Hauptmann

Well, from what you describe above, its still active. Don't forget you have to turn it off for each bulb circuit (parking, side, low-beam etc.) that you wish to deactivate.

Yes, its the Cold Diagnostics polling the filament to check for continuity. You can turn it off with VCDS.

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I don't know because I've never fitted 50W units. The controller is designed for a 35W HID unit, so that is what I've always fitted and never had a problem.....

That's a strange statement! Yes, most are exchange, but plenty of new items have to be put into the system otherwise you'd end up with loads of vehicles off road for weeks before recon units became available!. With 30+ years in the motor trade (and my father before me) I can tell you that when new vehicles are launched there is also spares backup from day 1 (I am talking about major manufacturers here, not Tata etc.). Most fleet buyers will not take on cars unless they are comfortable that the manufacturer can back up the product. Generally components suppliers have seperate contracts for parts supplied as spares, and parts supplied for vehicle assembly. I think VAG in general can be a bit poor on spares backup. I used to do a lot of repairs on Mercedes and their spares provision was second to none. In contrast I had a Sharan gearbox in pieces for over a month (it was a taxi!!) trying to obtain a part. In the end I had to call the factory in Germany because Milton Keynes were so hopeless. 24 hours after calling the factory the part arrived in the UK! If people are really saying that all new components are being diverted to new builds and none are going into the spares network then that really is a shocking state of affairs, but frankly I don't think that's the case.

Yes, you can put a halogen back in and it will work. Coding for HID's turns off the CANbus filament polling (bulb-out warning systems) and sets the current threshold detection at 35W (3A) rather than 55W (4.5A). So halogen will work OK if coded for HID, but HID will not work if coded for halogen. Ideally, of course, you should set the coding for the llight source you're using.

The OP is NOT saying that his dealer doesn't keep stock (not many dealers keep stock of high-value items like starter motors, they order them in overnight from a UK warehouse). The OP is in fact saying that the starter motor is on factory back-order, which is quite a serious situation because that implies a potentially very lengthy delay in getting one. I would say that either there is a very common failure with these starter motors (and so Europe-wide stock is exhausted) or there is a problem at the manufacturers (Bosch??) which means that parts are not leaving their factory. It could even be due to some logistical reason (bad weather holding up shipments). When a new model is launched it is not the case that all parts are used on new-builds. Normally, a little prior to launch, a whole 'pack' of spares is established in the respective country of sale. This would include common collision parts and all critical engine/electrical etc parts and so would include starters, alternators etc etc.

Quite often there is a date code or small 'clock face' embossed in the casting. Unless you can find that, and its dated newer than your car's date of registration, then proving anything could be very difficult.

4300K 35W non-CANbus with Controller 9 recoded for HID - i.e. basically the 'factory fitted look'. The LED sidelights are the 'whitest' ones that I have found. Got them from an automotive wholesaler, so not sure who retails them. Most LED sidelights tend to have a blue tint to them, but these are genuinely white and match the 4300K HID's quite nicely - I have also put them on my own car. They are supposed to be CANbus-friendly, but I turn the Cold Diagnostics off on parking lights anyway since a lot of the CANbus ones tend to put a warning light on sooner or later, and/or flicker when you first switch them on (due to the Cold Diagnostics polling).

The pressure will vary slightly according to temperature, but it will not *continually* drop. If that is happening then you have a problem with the valve or tyre seating.

The coolant gauge does not normally move that quickly - even if there is an airlock. Check the wiring to the sender to make sure that you don't have a bad connection.

Don't mean to sound rude, but this is yet another pointless thread arguing over a technical aspect that is not open to any interpretation at all.... The headlight angle is controlled from front and read ride-height sensors whose output the ECU uses to compute the bodyshell angle with respect to the road surface. Road inclination does not come into it all. There is a response time-constant programmed into the ECU so that it does not respond to short-term changes in ride-height due to road undulations (otherwise the headlights would be bobbing up and down contiunally and the motors would wear out fairly quickly). As stated previously, the system is for load compensation only.

Just because something is written down doesn't make it true. Think for a bit - would it really be sensible for the headlamps to try to level (w.r.t. gravity) when driving up hill? The beams would be pointing into the ground! No, the healight leveling works with respect to the chassis angle, NOT the road surface angle! It is simply there to correct for squat due to load variation.

Yes, they are all metal lines. I can't imagine how they managed to connect the unit up wrongly, so I can't say if any damage will have occured to the lines. I would have though the ABS unit itself should be OK. Absolutely unbelievable story though....

The repairer must have been trying hard to get it wrong. If you remove the ABS unit and then refit, its quite difficult to connect the pipes incorrectly. You would have to 'force' them into the wrong positions - they are cut, angled and shaped exactly to fit. After doing any brake work of this nature its always been my procedure to put the car on the rolling road and do a check for efficiency and balance, then a road test on a local lane. Run the nearside tyres along the verge and hit the brakes to bring the ABS in. When R&R'ing an ABS unit it really should be thoroughly checked out before handing back to the customer. I don't have any sympathy for the dealer. In too many dealerships these days its all about getting the job done as quickly as possible, hitting the KPI's and 'upselling' as much work as possible. Quality of workmanship goes out of the window - and this is the result.

Aluminium has about double the SHC of cast iron, and water is about double that of aluminium. I suspect that differences in head design and coolant capacity are more to do with it. Some modern engines have incredibly thin and narrow coolant cavities to aid quick warm-up. The fact remains, however, that Diesel engines will warm up more slowly due to their much higher thermodynamic efficiency, especially under light load.

The DSG is really a modern variation on the famous Wilson pre-selector gearbox. Its basically two gearboxes in one - with one gearbox operating on the 'odd' ratios and the other on the 'even' ratios. A computer decides which gearbox to use via engagement of the appropriate clutch. The computer has to predict which gear is going to be used next, based on engine and vehicle speed and load, and the immediate history of speed and load. Most of the time it will guess right and pre-select the correct gear and everything goes to plan. Sometimes it will guess wrong and the gearbox is caught out - e.g. if the driver accelerates, and then hesitates, or sometimes when accelerating, braking, accelerating, as when negotiating a roundabout. Like any auto it can't predict the road ahead (i.e. it has feedback, but not feedforward) and so unless you are prepared to use the manual over-ride you have some loss of control in certain circumstances. That's why I'm not keen on them. I'm also not keen on expensive failures (US VW/Audi owners going for a Class Action on basis of frequency and cost of out-of-warranty failures).

Irrelevant whether VAG or other brand (although VAG do use aluminium block Diesels - e.g. 1,2TDi) - laws of physics don't change. In any case, coolant for the heater is drawn from the cylinder head, which is invariably aluminium these days on almost all passenger cars. The block (whether alloy or cast iron) heats up much more slowly. There are lots of things that can be done to speed up warm-up, mostly commonly reducing the capacity of the water jacket around the head, although this can be a bit fraught if the systems drops below par in the hotter months.

A lot of Diesel engines that use aluminium blocks, including from Volvo, Mercedes, Isuzu, Toyota... Similarly there are plenty of petrol engines that use cast iron blocks. Everyone is trending toward alloys though, because of the weight reduction. Diesel tend to warm up more slowly because of the fact that Diesel combustion is more thermodynamically efficient and therefore there is less waste heat going into the coolant. Moreover, whereas a petrol engine runs at a relatively constant air-fuel ratio of 15.7:1 (stochiometric) a Diesel runs a varying air-fuel ratio according to power demand. At idle, a Diesel is running something like 150:1 which means its largely pumping cold air through itself. An idling Diesel will take a very long time to warm up...

All Diesels are slow to warm up. You could fit a Webasto or Eberspacher fuel-burning heater - but they are very expensive, a bit complicated and not very reliable (in my experience). Its also a lot of kit to drag around for whole year when its mostly not needed. Alternatively get a Hot Frog, which plumbs into the heater hose. Gets the coolant up to about 80 deg in half an hour. You can put it on an overnight timer and get a very small and neat electical connector. The kits cost under £100 and are dead easy to fit. Another alternative is DEFA, who do a range of electric sump heaters for the whole VAG range. They are pretty cheap and very simple to fit.

I doubt the brakes have frozen on. Sounds like an electical systems fault.

The self-level system on HID equipped vehicles is for load compensation. It has a fairly long time-constant and does not respond to undulations in the road surface (if it did, the motors wouldn't last long!). It basically automates the function provided by the headlight load compensation manual adjuster found in non-HID vehicles. It does not provide an correction on inclined roads. The system measures the ride height of the vehicle front and rear and corrects accordingly. The ride height doesn't alter on inclined roads, it only alters with load.

4x4 have more TRACTION in snow because each tyre is taking approximately half the tractional load that a 2WD tyre would take. Hence you have roughly double the tractive force before slip sets in. However this applies to tractive force only. All cars have four-wheel braking and so braking is not improved on a 4x4, nor is lateral grip. Having driven 4x4 (for work purposes) on ice and snow I personally don't like the high centre of gravity and often rather 'detached' feeling from the road. In my experiences big 4x4 are only really better on deep snow, where the much greater ground clearance is a real bonus. On shallow snow and ice I found a lightweight front-wheel drive hatchback on winter tyres to be easiest to drive...

The SLX branding was changed to 'Edge' for the retail sector a few years ago. Any retail SLX you find will be old stock. SLX branding was still being used on bulk oil supplied to the trade until quite recently - but that's probably gone to Edge as well now. No need to worry about the branding on the bottle. Just buy any oil that meets the spec required for your car. There are only a few suppliers making this stuff and most of what is on the bottle is marketing and branding nonsense. Its the technical spec that really counts.

I think that price probably includes a cambelt change. With most cars nowadays the standard service charges are quite similar because most services are down to fluid and filter changes, plus some inspections and spark-plugs every few years. The costs hit you when you need a clutch, cambelt or some other non-routine item. A non-turbo Subaru can be serviced by any independent garage - they are actually less complex than a vRS and do not require any special tools. Things like clutch parts, pads and discs etc on the non-turbo's can be bought from factors at very reasonable prices. Repairs on a vRS can be very expensive (turbo, direct injection system, flaky ESP/ABS modules etc., air-con), but they are reasonably reliable (with the exception of ESP/ABS and air-con on older cars). I'm certainly happy with my 2008 model.