BigJakk

I did consider giving the dealers at Monte Darlo a ring, just to see if they could get it done a bit quicker, might give them a buzz. I agree with the Warranty sentiment - I usually like having a crack at stuff myself - but when the warranty is technically included as part of the purchase price of the car, seems daft not to use it I generally have nothing to do with main dealers - I've got a back street fella does servicing stuff, while Vasstech are pretty good locally for any specialist jobs - although they are quite keen at "finding issues" when you take it in for other things and did quote me £400 for front discs and pads only on my last one which I had a good chuckle at.

One of the many mods I did on my MKI VRS (loved that car) was to fit R32 Aero Wiper arms. As above, I wouldn't be hitting anything with a mallet/hammer or using spanners or screwdrivers as levers given the proximity to the windscreen, especially the rear wiper spindle. Penetrating fluid (proper stuff, not WD-40) applied copiously and left to sit overnight is your friend. In that case I had to use a wiper puller to get the old arms off, the one I used was from Laser tools and had "claws" that gripped the backside of the wiper. https://www.lasertools.co.uk/Product/4751/Wiper-Arm-Puller It was crap - It ended up gouging and making a bit of a mess of the metal of the wiper arms - wasn't a concern to me at the time as they were being replaced, but if I were putting them back onto the car I would have been narked, Based on that experience, I would suggest trying to get a tool that has a flat duckbill/crowsfoot design - similar to a ball joint separator - to spread the pressure on the wiper arm. I would also suggest trying to get something between the tool and the wiper arm (bit of card or a microfibre or something) to protect the wiper arm. Not so much for this case, as it seems the wiper spindle is integrated into the motor, but another tip I've seen for taking wipers on and off is to reattach the nut so that it sits just proud on the spindle, so that the thread on the spindle doesn't get mushroomed by and force applied to it during removal. Best of luck 👍

Appreciate the heads up -- im definitely gonna replace it one way or another, I've read a few bits from people now who've 'refurbed' them but it hasn't lasted long as per KD's post. Hopefully I can just get it done under Warranty next month - im hoping it deteriorates and becomes a more persistent fault by then, as we all know what dealers are like with their "diagnosis" of faults -- if its intermittent, they'll claim they cant find anything wrong and ill get stung for it. Hope you get sorted out with Autodoc 🤞

Cheers -- hadn't even thought to look on there 👍

Will keep my eyes peeled for you KD 🧐 Rodders, out of interest whereabouts did you source a replacement unit from and roughly how much are they? I've seen all sorts on ebay ranging from 40 quid up to about 200. My issue is very much an intermittent issue at the moment and I did baulk a bit when the dealership said if they cant find an issue, or they do but it isn't covered by warranty then its £140 quid for the "diagnosis" alone -- pfffffft! I don't have much faith in dealerships - I've got a good few weeks before the appointment but if it doesn't deteriorate any further and become more of a persistent problem before then I might just source a replacement myself as I don't trust th4e dealer to say they couldn't find anything wrong when they looked at it and biff me for the 'diagnostic' charge.

Nice to see someone else from Stockton on here! Yeah, that's what the issue will be - the washer fluid is coming out with a slight rust tinge to it. I've seen the same thing on Audi's in particular - its why so many of them drive around with the rear wiper pointing to twelve o'clock. It seems a bit of a naff design. I've still got approved used warranty cover on the car, so was just gonna leave it to that, but Derek Slack over at the 'Boro cant get it booked in until May to look at it! I was tossing up just getting a new one from TPS and just replacing it myself, but the one at Portrack doesn't serve non-trade anymore and by the looks of it the motor isn't that cheap of a part. I might look at refurbing it myself then, out of interest what did you use for re-greasing it and whereabouts? I'm guessing white grease or similar around the spindle and on the 'rotor'? Cheers

Hello Folks, Rear wiper on my VRS hatch is intermittently 'pausing' mid sweep for a second or two, before then completing the remainder of the sweep and returning to the parked position. I've only had the car three weeks and found the issue a few days after bringing it home - I've changed the wiper blade as the old one was a bit mangled and i thought it may be catching, but no. Doesn't do it on every time but say every third or fourth sweep of the wiper. I'm guessing this is the wiper motor starting to die off but just wanted to check before sourcing a replacement as they're not particularly cheap! Cheers

Mine started showing signs of water ingress again (damp drivers footwell carpet) and chased it back up to the headliner again. Interestingly the Mk3 VRS Buyers Guide on PistonHeads refers to the fact that not all panoramic roofs fitted to these cars turned out to actually be water proof -- they aren't wrong 😞 I'm afraid I don't have the energy to keep fighting with this issue every few years, so I resolved the issue permanently... by buying a different car with a tin top (the fairly lacklustre performance of the TDi VRS was also a contributing factor) I appreciate that probably isn't helpful to anyone suffering with this but hope the earlier comments in this thread and my other one have helped others. Sun roof - never again!

Yeah I've tried that with silicone grease previously but its didn't really seem to fix the issue, just make it occur a bit less frequently. Cutting the wings or lugs off the pinion/shaft has done the trick as a temporary fix - the flap can be opened whether the car is locked or unlocked and whether the solenoid has actuated or not, so at least I shouldn't end up in a position where im out of fuel and unable to get access to the filler, until I get around to replacing it with a new one. Cheers

Hello Folks, I know the fuel cap lock sticking is a fairly common problem and that the locking solution is hideously over engineered. Mine started playing up last year - fortunately a bit of pressure on the flap and some cycling of the lock/unlock button got me out of trouble on a few occasions at the pump. I had intended to replace the solenoid but forgot once the warmer months came around. Now its cold again its started playing up again last night and i had a bit of a battle with it. As a short term measure so i dont get stuck unable to open it and out of fuel over the next few days, I was considering either pulling the electrical connector to the solenoid (once its an unlocked state of course), however this looks like it might require the arch liner or boot trim removing, which is a bit of a faff. Alternatively, given the way the mechanism works, i wondered if anyone had simply snipped off the two plastic lugs/wings from the plastic pinion/shaft, as it looks like these form the locking element by rotating through 90 degrees into the plastic 'latch' molded inside of the flap door. Just wondered if anyone had any experience and whether the "pop out" function for then opening the flap will still work okay? I know i'll lose the locking functionality, but lets be right, non-return valves in the filler necks not withstanding, anyone determined to get fuel out of the car isn't going to be put off by a little flimsy plastic lock and causing a bit of damage to open the flap. Cheers

Just by way of an update; Dropped it back at the garage today, turns out when the battery replacement was done the ODBII tool they had on hand wouldn't let them update the ECU with the new battery info (interestingly, when looking at it over the weekend I had been able to check the battery registration with my OBD2 reader and had seen that it was still set to the old battery, however my tool also refused to update the battery info). They tried an alternative OBD2 tool today and that allowed them to delete the old battery info and write the new battery. Touch wood, fingers crossed etc. that seems to have fixed the issue. I picked it up this afternoon and upon returning home put the multi meter across the battery which was showing 12.6v at idle. With the engine started and some of the electrical systems turned on this jumped up to 14.5v, so the battery seems to be getting charge from the alternator (when testing it beforehand over the weekend all that was happening when a load was put on the battery was that the voltage was dropping, suggesting to me that the battery was doing it all on its own). I'll keep an eye on it over the next few days and report back if there are any more issues. Cheers

The plastic two way connector is definitely plugged in. Purely coincidental that I happened to take a screen grab just as his hand was on the threaded connector without realising the significance of what it was.... From the top of the engine bay i cant make out at all whether that is or isn't connected up - might have to get underneath it tomorrow and have a look. Cheers for the help Pete

Hello Pete, From what I can see online and elsewhere there looks to be only one connection to the alternator (the attached image isn't from mine, its from a youtube video) which is to the right side of the alternator as you look on the engine bay, within the plastic section (im guessing that's the voltage regulator). Fortunately I can confirm that's connected.

Just as an addendum, checked the battery registration with the OBD2 scanner as well and it looks like this hasn't been updated to the new battery, as its still showing a 68Ah where the new battery is 70Ah. Tried to amend it but the Foxwell couldnt make the adaptation for some reason. I cant see that being the issue though as there is no charging of the battery happening at all, wheras if the battery registration was the issue i would expect it to still be charging, but just under/over charging. Just for future reference for anyone wanting to know where the main fuse bar is, I've attached a couple of images. Its a combination of 10mm and 8mm sockets required to undo the captive nuts (one is a bolt) and its a good idea to note which cable leads to which terminal as though they are labelled, some of them are duplicated (there are two "K" cables, one red and one black). Cheers

Spent a few hours under the bonnet today, Battery was showing 11.5v and when started this dropped lower, suggesting that the battery is powering everything with no charge being passed through from the alternator. Hooked up a Foxwell OBDII scanner to the car and did some live data on the battery voltage which confirmed the above. Also logged some of the "Generator" (read Alternator) data. With the ignition turned on it initially read as zero for a few seconds before jumping up to 308,000+ Watts at 30% utilisation which clearly isn't right. Located the main busbar style fuse/relay that you referred to Pete. With the engine off this was also giving 11.5v as per the battery level. Ended up taking it out and checked it with the multi-meter, putting one lead on the main metal bar and then the other on each of the terminals of the fuse (125A/400A/B+/80A/80A/50A) and each one showed good continuity, so im afraid its not that (which is a shame as it looks a fairly straight forward and cheap thing to swap). The alternator is clearly brand spanking new and shiny and the belt is intact and seems to have decent tension on it. I couldn't really get to the alternator itself as its buried stupidly deep and out the way (the fact there are coolant lines running right over the top of it seems a bit of a silly design idea too!) to check connections. There is only one connection visible/accessible at the top right side of the alternator, which seems to be properly connected, however this looks to be of too thin a thin gauge to be one of the main electrical connections. The battery eventually died and is on a trickle charger now to try and get some life back into to it.

Hello Folks, Tearing my hair out with this one now with my Mk3 TDI VRS... On the motorway the other week, out of the blue dashboard warning popped up "12 Volt System Not Charging. Stop Driving Now" very rapidly thereafter lost power steering and as i got onto the hard shoulder pretty much everything on the dash lit up (lack of power to the systems I imagine) and then engine power went. Spent six hours on the shoulder waiting for recovery, hazards managed to keep going for about 5 hours which made me think its probably not a battery issue but more that the battery isn't charging. When recovery arrived we checked the Aux belt (which is less than 12 months old), which was still intact and was spinning. With a boost pack we were able to get enough power to drive the car onto the flatbed and then back off at the other end. RAC home start came out the following day, had a look over and suggested it was an alternator/charging issue. 45 minutes on charge from his van and the car made it under its own steam to my mates garage a few miles away. As everything seemed to point to a charging issue and therefore the alternator he changed that and also fitted a new battery as a "might as well do" as I've no idea of age of the existing battery and I've had the car for three years myself now. I've had the car back two days in which I've covered about 80 miles. Yesterday on the way home from work I noticed that the Stop/Start wasn't kicking in and the dashcam which is piggybacked to a switched live fuse behind the glovebox was randomly turning itself on and off. About a mile from home the same "12 Volt System Not Charging. Stop Driving Now" message pinged up. Fortunately there was enough life in it to make it home. Having checked the battery today with a multimeter its only putting out 11.98v with the ignition off. With the engine on this dropped to 11.58v, so the battery clearly isn't getting any charge to it. Just wondered if anyone might have any experience of this or any starters for ten as to where I start looking next. Cheers guys

Hello Folks, The locking solenoid on the fuel filler door is starting to play up, whereby it doesnt always unlock on the first press of the key fob. In the first instance I've lubricated the mechanism to see if that helps, however i know that on the Mk7 Golf Platform these things are notorious for failing so I'm looking at sourcing the replacement/updated part. The only thing is I've read differing reports on how easy it is to replace the part. Some seem suggest its just a case of removing a torx screw and everything thereafter can be done from outside of the vehicle in about 5 minutes. I've seen others saying that the boot carpet needs lifting to detach the wiring harness, while others have said that the rear offside wheel needs removing along with the wheel arch liner to gain access to it (in which case i might just let my mechanic sort it). I was just wondering if anyone had done it on a pre-FL (MY14) estate version of the Mk3 and could advise as to which of these three scenarios is involved. Cheers

Good that you've got somewhere under cover to keep it - I didn't have that luxury when I was having all my fun and games and it made things a right chew on! I would be cautious about feeding anything down the drain pipes, as you'll have seen all the drain tubes are connected to a knuckle which is a friction fit onto the roof tray. I've seen a couple of horror stories where people have fed Bowden cables down and pulled the drain tube off the knuckle. Similarly using compressed air, read a guy who blew the tube off the knuckle and had to go to the faff of putting everything back together with sealant! I've used plastic hedge strimmer line, doubled up into a loop with decent effect. It's got enough strength to break up the gunk but it's malleable enough it will just stop if it hits the drainage tubing. I prefer not to put anything down the drainage tubes though, I now tend to just pour some warm water mixed with mild detergent down there every few months. it may be different in the superb, but on the Octavia the main thing is the rubber nipples on the bulkhead. They simply need squeezing and manipulating (ooo err) a few times and the crud that comes out of them is quite surprising. By the sounds of it, It may well be that the roof mechanism itself is gummed up on yours. When I first got mine it made quite a racket opening/closing the roof and it sounded like it was struggling - it simply hadn't been maintained at all and the car was about 6 years old when I bought it. I blew the the rails and mechanism out using compressed air, then clean them with a soft paint brush before running a shop vac around to try and pick up anything loose and a final wipe down with a microfibre cloth. I then give everything a coating of WD40 Specialist PTFE lubricant. After that the mechanism was running nice and smoothly and much quieter. I do all the above annually now and touch wood everything runs nice and smooth. I could probably get away with doing it every couple of years to be honest but for the sake of an hour or so's work, it's worthwhile. It may be worth you trying similar, see if yhr roof mechanism frees up at all with a bit of maintainace. There's another test you can do at home, even with the roof not closing properly which will help to see if there is an with the actual integrity of the roof itself. Simply pour some water into the plastic overflow tray which surrounds the roof. With your newly clear drainage tubes, this should drain away without issue. If however you get any water ingress Into the car then you might have a similar issue to me where the water is leaking from the plastic tray (in my case it was running across the roof liner and then down the outside of the drainage tubes). As much as they're a nice thing on a summers day, I would never have another car with a sunroof of any sort ever again, it just isn't worth the faff and potential bother and expense.

Hi Rob, In my case the leak was coming from the roof itself, rather than a maintainable issue like a blocked drain. I took mine to a local independent VW specialist up here in the north east who described that there was a leak where the metal frame of the roof met the plastic housing it sits in. They ended up removing the roof from the car, separating them and rebonded them all together using sealant. I was without the car for a couple of days and paid about £500 for it (this was about two and a half years ago) - nearly all of which was labour cost. Touch wood I've had no problem since although I service the roof every year now. I clear the nozzles at the front bulkhead, flush the drain tube with soapy warm water and then cleaning out the roof the rails/mechanism with compressed air and a soft brush before, lubricating them with WD40 PTFE lubricant. I then dress the rubber seals with gummipflege (also recommend this on the door seals as they will stick in the freezing cold otherwise). Hope you get sorted as it's a real faff of a thing to sort, especially this time of year. I went vacced about two litres of water out of the passenger footwell and was lucky that it was the height of summer so managed to get it aired out and dried fairly easily. This time of year I would suggest wet vac, then get it into a garage and run a dehumidifier inside the car. Best of luck.

Hi Rob, I'm a bit tied up at the moment, but will reply back in full later. For now, I would suggest having a look at my other thread here: My advice has changed re: lubrication of the mechanism. Don't need any fancy kryrox stuff, WD40 Specialist PTFE lubricant does the job at a fraction of the cost Hope that starts you off

Hi Noman, Not since getting them both replaced. I would say that particularly bassy music does still distort although I mostly listen to stuff over Bluetooth which may not be the best. In the settings there is an option for Bluetooth volume and I've found setting this to low does help with clarity a bit, but it's still not perfect. I bought the car second hand,so didn't spec the canton system, but in my personal opinion I don't think it's much to write home about above and beyond a normal car stereo system. Good luck, hope you get sorted

Sorry folks, been dragged away for work so haven't had chance to look at this properly yet. Plan is tomorrow to firstly knock off the wall sockets at the breaker and then open up the plasterboard a bit and get a look at that cable, at the obvious damage I've already found and also around the wall plug where the bottom L bracket has been (I'm no electrician but even i would have guessed a wall switch would have a cable running down to it!). I've spoken to a sparky who said it may be repairable as long as the damage is only to the outer grey sheath and none of the coloured wires within are exposed. If they are then he said a new cable will need to go in... stands to reason to get that looked at and sorted first before contemplating putting the cabinet back up. Once that's sorted (fingers crossed), I've purchased a 1m wide cabinet handing rail (as mentioned by somebody in this thread) which has fixing holes every 20mm - i will have to cut this down to the size of the unit. I'll get a cable detector and map out where the cabling in that wall is, then fix the new rail using some corefix dot and dab fixings, taken into the breezeblock, at as may points as i can along the fixing rail to try and spread the load out across its length Cheers

Sorry, yes as Mac11 says, my idea with the foam is to act as some additional support behind the plasterboard to fill in the void between the plaster and the breezeblocks and stop the brackets pulling through the plasterboard as soon as any weight or pressure is put on them as has happened here. I'm not using it as a means of fixing anything as such, however on the bit I've already done, when it has expanded and set it has filled out around where the plugs are protruding out of the breezeblock and has filled the void in up to where the good plaster is... I hope that makes sense! Plan is to do the same on the other wall now, just to pack the void between the plaster and the breezeblock and also build back up the areas that will need filling before going over the top with a filling plaster.. I think part of the issue is that the dot and dab is so sparse that there is nothing to support, however at the same time they haven't used decent fixings which might have helped too (they've also made a balls up of the cabinet itself but I think I've sorted that with some wood glue on the dowels and a couple of assembly joints). The last photo is of the nick they've put in the electric cable... must have snuck in with the other two. Cheers folks

Thanks for all the responses guys. I think I've managed to sort that one, however I decided to check the other wall cabinet and have discovered an even bigger headache.... The one previously posted above, both fixings were about ready to pull out so I've removed them and cleared away the dead plaster then drilled out for some long plugs and screws then used expanding foam to help glue the plugs into place and fill the void in the plasterboard (on the phtoto, the screws for the right bracket havent been fully tightened). Ive also attached a wooden batten to the outside plasterboard, running between the two fixings done the same with a little bit of MDF profile at the bottom edge of the cabinet, just to help spread the loads top and bottom. I've then run some wall plugs into the adjacent wall to the right and tied that side in there, and the left side to the tall floor standing unit you can just about see in the photo. I don't know if I've gone a bit overkill, but i would like to think it wont droop forward again now! Unfortunately, this discovery made me look at the other wall cabinet on the opposite wall (picture attached). It looks like when they've tried to fit the left most bracket the wall has just crumbled... possibly due to the electric cable that's running behind there. It looks like they've nicked the cable sheathing, but haven't penetrated it, however I need to open that hole up a bit more and check it. They've then just bodged the left side by fixing a couple of flimsy L brackets top and bottom - when i took this one off the wall it was in a worse state than the other one, how it hasn't fallen off I don't know... At the moment, my plan is to move the cabinet about six inches to the right and refix, possibly using corefix fixings https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corefix-Bracket-Plasterboard-Fixing-Tested/dp/B071G61BQW/ref=asc_df_B071G61BQW/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=223237768057&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=995765202205638226&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007119&hvtargid=pla-425848880102&psc=1 These should hopefully prevent a repeat of the problem of the fixings pulling through the plasterboard, however i may also use some expanding filler just to add a bit of packing behind the plaster. I don't really want to drill into that wall too much as there are at least three electric cables running down it, so 'I may just no more nails' a batten and the remaining MDF profile to sit beneath the top/bottom of the cabinet and help spread the load. Then ive just got the existing holes to fill, i'll probably pack the void again with foam filler and use some Gyproc Easifill to smooth the surface finish out... just wondered whether this is a decent shout or theres a better way to sort the problem Thanks again guys

Thanks for the reply, I've attached an image which will hopefully help (ignore the two plugs above each fixing - they clearly didn't measure up right first time when they fitted it!). So basically from what you've described - cut out the section of plaster that I've marked in red, from bracket to bracket, try and get a piece of baton that will sit fairly flush between the breezeblock and the plasterboard then fix that to the breezeblock and attach the brackets to that baton? Cheers