Roger Blassberg

Well, that didn't work. One new VAG ignition switch later and it still plays silly bu**ers. Looks like the fuse box will have to come out. Best wishes RB

Wuth Rost Off is indeed the stuff. Where can I buy it?? Best wishes RB

It depends on who did the service I suppose and how meticulous they were. It's worth renewing if the pump seems noisy. Best wishes RB

How about the fuel filter? If it is clogged-up, the pressure will not reach the injectors straight away and the pump will be working overtime, making it more noisy than normal. It's a cheap part but a bit of a messy job to replace and quite often gets neglected during servicing. It lives just in front of the driver's side rear wheel. Best wishes RB

Have you lost any other circuits such as heater blower, wipers, headlights? If so there is a problem with the load relief switching which could be the relay (position 4) or the ignition switch. Best wishes RB

You could also try cutting a slot in the end of the protruding part of the stud and use a screwdriver on it. If that fails you can still drill and use a stud extractor My local garage uses an aerosol which freezes siezed nuts and bolts down to minus 40 deg. and this causes tiny cracks to form in the corrosion. You then spray on penetrating oil/WD40/PlusGas and leave it for a while before undoing. Best wishes RB

Thanks. Hefting spanners I can manage, but I'm too short-fused and long-backed to do that particular fiddle. I'll get the local garagist to do it. Best wishes RB

Position 12, bottom row extreme right. Best wishes RB

This is another recurring problem which is driving me mad. The operation of the load reduction relay is unreliable. This manifests itself as follows. Occasionally, and usually in warm weather (!!??), the load relief relay fails to re-connect the ancilliary circuits which it cuts out during cranking/starting. This leaves me without headlights, wipers, washers, heater blower etc. I can get them back if I switch on the headlights and operate the headlight flasher together. I have changed the load relief relay several times but achieve only a temporary cure; then it's back to random operation and the pantomime of flashing the headlights. My next port of call is to change the ignition switch on the basis that this is the source of power which actuates the solenoid side of the relay, and is a notorious weakness. For the sake of a few extra pounds I will be using a genuine VAG part. All comments, suggestions etc. gratefully received. Best wishes RB

This is a puzzler to me. I have been chasing the reasons for a slight hesitation/flat spot when accelerating from closed throttle, eg when changing gear, with the engine warmed up (no problem when cold). I am reasonably confident that the MAF and the coilpack are in good order. There were no problems that I could detect further up the revs range, so I cannot believe that fuel starvation was an issue. On the advice of "cmoth" on this forum, who has had similar problems, I changed the fuel pump relay on Saturday morning. The result is an instant cure, as it was for him. But why? I have asked for suggestions elsewhere on here with no real answers. Has anyone a logical reason? Obviously the fuel pump was running before the relay was changed. I'm pleased with the result, but cannot understand how the cure works. Best wishes RB

Thanks. Best wishes RB

Certainly on a VR the hoses bend at quite a tight radius as they approach the retaining clips and fuel rail; will unformed pipe be able to be bent so tightly without kinking or over-stressing the clips? And where is a good source of this hose? Thanks Best wishes RB

According to Bentley, the fuel pump relay is in position 12 on the board (bottom row, extreme right). Colin, it's definitetly worth a shot. Murray's I take it. I must get a season ticket....... Best wishes RB

Yes, the key should be a tight fit into the keyway, it needs to be gently tapped in. I assume that this pulley drives all your ancilliaries including the G-lader, so the shear force on the key is very high unless there is a high frictional component at the mating faces of the pulley and the crankshaft. I doubt if they are a tapered fit. Does the damaged edge extend along the full length of the slot The reason I can think of against your plan of drilling and pinning the pulley onto the crankshaft is how do you get it off again if you ever need to? If you use a needle roller it would be too hard to drill out, so the only solution would be to drill right through and use a pin that could be driven out the other side if necessary. Is the end of the crankshaft hardened? If so you may again have trouble drilling it. And you will need quite a large diameter pin(s) to get the shear plane area you need equivalent to the original arrangement. I think the ideal solution is to have another slot cut into the end of the crank opposite the damaged one; it isn't too difficult once the crankshaft is out to grind or mill a slot. Are there timing marks on the pulley? Obviously they would be useless if you move them relative to the crankshaft. Best wishes RB

Can anyone explain why changing the fuel pump relay will cure a low rev hesitation/flatspot. The old relay was clearly not totally u/s. Colin (cmoth) drove with me in the passenger seat last Saturday and I must admit that from there the only hesitation I could detect, with my MAF temporarily fitted to his car, was a very slight reluctance initially to accelerate from closed throttle after gear changes. The engine seemed free to rev up to 6000 + rpm thereafter. If it works, it works of course, but why? Best wishes RB

I was just reading a thread elsewhere on this forum on the subject of driving on sidelights/parking lights/foglights/nolights-at-all !! It reminded me to ask others if they have noticed the ever more bizarre behaviour of some people in apparently disconnecting their outer brakelights and leaving only the high-level one operating. Hondas driven by infants seem to be the worst offenders. I see this so often now that it can't just be the result of neglect. I even followed one car (a Honda) the other day until I could tell the driver (an infant) that his lights were dangerous and his response made it obvious that this was deliberate behaviour on his part. Neglect of the maintenance of other lights (and I assume of other safety-related parts) seems to be endemic as well. Have a look yourself at how many headlight/taillight failures you see now that the nights are getting longer. I suppose that there is too little money to be swept into the coffers by the police to make enforcement a viable proposition. I feel very much better now, thank you......... Best wishes RB

In ammeter mode, the internal resistance of the meter can be extremely low, dependent on the range selected. If you short out the battery (i.e. connect it in parallel to the battery), full current can flow, and that can be hundreds of amps. Only use an ammeter in series connection, relying on the other resistances in the circuit to control the current. If you are switched to voltmeter mode a very high resistance is switched into the multimeter so as to cause minimum voltage drop in the circuit being tested when connected in parallel. Best wishes RB

Don't put your ammeter across the battery !!!! There will be a large puff of smoke and you may be lucky enough to drop it before it gets v. hot. Wire it in line, i.e. disconnect one of the battery leads and re-connect it through the ammeter. Best wishes RB

Sounds promising. Did you find out why Murray's was closed on Saturday morning? Best wishes RB

Colin, I can only reiterate my thoughts on the possibility of the wiring to the lambda probe and/or the MAF connection. Get Mick to put it on the analysis. I do hope it's not the gf causing you to loose all power and go into limp mode. Best wishes RB

Colin, the reference numbers you quote from your receipt are your chassis and engine numbers. The correct NGK plugs are reference number BKR5EKU, £3.71 each from http://www.spark-plugs.co.uk or with the suffix P for platinum. As we discussed yesterday the intermittent general lumpiness could be due to the lambda probe wiring being a bit touch-and-go, especially if the fuel consumption increases substantially. If you suspect your MAF, come round to me and we can quickly do a swap to see if that sorts it out. In the meantime, try pulling off the connector and cleaning the contacts. Best wishes RB

How is the sensor removed from the hub? It appears to be just pressed in. Do I need to take off the disc and ABS rotor and then drive or press it out, or can it be "persuaded" to come out by tapping it on the sides with a (small!) hammer. I don't think that it's a good idea simply to pry it out using a screwdriver bearing against the rotor, or am I being over-cautious? Best wishes RB

Surely the flexible hose connects directly to the caliper at one end and to the rigid metal brake line at the other end at a fixed support, to give the necessary, errr, flexibility when steering . I can't imagine that there is a rigid line downstream of that. If there were it would be constantly experiencing all sorts of bending stresses unless it was fixed at both ends. Unless your front caliper is of the twin-pot variety (non-standard so far as I know) with a steel pipe running between the two sides. Nonetheless, the flexible would still connect to the caliper, with a separate tapping for the transfer from one side to the other. Best wishes RB

Sounds as though you did precisely what DrMat said in April NOT to do, ie shorted the battery through your multimeter on the 10A DC range (very low internal resistance = very high current = blown fuse. A shorted battery will give several hundred amps, more than enough to give you a very nasty burn). You need to connect it in series (ie in-line); disconnect one battery lead, connect one lead from the meter to that battery terminal and the other to the free battery lead to see if there is current flowing with everything switched off. Best wishes RB

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