teledu

Interesting topic! the rear washer on my 05 Octy Estate has been 'weak' for ages and it seems this was due to the joint by the CD changer popping open, but not completely. Washer fluid has obviously been squirting around in this area for a while, but (as I now know) there is a drain hole in the floor nearby, so it isn't noticed. I only discovered all this when fault-finding loss of my luggage compartment lights. The rather corrosive washer fluid had sprayed onto connecters cunningly situated right next to the washer pipe connector, and rotted through the blue/white earth return for the lights (and well on the way to destroying all the connector contacts). As the connector was beyond repair I used an alternative to join all four wires passing through. There's an amazing amount of trim has to be removed to get to this area, so not really wishing to do that again I've wrapped the pipe joint with self-fusing tape, so that if there's another blockage, hopefully the pipe will pop off at the jet (slightly easier to get to).

Mike; I fitted an after-market vehicle-specific kit (Octavia Estate) made by Right Connections...Google will find them. It was quite a big job getting the wiring loom neatly through to the front of the car and connected to the right points behind the fuse panel. I considered that it was just about worth the effort for towing a big caravan. For a small trailer I wouldn't have bothered, especially as they are way more expensive than the 'low-tech' relay system.

So useful... thanks for the much-appreciated topic.

I cleaned my cruise control pcb tracks about a year ago, and they were OILY. At the time I assumed the sliding parts had been over lubricated, and a little had migrated onto the tracks. However, a week or so ago it started going intermittent again and I removed the module again and found more oil on the tracks! This turns out to be manufacturing 'Sabotage'! The rocker assembly switch button needs a little grease on the pivot, but the design affords a huge reservoir, and had an enormous hidden blob of grease that obviously releases its oil component when it gets hot. I'll attempt to attach an image of the offending area, complete with yellow grease. In this pic the grease is seen almost flowing out of the pivot area (due to heat), but there's loads more inside that pivot, so washed it all out with a white-spirit soaked small paintbrush. .... Unfortunately 'I'm not allowed to use that image extension' ....jpg.. !!?? Help! Maybe it doesn't like SkyDrive? Try a link then.... http://sdrv.ms/R8O33J

A bypass relay will do the job for you (£20?) and a proper wiring kit (£120+) will seem OTT. Nevertheless, if you google RightConnections you can read up on 'proper' CanBus wiring on a site run by a passionate specialist. They are tedious to fit, and the best way to go if towing more than a lighting board!