J.R.

I think its the foam that degrades, you say it is becoming "increasingly uncomfortable", was the drivers seat ever comfortable? All my Skodas the seats have worn through the side bolster from getting in and out and the foam degraded well before the cars were run in, my figure for that is over 200k miles, the point at which the piston rings were finally bedded in and the tiny oil consumption (1/2 litre top up if I went well beyond my 10K mile service limit) stopped altogether. On the MK1 I changed the lower cover and bolster for one from a breakers yard, it was far more comfortable, I have just changed the seat on my 1980's micro tractor and my derrière is thanking me. Leather seats probably spread the load a little but once the foam has degraded they can be just as uncomfortable.

Crikey, prices have gone even more crazy than I thought. 4 years ago I bought the Yeti just before the confinement as a write off project for £3200 and spent £800 doing the repairs (main costs were airbags, seatbelt pretensioners, dashboard, AC condensor and front crash beam) meaning it cost me £4k, at the time a proper undamaged car was not worth an awful lot more, 4 years later the same vehicles now 4 years older and with higher mileage are going for 3 times the price. The shortages during Covid and maybe the undesirability and stupid price of new vehicles have driven up second hand prices insanely. I bet back then your car would only have sold for £11K. The Yeti was good value for me as second hand vehicle prices in France have always been much much higher, it was my last chance to import a cheap RHD vehicle before the UK left the EU, mine is a keeper, rust was confined to the brake discs and backplates, I have driven 55000 miles in it and spent maybe €100-200 on improvements, brake and suspension parts not £4K. 4 new tyres last week (fitted by myself) cost double what I have spent to date.

You have spent more than four grand on a very rusty car, I hope you see some benefit from it, at your age (I am close) you probably thought this was a keeper but with that much rust I'm not sure that will work out to be a good idea. You are now £15K + into an 8 year old vehicle, I know second hand prices have gone crazy but that sounds a lot even for a Minter.

All the calculated figures are fantasy and can even be reset to zero without even touching the DPF. The measured soot value compared to the calculated should give you some clue, that and the low DPF differential pressure 188 miles after a regen suggest all is still well with the DPF.

No, it 100% should be working where the photograph was taken, its a very good place to demonstrate it. Otherwise choose a wet day and a slippery junction where you know you would lose traction unless modulating the throttle and clutch, when safe to do so drive away far too rapidly like an inexperienced driver, you should feel some wheelspin and then a kick in the back showing the Haldex has engaged, if there is a way of disabling the EDL (is there a button?) but not the Haldex then that will make it clearer, the EDL manifests itself as a graunching (the brake being applied to the spinning wheel) noise and also engine torque limitation.

Neither your car nor my car have that vulnerability. For those who choose something like Skoda Connect then they have willingly put themselves in that situation, for vehicles like Tesla that do the on line updates etc and seemingly have constant internet connection does that mean you have to pay for a seperate data only mobile contract or have your mobile phone with you to drive the thing?

I can see from the video that the EDL is working (the snatching rotation of the RH front wheel) that would be enough to drag the vehicle out of a muddy field on the flat, take the guy to where you shot the video. Are you sure by going along with all this you are not shooting yourself in the foot and losing the right to rejection?

Hooking up to VCDS or whatever Multi-Marque diagnostic gear the mechanic uses and looking at the live data will immediately tell you if the Haldex is being commanded, if it is and the front wheel(s) is/are spinning wildly and the vehicle not moving then there is most likely a pump failure. I am hoping that it is not being commanded as that would likely be a simple and easier fix.

Thanks for posting that and especially the video starting at the point where he does the demonstration, I understood all the relevant elements and did not need to go back but if I hadn't then it was all there. Until now I thought the stop mechanism was triggered by back pressure, they always seem to shut off when the fuel is approaching the top of the tank but by slowing down the flow I can get a couple more gallons in, it must in fact be splashes coming up the filler neck, and now I think about it I always withdraw the nozzle quite a way as it approaches that stage, its very noticeable when filling a Jerrycan. Your next task is to find a video explaining how the modern toilet cistern filling float valves work, I know the water pressure acts on the seal making it seal even tighter and causing a soft close off to avoid water hammer, I know they dont like working on first floor installs with a gravity fed loft cold water tank, I know they dont work when the tiny bleed hole in the membrane becomes blocked with calcaire but would like to see a cut away view to understand the function.

The front wheels dont need to slip for the Haldex coupling to engage in many circumstances where the controller does pre-emptive engagement. The one I experienced multiple times today was towing a heavily loaded tipping trailer (all up weight about 2 tonnes) up a muddy slope where the digger has just been laying sewage pipes in the rain, I pulled away very gently to maximise the traction and each and every time the 4wd was engaged without any slippage of the front wheels, the tyre tracks bear this out. It engaged due to the calculation of torque being applied using inputs from the engine revs, throttle opening, wheel speed, clutch position sensor and accelerometers, in this instance probably the first 2 being the dominant ones, it knew a lot of torque was being transmitted but the vehicle was barely moving and engaged the Haldex before a front wheel span. If I pull away madly fast across a wet junction with the steering straight ahead then I can feel a front wheel slip before the Haldex cuts in, if I pull away a little more progressively modulating the throttle and clutch as if the vehicle was FWD the Haldex cuts in but you dont feel it as there was no front wheel slippage. The same manouevre turning right onto the main road from my road will have the Haldex pre-emptively engaged because the steering is turned to the right, there I can pull away like a Hoon with no front wheel slippage.

Not wrong and you dont need a degree in Thermodynamics to realise, anyone who has owned petrol and diesel vehicles used for short urban journeys will know simply by how much they save at the fuel pumps. "even more de minimus on a diesel engine where there is no enrichment as soon as the compression ignition cycle is self sustaining," Are you going to say that is wrong on so many levels? A simple yes or no will suffice, save another demonstration of your extensive knowledge for someone that might be impressed by it. To explain for others a petrol engine runs an enriched mixture (choke = low MPG) until it reaches operating temperature, a diesel engine runs an enriched mixture only for starting on glowplugs, once it has started no further enrichment after a maximum of a couple of seconds. Modern petrol engine achieve impressive economy on long journeys, rivalling and even beating diesel but will never hold a candle to a diesel on short journeys, unfortunately for anything EU5 and onwards short journeys are a catastrophy for the DPF so petrol is better even though it will cost more on fuel.

I do know what you are talking about, and it had no relevance to my posting, I will ask you the question one more time in case you missed it: FYI This month zero income, the same as every month since Covid.

I learn something every day, sounds like it is replicating what must happen with a start button on a diesel engine.

Mine had done 79K miles and never been serviced, loads of schmoo on filter but no more than some of you who do frequent low mileage Haldex services. I have done another 53K miles and its still functioning correctly, I have been saying for ages that I must do it again but have so much other more important stuff going on like a roof above my head. It will be interesting to see how the filter looks this time. Re the OP, it sounds like the selling dealer has no idea other than competence in BS101 and that they and ultimately the OP have been taken for a ride by the transmission specialist who has removed a perfectly functioning differential needing at worst a service and a new Haldex pump and replaced it with one from a breakers yard that still does not engage the 4WD.

Waffle waffle waffle............................., does the "actually" signify that somewhere in the waffle you are correcting something I have said that is incorrect? I'm surprised you didn't mention how much you earn and pay into your pension.

Yes I can see one as well but not serious amounts of weights on both sides, maybe he meant on both sides of the inner rim (as photographed) but I cant see them, I can see some residue of the double sided tape from previous weights. The bead is seated on the rim to my eyes, there seems to be a lot of imaginative speculation for what is quite normal (abnormal) rear tyre wear!

Mmmmm......................................... Implausible but I am not the person experiencing it first hand.

Unless you people can see something that I cannot the inner tyre bead is fitted correctly and from the limited view I can see only one weight on the inner rim and can not see the outer rim at all. If you want to see an incompetent tyre fitter then watch me struggling with my 4 new tyres and my manual tyre changer and an unsuccessful modification to use a duckbill removal/refitting head like the pro machines use, I did not realise that on these alloys there is not a well for the inner bead like there is on the outer rim (it just tapers to the outer well) and that the inner bead must be broken progressively all the way around the rim, outer bead can be broken in the normal one shot way. The tyre wear looks like typical IRS negative camber wear exacerbated by sagging springs and/or carrying heavy loads.

Ethan or Isaac? Sorry Root, I could not resist the chance to get that joke in but it was not aimed at you. I like the idea of using them as a hearing aid also for recording in those rare occasions when you wished you had (it would take me 10 minutes to get to the right place on the phone) also that you have to use a speech command to record would automatically inform the other person which might well recover the situation. How much are they?

No No! Its air pollution hiding in plain sight, we would never have known but for Youtube 😄 I believe the figures 100%, what is incorrect in my view is the use of the term "life expectancy" which convinces the hard of thinking to expect to live to that age (on average) which is completely wrong. Editted, I wont delete the above which is completely wrong and will own my mistake, having survived infancy then we should indeed expect to live to the average life expectancy, what is incorrect is the belief that the figures show that we are living much longer these days than in the past.

To my knowledge VAG do not sell seals or bearings for the 4x4 differential, the bearings are standard size but from my research the few people who do rebuild them have to be very careful with the existing seals as they have to resuse them not having found any replacements. It does not sound like a "fully reconditioned unit" but one from a scrapyard that has been jet-washed, try even finding a company that repairs them let alone "fully reconditions" them, I think it is likely yet more BS101. I'm shocked to hear that despite having replaced the combined differential and Haldex that you still do not have 4 wheel drive, if only their mechanical competence matched their BS101. I understand your concerns re the epoxy repair but it seems to be taking your eye off the ball from the much more important issue of the 4x4 still not functioning. Are you still within your rights to reject the vehicle? That might focus their attention, it sounds like it has already cost them a lot of money, maybe they will cut their losses, take it back and unload it onto the next pigeon

I would be more concerned about the reported leaking driveshaft and propshaft seals. I dont see any evidence of leakage on the photograph. The damage looks like it was sustained in the salvage yard from the donor vehicle being lifted. The "drilling" will be more BS101.

A misty day? My money is on that the video has been Sepiaised (a word I just made up) I bought a charming sepia photo of my now ex street in the UK taken when it was built in 1958 from the antique shop in the village, turns out I was scammed because my neighbour had a print of the original B&W photo, much sharper definition, clearer but not as nostalgic or saleable, the major difference was the misty skyline, on my photo my house did not have a chimney, on my neighbours unadulterated original photo it did! It still does have the chimney. We are not living considerably longer, infant mortality is massively reduced with modern medicine and the welfare state, that is the reason for the numerical rise, it is an average, it could well be that those who do not die as children, the vast majority of us, are actually dying earlier than our ancestors of heart disease, diabetes and cancer. My father and his siblings lived to their late 80's early 90's but they were 5 children who grew to adults out of 10 children born to the mother who died of malnutrition and beating at 34, my father had a twin who died within days, the average lifespan of the adults in that family would be around 45. Had my parents had 10 children it is likely that we all would have survived, we could all have died in our 50's 30 years younger than our parents and their siblings yet our average lifespan would have been higher than theirs.

Maybe it sped up on both settings after being changed then. Which leaves the mystery why does it sound so much faster in recirculation mode? It was an assumption on my part that when recirculating there would be no (additional) pollen or atmospheric pollutants to filter, that and the perceived sound of the fan running faster.

Its only telling people that are mind readers or champions of cryptic crossword clues.