Nigel-ph

My TDI has dual climate with roof vents above the row 2 seats but no air comes out of these vents. I have tried all manner of settings on the controller unit and all I ever get is the suggestion of a waft of air from all 3 vents. The airflow from the front vents is reasonable, but I would expect it to be a bit better so something is amiss. Can anyone explain the route the air takes to get to the roof vents so I can look for blockages or stuck flaps?

The front end of my 05 1.9 TDI “shakes’ if I pull away slightly hard in 1st and 2nd gear. I don’t feel the shake on the steering wheel, and it’s not violent but is enough to make things in the driver’s door pocket rattle. If I pull away gently it’s ok and there is nothing untoward once I get up the gears, no vibrations and everything smooth, although there is a pronounced ‘diesely’ knock from the engine under full power at any speed in any gear. The previous owner provided bills showing the DMF, clutch, driveshafts and strut top mounts have been replaced within the last 20k miles (now on 136k). I have watched videos demonstrating what DMF failure sounds like and there are no such rattles etc. and the clutch feels normal so i’m hoping it’s not the DMF. Perhaps a clue is that I have just had a huge bill for fixing the climate control where just about every component needed to be replaced (control unit, pipes, compressor, fan etc) and I am wondering if whatever is causing the shake caused these failures... something as simple as an engine mounting perhaps? If anyone can suggest what it might be before I ask the garage to investigate and get another big bill I would be very grateful!

There are plenty of posts about mk1/2 spare wheel carrier issues but none covering my particular quandary. The winch on my 05 model is obviously faulty. It unwinds enough to release the grip on the spare wheel then just clicks. There is an excellent post (many thanks) describing a metal fork that gets stuck about where my mechanism starts clicking but with the wheel in the way I can’t see where it is or get at it to release it. If I can get the winch off i’m sure I can fix it, so is there any way to remove the wheel without destroying the white nylon plug that holds the wheel on the wire?

My recently acquired 2005 Galaxy 1.9tdi 130 starts and pulls exceptionally well, but has a very noisey engine. On idle or just revving up it sounds fairly sweet, but under load it generates a lot of raucous noise, like a tractor perhaps, including a heavy rattling that appears to be on one cylinder. Very noticeable when cold but still there once warmed up. I have had a garage do a diagnostic and the injector timing is ok. Other symptoms (clues maybe?) are that it blows grey smoke on cold start up (even though I had the glow plugs replaced) and it uses a bit of oil, maybe a pint in 300 miles. Anyone know what the problem is? Should I consider having the engine replaced/rebuilt, or this nothing to worry about?