rum4mo

While VCDS can be used to “calibrate” the movement, starting with the cogs in the correct position is essential. Crazy as it seems, that is why from day one of buying VW Group cars, I “needed” to have Climatronic! Then I needed to buy VCDS for other reasons.

At least that design of coolant reservoir has a cap that you can use a convenient sized bit of metal in (the slot), to help open it, I tend to wash the cap and that clears most of the solidified dried coolant off it and so it becomes a bit easier to open and close. Newer models of cars tend to have the later version of caps which are quite tricky to remove - in fact the tool supply industry has responded by providing "sockets" that fit the various sizes and shapes, I think that VW Group ended up using caps that have an odd number of flats on them, which is a bit challenging for people that use a set of pipe grips to help them open them! Ford, I seem to remember, chose an even number of flats on their later cars. Why has this become a difficult job, okay in an ideal world you should never need to top up coolant - but when you feel the need to, provoked probably by VW Group crappy plastic pump/thermostat assemblies, then life becomes annoying struggling with these later designs of coolant reservoir caps.

If just replacing the actual bare struts solves your problem, then that was the right thing to do - but if it doesn't, what next - starting with the cheapest to replace part and keep going until you have solved this? There is a sort of smart way to avoid re-working this area, and in my world where I don't want or need to revisit this area, I always replace the top mounting and bearing, the bump stop might not need replacing, but you will only know that after you have taken the car off the road, if you can live with repeating all this work a few times, then replacing just first the strut should work okay for you.

Just a though, are you in the AA and have included being helped from home as well as when out on the road? If so, after you buy and receive this new assembly of bits, log this emissions issue with the AA and say that you'd rather not drive the car in its present state, there is a good possibility that they would come out and fit that part FOC. This might depend on your local area as to how they handle this situation. Many years ago, I messed up or got into a mess after replacing the fuel filter on my 2000 VW Passat 4Motion - and ended up with a "non starter" - they did attend and sought help from another patrol who "knew V6s" - and he quickly solved my problem which was oil getting washed out from the piston rings by the injected petrol as I tried to get the fuel through, to the select few, a well known situation especially with Jaguars and Audi V engines!

Ah, I can see now that both the black plastic part AND the grey or now white part get changed as a single set of bits. I tend to get suspicious when a car manufacturer changes the body colour of a part, it is not normally just down to a change of available material, the change tends to reflect a significant change in that part, ie it required modifying, and to be easily identified when or if the later part has been fitted. Replacing the spark plugs on these engines, is, in my mind not a job for a beginner in this "car work" stuff, even a local VW Group Indie in South London managed to mess up the charge pipe assembly when taking the air filter assembly off my younger daughter's 2019 SEAT Arona - and either did not notice what they had done or just didn't want to report that that car now needed a new charge pipe! I only bumped into that mess when I removed the air filter to replace the spark plugs, but time did not allow for me to source a new part before they headed back down South. What had happened was that while the charge pipe is a single assembly, it gets fabricated from two parts and a sealing part, the 2 parts ad been pulled/ripped apart so there was now a gap in the charge pipe, not a good plan if you want to keep crap out of the turbo inlet! Taking the coils off requires using a specific tool or being very careful and new spark plugs need a ring of proper non conducting paste applying to the ends of the coils possibly to avoid the coil "contacts" from grabbing/gripping the ceramic on the spark plugs - which would need to extra work getting that off the plug after it had separated from the main part of the coil. All that is easy stuff when you have all the tools and paste - and an idea what you are up against. The strong constant tension clips on these air cleaner pipes are best removed using the correct sort of tool.

Now that you've been given a part number, maybe just what the part numbering is on the black rectangular part that I was directing you to earlier - the one shown in your picture with the brake fluid reservoir and coolant reservoir in it - that rectangular part sits between them. I could be completely wrong, but after you have checked that number against what is printed on it, I'll know for sure. I do agree however that the grey cylindrical part does look like purge valves used to look like - but I was being swayed by the shape of the part in the parts listing - which is exactly what you have now been shown, though sometimes parts diagrams are just generic. Air filter, fair enough, though not one area that I would have taken a chance with, Mann has always worked for me, and it seems VW Group.

Just one last thing(maybe), which brand of air filter did you fit, I'm only asking this as I remember a friend fitting what his local motor factor offered him, to his daughter's old 2004 VW Polo 1.2 during servicing it, and that car from that point on ran like a bag of nails, he re-fitted the old maybe VW or Mann equivalent air filter, and all was good, so he bought either a genuine VW Group air filter or a Mann equivalent(same item) and that worked like the original, money back on "not so good" air filter. I've not heard of anyone else having a problem with a cheap air filter - but I'm just asking the question.

I think that the fuel tank purge valve/solenoid has changed shape/look dramatically in recent years, can you work out what the flattish rectangular box is at the RHS of the car, as that is roughly where this sort of device would be located. The two pipes that appear at the area between the brake fluid reservoir and the coolant reservoir, one of them is the pipe that vents the tank or at least flushes the carbon canister - and probably the one that is cheap and nasty ribbed plastic and so has a rough inner bore, as opposed to being a more suitable and expensive pre formed smooth bored rubber pipe.

No, that is a pressure sensor - or in this case a vacuum sensor on the brake servo line.

The alarm horn unit has its own battery, so I'd think that the only way to silence it would be to locate it and unplug and maybe remove it. I've never checked to see what happens when the car battery is disconnected, in terms of how the alarm would react if the car was then mechanically locked.

Correct, the action of removing the entire fridge gas charge - and the recovery machine will note the recovered weight, is to be able to comply with the requirement to never load fridge gases into a leaking system as that just leads to a small extra bit of global warming. The by product or bonus in doing that is that any accumulated moisture is also removed. Loading back in the system design weight of fridge gas is essential when using these "dumbed down" fridge gas handling machines, as these AC systems are designed with a "critical" weight of fridge gas - which also makes using these "dumbed down" machines kind of fool proof to a basic operator who has had the training and so is certified to handle fridge gases, without having a lot of fridge gas system knowledge.

The only way nowadays that an AC car system is serviced is to fully recover the fridge gas charge and weigh it, apply a vacuum to the system to remove any accumulated moisture, and recharge the system with the correct weight of fridge gas. Out of interest they might tell you what the recovered weight was as compared with the newly charged weight - though you might not be interested in knowing that, my older daughter's 2019 Leon Cupra ended up with a "crap" AC system during the past hot weather, I told her to get it serviced and that sorted it out, perhaps she will buy a bio bomb to sanitise the evaporator now as well. So, that car had lost too much of its fridge gas over a period of 6 years, if your one is still okay, maybe play the system and get its AC serviced as an individual task - if that is allowed within your service plan, but don't do this until next early summer as that should give you a longer period before you will need to pay to get it recharged/serviced the next time.

I'm not sure that any VW Group cars that I've owned have had Loctite - red or blue, on these bolts - but that might be my error on not noticing any on all these guide bolts that I've removed and refitted. Other versions do have blue Loctite on them, which I clean up and apply fresh Loctite on reuse. Edit:- for clarification, my comments were aimed at the threaded guide pin type, ie the version in the first picture, the short bolts that screw into the end of the separate guide pins, ie the version in the second picture do tend to have Loctite on them, typically Blue Loctite paste.

I'm guessing your problem is that "stuff" tends to cover up most of the top of batteries in some newer cars - whereas, a few years ago, it was less crowded around there and you could read all the info that you wanted to.

@OccyVRS so it sounds like protectionism has returned, very annoying! I think that there is something similar happening around "replacing brake parts" - if so, that needs knocking on the head as well. An aside maybe, or closely connected with this sort of situation, I have had the misfortune to need to buy in a highish value part for my car, when I phoned the Audi dealership parts department, they advised me that it would need ordering in from the factory - really just what I expected for a slow moving highish value part, the parts guy checked for current availability and the parts were both available to order and for me to collect in 2 days time, I asked him for the actual part number really just to make sure that the exactly correct parts were being ordered "we are not allowed to hand out that information" - so I offered the last 3 numbers and 2 letters of the part number and he grudgingly agreed that was what I was going to pay for and collect in 2 days time, then I got the spiel(sp) about there being a list of other parts that I must buy or the parts warranty would be null and void - I passed on that as I'm a DIYer and I don't think that VW Group would be interested in addressing any issues I had with these parts after I had left the building, anyway I had already bought all associated hardware. I wandered in 2 days later, "sorry one part failed to make the transport so it will be here tomorrow". Not wanting to waste more time than necessary, the next day I phoned before leaving home "oh that part is on back order - I told you that when you ordered the parts as it was me that handled that order" - nothing like that was said previously but such is life sometimes dealing with people, so I asked when it might appear or when they will get visibility of that from the factory - "phone tomorrow and we'll know more", phoned the next day "phone in another 2 days time". Soon, maybe tomorrow, I'll give them a phone call, if that part is not currently available then that is that, but surely there must be a clear time line as it when it will be back in stock, this is not rocket science. Things are starting to get a lot sloppier concerning VW Group, maybe dealing with old internal combustion engines cars is boring them.

Just adding this "info" For a while, there was a bit of chattering going on on maybe a VW forum, where people replacing the engine coolant on these EA211 family of engines, just removed the small pipe from the coolant reservoir, extended it with another length of pipe and pointed that into a 10 litre or so bucket, then started the car up while having "enough" premixed new G12evo beside them, and fed all this new coolant into the reservoir as the car pumped the old coolant out into the bucket! Maybe doing that would flush out any collected air if you've needed to open up the system. Just a suggestion, though I'll be aiming at using my Draper coolant refill vacuum kit when I replace the coolant in my wife's 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS.

@GiscoYeti , I was a bit concerned about you being able to "double the power" with your new battery, the "power" is the CCA or Cold Cranking Amperes and there are maybe 3 ways to rate/describe this, ie DIN which yields a very low value, then EN or SAE which method yields a value that is almost twice the DIN value/rating.

I do have a weakness for Knipex pliers! For this job I bought something cheaper like US Pro or cheaper, and they did work. I've also got a Laser Tools tool that can be used for that job, it is a small rack sort of thing, bought for another specific job - I've forgotten what, but it has been very useful, as usual bought at a lot less than Laser Tools rrp!

Maybe look into what you can get from your OBDeleven in terms of "fault codes" I would have thought that it was or was able to point you directly to the exact ABS wheel sensor that had failed, doing a quick "clear all stored faults" at first is not the best way to use that scan tool - yes okay clear them all, but record them first as maybe, you are being told what the fault is.

@nta16 these air hoses spring bands are more weapons than clips!

The “word” is that cars of this age can stand having their heater matrix and pipes placed under a “light weight” vacuum. Ie these kits will never achieve “hard” vacuums, just a low enough depression to be able to drag back in the quantity that you dropped out. I played safe and collected all the old coolant so that I had a reference point/capacity for refilling. That worked okay, more surprising was that my puny compressor managed to pull the system down, and do it quite quickly.

Constant tension pipe clips - I've probably got too much free time and maybe free space in my garage, but I have blundered on a tool/product that sells on Temu, that is essentially a clip for slipping over an "opened" constant tension pipe clip, that keeps it open/expanded so that you can take your pliers off that clip and move onto the next one. I'm just saying that in case anyone feels the need to add them to their Christmas list! Quite crafty at times these Chinese chappies. On the other hand, "parking" a constant tension clip along the pipe where it will not cause any trouble is what I've done in the past, so saves filling a space in my garage with these aids. Edit:- back on topic, I've only ever used a coolant vacuum kit when replacing coolant on my car, and will probably use it again on my wife's 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS - soon.

I'd agree, buy a new set and replace them one at a time, I still have that job to do on my own car VAG Indie had dropped the subframe when replacing the engine mountings, and did not replace any of these subframe bolts! I quickly bought a new set, but not done that yet, I must try harder!

From memory, Skoda fitted a different gearbox mounting to at least Fabia, but for some reason VW used 6Q0 199 555 AR for the 2015 Polo 1.2TSI 110PS with 6MT and 6QO 199 555 AS for the TDI engined cars, now I think that it is the "AS" version that is the correct replacement part for the 2015 Polo 1.2TSI 110PS 6MT. Maybe check the part number of your gearbox mounting if your car feels like its engine/gearbox mounting is a bit too loose/free to move for your liking.

Well, my wife's 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS started making rubbery noises at power on/power off when driving, I forced VW dealer to sort this out, first action was to remove this mounting and smoother it with copper grease(?!) - a directive from VW Group Tech Resources and so the only first action to take on warranty cars, and so replace all the fixings that had been removed - I demanded a copy of the work sheet! Well that worked very well - for maybe 2 weeks, so on the second visit, I left a printed document with info taken from someone on this forum who lives in Denmark/Sweden - and in that area, VW Group advise that the mounting is replaced with the TDI version - and that is what my VW dealer did, but as they had charged VW already for a new set of bolts, the latest bolts were reused! That was some back ground info - I'd always make the effort to only fit new bolts in this location and others. Other info, probably not relevant though, during that first "fix these rubbery noises" visit to my VW dealer, the tasks carried out included checking the lower front subframe bolts - maybe 6 years later I found a bolt head from a front subframe bolt on my garage floor - probably one that they had repeated the TTY action on aided by its location meaning that road moisture/water and so salty road moisture/water gets thrown up and down into the area where the front 2 subframe bolts fasten into captive/plate nuts, so I quickly bought a new set of these bolts and got my local VW Indie to replace them all and check the alignment. That second tale was maybe offered to make you consider what in some situations can happen when TTY bolts are reused or at least retorqued - though maybe in that case someone stupidly thought that they would add in a bit more torque than the spec askes for to stop thing customer complaining about noises during warranty period!