JamieH86

Not sure; I had two new ABS pumps in the past two years. The first failed due to age (being original, 19 years old) and its replacement was badly threaded in (such that the aluminium was damaged and leaked brake fluid) but I got both "new" pumps second-hand from eBay (about £100) and they went in fine (well, bar the bad threading by a garage I now do not use!).

The top, 1KD 514 118 S (or similar, it's a little blurry).

I always think of general weirdness, especially random dash lights, as being a battery issue.

In that case I'd definitely recommend GL Autos in Cwmbran. Proper family garage, good workmanship and decent prices.

You mentioned going to Bath to visit a good garage; whereabouts are you? If you're on the Bristol/Newport side I can recommend a very good garage. Might be too far if you're on the other side towards Reading, though.

Yeah wear and tear aside, great car. My 1.9 TDI from 2005 just passed the MOT with just a rusty coil spring and drives like new.

Easiest option for Bluetooth is an adapter that goes in the fag lighter. It picks up your Bluetooth (from a phone say) and broadcasts it via radio, so you just tune the radio to the right frequency.

My first question would be, do you know why it's gone down? Are there signs of any leaks or smoke etc? If nothing major, and I've had this on my own 1.9 TDI, I used a coolant sealant liquid (straight into the reservoir) and topped up and that worked a charm.

I've got a 55 plate 1.9 TDI and apart from tyres, brake discs, pads, calipers, cables, bushes, shocks, boots, wiper linkage, fuel injector, 2 x cam belts and pumps, boot switch, driver's belt socket, ABS pump, battery and starter motor I haven't had an issue in seven years! Still goes like stink when you put your foot down mind.

When we imported our car to France I just bought some European headlights off eBay. Swapped them over and job done.

"Don't go to Halfords" is always good advice.

If it does need an injector I recommend buying it here: https://wtdiesel.com/ £69 mine was and find a good garage that fits customer supplied parts. Think it was about £140 labour I paid.

I had periodic black smoke under load (say, a hill start and four passengers) last year and periodic vibration starting on acceleration. Restarting cured that... for a bit. No errors/dash lights. They were signs of a failing injector, which went just before Christmas. There was finally a dash light once the injector actually died. Diagnosed by a Skoda/VW specialist swapping the injector (one) with injector two and seeing if the error followed, which it did. ONe new injector later, good as new.

Well you've come here for advice; if you're worried about the quality of local mechanics (but are happy to give them money) and have a VW specialist nearby, then the advice I would give is to take it to the specialist. They may well perform manual and other physical inspections rather than rely on a scanner. I know this as I had an issue last year with rough idling, engine vibrations and black smoke the local mechanics with their scanners were a black hole of cash but I took it to a local VW specialist who confirmed it was a fuel injector (swapping the suspect injector to another position and vice versa, the problem followed the injector) and since replacing it, no issues. But if YOU are happy to go to local mechanics and check things that way then it is YOUR car.

You refused to pay $150 for a diagnosis but paid twice as much for guesswork that didn't fix it? I would take it the 5k to the specialist and get it diagnosed properly. I would have the fuel injectors checked; if one is failing the ECU might cut it out and this could cause vibrations if you're on three cylinders.