First time starting a project thread, bear with me...

Heard about this Roomster not too far from me that might be heading for a scrapyard, and decided to try to acquire it.

That went well and it came to my place this last weekend.

Early 2012, 1.2 TSI, 5sp manual, 158k miles on the clock.

This is it, just after being washed. Paintwork is far from pristine, but that's not something I care much about.

I'd looked up the spec via the reg plate before seeing pics of the car, so there were one or two nice surprises when I first saw pics, then the car in real life.

Factory build sheet suggested no roof rails, nor trailer hitch.

Both were in fact fitted, presumably by supplying dealer since this was bought new by the previous owner.

Trailer hitch is the detachable type, with 13 pin electrics connector and adaptor for 7-pin electrics. Super handy!

Had to swap out the alternator to get it charging and driveable, battery was also factory original and not well at all following loss of charging.

OSF tyre had nasty inner shoulder wear, without anything similar being apparent on the other side, so that needs some investigation promptly.

Partner told me the high level brakelight is inop.

Nearside mirror adjustment isn't happening.

May well be a split outer CV boot on OS too, but hard to be sure as the whole engine is rather oily externally, and everything needs a good clean-up to see where any fluids are escaping from.

Everything else seems to work, though the handbrake only slightly!

Lots more to say, but for now:

New battery fitted last night after the external clean. Interior needs a lot of cleaning up; hoping a local youth may be enticed into helping with that, possibly.

Engine sounds rather nice and quiet after two seconds of mild rattle from cold-start.

Seems to go just fine, but economy not great on journey home.

Quite excited to bring it back to full health. 😁

I shall no doubt have many questions.

Never had one, but I've always had a soft spot for Roomy's, and a mild hankering. Dunno why 🤷‍♂️

Wishing you many happy hours of tinkering 👍

Gaz

I'm jealous of the satisfaction that you are going to get from this!

Me too! I've owned two Roomsters and consider my Roomster Scout the best car I have owned in more than fifty years of motoring.

Plans for tomorrow mainly focus on the oil leak situation, replacing that seal between engine block and oil filter/cooler bracket; then having a good look around each corner at brakes, suspension etc.

Saw another handy video just now which confirmed that the alternator can just be moved out of the way a bit, as opposed to being completely extracted out of the engine bay, so most of the oil seal job can be done from above, rather than faffing about with A/C compressor moving, complete removal of alt etc. 🙂

If I get through that I have plenty of other things to look at, but knowing me, I won't. 😁

What spec is she, Pete? S, SE etc...

Quality of the interior is good I hope.

Is the aircon functioning Pete?

SE, I think, Lee.

Interior is basically intact, but needs a lot of cleaning to get it to a condition I can relax in.

It's not 'nasty dirty', just in need of a really thorough, probably all seats out, clean.

No bad smells or stains, just lots of dust and general grime.

Low priority in my head though, mechanical health far more important to me.

One question that does matter to me, does anyone now what spec might have a seat with lumbar support, which was a slightly disappointing absence on the first drive on the way home?

Possibly a bit spoilt by the comfort level of the A4's driver's seat.

6 minutes ago, J.R. said:

Is the aircon functioning Pete?

Yes; once I'd reconnected the solenoid valve after compressor refit. Omitted to do that initially, but got a fault code which made me suspect I'd cocked that up.

@Breezy_Pete SEL possibly.

No L&K Roomsters I'm aware of. Not sure if she'd take Octavia seats in the front and back or Fabia ones as they're a bit of an oddity. Maybe even Polo or Golf ones. 🤷

Good point, Fabia front seats surely will be drop in fit, I'd think, since the front half basically is a mk2 Fabia.

On the other hand, judging by my partner's interest in the car, it might be her Fabia that I end up in after the dust has settled, so probably best to leave this one as-is for the time being!

I'm sure what you said earlier will come to pass, that you will adopt another one!

It sounds like you moved the AC compressor without disconnecting the flexible pipe couplings, wise man 👍

So much to say about this, but not really finding the time to both do and write, but I am taking plenty of pics to allow a later catch-up.

Lots of jobs planned for this weekend, brakes mostly but a few other bits.

Got to get it driveable soon, since my partner is itching to test drive it. 😀

(And I need it to move a boat on trailer soon).

One question for the 1.2TSI literate, at 158k miles, should I just assume that a recon turbo would be a good plan, or give it a chance first?

Seems like a lot of oil coming from TB area...

Tempted by these guys, anyone used?

eBay

Turbocharger 03F145701K Audi Seat Skoda Volkswagen 1.2 77...

03F145701R 03F145701H 03F145701HV 03F145701HX 03F145701K 03F145701KV 03F145701KX 03F145701R 03F145701RV 03F145701RX. Skoda Fabia II 1.2 TSI. 77 kW, 105 BHP. 63 kW, 86 BHP. Volkswagen Golf VI 1.2 TS...

Time for some progress reporting (overdue, sorry).

Before I plucked up the courage to sort the oil leak I went round all four corners checking suspension, brakes etc.

Started on right rear for no particular reason.

Disc - original-looking, nasty. Possibly would clean up OK, rear/inner side may be worse.

Pads - well worn but legal

Flexible brake hose has a 'pinch mark' where a clamp had been used a bit unsympathetically, but doesn't look like more than cosmetic damage. (Can just be seen in this shot of the disc below, just to the right of the top of the loop).

Handbrake having uneven effect between sides.

Bump stop, hanging on by a thread!

Shock covered in oil covered in dirt.

Spring looks in good shape.

Edited 3 May, 20251 yr by Breezy_Pete

Left rear.

Bump stop entirely broken.

Shock and spring look OK, top rubber mount of spring looks a bit odd, some rubber hanging off the edge. Is there a right and a wrong orientation for the top 'tail' of the spring to be?

Disc and pads similar to first side.

Didn't take any pics as they'd have been largely duplicates.

Rear beam has a scab or two that might benefit from treating.

Rear exhaust box looking very original and scabby, continuous pipe including mid silencer, so confirming originality. No obvious leaks currently.

Left front

Not much to note or of concern, except disc looking very old and disintegratey. Probably not actually that close to failure, but not nice looking.

Right front

Disc in similar poor condition.

CV grease around, lots of mud around

Lots of engine oil around on undertray

Ordered up Mintex brake boxes (discs and pads), a genuine NOS rear shock, rear bumpstops, a CV boot, nuts and bolts.

Started work on front left (going anticlockwise this time thinking I'd leave the front right with the CV action 'til last).

Everything came apart easily for the disc and pad change, but as noted in another thread, first snag came with the fact that despite ebay seller checking with reg number, the discs in the front brake box were wrong.

Silly me; thought all the VAG 288mm discs were probably the same, so didn't personally check everything well enough at time of order or delivery.

Seller was decent about it and gave a full return/refund including pre-paid Evri label, having established that they didn't have a correct set for the car.

I think having looked on the Mintex site that there isn't actually a front pads + discs set to suit this application; could be wrong.

Luckily, the GSF near my workplace had sets of Brembo discs and pads that I was happy enough with, for not much more than the refund amount, in stock the next day.

Went up together nicely once the 'bell' of the disc was the right depth.

Rear left got a new (correct) disc and pad set, MDK0037 I think? Didn't do the bumpstop or spring top rubber yet, still umming and ahhing about whether to change shock while I was at it.

Rear right got new disc and pads, new shock and bumpstop. No dramas.

Wasn't sure what to expect with the caliper, going by the evidence of the hose clamping imprint, but it wound back quite easily, possibly a replacement? Doesn't look any newer than t'other side though. Odd.

Front right needed outer CV boot replacement as well as brake stuff, but happily I:

a) had bought a tool some time back for in-situ removing of outer CV from driveshaft, and,

b) remembered that I had, and,

c) found it in my garage without undue time spent

Only in the £15 territory, from memory.

[More coming soon, just got to pop out]

Edited 3 May, 20251 yr by Breezy_Pete

CV came away as planned, and boot replacement was the usual messy-as job. Didn't do a thorough job and clean out all the old grease, probably should have. Boot sorted.

Brake stuff had come apart easily enough again, and now-correct disc was straightforward to fit.

Then came the first significant snag. When re-torquing the carrier screws, the top one suddenly stripped. Bugger!

erWin info didn't specify replacement (just 124Nm torque I think), so I hadn't. May have helped me if I had, not sure. Took the screw back out in the vain hope that it was just that that had stripped, rather than the thread in the wheel bearing housing.

It looked odd. Turned out there was a helicoil (I guess?) filling in the thread at the business end, came off the screw in one piece:

So a previous repair had pulled out; yay! 😧

Wandered off to sulk for a bit. I had only just been telling myself how nice it was to be working on a car where all the fasteners came undone OK, rather than battles with seized and rusted stuff more typical of what I'm used to.

Simple choice faced me. another thread repair attempt or replace wheel bearing housing (far more time and work).

So I went for the quick and dirty option and got this set on order from ebay:

M12 x 1.5mm BRAKE CALIPER CARRIER BOLT THREAD REPAIR KIT Inserts Tap Drill Bit | eBay

Idea is that a threaded top-hat type thing is fitted into the hole where the thread was, from the side opposite the screw.

Didn't think about this quite long enough, in the context.

It comes with a stepped drill that centralises the new sized hole in the existing one, with a hardened spacer/guide bar too that forces it to be the right distance from the other one. See images in listing. Took a lot of drilling, hard work for some time. Went to fit the insert, which should be a tight enough fit to require a bit of pulling in, with pin and bearinged washer arrangement supplied. It was loose as anything. 🤔

What I'd not taken into account was that the previous repair had already created a significantly oversize hole where the helicoil had been put in, so the stepped drill hadn't done an adequate job of centralising the full size hole, which had wandered about and drilled oversize. Dumb mistake in hindsight, though not sure I could have made it work better, with this kit.

Anyway, thought I'd try torquing up the carrier screws anyway, to see what happened, and both took full torque without anything feeling bad. Wasn't happy about it, and knew I'd be revisiting at some point before long.

Edited 3 May, 20251 yr by Breezy_Pete
sp

Next was a couple of electrical fixes.

Partner had told me that high level brake light was inop, following me back from collecting the car.

I'd noticed that the passenger side wing mirror was pointing down and inwards at an unhelpful angle, and the adjustment didn't work.

Boot wiring problem was unsurprising. Previous repair evidence on a few wires, and one newly broken wire responsible for brake light non-function.

Easy fix.

Mirror fault was imagined to be similar, and sure enough, after minor battle to release the bellows from (right) A-pillar 28-way connector, a couple of broken wires greeted me. Don't seem to have pics, except this one, taken just after loom removal and before bench repairs, to remind me the shape/profile of the loom as it comes into the innards of the door.

Repaired wires restored function of the mirror, and I did a couple of other wires that had cracked insulation but no sign of strand breakage yet, splicing lengths of super-flexible silicone insulated wire pre-emptively.

Was glad to discover that the loom removal and refitting process wasn't too bad to do.

Had cause to inspect the other (passenger) side at the weekend and there were two wires with cracked insulation but none broken. May get round to future-proofing them at some point when everything else is done!

Edited 6 May, 20251 yr by Breezy_Pete

This evening I'll edit this post into a big version, but a spoiler is that it was addressing the oil leak, quite a significant one, mentioned on the last few MOTs as an advisory "oil leak front of engine". I'd already guessed at the culprit, and even headed down to the car on my first visit armed with the necessary gasket, since the replacement involved alternator removal amongst other things, and I thought it would be nice to 'kill two birds with one stone', while I was fitting a good alternator to get the car mobile anyway.

I posted a video of the seal replacement in a related thread after doing a search for 1.2TSi oil leak on here, and coming across this thread: https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/438119-2011-12tsi-dsg-oil-leak-head-gasket-gone/page/2/#findComment-5931213

Typically in that vid, the lambda sensor removal is made to look much easier than ever happens in real life, in my experience. It does have to come out in order to get the heatshield off, annoyingly, which then gives access to the right-most screw that holds the filter/cooler/alternator bracket casting on.

Wildly underestimated the work involved, and didn't even contemplate it on that occasion.

Spoiler: this figure of 8, plus another loop, rubber gasket seals the casting that holds oil filter and cooler onto the front of the block. It had stopped sealing it. The rubber was hard as a rock, squished flat with no compliance left at all.

Can't blame it at 13 years old and 159k miles driven. Not the best design, possibly.

There were also a few tiny bits of casting flash around the edges of that face where the seal sat, maybe holding it off the block a smidge more than planned. Tidied up before new gasket was fitted.

Edited 6 May, 20251 yr by Breezy_Pete
sp

Forgot about one electrical fix that happened a few weeks back.

Cabin fan resistor replacement. Wasn't working on speed 1, unacceptable.

Researched it on here and found a thread that covered it, although at one point (in a vid?) it's claimed that the three M6 fasteners that hold the airbag in have Tx27 heads. That wasn't helpful, cos they're Tx30, and it makes it even easier to drop one if the tool is a loose fit...

Lost one deep in the dash, just found something similar to replace it with. Hope the stray one doesn't cause any issues wherever it ended up.