Usually I can hear the secondary air pump whirring away after starting my mk1 vRS from cold. It runs for a minute or so making the car sound like the exhaust is blowing. However, these last couple of days I have not noticed it at all when starting up. The weather has been pretty cold, but I would have thought that this would mean it would be on for longer rather than not at all. Does anyone advise that the pump might be knackered, or is this 'normal'?Car still seems to be ok though!

If it's gone completely you should have a CEL (check engine light) on the instrument panel.

Best way to tell is get the car scanned if you can.

If it's gone completely you should have a CEL (check engine light) on the instrument panel.

Best way to tell is get the car scanned if you can.

yup,if its not working the light should come up.ive had that ,twice!

if its still going it may well be that you just need to get it off the car and replace the rivots that hold it together there was a guide on here once upon a time to do it. did this when i had my Mrk1 vrs amd it worked a treat for the sake of about £5 worth of nuts and bolts and about an hours work... think that was only cos mine was a git to get off

Is mine the only VRS where I don't notice the secondary air pump hot or cold? When I started my VRS up the other morning and got out to scrape the ice of the windows I couldn't believe just how sweet my motor sounds. No warning lights on show either.

I removed mine completely:

http://www.pimpmyskoda.co.uk/V2Images/ModsEngine/AirSystemRemoval.htm

Forgive my ignorance, and slight thread detour, but what exactly does the secondary air pump do? I can hear it on mine for a minute or so but wondered what purpose it serves?

It's an electric pump to push extra air to the cat to warm it up faster.

It reduces emissions when the engine is cold.