Former

Plenty more fish in the sea, send it back. I can never understand this can't find the leak a good old fashioned mechanic would put more effort in and it's not usually that difficult but I know of a SEAT Leon that took three attempts to find the leak when it was a know possible on any garage data service. It is more likely no one wants the hassle of replacing what they might find leaking and there could be more than one leak, plenty of plastic parts in German cars. I once had a leak on a brand new car that two garages could find under warranty but just by looking I soon found it, tightened up a jubilee clip (onto metal part) yet I'd been told a specialist company had done a pressure test, and this was 20+ years ago and I don't think things have improved in the motor trade. Get an old-ish Toyota or Honda. Good luck.

Don't believe every thing you read particularly if it's from a journalist and even more so a motoring journalist, those rare check any facts and the magazine want to keep in with the car manufacturers and not upset their readership. It may be 90% it may not, registered doesn't mean the car is on the road, some of them could be all over a garage/restorer's/AM's shed floors or facilities. Many won't see the light of day much if at all. All that stuff was about protecting brand and AM owners values. Some of the models were never that popular and often difficult to keep on the road even if you wanted to, I should think a lot of any 90% is the more modern cars (that owners rarely use). As a lad I lived 1-5 miles from the Newport Pagnell factory and when AM were doing good and/or got yet another new owner the craftsmen from Wolverton British Rail would leave BR and got to work for AM for more money to have to return to BR when AM inevitably got into trouble again, this meant they broke their pensionable service (the fable of the dog with a bone in its mouth that drops the bone because it's seen the reflection of a bone in water not realising the reflection is of the bone he formerly had in his mouth). Not sure AM had an unbroken run and has had many owners in the past, not all British, with just about all losing lots of money owning it. A famous story, no idea if it's true, IIRC, when David Brown (hence DB model numbers) owned it a friend asked if he could have the car at cost price and when it was built the friend's bill was a lot more than the usual retail sales price and he was told that was the cost price, they lost money on each car. AM owners for a lot time have been in two groups, those that can afford them and those that thought they could afford them but can't or don't want to spend the necessary money to get them going and keep them going. I went with a mate to look at an AM V8, they were unpopular at the time so low priced, IIRC Ford owned the company then so the modern cars at the time were getting better. My mate never did get an AM but did get one of the first Jag XK 4.2 V8s in the county waiting for the ever promised F-Type that took many years more to appear by which time he'd learnt what a waste of money cars were, he did very sensibly buy a soft top so at least it was some fun.

They're obviously not used much, well the red cars at least, more show cars than go cars. The 70s MGB is probably tartan red, whether it was originally is a different matter, over here and USA when they're restored they are painted tartan ("tarty") red because that's the fashion with old farts and those very slightly younger as they think it's more traditional and it looks shiny. They also very often convert them to shiny chrome wire wheels, even if the car originally had wire-wheels they'd have been painted not chrome. Worst of all in my mind many screws on wooden panels on the black painted dash and vinyl door caps and anywhere else they can get a shiny bit of wood, and they are screwed on to the dash and glovebox, looks false and totally wrong to me but each to their own. E-Type looks better as a coupe to me, and I prefer an earlier model, they go for stupid prices, bright red again of course. Jag saloon looks nice, I very briefly thought about having a 5.3 V12 (pillarless) coupe for a short time just to improve the profits of il companies but they're so big for an old car, small and light by todays standards. 😁 Rollers are wedding cars over here and that type not as silly over-valued as you might think, you'd go for the Bentley version, and no VAG (plastic) parts all over it. 😁 In Greece you'd only wat to be in the soft-tops, even if the Jag or Roller have air-con (other than putting the windows down) I doubt it's very effective. - the owners think the cars are so precious that they can't leave the windows down in all that heat - or they can't trust the public. The Mini or Beetle, and that green car whatever it is, would impress me much more, especially if they're actually used and driven and not just mobile display cars, I've seen enough shiny static cars to last me at least three lifetimes, cars are to be driven as designed.

I don't know the "plumbing" of the Estelles but normally you can bypass the heater matrix some older cars came without a heater, or it was a cost extra, also a vehicle going to a place in the world that doesn't get too cold might not have a heater. To bypass you just run a hose to lose as much of the heater inlet and outlet as possible. I don't know what the Estelle heater matrix is made of but if it can be removed you may better be able to judge it's condition inside and out and clean it better. What makes you think the heater is shot, do you mean the matrix or the fan blower, with the MGs a lot of heating effect is lost by the heater box seals perishing with age so hot air gets out and cold air can come in. With your previous water pump and coolant see what comes out in the wash, I put in the notes to use a bucket to catch what comes out of the system each time that way you capture what comes out and you can inspect that for metal bits or coolant gloop and other debris. I'm not sure how corrosive the coolant would be and in such a short time more likely the old water pump falling apart and taking any muck out that's plugging a gap would cause a a weep or leak. Most garage wont put in anywhere near the time and effort you can/should, the secret is to get out as much residue each time as this is where the crud can be and any residue dilutes the amount and effect of the next flush or fill. This is all very basic work, like much of car servicing, maintenance and some repairs it boils down to clean and lubricate but needs to be done properly and well to have the most effect. Great time of year to do such a job when it's warm and things dry quicker, who wants to mess around with cold water when the weather isn't warm, whereas the water can keep you cooler in hot weather. If you do a good thorough job and then just change the coolant regularly and timely then unless something disintegrates in the future you'll not need to be as thorough with future coolant changes. Allow plenty of time and then some more, don't rush the job or miss anything out, I allow three days that way if I finish in a day or less that's great but if I get fed up or have to wait for something I'm not bothered but if you're not using the car you want wait much longer. Good luck.

I bought one of the follow for £8 off eBay then bought another later, for £4, both new, I used the second to get gearbox oil out (no drain plug). Used them both for years, still have one left used it only this week to get water out of a domestic water meter box. Better and more expensive extractors are available. Hilka Multi Purpose Siphon Pump Kit - one eBay example only - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266835870315

I used to use Bars Flush Cooling System Cleaner but it doesn't seem to around anymore* other than a USA version. I was told local car company Cosworth used to put Bars (Leaks) Conditioner in their engines but don't know if that's true,(course they also done the "dog's turd" in the tube for those with memories that go back). * other than below - Bars Flush Cooling System Cleaner - for example only - https://www.hids-direct.co.uk/bars-flush-cooling-system-cleaner-100g-baf100/

I thought you might be in London, and your need for speed, hence changing a 3-yearold battery, not sure why you need a new lever but you got someone to come out and turn up when need (and actually turned up) and is doing you job when you need it so you have done well. I totally understand needing the car fixed so you can work (to pay for the car and it being fixed). Also many times it's better to pay someone else to sort the hassle. This wasn't mechanic's work more someone who can actually do diagnostic, without and without a scan tool, the scan tool got him to the aera then he used his senses, eyes, and touch as well as his common sense all very basic stuff and unsexy like boys-toys scanner, never forget the basics as you can do them too. I don't understand allowing drinking and eating in cars, hate (plastic) cup holders in cars (don't like DSG boxes) - but I am old and miserable. Good luck.

Rich, assuming you have actually driven the car a distance to get everything operating as they should and that the thermostat is opening and you have no air locks and checked the heater was working fully, car runs at usual temperature on reasonable length drive. Assuming all that best way to clean the cooling/heating system is to clean the heater matrix, engine block and radiator inside and out, same for any hoses you can. If possible it can be better to remove the rad and heater matrix if reasonably possible (and any pipes and hoses). The exact details I don't know on your car but small drain holes are nor best to drain from when things need cleaning disconnecting bigger hoses with get more debris out. Existing drain taps or drain holes out to clear them may also be necessary. The following is for other British "classics" but you can get the idea and adapt as required. - More thorough system clean and overall - before starting consider if the water pump and heater fan motor need replacing and (if not already fitted) whether to install an electric radiator cooling fan as this would dovetail in with the work below. You may want to check or change the hoses, thermostat, heater tap, fan belt and pressure cap. Procedure: a) clean the whole system with something like Holts Speedflush b) drain the whole system - engine block, heater matrix and radiator c) use a piece of thick wire to clear out the crud that collects at the engine block drain hole at each draining of old coolant, cleaner and when flushing out d) get the radiator and heater matrix out of the car to give them a good shake at the same time as flushing and reverse flushing [or do three points below with items connected together, flush, back-flush, flush again as below] flush clean water through each of the three areas until water runs out thoroughly clean reverse flush each of the three areas until water runs out thoroughly clean final flush through each of the three areas until water runs out thoroughly clean e) gently brush clean both sides of the radiator fins f) gently brush clean the heater matrix and if required renew the foam seal around the heater matrix and the heater box foam seal g) siphon out the coolant and clean the inside of the expansion tank – remember after to half fill it with coolant and to replace the pressure cap before refilling the rest of the system h) follow the refill instructions from the Driver’s Handbook to avoid getting air locks or ‘hotspots’ that could cause overheating of the engine. Flushing and reverse-flushing - I’ve found just using an ordinary ½” (15mm) open ended plastic garden hose is ideal for fitting to the heater matrix inlet and outlet and an off cut of the same hose is ideal to use as an outlet for coolant and flush water going into a bucket – that way you can see and inspect the crud and muck that comes out and also capture the waste liquid. You can easily and quickly swap over the position of the hoses on the matrix inlet and outlet for reverse flushing and you don’t need to secure the hoses with clips unless you have particularly high-pressure cold-water mains, if so also don’t turn the tap on too far, you want to clean not damage. If you are particularly worried about electrics getting wet then cover them in cling film (I only bother to do this if I’m cleaning the engine bay and will be fully rinsing the engine bay). For the radiator you might want to use some sort of adaptors or just rags around the garden hoses if the radiator is remaining in the car. For the engine, again depending on where you use as access and drainage points, you might want to use some sort of adaptors or just rags around the garden hoses as hose seals. On each drain and each flush I like to syphon or blow out the residue liquid from the matrix, engine, radiator and bottom metal cross pipe as a very surprising amount of liquid is left in despite your best efforts to drain – I had the radiator out of the car and shook it every way yet there was still some liquid left in it. I blow the water out by just using an off-cut of garden hose and my lungs but don’t overdo it as you could hyperventilate. For syphoning I used a very simple plastic syphon bought off eBay (you can get then for around £4 onwards) which I’ve used for various jobs on the car over the past few years so well worth the investment. After a thorough clean like this if you use the correct coolant mixture and regularly change this coolant when required (usually every 2 years) then future changes should be just drain, flush and refill. Some different products (no order) - Wynn's Radiator Flush - https://www.wynns.uk.com/product/radiator-flush/ STP Radiator Flush - https://www.stp.com/uk/product/radiator-flush/ Liqui-Moly Radiator Cleaner - https://www.liqui-moly.com/en/gb/radiator-cleaner-p000197.html#1804 Prestone Max Total Cleaning System Cleaner - https://prestone.com/product/prestone-max-total-cooling-system-cleaner/ Prestone Toatal Cleaning System Cleaner - https://prestone.com/product/prestone-total-cooling-system-cleaner/ Holts Speedflush - https://www.holtsauto.com/holts/products/speedflush/ OEMTOOLS 87009 No Spill Coolant Filling Funnel Kit - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IVaxY1yXI8 HTH.

Wow, to replace a connector, I think you've might have found why this electrician was available when others weren't - perhaps I'm being unfair as just doing this over a forum everything sight unseen but it really doe sound a lot to plug a scan tool in, find the connection and repair or replace but if you're happy and it's your car. Good luck let us know if this fully sorts the issue.

Are you sure it's not the bloody annoying lane "assist" in part? My wife told me front "assist" on my wife's 2015 Fabia has come up to say it wasn't active I guess that was leaf or debris at front grill area or computer programming lapse or computer brain-fart. Another time whilst she was driving slow through town traffic by herself sudden car panic and car jumps on brakes for no apparent reason, then my wife sees a bag blowing in the road, - ya gotta luv these computer driving "aids". In 2020(?) there was a computer chip shortage for car manufacturers and assembly problems who know what went in and with cars in those periods. As has been said loss of power steering will make the steering seem heavy but it should still steer, if you've only ever driven cars with power steering then it will seem even heavier than to those that lived before PAS was the norm. I'm sure some of the member here might have heard of this. Good luck with VWSkoda, they are very, very, very reluctant to accept or admit to much. You could look and see if their are any, admitted to, Recalls or VWSkoda in-house technical sheets to excuse the behaviour, if it was a Telsla it'd be 100% driver error, not that VW are much better. "Škoda Recall Campaigns" - https://www.skoda-auto.com/services/recall-campaigns

Fuse would save the wiring, well except for any that was caught in a fire.

It's just a matter or economics, plus whatever scan tool would have 99.9% of stuff on it you won't use (but could still foul-up) and you need the misnomer of a "smart" phone or laptop for OBDEleven. More often than not they don't give you an answer but a direction and many misinterpret their readings.

ETA; I've no idea where you are but there might be a Briskoda member near you with a VCDS or other appropriate scan tool that could do a proper full scan report and delete any error codes, and perhaps help more, for a beer token (unless they are professionals) - do check they have updated their scan tool for your model before plugging it in. See here. - Briskoda VCDS Owners Map (click me)

Oh dear. The scan tool does need to be VW compliant and up to date for the vehicle but it is just one diagnostic tool in this situation. Did you get the mechanic to clear any error codes, 'code' the new battery in if required, get a full scan report, have you tried driving the car a short distance? Sounds like you might (but might not) need a good auto-electrician, might be something like starter/ignition switch perhaps, or perhaps another connection or broke/wire. Let us know how you get on.

D.FYLAKTOS save screen space put the short links https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/283659278611 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/196375080492 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225405625776

You don't need a scanner but having one would be nice, depends on cost. I'm still not sure how much you paid the garage but if it's not much then that is the most cost effective given your previous 25+ years experience. There's also the list of members I put up, now you know 2000 Fabia also covers some bits, airbag light at least. A cheap scan tool that has out of date programs in it for the car could cause more hassle than it's worth, a scan tool is just another diagnostic tool not a magic bullet but can be used to reset some stuff (that the battery trick doesn't) and perhaps to actuate items to test (not sure what if any with your car) but that would be higher level tools. Scan tools are more expensive in the UK, even the cheap ones, we're not the USA or China, many are make in China anyway and the car companies give away all the programs to the Chinese by going over there for very cheap labour, parts and assembly.. Personally If I was you I wouldn't bother, but I'm not you.

ETA: what I would suggest is downloading the free VWSkoda pdf copy of the relevant year and reading it to learn a lot about the car 1.2 or 1.0. - https://manual.skoda-auto.com/004/en-com/Models And here are some useful vids. -

Hi, welcome. Others might be along soon with answers but in the meantime there are a few threads and posts on this forum on this subject if you want to use the 'Search' top right corner of page, you can also use the down triangle box on the right of the Search to see drop down menu to use "This Forum" instead of "This Topic" or just the off-site Google or other search. My wife owns a 2015 1.2 TSI (4 pot) 90 and I would suggest always looing at a Toyota or Honda instead but as you can guess I would be quite unusual here with that view (well expressing it anyway). HTH. Good luck in the meantime.

It wasn't 5 years for the coolant in the car 24 years ago. That is very true very often but there's also "prevention is better than cure" which relates to some extent to what has been done with the frequent coolant changes but not the other stuff. There again D.FYLAKTOS has owned and kept the same car going 24 years, I barely used to keep a car 24 months (or a lot less) and it'll be very interesting (and amazing) if a 2020 car is used and (able to be) kept to 2044, very amazing with a modern VW product. I couldn't imagine when I got my driving licence that I needed worry about it lasting until 2030, next century/millennium back then! Perhaps I might still be around in 2044, perhaps things might be better then, or I still wish I was born 10 years sooner.

You must have been told a million times about exaggerating. 😆

Yes I think you should but what on earth makes you think a battery only lasts 3 years! Some drivers/owners could kill a battery in 3 years or even less perhaps but that would be either they have plenty of money and don't care (or about the waste of manufacturer and materials) or they don't know and never been told that they should last many more years of trouble-free use. You as a driver (owner) of the car could learn a lot about the car and battery by reading the car's Owner's Manual, if you already have you might have missed the bit about battery discharge in the section on checking the (battery) condition, it also tells you about charging the battery and disconnecting/reconnecting and changing the battery. The bits about the battery magic eye colours and the *******s about replacing the battery after 5 years (the most over sold car part) you can ignore, even on a 2018 car you get get a lot more than 5 years especially if you can use an appropriate battery changer maintainer in a preventative manner (stop the battery going too low in the first place). You also have to consider that the battery and charging alternator on the car are a team if you weaken one you are making the other work harder than it should thus weakening the other but the alternator should last very many years normally. Don't think of the car like a (very expensive and complex) entertainment centre and charging point for devices but of the battery like a bank account with no overdraft or loan facilities you have to put into it to cover what you take out of it or it'll run out leaving you in a mess. A new fully charged battery (many aren't from new) 12v car battery will read, off the car with no load on it, about 12.7v-12.9v (depending on a few variables). VW table (off car readings) - 12.7v-100% - 12.3v-60% - 12.1v-40% - 11.7v - 0%

If it's a cheap generic scanner (and not VW specific) forget it, also generally any higher level scan tool needs to be fully up to date with it's specific program for the car, many don't realise how important this can be and/or too lazy to keep things up to date, this includes some mechanics and garages. At that reading (12v with the engine running) you might think it's not just or the battery at fault. Plugging a scan tool in will pull the figure down (engine not running). To test battery simple basic stuff is still often best, put a multimeter on the battery terminals as long after the car and battery have rested up as you can, then if required allow a certain drop for the computers and other stuff still running on the car. You don't need a scan tool to test a battery. You could do this yourself, your dad could help you - but if the local garage doesn't charge too much to use a higher level scan tool that covers VW and your model and year then fine - don't try that at a Dealership unless you have plenty of spare cash. Let us know how you get on.

If you're keeping the car or replacing it with another modern car, particularly if newer, then think about investing in an appropriate battery charger maintainer and you could get a much longer life and better use out of the next battery. You might be changing this battery prematurely if it's not that bad or not at fault at all but a new battery (correctly sorted and installed) should at least help with diagnosis and engine starting or possibly/probably resolve the issue. Let us know how you get on if you have anyone 'code' the battery make sure they do it correctly, one member here had a professional auto-electrician 'code' his battery incorrectly and only discovered this many months later when the new battery appeared to play up, very few times is the battery the actual cause of issues. Good luck.

Hi welcome. Sounds like you might have let the battery get far too low, if you know about such properly you could try using a battery charger maintainer to recover the battery as much as you can - but first - check the battery terminal connections are all tight and clean, check the main cables particular the earth are also clean, secure and protected, if not then that could be the issue. Putting a multimeter directly on the battery terminals should give you the voltage minus 0.3 or so for the car's systems. If you have a multimeter come back with the reading if you don't know what level they should be. With battery recharging low and slow is better than faster and higher (see your Owner's Manual). Take no notice of any "magic eye" or green telling you the battery is fine as they're often way too optimistic and you have to tap the battery in case it's stuck and it relate more to one cell out of six. Possible it might be something else, other than battery or connections, but if the start-stop feature hasn't been available for a while when it should have been that's your first warning that the battery is too low and you now know how the computers will punish you for letting it get too low. To get to the stage where the engine won't start has really made the battery suffer you may be better replacing it now and looking after the new battery better, you will also need to have the new battery coded if it's not the same type (EFB(?)) and just about the same Ah rate (59Ah?). https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/499006-car-battery-now-is-the-time-to-check-it HTH. Come back and let us know how you get on just in case it isn't the battery been flogged to death.

Air pocket(s) from gravity fill (not using a pressure filler) can take a good while to clear - guess how I know. 😁