J.R.

You have to make it "ave it!" I too thought mine was broken. Like so many of the plastic clip together parts on our cars they are so reluctant to lose their virginity that we often give up for fear of breaking something or thinking there is another fastener we have overlooked. Once they know who is boss they become compliant.

I have worked out that if I stop breathing for 5 years I will have a CO2 credit big enough to regas my home aircon system! I am practicing my apnée but fall a little short at present. My reaction to that chart, - 'kin ell!!!!

You will be able to do it, you clearly have the aptitude having tackled what you already have without any prior knowledge or experience. The most important asset you have is that you knew to ask for advice before starting, that is something it has taken me a lifetime to acquire, when I was young I truly believed that I knew everything. Good luck with it and don't hesitate to stop and ask if you come across something that you are unsure of.

It's not broken unless the male hinge locating tab on the blind side of the photo is broken off, even then it would be usable with just one.

I am ashamed of saying this but its the truth. If somebody approached me an politely asked for my help explaining what their problem was as best they could in what is probably their second language I would move heaven & earth to help them. When people approach me and speak in the manner that the OP was written I switch off and shrug my shoulders, eperience has taught me that these types rarely if ever appreciate what people do for them, never any thanks or acknowledgement but no surprise there as if they cannot express their desire I cant expect them to express their gratitude. As an immigrant myself having to live & work in a foreign language I fully understand the difficulties that other nationals may have but I also know that when writing or typing you have all the time in the world to think, reflect, consider your words, use a dictionary or google if need be, there really is no valid reason to write in the manner you might speak to your pals in the pub, operating with a limited vocabulary in a second language face to face I know how important it is to be polite, respectfull etc it is to get the other person on my side to interpret my basic and often incorrect speech and to want to help me and not dismiss me. I am ashamed to admit that I see many requests for help or info on this forum that I dismiss because of the manner they are written in their mother tongue where I would normally be the first to respond.

The canisters that I used to buy from China were illegal even then but of course that never stopped anything, then someone must have toughened up as the listings were taken down as quick as they went up, they started calling them all sorts of inventive names like "AC deodoriser" or "AC leak tester" all but one order failed to arrive. These were the sealed cans without a valve like the old Camping Gaz cartridges where the valve screwed on and punctured a hole in the can, when it would yield no more and you unscrewed the valve to fit another can the 20% or more remaining was simply vented to my personal hole in the ozone layer. I think the Halfrauds deposit scheme is a good idea and should stop mots if not all negiligen discharges but they hadn't reckoned on people like the OP, I am still chuckling at the question he asked, "should I let all the gas out before returning the can for my deposit?"

I struggled to find anyone to sell me a 13kg R134a cylinder as a private individual EU resident, there is always someone that wants to do a deal though, mine came from Latvia I think. I have no idea what is in it but it cools and has topped up partially charged R134a systems which then cooled, I'm looking for a Rainbow Trout to use as a Guinea Pig! If you look into the sky Southwards on the 51st parallel & see a hole in the ozone layer its my one! What is GWP please Sepulchrave?

I hope that you are not a Rainbow Trout!

Thanks for that, I had always understood that the oil cooler became an oil heater during the warm up phase, I thought that it simply meant that it was functional and in circuit the whole time, it probably was on earlier iterations. VAG have done a good job of balancing conflicting requirements, to get the engine up to temp ASAP whilst having some wrmth from the heater ASAP with a priority of getting the oil up to temperature or at least reducing its cold viscosity before the driver rags the hell out of the engine, all this with a diesel engine with such good thermal efficiency that on a cold day driven sensibly it would struggle to heat the coolant. My Yeti CR TDi warms up really quick compared to its PD predecessor thanks to all that they have done, the price to pay is the achilles heel of the capricious water pump sleeve. But then what do I know? A member of the Trol(l)itariat that needs pictures to understand anything I know when to stop digging a hole I mistakenly started.

I have the EA88 self study guide also, all the verbosity was about the coolant system and not the engine oil circulation path, to my knowledge it does not change, it does not go in a reverse direction or on a reduced circuit. I think when the text speaks of gear oil cooler it could be a translation error from engine oil or perhaps its talking about a DSG gearbox, do they have an oil to water transmission oil cooler? If so then the text is not relevant to the subject of the engine oil and its path.

Did you miss out the question mark? Oil is the primary coolant and will always heat up in advance of the water jacket and overheat before the cooling system hence the need for an oil cooler. To reverse the system would need a 5 port shuttle valve which these engines definitely dont have and would serve for nothing, they are simple heat exchangers and will equalise the 2 fluid temperatures with the flow in either direction. In any case that would not be a reduced oil circuit. Now if there was an oil thermostat that prevented flow through the oil cooler until the oil was hot enough to need it then that would be a (very slightly) reduced oil circuit during the warm up phase. It would not surprise me if they did have one, its something I always fitted on my dry sumped race cars.

Can someone please explain to me how they make petrol and diesel from green electricity by electrolysis CO2 capture and synthesis? Or even why anyone would consider doing so? It says clearly power to liquid. Bull***t baffles brains and this has baffled mine.

That is the point, they are too embarrassed to actually show the data sheet & refer you to the manufacturers STP who will just be snake oil sellers and not manufacturers

Can't you get an app to do that? You would have to change your username though

Really? - How does that work?

From the Halfords page selling the snake oil you can "view the safety data sheet", here is a link to it, https://ulmysds.com/CustomErrors/MissingSDS.aspx?id=Halfords you will find it very revealing (not!) - it tells you all you need to know - but like me you already knew it!

No compressor shut off codes and coolant fan not activated, high side pressure not raised sufficient to cool and trigger the fans, if raised at all, I dont have my charts but that may be the ambient pressure. Its a classic case of the system thinking everything is OK but no refrigeration, it will be one of two things, the compressor modulating valve stuck or the shear plate sheared/splines on its hub stripped. In the former the system pumps a little but cannot modulate the pressure, think of it like a broken pressure relief valve spring on an oil pump. For the latter the controller believes that the pump is turning but it isn't, dont believe the compressor speed bull***t, it does not measure it, it is a calculated value just as is the compressor current which should read "modulating valve current" 820ma means it is getting a permanent signal waiting for the cooling to reach set temp (which it wont) at which stage it would modulate & display a lower current. Check the high side pressure without the engine running, if its lower than the 5.8 bar then its the modulating valve, if its the same it could still be the valve stuck open but could equally be a shear plate/hub spline problem.

Torsion value will make a big difference, sounds like the new EGR if one was actually fitted is not closing properly. Too much EGR will reduce the mass air flow to below the operating parameter limits so that fault code could be a consequence of the EGR. I would ignore the glowplug faults.

Internal concentric or external slave cylinder? If the latter its an easy and cheap job.

Which completely defeats the object of the cylinder exchange scheme which is the dubious way they have currently got around the regulations banning the sale of single use canisters. Everytime somthing like that is posted on social media its more armament for the professionals who now have to be certified, registered, passed a competency test, have all the correct recovery equipment and pay a fortune for R134a, they are up in arms about the continued sale of these cylinders to private individuals, they are lobbying and taking legal action and stuff like that will make their case open and shut.

Righty-ho, you know best then, so why are you asking for advice on a forum about releasing the gas to atmosphere? https://www.racplus.com/news/vehicle-ac-industry-to-challenge-defra-over-r134a-top-ups-24-11-2015/

Do they even ask what side the wheel is on when you insure a vehicle in the UK? Serious question because I am in the same situation but in France, the question is not asked and they will happily take your money for years on end and if it ever comes to a total loss claim they either pay out 30% of the vehicles value claiming thats what its worth or even simply the scrap metal weight vaue claiming the car is valueless, not a problem to me as I only have the basic act only insurance because they use every trick even if the wheel was on the left. In the UK where the consumer has rights and access to justice I would take out fully comp insurance happy in the knowledge that if they didn't ask then I had not made a false declaration. To the OP what model did the DVLA register your car as? Here in France my "Outdoor" edition is not sold so the ANTS registration body picked a model that was homologated but unfortunately it has a higher puissance fiscale rating which puts my insurance up.

Don't empty the gas out, its illegal and damages the environment, you will also wreck any chance that you have of getting the system running because it will be full of damp air when you try to recharge, at best you will end up with a system with an air/R134a mix, which will not function, most likely you will have an air propane mix, a bomb waiting for an ignition source to send you to meet your maker. But hey, you pays your money you takes your choice!

I suspect that in the intervening 12 years the problem has been resolved!

Good point re the cap on the dessicator. Its semantics as to whether a part of the compressor that can be replaced easily and cheaply on its own makes it a crap compressor or not, but it definitely does not mean that the compressor needs to be replaced which is what I took issue with. 99.99999999% of garages and 199% of main dealers will say compressor broken we need to fit a new one to fill our coffers, I reckon most golf & Octavias are actually on the original compressor but nobody is going to post that for google to record it, as most people use garages for repairs and swallow the lies that they are told I can absolutely believe that 99.99999% of people that had aircon problems ended up with a new compressor that they almost certainly did not need. From the other side of the coin if I were repairing cars for a living again I would not ponce about changing the valves or the hubs/shear plates, the quality of what is sold is very variable and I have had several fail, no I would fit the best and most expensive compressor that I could, pocket the margin on the parts and not have any comeback.