J.R.

I needed a 32mm 12 point socket for my front driveshaft retaining bolts in order to replace my front dampers, I have one but it's in France with all my decent tools so it was another Ebay search. For only a little more I bought a set as described above, they are all 1/2" drive impact sockets, 24, 30 & 32mm plus two big hex drive keys a 14mm hex and a 17mm one, my question concerns the hex keys, where are they used on our vehicles? Brake calipers are usually 7mm, could they be for transmission drain plugs?

Its common to have 2 pairs of contacts or two switches, one will operate the brake lights, on our vehicles usually indirectly via the body control module, the other sends a signal to the ECU which it uses to cut the power when the brakes are applied, its for emissions but also safety were the throttle to stick fully open or the output signal doing the same. It prevents me left foot braking over speedhumps when carrying heavy loads and also from bedding in brake pads, on my 95 Galaxy I shunted the ECU contact so it never got the signal because my journeys were always laden over loads of speed humps, after 3 months it generated a fault code "brake switch XYZ123 implausible signal"!!!!

I bet the overhang didn't exceed the width of the doormirrors. On the one hand they want motorists to give them a wide berth, 1.5m or so, very reasonable if its safe to do so, but on the other hand they want to squeeze past on either side in traffic. If I position my vehicle central in its lane on the Paris périphérique as soon as the traffic slows down I get abuse from motorcyclists who want to drive through without slowing down, move to the left and the next one will want to pass on that side.

At what point did poor drivers start blaming their vehicles because the wheels spin when they "floor it" from a standstill with a powerfull engine? I must have missed it. Saab probably realised early on that some drivers of automatic vehicles lack cerebral connection between their control inputs and the vehicle output and understanding to adapt to the conditions so the programmed the ECU to do the power modulation for them.

You do not require a recode, just patience.

"The 1.7-litre engine is reasonably up-to-date – it meets Euro 5 emissions standards" And then a few lines beneath: "Economy from the elderly engine isn't exactly stellar" 🥴 For years it and others have been criticised for not having the latest tech, its probably dawning on them now that the absence makes them hugely desirable.

Mine does not have the silkat marking and no evidence of a teabag which is why I am concerned to relace the coolant because it looks like I may have topped up half the system with tap water 18 months ago or used some glycol anti-freeze that I had on the shelf. Still waiting for the Ebay seller delivery, its always the stuff you need that is the slowest delivery.

They won't have known how long they would be standing or expected it to be so long. Until the PDI inspection the ECU is set to Transport Mode which minimises the standby consumption, it may even reduce it to zero and require the key to be used manually to open and start the vehicle. Probably never been a requirement until now.

Looks like a parking area with bays to me, but having spent too many years working on car park barriers in close proximity to impatient and unskilled drivers I would feel safer at the side of the road especially if most vehicles were commercial. Sometimes I would not even have put my tools away after having replaced a cardreader and its pedestal before someone reversed into it and knocked it flat again.

Do you actually know that the brake light switch was faulty? A single pole normally open contact switch can not cause a "power surge" to blow a pair of filament bulbs, in any case they are driven by a transistor output within the body control module which recieves a signal input from the brake light switch, its more likely that having both bulbs blown triggered the limp mode, but equally by the same token were that the case a failed switch would also do so. It's implausible that it had failed and blew two bulbs yet the high level light still operated when braking, not implausible that it could fail, its quite common.

The best longevity will be from a Varta/Bosch originally fitted to the vehicle as appears to be the case here, the exact same battery reference from the same company whilst still being the best of what is available is unlikely to perform for as long as they are made to different standards and have different warranty liabilities. Having got 12 or 15 years from the first battery through taking care of it not many of us are going to keep the vehicle for another decade or more. I replaced my MK1 Octavia battery at 12 years old, it would have carried on I believe had I not left the lights on & killed it, replaced with exact same Varta 096 and after 5 years I was definitely nursing it during winters, left a spare battery in it when I left it at the TGV station for a couple of weeks etc, it saw the car to the end of its life but only just.

Ejected from the overflow tank, - easy to detect with a tissue. Leaked into the combustion chamber on inlet stroke, - white smoke visible Leaked into the EGR gases from the EGR cooler, - very difficult to detect as its a small percentage of the intake charge and only under certain engine conditions, I doubt that you would see it in the rear view mirror. A pressure test would reveal the presence of a leak, close examination required to prove it is in the EGR cooler.

I dont call 6°c much cooler (water 100°C 50/50 glycol 106°C) in the pressurised system water alone would not vaporise until 128°c well beyond the normal operating temperature, the pressurised expansion vessel is there to prevent any loss of coolant or vapour up to 128°c minimum. If there is no leak from the system, no overheating or no pressurisation from a leaking head gasket there will be no evaporation and no topping, if as in this case there is a leak the difference in volume leaked if the system had previously been topped up with water instead of a coolant mix would be de minimis.

The clock dials in the mould might be for when the case was moulded or could be for the last revision or repair to the mould, on low volume production it would normally be the latter.

When I was younger it we were totally consumed by the desire to make the wheels spin on our vehicles, it took a lot of effort and technique = abuse to break traction in an 1100 Escort, older vehicles like my A35 were much more fun especially with knackered spring shackle bushes, shock absorbers etc. So when I see a Kevin doing the same I know whats going through his immature mind. Now I look on it as a failing if ever I lose traction or the TCS were to intervene, I'm sure at one time I could have identified with comments like "it will happily spin the wheels at 80mph in 3rd gear" but not any more, 3 decades of motorsport were spent perfecting the art of transmitting the maximum of power to but not beyond the point of breaking traction and unbalancing the vehicle. OK I get drifting and showboating, I have done enough of it myself but thats with an LSD, being proud to spin one wheel (because it wont be plural) at 80mph is as pointless as I was doing a 3 pedal nose dive weight transfer burnout in a MK2 tincorner just a lot more dangerous to others.

I regularly carried 3m lengths of steel stud partioning and timber laid across the seats and dashtop, a couple of rows of the 3m U channeel followed by several rows of the 2.5m long C stud where the windscreen rake prevented a 3m length. I carry pipe insulation offcuts under the variofloor to protect the windscreen from impact when braking with loads like that, the biggest danger is when closing the tailgate against a long load, you risk breaking the front or rear screens or both. My Galaxy and Alhambra were the best load carriers but lacked a variofloor for carrying the volume of tools & spares that I now carry.

I did one or two semi marathons a year, never ran any further, I trained properly for my first marathon (Lille) for my 60th birthday but had injuries while training which I forced through, they came back with a vengeance on the marathon and I had to join the van with the other cripples. I never tried again and have barely run at all since the confinement, when I do it will be starting from scratch again with a 10kg handicap. The watch is still very usefull for monitoring my heart rate, intensity minutes, sleep etc.

It was no problem at all on my 4x4, what prevents the larger discs being removed is that they catch on the caliper carrier. I don't think its a 4x4 related problem.

The "actual" figure is showing the DPF a flowing freely, too freely as its a negative number, the DPF pressure sensor needs to be calibrated using the procedure in Adaptation I think it is, it will create an offset figure so with the engine not running the pressure shown is the same as atmospheric pressure. A regen however should have been initiated when the calculated value reached 25g or whatever the threshold is for your vehicle so there is another problem somewhere, once it goes over 50 I think its game over. I have an EGR emulator and the actual soot values are a quarter of the calculated ones.

I don't know the answer to any of your questions as my only involvement has been preventative fitment of an emulator, there does not seem to be anything to suggest that you have a leak in the cooler.

The aluminium alloys used are no more sensitive than any other manufacturer, it is typical VAG attention to detail that they added the Silkat to counter corrosion if the system were to be filled with plain water (assuming that they are not telling porkies), trouble is they have been bit on the bum for it.

Not on the smaller disc sizes, mine came out without fouling the carrier. Anyone having worked on rear disc brakes in the last 25 years will have a piston wind back tool, they have been around since the Ford Sierra.

Yes, or a MIL light at the very least, the MAF sensor would be showing a greater flow than it should when the EGR was commanded if the EGR was disconnected or jammed. The long term solution which will prevent any future clagging or EGR failure is to fit an EGR emulator/simulator.

Very incisive, I bet it went several months before being started and they used a booster pack when they found it was flat, it will have definitely reduced its capacity and life. Not much you can really do about it though, they will always say that it tested OK regardless.

"Not an exact 50/50 weight distribution" 🤣🤣🤣 Have you ever jacked your car up by the front or rear to work on it? Any more weight on the front and the things would be lethal on a 2 post vehicle lift, they are pretty bad as they are. I do however understand that with a DSG gearbox modulation can only be carried out with the right foot, on a manual gearbox you balance the inputs and rate of change of two pedals and have some feedback from the left one. My MK1 Octavia had an ABS module that would brake the spinning wheel and it made a horrible graunching noise when it did so, I take pride in being able to deliver the maximum power when its needed and no more (I raced for 3 decades) it only ever occured if I had misjudged the speed of an oncoming vehicle when joining a main road from a side junction or the friction of the road surface, it happened and I would immediately modulate the throttle input but because of the fiddle brake type traction control I had to learn to back off less then I would without the assistance, for an involved driver this learning happens on the fly, for a top flight racing driver its several times a second. Critically that vehicle would not cut the engine power unless the driver kept the throttle planted, it was a good system that would transmit the maximum of power when it was needed and could do it better than I could were it switched off. The MK2 Octavia was rubbish by comparison, there was no indication of it ever braking the wheel losing traction, it would simply cut 90% of the power for the duration of the manœuvre so bad that in snow & ice conditions I would have to switch it off at a junction when there was traffic. In 2 years in the Yeti I have never once broken traction even after it was remapped to 184hp so I dont know how the system would react. I was always tempted by a DSG vehicle but your comments have put me off, the mechanical problems also, a shame because people whos opinions I trusted raved about the first generation DSG vehicles.