Be Excellent To Each Other

If it was oil level light, fair enough. Oil pressure light is a different kettle o'fish, especially if you keep driving after it comes on.

From what I've seen more like half way toward an MX-5 that could easily end up being just as much of a money pit. MX-5's past a certain age are valued entirely on their condition and anything less than about £1000-1500 is highly likely to have its share of rust or other problems.

Quite. Ms K's Corsa has a chain and, at 140,000 miles, the engine is still amazingly quiet.

I meant the ongoing total of £845*... I'm hoping they'll write the labour charge of replacing the pipe off as a customer value thing, given this is my first visit and they know I want other stuff doing soon.

* £475 for the clutch all-in, £270 for the flywheel (I assume inc VAT) with no extra labour, and £100 for the pipe.

It is referred to in this house as a "£600 stupid light".
Or maybe a £7k "fucking useless" light.

It shouldn't be burning oil at all really. You shouldn't need to put in more than a couple of glugs every 10,000 miles (although checking it more often is wise!)

Golf TDi's are notorious for being a tad thirsty apparently. I will mention it when they do the Cambelt though.

Since the amount I put in was enough to take it from below the bottom of the dipstick to max, assuming VW probably topped it up to the midpoint it's probably only burnt the equivalent of a can of coke in the 7k miles since the last service.

Looking online at various forums with cars that use the VAG TDi's, it is commonplace though and can be seemingly random between services.

I've never had to top up the oil in the Octavia in over four years of owning it. It's done at the services, but inbetween I've had no cause to do it myself.

Keep an eye on it. Once they start drinking oil it's usually not long before this happens:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4fxjKnuI4Y

I've had that exact thing happen to me, in a Ford pickup on the A9. It'll only stop once it's burnt all the oil in the crankcase, or physically exploded.

I don't think topping up a touch of oil after 7k is too much to worry about. I've owned a number of VAG diesels;


So I'm no stranger to the seemingly random VAG oil light. Just don't drive another 1,000 miles with the light on, I wouldn't recommend that, but then again you aren't an idiot.

My Mk V golf was delivered with 36 miles on the clock and that even had a litre of Castrol in the boot ready for a top up (admittedly this is likely to be because it was new). There's a cubby hole and strap built in to the (right hand?) side of the boot specifically for your litre of topping up oil. I think it's normal*



* This statement does not come with any warranty, implied or otherwise, should your car suffer catastrophic failure The Egg Inc accepts no responsibility. At their sole discretion The Egg Inc may provide £1 for the Megabus home.

As The Egg points out, it seems to be pretty routine on the TDi's. In fact looking at some of the forums my consumption is nothing compared to some peoples!

Will keep an eye on it though, but it is a known issue.

Very thirsty when new apparently which is why VW give the oil away with the car.

Some TDis, yesterday:

That's what would happen if JC was allowed near one.

A few of them have LEDs, too. Definitely JC.

Mali-mobile update!

Whilst I was learning about assigning leases and subletting, Mr Caprios was at MaliTowers and on my return he said:

"Hey matey! Dead Rising's quite good fun! I checked the car"

Anyways, old battery came out, new battery was connected up and on the first click of the key the light on the dashboard came on and the headlights worked ad stuff like that. Three attempts to start the engine then brought it all back to square one, with a dead new battery.

So, deffo electrical gremlins mocking us.

What's plan of action now?

Say hi to Kovacs.

I take it you went for the £10 battery from a scrapyard option

If the engine is that difficult to start you probably need to change the glowplugs.

Anyway, now, buy a good set of jumpleads and get the car started. Then check that it's charging properly, and take it for a little run to charge the battery again.

'Get a 360' seems to have a slightly different meaning here, as an italian sports car would probably be out of the 'affordable zone' for most of us here, and wouldn't be much good for lugging surfboards around.

I can only get insurance if I keep one in the garage and then I wouldn't be able to open the doors. Also, I dislike the look of them, I think that they are a bit tacky.

Cheers, I'll pass it on, he left this morning.

I've got some jump leads somewhere, I think.

OK, for jump-starting a car, connect it to the other car, allow the engine on the other car to idle for 10-15 minutes, then attempt to start your car with the other car still running.

If it still sounds sluggish or the jumpleads begin smoking, stop and wait another 10-15 minutes.

If it's turning over fine and fast but still refusing to start, you have another problem, so stop.

Noted, lovely,ta.

What if they finish their ciggy before then?

hi, did swap the battery nad pit the old one on charge..
It sounded like a short, and the stater motor did not want to turn over,


Three tries and the babttery was dead again..

Hmm.

So it turned over but very slowly? In what way did it "sound like a short"?



Hopefully it was probably just flat to start with. If you don't have other options, take it back to the garage it came from and ask them to charge it or give you a fresher one. They don't have a very long shelf life.

That's quite different to the way I do it.

It did not sound liek it was turning over.. like it wanted to but did not.

I put the original on charge last night so it could be ok to try today.

What's the way you do it?

Well, let us know how that turns out.

Either: there's a problem with the car

Or: the new battery was completely flat to start with, which means it will never be as good as it should be and you should definitely take it back.

A multimeter (even a £5 maplin one) would be a bit help in figuring out what's going on.

I reckon it involves liberally splashing petrol around, setting it on fire (for coolz), then push-starting it with a crane.

LET'S OFF ROAD

I did not have my multimeter or jumpleads on me... I was just passing on my way home!!

Failing that - a quick test. Turn on the headlights. Turn the key to start. Do the headlights dim only slightly, dim a lot, or go out completely?

This instruction for MaliA...

Or D. Geoff Hurst in the 1966 World Cup Final?

Did Check the lights worked

So, erm, what happened?

they worked...

Well, I tried. Didn't I try, people?

Cheers Kalmar, I can;t doa lot more as I am 100 miles away.. only went to help get the battery out as it was jammed..

Start good car, wire batteries together, rev good car, start second car.
Wait a bit if it is still flat.

Or, if my Tomcat has a flat battery:
Press the 'link' button on the battery controller and start engine.

Well, that's what I said, but with pre-emptive waiting and without the revving
This is more likely to be successful first time especially if cheap crap jumpleads are in play.

That wouldn't work on the Tomcat - it's an automatic

It would look cool though.

Cavey? CAVEY?

Did you ever have problems with the coils in your TT?

All VAG 1.8s have problems with their coils. Bosch have run out of letters they've done so many revisions. Dunno about the ones on the 3.2 I think Cavey had though.

My car is ready, apparently. The garage guy sounded exasperated and/or exhausted on the phone.

Tamiya in anniversary celebrations of their Sand Scorcher Bug RC car from the 80's have commissioned a company to make a 1:1 replica.

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/news/defau ... ryId=21459

That's brilliant!

Not just 1.8's. Any VAG car with Bosch parts made between 1998 and 2001 is liable to see the aforementioned parts failed. Something went horrible wrong with their QC.

In my old Golf the aircon pump went, the starter went and the coil literally disintergrated. All Bosch and all issues known about. In fact earlier this year I was following an identical car to the one I was driving that was being towed to a garage. I could smell the same smell I'd experienced a few months previous when my own coil went.

Yeah, I'm interested in cars with more than one coil. The system probably has a name, but I haven't looked it up

It was still happening with MkII Octavia vRSes too, much later than 2001.