craigowl

What a devil you are, Henny! :evil:

Impressive, foggystorm. :D

essoblu wrote: You sure must be - I was probably the only one here who remembered the "Esso blue" tv ad campaign until you turned up! Welcome! (As I recall, children, blue paraffin was the subject of the ad campaign, there was even a daft but catchy jingle with it. Long ago, before central heating, when we all lived in cardboard boxes in the gutter, before we went to bed or had a bath, we heated the room with a paraffin heater to melt the ice off the windows and the taps, etc. The other paraffin was "Aladdin pink". I used to have to risk life and limb going for a couple of gallons of it from the nearest garage on my bike in Baltic weather. Ah! wonderful times.) Actually, I still have both the Aladdin heaters we had when I was a boy. They must be over 40 years old. I keep them in the garage and have used them in power cuts (in the 1970s, mostly) or if I want to work in there in the winter. They still work OK and I even renewed the wick in one - it was in its original box priced at 3/6d (18 new pence). Trustworthy and cost effective low technology which will stand the test of time. Sorry, essoblu - your name caused me to be overwhelmed with nostalgia for a moment, there.

essoblu wrote: You sure must be - I was probably the only one here who remembered the "Esso blue" tv ad campaign until you turned up! Welcome! (As I recall, children, blue paraffin was the subject of the ad campaign, there was even a daft but catchy jingle with it. Long ago, before central heating, when we all lived in cardboard boxes in the gutter, before we went to bed or had a bath, we heated the room with a paraffin heater to melt the ice off the windows and the taps, etc. The other paraffin was "Aladdin pink". I used to have to risk life and limb going for a couple of gallons of it from the nearest garage on my bike in Baltic weather. Ah! wonderful times.) Actually, I still have both the Aladdin heaters we had when I was a boy. They must be over 40 years old. I keep them in the garage and have used them in power cuts (in the 1970s, mostly) or if I want to work in there in the winter. They still work OK and I even renewed the wick in one - it was in its original box priced at 3/6d (18 new pence). Trustworthy and cost effective low technology which will stand the test of time. Sorry, essoblu - your name caused me to be overwhelmed with nostalgia for a moment, there.

Glad to hear you think the oil is OK. You need to correct the coolant loss, though. Even if it is not being blown out of your exhaust as steam, it is too expensive to keep wetting your highways with!

Yep - forgot that one double-6s. Lots of Mayo (water/oil emulsion) on inside of oil cap and filler neck is clear sign of trouble.

In this pic, on the VR6 they are just to the right of the silver insulating wrapping at rear bulkhead of engine compartment - they both disappear into the dashboard area so it is obvious when you look for yourself. Good luck.

Coolant droplets in oil is confirmation - you are suffering a coolant loss such that the warning light came on - that suggests a serious fault. By "cold" in the USA in August, I suppose you mean 15C! We are getting down to 7 or 8C in the early mornings here! Anyway, forget your car just now - get on with your studying. Succeed in that and you will just be able to buy a new car whenever you dont like the look of your exhaust emission. :wink:

Not as bad as it can get - many on this forum will have had to have this done on at least one vehicle they have owned. Labour is most expensive part as upper part of engine has to be dismantled and put back together with new gasket in. Many guys on the forum will have done this themselve - I haven't, but if you have a mate/acquaintance that is a mechanic all to the good. Proper diagnosis of problem is first part of action, though. VR6 is large, complex engine, so garages will probably quote several hundred dollars for job.

davidwort wrote Too right. Everything in profitable business is money driven. The satisfaction of shareholders is all.

Does not sound good. White "smoke" is usually indicative of steam - your loss of coolant ties in with this. Cylinder head gasket failure? Check oil dipstick and see if any globules of water are on it. Im not an expert like some on the forum, so I am sure you will get more feedback.

IMO, C & R enterprises probably know.

inky wrote Almost certainly true :wink: - someone has been guilty of making a faulty generalisation. Thousands of airline passengers will be doing the same every day, too, as they scan their fellow travellers. The way of the world, one would have to say.

Badge grommets are available from ECP, too, at 37p each, plus VAT. Their part no. is 855440450. I got some yesterday. They are black and the badge lugs are a reassuring tight fit in them.

kevhaywire wrote: Yep - I had seen that somewhere, but when I tested my old pump that way I still was not sure if it really was dead and was perhaps failing to start that way due to some other (electrical) quirk. Before I took a chance and shelled out my £68 for the new pump I eventually became 95% certain that the old one was busted after testing it using a straight 12v from the battery.

Mr Fusion said: Presumably he went on a customer care course in Torquay - run by Basil Fawlty.

"Not another f****** Corrado!" is a quote relayed to me from someone in the parts market.

ilovemycar wrote:- I think I love this lady already!

I replaced auxiliary (electric) water pump on VR6 a couple of days ago. Pics 1 and 2. Pump price to nearest £, including VAT: Quote from VAG Advantage, Stirling – £93, but, when asked, he kindly offered about 10% discount if you can produce CCGB card. Bought from ECP (Edinburgh) - £68 including CCGB discount on showing card. – identical to original Bosch unit. After installing new pump, I took old one apart - it was seized - both the impeller and the electric motor. You will possibly not know it is seized, because, from my experience, the car still runs OK and I had no overheating or coolant loss problems. Consequently, I would recommend those with VR6s check the pump’s 5 amp fuse, you will mostly not know if it has failed, except by visually examining it. (see pic 3) CAUTION - BE SURE THE RADIATOR FAN IS DISCONNECTED FROM THE POWER WHEN DOING THE FOLLOWING, IN CASE YOU MAKE A MISTAKE - IT STARTS SUDDENLY AND YOU DO NOT WANT YOUR BITS CAUGHT UP IN IT. Tested in isolation, a new pump does make a slight running noise but if fans are on they drown it out. I found you can listen to the aux pump in isolation by disconnecting the power supply plug to the (Bosch) radiator fan and linking the two appropriate terminals on the yellow coolant temperature sender (pic 4) as described in both the Bentley and the Peter Russek books. (I used a small U-shaped staple to bridge the brown wire’s terminal and the one diagonally across from it, i.e. the two terminals you are told to bridge in the books.) By the way, I found there is no need to drain all the coolant from, say, the bottom hose connection (really awkward for me) or the “official” drain plug (can crumble, I believe!)- I merely drained coolant from a very accessible hose half way up the engine. (see pics 5(i) and 5(ii)) Final pic (6) shows the extension I fitted to a cordless power drill (9.6v) to retighten the hose clips after refitting the two hoses to the new pump and the one from which I had drained about half of the coolant. After a lot of frustration, I found this to be a far easier task using this arrangement, compared to trying to screw up the hoses using an ordinary screwdriver. Wish I had thought of it years ago. I used a torque setting of 2, cautiously followed by 3.

I dont know if parking over two spaces is as common up here in Scotland. Seems to me that the more selfish habits like that always come north after they are long established in London first, where every traveller seems to loathe his fellow commuter. :wink: The only double space parking I regularly see is done by a Lidl manager in Falkirk. He has an MGF, so clearly he doesn't know much about cars and driving anyway! :wink:

When your mother or father are 87 years old and partially blind and infirm, mtcR32, you will realise what a selfish, antisocial creep you were.

Would the blown fuse show up as a fault on vagcom, though? anyone?

Well, looks as if a butchers at this fuse from time to time is the only way to tell if the aux pump will be working or not. Would the blown fuse show up as a fault on vagcom, though?

Sorry, guys, should have used search - I did not expect to find much about this topic but there is quite a lot and "RW1" seems to be an expert par excellence. I now see the 5 amp fuse on the late model fan control unit is linked to the auxiliary water pump. Presumably mine has not been working recently, but I do not seem to have had any overheating symptoms. Anybody able to comment on why car runs fine with this fuse blown? You dont seem to be able to tell if anything is wrong unless you actually take steps to remove the 5 amp fuse and look at it.

I find the component is the Fan Control Module. Well done, Walesy and vr6storm. Still puzzled as to what 5 amp fuse is linked to. I dont seem to have missed whatever it is linked to.