Railroad

Check to make sure that you don't have a broken earth wire either inside the boot lid or in the boot itself......

Well it depends what's wrong with it. If the clutch was slipping then he'd be right. In that case it would have to be replaced, and the symptoms would be a loss of drive either partially or completely. In other words you'd let the clutch up and go nowhere, or you'd drive uphill and the car's speed would not increase in line with the engine's speed. If you were at this point the clutch would fail completely very soon. If the clutch is spinning it would be difficult to engage gears, but the hardest gear to engage would be first, because it's the lowest ratio forward gear. Reverse would be very difficult too, but because that is a spur gear and had no synchromesh it would crunch. This makes me think you haven't got a clutch problem. The higher the gear the easier they are to engage, especially when on the move. All modern cars have synchromesh on forward gears, and some do have it on reverse too. You cannot engage gears that are rotating at different speeds, so the synchromesh mechanism makes sure that they are not, immediately before you engage. Sorry about the very simplified explanation but I'm trying to explain in a way you'd understand. The pedal sticking is almost certainly due to reasons already explained in this thread, and not the clutch itself......

I'd be very interested to know if it does. Please post back when you know for sure......

I don't believe that based on what you said about it being difficult to select high gears. If the clutch was spinning it'd be more difficult to select first gear, and most definitely reverse. Maybe the gear linkage is out of adjustment which may well make it hard to select high gears.

The problem is dirt and moisture being absorbed into the brake fluid. This then causes the master cylinder and slave cylinder to fail to retract properly on occasion. It's far more of an annoyance than serious, and picking the pedal up usually restores it to normal. I'd change the fluid first, and if that doesn't cure it you might have to consider changing the master and slave cylinders. This is not an uncommon problem on many cars with hydraulically operated clutches......

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sounds like you have a loose, worn or broken engine mounting......

Sounds like you have a loose or worn engine mounting......

I adjusted my old Astra with a Bosch VE pump by loosening the three bolts that hold the two parts of the pulley together with a 13mm spanner. Special tools for locating the correct flywheel position, and a dial gauge to check the correct amount of lift are required. The correct timing on the Astra was 0.8mm ± 0.1mm with the marks lined up. It should be noted that the tiniest amount of movement of the pulley will make a big difference to the timing, and therefore running of the engine. So it's not wise to play with it if you don't have the right equipment. To guess isn't a good idea. On the TDi I believe the method of adjustment is much the same, but as has already been mentioned you will need a timing checking tool such as VAGCOM or other software to determine the correct setting electronically rather than mechanically.......

Glad to hear it. Sounds like you had a bit of a lucky escape.......

Do it yourself. None of it is difficult.......

M & M Auto Engineers

There's a VW specialist place in Alderbury that are very good. On the old road about 500 yards from the Three Crowns pub, on the left as you head into Salisbury from Southampton.......

Had mine checked this morning, and is set at 1.2°CA. This might possibly be slightly retarded, so does anyone know what the best setting is, and method of adjustment? Or would you be happy to leave it where it is. Also what realistic effect would it have on the overall running if I were to advance it a bit? Thanks in advance......

I've just bought a genuine set for my Octavia Estate from my local TPS. £10.47, simple to install and fit like a glove. Fantastic........

14 volts is a little low to be a concern. Many cars' charging systems operate around or up to 14.2V. I'd consider anything above 14.5V to be high, and 15V and upwards is a definite cause for concern. Bulbs usually start blowing around 16V. Sorry to disagree though......

That's definitely not recommended for diesel engines as serious damage can occur. The highly volatile product causes premature combustion, and will try to force the piston down the cylinder while the crankshaft is trying to push it up. Something therefore has to give, and it's usually the con-rods which become bent. The compression ratio is then lowered and starting is even more difficult. That's why people say engines become addicted to Easy Start, 'cos in effect they do.......

The glow plug relay is situated under the dash in front of brake pedal with the other relays. The glow plug relay has four terminals in total, two large spade terminals and two smaller ones. On one of the two large terminals will be a permanent battery live 12V supply. Check to make sure that there is. The other large terminal will go to the glow plugs. Check for continuity between this terminal and earth. You will be measuring the total resistance of the glow plug circuit. NB. This test will not prove that all the glow plugs are working. One of the two smaller terminals is an 'Ignition Live'. You will measure 12V here with the ignition on. The other smaller terminal is an ECU switched earth. The best way to test is to use an LED test lamp. Connect one end to a live supply and then probe the Relay terminal. When the lamp is on the ECU is earthing the relay, and so it will be switched on, thus switching on the glow plugs. It's important that you do not use a conventional test lamp for this as the bulb's resistance is quite low. It will therefore draw current and it's possible that the ECU could be damaged. LED test lamps are completely safe because any current they draw at all is barely measurable. You could also use a voltmeter to check the ECU switched earth, but remember a voltmeter measures potential difference between two points of a circuit. It does not measure presence of current. This is where many people become confused and simply don't understand what the voltmeter is telling them. The meter does not know how to lie. If it shows a reading then that's what it is. People interpret that reading incorrectly, and that's why voltmeters end up back on the shelf never to be used again. A voltmeter is an excellent diagnostic tool, if it's used correctly.

If the brakes are binding the wheel will feel very noticeably hot. The smell from binding/sticking brakes is very distinguishable........

The wiper relay can be found under the dash on the drivers side, in front of the pedals.......

Cheers for that Greg. I removed the pressure relief valve, and the circular retaining clip was proud of the body by about ⅛". I don't know if this was enough to make a difference but I gently tapped it back so it was flush. I checked to see if the plunger moved freely and it does. I then took it for a 25 drive, including both up and down gradients, though my home town centre, and a ten mile stretch of motorway, where at one point I absolutely ragged it uphill and revved it to the red line. It averaged 57.5mpg for the whole trip, and at one point showed 60.3mpg. I have never seen it do this good. One point to bear in mind though is that the outside air temperature only reached a maximum of 4°C, and so the air conditioning wasn't on. One other thing I noticed was that the instant fuel consumption never went lower than 12.1mpg, and that was when I was giving it some serious beans uphill. I used to regularly see the instant reading down to single figures. It may have cured my concern, but time will tell........

It's funny how things change. When I was a teenager the cool thing to do to your car was to jack up the rear suspension. Many people who owned a Capri did this. Now everyone wants their car's suspension lowered. What next?.......

That's what I find so strange. If the injector nozzles were worn I'd expect to see a smoky exhaust or even a loss of performance. It doesn't smoke, and goes like a rocket. That leads me to believe there's not much wrong with the turbo either. Incidentally the MOT smoke test just a few weeks ago showed minimal exhaust smoke, and I watched the test, as I did MOTs myself for 10 years. It was well within the legal limit at the first attempt. Many diesels are far worse than mine, even brand new ones. I did replace the fuel injectors on my Astra 17DTL, and even though it had done well over 170,000 miles at the time (and 218,000 when I sold it) the difference it made was minimal, if any at all. They were genuine Bosch injectors, and I'm therefore a bit reluctant to do them on this car unless I know it'll make an improvement. I did look to check he pump case relief valve, but I cannot remove it in situ with a 10mm spanner because of the position of the flats. I didn't want to use a pair of grips and chew it up, so it I can find a suitable tool I'll look at it. I've booked it into a diesel injection specialist in the new year to have it plugged in and to see if anything's obviously amiss, and I guess I'll take it from there. As I've already said, if it ran poorly I'd understand, but I can't figure out how it can run so well yet return comparatively poor fuel economy. It doesn't make sense to me.....

I went to Bournemouth last night to see Status Quo. It's a 30 mile journey each way, and most of it's dual carriageway. At a steady 70mph I managed to achieve 46.7mpg on the way there, and 50.2mpg on the way home. That's a overall average of 48.4mpg for the round trip. Also that's driving with the intention of trying to achieve good economy. If I wanted to start going silly I'd easily lose 5-10mpg, and I do have bags of power to spare. Simonsheil, it sounds like your car is pretty similar to mine........

I do want to buy VAGCOM, but with the GBPound so weak against the USDollar at the moment now doesn't seem to be the right time.......

Mine is a 110BHP engine, and I did clean out the EGR valve yesterday. Whilst it was caked up it wasn't as bad as I'd expected it to be. I would imagine that the previous owner did mainly motorway miles, otherwise how could he have clocked up so many so quickly? I'm seriously running out ideas now.....