nta16

Hi, I'm not after an argument, but don't mind disagreements, and I certainly make lots of mistakes frequently so if I've made a mistake in this thread I can put it right if I know what it is. I do always put (unless I've forgot) for start/stop to be active 'when it should'. If you think I don't give good advice about another subject that may be fair enough, I don't deliberately give bad advice but often have typos and miss mistakes but will correct them if I later see them or they are pointed out if I can.

Too true. Plus although I'm not a fan of Stop/Start and VW's us for excuse of it originally I do think it has a place and good use for many, if you're sitting a reasonable time in a queue with the engine running often you could be wasting fuel and putting even more emissions into the air. I meant to put as you've not had the car long and you're not the original owner of the car you might have taken on the battery use, abuse or neglect of the previous owner(s) and not contributed so or too much yourself, another thing to point out to the Dealership. Presumably they check (or pretend or say they do) check the state of charge and health of the battery when they get the car in to sell and/or before selling or handing over to their customer, if so they will have a record of that (or made up). Presumably you paid extra for the car as it was Dealership checked, always point that out. If you feel they are brushing you off with this then they very well might be, if you can don't let them get away with this, you've already had to return the car to them for issues, these may be understandable as the car is used but it may just have been laziness or worse on the part of the Dealership (from my many bad experiences with the English motor trade). These Dealerships are mainly owned by a few companies and people regardless of the name of company on the signs and websites so hold too much retail power, plus they own even the website companies and car auctions.

If testing with a multimeter, my preferred method, take into account small margins with the reading for - cheap digital multimeters accuracy when the battery was last charged by driving (alternator) (or battery charger maintainer) as this can give a higher reading the car's computer systems being active. Take the test with the probes directly on the top of the battery terminals, best done as many hours as possibly after the car was last run (or battery charged) and allow a loss of perhaps 0.2v or 0.3v for car systems still running, obviously all other electrics should be off and where required disconnected. You could try pushing the Dealership for a new battery (more on that below) but they may just say, and they may be correct in this, that your battery consumption is too high for the type and number of journeys you make and just recharge the battery for you possibly at a higher and quicker rate than is best for your battery. 2019 cars have a lot of electric conveniences and driver "aids" and "assists" and even if owners/users haven't added a load of electric plug-ins they could have used, abused and neglected the battery enough to need the VW recommended replacement at 5 years (4 years on newer models with even more "necessaries" on them. There's no reason why the batteries couldn't last many, many more years than VW or battery retailers would prefer but it is dependant on the user. If a battery is kept too low for too long and/or too often then even if fully recharged at a low rate of amps over a long period of time the battery is already weakened and may not recover fully or as much as might be possible and the more this pattern is repeated the quick the battery's reasonable useful use is ended. For the Dealership if they claim there's nothing wrong with the battery ask them why they didn't full charge it before returning the car to you given the car's faults and your concerns, if they say they did recharge the battery them ask them how, what did they use, what were the figures from testing the battery and recharging it push them to replace the battery with new as it's not just the cost of a new battery the 'coding' has to be correct and there is a charge most places to 'code' the new battery in. If the battery has been replaced it is not unknown for it to be 'coded' incorrectly which might cause charging issues, did the Dealership check for this if the battery wasn't the factory fitted one? Please note I am not an expert in anything including batteries.

As I have just done a post that has a similar answer see the link to that and see my post just after that in the thread, obviously you can ignore the bit about potential overheating. - https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/531053-15-fabia-14-tdi-thinks-its-overheating/#findComment-5928647

Highly probable that there is either something wrong with the replacement ignition switch (or key barrel connection to it) or it has been wired incorrectly or there is a wiring or electrical issue elsewhere. Modern made parts can often range from abysmal crap to very poor or poor quality to OK to if you are lucky fine - but although a newly fitted part is a suspect next is perhaps the installation but the new part or installation may also have just, belatedly, highlighted an existing problem. Taking the ignition switch off and checking it and the barrel connection may show you the source of the problem. If the switch and key parts came as one part then they may or may not come apart easily. Do put the video up as other posters know more and better than I. HTH.

Even out of the car with a 4-amps charger maintainer it could take 24+ hours to fully recharge and you do want to fully recharge the battery, as low and slow as reasonably possible (2 or 3 amps even better but longer of course). If you can (not applicable to AGM batteries) check the 'water' (electrolyte) level in each of the six cells before and after charging the battery topping up with distilled water if required. Also you can do a visual check of the plates in each cell for furring up and perhaps buckling, usually that'll be more with the end cell(s). If any are buckled you will want to change the battery as soon as possible but if the battery recharges you can use it in the meantime. With older batteries to get at the cell plugs to unscrew them you need to peel back the label(s) covering them - this is not possibly on a truly sealed battery and not AGM batteries as noted above. I recommend occasional preventative recharging the battery (to full) with an appropriate charger maintainer when required or convenient, particularly before and after long periods of cold and hot weather. If you do this early in the life of the battery, depending on your use of car and battery, the recharging isn't often and the battery should last much longer than if not. VW Charge level No-load voltage 1.28 g/cm3 100% 12.7 V 1.21 g/cm3 60% 12.3 V 1.18 g/cm3 40% 12.1 V 1.10 g/cm3 0% 11.7 V Figures from my ex-neighbour's Ring battery charger/tester. - 12.7v - 100% 12.5v - 90% 12.4v - 80% 12.3V - 70% 12.2v - 60% 12.1v - 50% 11.9v - 40% 11.8v - 30% 11.6v - 20% 11.3v - 10%

Derek as you probably remember I refer and put link up to the Owner's Manuals often and I've only had a couple of fails a long time back, I've only just earlier put the link up and tested it and it was fine. I'm on MS 11 and lastest Chrome. This is the link I always use, tested again and working fine at this point in time. - https://www.skoda-auto.com/apps/manuals/Models ETA: just retested, signed out of site, cleared Chrome history, signed back into site, clicked on posted link and it took me there where it allowed me to download a 2015 pdf. HTH.

Do check he gets everything correct, computers are very, very, dumb, and their programs have errors and omissions so you don't want to add any of your own - we had one poster who had an auto-electrician put in 7 Ah instead of 70 Ah and the new battery didn't last too long with this, why the VW battery program allowed such a low figure is a matter of VW programming error.

Dealing with the battery first as it's my hobby horse you don't have to take the battery off to charge it but it will slightly speed the (slow anyway) process up especially if taking the battery to a warmer location than say 5c or below outside ambient temperature, around 20c the battery likes. If you read the 'Owner's Manual' and refer to it when required you can sometimes potentially save yourself time and hassle with the car and money from unnecessary visits to Dealerships, garages, mechanics and auto-electricians. If you don't have the paper printed copy you can get a free VWŠkoda pdf download from this VWŠkoda site. - https://www.skoda-auto.com/apps/manuals/Models I always suggest fully recharging the battery with an appropriate battery charger maintainer after reading the instructions in the Owner's Manual and for the charger maintainer. For best results the recharge wants to be low (in amps, 2, 3 or 4) which will also be slower, many hours depending on how low the battery has got. If you are removing the battery again consult the 'Owner's Manual' about this and what requires resetting but as has been put already provided you make sure the electric windows and roof are fully closed usually it's only the time of day clock that needs resetting. Disconnecting the battery may, or may not, help if some of the computers have got their tiny dumb minds in a twist as the old 'turnin'-off-'n'-agen' electronic reset, to ensure this personally I would with the battery disconnected or out turn the headlights on and carefully get the negative and positive battery terminal clamps touching or joined for x-number of seconds to drain the dregs of electric, not forgetting to turn the headlights back off. Potential overheating - No need for the above electric drain of the computers if you have a scan tool that can clear all error codes, also with the scan tool could also before do a full health report and look at live data to see if the sensor, dial, are showing the temperature correctly, allowing for the coolant temperature gauge needle being biased to show 90c and remain there even when some way above, below or moving around 90c. If you have the facility on your dash menu, when the coolant needle goes way above 90c have you checked the oil temperature at that time to see if that is also above it's normal temperature, as this may give you an idea of whether the engine temperature has actually risen (bearing in mind these are two separate systems so not directly related and will always show different temperatures)?

The heater blower resistor (so not Climatronic) should have nothing to do with engine heat warnings so it's just a coincidence or somebody b*gger'd something up while messing around the dash or got the computers tiny dumb minds in a twist or they done it for themselves. The wrong warning need sorting, you need a scan tool to check for error codes for diagnosis, sometimes just clearing the code(s) and driving the car can sort thing if the computers have got themselves twisted. Or s you put it could be a sensor or worse. A low state of battery charge (and health) can cause all sorts of warning lights even when the headlights seem bright enough and well before the battery can't start the engine, does the start/stop operate when it should, if it doesn't this is often the first sign of battery in lower state of charge. Fully recharging the battery with a battery charger can often sort this if the battery hasn't been hammered to far and/or too often. Have you checked the coolant and oil levels?

Yes it is best to code if you can but as you have kept the same type of battery and near enough Ah it's not desperate to be done and some owners haven't bothered with no issues years later. Whether no 'coding' the battery in these circumstances really makes any odds to battery life is debatable and I'm not convinced even VW would know now or tell you as the programmers and program origin would be some sort of "legacy" to previous contractors and employees, I might be wrong, try asking VW if you enjoy a challenge. The coding is to let the computer program know you have replaced an older battery with a new battery and change the program if it is of a different type of battery (AGM normally) all the rest was for VW statistics and even then the factory didn't bother by some reports from owner's on here, my wife's 2015 car had the ten 1s as a "serial number". The following was from a Briskoda member with an OBDEleven that done the coding on my wife's car, as you can see I didn't even bother with the three letter battery maker code, if the chap hadn't have been a VW Aldi fan I've have asked him to put the battery as Tosch, and of course VW can't call AGM as AGM but as "fleece", because they're like that. IF your previous battery had a venting tube attached to it then you would put that in one or both battery venting holes, if only one venting hole is used the other end would be plugged - but as the battery is in the engine bay it probably doesn't have venting tube(s) so both vents on the battery remain unplugged to vent. HTH.

Ah, the old 'Italian tune-up' I used to recommend this a lot but more so on petrol cars as with diesels there's so much muck about anyway that unless you repeat them the clogging returns this is why I was concerned about the engine air filter, housing box and tubing. Diesel are mucky-pups even when clean so need to be kept clean especially with DPF and all the car's electronics and computer programs. What's going in, through and out needs to be as clean and clear as possible so that's fuel and air, you don't want muck clogging before, in or out of the engine or in through and out of the tailpipe. Prevention is better than cure. When my wife had a diesel (the only one we've ever had) if I was driving and filling with fuel I'd put in the V-Power diesel as it would make a. visible at least, noticeable difference when accelerating hard off a slow roundabout (no traffic close behind) about a mile from starting home, grey-ish cloud in rear-view mirror instead of black cloud. And that car was kept well serviced (no DPF). It might be that you'd be better doing a beak to a*se end cleaning of the air and fuel. Timely and thorough engine oil and filter changes are also required to keep the engine clean. 130k-miles might sound a lot but over say 9 years is only an average of 14k/year so not that high and if it also includes a lot of short journeys especially more recently or over a number of more recent years the muck accumulation could be more. If also servicing and maintenance at any point(s) has been allowed to be slack and tardy this will add to muck build up. Diesels (and more modern petrol) cars are no longer good for round town short journey use. Of course it's a 9-10 year old VW product with 130k-miles on it so there could be wear out or faulty parts too or instead of. If you're sorted then that's good, se how it goes and let us know.

Yes I think that's the common cause. You'd hope as it's a repair kit rather than just replacement part (or a part of a part perhaps) that it is a revision and upgrade. So much for German engineering quality. 😁 Be interesting to see what you get for forty quid and how much the diagnosis and repair charges will be/are. Hopefully that'll be the end of it for at least a very long time if not beyond your ownership of the car. Good luck.

With my wife's car it was easy to get the drain and filler plugs out, Sod's Law of course applied with one of the plugs (I forget which) for the tools and the space I had available, the Goldilocks distance was just off with each option but not difficult or that awkward mainly that I only have a larger sized (cheap) torque wrench, same length as my old Draper torque bar, and the car was only about 3" off the ground restricting the swing of the torque wrench but I managed quite easily. Sensors can sometimes be more awkward to remove, the filler and drain plugs should not be overtight unless something or someone has gone or done wrong. The rule always is make sure you can remove and refit the filler plug and check it and the threads on the box are OK before even thinking about removing any drain plug, Very annoyingly for me I need the 3" raise just to get the plastic under cover off, if it was my car I might leave it off, I then check the filler plug, in the case of the box on my wife's car a lot more oil came out than I expected as I was just checking the night before I was going to do the job. I always allow lots of time to do any farting about with cars, my ego doesn't need me to boast how quick I can do any job, I like to allow lots of time for mugs of tea and pees and in case I can wander off and do something more interesting (that's most things. I have plenty of new oil as I like to add some (warmed) fresh new oil to the very end of the drain to act as a sort of mini-flush. Check and clean plugs and box threads. I always empty with the oil hot (usual cautions about doing such things) so that the oil comes out more thoroughly and leave it to drain as long as possible to get out as much old oil (and whatever) as possible as put above. I let the box cool before refilling, as I say I don't rush at all. I enlisted the (always very relucent) help of my glamorous assistant to gravity fill from the engine bay as the funnel and garden hose I was using to fill wasn't long enough to hook up so it didn't fall over and spill oil in the engine bay as I went below the car to check the hose remained in the filler hole and to slightly withdraw it as it got near to full and see when the new oil was spilling out of the gearbox. Like much servicing, maintenance and repairs the job just really boils down to clean and lubricate, even the same with the car's computers often cleaning off the error codes or computer programs. Nothing on the oil change was difficult just like many jobs on a car, potentially messy, dirty and awkward but much of it depends on your attitude and mine is never great when working on our cars but I'm very patient when doing simple jobs on other peoples cars even when I get a lot dirtier and a lot more to clean and clear up. I am not a mechanic and always do a great job but I have found I can do these simple jobs better than many of the professional I have paid in the past simply because I take my time and do the job thoroughly and I only want to do the work once and not have to return to it other than checks as required. When I have borrowed a lift or pit I found the effort of taking all the tools and materials required and clearing and clean up the work area and disposing of used materials was usually more effort than it was worth, some places might need a bit of clearing and cleaning before you start the job anyway and I am far from fastidious about such things but I don't want to add dirt or mess to aa job that is about cleaning or keeping things clean. HTH.

Hi, yes, parking the other way round will make no difference. I was thinking of if you park on a reasonable slope with front or back of the car pointing down against gravity and depending on your parking and engine off procedure might be putting the weight of the car against the gearbox and lever. A change to a better and fresh oil may help with gear shifting a little but it won't overcome gearbox issue if it is too rough but for cost and effort and overall possible slight improvement it's worth a try. If you are doing the oil change yourself then just be thorough to get as much existing oil out as you can which means you can get more fresh new improved oil back in and there is less residue old oil to dilute the effects of the fresh improved oil (same for engine oil changes). Many (most) dealerships, garages and mechanics don't have the time or inclination to do a really thorough job which usually is OK but not as good as doing the job thoroughly. If you are doing the oil change yourself I can give you general tips, your gearbox is different to the one in my wife's 2015 5-speed manual but sounds like it might be easier to do. Millers Oils 'Which Oil?' database show a 2020 1.0 MPI with a 0CF (MQ100) 5/1) box as a service fill capacity of 1.1 litre (dry fill 1.3l) so in real life a 1 litre bottle is normally enough for refill, if someone has been so thorough and lucky enough to get 1.1 lire out then then can always filter some of the previous oil and put it back in the box. The old oil can be check by looking and feeling it for any big bits of whatever and generally how the oil looks (or sent off for analysis if really concerned but the old oil on a 4-5 year old should look like it's totally fine, you can't see 4-5 years of use and age in it. Cheers.

If your previous 40w (rms) speakers were fine with your Alpine then so should be your new 40w (rms) speakers. As I was unclear before I will put now, if you want the factory speaker covers black that's fine but personally I would leave them as they are as I think it would look better in my eyes and no need to repaint them or do touch-ups later but it's not my car and I prefer a more blended-in understated look to things, plus not to attract magpies.

It might be same as using a scan tool to clear error codes if the issue(s) remains it will come back after x times of driving or mileage, and the sgr valve cleaning would perhaps had been borderline for it no longer to be clean enough now or whatever is mucking it is quite fierce in which case I think you would have had more to clean before. Yu are back to needing an OBD reader or scan tool, perhaps you want to take up AGFalco's suggestion, you can buy an EML327 at next to nothing.

I think you have riled out my thought(s) with how you park and what you do. I think it is good thing not to get in the car, start the engine and drive straight of as almost one action. I am with you, Get in the car then turn the ignition on whilst you check all the warning lights and instruments and also put your seatbelt on before starting the engine and then after starting the engine listening to the car and engine and make sure all the instruments and warning lights are as they should be before driving. I don't think you need wait as long as for engine idle to always drop to 800 but if you prefer that is fine. I also suggest not turning any electrics on, other than safety items, before you start the engine and always turning all electrics, other than safety items, off before turning the engine off and listening to the car and engine for a short while before turning the engine off. Do I take it you are not in the UK, or not from the UK with "sidewalk"? Third hand would have been very few owners for some of the car's I have had. 🙂

@fabia29 do you park on a slope, do you leave the car in gear when parked, what's your routine when parking up just before and after turning the engine off, I'm just wondering if the weight of the car and how, where, it's parked might be working against it, you.

Bit of a downer. This might have shown up the limitation of you code reader, or the problem or code might have not shown previously anyway. I think charge pressure actuator position has been in threads on here before. Depends what's in the TPI, no doubt you've seen lots of info on this issue, doesn't sound like it might just be the arm or pivot points to be a simple clean and lube job (and not sure you can really lubricate other than a quick spray of GT85). I have seen actuator upgrades for soup'd-up cars with I think stronger spring(?). If you've not seen this thread a poster is on to one track, which might be very common. - Tut, sorry I can't find it now but you've probably seen his posts on a VW forum about seized actuator arm (IIRC) and there being a TPI. Good luck.

Bear in mind I was referring to a British car built in the 1970s but component designs from the 1950s. The 1950s MGA would have service work every 1,000 miles on some parts, things move on and change. In the UK rubber seals for "classic" cars can leak very soon after fitting so there is no point changing those until all the stocks of Chinese p1ss-poor rubbish rubber seals has been used up and that could take many more years or never. Some after market parts for more modern cars are also potentially poor quality and short life.

I understand what you mean but don't see how it relates to the quote in the case of either car unless you mean the drain as a continuous push through of new fluid (be it DoT whatever) to push out the old. He uses Eezibleed, but I don't like the system especially with the horrible cheap nasty DoT 3 and 4 as if it creates a leak or doesn't seal at the cap there's more worry about the paint and clearing up. The 69 car may have had new pipes and cylinders fitted when rebuilt, I don't know as I can't remember, the 73 car I do know had modern "classic" car parts 'quality'(?) cylinders on as I fitted them and one of the slave cylinders leaked which didn't surprise me at all, I was surprised it had lasted so long from me fitting it.

Sorry @Skodacrazy , on re-reading my last post I hadn't worded it the way I meant (often happens with my typing). I have edited to hopefully get it nearer to what I meant. The way I look at it the car has one set of computer programs that can have errors and omissions and the scan tool has a different set of programs with errors and omissions so putting the two together you want to reduce the possibility and risk as much as possible of any more errors from power supplies. I hope that makes sense. You see the short comings of the scan tools in the videos I hope I put a link to (in the other thread I linked to). See how you go Monday or Tuesday with a reliable laptop battery. Good Luck.

That is no-no, the car battery and scan tool battery (if appropriate) both have to be in a reasonable state of charge and health and the scan tool program appropriate for your make, model an year of car (or VIN) and fully up to date before you plug the scan tool in otherwise you might get spurious readings and reports. Sorry, if I didn't put that before (I forget, I even had to check if it was you in the other thread I'd been on, before I put a link here for you to look at 😄), I thought would have but I might have forgot there. Now the failing laptop battery may not have effected the reading but why would you chance it after all you've been through already. As many more are now catching on battery state of charge and health are important to these modern cars with all their computer systems and programs, been like that particularly with the (not-so-clever) German marques for many years.

Up to you, unless you are unhappy with them keep them. Don't worry about 2 or three - ETA: drivers or - of whatever number of watts if they have been working for fine many years. If you want better sounding speakers and you can get better sounding speakers then if you want them buy them. Take your Alpine specification to the seller of speakers and just get whatever is suitable and explain you are not worried about impressive number of watts or drives but impressive sound to match the Alpine, which you may already have and they just need a bit of cleaning, lubricating or fine as they are now. ETA: you don't want the Alpine showing shortfalls in the speakers or speakers showing up shortfalls in the Alpine you want both suitable to each other only you can hear if this is achieved or you care that much about it, like the car there are limits to what can be achieved no matter what you do and how much you spend. As we say here the grass is not always greener over the fence, the dog that dropped his bone in the water because the reflected bone in the water looked bigger than the one in his mouth.