Beyond Help?

Sounds more like the bearings have gone in the aircon pump.

Pay Halfords prices for a bulb! Never! I order mine from http://www.picbits.co.uk, I buy a few at a time to justify the postage and just hold them in stock for if I need them. They really cost pennies from there.

That is either the crank sensor of the fuel injector sensor on the No3 injector flagging a fault. If the crank is spinning and that injector is not being opened correctly by the fuel pressure or opening at the right timing interval then it will ping. White smoke says your timing is probably out.

If it is buzzing then it could be sticking. Remove it and energise it to see if it operates correctly.

If you have a booster heater at the back you need to drain from there too. Then refill with clean water and run that round the system until the thermostat opens then drain all that out then refill the system, now the correct way to do that is with pre-mixed coolant, but I prefer to put in the correct amount of anti-freeze first and then fill with water. Please not however that ethylene glycol antifreeze, whether mixed or concentrated, is very, very toxic. A tablespoonful can kill someone, and it tastes sweet so if a child or pet were to get into contact with it they could easily consume enough to kill them.

No, I will, honestly! It won't be giving anything away! I asked the toddler sat in his car seat to pull the handle........

Only as far as I have a second hand multi-function one in my lockup you could have had FOC for all bar the postage. Or at least I did have, it looks like it has gone walkies.....

Sometimes the dealers will not get stock in because they have to buy multiple packs, for example I went to a Vauxhall main dealer for a specialist dashboard light for an older model. Needless to say they had none in stock and the parts guy would have to buy in a quantity of 25 at a retail price of

Any decent semi-synthetic 15W40 should do the trick, it is a basic engine with basic needs!

Do you have the full dash with all the door open and light check functions or just tha bog-standard one?

Sorry for the false alarm, but I always put Feb 29th as my birthday! It is not really my birthday though, that was a few weeks ago so I will just take the warm jestures above as late birthday wishes! And no, I am not 96! I am 104....... And I know what I would like for my birthday, something that I had once and have never had again, and probably won't ever have again.........

The OEM ones are made by Pagid. You can buy Pagid from GSF, identical but without the VAG part number.

The blower housing is the same on all RHD models. You must be mistaken, it is on the left hand end, on a metal plate and has a connector on it. They are not all red.

It will be the anti-rollbar extensions not the bushes. They are about

The Pagid pads from GSF are exactly the same as the OEM ones but without the VAG part number, they are made by the same company. You should note that the OEM/GSF pads are quite hard and will wear the rotors considerably, so they may need changed too.

If it is an open frame head rest (the one with a hole in the middle) then a cover is not available. If it is a solid one then a cover is available for about

VW abandoned using 5W30 as it was too thin when hot and was getting past the turbo seals. You should fill with Fuchs TITAN Supersyn Plus which is 5W40 or oil of an equal specification.

Your engine should be a AUY and the refill capacity with a new filter is 4.3 litres according to the VW technical specs. When I service these I put 4 litres in first and crank it over to fill the filter and housing (DO NOT REV IT! There is a risk to the turbo bearings if you do) Then let it sit for five minutes and check the dipstick. Normally 4.3 litres is more than enough. From the bottom of the hatched field on the dipstick to the top of the hatched field is 0.5 of a litre. Overfilling can damage the catalytic converter.

Halfords now do a very competitively priced own label 505.01 engine oil.

Yes, that is a deliberate function on all Thatcham approved central locking/alarm systems to prevent accidental unlocking. As said, a door must be opened or it will re-lock. This is also why you MUST NOT put your keys in the car when you remote unlock the car unless you are getting straight in. Just the other day I got called out to a driver who had put the keys on the floor whilst strapping their toddler in, but the door-open switch was not working, the system re-armed and the doors re-locked. The driver shut the door and realised the keys were inside, but then could not open the door. Anyone want to guess how I got the car open?

With early TDis when you start the car with no chip in the key the engine starts fine, it is when you release the key the immo1 cuts the engine.

You get VAG-COM to read the immobilizer details. Once you have those and the paperwork you find a helpful dealer who will get the 4 digit code for you, once you have the code you use VAG-COM to program the keys to the car. Some early cars have the 4 digit key code written on the paperwork that came with the car.

Does it beep or bong? Apparently the one from a MK5 Golf is a straight swap and it makes a nice 'Bong, bong, bong' sound.....

I have to agree with Tiny, broken wires are the bane of this car! Any job on anything electrical should include a wiring inspection!