far less than 400ml of paint, probably 100ml unthinned, the matches have always been spot on. I think the Ebay seller of the touch up paints (the size of a nail varnish bottle) probably mixes 100ml and puts the rest aside for future orders.

Not true, they can mix smaller quantities, what usually limits them is the viability of doing so. I had a tiny touch up bottle mixed to code by an E-bay seller for next to nothing.

That happens through the water pump sleeve and auxiliary coolant circulation pump, the self study guide describes it in fine detail. I don't think you have a valid basis for your conclusion

It warms up much quicker because of the sliding sleeve on the main water pump and the auxiliary coolant circulation pump. I also have the EA288 self study guide and it makes no mention of it, I would say my engine does not have it and I have not found anything within the VCDS parameters to enable it but never say never and I would be delighted to learn otherwise. I dont consider my car to have infotainment, I consider that to be a dashboard layout with a stupid touch screen tea tray sticking out of it and owners that complain about Android Car Play, Skoda Connect and other such needless items that I don't understand nor want to. Mine has a Maxidot, there are one or two few settings in the menu, something about Winter Tyres that turned out to be a chocolate teapot but nothing about an auxiliary heater, where would it be found if it exists?

I agree, it was an observation not a riposte, I check mine regularly because I have gone to 250K before replacement before now so it's condition is important to me. After replacing the belt I continued as I had not changed the tensioner, bearings or waterpump etc, I trust the factory fitted stuff more than aftermarket once it has already covered that sort of mileage without failure.

It's the signs of visible damage (usually on the inside as you say or contamination that you are looking for, if there aren't any then yes, you really can't see anything. I pull my vehicle forward in gear to inspect the belt, the same way I have been rotating engines for 40 years, any mechanic who has ever properly carried out a service on an older vehicle with tappets or back in the day would be quites used to and prepared for it, it is much harder for me now though with a diesel engine and much heavier vehicles. If you had been doing visual inspections on your sons vehicle you would have picked up the belt damage and traced the damaged tensioner pulley. Very encouraging to learn that you have had 2 non catastrophic failures though 👍

If money were no object I would create and employ a private security force to abduct and re-educate those who use "was" instead of "were" in the "if" clause/conditional use of the verb "To Be". They would also be tasked with euthanising anyone who writes "breaks" for "brakes" on car forums 😆

As the OP spoke about the linkage mechanism and wipers in the plural is it not the front screen wipers in question?

Requesting photographs of a kleenex stained with their engine oil and of their air filter etc is perverted and grooming, there will be a law against it soon! I'm sure some enterprising person will have created a monetised "Only Fans" type web page where you could get your fix 😆

£300 you say, my relay was less than £30 and came bundled with the £115 towbar, by far the most I have ever paid in my life, it took no time to get working and was a much faster install than the VAG control module which requires wiring being run to the fuseboard at the front of the vehicle unless you have specified Trailer Preparation from new and forked out £100's for that. plus there would then be recoding, I have VCDS but another DIY'er would have to pay. The new high impedance electronic relays are far more reliable than the old piggyback style that loaded each light circuit and required messing around with coil spacings for the audible indicator warning. Tapping off the lights create no shenanigans whatsoever, the control current for the transistor is miniscule, using an old style unit or direct wiring to the towing socket would, as the OP can attest using LED bulbs does cause major problems but the towing bypass relay does not. I do not use Scotchloks but a glycerine filled Molex telecoms quality equivalent .

I doubt that they could even know that you got the date wrong without already being in possession of the V5 document, if for whatever reason they did have that info they would simply say " our records indicate............" The date you bought the vehicle should not affect the premium, if you had said it was a 2012 vehicle but that model was not produced until 2019 then maybe. If you lived in my country you would be really paranoid, its not against the law to own but not insure (or use) a vehicle but all the insurers would have you believe it was, if you subscribed for insurance and said you bought the car on X date and tried to insure it on X + Y days or months they would refuse on the basis that it had not been continually insured, its their cartel way of protecting their money spinner of a restrictive practice.

You have a very active imagination. You can do nothing in which case you will create a self fullfilling prophecy. You can comply and then you will know what if anything they may want to load the premium for but I really don't believe it will be for the date you purchased the vehicle. You could E-mail them back and ask politely why they wish to see the V5, that has to be better then ignoring the request although that may make them as suspicious as you are of them. I really can't see what you percieve that you need to "get out of".

Oooh another must have tool to add to my list that I did not know the existence of 👍 Damn and double damn you Sir!

One of mine came free that way, the other spun so I had to retain it with the internal hex, I even tried big mole grips on the piston rod, it was being scrapped anyway. I didn't have access to all my tools where I was in France so did not have my customary 13/16" double offset ring spanner, it was worth waiting 24 hours for the correct tool (very cheap) from Amazon.fr, I released the nut with great care, it was on the point of stripping out the internal hexagon, the ones I did in the past with a spanner flat were much easier.

A 13/16" spark plug socket which usually has a hexagon on the top can be used in conjunction with a long reach (110mm IIRC) hex key bit as you will see the mechanic doing in the Autodoc videos. You can use a simple Allen key and whilst it will be fine for fitting new struts the old ones on the Yeti dont have a water cover so sit submerged throughout their life, will be very corroded and likely to round out or split the thin wall around the internal hexagon, I bought a longer hex bit to be safe, mine were just a bit too short. Two words, one starting with B, the other S.

Derbyshirebod. It is entirely possible that my relay did have that set up and those instructions, I am someone who only RTFM's when I have exhausted all other avenues!!!!!!!!!! Molex make gycerine filled Scotchlok type connectors for outside Telecoms work, they are far superior. I bet Lee has thousands like I do!

I would put all of my money on that bet even if I cannot give you a definitive explanation of the how and why. Put standard bulbs back in the and see if the trailer lighting works properly. Have you even checked that your brake and rear lights function as they should? I think that I might even be able to explain the why, speculation only but it makes sense, the current to the rear light circuit is probably limited by pulse width modulation (PWM) with a correct 21 watt bulb inserted the voltage measured before the element will be 12v when the brake lights are used but drop to say 8 volt when the PWM pulsed 12v is applied for the rear lights. Using much lower current LED lamps means much less volt drop so the voltage during the PWM rear light operation will be the almost the same as the constant 12v for the brake lights and above the switching threshold of the bypass relay.

Regarding the speed of reaction of a Lambda sensor. You should never rely on a digital multimeter for testing the output as it will only display the average voltage if at all, I have an old school moving coil instrument whose only function these days is testing Lambda sensors, I look for the needle sweeping up and down regularly and frequently around the reference figure and also for its reaction when the throttle is snapped open and closed from constant revs. The voltages quoted seem different from what I was used to, I'm sure I was looking for swings from 0.8v to 1.2v for an average of 1.0v but to be fair since driving diesels for over a decade things may have changed with wide range sensors or my memory may be playing tricks, the importance for me is to see it switching fairly frequently, is that no longer good practice?

Can you explain that to me please. Do you mean that the vehicle uses a common filament for both rear light and brake light and the voltage on the common feed wire is reduced for the rear lights giving a lower wattage output and increases to 12v when the brakes are applied? If so then the bypass relay must be monitoring and reacting to that voltage. The one I used I'm pretty sure did not have that feature, my car uses seperate filaments (in my view all vehicles should) if someone were to try to wire mine to a vehicle with the common feed they would initially not e able to find enough cables to connect to, they probably scratched their head and did the best they would with the results that the OP has been left with. That is par for the course for many so called professional installs in my cynical world and why I always DIY. My relay is sold as Canbus compatible which is a meaningless nonsense term anyway but it does have very high impedance inputs which take only milliamps from the circuits they are monitoring so does not throw up bulb monitoring system warnings for overcurrent.

Looks like myself as well as the OP mixed our Macs!

You like myself were foolish enough to offer advice to help the OP who now refuses to pass on his solution to others who may need help. A mistake on my part that I wont be repeating with them. In France we say "Trop bon - Trop con!" I think Adick meant to say "humiliation" he appears to not know the meaning of "humility" 🤣

An 84 amp 12v electric heater? 😲

It would help if you could give a better description than "box gubbins" as from that I cannot tell if you are dealing with an OE coded set up or a bypass relay, any advice will depend on knowing which it is. How are the cables joined to it, ar they a manufactured loom with multi-plug connectors or single cables with screw terminal terminations? If it is the latter bypass type relay it does not need any cables running to the front although that is the prescribed method.

It happens on my non crystal human face as well, a well known problem called cataracts!