J.R.

I like them but who knows what they will look like in the flesh or how many seconds they will remain attached before making a bid for freedom.

If he has something like a Snap On multi-marque system that can interrogate the individual modules he will probably be able to read the relevant codes.

Funny how they now have a workshop again.

Then they have you by the balls. A shame as you started out so well.

Probably only apparent after letting a main dealer or other garage work on the vehicle. If it really is too close and not a case of them breaking or disturbing a retaining clip I would expect a recall. But then this is VAG we are talking about.

Again its difficult to work out from what was written but my guess is, or should I say my hope is, that he had RAC breakdown cover & the vehicle was insured with another insurer, he has now moved all of his cover to the RAC. I hope that any legal cover is from the breakdown policy and not from the new vehicle insurance policy for the reasons that you state, hopefully he will confirm. And hopefully he will confirm that an independant inspection took place before the garage got their devious mitts on the vehicle. I was also going to mention car hire but did not want to encourage him to run up expenses until he was sure of being in the driving seat.

I read it to perhaps mean he has moved all his insurance to the RAC now, several of the postings are a bit ambiguous.

Some of the Climatronic valves might be accessible with the glovebox removed & the centre console side trims, otherwise its a dash out job which seems intimidating but is not actually that difficult, I had to replace mine because the airbags had deployed. My Yeti with a standard old school non Climatronic heater reacts in a similar way but really the problem is my being used to the fine control given by Climatronic, with this car I am having to use the heater control valve like I used to with cars in the past, eg turn up to max temp when cold & then gradually turn down once I get warm & then too hot. I have simply forgotten what it used to be like. I added these comments in case anyone else with a cheapo standard heater thinks there is something wrong and finds this thread.

Its worth repeating what I said before with some underlining for emphasis: Remain focussed, dont allow yourself to be sidetracked by their bullsh*t, the more they produce stuff like that the more you should realise that you are on precisely the right trajectory and well they know it.

What happened to the Dekra independant inspection that you were going to have? You should not even be engaging with them considering the K-rap they are coming out with let alone considering accepting a goodwill gesture. Their negligence has destroyed your differential and could have caused a serious accident, I sincerely hope that you had the independant inspection done before they got their hands on it. They have you on the back foot and are trying to get away with as little as possible, you should not facilitate this. If it were me, and I appreciate that everyone is different & respect whatever you ultimately decide to do, I would say to them "Stop right there! The only thing that we can possibly negotiate is how much compensation you are going to pay me over and above repairing my vehicle at your cost with new parts, paying my breakdown recovery costs, the independant inspection and my legal fees to date, otherwise I will simply let the court decide, there is no question about your negligence and responsability for the consequences"

Neither!

Direct from the horses mouth, - that is the most concise explanation ever and perfectly decribes this bell end who was watched over, aided and abetted by another forum member. Considering how many miles I drove, the speed and the load carried I was very very lucky indeed, I may still pay for the expensive lesson but at least I can own up to my own incompetence and not expect someone who trusted me as a professional to pay out £4.5K for my mistake. In my defence I did my Haldex service shortly after screwed up eye surgery that left me blind in the eye that previously could see closer than the other, another so called professional who blames everybody else and leaves the customer to deal with the consequences.

Reversing uphill with a trailer or caravan attached? One with auto-reverse brakes?

Now that I have finally found the symbol (if it is indeed for the jacking point) I realise that you have never done so, if you had then you would not have written the above.

Well, well well!!! Now it has dawned on me that the triangle is on the lower part of the plastic sill cover and the photograph has been taken from the ground facing upwards in a space too small to fit a human head even if most of the forum members could see that close in the gloom,................ I have just been out and had a feel with my braille like hands and there is indeed a raised triangle moulded at the front ahead of the drain channel & the screw fixing. I suspect that its a recycling symbol for the plastic though!!!! Yety, use a pair of trolley jacks and never jack up on the sill but would have do so if I get a puncture on the road.

Remain focussed, dont allow yourself to be sidetracked by their bullsh*t, the more they produce stuff like that the more you should realise that you are on precisely the right trajectory and well they know it.

Were they intimating that had you had it regularly serviced by them the crack would not have appeared or that they would have seen it and reacted accordingly? Double bullsh*t from me!! I hope you get a satisfactory outcome & dont get fobbed off with a second hand diff unit, not that there would be anything wrong with it unless another "I dont care what hole I use" merchant has been at it, more that they should hit where it hurts them most to the maximum. I think they knew straight away what they had done, it must be well known in their circles, that they wanted you to remove the car and said the service department was closed with immediate effect sounded very very suspect. Can a main dealer even operate without a service department?

Wide open throttle - what!

*****ng hard, I have just been out in daylight & wearing close reading glasses which I would not normally need for a wheelchange even at night, if mine has markings then you would need to be psychic to see or even feel them, I washed off all the road dirt and there is nothing to be seen or even felt and I have a highly developed sense of feel being partially sighted. If mine is typical of the facelift Yeti then there are no markings, feeling behind the sill flange there is only one place at the front with a cut out in the plastic floorpan protection that would allow the standard jack to beused without shattering it, its also the only place where there is a raised stiffened section of the structure to put the weight on the jack in the correct manner without crushing the sill flange. At the rear there is about 7" before the plastic undershield would get in the way but no obvious raised metal support, needless to say this was all done by feel as you could not get your head underneath before jacking up the vehicle. l

If the fan remains on after you shut down then (if you have the time) take it for a drive above 2.5k rpm for 10-15minutes to allow the regen to complete its work. I would rather do that and get the benefit of the fuel wasted starting the reaction than to lose it and have the fans running to cool down a smoking hot DPF.

Ironically doing nothing means the worst that could happen is that the 4x4 will not engage when needed and many owners would not even realise, the pump may have been overworked and need replacing, or you just carry on driving your now FWD only vehicle perhaps in blissfull ignorance. Being responsable and taking charge of the sitution opens you up to the risk of a mechanic who is undiscerning about which holes he uses and the subsequent bid for freedom of shrapnel through the diff case, a £4.5K repair bill & possibly months of inspections, engineers reports and legal proceedings.

That is not corrosion but a bad contact that has overheated and melted the insulation, someone has bodged the connector in the past as it should not have the wire cores sticking out under the ring part.

I will use mine to toot someone that I know & then bury my head in shame it sounds so pathetic The 2 previous Octavias had twin horns that did what was said on the tin.

I got bored watching it but the goy is a dangerous bodger who doesn't even appreciate that there is no centre diff on any of the VAG Haldex equipped vehicles, "probably not a good idea to run the Haldex 100%" is nothing to do with protecting the pump from overheating but in reality (even though he is ignorant of the fact) because it will lunch the front transfer box through transmission wind up. And as for cutting away the foam from the seat squab He says you can buy a replacemen grommet, its part of the loom & I reckon that is bull***t, & any vehicle that he has fitted one too will have a hole in the floor to let in water, road dirt and exhaust gases.

I am intending doing so very soon, its a lot of money but I would rather be lifting the car on a strong and secure point than on the sill structure. My only concern is having to remove the plastic cover plates to fit the front ones may leave some of the floorpan exposed, I am hoping that I can trepan them and refit them around the lifting pucks.