rum4mo

Yup, not so clever German engineering - but then what did BMC and later named company ever get slightly right, they were used only because there was not much else to pick from other than Civil Service Car Company. I'm lucky, I managed to avoid that rubbish, even Fix Or Replace Daily cars/vans, before they rusted away, were more "suitable". I suppose if UK had been able to claim the big 3 German car makers after the war as reparations, we would have destroyed them - maybe just as well they escaped that fate or our choices would have been a lot narrower than they are.

A couple of comments, first, make sure that any nuts, bolts or threaded bar you buy that is going to be connected to your car, has the correct thread pitch, in this case that is not a problem, but in some other areas it will be. VW Group supplies hollow plastic wheel locating threaded dowels in the tool kit of some models, and a solid aluminium longer version - with a smooth but tapered end, both versions have a cross drilled hole - that will be to put a bar through it to make removing it easier, in the tool kits of the biggest/heaviest models. The first VW Group car that I bought new that had a plastic one in its tool kit was a 2000 VW Passat 4Motion, for some maybe strange reason, that car did not have a disc securing screw on the front hubs - or even a hole in the disc for a screw, so that plastic threaded dowel was more or less essential to keep "things lined up" when changing wheels. I'd rather not want to think about needing to change a front wheel at the side of the road and needing to fight with lining the disc with the holes in the hub and the wheel up before I could get a bolt in without having a threaded locating dowel in place. Edit:- what I missed saying was, the quality/strength of the steel is not very important, I've been using hollow plastic and aluminium wheel locating threaded dowels for almost 25 years - the same ones kept as "tools/aids" in my garage, and they are still fit for use.

Yes, using the official workshop manual recommends the volumes of brake fluid that should be removed at each wheel brake, and so if auto trans, 1 litre is exactly what is required, but that could leave you being a bit short if you mess up doing this job. I've always got away with using 1 litre per car but I probably deviate slightly with how much I remove from individual wheel brakes on a manual trans car, without changing the fluid within the clutch lines. The recommended brake fluid is referred to as being DOT4 Low Viscosity, so sold as DOT4 ESP or similarly named, ordinary DOT4 is still being sold and is cheaper, but that is not compliant with what VW Group recommend. I tend to begin with the brake furthest away from the ABS brake valve block and work my way to the shortest, and I've never had any problems with changing fluid. Edit:- I tend to remove more than recommended volume from the first brake as I am removing the remainder of fluid from the reservoir plus the fluid in the longest pipe run. This thread could be hit with many many people offering their own way of doing this, just the way it is!

I've just added to my previous posting - sorry!

Maybe to get better replies, can you confirm if this an early chain driven cam shaft 8V engine, or the later belt driven 16V engine - I know SEAT were a bit slow in changing over to the later engine in some small cars? Turbo/exhaust at the front = early chain driven cam shaft 8V engine. Edit:- as VCDS is not seeing/reporting any issues, I'd think that it is not any crankshaft sensor, so maybe engine coolant temperature is giving out wrong values but they are still within the expected temperature window. The fuel tank purging system might need checking as well.

The only VW Group technical bulletin that I've read online, was published by VW America which covers all of the VW Group products sold in USA and Canada - does not include any recovery action for distorted HP fuel rails on this family of engine, just REPLACE. I'd still think that it is the repeated hammering action of the fuel injector "firing" after a bolt head has sheared off due to that bolt slackening off due to not been torqued correctly. I'd hate to think that over a certain period in time, some of these HP fuel rails were manufactured "incorrectly" - and that is the root cause of all these issues, but never say never I suppose.

The bending of that metal will have been caused by the bolt(s) slackening off. I’d think that the cylinder head will be okay. From memory, the first test/check that VW America request is done on an engine that is within the “problem “ production period but not yet failed, is to attempt to insert a piece of printer paper under each of these metal flanges, if that can’t be done, then “all is good” and only the 4 bolts need replacing and correctly torqued up.

I think that that engine's build date would fall into the period where this shocking build error occurred, I'm sure that there is an actual date on the paper label on the top cover for the drive belt, ie at the top RHS of the engine. Skoda seemed to acknowledge that this occurred in some markets with better consumer protection and took appropriate action, ie check all stocks of new and held used cars covering a certain period in time, and repair as or if necessary, probably even contacted first owners, not good enough for us though, VW Group had chatted to DVSA and I'd think that as DVSA claim (well when I asked them about this as a worried owner of a car with one of these engines they did), that none of this incident or possible incident, triggered any of their flags for forcing a recall or request to attend a workshop for correction, VW Group squeaked out of this need to dig into their war chests - nothing to worry about seems to be their position in UK marketplace.

Sorry to hear that, what is the age or even build date of the engine in your car? As this fault was said to be down to incorrectly set torquing tools in the Skoda engine plant, after a failure and repair, this should never happen again.

Pressing the "auto Stop/Start" button seems to do nothing more than "what it says on the label" battery charging will remain to be limited to when the car is being "driven/powered" along to be only as little as necessary, on the "overrun/unpowered" as much wasted energy as possible will get converted into cramming charge back into the battery to reduce waste/emissions. I (still) seem to glance at my 12V DVM frequently to see "what is going on". Especially on older cars, the health of the battery did tend to dictate how troublesome the car was - I had a 1991 Vauxhall Cav GSI 2000 16V 4X4 (yes all that was on plates on the rear end), its car alarm system was a bit too sensitive or just badly designed, when the car's 12V battery was more than 4 years old, the alarm tended to do off frequently. Replacing the battery solved that for the next 4 or 5 years, a bit annoying but proved to be an easy fix! To avoid changing the battery too early, or just to monitor things after the first "false alarm", I fitted a low value fuse in line with the alarm system, when the system was working, if you placed your ear close to the windscreen end of the LHS of the bonnet, you would hear a ticking, like a heart beat - that would be a very low voltage pulse getting sent out to the alarm horn - if there was no very quiet ticking, I knew that the alarm had gone off and blown that fuse - so I quickly managed to disturbance down to a minimum, while making sure that that car was safe to leave parked when away from home, I'd only use the inline fuse when it was only being used for commuting and in a very secure company car park - which was probably 90% of its life, like my current car, only used for longer trips away and holidays - wife's car gets used for all local use.

Remember to check if your chosen fixer is happy to use your supplied parts, many don't nowadays claiming their insurance stops them working that way, a bit annoying but such is life.

What discovered with this "size" of VW Group car - in my case, a 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS 6MT, is, if the car makes the odd or even frequent suspension noises, for a longish period in time, after I've had it up in the air on 4 jack stands, just for brake servicing and/or swopping Summer/Winter wheels/tyres, the suspension becomes free from any noises. Top mountings, hum, in this age/version of car, the top mounts are just located/sitting in, an inverted cup and have a large washer, ie retainer under the top nut - to avoid these top mountings from escaping if you ended up doing something completely crazy when driving that car. Earlier and later versions have the top mountings bolted onto a flat area of the body. I've tended to consider that it might be a smart idea to remove the top nut on both sides, then lift the car up enough to create a space between the top mounting rubbers, and then get some talc powder in there to act as a lubricant, then lower the car down, fit the large washer/retainer plates back on and new self locking nuts - and see if that quietens the front end down. Note:- I replaced the front struts, springs, bearings and top mountings on my wife's 2015 Polo last year, and this winter it does, for the first few speed bumps when cold, make these noises, the new top mountings were sourced from VW and they didn't look like there was any "treatment" applied to the outer surfaces that contact these inverted cups, and there is no instruction to apply anything like talc powder to them before fitting them - but there again, why or what made VW Group dump this form of top mounting when they replaced this version of these cars- maybe having to deal with too many complaints/rework while under warranty.

I sourced new front bearing assembles from AutoDoc - F A G 713 6104 70 and bought a cheap (China sourced probably) tool that is for 72mm bearings, that worked out fine, I just replaced both sides, I managed to avoid trashing the LHS ABS sensor but was not so lucky on the RHS. Paid too much at that time for a new Bosch sensor from ECP, better to source them from somewhere like PIM or similar, lesson learned so maybe avoid that error!

So, it is the front brakes option that you are asking about, I'd think that it will be 1ZC - check the front callipers, if they have a vertical anti rattle spring fitted, then they will be 288mm discs and so PR-1ZC. If on the hand, there is no vertical anti rattle spring fitted then they will be Mando equivalent of FSIII.

Yes, that did catch me out the first few times my wife's 2015 VW Polo issued what turned out to be "ghost" low pressure warnings, the initial maybe shock, distracts you from immediately homing in on the message details being given out - then it vanishes!

I've also got this noise, mainly since replacing the TCA rear bushes and struts, springs and top mounts, I'd think that some of this is coming from the design of the front top mountings, the car just sits on the top mounts, they are rubber located in inverted "cups", I'd think that dusting them with talc etc might resolve this for a while. Annoyingly, I'm convinced that the rears also make this noise - again only when cold and for the first few miles - new rear dampers and springs were also fitted but I didn't replace the rear top mountings. The newer versions of these cars have reverted to the previous design of top mountings for the front struts - I wonder why?

Personally, unless I could or would be using that oil at the rate of 10litres a year, and it was new stock when I bought it, I would not have saved some money buying it in bulk. I just buy 3 x 5 litres and 3 x 1 litres every year - okay maybe I should be buying just 4 x 5 litres, anyway, that is for 3 VW Group cars, the stored "top up" litre bottles from one year are used in each car the next year etc. Motor mower, sadly that is a different story, although I have stopped buying that "ahead" now. You'll probably use up all that oil while it is within its "shelf life" but maybe it should get decanted into empty 5 litre containers and sealed up. Car engine oils seem to subject to "being improved" so that is another reason that I don't keep stocks of new engine oils. I try to start looking out for good oil deals in maybe December for August/September services - failed on that task this year so far, must start soon!

The driver's door is certainly the "master door", so I tend to open that quickly - and probably just close it again after I've unlocked the car (2015 VW Polo) if I don't want anything silly happening. Too often in recent years I've parked to drop my wife off at shops, she grabs bags out of the boot, then I've forgotten to open>close the driver's door, so my wife gets back from shopping, she gets a bit annoyed when she finds the boot locked has re-locked itself.

If you are "up for it", you could buy in a set of dust seals and calliper - piston seals, and get the piston out and see if you can polish it clean again. I've suffered a seizing rear calliper on a 2015 VW Polo a couple of years ago, which was a bit disappointing, due to wanting to get the car back running asap, I just bought a re-manufactured Pagid Lucas/TRW calliper via Halfords, then got round to buying in a couple of seal kits and some new aluminium fluid line sealing washers - I really should complete that job this year as if one side had ended up corroding its piston, then the other side must be doing the same thing! I've bought, maybe M16 nuts to act as spacers, so that I can secure the brake discs snuggly on the hub using either wheel bolts or other suitable bolts, so that I can check the discs for "run out". Grooved discs, I bought them for one car as it suffered "brake wash out" in winter, which was a bit scary and VW sorted that out with later models, but, I did end up finding the need to replace one axle set of ATE Power Discs just because corrosion had started to "range out" from each of the grooves probably due to that car only getting used once every 4 weeks in winter, as I was in a "car share" for commuting to work! That was a bit more than annoying.

One way to remove the sheared off section, seems to be to heat up a suitable sized chip board screw "as it has big deep threads" and force that down into the remains of that sensor, then add in 1/2 a turn or so of rotation. Cool that area back down using maybe ice-water, to improve the chances of shocking the plastic away from the metal hub carrier, then when cold, grab the screw and pull it up and so out. I've bought Bosch replacement ABS sensors for my cars in the past, the first one was needed when I "bent" the end of a front one on a 2015 Polo when pulling out the bearing assembly, one side I got off with, the other side not so lucky! Next time was my 2011 Audi S4, in that one, I ended up with an ABS fault - front RHS wheel sensor, now, on that one I used an old "brake wear indicator lead" as a test lead, and that ABS sensor's resistance had dropped to 1.4KOhms - for that car they tend to be roughly 500KOhms, and few days later I measured it again, it was 0.7Ohms! So, in that case I've worked out(after checking the surface of the newly fitted ABS sensor), that, as said on advice given to me on another forum, the inner surface of the bearing is probably corroded and is pushing the magnetic strip out and it is now in contact with the "finger" of the ABS sensor, so this replacing this sensor won me an MOT, but is not the final fix - that is yet to happen when the weather gets warmer! I've made up a tool to help remove these sensors, I've made up a 6mm version and a 5mm version - just in case one size suits this situation better than the other. Other ways to remove them seems to be just drilling a suitable sized hole, taking care not to drill down too deep - your new ABS sensor will guide you on that, then screw in a suitable sized chip board screw, then yank it out. Apply some non conducting grease to the upper end of the new ABS sensor so that it will be easier to remove in the future - if you have to, also, if it will be smart to remove after maybe 100 miles to see if there are any scores on the end of it which would indicate that you have not approached the root cause of this failure - ie it is a wheel bearing issue!

quote:- "I noticed that putting the key in buttons up/Skoda badge facing down the fob fouls the door pull just by a couple of mm so the key will not fully insert and work. Hope this observation may help someone. " Noted for the future, thanks, I really should check the lock barrel operation in my wife's 2015 VW Polo - and my 2011 Audi S4, something that we all could consider doing before we need to use it!

in a way, it is good to see that a repair kit has been developed, as opposed to the usual "change the lot", ie selling and fitting an improved turbo assembly.

There are cheaper options that are similar to the Sealey one - that suits 4 and 5 stud/bolt hubs, I think that I just bought a “no name” one via ebay, a lot like the silver body one that ebay offers when you search for “hub puller”.

If you buy aftermarket parts, yes fixings usually included or some will be, buying VW Group parts, not so, also “16” might only come as “14” - a guess.

I think it was "longer" cars that had return springs fitted as standard when using these callipers, many people, including me, have retro fitted what were originally VW Sharan rear calliper external return springs either to improve things, as on my wife's previous 2002 VW Polo, or at least in my case, bought a new pair of springs and fitted them to my wife's next car - a 2015 VW Polo, and fitted them when the car was brand new, just to make sure that the rear brakes never ended up dragging - though I reckon that at some point, these callipers ended up being fitted with "more suitable" internal return springs, but I've stuck with fitting external return springs. Note:- these alloy callipers will normally end up seizing due to a build up of probably aluminium corrosion ending up on the chromed steel surface of the piston - and that is enough to cause them to jam/seize. That is probably why you had trouble winding that piston back in, ie you have forced the junk back through the sealing ring, I think that I've got away with doing that in the past, on my wife's 2015 VW Polo, the RHS calliper seized and I had to get the car back on the road quickly, so just bought a refurb'd calliper via Halfords (supplied by ECP, a Pagid part). I should really have by now, removed and serviced the LHS including fitting new seal and dust cover, and maybe this summer that will get done, as by my reckoning, once one side has seized, the other side must be getting close to being the same!