G60rob

I've read here about how the left track rod is set to length then never adjusted. I've downloaded pages from the Bentley manual showing this, and printed off pages from this forum about it, but I've spent all today arguing with mechanics both in a tyre fitters and in a VW performance garage who flatly refuse to believe it (though strangely they're happy to believe MkII Golfs are like this), and claim it's wrong or impossible to set the tracking without adjusting both sides. Because the left side track rod end looks adjustable, they insist this is proof that it should be adjusted. Of course it's seized solid because of being undisturbed for years, but that didn't stop one of them from putting a welding torch on it and actually managing to budge it a bit, claiming that was all he could do, and charging me the full whack for laser alignment, whilst admitting it's still out. He wanted me to go back and have a new track rod end fitted, but I foresaw possible disaster looming along the lines of chewed up track rod, rack having to come out, etc, all for an unnecessary job in the first place, so I declined the invitation. Because the left side track rod end has been replaced in the past by a bodyshop it's more than likely that it wasn't set to the correct length, but it's done about 60 000 miles since then so it looks as if it wasn't too far out, or else that this length setting isn't too critical. So, my question is: am I safe to assume this, or should I believe a different VW performance garage who said the rack would need to be "re-indexed", whatever that means, and the track rod taken off and set correctly? As I see it, the worst that can happen if the length is wrong is that the straight ahead position of the road wheels won't coincide with the centre position of the rack, resulting in slightly more turns to full lock on one side. Or is there more to it than this, something to do with the way the power steering works, perhaps? Oh, and here's a warning for anyone who takes the steering wheel off, maybe to fit a new ignition switch as I did. Make sure you put it back exactly level with the wheels straight ahead if you're thinking of having the tracking checked at any time, because they assume the road wheels are in the straight ahead position when the steering wheel is level. I had carelessly put it back slightly turned as I discovered when I drove the car, but thought I'd leave it till after the tracking was done, as it would be need to be re-set then anyway because of only adjusting on the right. I did mention this, but the lads in the tyre place thought they knew better and announced that the wheels were so hugely out that there wasn't enough adjustment to straighten them! Meaning, I presume, to level the steering wheel! Aaaargh! :x :x :x :x :x

I did get as far as taking the fusebox off its mountings, but there's such a solid wodge of tight wires at the back that I couldn't get at the brake light connector without a lot of dismantling, and I wasn't confident I could get everything back in place, so I just put it back and tip-toed away... I went to check today that there really was no power to the right brake light because logically it seemed impossible, and would you believe it, it's now working! But for how long? Next time it goes off I'll do some more tests. I'm wondering if the various intermittent electrical faults I've had on this car all date back to when the immobilizer was "professionally" fitted - there's all sorts of ropy-looking wiring behind the fusebox. Wish I had a wiring diagram. As for extra brake lights or towing connections, I know there haven't been any, because I'm only the second owner and the car was practically new when I got it.

The right (driver's side) brake light worked intermittently for a while but now seems to have given up altogether. Bulb is OK. Light fitting contacts, tracks all OK, tail light and indicator OK. But there's no voltage on the black/red wire at the right cluster plug when the brake pedal is pressed. Fuse number 20 blew at one point during all this, but has been replaced and not blown again. The left brake light is OK, so I've temporarily run a wire across the rear of the boot from its plug to the right side plug so I've got two brake lights again, but obviously I'd like to trace the fault. I'm assuming the brake light switch is OK as the left brake light works. The wiring diagram in the Passat/Golf Haynes manual shows a much simpler set-up than I've got (it's much the same as my bodge, in fact). The odd thing is, the right plug has four pairs of wires, and there's a cable going across the back to the left side, so it looks as if the left light cluster, which only has one wire to each terminal, should be fed from the right side. But then if there were no power to the right brake light, the left one shouldn't work! Anybody know what's going on?

Dunno about a vacuum leak - all the locks open OK. More clues: all the doors can be locked from inside by pushing down the driver's door button but the passenger door button doesn't operate the central locking. Also the interior passenger door release handle has gone all floppy i.e. there's a lot of slack before it releases the latch. I'm going in to see what I can see... Later that same day... Problem solved! I removed the lock just to see how it worked really, couldn't find anything wrong, put it back and everything was back to normal. It's a bit frustrating not knowing what was wrong, I suppose it must have been just a slight mis-alignment of something. The only thing is, the central locking doesn't operate from the passenger door button, as the Bentley manual says it should, but come to think of it, I'm not sure it ever did. Some of the stuff in the Bentley manual doesn't seem quite the same as my car, but that's VWs for you.

After fiddling about with belt dressing to get rid of loud squeaking noises I finally gave in and had the polyribbed belt (serpentine belt?) replaced. It turned out it was cracking and needed doing anyway, along with the power steering belt. I asked for the idler pulleys to be checked at the same time and was told they're OK. Apart from an occasional "chif chif" noise when the engine's cold the squeaking has gone, but now when the engine's revved there's a sort of grunt, then a "jabba jabba" noise as it starts to slow down. (Yes, I had the charger serviced by Jabba Sport a couple of years ago, but I don't think it's their noise!). I can feel vibration if I put my finger on the belt tension damper, so is this likely to be the cause? I don't want to splash out £64.31 + VAT for a new one unless I'm fairly sure. It doesn't seem to be a serious fault at the moment, because I've just driven 1900 miles around France after discovering it the day before I was due to go, but could it be damaging in some way?

When I turn the key in either door lock the central locking seems to work normally, except the button on the passenger door doesn't go all the way down, then after about 15-20 seconds there's a buzz and it goes down the rest of the way. It started after I'd accidentally knocked the claw thing on the lock block (that engages with the peg on the door pillar) without noticing and tried to shut the door. The claw only needed clicking back into position to allow the door to shut, but then this delayed action problem started. Any ideas what's going on? Oh, and I've just discovered that if I set the manual alarm it goes off soon after the passenger door locks. Sounds like a microswitch problem?

both the interior blower fan AND the radiator cooling fan have decided to start squealing! :evil: Funny you should say that. My radiator fan now has a squeak (3 years old) and the heater blower sometimes comes on slow then gradually speeds up. By the way, fitting a new distributor to cure the cutting out problem also seems to have fixed the rev counter. I suppose the Hall effect sensor must have some connection to the rev counter which is separate from its control over the ignition, because the rev counter could stop working but the engine would keep running.

Seems it's the Hall effect sensor in the dissy. I had an auto electrician look at it and by wiggling the sensor plug in a special electrician's way (i.e rougher than I'd dared to!) he made the engine stall. Common fault, apparently. Is replacing the dissy likely to give any particular difficulties? If I take note of how it was all lined up when I take it out, will it just be a matter of dropping the new one in, lined up in the same way? Or is it important to set no.1 piston to TDC and line up the oil pump drive and so on? Timing is just a matter of setting 6° on my timing light and checking the (very faint) line on the flywheel lines up with the pointer on the side of the hole in the clutch housing @ 2000 - 2500 rpm with the blue temp. sensor disconnected, yes? Could this fault also be the cause of the intermittent rev counter? I suppose I'll find out when I change the dissy. I just hope I'm not looking at ECU problems, with a 1000 mile trip to Scotland coming up over Christmas.

My ECU does store ABS fault codes, nothing else. Had it checked by the auto electrician who found the dissy problem mentioned in my Cutting out thread, and it seems the brake light switch has an intermittent fault which causes the ABS light to come on. Should be easy and cheap to fix, one prob. down, new one just around the corner, I expect!

No, I thought about it, but don't know how.

The starter motor was faulty, has been replaced with an exchange from GSF and is now OK. I checked the relays above the fuses, some seemed a bit loose so I pushed them in hard, but it made no difference. I checked the wires to the blue temp. sender and CO pot (and various other connectors in the engine area) and wiggled them with the engine running to see if it would cut out. Don't know how else to test these, except by substitution. By the way, Majik, the headlight loom is now fitted and working well, thanks again.

Halfords HB075 (non-calcium) with 3-year warranty, failed after 1 year, replaced free under warranty. Now I think that's on its way out after a year, so... Free batteries for life?!

Only 105, mine's at 110 most of the time. Maybe it's me that should be worried! Or maybe G60s are hotter-running? It's been the same for years, anyway.

Right, the starter motor had packed up just as I was investigating the cutting out problem - Corradoincidence again. Now that red herring's out of the way, I still need to solve the original fault. To summarize: Sometimes, from cold only, the engine spins over on the starter for several turns before firing then immediately dies. Sometimes it starts first turn then dies. This can happen several times before it settles down to run. It sometimes starts normally then stops at any time in about the first 20 mins from cold and goes through the above rigmarole again. BUT, once it's hot it has no trouble starting or running (water temp. above about 110, oil about 100.) Sometimes when I turn the key to ignition before starting nothing happens, no warning lights on the dash, but wiggling the immobilizer transponder (Clifford virtual key 3-point) wakes it up. I think this is again Corradoincidence and the immobilizer is also playing up, but if it was the immobilizer causing the stalling I'd expect it to happen whether the engine was hot or cold. I'm having the immobilizer checked on Tuesday, and possibly disconnected to see if the problem goes away. Any ideas what else I can check? I'd like to narrow it down a bit before I give in and take it to a garage. A friend's Golf has been in and out of the dealer's all year with starting problems and each time they replace an expensive part and say it's fixed, but it never is. I don't want to go down that route!

£8 more, that is!

You're right, Supercharged, it is a plug with a fairly fat wire. I managed to disconnect it with a long screwdriver, one finger and a crushed hand and connect a voltmeter. I get 12.8 volts when i turn the key to the start position, so presume that means ignition switch and wiring are OK. Still thinking it's a faulty solenoid, as regards non-starting anyway. Can't sort out the cutting out problem until I can get it running. I also got a new ignition switch from GSF just in case, and get no volts at all from this, so suspect it's faulty! It looks like it came out of a cracker compared to the VAG equivalent, which is £8 but worth it IMHO.

Red/black wire is thin. Arms also are thin, but not thin enough! Maybe you mean the fairly fat red wire held on with a nut? Can't reach that either, not from above anyway.

Tried the smacking cure when it first stopped working - no improvement apart from a clean patch where I hit it! 12v to which plug - the one with a red/black wire? I tried to disconnect it but my hand's too big to squeeze between the intercooler pipe and the gearbox mount.

If I put the headlights on and turn the key to the start position the lights dim, so I presume that means power is going to the starter, therefore the ignition switch must be OK? It's only two years since it was replaced and it is a genuine VAG item, not cheapo GSF. The solenoid doesn't click when I do this, so I'm thinking faulty solenoid. I was going to try a direct feed from the battery bypassing the switch, but there's no room to get at anything down there with the intercooler pipes in the way.

Don't know if they're all the same, but on my G60 the fuel pump relay is the furthest to the right on the bottom row of relays, grey, number 80.

Update: things have just got a lot worse. After its second episode of cutting out today it wouldn't start at all, though the starter was spinning over briskly. But the next time I turned the key all I got was a click from the solenoid, then after that, nothing. Now, sometimes it clicks, sometimes it doesn't. Seems like a dead battery, but the starter hadn't been slowing down when it was still working, and the lights are bright without the engine running. It bump started easily, cut out straight away, bump started again and kept running. But the starter still doesn't work. I've tried a jump start from a neighbour's car, even swapped his battery for mine, but the starter seems to have died. Coincidence, or related to the cutting out problem? I daren't take the car to an auto electrician or garage in case it dies on the way and I'm not in a position to bump start it, so I'm a bit stuck. Lucky it happened at home, I suppose.

Since this recent cold spell began, the engine suddenly cuts out sometime in the first twenty minutes or so of driving. It doesn't cough and splutter, it's either on or off. Once everything's fully up to temp. it runs all day with no further problems. Sometimes it cuts out momentarily, other times it has to be re-started. At these times the starter spins what sounds like a very dead engine for a while before it fires. I've looked at the recent similar posts. If it's a component failing, such as a relay, fuel pump etc, which one is most likely in this case, assuming it is temperature-related?

Each door mirror goes down and inwards easily but struggles to move up and outwards. I've had the glass off and tried lubricating everything, but no improvement. I'm told they have a magnetic clutch, so maybe that's slipping? Is this a known problem with these motors? Or could it be a wiring fault? They are available (357 959 577A, £46.41 +VAT per motor, though the stealers like to pretend you have to buy a complete mirror assembly) but installing them in the midst of the plastic cogs and arms looks tricky. S/H mirrors and a simple swap of the whole motor unit would be easier, if I can find any that aren't in the same state.

Henny, some useful thoughts there, thanks. I'd wondered about earths, even with the wiper fault. Most of the braided earths in the engine compartment are a bit green or powdery so maybe I should start there. This link seems helpful: http://www.corrado-club.ca/forum/ultima ... 3;go=newer The battery never gets fully charged, according to my hydrometer, and the cell nearest earth is less charged than the rest. Capacitors: where is the MFA circuit board, shown in Kongo's post?

Thanks for taking the trouble, RW1. Been away for a few days, and having driven about 800 miles things are a bit clearer. I drove a few hundred miles with the MFA set to read revs. and compared it with the rev counter. The dial reads about 500 rpm slow when it's working, but it's possible I bent the needle's delicate spring one of the many times the module was out. When it stops working altogether for a while, the MFA readout also goes to zero at the same time. Is this evidence that the fault is not just the rev counter module? Also, the mpg average from the MFA has gone daft - I wish I was getting 45mpg, but I doubt it's true. Does mpg relate to rpm in some way? All the other MFA functions seem correct. I've had the heater blower out and compared it against a new ECP one, which was actually stiffer to turn than mine, so I greased the bearings as best I could and popped it back in. Seems OK now, so I'll look at the switch if it goes off again. The controls are a four-position rotary switch for speed and two sliders, by the way. At one point I lost the dash warning lights and found that fuse 15 had blown. Replacing it brought back the spoiler, but not the warning lights. Then they came back, then they went again, and so on for a while. Next the starter wouldn't work. At this point I replaced the X-relay with a GSF item and went to Scotland, with everything working apart from the rev counter. The copper tracks in the wiper switch look worn, so I suspect that's the problem there. A couple of people have suggested a faulty ABS wheel sensor, but I'd be surprised if it could be intermittent like this for about a year. A VAG-COM check sounds worth a try.