SteppenHerring

Still sounds like Radio 4 - no improvement there. Going to keep an eye on it as this is the first time I have tinkered with a car built this century. One of the other glitches was it sometimes would show the "blown bulb" warning light which would then go off on a later start. I do not have magic bulbs which un-blow. My theory (probably wrong) is that the elderly plugs were making the coil packs work so hard to generate a spark that it was generating a load of noise on the electrics, disrupting the CAN Bus. Without messing with an oscilloscope (or other expensive piece of hardware which I do not own and don't know how to use) I have no way of proving it. Photo of plug:

I am back. With deeply weird news. After a bit of faffing, I decided it was my fate to always drive at an uncomfortable temperature. Then in the way to my Dad's (too hot), I got a check engine light, an EPC light and a bad misfire/loss of power. I had no choice really but to carry on (Dad needs visits as his dementia gets worse) and drive back the next day, hoping it wouldn't do any damage. Googling suggested possible causes ranging from very cheap & simple (crack in the air inlet hose after the mass sensor) to the really expensive (new turbo). I'd grown to mistrust the garage I had been using and so eventually got a diagnostic thingy and software of dubious origin. When I finally got that to work, it said "misfire on cylinder 4". Figure it had to be plug, coil pack or injector, I bought a set of plugs and a single coil pack. Replaced the plugs (they were far gone - had the garage never changed them?), put in the new coil, cleared the faults, started the car and the misfire is gone. Driving back from work today in the heat, I realise that I've been going for over half an hour and the aircon is still working. I remembered a story I heard ages back about a guy who fixed his rear wiper by changing the plugs (interference on the CAN Bus). I try my rear wiper which had only been working very occaisionally (not an MOT fail so I left it). It works. Aircon worked all the way home (about 1 hour 20). This could all be coincidence or me hallucinating, but I thought I'd share.

Might dust include tobacco smoke? Doh!

Thanks for the replies. Scuse my ignorance, but where does the cabin air temp sensor live? Also it's got the dual option for the left and right sides so wouldn't there be at least two? I do have a laptop so that's an option. I am assuming that the heavy lifting is being done by whatever is running on the laptop. Any advice on what software would also be appreciated. I was hoping that it would be something like swapping a couple of sensors. I do own soldering kit and a multimeter. If all else fails, a mate mentioned a VAG specialist out towards Biggin Hill.

Hi, I've lurked on here a bit reading things, but after some searching, I finally decided to sign up so I could aks help for my issue - which seems pretty strange. My car is a 2012 1.8 TSI. When I start out driving, the heating and aircon work fine for about the first 20 minutes. After that, not so much. So it's been warm recently and I set out to come home from work and the aircon keeps it nice and cool. But after a while, the cabin gets hotter. The aircon is still working but to cool the car I have to turn it further and further down until it's on minimum. In the winter, it's the same except it stops heating the cabin and I have to keep cranking the temp up to max to keep warm. I've been living with this for over a year. I went through the drill to reset the flaps a couple of times. I also replaced the cabin air filter. I can't think of a logical explanation for this though. If it were the temp sensors, then I'd expect it to be wrong in one direction - i.e. always too hot or too cold. I don't have a fault code reader. But I was thinking of getting one.