nta16

Forget about it and the wind might deal with what you were going to cut. 😃

You are very welcome to visit. 😄 I hope you have a very long and very good time in your new home. And at least you can get the Belgium beers for longer slower drinking as you relax between, well, er, meals, if you're lucky. 😊

I asked my neighbour to borrow a small electric chain saw (battery IIRC but it was very many years ago) my wife got to him and said she didn't want me using a chain saw, just because I once junior hacksawed into the top of my thumb, but that another story, so when he brought it across and asked what I was going to use it on he did the work instead. He asked what else needed doing but that was all, so embarrassing as he cut through in about 20 seconds, but it'd been very awkward for me to get my handsaws in there, I didn't realise you could get chainsaws so small as he used a big petrol job on his trees, that I didn't want to borrow. Then of course it was 10 minutes of tea drinking whilst my neighbour gleefully agreed that I shouldn't be trusted and mickey-taking.

What, both at once, you are a liability. 🤣 I have caught the cable on the vacuum cleaner but I didn't want to say, very embarrassing as I'd warned my wife about her doing it. 😄

Twice! well just don't make it twice so far. 😉 Perhaps someone will buy you a battery mower. 😁

Meridion, don't worry about it, you've got a dipstick to tell you if you're losing (or burning) oil. British Leyland had their engines self-flushing - constant oil change and protection of the underside of the vehicle, how's that engineering! 😊 I personally didn't do research as such as I've used all the links before, I've looked up oils and oil filters for mates, that's how I know that some databases on them are full of errors and on (at least one) manufaturers' own websites can have error(s). BTW I wasn't suggesting you tip a can of treacle into your engine at every service just a one-off good quality flush cleaner if it eased your mind. For cars new to someone I always suggest a rolling check or work as required equivalent to a 36k-mile service ,or 6 years I suppose on these cars now, whilst at the same time regularly using them to iron out any wrinkles and find what needs doing. Most people know very little of the history of the old car they buy and I've seen very few truly full service histories most are regular services (oil changes really ) when new and then intermittent and/or tardy servicing with repairs when required. If you carry out a full service check at least you know you have a better start with the car and I think putting more time and effort in at the start can save you lots more time and effort from there. I'd sooner spend more time getting everything sorted and clean at the start so that then it's jus maintenance. Much or most servicing, maintenance and repairs often just boil down to cleaning and lubricating, certainly that's what each oil and filter change is about so your first one or few want to be as thorough as possible or needed. These smaller engines, already under stress from the turbos will often be doing a lot of short journeys and/or around town/cities so are probably working a lot harder than a bigger engine especially longer journeys and on multi-lane roads - especially those wide big engined Mercs. 😁

Sorry but you did put "I've cut through the cable and lived too many times..." that really must have been a shocking experience for you, or do you mean you've only cut through that once cable too many time. True but the topic was completed a while back and even the OP has contributed a little to the end drift. And this is the internet! 😊

Very glad to hear that. I don't think I could live anywhere else because I can hardly speak English let alone another language, I tried but my accent was too thick and so was I. I think England is a marvellous place and we are very lucky to live here but for some of the English people, but it must be the same in most countries and I don't just mean some of the English in those other countries. Other than the space available and the more sensible attitude to life I can't say i'd rave about the bits I've seen and as I don't drink wine or coffee and like real ale and tea I'd certainly have funny ways. I did bring home some bottle of French ale, all bottle ales are fizz or one sort or another, because with the meal on holiday the ale seemed quite reasonable, once home it tasted different. If you've ben abroad for 17 years I'd take your British passport away, you can't have your cake and eat it, you either stay and suffer like most of the rest of us or you go forever. 😉

No, I've never cut through any electric cable, I was born in the 1960s. I would allow one mistake and from that you should have learnt but after that it's the seat of your trousers dusted with a toe cap, or your parent or guardian if they didn't teach you. I repaired a hedge trimmer for a neighbour, she said it was a friend's she'd borrowed and she couldn't return it not working. I had a look at it and despite it looking quite new there was evidence of a previous repair possibly not proper finished. I said I would try but it didn't look like an expensive machine and I doubted I could get any major parts for it if needed (throwaway society) so she might be best just replacing it with new. Anyway as it turned out it was an easy if messy repair most awkward bit was taking it apart and getting it back together again. A year later, the machine it appears hadn't been returned to its owner but the neighbour's 18 year old grandson had cut through the cable near to the machine, so it was just a matter of shortening the cable by taking the messy thing apart again and fighting to get it to fit back together. The screws into plastic body weren't designed to be put back in too often. I said if the lad is 18 if made the same mistake again he could do the messy repair while I instructed him. I bet if I see it next year the neighbour will say she don't in and not her 19 year-old grandson. 😁

If it's that simple fair enough but still £30 and you want a good quality replacement part otherwise you could be taking out a functioning part to replace it with one that might not be so well made and cause more problems now or later and/or early replacement of itself. I've no idea about these parts but I can assure you so modern made parts can go from poor to ****-poor, crap and abysmal.

I'm a big fan of the Italian tune-up but you don't do it if the car isn't running reasonably well or you suspect there is a problem. ETA: I was still typing whilst xman posted so a bit of wasted ink but here for reference now anyway. The Bosch F 026 407 183 oil filter is on Mann Filters cross-reference as W712/94. -https://catalog.mann-filter.com/EU/eng/oenumbersresult/63085465726112021203127 Bolshy Bosch parts look up doesn't even list Skoda, only VW but elsewhere Bosch P7183 (last four digits of) F 026 407 183 cross-references to W712/94. And I might have missed it but coat the new oil filter with fresh clean oil before fitting it - (grandma, eggs).

Is there any other information that you can give, what happens when you park up the car until morning and where is it parked? What do you do to the car to park it up and leave it? Have you tried looking at the engine running in the dark to see any stray electric sparks? What happens in the morning before you try to start the car, what are the conditions, what has happened to the car overnight, what is around the car? Have you got an alarm or any sort of immobiliser fitted?

If any of the system(s) is weak the added resistance of it being cold could be enough to prevent starting, fouled plugs, ropey old ignition leads and lots more. As you have already done so much it is taken that you have done these basic checks, indeed reminders to do so have been given. If you put new plugs in 8 months ago are they the correct sort and with the correct gap and that gap checked before fitting? Since this not starting in the morning have you removed the spark plugs and checked they are the correct ones, that the gap is correct and that they are reasonable clean? I am not sure that the spark plugs will be culprits as the car starts just from rolling down a ramp but every part of the system that is working as it should helps and every part that is not working as it should could possibly hinder.

I keep wondering if this will turn out to be something very simple perhaps even basic and/or obvious once found. Car don't start has it got or is getting electric and fuel - often battery or run out of fuel for breakdowns, but not here. You'd think as it's only mornings it'd be fuel related or weak electrics but there are always the possibilities of so many variables and combinations and permutations of minor issues or variances that can come together at possibly certain circumstances.

sepulchrave I'm with you, but you're allowing for reasonable user compliance that isn't always there and as I put earlier diesels are in a level of overall filth that is way out from petrol. I've no idea of chemistry or am an oil expert but I'd be very pleased to hear about all these additives as oil companies are very tight lipped about what's in their products, the Safety Data Sheets only give general ideas and the additive packs vary better the blenders oil range let alone compared with their competitors. As with hi-fi, beyond the base level there are greatly diminishing returns stepping up levels. The fuel additive I mentioned was for my 1973 car without injectors on it's crude British engine from 1959. The GDI engines do present a problem for themselves with carbon and keeping clean and despite me being used to my old crude engine I find the 1.2 TSI engine and other stuff in the engine bay in my wife's Fabia Mk3 to come out with strange and distracting noises but it is a 1.2 turbo (lower turbo too) and it has all these intrusive computer programs telling it what to do so if it doesn't sound too bad and goes away in a reasonable time I don't worry. And my wife's car only gets Dealership oil (whatever that might be in reality) and whatever petrol is cheapest where she might be at or is going, it's her car not mine.

I'd not use brake cleaner, different sorts can be about and as there's no issue in starting other than in the morning I'm not sure what that would prove. The ignition switch is possible but why only in the mornings, always worth checking all electrical connections are clean, secure and protected. We got distracted from checking from battery onwards as far as the starting system goes, only got as far as the battery, then of course it's fuel side and electronics, and dread computer.

Totally agree if the history of servicing is known but as you've put regular timely oil changes are the way but you can't turn back time and do it when others haven't. If Meridion is concerned by the rattle then a quick easy £5 (or less depends where you buy) job of using the flush may take way the concerns (and do a bit of cleaning) and is less cost and hassle than £30 changing the tensioner and that introduces parts quality and disturbing other old settled parts that might not appreciate the disturbance. I had a new chain fitted and the rattle that is always there at certain revs (30mph in 4th annoyingly) got worse with the new chain because of its cheap (£5) and poor quality it wasn't my choice of part fitted when better quality part was only £20.

ETA: I was typing as xman was posting so I've added attached PDF for more info on oil filter valves for anyone that wants it. I just cleared my long post with replies to all, doh! So I'll just put I agree with sepulchrave about the rattle and putting in too much time and cost, certainly before trying to clean things up more, but I don't agree with his oil belief on the Millers product and its possible use here. For regular use oil you could look at using Millers EE Performance Engine Oil C3 5w30 - "Recommended for: . . . VW 504 00 / 507 00, VW 506 00 / 506 01, VW 503 00 / 503 01, VW 502 00 / 505 01, VW 502 00 / 505 00, VW 500 00 / 501 01". -https://www.millersoils.co.uk/products/ee-performance-c3-5w30/ Other oils are available, Mobil 1 ESP 5W-30,Motul 8100 X-Clean+ 5w-30, Shell Helix HX8 ECT 5w-30, just as a few examples. oilfiltervalves.pdf

Very strange English disease and Scottish golfers I suppose. 😁 I used to cut my neighbour's grass and the grass verges outside mine and a few other neighbours, it was like working on cars for me in that it could only be done when the weather was right which is the very times you don't want to be wasting your life's time on such things. Now I no longer do any grass cutting I can't say I miss it at all, I had to use small electric mowers with at least a couple of extension cables and the cables were always a PITA to handle and deal with despite the nearly 40 years of practice. A friend was going to buy a place with a fair bit of land between roads and part of that would have been left wild.

To me it sounds like it's turning OK but perhaps it is not engaging or with enough power. Or perhaps the flywheel is worn or damaged at that point, easy to check that by turning the engine to a different point and trying the starter again. You could take the starter off to check it. If you've got an extra cable to the starter try taking it off, check that the starter is securely bolted and there is nothing preventing it fully earthing to the engine, if it has one check that the engine earth strap is in good condition, clean and securely and cleanly fitted both ends and/or any other earth cable/straps /wires. I am unsure about which sensor(s) you mean and do not know enough anyway so will not comment on those.

I bet one of your mobile huts is bigger than our place, you're just flaunting your wealth to the likes of me without. 😁 Being serious I do live in a very small semi-detached but I wasted our money on British cars and hi-fi (a lot of that British) but what you have is something I thought would be handy for a hobby of redistributing money from old car ownership. You've got to build on the side though for the lift, unless you go open air. You could be a true loyal Englishman, living abroad with "foreigners and their funny foreign ways" with deliveries of the Daily Mail. 🤣 At least you have the good manners to put up a photo without bright sunshine. Those wooden(?) doors would have to go and I'm thinking of how much concrete driveway and parking I can get in to save bothering with all that grass stuff, the rest could be left to become a world renowned wild life sanctuary but I expect you'll have to have a sit on lawnmower out of old habits. 😁 Good luck to you, I hope the locals don't mind your funny foreign ways. 😁

Meridion, if the tensioner is at fault and if it's a quick cheap job and there's no record of it being done then it might well be worth a go. Carbon build up might have be less with more timely or frequent oil & filter changes, along with other servicing, as perhaps the car was previously used on lots of short journeys, average of about 8.5k/year doesn't suggest lots of long motorway trips but that's just averaging without annual records so means very little. For oil level on the dipstick are you checking it as per book instruction or just the old cold (you might have said but I've forgot). How dirty is the oil in use now after your recent oil change, perhaps you might consider using an oil flush, you probably remember the different types but only the top style seems to be about in the shops now. sepulchrave has obviously never seen Scotty Kilmer but it must be remembered he's in good ole US of A and they do things different there and have different cars and oil regimes, he never works on modern VW. Over there it's oil changes every 3k-miles, and the vehicles can do high annual mileage, imagine what they'd make of 10k-miles annual oil or 20k-miles. I'm not sure which product you mean but you can get the Lucas products over here but I'm sure more local oil blenders would have similar products. Oil and "gas" is less expensive for our 'allies'. Millers Engine Flush - 250ml - https://www.millersoils-shop.co.uk/engine-flush Product Technical Data Sheet (PDF as attached below) - https://cdn.opieoils.co.uk/pdfs/millersoils/Engine-Flush-1.pdf Engine-Flush-1.pdf

Yes I'm sure. Years ago I went round a mate's who has a small greenhouse full of old car parts off his cars , I only wanted an awkward to get fitting off a carb and he gave me a pair of old mismatched carbs and I've still only used that one fitting and not ben able to pass on any more bits from them. I don't have a garage let alone a garage full of old parts, you chaps who regularly mess with cars sometimes forget not everyone has in their back garden a small shanty town of sheds with all manner of tools and equipment, lathe here and there, pillar drills, press, three-phase, etc. or the room for any of them - let alone the knowledge or desire for some of us. 😩

J.R. it's done and by Stewartasb's own fair mittens. I like the idea of using a scrap O2 sensor but who keeps these old scrap parts and I'd not want to trust the last one if it only lasted a couple of years perhaps it was so ****-poorly made that the threads were bad on it causing the issue, admittedly a ham-fisted mechanic might have contributed but very unlikely in such a trained profession.

Meridion, do you still have a knocking noise, I mean the car not you, or are you just trying to establish oil quantity?