J.R.

I apologise then! From reading your subsequent post am I correct in saying that they added their website or phone number in the area where it is prohibited to do so instead of using "lipped plates" whatever they actually are? I apologise then! From reading your subsequent post am I correct in saying that they added their website or phone number in the area where it is prohibited to do so instead of using "lipped plates" whatever they actually are? I apologise then! From reading your subsequent post am I correct in saying that they added their website or phone number in the area where it is prohibited to do so instead of using "lipped plates" whatever they actually are?

What you "see" in VCDS/OBD11 is simply an estiation of what laod the compressor will be taking from the engine output, it will show the same figures even if the shaft is not turning or the modulating valve is not working and the second stage is not compressing which I suspect is what is happening in your case. You should look at the gas pressure without the engine running where both the high and low sides will be equal, it will be dependant on temperature but 6 bar is probably right for these summer conditions (you should check on the net), critically you want to see that climbing to maybe double that when the AC is switched on before falling to an equilibrium of say 10 bar when the fans cut in, those numbers are complete guesses on my part but that is what you should be looking for.

Advertising on a number plate without the permission of the person (not) paying for it and who will be driving it around. I said (not) because I have a suspicion that the friendly helpfull dealer handled the cherished plate transfer and provided and fitted the new plates free as part of the service. No good deed goes unpunished!

It would certainly find its way down by gravity to where it might have an affect. My solution is an EGR emulator/simulator.

I think that your dealer has been very understanding and acted with considerable restraint. If you are unsatisfied and make that be known to them they will be less likely to do so when faced with similar demands in the future. I say the above on the basis that they will have a stock of their standard stock blank plates & will now have to sub out the work to someone else whose logo or advertising you may equally not like. I do get the free advertising bit, I would insist that any dealer that had fitted a sticker to a rear window remove it and make good before I would accept the car, I bought a second hand car where the number plates had a backing frame whose sole purpose was to carry the original dealers advert, I removed them immediately.

Then open it up and profit from your own personal hole in the ozone layer and free suntans. The envronmentalists would however have an issue with you, a justified one unlike yours.

And one with an accusump although that gets very messy.

One of the mainstream French vehicles had TPMS valves that set off galvanic corrosion with the wheelrim, cant recall the details but a dive buddy 10 years ago ran a French Kwik-Fit type franchise, he said that it cost over €1K extra, may even have been €1.5K on top of the tyres at every renewal with the cost of parts in France, the manufacturers monopoly and them having to be programmed/coded. Yobbos were spotting the vehicles and giving each wheel a well aimed kick and by consequence a huge kick in the ghoulies to the owner.

Get the vehicle connected to VCDS, check for any compressor shut down codes, if none then it will be a stuck pressure modulating solenoid, broken shear plate or stripped hub, I have experienced all of them on my unfortunate Octavia 2. The latter 2 can be diagnosed with an angled inspection mirror while the engine is running with or without the AC switched on, the centre nut of the shaft should be rotating at all times.

Lets not forget that we all started learning with zero knowledge. A pal of mine was the oldest child & brought up by his divorced mother, he had to become the man of the family well before he was really ready for it, he bought a Morris Marina and had heard that it would be a good idea to do an oil change, that was his introduction and every bit as eventfull as becoming beached off road. He had never heard of a dipstick (pre Delboy days!) and after draining the sump & refilling with oil decided it looked very low & he needed more oil, he walked into town to buy another 5 litres and it still wasn't enough so had to return again, he never let on how many times but he spent all his wages before the engine was finally full to his satisfaction & he could start the car. He has experienced something that most of us never will! It did actually start but sounded very rough and it slowly dawned on him what he had done

The sickly smell and smoke was from where you overheated the clutch trying to drive it off the rocks, if the clutch does not slip in the higher gears when under boost then you have got away with it. The scraping to the sump & bellhousing is minimal, you were very lucky as the cast alu sumps break easily, I dont think that you have damaged the sensor, the wrning lights will have been where it was pushed and not making contact. You should really learn how to check and top up the fluid levels, oil, brake fluid, coolant, windscreen wash etc before taking to the road let alone going off road.

The video smells OK to me! You really do need to fit the stock engine undertray (preferably the metal version) even if you are not going to be offroading again. On the positive side if you did have one you would have wrecked it when you beached it on the rocks.

Sticking vanes on turbocharger, on earlier vehicles cycling the ignition would buy you some time without having to stop, later cars probably wont play ball & need a hard power down reset. A Mr Muscle enema will sort it out. Other oven cleaners are available, the Lidl one is my weapon of choice! It could also be the vacuum pipe between the N75 valve and the turbo actuator degraded and collapsing under the heat from the turbo.

I went through a phase of regular offs forgetting that I was clipped to the pedals when stopping at junctions, traffic lights, my own backdoor etc. The best one was at a crowded boulangerie, I pulled up outside intending standing my bike by the front door, instead I fell sideways into the shop amongst the people queuing for their bread bringing the bike in with me

Getting the front off (and back on) the Yeti is a real pig of a job because of two very poorly designed headlamp fasteners which if they were simply reversed with a captive fastener would make the job so so simple because everything else comes off no trouble at all. I dont much like the idea of leaving the AC condensor (or all three heat exchangers) hanging by its pipes though when the crash beam is removed having rebuilt the front once already.

Yes I did look at that but there doesn't look to be a problem of access in that area but if the engine & transmission have to be kicked forwards to remove the gearbox I will consider it. I dont think being able to move it forwards would allow it to clear the crossmember and removing the crossmember makes access to the driveshaft couplings, propshaft coupling and removal of the transfer box if needed much better/easier. I'm sure if you did them day in day out like the guy in the video you would find the quickest & simplest way, I spend much more time thinking now rather than rushing in which usually pays. Garage pits may have gone out of fashion but they are really really good, if I dont have the headroom for a 2 post lift in my next home I will dig a pit. Mind you I quickly found the drawback of one when my friend who is not mechanically minded decided to fill his ride on lawnmower with petrol right beside me, the fumes very quickly became asphyxiating & I had to get out double quick.

I had a good look from underneath with the vehicle over the pit, well as good as I could see using a battery LED inspection light, it looks to me as if the only way the gearbox will come out is if the crossmember is removed, even then I cant be sure. The gearbox would neet rotating to come out with the crossmember in position but the transfer box would prevent that and also the proximity of the bellhousing to the radiator fans etc is very tight. I think it is doable with the crossmember & anti rollbar removed & the steering rack left hanging, it would be with the transfer box and both driveshaft flanges remaining attached but will be both heavy and tight, a lot of work to find that it wont and has to be all boxed up again, if anyone knows someone with experience that they could ask then it might save me a lot of grief. First job is to fit flourescent lights on 3 sides of my friends pit to thank him in advance for the loan!

No generic OBDII reader will give you data regarding the horn contacts being operative or not, you would need something like VCDS, Even a manufacturer specific reader like VCDS will give you the option of reading & resetting basic OBDII faukt codes on other manufacturers, they have all shared the same architecture for a very long time. I dont think you could reset the airbag light with a basic reader anyway. Why did you replace the airbag? If it was a deployment you will need to replace the airbag & SRS control module or send it away to someone who can remove the crash data, that should not affect the horn, there are 3 different connectors IIRC for the airbag, steering wheel controls and the horn contacts, I would unclip the airbag & check them all carefully, the horn connector will be the smallest one with only 2 cables.

About €250 per key in France & I believe similar in the UK so you have saved yourself a lot of time & grief.

And also they can collapse under vacuum when hot, I had an Alhambra that would lose boost when towing a trailer & racecar in hot weather and/or on long uphill motorway sections, whenever the heat got above a certain threshold, cycling the ignition would vent the vacuum, boost would return but for shorter & shorter time intervals. I would have find some way of extending the vacuum pipes to the cabin & putting a guage between the operating valve & the turbo, you could even have someone manually operate it with a Mytivac when it should be boosting.

Thanks for the input, I can now add drain plug removal tools, a drain tray, oil & refilling tools.

I have also found this which describes better the removal of a 4x4 gearbox, scroll down for the description of a Golf 4 motion clutch job: http://www.mechanexpert.com/category/clutches/page/3/ I got a scare reading on another site that the whole engine/transmission & subframe had to be dropped out as there is not space for the gearbox removal otherwise but if the Yeti is the same as the Golf being the same platform it seems it can be done by dropping the subframe. I will drive it over the pit and have a good look to see if I think it can be done. In my younger days I was as capable as that guy but I have not kept my hand in for decades, losing one eye makes it difficult, I think the loss of close vision is even more of a handicap as on your back you cannot get far enough away to focus. What really shocked me may have been simply how well a phone camera works in low light but it was just how bright it looked under there, when I am underneath I can see nothing without inspection lamps yet I know it wasn't a problem years back, I think the onset of a cataract may also be in play, were things really that bright and clear to me working on my back under a vehicle in my youth? If so then I finally know why older (wiser) guys who were more than capable preferred to pay me to do these jobs. I actually need to do this job to regain some confidence in my abilities, use it or lose it!

Funnily enough the mechanic today who wanted too much money saying it was a day and halfs labour spoke about exactly the same job on a LandRover, there is no comparison between the weight of the two although I dont know the wieght of the VAG angle drive box or whether it has to be removed. The weight is only an issue for me because I will be standing up and it has a long way to fall & I dont want to damage it, I have never had the luxury of a ramp or even a pit so am used to grovelling around on my back like this meccano in the video, that way the gearbox has a soft landing on my chest!!! I cannot work out why he removes the diff flange at 6 minutes 15 seconds, it also requires him to drain the gearbox oil, there must be a good reason but it does not appear to be access related, perhaps I will have to remove the angle drive box first? I will add the question to the posting. I would say that this guy who does at least 2 jobs a day with travelling between them could do this one (without filming) in less than 2 hours and could have done so with his eyes closed. https://youtu.be/OvVodV2sBoA

After 3 months of replacing ancillaries and now having to bleed air out on an almost daily basis I have to bite the bullet and replace my clutch, DMF and concentric slave cylinder, I wont know what is to blame until it is stripped but will be replacing everything anyway. The costs of having it done in troudeculdemondeville where I live are eyewatering, most dont want to know and I still bear the mental scars of breaking down in my first days here with a clutch cover making a bid for freedom when i did not even have running water and the car was essential, not only did I get completely ripped off but was left with far more problems with broken ancillaries, cables, roll bar not connected etc. I can't make the journey to my workshop in the UK in its current condition so I have no choice but to do it here with the tools I have which whilst not the same quality are reasonably comprehensive, I will be using the drive in cellar workshop (sous sol) of a friend that has an inspection pit, 10 years ago I would have done this job in my sleep but confidence reduces and my biggest handicap now is eyesight having lost one eye & having to use bifocal specs, at least I should be able to have better lighting in the pit that working under the car on my drive. My questions are: Are there any particular complications that I should be looking out for, I have removed & repleced several ford & VW FWD gearboxes in the past but never one with the 4x4 transfer box, do I need to rig up an engine support? are there parts that have to be removed for access that may not be apparent? What special tools will I need that I may not know of or have to hand, I know the driveshafts have to be removed & the lower ball joints disconnected to do so, I can check that I have the right socket for that but are there any other special fasteners? Does the oil need draining first or can it be left in situ? Does the transfer gearbox/angle drive need to be removed or can the whole transmission be removed as one unit? My clutch alignment set is in the UK so I will either knife & fork one or order one, the problem here is you can be delayed weeks for a 24 hour delivery, my torque wrenches are in the UK, I could borrow one but I'm guessing that its only the flywheel bolts that are critical & I think they are also loctited. Any special advice for the removal, a helper for the weight? one person above with a sling lowering it etc? And especially is there an elephant in the room that I have overlooked, like everything here if I get stuck on this there is nobody to turn to.

3. Of course I have, and I can tell you the operator had absolutely no idea how the equipment works, it's designed to be idiot proof for a reason. Absolutely spot on! Thats not to say that there will not be an operator who knows what they are doing and has some understanding beyond that of how the vehicle system works, the failure modes, the symptoms, the weak points on various vehicles who you could learn a lot from. Its been 15 maybe 20 years since I have encounterd one though, about the same amount of time that the manufacturers started producing idiot proof equipment for the Kwik-Fit type centers. And then you need to have enough knowledge of the subject and a good enough measure of the person you are dealing with to know whether to give any credence to what they have to say, that only comes through engaging with them on the subject, if they clam up or become defensive its a very bad sign. Every day on here or other places I see myths perpetuated by people repeating what they have swallowed without reflection or contemplation, "a mechanic once told me.................." "I was always taught................" (but I don't understand why), its a hell of a lot worse in this country where the whole education system is based around retaining (believing without question) what you are being told and the ability to regurgitate it and not an understanding of the how & why.