Andy T

The problem has come back again, and is getting worse, but is intermittent! I can be driving along a straight road/motorway etc, steering feels perfect, then the steering wheel starts shaking lightly, then the knocking through the s/wheel starts when turned to the right slightly. Turning the wheel left seems ok. When driving slowly the knock seems to happen once per rev of the roadwheels. One day it got so bad I had to pull over and stop. But then it seems to go away, then return a few days later :scratch: On one occasion, the knocking had started, but when I took a tight right hander at the lights, I heard a few knocks and bangs from the front of the car (think it was the n/side), as I straightened up the knocking immediately stopped. As dr_mat suggested, does this sound like CV joints now? If I drive with the steering on full lock slowly, I can hear a slight knocking from CV joints, but only on RIGHT lock. The car passed MOT last week, with no advisory's on the drivetrain. Which of the CV's, Inner or outer, n/s or o/s, would be likely to cause the above issues? Cheers.

Has the near side front wheel bearing replaced, it totally cured the problem :)

Had a good look underneath on friday, CV joints seem ok, driveshafts/diff rotate freely, and all the steering/suspension components were intact and free of play. Took it to a good garage, they couldn't find anything wrong with it either! very strange. Took the car for a drive and it seemed to handle normally, the knock through the steering hasn't re-occured since, even with some hard turning at low and high speeds. Guess i'll just have to keep an eye on it for now!

On the way home tonight on the motorway I suddenly felt a dull repetitive 'knocking' through the wheel as I steered left into the inside lane, then the car was pulling to the left quite badly and generally not feeling good. I initially thought it must be a blow-out to affect the steering so much, but when I stopped, all the tyres were at the correct pressure. All the wheelbolts are tight, had a quick look under the car and the trackrods/ends and locknuts look in one piece and tightened up properly. The shocks and springs look fine(quite new). I haven't been able to jack the car up yet, the only thing that looked odd under the car was that the n/s steering rack boot was twisted(?) Prior to tonight, the VR had pretty perfect handling, no clunks/pulling or play, and had the four wheel alignment done six months ago at a very reputable garage. Does anybody have an idea of what part of the drivetrain could deteriorate so suddenly to cause this? Apart from the newish shocks,springs and topmounts, the only other part I know has been changed in recent years before my ownership is the n/s balljoint. The milage is approaching 99k. Cheers for any help.

Was that definately front bearings that started droning after a year? Have never heard of that before, apart from rear ones which don't seem to last that long. My local VW specialist quoted me £94 per side (1 hours labour + parts), dare say that will be using GSF bearings though, so may get my own from VW and get them to fit it. Anyone bought bearings from AVS, quality etc?? Cheers

Cheers, that's good enough for me, not had problems with CV joints before so wasn't sure what kind of noise they would make. It quietly drones driving in a straight line, but when turning left it's silent, so like you say it must be the n/s bearing. Has anybody had a front bearing replaced recently, what should I expect to pay at a good non-VW garage or VW specialist?

I'm getting a loud vibration/drone from one of the front wheels when turning right, even a slight turn of the steering wheel to the right brings it on. I can feel its vibration through the passenger side footwell, so i'm pretty sure its the nearside wheel. It has been getting steadily worse over the last few months. Is this most likely a wheel bearing problem, or could it be a CV joint or something else? With the car jacked up, the n/s wheel doesn't quite spin as freely as the o/s, but there's no rumble or play in any direction. Cheers

I've had this problem, turned out to be bent ABS rotors on the front hubs. Dirty Rotors/ abs sensors could also cause it, possibly the rear ones too. If you take a front wheel off, you can check the abs rotor by spinning the hub, distance between rotor & sensor should stay constant.

As above - can't find anything about a rim protector on here or on Toyo's website. Also, has anyone got any pics of them on 16" rims? I'm replacing Bridgestone S02's which are pretty sexy to look at, how do T1-R's compare? Cheers

On the Vr6 there is alot less clearance between the hub face and caliper/carrier. Wheels with a deep dish such as Azev A's or BBS RS run alot closer to the brake calipers, hence the problem with the vr6. All you can do is trial fit one, if your lucky a 5mm spacer might allow enough clearance over the brakes (bearing in mind calipers protrude out further with new pads fitted!) I found that 16" x 7.5" BBS RS ET33 won't fit the Vr6, needs about an 8mm spacer.

The Fuchs should, in theory, be exactly the same as Synta, VW have changed their supplier basically, and it should be made to the same spec (or better) as Synta. If the dealers still sell Synta, it will only be some old stock. Fuchs seem to be taking over generally and buying other manufacturers out - Silkolene Pro-S is also now made by Fuchs. I reckon it is cheaper only because Fuchs are alot bigger than the company who produce Synta.

Does anyone know where you can buy 19" Lupo Aero wiper blades other than the stealers? I tried GSF, they only sold one kit for the Lupo GTi which was labelled 'Golf Passat' but one of the blades was too long (prob 21"). Instead I bought an aero wiper refill kit from GSF, but these are no good for the Lupo GTi blades as the chunky rubber 'spoiler' part of the blade is part of the rubber wiping blade itself, the kit only contains blade refills that are small like traditional wiper inserts. :(

The spoiler is DEFINATELY causing the fuse to blow. After stopping the car, if the spoiler is still up(or part way up) the fuse has already blown, hence when I start the car up again, the Immobilser cuts the engine. At least It can't happen when the car is moving, the engine still runs with fuse 16 blown, its only a problem when re-starting the engine. I have just cleaned the spoiler struts and lubricated with some spray graphite lubricant (it evaporates to leave a dry film) but the movement felt pretty smooth when turned by hand anyway. I then tried it several times on the button, it will work perfectly several times then occasionally slow down when coming down, and then cut out (but now at least without blowing the fuse) then after a few secs it can be lowered again on the button. Then it will work fine again for a bit? wondering if there's issues with the motor or mechanism?

same problem has happened to me again in the last two weeks, randomly and twice in 10 minutes one day! my sunroof and spoiler are both on fuse 16, so i'm tending to think its the spoiler blowing the fuse when it retracts (I notice now and again that the spoiler doesnt retract fully.) The spoiler moves quietly & smoothly in manual though, so not sure why it would stop moving. My old '92 G60 had a spoiler which was noisy and would stop half way up, but it did this without blowing the fuse (overload protection device maybe, that resets after a couple of minutes?) EDIT : The spoiler is DEFINATELY causing the fuse to blow. After stopping the car, if the spoiler is still up(or part way up) the fuse has already blown, hence when I start the car up again, the Immobilser cuts the engine. At least It can't happen when the car is moving, the engine still runs with fuse 16 blown, its only a problem when re-starting the engine. Next plan of action is to get lubricant for the spoiler and hope that it will be a permanent cure, just hope its not some other problem with the mechanism/motor......

Cheers for the info folks... Yup, spoiler works fine... sunroof works in theory, but mechanism broke last Sept. Based on the above I suggested to the Specialist about removing the transponder and he pretty well told me where to get off - charmed i'm sure! Lost the car for the night while they look into it :( Check all your fuses, this happened to me last friday, totally out of the blue (warm start) it turned out to be Fuse 16 (Which is one of the lighting circuits I think). It had a 15 amp fuse in(original factory style fuse) which baffles me slightly because exactly the same thing happened to the previous owner two years ago, for which the cure was to replace the fuse... yet it doesn't have a replacement-style fuse in there? Could there be more than one fuse in the immobiliser circuit?

What do you guys think these are worth ? BBS RS 16" x 7J & 8J, Re-drilled to 5x100 pcd by an Engineering company, low profile centre cap nuts, Outer rims mirror polished(not been used since polishing), all they need is the rest of the wheel re-powder coating, and some spigot rings to suit the VW hub dia. I believe they came off a Jap import of some kind, Nissan or Mitsub maybe? Oh the offsets are ET33 front, ET24 rear. Any thoughts? Cheers.

I know its a harmless noise but I've never had to put up with it before, and when I leave work I always get comments like, "Is it supposed to sound like that?" suppose I'm just in denial that i'm driving an old car! Not heard of Ceratec, will look that one up, it's almost due for an oil change so will try that, the last owner filled it with some full synthetic stuff i've never heard of before, it may be that its very thin.

Has anyone replaced a VR6 oil pump recently and found the noise to go away, or found that the noise was caused by something else? I was hoping that with the warmer weather it would disappear or at least become less noticeable on cold starts, but it's still noisy, even when setting off after work (8hrs stood) on a warm day.

They are £38.77 inc. vat from GPC, they must have stock because there delivery took only a couple of days.

Nice site but GPC should be able to get all those parts, and may even stock some, possibly cheaper? Roof trims are about the same price, but then you've got overseas delivery on top. Timg60, rear quarterlights will come out ok, have heard that there is a tool that helps, might be worth doing a search?

Only 2 years... that is bad... my originals were perfect last year, must of been the winter and the dry weather we've had, the rubber strip is peeling off in chunks now! Received my roof strips today, the rubber bit does look exactly the same as the old ones, before they perished that is!

Yeah they look better with the cracked rubber removed, but the plastics on mine have faded to grey aswell. Have heard that the roof sills can be lead filled instead of the usual welding, I think thats how the pro's do it.

Just ordered a pair of roof strips from GPC (Surprised they still have any) Price was £33 each plus vat, and £10 delivery. They mentioned that they will be selling them at GTI International, same price but without the VAT & delivery, bargain! They must be getting thin on the ground now.

:D Aye I was on about the carrier-to-hub bolts, but its a good point that the hex-head bolts that hold the caliper on should always be renewed, and should come supplied with a set of brake pads, if not, have a moan at the supplier and they usually can find a set of them in the back.

Only just got the car back on the road! I managed to get two slider pins off the rear of a passat in a scrapyard, and picked up the carrier from Brakes International for £16+VAT. Then I managed to round off one of the carrier bolts, even when using a hex socket bit, so had so grind the bolt head off and remove the brake disc to get the carrier free! Then I found that the carrier cap-head bolts are not a standard M10 thread, they are a fine pitch (M10 x 1.25) which are not that easy to get hold of especially in cap-head form!