orly

Ancient thread resurrection... Hmm. I'm curious as to how... Off the back of this thread I picked up a pair of front Mk2 seats for my Mk1 Vrs. They don't just fit in. The rails are about 1cm further apart, and although it looks like you can remove the rails from the Mk1 seats, I don't think you can from the Mk2 seats. They are welded rather than bolted. Also the plastic pocket on the Mk2 seats fouls the fuel filler cap release 😞 Anyone want to buy a pair of pretty good condition Mk2 Fabia Vrs seats? 🙂 Olly.

I'll get the door card off when I get a chance and have a look at the mechanism. Still confused why using the keyfob vs the switch in the drivers door should make a difference to be honest though.

Scary. I generally try the odd emergency stop on all my cars every now and then to be sure the hydraulics and the mechanicals are in good order. Might start doing that more often, as you really don't want it to fail when you are using in an emergency! Does sound like you've lost fluid somewhere. I'm tempted to suggest that if your pedal is still long, it's more likely to be a master cylinder issue, but I'm not an expert. If the reservoir only dropped a bit, it's unlikely you got air in the system - other than if you had a seal failure perhaps.

Thinking about that some more, divert the compressed gas to the intercooler and you get a charge cooler too

I totally get why people like the "tisssshhh" of a DV, but surely the more sound, the more the turbulence which means the turbo will be slowing down more than necessary. For performance, the quieter the better I would think? As discussed atmospheric DVs are a bad idea for these VW 1.8Ts. If you really want a tissshh why not fit a seperate MAP sensor and wire it up to an actuator on a big cylinder of compressed gas

Did you try the ABS controller as well as the engine ECU with VCDS-Lite?

From reading through the forum it seems that door lock problems are fairly common on Mk1 Octavias. Mine is confusing me... Very very occasionally, when I lock the car with the remote on the key, the passenger door locks, but then the lock bounces up to an unlocked position. It happens so infrequently that it doesn't really bother me (usually when it's cold). Literally this has happened 2 or 3 times in the last 2 years. I have just got in the habit of checking through the window before leaving the car. However, when I use the lock switch next to the window buttons in the driver's door to lock all doors, the passenger door lock ALWAYS locks, then bounces back up to an unlocked position? Surely the remote on the key and the button are activating the same circuits and solenoids, so I am at a loss as to why the issue should (normally) only happen when using the switch in the door? I would be very grateful for suggestions as it's making my head hurt! Thanks Olly. .

Decided to remove the towbar (as I have nothing to tow) which I did using unpluggable electrical connector blocks so that I can refit it later fairly quickly if required. The reverse and ground feeds I needed for the sensor control box are already going to the white "power" towing hook-up socket anyhow, so I just used those (yellow is reversing lights, white is -ve/ground - that's if your towbar is wired up the "standard" way) Great procedure write up though. A nice easy job for a Sunday afternoon, and I'm really pleased with the results in terms of looks, and how well the sensors work. Thanks Olly. .

My Octy has a towbar fitted by a previous owner. It's quite big with one of those plates to stop the trailer's tow bar socket (whatever they're called) from damaging the bumper when hooking up, and both light and power connectors. After the wife had an "incident" whilst reversing recently I'd like to fit a parking sensor as per this excellent guide, but I'm worried it might pick up the towbar and constantly beep, so would be grateful if anyone who has experience could advise please? Thanks Olly. .

I tried to fix the sensor myself. It's an ar*e of a job. Took ages to carefully pick out all of the potting compound and then lever the PCB out. I re-soldered the IC, reassembled and tested. It worked. Hooray! 10 seconds later another fault :( I found it only worked reliably when I squeezed it. So I unsoldered it again to have another go, unfortunately I managed to tear one of the solder tracks off the PCB whilst unsoldering the connector. Bodge soldered that and reassembled, potted with hot glue gun and tried again. No worky. So I have forked out £64 for a re-manufactured unit from a guy on ebay which should arrive tomorrow (early versions of this unit had bad solder joints between the surface mount IC and the PCB - loads of Mk1 TTs have this issue apparently so I didn't want to buy a cheapo scrap sensor as it's likely to fail in the future) Hopefully this will fix it. I am slightly concerned that I might have to calibrate the new unit, as the unregistered version of VCDS-lite does not support this function, and I'm hoping to avoid forking out $99 for a license! Unless someone in the Slough / Maidenhead / High Wycombe area with a registered copy feels like helping out? I'd come to you of course! Cheers Olly. .

Wish I'd not believed you Paul Pulled it off and broke the plastic fixing lug and had to spend 30 mins making a new one out of sheet metal. You DO need to take the light switch out, there is a bolt behind it holding the top edge of the lower part of the dash to the car! At least there is on my Mk 1 Octy (2001). Also beware of damaging the cable from the OBDII port when you remove the lower dash panel. There are 3 lugs at the rear of it. Bend them gently and you can remove the OBD port. Just to add, on RHD models the sensor bracket is to the left of the steering column and is a pain to get to. You need a small 13mm socket, a small ratchet and a narrow extension bar of around 10cm length. I reckon it is possible to get the G200 sensor off (as that's the one that tends to fail on early models) without taking the bracket off in hindsight, and is probably easier. Cheers Olly.

In case it helps anyone else, I'll answer my own questions The free copy of VCDS lite told me that there is an intermittent issue with the G200 lateral acceleration sensor. I'm pretty sure this is part number 1J0907651A, and is the same as on similar age Audis. I am going to order a reconditioned unit, as I don't see much point getting a scrap unit as they do seem to fail with age, and a new unit is of course pretty expensive. That said, I have read some posts that suggest dry solder joints in the unit are often the problem, so I might have a go at fixing it myself. Looks like a simple 4 bolt job to remove and refit (famous last words) according to this useful post: http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/280950-traction-control-code-01423-g200/ Cheers Olly .. Edit: Procedure to fix dry solder joints here: http://www.ttforum.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=435953&p=3146097

Hi, I have a 2001 Mk1 1.8T 20v 4x4 Octy saloon. It's a cracking car on only 82K miles, but today the wife rang to say a light had appeared on the dashboard. It was the ESP / traction control light. I switched off and restarted and the warning light went out. So I took her for a 10 min drive, and literally seconds before returning home the light came on again and hasn't gone off since... The ABS light is not on, and I tested ABS. It is definitely working - so not a wheel speed sensor I assume? From a bit of googling it's looking like brake pedal sensor, one of the inertia sensors or possibly the haldex control unit. I had a bluetooth OBD interface plugged in and had a look with Torque, but no faults registered. I think torque can only talk to the engine ECU though, and I'm guessing I need to talk to the ABS ECU, or maybe the haldex unit itself? Will a free copy of VCDS-lite help me identify the fault? And can I use the bluetooth OBD interface with a laptop, or do I need to find a USB OBD interface cable (I have a couple, but "where" is always the challenge) It seems the haldex units are prone to corrosion, so if I do need to get a new one, does anyone know if the Mk1 TT quattro unit is the same? There are a few of those available second hand, as I'm certainly not going to fork out £500+ for a new one! Thanks in advance... Olly. .

oops. Brain failure. I've had the car 9 months and never noticed that before! Shame I already bought a new joystick from a scrappie... Oh well, it was only £15 delivered, so not too high a price for my stupidity.. Thanks Olly. .

Hi, I have a 2001 1.8T Elegance 4x4. It has electric wing mirrors, and has just developed a fault. When I switch the "joystick" to the right hand mirror, the left also moves. Fortunately switching to left mirror only adjusts that one, so I can still get them lined up correctly. A couple of questions: 1) Is this an MOT fail? 2) Would I be right in assuming the problem is with the adjuster knob / joystick on the drivers door? If so how easy is it to replace? I assume the door card has to come off? THanks very much. Olly. .