dr_mat

Would recommend OEM. These are amongst the most important bits, so it doesn't pay to skimp. It's not like they're much, anyway. Also I believe VW give you a 2 year warranty on engine internals like these.

Um, yeah. Kinda. Cheaper than a new engine though. Have a shufty at GSF, think the coil pack is around £140. Leads are available OE-style from a few places, but a full set of quality leads is going to cost around £60-£80 minimum. VW dealer will sell individual leads though, so you could just replace the faulty one.

I'm guessing you mean "G12+", since G12 is no longer available, and is not suitable for the VR engine either.. ;)

Depends how long you're keeping the car, IMHO. If you're planning on doing more than another 6 months it's probably worth it, cos the chains can just become noisy pretty quickly when they start to go.

That's a big question.. Lots of VRs do this all the time. It may be helped by resetting your ECU, but since it's just been rechipped I'd expect that to have already been done...

I'd be worried if your oil level was that low. I think the oil temp sender is on or near the oil filter housing, on the block, but I could be wrong, search the archives for more details.

it's the oil temperature, not pressure, and if it's only ever reading --- it means either your oil is constantly below 50 degrees C, or the sender unit is fubar.

So might the dashboard trim.

Depends how much higher up it is. It might be the head gasket too, which is a pretty big job for a novice.

I have heard of the window regulator circuit pulling highish currents before, can't remember what the outcome was, so have a dig in the search. Radio shouldn't pull anything more than a trickle when it's off, too tho!! If you're losing 200mA, on a fully charged battery you should get 10-12days before it's completely dead.

Depends what you took it out of... Well it's not suppose to be covered in oil, so I'd say whichever way round it's not a Good Thing ™.

I don't think so. Most were fitted with a Sigma/VW alarm system by the dealers before delivery. I think the factory central locking (with deadlocks) and the engine immobiliser hooked to transponders on the key (on late VRs) was all that you had by default.

Heardy already pointed out where the aux water pump was. Yes, the fuel pump is in the tank. Switch the ignition on, stick your ear near the aux water pump, if it's running and not leaking, it's most likely fine.

Oh, and the expansion tank is designed to lose water if the system goes over pressure (I'd say 140 degrees would do that!!), don't worry about that unless it's leaking when the engine is cold.

The main water pump is about £19, the aux water pump is nearer £60 I'm aftaid. The loss of the aux water pump wouldn't cause the severity of problem you're seeing here, so I suspect you definitely need a thermostat first. Like I say though, it's quite possible you just can't hear the aux pump and it's fine!

The aux water pump should be running all the time the ignition is on, but it's so quiet sometimes that you're not easily going to notice it unless you stick your head under the bonnet..

The 16v won't remember the codes, afaik. There's no "memory" in the ECU. It completely reinitialises fresh each time you turn the ignition on.

Engine revs can't increase without accompanying increase in road speed unless the clutch slips or the wheels spin.. And I doubt you're spinning the wheels in 4th and 5th! :) Are you sure the engine revs increase or is it just the needle jumping?

I work in IT, surrounded by apathetic "it's just a job" types. I suppose you can understand that really, cos it's less exciting than cars, but when you're trying to run a tech support place, you really need to have technical people, not monkeys who follow scripts... (We don't hire monkeys any more - the monkey doing the hiring got RIFfed last year, and they always get US techies to interview prospective employees now, and we are all trained in bullshit identification.)

I was driving around in an old Jetta TX for about 4-5 weeks with a clunking front wheel bearing because the garage wouldn't commit to whether it was the bearing or the CV joint.. (Being a student at the time I didn't wanna fork out dosh to find out...) Eventually I worked it out when there was around 2-3mm of play at the top of the wheel, which accompanied the clunking..!! I rang the RAC tech line who suggested I get it towed (he was pretty horrified), but couldn't be bothered with that and just drove it carefully to the garage.. :)

Sadly apathy is widespread and ingrained in the UK... I was going to write a long rant about it, but I can't be bothered...

Why the negative diagnosis so soon then? (Though three years isn't *that* bad..)

How often do VT inserts need replacing? And how much does it cost?

Half a day is four hours, so 160+vat. Not sure on the parts...

It's worrying just how many folks on here are having nightmares with Highway, and more worrying just how many of us are insured with them (myself included....). I'll be doing my best to find someone else next year...