Breezy_Pete

@joaofpo you may have some wear at the linkage where the actuator rod attaches. I'm investigating the effect of this on our Roomster at present.

Still two options. Do the spark plugs stick out forwards from the engine, or are they vertical down its centreline?

If a non-turbo, is it the 6-valve 60bhp or 12-valve 70bhp variant? Chain timing check on the latter has been described by me many times on here. Not that tricky.

Wildly unlikely to be fuel filter related. Check the chain timing or compression test it.

What makes you suspect the pump/module? It's nearly always a cracked strip fuse, you've come across that, right?

The black/red wire going to each rear lamp cluster is the brake light feed, check for 12V when pedal is pressed. Do check all the bulbs in each cluster in case you changed the wrong ones.

No, I am suggesting that if the high level light is working correctly, the circuit is OK as far as the rear of the car, so localised problems with bulbs or bulb holders of the main brake light bulbs are most probable.

High level and normal brake lights are generally all wired in parallel, so these symptoms suggest that you may not have fitted the correct bulb type (or you changed the wrong bulbs). Correct type per location is often marked on the bulb holder assembly.

Probably an adaptation that can be enabled or disabled via VCDS.

Took a pic just now of the elongation in the hole that the wastegate actuator attaches to on another manifold. A really extreme example I expect. I think the one on the car isn't as bad as this, but it's easy to imagine the electronics/electrics having a hard time trying to position the wastegate accurately with this degree of slop in the system.

Yes, alternator is working as intended.

Someone on here reckoned the Febi pattern parts are OK, should be able to find closer (in UK) than via autodoc.

Yep, part number as in my previous post 036919081D, currently £22.10 + VAT at dealers. 24mm spanner to remove, I seem to remember.

The part number you require depends on when your car was built. There was a change for BTS engines during Model Year 2009 (which a 2008 car may well be). If you supply your reg or VIN, I can look up which suits yours. I suspect it will be 036919081D, but it would be good to be sure.

Unplug the single wire connection and see if there's oil inside the connector. That's a sure sign it has failed.

All the fuses in that fusebox are permanently live except no.4 (the left one of the two 7.5 amp ones in your photo). If something piggybacked off one of the others is glitching at start-up, it must be (over)sensitive to the inevitable voltage drop that occurs when the starter motor takes its juice. See if there is a setting in the unit to not care quite so much about voltage level.

Hope to have an opportunity tomorrow. Many thanks for your time and advice.

Good suggestion, thanks @Rheumy I should be able to gather some such data. Specified and actual boost, yeah? Anything else good to grab whilst I'm at it?

CBZB engine from 2012, with original turbo, odometer says 161k miles. Runs quietly and smoothly engine-wise. However, since acquired, the car feels a little less responsive than I might guess it ought to, and isn't as good on fuel economy as hoped. A neighbour with a lot of car experience mentioned at time of purchase that he'd be concerned about the turbo being worn out, on a small capacity TSI with that many miles. I acquired a secondhand turbo with far lower mileage (<60k I think), but didn't fancy swapping it in without some decent evidence of fault with the original. I think I found such evidence today, without much effort. With just 5 torx Tx30 screws removed from the heatshield, I could get it far enough out of the way to get to the linkage connection and carefully remove the C-clip to separate actuator rod and linkage. If you know what you're looking at, this video may demonstrate the problem reasonably well.20250927_150647.mp4 The potential replacement turbo has no such ovalling of the hole in the linkage, and less shaft waggle within the bush that takes it through the housing to the wastegate itself. Losing all that waggle should help turbo control quite a bit, right?

Lots of scope for cleaning! 😆

A 🙂

Part number will begin with 5Q0 rather than 500, I believe. The connection to the radiator may be very stiff to remove, and require more force than expected. Wriggling it in rotation while pulling may help, obviously after releasing the wire clip fully first. It may be best to completely remove this wire clip to prevent it jumping back into its locking position while wrestling.

Excellent illustration of dry/cracked joints on the two connections just to the left of the pyre. Doubt that'll be repairable without some component replacement(s).

Nah. I had advisories for misting on the front shocks of my mk2 Golf for several consecutive years. Then I had a clean MOT, so I asked the tester, "what about the oil misting", to which he answered "all the oil's probably gone". 🤣 Was a few years back, mind.

.