J.R.

I thought that you had done a typo for "reluctant" but now see its yet another meaningless VCDS term, the gift that keeps on giving

That is born out by what I posted above, my DPF is insulated but only in the area where it presents a burn risk to humans.

I was referring to the Nasa type insulated cover over my DPF, it will almost certainly have been fitted to prevent people needing a skin graft when they top up the brake fluid but there would be no sense in adding further insulation underneath where it is still exposed.

Just to add to the complication the wires from the wiper control switches do not even go to the front or rear wipers, they go to the Body Control Module which monitors their status and those of all the other inputs (reverse gear selection for example) and sends a signal via canbus to the wiper motor node of the required action.

Dont try hot wiring it as the column stalk switch will not be supplying the motor operating current in the manner that you expect. That PCB is a canbus communication node, the motor has one large power cable and another for earth, the other cables are the twisted pair canbus communication network. Nothing wrong with your thought process except that things have moved on since then, I once had exactly the same intentions until I looked further. Tha canbus transmits the status of the column switches, slow wipe, fast wipe, intermittent, delay setting and any other one wipe commands like when reversing with the front wipers on, the canbus node in the motor takes care of all the timings, arm park settings and (over)load sensing. You could hotwire it but would need to rig up a separate switch wired straight to the motor but I bet it wouldn't self park and may even run too fast and overheat without the motor control.

Already insulated by VAG, on my vehicle at least.

You would need someone with both filling and recovery systems for both types of gas otherwise they will be venting the R1234YF to atmosphere, perhaps not a problem if it has been chosen as not being a greenhouse gas. OTOH as expensive as it is anyone with R1234XY equipment should be delighted to recover your old gas FOC.

I understand it and use it as everyone does in this country but after years of MPG it just seems so wrong to be driving economically looking to reduce and not increase the figure! I did an evening joyride tonight and had the maxidot set to MPG. I think in general people can relate to a jerrycan of one gallon of fuel (OK its likely to be 5 litres) and visualise that they can drive say 60 miles or 100 kms with it, the other measure is abstract to me.

Saving 47 litres in 100km is not to be sneezed at!

"Bloke said"

Sounds like you have ordered the VCDS and are holding off the purchase of the screen until you can run a scan. I really hope that the VCDS will pay for itself during the scan by leading you to the fault and saving you from purchasing the infotainment screen. Please keep us updated.

What warning would you have liked that a warning light was going to appear ( without warning) on your dashboard?

Do you have any basis for saying that? Oil spec is VWG0521445 a 75/90 synthetic gear oil, refill quantity measured during 2 refills on my own vehicle is 1.1 litres. I have used semi synthetic 75/90 this time as I could only get 75/80 in synthetic over here.

No, not a whirring sound. If you want to be 100% sure then remove the propshaft and road test. Condition of Haldex oil is par for the course, what was the diff oil like?

Sounds exactly like the noise the horn on my A35 made when the radiator overheated and steam was ejected over it, it used to do it after I had switched off and got out. It also made a similar brief noise when the clutch was engaged.

Well done, whilst nobody would expect corrosion in that short space of time you had no rights under which to pursue them as they were still 100% fit for the purpose, that of counterbalancing the tailgate.

You dont judge the headlight alignment by being that close to the surface that you are illuminating, assuming that the ground behind is flat and level you mark the beam cut off pattern with chalk and reverse back 5 to 10 metres and compare. Ideally it will not move or if it does then very slightly downwards and to the left for countries driving on the left, right for right driving countries.

Whatever way it was done its unlikely to be a true reading as the vehicle will have been woken up by unlocking/opening the door or bonnet to take the multi-meter reading. But 12.3 volts under those circumstances indicates a healthy battery.

Agreed, very simple to do and definitive. I should point out for anyone who uses a multi-meter but perhaps does not really know what is going on that the volt drop test has to be done with the circuit under full load, ie in this instance with someone else cranking the engine.

The differential oil on a car that has not been run dry through mistaken draining will look as clear and smell like brand new oil after 80K miles, probably double that. I know this through having mistakenly drained mine thinking it was the Hladex fluid & then compounding it by driving with it dry for a couple of hundred miles. I filled the overheated diff with a 50/50 paraffin & oil mix & ran it on stands for 20 minutes then drained to flush out the metal particles, it came out black, I refilled it with the closest to correct grade of oil I could get during our first week of confinement & have done 8K miles since then and drained & refilled with the correct grade oil last week, what came out was discoloured & smelt of burning, no different really to draining a diff on a 70's or 80's car but very different to what came out when the Skoda diff had been unmolested. Normally I would say don't bother to change your rear diff oil but in this instance its a good precaution (make sure you get the right drain plug!!!!) and if the oil that comes out is anything other than pristine then I would say you have a problem.

It certainly sounds that way but the steel ones I have replaced were even thinner & floppier than aluminium pie dishes! They were however eaten away with rust elsewhere and yours look undamaged aside from the fixing lugs but that was the exact point of failure on the steel ones.

Are you sure that they are aluminium? Every Skoda backplate I have replaced, & there have been many, have been steel.

The increase in fuel consumption seems too much for tyre compound alone, effectively the new tyres would be consuming 1.5 litres of diesel from every gallon, that is one hell of a lot of heat energy and you would really notice it by the smell and tyre wear.

They will also have negotiated a discount for ordering a quantity of standard vehicles or those with the spec that they think will most appeal.

I like it!