As I am now well into my second week of ownership, I'm getting a feel for the problems which my Fellatio has.

My main concern is the clutch. I know there is a recent thread on here about strange clutch noises but they are mostly about noise when the clutch is depressed. The noise I am getting is as the clutch is released you are pulling away from a stand still. It really sounds like a dry bearing noise. Perhaps it's a new release bearing job in which case it's a whole new clutch job me thinks. Any ideas? The most complicated car job I've ever done was to change the head gasket on a Renault 5. I've had a quick scan of the Haynes and it has scary parts like "put a 19mm pole in to prevent the star wheels from falling into the gearbox and necessitating a complete gearbox rebuild" or word to that effect. Has anyone changed the clutch on one of these and can they advise if it's a goer or should be left to a garage for ease and peace of mind? Bear in mind that I do have a garage pit so it might be a little easier for me than most.

Another problem is a potential head gasket failure. I've noticed the underside of the oil cap was covered in mayonnaise from water contamination. The car was previously owned by an old duffer who quite probably only went to the local shops and back in it so it may have had lots of condensation issues leading to the mayo. I cleaned it up and changed the oil but then today I took the cap off again only to find the same thing. I've only used the car for work and it gets up to temp. just as I get to work. I've cleaned the cap again and taken it for a long run and it doesn't appear to have any mayo in there after that. Are these VW 1.6 engines prone to condensation? Are they prone to gasket failure? I'll have to see how it goes and perhaps get a garage to check it. Would a compression test show up a failed head gasket? I'm guessing not if it's failed between a water and oil channel and not the combustion chamber but head gaskets don't really fail like that do they?

Thanks for all your help!

1.6 is usualy solid. its the 1.3s that blow up (trust me i know:D )

I'm getting a feel for the problems which my Fellatio has.

ahem!!

:banned: