sepulchrave

It sounds like the differential to me (in the gearbox), I think the whole CV joint thing is a red herring, mine went badly and it certainly didn't whine! The differential can be treated as a separate entity to the gearbox in terms of repair but the gearbox still has to come out. Most garages prefer to fit a recon box since there's no actual repair work involved for them and the part is guaranteed. If it's the diff I'd be tempted to fix it myself since there are no special tools required to change a diff, and it may be that only new bearings and seals are needed.

This forum is better than any manual you can buy (mostly, irrelevant nonsense aside)! :wub:

Check the engine steady bar hasn't knocked it's bushes out or broken the bolt, if you put the car in gear and rock it back and forward does the engine rock with it? Very helpful anadin, you must be a diesel owner!

I can't see how you would get the box out, the engine is in the way! Why not remove the engine?

...And I don't have any idea what car you are SHOUTING about! Hard to make suggestions with so little information... :rolleyes:

...Or get a Land Rover, you won't hear the gearbox for the diffs! :rolleyes:

Oh blimey, here we go again.... :blink: Winter anyone? Sunnier forum beckoning.... :rolleyes: Please use the search facility: AUX HEATER!

Ahh, and has the coilpack REALLY been tested? I assume the same 'lassoo swinging buggers' are responsible for giving it a clean bill of health. Please stop using crap garages, none of them have a clue what to do with these cars. A main dealer will just throw expensive parts at it on a 'best guess' basis until either you or the problem goes away!

The fan is behind the glovebox, you simply remove it and the fan is clearly visible, remove a self-tapper and twist slightly and it should pop out enough to see if there are any foreign objects or damaged blades.

My wife's got an old chip pan............. :)

No, but they might be cheap (easy-split) pattern gaiters. :lol:

No there are two camshafts, but they are assymetric since the head layout requires that the ports are in a crossflow configuration, this means there are three long exhaust ports and three short, likewise for induction. The design constraints for this engine were to produce a very compact unit producing reasonable power and fuel efficiency, however combustion chamber design is severely compromised by the layout, hence the heron head and peculiar wedge-crowned pistons. This is not a performance engine by any manner of means, 100 bhp per litre is practically quite difficult to achieve (even a highly modified BL A series engine can approach this level of performance) due to these constraints. Due to these design compromises the engine is forced to run the valve heads very close to the enlarged piston crowns in order to maintain a high enough compression ratio to permit lean burn and emissions performance, consequently any timing slip on these engines tends to affect the leading cam (since they are chained together and driven from a jackshaft which is itself chain driven from the crank) controlling the valves on cylinders 2, 4 and 6 which tend to nip on the piston crown. I'm hoping it's the head gasket since this is much cheaper! However high mileage VR6's have a reputation for camchain tensioner failure which causes these problems. It does sound like only six valves may be affected, often the tensioner (particularly on thrashed boy racer Golfs) fails at high revs causing a catastrophically expensive head wreck. Stop driving it and get it to a specialist danny.s. There, I'm done. Shoot the messenger. :ph34r:

;) ;) :) Perhaps you could try the magic FFi fuel tablets...

...but no bent valves because your V6 engine was an entirely different design, remember the VR6 is actually a dual plane inline engine.

Espace very bad! Build quality significantly lower than Galaxy variants. Zafira good (mostly) but smaller. TBH it's the devil and the deep blue sea, that's why I'll stick with the devil I know. :o

NP, PM me with your address and I'll send you some wonga. :o

johnb80, how far out do you think the valve timing would have to be for the valves to remain open long enough on the compression stroke to cause a 25% drop in compression pressure? Is it plausible that this could happen without damaging the valve heads? How do you correct the valve timing on an enclosed chain drive without dismantling everything? Why leave the head on when it's the only thing left to remove? I think danny.s needs professional help here, and maintain that an independant VW specialist is the way forward. The only mechanism for the tractor sound he hears is combustion pressure bleeding through valves which are not closing, or leaking from a properly blown head gasket due to head warpage. The only cheap option is to check that the sparkplugs are all torqued down properly, that is the only other way to explain the symptoms.

Kev, How much for your door lights (I need two)?

Dude, 1 Bar equals 14.3 PSI, get your calculator out again! :D ...and danny.s, as far as I'm aware it is NOT necessary to remove the engine to get the head off. Get a new garage, preferably an independant VW specialist. The head CANNOT be skimmed (noticed another poster got ripped off paying for this, didn't feel like telling him) as it is a chamberless heron head and the valve seats are flush with the surface.

You can even do it without the jack or stands! Just a 13mm socket and a big hammer ;)

Wood73, Please may I suggest that you DO NOT USE the "mechanic" who told you you could fit the cologne 2.8 V6 to your Galaxy, since he has plainly never even looked under the bonnet of one before! You need a distributorless 12 valve VW VR6 engine for your Gal. Any will do.

n.p. dipso, glad you got it sorted. In my experience the vast majority of "mechanics" are just bloody fitters, and crap ones at that! ;)

Those compression pressures are suspiciously low on one bank of cylinders, 25% is way out. Head gasket, warped casting, bent valves? Sounds like a strong case for a top end teardown to me.

Are you being ironic? :D

Wood73, it is fair to say that most of the questions regarding oil grades on this forum relate to the PD Turbodiesel engine, since there are very strict requirements for that engine. It sounds to me like the oil you have used is plenty good enough for the humble VR6 engine. Worry less, drive more.