Rapid spaceback General Maintenance questions

[ZakBredin]

Hey all, 

 

I’m learning the art of car DIY maintenance and slowly building my workshop knowledge on my rapid. However I have a few questions before I attempt to go ahead with the work. My car is now running over 100,000 miles and has not once caused me an issues. But it’s getting to that time in the cars age whereby maintenance is going to become a massive project to keep the engine life going. 

 

coolant flush and refit

 

Im looking at flushing and cleaning out the coolant system. However I’m struggling to locate the drain plug for the coolant system. Can any one advise me we’re it is please ? Or will I need to drop the bottom horse pipe to drain the coolant ? 
 

engine oil flush 

 

I have neglected the fact not to change the oil every 10,000 - 15,000 miles so I’m expecting a very dirty and sluggy engine block. The last time it was service was over 2 years ago and it’s not been a regular change of oil either, there has been no issues with the engine block or any problems or leaks however I do want to clean the engine block out. But I have researched and notice this is a controversial subject for some. The question is, should I flush the engine, change the oil and filter or just change the oil and filter? 

 All advice and views are welcomed. 
 

cheers all 

zak

[Ootohere]

Welcome.

 

Get the oil up to operating temperature and then change the oil and filter.  Carefully.

Maybe pumping out the oil via the dipstick tube, then change the sump plug and see what if any oil / gunge comes out.

 

Test the Coolants strength / ratio with a test kit. 

 

Fuel filter.

Air Filter.

Pollen Filter.

Brake Fluid.

[Kostas123]

I've also started my car repair learning journey with the Rapid. Getting proper repair manuals helps immensely. I found most of Rapid manuals from vwts.ru, however the engine manual wasn't there so I had to use google and found an Audi manual for the same engine.

 

From what I know changing the coolant needs a lot of equipment. My engine (1.4 TDI) needs vacuum pulled on the system and the car computer needs to be set in bleeding mode for it to evacuate all the air due to large amount of one-way valves and three coolant pumps. You would need a compressor, special bleeder (looks like this) and a way to interface to the car computer.

 

Engine oil change is a lot simpler, however resetting the service reminder by holding buttons on the dash turns off the engine oil quality sensor and puts the car into fixed intervals instead of intelligently measuring oil quality and your driving style (long vs short journeys). So having a proper computer interface is useful, though it's definitely not necessary for this job. Cheap readers won't help you, what you need is VCDS. Cheapest HEX-V2 interface costs $200 and lets you program 3 cars (but scan indefinite car error codes). China produces older HEX+CAN clones for ~$20 but of course instead of chinese creating something new, they simply pirate the official software so you won't get any help from us about those.

 

You can also change the brake fluid easily, doesn't need any fancy tools. Though it's best to have a bit of negative pressure on the clutch bleeder since it's hard to reach and hard to shut it quickly to prevent air from getting in (of course this is only valid for manual gearboxes).

Edited 24 October, 2023 by Kostas123

[Ootohere]

@ZakBredinYou have Long Life oil in if the Correct to VW504 00 / 507 00 so the 15,000 is not an issue and there should not be sludge.