Breezy_Pete

That's what should happen with a healthy system. (Apart from the lumpy idle).

The reported shutoff due to low pressure event would be a clue pointing you toward lack of refrigerant, I expect.

The roof doesn't open, only the blinds do. So no drains.

In the spirit of honesty, that buzzing rattle came back despite the magnets still appearing to be well secured. ☹️

Why muck about, just change the whole car! Older ones were better.

Probably to do with embedding of the nut's mating face (and that of the balljoint if textured) being different on the two types of wishbone, together with the fact that when a fastener is tensioned by torque alone, a very high proportion of that torque is used in overcoming friction, rather than actually extending the screw. There's a lot of techy stuff about pre-tensioning threaded fasteners, and the general trend towards using a lower torque followed by an angle tightening stage is mostly about reducing the variability impact of this friction.

The problem with flushing heater matrix or radiator is that there are many small pathways in parallel once you go a little way insde. Pushing water through unless at very high pressure will always tend to choose the least blocked pathways to flow through. So crud can remain in the more blocked ones only to emerge later in different temperature/pressure conditions. Replacement should work though!

6.1.3.(b)(i), apparently: MOT inspection manual: cars and passenger vehicles - 6. Body, structure and attachments - Guidance - GOV.UK

Replied, but for the benefit of others who may be reading:- the seal ring part number is 1K0 201 557A, currently £11.55 + VAT from Skoda. Lots of offerings for less than half that price online from the aftermarket, and lets face it, Skoda didn't supply a particularly durable one when this car was built, so there may not be a strong case for staying genuine.

Message me with VIN if you like.

Pinout/wiring shown here Grey box at top is engine ECU. Brown wire is earth. 5V on pin 1. No idea whether there are any common loom damage points; probably quite tricky to see if it's down the back of the engine.

What year is the car and which engine type does it have?

Yes, the metal casing. Remove electronics first, by defeating the 6 plastic clips with toothpicks or similar. Then undo 4x torx screws, carefully pull out metal housing with rotor and brushpack all together. Pull brushes outward off commutator and spin the brushpack 180° relative to metal housing. Reassembly in reverse order. 6Y1 label will now face the opposite way, and the permanent magnets within the metal housing will be oppositely oriented. Better not to pull the rotor out of the metal casing as the bearing at the closed end can be tricky to realign the shaft into.

Just noticed on the parts diagrams that the Koyo system shows sealing washers for this part that are described as 16mm, TRW system shows ones with 14mm seals. So your system is LHD SMI Koyo, and your expansion hose part number is part number 6Q1 423 893 M (dropped May 2023, superseded to 6Q1 423 893H). Note for UK/RHD car owners. Part numbers for RHD systems are different to what's shown above. Third character is 2 instead of 1, and suffixes will differ too. All UK/RHD systems are TRW as far as I know.

There were two different systems made by different manufacturers. You need the right parts according to which system you have. The only difference in the part numbers is the suffix letter, which is important. You have written only the base part number. I will message you asking for your VIN, which will allow me to look up which system you have, and so which is the correct, full part number.