Flanno

Thanks for the tip on the Falkens. Well my last RS was mapped and I always told the garage not to write anything to the ecu, just run the diagnostic as normal. Never had an issue. But the dealer tells me that ecu updates are more and more common these days. So does this mean doing a Revo Remap besides voiding warranty, is prone to the possibility of getting wiped on your next service kissing your 500 quid plus good bye. I thought this software was somehow stealthed and not picked up by the vag com. I really know nothing about this. Just trying to judge if a remap is worth it once warranty has expired.

So got the RS serviced the other day. Only done 11k KM, and 2 strange things : 1. They said there was a recall on my ecu, and to sort if they had to flash it with a program downloaded from Dublin. air con changes, changes for mfd. They didn't go into detail. Wondering am I lucky I didn't get a Revo remap done. Could this have wiped it out ? Anyway, the faint clicking from the aircon is gone now. Anyone heard of ECU reprogramming done at service time ? 2. Only after 7k miles, the front left drop link suspension rod has to be replaced. They said it was vibrating in it's socket, and not as robust as the one in the MkI RS which they showed me, thicker and about half the length. Warranty item anyway. It wasn't broken though, just vibrating. What brought it to their attention was I asked them to check the suspension in detail as lately I had been hearing a very slight knock when turning. Happy to say the service guy sounded like he knew his stuff, and very honest. I suppose I better watch those pot holes. Also, the tires are down to 4mm on front and 5mm on back after only 7k miles!! Think my last RS was the same. Still a lot of wear. What is the flavour of the month for tires now on the RS. Last time I checked people were talking about Eagle F1 Asymetrics ? Other then the 2 issues, car is 100% perfect they said. Happy to hear that. They also tightened the rear seats and the clicking seatbelt noise is gone. I know GAFF is interested in this. I'll find out what they did exactly. For a first service for my RS it wasn't bad. They did the service, tracking and front and rear wipers for 220 euro all in. Courtesy car with full tank included. Car hoovered and washed. Very happy.

My vRS MkII came with the lights permanently on You can set them to parking lights if you want by turning the dial 2 notches. This will dim them. But when the lights are set to the off position they are actually on (dipped heads). Garage says all vRS's are coming in this way with what they call all day running lights. There is also an auto settings which the garage referred to as tunnel lights (turn the dial 1 notch) but this does not seem to do very much seeing as the lights are always on in the day. Have gotten a few dirty looks from drivers in the middle of the day allright.

Well I have the car booked in for end of week. I still have less then 12k kilomoetres on it, and it's probably 4 weeks over service time. The garage doesn't seem bothered. They quoted me 180 euro for first service (including diagnostic), which does not include tracking or new wiper blades. Will also need to get slight knocking in suspension looked at (I think it could even be the rear seat), and one of my mates has commented my exhaust rattles when accelerating. Hmm.. Was probably in too high a gear at the time. Other then that and the odd rattle (seatbelt clips, jumbo box etc..) it's ok for 1 year of driving on truly awful roads. Out of interest does a gallon of oil cover it, as I intend bringing my own. Last time I asked about what oil/make they use, it defintiely wasn't the latest VW spec stuff I top up with.

Decron - It was on fixed when I got it, but got garage to change it back to variable the day I collected. So yeah, "service now" is coming up on the dash. Jonno VRS - Variable service intervals according to the garage and according to the readout that was coming up on the dash (assuming the garage is correct and they reset my car to variable) is after 1 year or 15k KM (not miles), whichever comes first. For the last number of weeks my dash was saying "Service in 3 weeks or 4k KM". And this has been counting down day by day. When the 3 weeks was up, it just changed to service. I have only gone over it by 3 weeks or so, and only have 11.5k KM up. I don't see what the problem is considering there is long life oil in the thing to begin with. Mannyo - Rang garage today to book car in. 3 week wait. As regards warranty being affected by leaving it a few weeks or going over it more then 500km, they said nonsense.

My 07 vRS was a year old about 2 weeks ago...computer is telling me to get a service but have only done 11.5k km as of today, all short trips (under 10km). Is it ok to leave it another month before I service it, or am I putting the car at risk. it's got long life oil in it. I know fuel consumption has recently gone to pot, and car has been heavy on oil requiring 3 topups during the year (0.5 to 0.75 litre each time). Has not been checked in a few months though :(

An RS4 then, but they are nearly 100k in Ireland :eek:

Thanks for the info. Relieved. Actually thinking about it, the chips are not deep, and even where it's chipped very lightly it is still brown. You would think if you got around 30 little stone chips that some of them would be a different colour, and not all of them would of gone down to the metal. I guess the best I can hope for is to put a couple thin layers of paint on..literally drop the paint in with a toothpick, and then use a mild polish like Scratch-X to level the paint.

Probably an audi a5 2.7tdi, but would need a fair few more quids to get that

07 vRs (race blue)...recently got some stone chips on bonnet....possibly 3 weeks ago...has been raining since. Noticed them yesterday when washing, and the chips were brown. The chips are spreadout over a 4x4" area...3 of 4 small ones, and about 20 tiny ones. Like the car was pepperred with grit/stones. Foolishly I cleaned them first, touched them up without considering if I needed primer. And I have read here the primer is supposed to be white. So would I be correct in assuming the chips are down to the metal and they have rusted, hence the brown colour. These chips are small, and if this is rust it is going to be difficult to remove without damaging the surrounding paintwork, at least with that brush that comes with the touchup stick. Having said all that, I would have assumed not all of them would be this brown colour. I count 32 in total.

I was washing the RS today and noticed a brown patch on the bonnet...looked like a bird had taken a nasty dump or leftover of the eggs my car was battered with a couple of weeks ago by scumbags. But no, it's stone chips. Car was imacc for last 9 months (bought new) and now suddenly this. Looks like gravel or grit hit the bonnet, and left about 30 little chips in 4"x4" square area. Only about 3 or 4 are very noticeable. All are brown in colour, so not sure if it's down to metal or just the primer, but filled the main ones today with touchup paint using a thin artists brush. Did the usual of letting the paint drop in so to overfill it. Tommorrow evening I will use this stuff I have called Langka to remove the excess and flatten it a bit. Same as what wet high grit sandpaper does without the marring. Have a feeling the chips are not deep/large enough to allow touchup paint to stay put. Could try really high grit wet sandpaper and polish after as alternative. Had success in past with that. But to be honest I'd like one of these chips away guys to have a go. Otherwise it's an insurance job, and don't fancy paying the excess and/or loosing no claims. So if anyone knows who could help in Ireland please let me know. I am based in Limerick but would go anywhere to get this done. Unfortunately all repair places locally only do resprays, chipsaway seems to be non existent, and dentmaster based in Cork only do dentless repair.

If using superresin, you would be best using their extra gloss protection afterward which will act as a sealant and last longer then a pure wax. Regarding scratch-x I honestly do not think is is very abrasive. Neither do I think it's good at removing swirls, only light scratches, at least by hand. The best you can hope for by hand is to mask the swirls. And if you want to mask or fill swirl marks then their is better stuff around, like 3M Imperial Hand Glaze which is designed just to do that. But it washes out after a couple bad days of rain. As I am desperate to remove my swirls (only recently caused), and am crap with a PC, I am going to try something different. I have just ordered some Glare SpiderWeb swirl remover, and Glare Polish, and reckon it will provide a more long term solution. By all accounts the fillers it leaves behind are inert and don't wash out easily. Plus you only need to use the polish/sealant on top of this once or twice a year. I will use this until I can learn to use a PC properly. Check the results this guy got. Seems very promising. Swirl Remover - webBikeWorld

Not an 07 Vrs. I have confirmed with 2 people now, and saw a vRS in work this morning that didn't have it.

Yeah right I removed the bolster on the right side and refitted it. No difference. Put the seats down and up. Same result. Just gotta get someone to sit in back on passenger side and see where it is exactly. To be honest if it's just the seat, then fine...I do turn the music up anyway. But if it's something in the suspension that is not doing it's job, then I am concerned. I had a Fiat Bravo HGT before and after about 5000km the rear bushels had to be replaced. I hope it's not this problem. What is strange is I only get the noise driving at slow speeds, and the road does not have to be bumpy. So it's beginning to sound more and more like a suspension issue to me.

Thanks lads. I should have known.

Thanks mate. I hope you are right. I'm probably looking for problems where these is none vRS still dead ???

Maybe it's me going mad, but noticed this morning when I got into car and turned on front fogs, that no front fog light symbol lit up on the dash..the dash was lit up ok, but no warning light to say front fogs are on. Only indication I had was the symbol on the switch lighting up. What is weird is for rear fogs the dashboard symbol lights up. Other weird stuff going on as well. So : ignition on....lights set to off, low beams come on (as I have all day driving lights setup), instrument panel stays unlit except for low beam symbol....never saw this low beam symbol light up before except when you actually select low beams..maybe it's because it wasn't very bright out ? select low beam....instrument panel lights up, low beam symbol stays on..ok. normal. select front fogs....no front fog symbol..this used come on before I think ? only indication of front fogs working is the light on the switch illuminates. select rear fogs....symbol on dash comes on. ok. normal. select side lights....no symbol comes on...dash lit up though. so it sounds like to me the symbol for front fogs and side lights does not work anymore ? anyone ?

So after Gaff helping me solve the rear seat clip noise issue, there is a knocking noise coming from rear of car on drivers side. It actually is not that loud and it's not coming from under car it seems. It sounds like the parcel shelf is bouncing up and down (but obviously isn't), and only happens when driving at low speeds...doesn't matter much if ground is smooth though uneven ground makes it worse. Can't see anything wrong with seats. Maybe it's the bolsters though. So next step is to remove them, and also get someone to sit in back of car. Is there any possibility you think that there is something up with the suspension. Car is used mainly for short journeys, decent quality roads, and only 7600 km up on it. I sure hope there isn't a bushel or something in the suspension acting up that is failing to dampen the road.

If the chip is very small I use a toothpick, if slightly bigger a thin artists brush..I have about 6 different sizes. I overfill the chip, and then usually use Langka about a day later to remove the excess. You use a lint free cloth around a credit card, apply loads of this langka (it looks like tippex or whiteout). It only removes touch up paint. On some cars I have done I found all the paint would be removed from the chip using langka. So in this situation to remove excepp paint I resort to very very high grit wet sandpaper..some of the stuff is as soft as mousehair. Of course it still scratches the pain, so I usually stick a tiny amount of this paper to the top of a pencil and then rub off the excess paint. After that you need to polish to remove any scratches. Usually something like 3M IHG or Meguairs Scratch-X does the trick.

Thanks...well I just pumped them up today and have not reset the monitor yet, so I maybe it will detect something is up seeing as it probably compares the readout from the abs to what's stored in memory. Then again maybe a 0.2 bar delta is not enough to trigger it. I worry too much

Glad to hear things are going well. Have mine 8 months now and while I have done low mileage the only issue I have had is the stupid rear seat release clips started to rattle...Happened the first time I pushed the seats forward...over the summer, to transport a lawnmower. Sometimes when it's wet I think I can hear the rear suspension make noise over ramps but think that is my imagination brought on by reading about the noisy suspension issue on these forums. Overall it's the most problem free car I have ever had. The last RS I had (02 model) while relatively problem free compared to the Alfa I had before it, still had stupid niggles like lights going, sensor on both front doors dying, fuel gauge packing it in etc..

Cheers. I think mine could be heavier on oil due to the nature of my driving..short journeys, stop start. Same story with petrol consumpion..getting 21mpg on short trips, but as high as 35mpg on long trips. Is it ok to keep it topped up to max all the time ? When I get it serviced I plan to buy a big bottle of 5w30 as the spec the dealer uses is well old. Even though I know with the mileage I do, cheaper semi-synth would be ok too. How many litres does she take ?

So about a month ago I put 2.0bar into the front tyres and 2.1bar into the rear and held down the tyre pressure sensor button on the centre console till I heard a beep. This resets the sensor according to the manual. And today I check my pressure, and it's 1.8bar on the front and 1.9bar on the back. The only thing I can think of besides the monitor not working is maybe I put air in a month ago when the tires were warm. I had only driven 10km when I put the air in. This might explain the exact delta on the front and rear..Doesn't tyre pressure read higher when they are warm ?

Have her now going on 9 months and only 7000 km up. Mainly city driving..10km trips at a time. Rarely push the engine or rev it. Took a half litre of castrol 5w30 at 1500km, and now at 7000km the dipstick reads about halfway between min and max. Need a full litre to bring her up to max. Is this type of consumption normal. And is it advisable to keep it topped up to max. Will be getting serviced when it's a year old anyway. Thanks

Yeah....it's got maxidot. Went out to dealer...mechanic knew the story..all cars coming into Ireland are setup with day running lights. And that's the reason you get no buzzer. He offered to change it back. But I left it. Just thought something was wrong. I have my vRS 9 months today and done 6,666 km on it by time I got to garage this morning....spooky