rum4mo

Also, the mechanical coolant pump is driven by its own small belt at the other end of a camshaft, that belt as it is not subject to any other loads should probably last the life of the coolant pump who’s life limiting factor is probably the plastic housing it lives in.

Just for your information, as this cam belt is not recommended to need “frequent” replacement, VW Group do not list a “cambelt kit”, only individual parts. Our local VAG Indie also replaced the belt tensioner while replacing the belt - probably as doing that makes good sense, along with changing the aux belt.

Doing this job on a 2002 VW Polo 1.4 back in 2006 or early 2007 was my introduction to working on VW Group cars, it was a horrible wake up call, made worse by me needing to start that job on the 2nd of January. I had by that time "plenty" tools, but still needed to buy quite a few to make that job possible/easier. A hub carrier expander bit or strut/hub splitter, to make removing the struts from the hub carrier, same as Laser Tools 3396. 32mm Bihex slim walled socket, to remove the RHS drive shaft nut. M14 multi spline or XZN bit, to remove the strut/hub clamping point bolt. Starting on the LHS first will let you learn about this job before you need to remove the drive shaft from the hub on the RHS so that you can drop the hub down low enough to get the strut out of the hub carrier - the LHS does not have this issue. Though maybe like me, it is the RHS spring that has broken, so the tendency is to sort the already broken side first! I'm assuming here that you already have a good set of spanners, sockets and torque wrenches, and other useful workshop lifting and supporting devices. Edit:- there is also a list of parts that you need to buy other than just a pair of suitable springs.

Fair enough comment, but I was not going to continue using that "iffy" new CR2025 so was using checking its out of circuit voltage as a "starter for 10" check, checking the open circuit voltage of an "in use" used battery does quickly let you know if a still working battery is good to re-use/re-fit as I had idea how long the second key's battery had been in use and checking its present out of circuit voltage allowed me to bin it also and fit another new CR2025 to that second key. I do know that a battery's internal resistance will limit its ability to supply current to its load by the way.

Many years ago, the first time that I needed to use a new "good" set of jump leads to help a neighbour out - I failed, same outcome as you had! Crimps on the leads were very substandard, I replaced/reinforced the crimps on the crock clips with heavy duty cable clamps - and over the next 30+years have never had the need to use these leads! With modern cars I'd only ever now use a jump pack, which also has many uses as a portable 12V DC power source.

My daughter ended up with a "not working" non KESSY key when she replaced the Panasonic CR2025 with another Panasonic CR2025, last month, in her 2019 SEAT Leon Cupra, she had had the "low battery" warning for a week or so, so just replaced the battery, to get out of that issue, she refitted the previous battery and the key worked okay. I swopped the battery for the new one that she had previously fitted to this key and found that the duration of the flash of the key's LED was shorter than with the older battery, I removed>fitted>pressed a button a few times and at least one time, the LED "flash" looked okay, the out of circuit voltage for the old battery was 2.99V and the new but not working every time battery out of circuit voltage was 3.31V. Having lost trust of this new Panasonic CR2025 battery, I grabbed another Panasonic CR2025 which was from her same "multi buy" of Panasonic CR2025 batteries, and it worked okay, so a few days later I replaced the Panasonic CR2025 in her other key with the last of that "multi buy" card of Panasonic CR2025 batteries - seeing as I had checked that 2nd key's battery out of circuit voltage which was 3.00V, and it worked okay as well. So in her case, it would appear to just have been a faulty Panasonic CR2025 which got disposed of along with the previous 2 keys Panasonic CR2025 (used) batteries - just one of these things, or she was just unlucky, so I do now know that it can happen even when buying Panasonic key batteries.

You now need to check for moisture on and/or under the rear carpets, and also the lowest areas of the boot floor.

Yes, I've spotted torque wrenches being used after the rattle guns - not on our cars though, I'm stupid enough to just take in wheels from our cars, and do the removing/fitting myself - and yes, customer sensibly made to sign the sales receipt that includes "check wheel fastener torque after xxxmiles. Wheel alignment that typically nowadays includes using a proper wheel alignment bench - and so measuring all 4 wheels alignment, £25 sounds a lot too low a figure. What I still have not managed to work out is why the castor measurement is either nonsense when carried out by a tyre place that has not worked out that a manual intervention is required when running that part of the alignment test, or the castor results fields are blanked out, or in this case empty or not filled in. If there exists the built in facility to measure castor, then why not use it - alternatively, if it is just a quick tracking check/adjust that is being done - why bother including the 4 wheel aspect of this test - okay no extra input is required from the operator and the equipment automatically churns out the results. It does sound a lot like laziness to me, while still charging the customer for the privilege of their car being tested on a proper 4 wheel alignment bench.

@Alasdair1 removing wheel arch liners and the underbody plastic panels is something that everyone should be doing every few years, out of curiosity I removed the from wheel arch liners on my wife's 2015 VW Polo after its cam belt had been replaced, and yes, I should have done what I've suggested here - a long time ago. All dirt removed and Waxoyl applied - a few years too late! So far I have not removed the long plastic underbody panels on that 2015 Polo, but I should, I did that job on the previous 2002 Polo and there was quite a bit of dirt under them and again Waxoyl'd these areas.

I'd suggest VCDS, it seems that you can sell it on if you leave car fixing or VW Group car owning, yes it does cost a bit but with use that pain will get diluted. Too complicated - I don't think so, with time you could get more involved with it or just use it to interpret stored faults. I'd love to say that I've spent time creating controller maps and so have made myself and my cars "bombproof" - but sadly, after only owning VCDS for maybe 25 years, life or laziness has got in the way. If you think that you are sticking with VW Group cars, then maybe try buying a used VCDS HEX-V2, but make sure that know how many "VINs" remain with it and how much buying some new "VINs" is. How VCDS now works is, if you buy it new, you used to get unlimited "VINs" which meant that you could perform re-coding on unlimited number of cars without needing to pay any more. The later/latest business model offers maybe "3 VINs" or "10 VINs" for the home user and DIYer, and "unlimited VINs" for the workshop user. When I upgraded my previous version to VCDS HEX-2 - "forced" on me when my older daughter bought a 2019 car, I had to move onto this newer "business model" which meant losing my "unlimited" older version, I chose "10 VINs" - they soon get used up if you are too generous or not careful, first one I used was on a friends Audi A6 as I offered to re-code his new battery which his friendly garage had failed to do, I absorbed that one as I was using that as a "dry run" for doing the same on my cars, the only other one that "threw away" was resetting the service lights on my mate's VW T-ROC - which he sold on a year later, that was me being stupid as I have Carista as I was an early adopter of that tool, my account is not limited in any way, so I typically use Carista for other people's service resets! By the way, I'm not suggesting that you buy Carista, I only bought it and a couple of dongles to have in the car for "away from home issues".thatt

I'm sure that the "insert" on the drop links are Torx which tends to end up looking like hex allen - so that increases the chances of chewing the hole up. I've only ever had trouble getting one set off, that was from a 2002 Polo that was only 5 years old. (taking the TRE nuts off that car was tricky, using a hex allen bit in that ended up swelling/expanding the upper section of the ball pin - and that just added to the pain - again I'm sure that I should have used a Torx bit) So, bought new Febi ones when working on an 8 year old SEAT Ibiza, but they came off easily and were in good condition. Next car was my wife's 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI, at 9 years old, and for some reason I bought genuine VW Group ones - that hurt, and they are still waiting to get used along with the other Febi pair.

I don't think that there is anything to worry about, just noises from tappets getting oil pressure up to them and there will be extra petrol injectors noises at cold start.

I think that there is still some nervousness in owners, and some workshops minds over the "quite longer than long" mileage/years that is currently given for this job, probably based on previous mileages/years offered by many other manufacturers - and then dropped back quite a bit when experiences proved that some mileages/years quoted did not tie in with real world workshops and owners personal experience. Having said that, I waited until 10 years and 55,000 miles had passed before I handed my wife's 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI in for this job, okay it "only" cost £650ish at VW Group proper Indie as that car does not have ACT and so the labour time is a lot shorter. So, to the OP, I'd suggest leaving that job for now, my mate "through West" has a late 2019 VW T-ROC 1.5TSI 150PS and he has asked me about when should he get this task done, a very tricky question to answer maybe, he will have done a lot more miles than my wife's 2015 Polo, giving a friend this sort of advice, ie "I'd leave it for now", and then "bang" is not what I'd hope to happen. At the end of the day, if you, the buyer and owner, plans to keep this car for another say 8 years/50,000miles, then why not just get it done at around the 10 years mark so that you can hopefully stop worrying about it and also make some use out of spending that sort of money. Edit:- oh, and the "money taker" at that local VW Group proper Indie said to me as I was heading back out after collecting the Polo, "that will be you for another 5 years" - I turned round and muttered something and gave him a funny look!

The car she chose to buy was a SEAT Leon Cupra, so back in 2019 there was no other option, just DSG or nothing. Edit:- that batch of 4 Panasonic CR2025 Lithium batteries has "made in Indonesia" on them, I'm not sure where any previous Panasonic key fob batteries that I've bought declare where they were manufactured. Frankly, from my way of think, I was shocked to find that that youngish modern person, had actually bought double the number of key fob batteries that she should have seeing as they don't "improve" with age! I thought that "just in time" was the way to do things.

@nta16 maybe Dinitrol?

With cars that have fuzzy(funky?) logic in the DSG, the plan tends to be each regular driver has their own key. I’d think after getting caught out like this, from a retired test engineer’s point of view, removing the battery from your only other available key fob when about to use the car or later, would not be the smartest plan. I’ve seen “experts” taking working kit apart to fixing failed kit - with “job stopped” happening. I’m just generalising here!

Okay, so I keep banging on about “you should only fit Panasonic batteries to your VAG key fobs”, well my older daughter reported having trouble after replacing the battery on her SEAT Leon Cupra (non KESSY) key fob - now it doesn’t work, so she had to use the other key fon. I said just to leave it and I’d try to work out what the problem was. With old battery fitted when you press any of the buttons you get a “good solid” flash from the key’s LED but the battery voltage is down to 2.9V. With the new again Panasonic CR2025, battery voltage 3.3V, pressing the buttons all you get is a short flicker! I’d think that this new Panasonic battery is faulty, probably ended up with high internal resistance. I’m just reporting this here in case someone else ends up in this situation, so before replacing a key fob battery, check what the LED’s response to a key press is, then compare that to what you now have with the new battery. I’m assuming here that some people do actually replace their key battery BEFORE it has failed.

Bother on the airflow thing!

As far as air quantity coming out of the dash vents, with “auto” systems running in auto mode, the decision as to where the air is getting directed is controlled by the Climatronic etc controller. To prove that it is possible to get more air out of these vents you could try moving away from auto mode by selecting one of the options on the dedicated buttons.

Triumph Herald, our next door neighbour has one that sees the light of day as often as my old Audi S4, but judging by the time between leaving and going back into the garage it is only going “once round the block”.

Yes, also the tensioner, it seems like the bit VW Group supply is just the new belt, so there is no kits available from VW Group as this task is not a regular service item. So, as well as getting the belt changed, you should also be making sure that your garage is "creating" a kit to do that job, ie add in a tensioner. When I got the cambelt changed on my wife's 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI at a proper VAG Indie, the parts listed included a tensioner as a line item. We tend to expect maybe 15 years out of a car, so I considered that at the 10 years and 55K miles point, now was the time to pay to get that job done to avoid worrying about "what if" or "if only I had". The guy that takes the money said, as I left, "that will be you for another 5 years"!

I think that the general improvement in dispensed fuels has rendered the "in line and replaceable" petrol filters redundant.

The part number for the complete indicator strip is 654 949 102. So, maybe stuff that into google etc and see if you can work out if the missing part is actually part of the complete strip - or not. I couldn't find any other individual part. I've had to replace bits of the RHS mirror on my wife's 2015 VW Polo - so another car that has that "tell tale" or "repeater" arrangement, but I can't remember exactly what that area is part of, though I'd probably think that it is part of the indicator strip. These mirrors are very easy to work on - as I discovered when I needed to rebuild one after it got "swiped" by a careless driver going the other way overtaking a bicycle on my side of the road while I was there! Edit:- BTW, it was an oldish Corsa and its mirror got detached and swung round and smashed the front door window, that wakened up that careless driver!

This reminds me to suggest that anyone that is interested in their cars, should, at service time or just before it, measure and record the ride height at all 4 wheels BEFORE the car has been lifted up. I replaced all 4 springs on my wife's 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI using, against my better judgement, aftermarket branded springs, in my case Lesjofors, the ride height at the front remained the same within 5mm, the ride height at the rear dropped by 10 or 15mm - on checking up on the online Lesjofors catalogue I discovered that they don't provide a rear spring for that model of car, so I had accidentally bought the 3 door GT version, which makes my wife's Polo sit almost "flat" - which looks better! If I ever own a VRS, I'd only ever fit or get fitted genuine VW Group springs, aftermarket only provide maybe a selection/option of 6 front springs whereas VW Group will be offering more like 10 options - so when buying from a VW Group outlet you will get sold the exact correct rating/length of spring as it had when leaving the factory. It's always useful to have had a look at the original springs if they were still on the car when you bought it, and record the colour banding/strips on them. Maybe all "could have/should have" done in your case, but others could take some of this onboard.

Out of interest, which scan tool did you use to "code in" your new battery? It might be relevant.