rum4mo

On this topic, sort of, my older daughter stupidly left winter tyres on too long the summer before last, MOT man spotted "tread tearing" on the older 2 front winter tyres, so that meant replacing them before this winter. I went to check them over last week, I could measure the pressure on one, but not on the other! It looked a lot like the new(?) valve core (her winter wheels have steel bolt on valves) had been screwed really hard down into the valve body - that is not good! So to take ownership of this problem and avoid her needing to waste time taking that wheel back for "sorting", I stopped off at Halfords and bought a pack of 4 new valve cores and replaced that one. Originally, the top of the pin on the valve core was 2.5mm below the top of the valve body - and the seal on that valve core looked extremely distressed/cut when removed. So much for using workshops that deal with Blackcircles and are convenient.

Your car has manual HVAC and the other controller is for auto HVAC - so a lot more work needing doing than “plug and play” - but I think that some people have accepted this challenge!

10 out of 10 for your MOT person reporting that, it might just avoid you getting stranded while attempting to re-fuel. It would be the MOT person checking the filler cap seal condition that ended up with that discovery.

The pivot areas for each wiper arm might need cleaning up and re-greasing - I've seen that on a 2002 SEAT Ibiza - that one was left too long and it attempted to, and succeeded in, destroying the wiper linkage, so one new link arm was needed as well as cleaning up the pivot points. I will add that in addition to the pivots "stiffening up", rain water was directed down and out through a hole in the scuttle panel and so landing on top of one of the wiper's link arm's joints, a smart bit of design there by VW Group! The minimum I'd try, if you are able, is to drip down quite a bit of even 3-in one oil in below the wiper arms, that should end up getting into the wiper arm's top pivots - that might sort things out for a few months or more - I did that to my wife's previous car which was a 2002 VW Polo - and that sorted its wipers out. Edit:- do that while the wipers are running on slow speed before trying to see if it helps the fast speed operation.

You mentioned slapping some copper grease over the bolt to stop it seizing next time, I'd reckon that it should be aluminium grease that you use there - I applied as much aluminium grease along/over all the pinch bolts that pas through aluminium uprights on my 2011 Audi S4 - as well as trying to completely fill the "pinch gaps" with same aluminium grease, again to try to stop moisture getting in there and causing that horrible bolt seizing issue. Copper grease, when used on bolts etc that will not be moved for many years, has now got a bad name for causing seizing - which is not what you'd expect.

I did this many years ago when my wife got her first MK3 I think, Fiesta, then I transferred it to her next Fiesta. Our older daughter bought a new SEAT Ibiza 1.4 SC in 2009 - and it had only one horn, sounded very "nasty", probably stopped me using the horn when I looked after that car for a couple or so years later on.

I'd think that the Ceramic grease will be okay, I only use that on the callipers, for the hub<>disc I use a spot of aluminium grease and add extra on the outer side - round about the disc<>hub joining point at-and the projecting part of the hub to made removing the alloy wheels easier next time. It's normally safe enough to give the "barrel" of the old discs a few heavy whacks to release them from their "rust bond" to the hubs. I'd say that I normally intend to remove the discs from new cars and apply a very slight coat of probably aluminium grease to the hub face then refit the discs, if you plan in keeping a car for a few years and also doing your own service/repairs, you'll appreciate having made the effort to do this further down the line as the discs will be free to remove after taking the retaining screws out.

Yes, I agree with the previous comments about the displayed voltage at the "ciggy lighter" socket. Typically, my wife's 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI - now with a "one size up" AGM battery replacing the factory fitted Exide EFB, will show 12.0V > 12.3V from sitting off overnight or after a few days of not being used. At start up the voltage will initially rise to typically 12.8V - but after reversing out of the garage it will rise to typically 14.4V. Now that the temperature has dropped a bit, while driving even on journeys of 10 or more miles (auto stop/start switched off as soon as the engine has started - just because), the displayed voltage will stay around 14V maybe always - in warmer weather it will drop back to 13.4V or even less. That car was last used on Saturday and has been left outside since then, it was driven 5 miles, stopped for shopping then driven 5 miles back, and near the end of that journey, (I had forgotten to switch off auto stop!) auto stop/start was still being disabled by some conditions having not being met yet, which surprised me but that's okay as the ambient temperature is now lower - it wasn't a cabin heating demand that was causing this for me this time, but it will stop auto stop/start being enabled if you are asking for a lot of cabin air heat - having not reached set cabin air temperature is one of the conditions that is intended to disable auto stop/start.

Just be very careful when using any toothbrush on painted car surfaces - my 2011 Audi S4 came to me at just over 2 years old, and slight dark lines at the base of the spokes on its 19" double 7 spoke alloys - that, I think, was caused by "gentle" use of a toothbrush on them to remove brake dust.

A final(hopefully) posting on my mate's 2019 VW T-Roc 1.5TSI 150PS DSG, WBAC happily took it off his hands, I don't know what sort of money he got for it, but maybe I managed to soften the blow by saying that I was worried that he was going to just get it repaired and then get hit by the much quoted DADA engine problems "quite soon after". So it's back to using some of his fleet of classic SAABs for now!

I seem to like grey, ie gun metal grey, it tends to suit many body colours. My car is Deep Sea Blue Pearlescent - which means that it looks black most of the time, and its winter wheels are gun metal grey nowadays.

Further to my comment about my mate's 2019 VW T-Roc 1.5TSI 150PS DSG issue, his VAG Indie workshop now have his car, read the codes etc and consider that it is an gearbox oil pump related issue - £4500, repairing the DSG will get carried out by a gearbox specialist. So, roughly 67,000miles in 7.5 years and no gearbox oil or fluid changes carried out which is in line with advice by the manufacturer, could this have been avoided if the oil and fluid were changed at maybe the 5 year, 50,000miles point - who knows. I think that he was told that this DQ200 was improved in 2022 - I'm guessing to improve reliability, though cold comfort to folk like him. The car still drives - if that is relevant!

I got a similar reply from them when I asked the question, though they did say that they had talked to VW Group about this and were assured that the driver will get adequate warning indication and so so stop quickly. They did add, back then, that as it currently did not trigger any action going by their prescribed guidelines for taking action, they would still be keeping an eye on how often this was occurring - and considering any change on possible future action based on that. So I'll always advice that owners report to them every time this happens. Edit:- I'd hope that there will be a tipping point where/when DVSA do demand action from VW Group before someone gets fried.

I'd think that the only way to get anything from VW Group at some time in the future, will be to report this failure via the DVSA website - doing that might, just might, eventually get UK Gov to point a gun at VW Group over this issue!

I think that generally the consensus is to run with fixed servicing periods, yes you'll probably get more miles/£ (of your service costs) by running with flexible - but other wear and tear items might need extra cash in an unpredictable way. Flexible servicing usually only works for new cars that get high usage - then moved on after a couple of years.