J.R.

I zoomed in on that but it was inconclusive. The cast aluminium bracket that he is holding for the photograph appears to have 3 mounting bolts, 2 are intact and the 3rd sheared off flush hence my belief that the only thing needing attention is the removal of the sheared off remains in the engine block.

That is the one that I have. Seems expensive compared to the standard one, I think they may have jacked up the price to offer a fictional discount, worth a look elsewhere as many sell the same model. No way would it lift 3 tonne though, it has a very long strong handle and you really have to heave on it to lift the front end of the Yeti.

Not so, it just needs the remains of the bolt removing, there are several ways of doing it, carefully drilling going up in sizes to the tap drill size and then picking out the threads but they will normally have backed out by then, left hand drill bits help. Drilling and using an Easy-out, risk of breaking it. Arc welding a nut to the remains, the heat usually releases the threads and it will unscrew easily. £5.5K, says it all about the motor trade I'm afraid

Are you sure the mounting bolt goes into the actual cast iron engine block and that it is damaged or is that what you are being told? I bought my MK2 Octavia cheap because the sellers garage had put in writing almost word for word what you stated, "new engine block needed" this was again just after they had replaced the cam belt. In actual fact the broken casting was the aluminium alternator and power steering belt mounting bracket which the LH engine mounting bracket screwed into. £30 and I had a second hand one delivered from a breaker in 24 hours.

The diff oil will still look like that after 200K miles unless someone has run it dry after mistaking the diff drain plug for the Haldex one. I laugh when people pay garages to change the diff oil as a preventative measure. It will be interesting to see if the noise turns out to be the diff bearing (if it is it will be the left hand output shaft one) and whether your mechanic can actually source the parts and rebuild it, most cant/wont these days. The bearings can be sourced but the oil seals are/were unobtanium, they heave to be hoiked out to replace the bearings, if damaged then you are foutu!

Compatibility all depends on the part number suffix, if you have steering wheel controls then you need a high line unit. Rosstech have a good web page that shows all the variants and the functions which are supported by each, Google should find it for you. If you are lucky you just need the long coding changing for the equipment fitted to your vehicle, if you are unlucky you have wasted your money. Given that you have the same faults are you sure the problem was actually the clock spring? Did you have a VCDS scan done revealing no comms to the module or fault code(s) relating to it?

I cant work out if you are modifying the Yeti or have bought a Fabia Rally 2? The blue car in the photograph does not look like a Yeti.

I am still using the Viking (now Sealey is it?) 1500 kg trolley jack that I bought when I was 18 in order to earn my supplementary living to my apprenticeship wage by welding up cars, I was obliged to in order to carry on with my apprenticeship and studies after being made homeless. The only maintenance it has had in the intervening 47 years was to add a tiny bit of hydraulic fluid maybe 2 years ago, this jack has taken serious, sustained and regular abuse in all that time. To put todays prices in perspective it cost £62.50 from Halfords with the 12.5% discount through the company (2000 employees) motor club, a months net wages for me at the time, the Portapak gas welding kit cost £278, nearly 4 months wages!!!!! I'm beginning to wonder now if the Portapak was not in fact more than £300. I bought a very heavy low profile high lift quick lift 3 Tonne Chinese jack on Ebay a couple of years ago for less than £100, it seems to be the same model as the SGS branded one, twin pistons (one for quick lift) and small front rollers, it's very good indeed other than the weight which is no bad thing.

Thanks for the explanation, the only parts that I could see through reading that had been replaced were the copper washers.

A wise person would do as you have and buy an older diesel!

What problems do you imagine a non VAG repackaged copper washer will cause?

Do you really get taken in by nonsense like that with AI voice-over?

The schmoo pictured looks like saline reacting with moisture. I have seen similar with bowls of salt left to reduce humidity and also on the Laurel Garland I won at Brands Hatch, it remained green and never turned brown, I had not realised it had been treated with a saline solution, I hung it in the rafters of my garage above the race car and when I kept finding water pooling on the bonnet I thought my roof was leaking, it was the crystals formed on the Laurels becoming saturated with moisture and dripping.

Concentrated urine! You can imagine the discussions when the bright sparks decided to make our engines drink it - "what could possibly go wrong!"

Sounds like an immobiliser problem, as others have suggested a VCDS (or equivalent) scan would reveal any problems like that.

Search for what? - Expert asiatic lady fixing bad starting car with little cleaning?

A long shot but something that could have gone awry when the wheel bearing was changed. Remove the wheel centre cap from the side you replaced the bearing, with the car on its wheels and the engine running engage a gear, release clutch, get out and look at the driveshaft retaining bolt, if it is rotating then the driveshaft was not correctly engaged when the retaining bolt was tightened. For that to be the case the driveshaft would be rotating which I would have expected you to have already noticed.

Then remove it and see! I have one of the Ali ones in the Yeti, it never had the factory Jumbo Box armrest & I think it had something like in the photo, the Ali armrest was very wobbly when fitted as it was intended so I made up some screw fixings, its not as secure as a factory fit which bolts to the transmission tunnel but not bad. Its a very good box with upper and lower compartments and also a secret compartment, also USB sockets which I did not connect up as I have one in the dashtop box from the Chinese head unit.

I doubt that it will be the clutch but what you describe does sound more like it than diff or driveshaft failure, if you raise one wheel again and very cautiously try selecting a gear and then releasing the clutch if theraised wheel starts turning without any graunching noises then it will be the clutch but pretty much unheard of, was it by any chance someone else driving the vehicle when the problem manifested? - a teenage son perhaps? That is a good way to destroy the syncromesh on reverse gear, OK most cars never had it on reverse until recent years, yours does, it should not crunch but instead baulk in the conditions you describe but it is a very unwise thing to do.

Not gravity unless you are driving up or down a vertical plane. I agree that the orientation of the shift controls on the DSG are counter-intuitive.

Try the other wheel and report back. Just to reiterate as your answer was not clear, the other wheel must be on the ground.

Put the car in gear and jack up one front wheel off the ground, try and rotate it, you should not be able to. Repeat with the other front wheel.

Yup, I know where I would be looking.........................

Good explanation, I wish I had known of their existence and the need for them before dropping my subframe to replace the clutch. Back then the only thing being promoted was probably the same thing but sold for competition cars and described as "centralising" the subframe "spot on" to "correct the wide factory tolerances" which to an engineer understanding what a tolerance is and what build up of tolerances is and why there was so much clearance on the bolted joints was utter nonsense aimed at extracting money from pigeons. If only I had known what they actually did Yours is the by far the best explanation I have read

Does this occur during upshifts to the higher gears or does it also happen when already in the gear and then accelerating? For the latter the clutch is slipping and needs replacement. For the former then its a "characteristic" of the clutch peak torque limiter when making swift gearchanges using full throttle as soon as the clutch is released, VAG would rather you burn out the clutch than damage the transmission.