Golf-Fiend

Well, it seems to be starting OK in this weather (fingers crossed). I guess I'm driving it more rather than cycling to work at the moment. I'll get it properly tested in Jan when it's in for a brake fluid change.

Thanks for the replies. Sorry, not had chance to investigate further as I've been suffering from a particularly bad back. When it's better I'll do some more investigation and update my findings. It seems to be just the first crank of the day is sluggish. Subsequent starts, even with 4-6 hours between are fine.

Afternoon all Battery/starting oddness. Had a new battery back in August 2019. A Bosch S4 008 type 096. Recently it's been a little sluggish on the Starts. Thought it might be a dying battery or alternator. Did some tests as follows. Car has been stood for over a week now. Volts static 12.16 Ignition on 11.65 Cranking 9.80 Idle 14.23 Revs at 2000 14.50 Don't use the car for many short trips. Last two were 160 and 220 mile round trips. Bit worried about the cranking volts. Is this normal? Temp was cold and dank 6⁰C. I previously had cleaned all earthing points during furlough in 2020. Car is 2004 2.0 TDi BKD engine. Any thoughts?

Check out the Bigg Red website. They specialise in caliper repair kits. https://www.biggred.co.uk/

Wow! Some people have really dirty engine bays!!

I bought a cheap one from Amazon back in 2018. It was fine. it cost me £5.79 back then. They are all pretty generic. Easy to fit if you are handy with some basic tools. They either work or they don't.

I'm surprised a Skoda dealer garage would fit a customer supplied part. The reversing buzzer is in the B pillar on the passenger side and there is no volume adjustment. If it is quiet I'd suggest it is faulty. It should have no bearing on your turn signal noise as that comes from the dash area.

Had this once on an older Stream head unit. Cd stuck for weeks. It was a really really bad one as well. Think trying to put another one in as well caused it to spit the old one out or it just spontaneously spat it out one day. Can't recall which.

Get yourself the Carista OBD dongle from Amazon for around £25. I think it comes with a month's worth of free access to all functions. You'll be able to reset everything and read any faults that you might have.

Don't use cheap oil as a flush. Just get the proper spec oil for your engine (vw507 or whatever) and a new filter. Run that for a couple of months then change it again and continue with your usual 6/12 month oil change intervals. Mannol oil on ebay is cheap and the right spec (presumably) Mannol vw504/vw507

This post reminds me i need to do mine. Price of brake fluid at Eurocarparts seems to have rocketed! £18 for a litre of Pagid dot 4. It was never this much last time.

I believe on the manual gearbox the clutch and brakes use the same reservoir of fluid. Not sure if this applies to DSG? On a manual I'd just syringe out most of the fluid in the reservoir and top up with fresh then bleed through the brake nipples until clear.

If it is from a roller bearing in the engine it will probably require a full engine removal, strip down and inspection to identify where it is coming from. It's going to be expensive! Have you noticed anything different about they way your engine drives? What made you investigate that you came across this piece of metal? If it were mine I would probably keep driving it until/if it ever goes bang. If it does it will require an extensive/expensive engine out/strip down/rebuild. It also might never happen. You have no idea how long that has been floating around in your sump. It might have just happened or it might have been there for years. I'd drive it but listen out for any undue noises or vibrations. I'd also make sure I'd have adequate breakdown cover to get you home/chosen destination if the worst does happen. If it does go bang I'd get a complete engine from a breakers and put that in. The choice is yours. PS - When I had metal bits in my oil of a MK2 16V Golf I knew exactly where they came from!

Bravo! Well done. Not a task for the faint-hearted. Glad it went well. Tackle that and you'll be able to do anything.

Edit: N102460 01 is the part. Very cheap from your local dealer. see: https://www.skoda-parts.com/spare-part/n10246001-bodywork-grommet-bung-3232.html

I can't find my receipt now but I got these exact bungs from the dealer two years ago. They cost around £0.75 each.

Cheapest vw507 oil I've ever seen! https://www.vwmotorparts.com/mannol-engine-oil-c-1061_1062/mannol-7715-longlife-3-vw504507-5-litre-p-3074.html

I take it you'll lap the valves in (old and new)? If the old exhaust valves were that cruddy you probably wouldn't get the suction cup to stick to them anyway.

I’ve always used Tayna batteries for mine. You can get decent Bosch or Varta for less than £90 delivered. https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/types/100/

Ouch! Looks nasty! Hope you can get it fixed at reasonable cost. Something like that might cost more than the value of an 11 year old car.

Thanks for this link. I ordered these and they arrived the next day. FItted in seconds. I have to say they are OK. Not bad considering the price. Not the smoothest at the end of the travel and they give a bit of bounce if you let the tailgate up by itself. The pull-down force is a lot more acceptable now. It doesn't feel like I'm going to bend anything or break the mounting points. Still confused why there is such a variation in some sites stating 405N and a lot of others stating 460N for the same car. That's 110N difference. 460N struts now returned for a refund. Thanks for the help on this.

It's a Hatch.

So decided to replace my 18 year old boot gas struts as they were getting weak. Found a few sellers as recommended on here and Stabilus seems to have good reviews etc. Put my car details in and ordered some struts. They duly arrived and I fitted them in minutes. Easy as. Trouble is they seem far to strong. If I was much lighter I could probably do chin-ups off the edge of the boot lid! Double checked my details and cross referenced with other sites to see if I had mis-ordered. Everywhere is giving me the same strut spec of struts with 460Nm force. Some even suggest 525Nm. I have removed them as I didn't want to put undue force on my boot structure. The outer of my struts are quite rusty so I couldn't tell with them on the car, but now removed and cleaned with some wire wool and oil I can see a ref number of 9533ny and 0402N. Searching for these gives me struts of the same length but lesser force. The only place that lists struts similar to my spec is https://www.sgs-engineering.com/gsc2639-skoda-octavia-tailgate-strut Now, who/what is correct? Why should I have different struts to those suggested in most places? What have others used in the past? Any help most appreciated.

Not wrapped - just de-rubbered!

Yes it is. Also on this site https://www.oemvwshop.com/g-055512a2-transmission-fluid-p2150882/