rum4mo

So, starting from the beginning, I'm assuming that your car needed a new front damper, so you fitted compressors to the spring, removed the top nut and mount, and fitted them to the new damper and that was when your problems started? If that is correct, then maybe examine the difference between the old damper and new damper lower spring platform. Other things that can cause springs a bit of grief is if the top bearing is seizing up, but normally the twanging comes from the top and the bottom stays seated correctly. Most of these springs are tapered and so compressing them and releasing the compressors needs to be done while helping the lower end of the spring get onto and stay on it final position in the spring platform, though trying the spring on the damper before compressing it would allow you to see if it was possible that everything could fit together properly later on.

Aye, yes also that, I have yet to read a full write up from a trusted source that defines the need for the "mit silikat" teabag in the coolant tank or any only some cars/engines and if there is any link with which version of coolant is also associated with it being present, ie G12++ or G13 or G12evo or even it seems G13PLUS+! There are other marques that are also fitting these siliate pouches or more typically a proper porous sealed casing, an idea that maybe VW Group should have thought of using instead of their early "teabags" which too many owners have found to end up with failed welded seams so the silicate granules come out and get the blame for adding to the risk of blocking the heater matrix. I could be wrong but it seems it is mainly diesel engined cars that are suffering most from this, and it I think, is them that had issues with casting sand being left in the water ways. Even some SEAT Leon Cupras, MK3, have these "mit silikat" coolant tanks, and then some don't - though VW Group have always just fitted "what was in stock" in the factory, many with G12 printed on them had G12+ or G12++ fills at the factory, just all a bit messy - like having default battery details in the CAN-Gateway, just sloppy and cheap. Edit:- don't forget SEATs though, many MK3 Leon owners are going through this expensive repair at the moment - with no sign of any shame or goodwill from their dealer!

Yes, I was impressed to find that my mates T-Roc and my daughter's Leon Cupra both had the exact battery details stored in the "battery data" area of CAN - Gateway. My experience of Johnson Controls, or JCL was when they supplied controllers for factory heating/cooling systems in the '70s, any alterations to the setting meant the local JCL guy being called in! Later they hovered about while "trendy new wave" thinking meant that many operations units outsourced their facilities managements and staff to JCL, said to be a win-win situation, normally it was not leading to a downwards spiral of effectiveness of all facilities which constantly lead to loss of essential facilities only resolved by throwing money into "projects" to repair equipment that had been correctly maintained by our company's resident maintenance squad at a time of our choosing - I think most of that could be seen to have been the outcome from day one, but progress is always "good" - or is it!

If it makes any difference, I tend to use a complete 1ltr can of brake fluid when changing brake fluid, maybe if planning to carry out a fluid change, you should consider how much you should "vent" out of each wheel cylinder/calliper than only think about system capacity.

Hum, my mate has a 1975 SAAB 96 for fun, he has run used SAABS since 1975, so, many 96s + a few 95s, + 99s, 900s, 9-3s and 9-5s, and right now, he is trying to arrange for a 900 convertible to be transported up to Ayrshire from London! He never ever had a 9000 hatchback though maybe a couple of the sedan versions.

Oh dear, Skoda just as sloppy as VW when it comes to adding battery data in the assembly line! JCB is Johnson Controls, they seem to get credited as building batteries for many brands it seems! I thought EU regs had forced car makers to design all the "legal requirement" lights to be able to have bulbs changed at the side of the road with tools supplied with the car.

Maybe send Laser Tools an email on that subject, they do respond quickly, I've needed to talk to them about something a year or so ago. What you are suggesting does make a bit of sense, I've only ever used my Sykes Picavant one on a 2000 VW Passat and a 2002 VW Polo, but I do know that when I replaced a calliper on that 2000 Passat, the Pagid or TRW refurbished calliper seemed to have a different lead screw pitch than the original, meaning that I needed to adjust the cable length on one side - not the best fix, replacing these callipers in pairs would have worked better, but I knew that I was not holding onto it for long.

There has been a lot of chatter concerning using Copper grease in some situations, I bought Copaslip Furnace Bolt Anti-Seize grease about 40 years ago and always used it on wheels and contact points on brake callipers, but with the increasing bad tales about Copper grease, I've finally bought the Aluminium equivalent grease for the hubs on my cars which both have alloy wheels, and bought Ceramic brake grease for callipers. If nothing else my tin of Copaslip will last a few years more! I've even hear plant maintenance people saying bad things about Copper greases, I suppose it depends on how long you leave it undisturbed, I used it mixed up with WD40 for jig fixing bolts that tended to be temperature cycled thro up to -65C > +115C but they got removed every 12 months for maintenance purposes and always were easily removable and not corroded. I'd never ever apply anything like greases to the threads of car wheel bolts, I just have a die - and if necessary a tap to clean them up once a year at service time.

I would never use an impact driver on a plastic bleed valve, probably why I've never ever changed the clutch system fluid along with the brake fluid over the past 20 years and 6 VW Group cars. Some VW Group cars have the plastic fluid vent valve fitted to a short section of pipe - and I can think of a very good reason why they do it that way!

I'd be very wary about adding talc into locks etc where there is already an oil/grease based lubricant - it is okay for dry "self lubricating" movements like bigger door locks if you must, but not for these car locks, graphite is okay but very messy when it ends up on your clothes.

I like the reference to the Corona virus making this happen more, very much using all "the tools in his box" - 10/10 almost! My wife's August 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS is at 37K and its rear discs and pads are still good, maybe a spot of spirited driving is needed to fully clean up the rear discs, but so far so good, all our previous VW Group cars Polos, and Passat have needed new discs in early life then the replacements, Pagid fitted by me, have lasted a lot longer. My 2011 Audi S4 seems to have got all its discs replaced due to vibration before it was a year old, and the genuine Audi discs and pads are still good, the discs are spotless - which kind of surprises me! I like the way the Skoda workshop includes new disc fixing screws, I'm sure that experience has shown that people don't get their brakes serviced until they give trouble so these screws can be tricky to remove - I have always serviced all my car brakes and have never ever ended up with these screws being tricky to remove, in fact, I used to buy in stainless steel screws to quickly replace the factory fitted ones and put a spot of anti-seize grease on them and the hub centres, but that novelty seems to have stopped as I've never found them to be tricky to remove at disc changing time. I agree that lack of work being handed their way is causing the corrosion on the rear discs, but for me, keeping rear discs serviced and so in good working condition is far easier than messing about with rear drum brakes and their seizing up pivots etc.

Good, I'm sure that in USA at least, garages/battery outlets have focussed on this "battery needs coding to car" as a proper money earner, maybe even $100+ being a typical charge, lovely stuff for the battery outlets! It will not just be VW Group that are doing this, I'd think that when BEM first appeared, many if not all modern cars makers ending up needing to do this.

It could just be the temperature flap motor that is faulty, I've had that on a VW Group car, demanding Hi and then a couple of minutes later demanding Lo and repeat this quite a lot of times, that can sometimes clean up the potentiometer contact or track and get it back to working okay for a few hours/days/weeks. If that does help, I'm very surprised that your Skoda dealership did not read the A/C controller memory for faults before doing any changing of parts - or maybe this has just failed?

I'd need to connect up to my wife's 2015 Polo to see/remind myself how you "get into things" - or, have you looked on the Rosstech website, it normally gives guidance for some standard procedures, it will probably show you 2 methods depending on age of car, your car will be the newer version. Edit:-, ah, right, I thought that you had VCDS or similar, you will not find anything by just looking in via the infotainment system of your car.

@Eccles, when you go into the area where the battery info is kept, ie look into CAN-GATEWAY, and you should find the BMS sub section and in there you should find all the batteries info like, capacity (Amp hours) + technology + manufacturer + serial number - all you need to do here is to change the last digit, or to help you remember when you fitted it, delete the last 6 digits and replace by the date. If you like keeping an eye on things, look into Advanced Measuring Values and note what you find before making the serial number changes, then maybe again in a few weeks to see if things have changed and if so make your battery look a lot healthier - there should be a long list of stuff in there so you will need to scan down until you come across the ones relating to the battery. The last time I did this sort of thing was back in mid February so facts are a bit vague, sorry. Edit:- my my wife's 2015 VW Polo and my mate's 2018 VW T-Roc have the stored value for the battery serial number as 1111111 - ie lazy sods in the factory are not inputting the serial number from the actual battery being fitted, my daughter's 2019 SEAT Leon Cupra has all the correct info for the battery fitted into her car at the factory, so it can be done and some VW Group factories do make the effort, maybe Skoda do.

The car does not know its got another battery in it, why if you have a means of communicating with the car, did you not change the serial number when you changed the battery, I'd always do that or more if changing the capacity or technology of the battery?

AC hissing does sound a lot like it is short of gas, so needs recharging, it seems like some modern systems like a recharge at 4 year intervals, VW Group would prefer you included a recharge every 2 years as it makes them more money.

@Eccles, did you do any recoding so that the car knows that the battery has been replaced? If you old battery turned out to have become a "sick", and that is why you have replaced it with exactly the same type/technology without recoding it slightly, then the "smart" area of the battery charge maintenance will just be thinking that nothing has changed, though it will readapt the charging profile to suit that new battery eventually, or was the car recoded after the new battery was fitted but the new battery was well down in charge when you fitted it?

One thing that I'm not sure that you have confirmed, with the AC switched off, does the cabin fan run at a steady speed if you demand lowish temperatures? What I'm trying to get you to do is to make sure, to start with, if this is a cabin fan or its control issue, after proving that the cabin fan works okay, then move onto what has been suggested above. No magic, just needs you to work through all the basic stuff first before moving onto the chiller side of things.

@Bertie90, that was the Low side you were connecting that pressure gauge into, as others have said, it sounds like the condenser fan or its control is not behaving. You always fill from the Low side.

Or maybe even ATS, look for their £38.99 offer, I used them last month, make sure anyone that works on your AC refits the charging port dust cover - I didn't so had to buy a new one which cost a bit!

Ouch, like you, I'd be expecting it last a lot longer than 5 years, our previous 2 VWs normal "switch blade" fobs lasted over 13 years, and the 2000 Passat ones are still working okay! Current 2011 S4, stuff in the dash fobs both good, current 2015 Polo "switch blade" normal fobs okay.

Time will tell, it could just be an electronics failure in the alternator's regulator/control pack, they tend to "go" without any warning. For example I started my daughter's late 2009 Ibiza up, reversed back up the driveway and as I stopped at a give way 300 meters later the charge (failure) warning came on, I turned round and took another car. Checking that car out proved the alternator was not charging so with like little chose of buying parts locally, I bought an exchange Bosch same rating one at a good price from ECP, and that sorted that out. The plan was for that daughter to keep that car for a while, so I just wanted it sorted out as best I could, that alternator when removed looked as good as new - but it was faulty, the ECP guy had never seen a "good looking" clean Bosch alternator fail before, always a first time.

I bought a Draper Impact grade deep 36mm bihex socket and that worked okay - but that was bought back in maybe 2007.

I get the impression that that family of gearboxes fitted to 1.2TSI 16V Fabia/Polo/Ibiza/A? both the 5 speed and 6 speed, seem to be a bit "cut price" and maybe also the clutch assembly, going by some of the comments/posts flying around. The 6 speed in my wife's 1.2TSI 16V 110PS 2015 Polo was okay until I handed it in for the second time complaining about the drive drive clunking/shunting noises due to the upper gearbox mounting being apparently failed or inadequate, first time they did as VW advised, which was to remove that bonded mounting slap what looked like copperease all over it and refitted it, when that fix only lasted a few weeks, they removed that failed or inadequate mounting and replaced it with the TDI equivalent, that sorted all my previous issues out and still has, but when driving the car away from my dealer, after that warranty fix, the gearbox whine in 1st and 2nd was very obvious as with time has become other gearbox noises. I fully expect to need to either get that gearbox sorted while we own that car, or find a better box from somewhere else - source as yet unknown! I'll watch your progress with interest, do Getrac or anyone else supply a sensible gearbox for these cars at a sensible price, no straight cut stuff, just higher durability and maybe higher power/torque rating?